Santa's Secret Read Online Free PDF

about houses and cities, where they’d travelled and
people and places they’d seen. Eva ordered an ice cream sundae for Oscar,
knowing he wouldn’t eat it all but also knowing he’d love the chocolate sauce
between the layers, and she was pleased when Isabel fought against her natural
instincts to order the fruit salad and also chose the sundae.
    Rudi didn’t mention Damon or what she’d
said about her marriage again. As they finished their meals and left the
restaurant, walking back slowly along the snowy path to their cabins, Eva shot
him a grateful look.
    “Thank you,” she said, holding out a gloved
hand to catch snowflakes, “for being so polite and not saying what a terrible
wife I am.”
    He chuckled. “You are very welcome. And I
think you are so not terrible, really. I think there is probably more to the
story than meets the eye.”
    She buried her chin in her scarf. He was
quite astute.
    Ahead of them, the lanterns in front of
their cabins lit the snow with golden circles. Isabel tried to get Oscar to
walk nicely beside her, but he kept running ahead to scoop up snow in tiny
handfuls. Crushing one lot into a ball, he threw it at her. He was usually
terrible at throwing, but this time his aim went true and it struck her in the
middle of her chest.
    Isabel stood there, looking aghast, and
Eva’s hand rose to cover her mouth. “Oh dear.”
    To her delight, however, Isabel’s face lit
up, and she bent to scoop up some snow herself, forming it into a ball that she
then threw at the boy.
    “Gently, Izzy,” Rudi called, but he needn’t
have worried; the girl was thoughtful enough to be considerate of Oscar’s age
and made sure she threw it softly enough so it scattered lightly down his coat.
    They watched the two children running
around outside the cabins and paused beneath the lantern to let them have a few
minutes of fun.
    Eva stuffed her hands in her pockets,
watching her breath frost before her face. She looked up at the sky, seeing the
stars decorating the black velvet like glitter. “No lights?” she said,
disappointed.
    “The aurora borealis ?” Rudi looked
up too. “I am sure we will see it before Christmas. Sometimes the colours are
quite breath-taking.”
    Eva nodded, captivated anyway by the amount
of stars, the sky seemingly untouched by light pollution. “Beautiful,” she
murmured.
    “Yes,” he said softly.
    She lowered her head, startled to see his
gaze on her, not on the sky. He was only a foot away, and once again—as it had
earlier—time seemed to slow, and the whole world consisted of just the two of
them.
    Rudi towered over her, tall, broad, and as
masculine as any Viking she could imagine had existed in real life. Snow lay
thickly on his hair and shoulders, but he didn’t seem to feel the cold. His
gaze rested on hers, and she wasn’t surprised to see it lit with the same
flames of desire that she knew must be flickering in her own eyes.
    His lips parted, and for a moment Eva
thought he was going to kiss her. Her heart pounded, her own lips parting in
response as her breath quickened. How long had it been since she had kissed a
man? At least eighteen months. And in fact more than that, as Damon had gone
away frequently towards the end before he died.
    If Rudi leaned towards her, what should she
do? Lean forwards too? Kiss him back? What if Oscar and Isabel saw them? Jeez,
she’d just met the guy. Would she look easy? But it would only be a kiss! Talk
about getting carried away, Eva.
    Something of what she was thinking must
have shown in her eyes, because Rudi blinked, breaking the spell as it had
before, and they both moved back a little. Disappointment swept through her,
with an equal measure of relief. She couldn’t kiss a stranger in front of her
son, out there in the middle of the road. What was she thinking?
    A snowball landed squarely on Rudi’s
shoulder, thrown by the inimitable Oscar, who squealed with laughter. Rudi
caught him and swung him upside down, and the