Holiday Sparks Read Online Free PDF Page A

finger-grip-worthy hair, he should jam his hands under his thighs before he did something stupid.
    She made a huffing sigh sound. “I’m not doing this right.”
    Ben stood up. The urge to brush her hair back and tell her everything was going to be all right made him itchy. “What’s the problem?” He hated to see anyone miserable. That was all. But then again, she hated Christmas. And that just wasn’t natural.
    She peered up at him through heavy bangs. “I need your talents at the store. Can you do what you did to the front of my house on a fifteen-foot spruce?”
    He rubbed at his biceps. “Wait, did I just hear you right? You want me to come to your store and—”
    “Make Christmas explode all over my front end. Money isn’t an object.” Her words came out in a rush.
    Ben grinned. The absolute misery on her face was epic. “And I get full creative control?”
    She nibbled at her lip again and Ben wanted to brush his thumb over the full, raspberry-colored flesh. And that wasn’t going to happen. She’d probably bite his finger off.
    Darcy lifted her chin. “Within reason.”
    He had a feeling within reason meant micromanaging him into a safe little display like every other store. “Sorry, darlin’. I’m not interested.”
    She stood quickly. “Okay, wait. You can have as much creative control as I can get out of my boss. How’s that?”
    He drummed his fingers on his arm. Her eyes drifted to his chest, then his arm and back up to his face. He tucked his hands under his arms. And again, her eyes strayed to his sleeve of ink. Maybe the good little girl next door liked tattoos. “I only have today.”
    “That’s perfect, because I need it done today.”
    Maybe it was her earnest eyes that were just a little wild, or maybe it was the fact that she’d swallowed her pride to come and ask him to help her, or maybe he was just insane. He heard himself say, “All right. Turn your pretty butt around and go back to work. I have to go shopping.”
    Her mouth hung open. “Pretty butt?”
    “Well, it is. I got an eyeful when you were tearing apart my work.”
    “I—” She cut herself off with a shake of her head. Dammit, she was cute when she was all flustered. “All right. It’s Blackstone’s Department Store.”
    He whistled. Blackstone’s was old family money. “Really? And you want me to decorate it?”
    “I need Christmas perfection and that seems to be you.”
    He laughed. “Now it suits you that I’m a Christmas freak?”
    “Yes.”
    “Just like that?”
    “Look, Ben…can I call you Ben?”
    “I think you should at this point.”
    “This very unruly and very miserable customer tore through the store with his daughter’s bike and took out half the front of the store’s decorations. Desperate doesn’t cover it.”
    Ben’s breath stalled in his chest. That was coincidence. “Daughter’s bike?”
    She tucked her hands into her sleeves. “Yes. He lost it. I just can’t get over how upset he was.”
    “And you didn’t call the cops?”
    “We did, but we don’t have a good image of him on our video surveillance. And in the commotion, I didn’t get a license or ID.”
    Ben rubbed his biceps again. Christ. It couldn’t be. “Okay, darlin’. Why don’t you go back to the store. I need to get some supplies and my computer.”
    “Why?” She shook her head. “And stop calling me darlin’.”
    He smirked at her. It kept slipping off his tongue. “Now that I know it bugs you, I definitely won’t.”
    Her eyes flattened and her nostrils flared.
    He smiled wider. “You’re kinda gorgeous when you’re mad.”
    She made a disgusted snort and turned. “If I wasn’t in such a bind I’d—”
    “You’d what?”
    She picked up her coat and stuffed her arms into the holes before he could think about holding the jacket for her. “I’d have the lights off the front of the house so freaking fast.”
    “Temper, temper, Miss Tucker.”
    “I hate Christmas!” She stalked to the