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He went to grab something, anything, but all he got was thin air as the boxes at the top tumbled backward in slow motion. He sucked in a breath, watching in horrified amazement as the rest of the display tilted precariously to one side like the Leaning Tower of Pi
sa and then collapsed—taking out the elaborate Lego landscape of Santa’s Grotto set up behind it—in a thundering avalanche of plastic, cardboard, and sparkles.
…
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
The astonished shout rang out, and he whipped around to see a shadowy figure standing right beside him. Panic shot up his spine and battle-ready reflexes, honed by two months in a war zone, engaged. He launched himself at the threat before his mind could remember he wasn’t in Helmand Province anymore—where your life depended on reacting first and asking questions later.
Female.
His mind finally grabbed hold of the coherent thought as his hands grabbed hold of about one hundred twenty pounds of soft, stunned feminine flesh clad in considerably less green velvet. He managed to turn in midair, taking the impact of the fall, as the two of them landed with a spectacular crash in the avalanche of debris.
She gasped in shock as he rolled to get her underneath him and protect her from the cascading boxes of dolls. She muttered something incoherent in breathless outrage, and he got a lungful of something sultry and exotic with a hint of cinnamon—like snickerdoodles and sin.
He manacled her wrists and held them above her head as she began to struggle in earnest, then gave a startled gasp of his own as he got his first good look at his captive in the store’s fluorescent lighting.
Damp hair framed a pale, fine-boned face flushed with exertion, her huge green eyes the exact same rich emerald as the figure-hugging velvet dress she wore. Although calling it a dress seemed generous given the way the skirt barely covered her butt, and the red laces holding the bodice closed strained against the most magnificent rack he’d ever laid eyes on.
“Goddamn it,” he said, his senses reeling from the sudden burst of physical activity, a hard jolt of lust, and the heady shot of cinnamon that clung to her. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded. “The queen of the sprite dolls?”
Chapter Three
“Will you get off me, Mr. Sinclair?” Kate said in the most commanding voice she could muster while she was being pressed into a mass of jagged cardboard by a man who felt like he weighed several tons.
She swallowed down the lump of mortification in her throat as his gaze dipped down to her cleavage again.
Bloody hell.
Why had she come out here? She should have just stayed in her office and ignored the almighty crash from outside. Especially as her ethics had prevented her from “borrowing” anything from the clothing department while her wet clothes dried on her office radiator. Consequently, the only thing she’d been able to find to wear was the prototype for this year’s Santa’s Little Helpers outfits—which was two sizes too small.
“How the hell do you know who I am?” Lake-blue eyes glared at her accusingly.
She glared back at him, ignoring the spectacular blip in her pulse from the man’s face. With a day’s worth of stubble shadowing a strong jaw, blunt features darkly tanned from what she suspected was several months spent in some glitzy Caribbean resort, unruly hair that curled around his ears, and brows drawn into a sharp frown over those unfathomable blue eyes, he looked more like a marauding pirate than the pampered playboy she’d expected.
“I know who you are because I’ve seen your photo in Vanity Fair.” Although the chiseled, pretty-boy features of that man looked nothing like the ruggedly handsome face above her. And neither did the impressive muscles molding the black cotton T-shirt he wore over khaki chinos. His physique looked a lot harder and better developed than she would have predicted—to the point of being ostentatious, frankly. Clearly, although Ryder Sinclair didn’t have enough time to turn up for work at Sinclair’s, he had more than enough time to pump iron in a gym.
“I’d like to put my arms down, if that’s all right with you,” she said through gritted teeth trying to twist her wrists out of his manacle-like grip—to absolutely no avail.
“No, it’s not all right,” he said, the tone annoyingly laconic as he tightened his grip. “First, I want to know who the hell you are.” That penetrating male gaze dipped to her cleavage again, and she cursed the midget-sized minidress she’d been forced to wear, and the prickle of response in her nipples.
“My name is Katherine Braithwaite,” she said, using her full name in the hope that it might intimidate him. “And I’m the assistant marketing manager at Sinclair’s.”
His eyes narrowed, but he finally released her wrists.
She crossed her freed arms over her unfortunate display of cleavage and pressed down on the traitorous nipples, hoping to heck he hadn’t noticed them sticking out like two sore thumbs. But instead of getting off her he settled back on his haunches, making muscular thighs flex on either side of her hips.
“Uh-huh. So what are you doing here on Christmas Day dressed as a leprechaun?”
Kate’s usual patience began to disintegrate at the amused tone.
“I could ask you the same question,” she shot back, even though she knew perfectly well what he was doing here: stealing merchandise from a company that already paid him an exorbitant salary for doing bugger all. She wriggled furiously. “Now get off me, you big oaf,” she demanded, having had quite enough of being manhandled and interrogated.
She didn’t care if he was Lachlan Sinclair’s precious son, if the man tried to get her fired over this incident she would sue.
He didn’t budge. “I don’t see how you could ask me the same question,” he said as his gaze took another leisurely trip over her skimpy outfit. “I’m not dressed as a leprechaun.”
His lips lifted in a mocking and disturbingly sexy grin. Her heartbeat kicked up a notch—out of irritation, she decided.
