Page 120 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

Chapter 25

Andrew stared down at his pile of counters. Although…could a person really call three counters a pile?

“This is fun,” Stacia chirped as she scraped all her winnings toward her.

They had divided up a bag of cobnuts from the food trunk. She now possessed all of them except three.

“I don’t believe that you’ve never played this before,” Andrew said, pulling the nutcracker out of the trunk and putting one of his counters out of its misery. He offered her the nut—which she took with a triumphant grin—before cracking the second one and tossing it into his mouth.

“Do you play cards a great deal?” she asked.

He smirked at her not so gentle jibe as he chewed and stared, amused when her cheeks darkened under his silent scrutiny.

“I wish you would not look at me in that odious way,” she finally blurted.

“What way is that?” he asked, cracking his last nut.

She waved aside the proffered nutmeat. “You know how,” she accused, and then gave him a demonstration of what she meant.

Andrew laughed at the exaggeratedly villainous face she pulled. “My, that is odious.”

She scowled, or tried to, but the smile tugging at her lips made it difficult.

Stacia sighed. “She is not going to release us today, is she?”

Andrew glanced at his watch and saw that it was past noon. “I doubt it.”

“What if—what if nobody comes?” she asked, a look of genuine fear taking possession of her features. “What if nobody knows? What if are left here to starve? To die—”

Andrew leaned over and took her hand. “Somebody will come.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Kathryn might be reckless, but she isn’t homicidal.”

“What if something happens to her and she can’t—”

“I can get us out, Stacia.”

She blinked. “You—you can? You mean you know where there is a latch?”

“No. I mean I can use what little we have”—he gestured to the heavy fire tools hanging from their cast-iron rack— “and hack the door open. You needn’t worry—I will not allow you to perish here.”

“So why haven’t you opened it?”

Andrew smiled, even though he knew it was inappropriate—not to mention probably the same smug expression she had just called odious. “I have a few reasons. First, because it will cause a great deal of destruction and racket. Not to mention that I am not looking forward to wrecking Needham’s pride and joy. Second, we’ve already been in here a day so it’s not as if we can be in any more trouble if we wait. Which leads me to the most important reason”—he gently squeezed her hand— “I am in no hurry because I am enjoying myself far more in here with you than I would be out there with everyone else.”

***

Stacia could not have been more surprised if he had just declared his undying love for her.

Well, that wasn’t quite true, she amended, but she was flabbergasted all the same.

“You are?” she could not resist saying.

“Yes, Stacia. I am.”

Why did her staid name sound so sensual on his tongue?