His Christmas Assignment. Lisa Childs

you do it?” he asked.

      She paused with her fingertips on buttons at the front of her blouse. “You did this,” she said. “You threw me down on your desk the minute I stepped inside your office.”

      He grinned unabashedly. “That is true,” he admitted. Then he leaned down and gently skimmed his mouth across hers; her lips were slightly swollen from his previous kisses. “But that’s because you’re irresistible. And beautiful and amazing...”

      Beneath his, her lips curved into a smile. “I love you.”

      “And I love you,” he said. He pulled back and leaned his forehead against hers. “I missed you.”

      “I guess.” She gestured at the papers and pens strewn across his floor. He’d swept them off when he’d pulled her down onto the mahogany surface with him. “Nikki and I were only gone a couple of days.”

      “That’s a couple too many,” he said.

      She nodded in agreement. “It was.” Disappointment darkened her already dark gray eyes. She stepped back from him and uttered a heavy sigh. “And it was for nothing. I couldn’t convince Candace to come home.”

      He skimmed his fingers along her bottom lip and tilted it back up. “You were so successful she actually beat you home.”

      “Really?” Stacy’s eyes brightened, and her whole face lit up with a smile. He hoped their daughter took after her beautiful mother. “She must have packed right up and headed back. Nikki and I only stopped at an outlet mall for some early Christmas shopping.”

      “Nikki, of course...”

      Stacy arched a brow. “You wondered how I found Candace on my own?”

      “I don’t doubt you could have done it,” he said. His wife was as brilliant as she was beautiful.

      “I didn’t have any time to lose, though, so I asked for Nikki’s help.”

      His sister was as brilliant as his wife. If only she could be happy doing what she did best—instead of nagging for dangerous field work.

      Then Stacy’s words sank in and he asked, “What’s the urgency in bringing Candace back? I know I’ve been griping about not having her on my team, but...”

      She smiled and kissed his cheek. “You think I did this for you. That’s sweet.”

      He grinned at her teasing. “And obviously off base. Then why did you want Candace back so desperately that you and Nikki tracked her down and convinced her to come ask for her job back?”

      Stacy cupped his cheek now in her soft palm and gave him a pitying smile. “Men are so oblivious.”

      He was used to his wife giving him a hard time; they’d been going at each other since they’d been teenagers. If only he’d realized sooner most of that resentment and anger had been attraction and passion...

      “What am I missing?” he asked.

      “Candace didn’t come back for her job.”

      He tilted his head. “Then why did she ask me for it?” Even though he had been able to tell that it had been really difficult for her to bury her pride and ask...

      Stacy shrugged. “I guess she needs the job. But it’s not what she really wants.”

      Logan tensed with dread. He had been oblivious once before, totally unaware the woman he had considered a friend and only a friend had had a crush on him. “What are you up to?”

      Stacy patted his cheek and laughed. “Sweetheart, once again—not about you. Candace has been over you for a long time. Not that I think her feelings even ran that deep or she wouldn’t have been able to continue working for you after you fell for me. Nobody’s that much of a masochist.”

      That was what he’d thought, too. That everyone had exaggerated what might have been Candace having a small crush on the boss.

      “No, Candace came back for Garek.”

      He cursed as his dread rushed back.

      Stacy’s smile faltered, and she insisted, “That’s a good thing.”

      Logan shook his head. “No, no, it’s not.”

      Now hurt flashed in her dark gray eyes. “Do you think she’s too good for my brother?”

      He cursed. “That’s not it at all. You know I love your brothers.” Which hadn’t always been the case. But they’d helped save his and his brothers’ lives.

      Then he’d gotten to know them and had learned how hard they’d worked to build new lives for themselves. They’d also brought him a ton of business—better business than Chekov. But because Garek had brought him so many clients, he hadn’t been able to refuse to take on Chekov when his brother-in-law had asked—especially once he’d explained to him why—which was also why Logan hoped that Candace hadn’t come back for Garek.

      “She’s the only one who will be able to get through to him,” Stacy insisted, “to get him away from Viktor Chekov.” She shuddered—with revulsion and fear—as she uttered the mobster’s name.

      “What makes you think that?”

      “Because she’s the reason he went back to that life,” Stacy said. “When she quit Payne Protection and left town, he was devastated.”

      Logan snorted. “He’s Garek. Nothing devastates Garek.” He’d never known a more resilient human being. The guy had been through hell and back and never lost his sense of humor.

      “She did.”

      He shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

      “He was crazy about her,” Stacy insisted.

      “Garek flirts with every female,” Logan said. “He’s even flirted with my mom.”

      “Penny’s a hottie,” Stacy said with a giggle. “But Candace was different. He tried to be a better man for her. For the past year he hadn’t even dated another woman. That’s why, when she took off, he was devastated—so devastated he went back to his former life.”

      Logan needed to find a way for her to make up with her brothers. She was so estranged from them that she didn’t even know them anymore.

      “No,” he told her. “That’s not why he went back to his old life.”

      “It’s not?” She furrowed her brow and studied him as if he had been holding out on her. “What do you know?”

      “Only what Garek told me,” he said. “He had a reason for asking for this assignment with the Chekovs.” One that had convinced Logan to take on a mobster as a client. “He wanted this assignment so he could protect Tori Chekov.”

      Stacy shrugged. “Why?”

      “Because he’s in love with her.”

      He heard a gasp, but it hadn’t slipped through his wife’s lips. He turned to the open door of his office. Had they forgotten to shut it? He’d wanted his wife so badly he hadn’t even noticed. His desire for her only seemed to intensify the longer they were together.

      Candace Baker stood in the doorway, and all the color drained from her face, leaving it stark with shock. And he realized his wife had been at least half right. Candace had come back for Garek.

      Now, having overheard what she had, would she quit again? The news had obviously affected her.

      While he didn’t want to lose her as a team member again, he didn’t want to lose her as a friend either. They had been friends for years. So he was worried about her—worried about her safety if she were to stay. It would probably be the wisest and the safest thing for her to leave again.

      If Tori Chekov thought Candace could potentially be a threat to her relationship with Garek, she might have her father take care