Apparently, Dex’s family weren’t as worried about having boundaries between them as he was. Given they hardly knew one another, sending him to pick up some random family friend—another stray like him—because her car had shit itself that morning was pushing things a bit far for him. But what could he do? It wasn’t like he could say no after everything they’d done for him.
The girl’s name was Sutton. She’d moved to LA a month ago after some family drama or some such bullshit. Fucking awesome. Now he had to make small talk with some woman he’d never met and pretend he was all happy and festive and shit because it was Christmas morning.
Well, Christmas was his least favorite day of the fucking year.
He didn’t do Christmas. Growing up, he’d usually spent it alone. They hadn’t done the whole turkey, tree, presents deal. After his dad walked out and left them, it had been just Dex and his mom. Money was always tight, so if there was a shift available, she took it, even if that shift was on Christmas Day. He usually ate in front of the TV—grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and a Coke—and if he was lucky his mom would give him a gift when she got home.
Whatever. It didn’t do him any harm. Though he knew it had upset her.
Now she was gone.
No, he wasn’t a fan of all this bullshit, but it might’ve been nice to spoil his mom at this time of year, get someone else to cook for her, the whole nine yards, the turkey and stuffing all that crap. Get her some gifts since she never got anything for herself. He’d never gotten the chance.
Growling, he shoved the useless thoughts from his head and rubbed away the ache that started in the center of his chest.
Awesome. Now his mood was even darker.
He hadn’t been himself for the last two weeks, not since Hattie had freaked out on him and run away. He’d tossed and turned every night since, hard and aching, positive he could still smell her, taste her. Then the memory of her fleeing his shitty hotel room after he’d gone down on her would fill his head, and yeah, would totally fuck his day up.
To say he felt like a giant piece of shit was an understatement.
Christ, had he done something to hurt her? Scare her? She said he hadn’t, but maybe she’d just said that because she would have said anything in that moment to get the hell away from him. Maybe the scars on his body turned her off? Repulsed her?
Idiot that he was, he’d been hoping to get her number after.
Maybe get to know her better. Take her out or whatever. See if they had something more between them. He’d thought there was more. No, they hadn’t done a lot of talking, but he’d felt it as soon as she’d walked into Woody’s.
Getting it so wrong, being shot down by Hattie after being celibate so long, after finally wanting a woman again, yeah, it had him questioning a lot of things about himself. The main one was what the fuck was wrong with him? He hated to admit it, but his confidence had taken a serious beating.
And masochist that he was, he’d gone back to Woody’s nearly every night since, hoping to see her, to talk to her. Christ, apologize for whatever it was he did.
He shoved his fingers through his hair. He liked his cousins, he did. But being around all the happy was not something he was looking forward to. Drinking himself into a stupor in front of the TV in an attempt to get the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen out of his head sounded a lot more enjoyable.
Or at least productive.
Screw all the family crap. He had three brothers scattered around the country that his father had helped make and then abandoned, all to different mothers.
The only one of his brothers to make an effort was Zane, and look how that had turned out. Dex had let him move in with him and Chloe when he’d needed a place to stay, and while he was deployed, his brother had made a play for her, more than likely as soon as his plane left the runway.
Dex had never really worked Zane out. He’d always tried to compete with Dex, from the moment they met. He’d been where Dex had, done what Dex had…but better. There was always some big story that went with it. Dex didn’t get it. He’d never been competitive like that.
It soon became clear that Zane had weird fucking jealousy issues. He hated the fact that Dex had actually known their father, that he’d had a relationship with the asshole. Zane let that shit stew, let it twist and poison his head, and somewhere along the way he decided he wanted what Dex had, and that had included Chloe apparently.
So, no, family wasn’t his thing. Getting close to anyone always ended badly for Dex.
Still, for some insane reason, he’d wanted to get to know Hattie. He’d been drawn to her like he never had to another person in his entire life.
He pulled up outside Sutton’s apartment and tried to shake off his shitty mood.
Time to pretend you’re a normal human being.
After climbing out, he headed to the building and hit the button by her apartment number on the intercom at the door.
“Hello?” A female voice crackled through the speaker.
“Here to pick up Sutton.”
“Um, would you be able to come up? I think I need some help with my gifts.”
Christ. Was he supposed to get gifts? “Sure.”
“I’m on the second floor.”
She let him in, and he headed up. He chose the stairs, using the time to shake out his shoulders, unlock his jaw, and work at dropping the frown he knew he’d been wearing the last two weeks. It wasn’t helping.
He reached her door and scowled at the giant wreath threaded with red and green ribbon and covered in little gold bells. He took a deep breath and knocked.
“Coming!” she called from inside.
Dex cursed under his breath. This chick sounded way too damn happy.
There was a bump against the door, followed by the sound of locks disengaging, and then the door opened.
Dex took a step back to give her room—and froze.
His breath got trapped in his lungs.
She stepped out, hands full of Christmassy gift bags. She hadn’t looked at him yet, mainly because she couldn’t see over all the shit she was carrying. But he could see the side of her face, the extreme curves of her body—shit, could smell her familiar scent.
Hattie put her gifts down, pulled the door shut, and turned to him with a smile on her face.
She jumped, a startled noise escaping her lips. Her eyes widened and she retreated a step, her back meeting the door with a thud. “Dex? What are you…what are you doing here?”
What the ever-loving fuck was going on?
“How did you find me?” she said, like he was some kind of crazed stalker.
It was hard, but he managed to unhinge his jaw, despite his own shock—and other feelings he was currently having at seeing Hattie again. She was wearing a red dress that hugged her tits and flared out at her hips. Her shoes were sparkly red, like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and her hair was down in big soft waves.
His gaze dropped to her mouth all on its own. Her lips, which he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about, were glossy and red as well, and she had tiny flashing Rudolf earrings hanging from her ears.
“You’re Lucy’s friend?” he gritted out.
Somehow her eyes got even wider. “Y-yes.”
“Fuck,” Dex bit out.
“You’re her…cousin?”
He dipped his chin, heart banging like hell in his chest. “She said your name was Sutton.” A stupid fucking feeling of betrayal moved through him at the thought of her giving him a fake name.
Her mouth worked several times, then she seemed to snap out of it. “It is—Hattie Sutton. Lucy’s always called me Sutton, and I call her Colton.” She swallowed, her delicate throat working. “So your last name is Colton as well?”
“Yeah.” Dex couldn’t believe this was happening. Out of all the bars, all the people in this city, it was Hattie who crossed his path.
They both stood staring at each other for several long minutes. And the same intense feelings he’d felt that night, that weird feeling of being drawn to her, filled Dex’s chest to overflowing.
“You left,” he said—Christ, blurted—unable to stop himself.
She blinked up at him.
“I did something, didn’t I, to make you take off like that?”
She snapped out of it. “No. I promise, Dex. It wasn’t anything you did. I just thought everything was just so—” She cleared her throat. “I thought it was for the best.”
“Yeah?” Dex bit out. Why? Why was it for the best?
Ever since she took off, he’d been worried out of his mind. He’d also thought a lot of other things, like she’d seen the size of his dick and freaked, or he did a crappy job of eating her pussy and she’d had to fake her orgasm. It hadn’t felt fake. It sure as hell hadn’t sounded fake, but then what the fuck would he know? Maybe she was just a really good actor?
She nodded.
That was it? All he was going to get? Jesus, he had definitely scared her. That had to be it. What else could it have been? He cleared his throat and tried to gentle his voice when he spoke again. “You okay with me driving you? If you feel unsafe or whatever, I’ll get someone else to pick you up.”
Her hands shot out, the fingers of both curling around his forearm, and she shook her head. “God, no. Please believe me: you didn’t scare me, Dex. It was nothing like that.”
Okay, now he believed her. It was there in her eyes. Relief flooded him. The alternative, of course, was he’d done a shitty job of eating her pussy. Awesome.
His ego had already been beaten bloody when he lost his girlfriend to his brother. Now this, although he guessed that explained a few things. Chloe had probably wanted a man who knew how to get her off, since he was obviously rubbish in the sack.
Merry fucking Christmas to me.
Dex bit back a curse, because despite that realization, electricity was zapping through him where she touched him.
He carefully extracted himself from her hold and picked up her bags instead of saying anything more. What was the point? He’d felt like shit the last couple of weeks because he’d been half hard ever since he had his mouth on her and pissed at himself for whatever he’d done to scare her away.
Turned out she hadn’t been afraid; she just didn’t want his incompetent ass slobbering all over her.
Cool. Now he knew.
He headed down the stairs, with Hattie right behind him. She followed him silently out onto the street, and they climbed into his truck.
She started fidgeting beside him after they’d been driving for several minutes.
He glanced over at her and clenched his teeth. Fuck, she was beautiful.
“Umm, I guess we should keep what happened between us to ourselves?” she said into the silence.
Dex grunted. As if today wasn’t going to be awkward enough already. Now he had to spend hours in the same house as the woman he’d taken home and disappointed. A woman he wanted more of to the point of distraction, even after she’d ditched him, while celebrating Christmas with his family that he really didn’t know all that well—possibly with a hard-on.
He glanced at Hattie again and bit back another curse. Yep, with a hard-on.
The drive to Hugh and Shay’s house took forever. It was also quiet to the point of awkwardness.
As soon as Dex pulled up outside Hugh and Shay’s house—that was covered in lights, had a herd of fucking reindeer on the front yard and a giant Santa on the roof—Hattie all but fell out of his truck and rushed for the front door.
Another spectacular boost to his ego.
Adjusting his dick so he didn’t look like he had the Yule log down the front of his jeans, he climbed out and lumbered toward the front door at a much slower pace.
It opened as he took the steps, and Shay, Hugh’s wife, stood there with a wide welcoming smile on her face and a toddler on her hip. Hugh came up behind her. His cousin was wearing what looked like a hand-knitted red sweater with a green Christmas tree on the front, and he had one kid on his shoulders and a smaller one in his arms.
They greeted Hattie warmly, and she smiled widely and hugged them both. Then she was inside and out of his line of sight. Shay hugged Dex, and Hugh gave him a chin lift since his hands were full, and Dex headed inside as well.
The smell of turkey and spices and pine hit him as soon as he walked in. The place was fully decked out even more than outside, covered in decorations, with mountains of presents under the tree and Christmas music playing in the background.
Joe, Hugh’s younger brother and the middle child of this branch of Coltons, walked out of the kitchen and grinned when he saw Dex. “Didn’t think you’d show. Bet Adam twenty bucks you’d chicken out and stay home.”
Dex shook his head at his smart-assed cousin and looked beyond him, trying to see where Hattie had gone.
No sign of her, but Adam, Lucy’s husband, walked out of the kitchen and shook Dex’s hand. “Merry Christmas, man.”
“Yeah,” Dex said unconvincingly. “You, too.”
“Come on,” Hugh said. “Game’s about to start.”
Okay, maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all. Dex could sit in a corner with a beer, watch a game, and do his best to avoid Hattie, though that shouldn’t be too hard since it looked like she planned to hide from him for the rest of the day.
Goddammit. Lucy seemed to be throwing Hattie and Dex together whenever possible.
Hattie forced a smile at Dex and frowned at her friend when Lucy all but shoved him into the seat beside her on the couch. It was time to open presents, and the kids were all gathered around the tree, looking for their names on the cards—well, the ones old enough to read were. The rest were being held back by their parents.
Hugh was sitting on the floor, hanging on to the back of three-year-old Brody’s shirt to keep him from trying to tear open another gift that wasn’t his. Milly, who was seven and Hugh and Shay’s eldest, had the job of reading out the names and handing gifts to everyone. Shay held their youngest, Gracie, who was fast asleep despite the insanity, and Connor, who was four, was lying on the floor, throwing wrapping paper in the air and giggling when it came back down on top of him.
Helping wrangle the kids was Noah, Darcey’s younger brother. He was fourteen, and had Joe and Darcey’s son, Rhett, who was also three, on his shoulders. The little guy was watching Connor hurl paper around and laughing like crazy.
Darcey walked back into the room and handed out more drinks, and Joe caught his wife’s hand on her way back. “Kept your seat warm, peaches.” She laughed, and he grabbed her around the waist and planted her on his lap.
Dex shifted beside Hattie, and she glanced up at him. He looked pained. She tried to give him room because his thigh was pressed up against hers and having him this close was extremely distracting, but there wasn’t any room to move. She’d done her best to avoid him since they got here because as soon as she’d seen him, her instant reaction had been to do the exact opposite.
Which was not the right thing to do after ending their one-night stand midway and fleeing. Just because they’d been thrown together again today in some kind of freaky what-are-the-odds deal did not mean he was happy about it.
“You left.” His words from earlier played through her mind again.
Yes, and she’d wished she hadn’t every minute since. She really didn’t like the idea of Dex thinking she’d been afraid of him. And going by the frown he’d worn since they’d arrived, she thought he might still be thinking something like that.
“Who’s this one for?” Milly said, holding up a gift. Hattie inwardly cringed. She’d gotten something little for Lucy’s cousin when she’d found out he’d be there today, worried he’d feel left out since she got token gifts for everyone else.
“Um, that one’s for Dex…from me,” she said, feeling like an idiot.
Dex made a rough sound that she felt low in her belly, and she glanced up at him again. He was frowning even more. Great.
“I knew Lucy had a cousin coming so I…” She shrugged as Milly handed it to him.
As his big fingers awkwardly tore open the paper, Hattie took a large sip of her punch and tried not to think of all the lovely wicked things he’d done to her with them.
He held up what was inside, and his brows lifted.
They were red socks with tiny Christmas trees all over them. Everyone looked at the socks and then down at Dex’s huge feet.
“Peter heater,” Joe said. “Problem solved.”
Darcey started giggling, then Lucy and Shay joined her, but they were full-out laughing.
Dex actually blushed, shifting in his seat and looking insanely uncomfortable.
And to make it all so much worse, Hattie kind of laughed as well. It was more a nervous laugh than anything else, because, yes, she’d seen his…um, “peter” up close and personal. And honestly, she wasn’t sure one of those socks was big enough.
“Okay, next gift, Mills,” Hugh said to his daughter. “Something for Brody.” Brody was still trying to escape his father and nosedive into the pile of wrapped gifts remaining under the tree. Milly got down on the floor and dug through until she found one, then took it to her little brother. Brody squealed in delight and tore it open, barely looked at what was inside, then tried to run for the tree again.
Hugh scooped him up and started flying him around the room like he was an airplane, and everyone went back to opening gifts and talking and laughing.
Except Dex, who quietly observed everything that was going on around him.
Hattie found herself leaning into his side a little, maybe wanting to reassure him? She didn’t know, but whatever it was, she couldn’t help herself.
“Do you think we should rescue him?” Lucy said from the kitchen door, looking down the hall into the living room.
Shay was standing beside her sister in-law, biting back a grin. “I think he’s fine.”
Darcey, who had just joined them, tilted her head to the side. “Christ, what is it with these Colton men? Dex is huge.”
Hattie couldn’t stay back another moment and walked over to see what they were looking at. Dex was sitting on the floor, his back to one of the couches, long legs stretched out in front of him. He’d sat down there earlier when all the seats had been taken. Now there were kids crawling all over him and Dex looked a little, well, horrified, like he didn’t know what the hell to do.
Hugh, Joe, and Adam didn’t seem to notice. They were glued to the game and were giving him no help whatsoever.
The women all watched as Brody kind of climbed him like a little crab, then after standing on Dex’s stomach, straddled his chest, grabbed his face, and pressed his nose to Dex’s.
Shay chuckled. “Oh man, my baby knows how to get someone’s attention. He does not like to be ignored.”
They all laughed, but Hattie’s got stuck in her throat when Dex grinned suddenly, flashing his straight white teeth—utterly gorgeous—picked Brody up, and blew a raspberry on his belly. The little boy dissolved into fits of laughter.
“See, he’s fine,” Lucy said, green eyes sparkling. “I knew he’d warm up to us eventually.”
“You guys aren’t close?” Hattie asked.
Dex had said a little at the bar, but she suddenly wanted to know more, everything about the big man sitting on the floor, chuckling as all the kids tried to wrestle with him at once.
“Hugh, Joe, and I didn’t even know we had a cousin until close to a year ago,” Lucy said. “Dex knew about us, though. He’d listed Hugh as his contact person with the Navy. Said he didn’t have anyone else. He was injured overseas, and they got in touch with Hugh. Long story short, there was a family feud, our asshole father stopped talking to Dex’s asshole father, and the rest is history.”
“What made him move here?” Hattie asked, pushing for a little more.
“Basically, we harassed him until he did. He mentioned that the cold caused his injuries to play up—he has a steel rod in his thigh—and Hugh needed a new mechanic. Since Dex is overqualified and knows his shit around any type of engine, Hugh asked him to join the fold. He surprised us all by saying yes.”
Hattie glanced back over at Dex.
He wasn’t playing with the kids anymore. He was looking at her.