Read A Holiday Fling for Free Online

them. As they got into her car, she said, "My father was supposed to drop a Christmas tree and some greens by the cottage this afternoon. Would you like to help me do some decorating? Since I’ve been in London for the last fortnight, I have a lot of catching up to do."
    "I’d love to help. It’s been... Lord, at least a dozen years since I’ve so much as hung an ornament." Greg’s voice was wistful. "Usually I rush home to Ohio at the last minute and the preparations have already been made."
    They drove the short distance back to the cottage in silence. Jenny was looking forward to a companionable evening decorating the tree when Greg said abruptly, "Maybe I should move to a hotel."
    Startled, she asked, "Why would you want to do that? There aren’t any hotels that are convenient."
    "Because if I stay in your guest room, I’m not sure I can keep my hands off you."
    She found herself blushing. Good God, at her age! "There’s no particular need to keep your hands to yourself," she stammered. "As I said when we first spoke, the fair white body part was negotiable."
    He turned to look at her, his expression unreadable in the dusk. "I heard you were involved with some software tycoon."
    "You mean Neil Carling? We’re not really dating." She liked that Greg respected whether or not she was involved with someone else. She had always been punctilious about such things herself.
    "No?"
    "I’m his official facade." She parked by her house and climbed out. "He’s courting a very sweet, reserved widow and he’s afraid he’ll lose her if she winds up in the tabloids. Neil and I are old friends, so he takes me to events where he needs a bit of arm candy. I coo and bat my eyelashes, and afterward he goes off to visit his Elizabeth."
    Greg chuckled as he followed her to the house. "I’ve been in Hollywood long enough to understand why a man might want to hide his private life. But how will he ever get her to the altar if he’s afraid to go public?"
    "When and if she says yes, he plans to take her off to the Caribbean for a very quiet, private wedding. Once they’re married, they’ll be old news. There is nothing more boring than a faithfully married businessman. In the meantime, I have the chance to dress up and go out with someone who knew me when I was in pigtails."
    Those chaste evenings with Neil were the most fun she’d had with a man in months. As she unlocked the cottage, her thoughtful gaze went to Greg again.
    Perhaps that was about to change.

 
     
     
    Chapter 5

     
    "It’s a beautiful tree, if I do say so who shouldn’t." Jenny stepped back and regarded their work with satisfaction. The gaily decorated spruce filled one corner of the living room, its gold filigree star touching a weathered ceiling beam.
    "It’s a fantastic tree." Greg hung a miniature Celtic harp on an upper branch. Jenny’s ornaments varied from battered, beloved family heirlooms to delicate works of art. Just the way ornaments ought to be; he’d always hated flawless, over-decorated trees that made him think of department stores rather than homes.
    Plato trotted up with his buggy whip and dropped it under the tree, then eyed a swinging angel ornament. "Behave yourself," Jenny ordered.
    The cat gave her a flat stare to prove that he cared naught for her opinion, then curled up under the tree, an errant strand of silver tinsel accenting his gray fur. Greg smiled as he scratched Plato’s neck. "A crackling fire on a cold night, a cat, good company, and decorating a Christmas tree. It doesn’t get much better than this."
    "I love Christmas." Jenny draped more tinsel in an under-sparkled spot. "A time to slow down and enjoy life and be with my family and friends. In busy years, it keeps me sane. In bad years, it makes me feel whole again."
    "I’ve been doing the holidays on the express plan for too long. I’m lucky my family hasn’t changed the locks to keep me out since I fly in a day or two before Christmas, and leave a day or two