Understood by Maya Banks Read Free Book Online

naked body, his gorgeous naked body, slipping from the sheets.
    “A Christmas tree.”
    “You already have a Christmas tree,” she pointed out.
    He reached over and flicked her nose. “But you don’t.”
    She frowned. “I don’t want a tree.”
    “Ellie, you love Christmas, and you’re letting that bastard ruin it for you. Now get your ass up so we can go buy you a tree. I’ll buy you lots of nice colored lights to go on it.”
    She glared at him as he got up from the bed. “I want white lights.”
    “That’s so boring,” he said. “What you need is something that blinks.”
    She managed a horrified look. “I am not putting flashing lights on my tree!”
    He chuckled. “Come on. Let’s take a shower. I’ll let you talk me into white lights, but I get to pick out the ornaments.”
    She swung her leg over the side of the bed, marveling at how easily he’d won that argument. He could charm the scales right off a snake.
    eee
    “No,” Ellie said shaking her head. “That one’s not quite right either.”
    Jake shook his head in exasperation and set aside yet another tree. He dug around for a moment before pulling out another. He stood it up and slowly rotated it around for her to see.
    “How’s this?”
    She drew her eyebrows together in thought. It wasn’t bad. No large holes. And the symmetry was good. She was a freak about symmetry. It was tall without being too tall, and it looked fresh and green.
    “I like it.”
    Jake cocked an eyebrow. “You sure? Because we can keep looking.”
    She smiled at his patience. They’d been looking for an hour, and he’d been a good sport as she refused tree after tree.
    “No, that one’s perfect, I think.”
    He hoisted the tree up over his shoulder and headed for the cashier stationed outside the home improvement store in the lawn and garden section. He leaned it against the register and then dug around in his back pocket for his wallet. He flipped the cashier his credit card then looked back at Ellie.
    “Wait here and I’ll pull the truck around.”
    eee
    Jake let out a grunt as he righted the tree, the stand firmly affixed to the base. Ellie stood back and stared intently.
    “Is it straight?” he asked.
    She nodded when he looked to her for confirmation. They’d gotten the tree through her front door. Barely. Jake had set it up in the far corner, and she had to admit, she was glad she’d gotten it now. She couldn’t wait to see it all aglow with the tiny white lights they’d bought.
    “I like it when you smile.”
    She blinked and looked up to see Jake staring at her.
    “I didn’t realize I was,” she said sheepishly.
    He grinned. “Okay, hand me the boring ass lights and I’ll get them strung.”
    “They are not boring,” she protested as she reached for one of the boxes.
    “They’re white. And white. Oh, and white,” he grumbled. “No fun at all.”
    “You’re still stuck back in your childhood,” she teased.
    “When it comes to Christmas, everyone should be a kid.”
    She couldn’t argue with that. Sometimes being an adult hurt too much.
    She took one end of the lights as Jake began unraveling them from the box. “Let me guess. When you were a child you had lots of colored, blinking lights.”
    “Damn right.”
    She giggled.
    Thirty minutes later, her tree was aglow with over nine hundred lights. She stood back to admire their work and realized how much she’d missed the look and feel of Christmas. She’d been so determined not to observe the holiday, not to remember.
    “You like it?” Jake asked.
    She nodded. “Yeah, I do. Thanks for making me get one. It makes me happy.”
    “I want very much to make you happy,” he said softly.
    She cocked her head to stare sideways at him, but he looked straight ahead at the tree. He reached up to hang one of the wooden ornaments they’d purchased as if he’d never uttered such a provocative statement.
    An hour later, they stood back to admire their work. A glimmer of delight rushed