He had dark hair partially hidden under his wool hat, a thick tangle of beard and eyes that seemed to peer straight into my soul.
It wasEaston.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a husky voice.
“Uh, yeah. Um, I don’t know. I—uh…Easton.”
The corners of his mouth tilted up, a gorgeous smile on his lips. And that’s when I became aware of the fact that he was still holding on to me.
His hands sat comfortably on my hips, like they belonged there.
“You should get better shoes,” he rumbled. “Those little ballerina flats are only good for the summer months here.”
“My-my shoes?” I asked, getting lost in the cinnamon of his eyes. They were somewhere between brown and amber. Almost like a toffee or a caramel.
He licked his lips, then hid his smile, trying not to show his amusement.
“You’re not from around here. Even if I didn’t already know that, your shoes are a dead giveaway. As is the tiny cardigan you’re always trying to pretend is a winter coat.” His eyes clouded over for half a second. “Why haven’t you bought better gear for yourself yet?”
“Uh… I’m going to. I’m wearing a wool underlayer. It keeps me warm.”
The clouds left his eyes. “Really? Well, you should get yourself a proper coat, and some better shoes. I saw you walking to work the other day. You can’t walk in this weather wearing shoes like that. You’ll get frostbite.”
“I know. I need to make it to a shoe store in Fernwood. But my car’s broken down right now. That’s why I’ve been walking to the office lately.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“T-transmission,” I stammered out. I realized I couldn’t think straight with his hands on me. I was going into some kind of swoon at the feel of his hands on my waist.
“I’m—I’m Violet,” I blurted out nonsensically. Then I blushed to my roots.
“Violet.” The way he said my name made it sound like a tasty, exotic dish that he was ready to sample. “I know who you are, Violet. We work together. Don’t you remember me? We were talking just this afternoon. And we went all the way out to the Bear Creek Lodge together.”
“I know who you are, Easton. I just got a little tongue-tied for a second there. I don’t know why I told you my name. T-that was weird,” I stammered out.
Easton assessed me for a moment, then nodded. “It’s nice to see you outside of work. So tell me what a woman like you is doing choosing the rightcockwarmer for Christmas? Is it for a boyfriend back home?”
My eyes almost popped out of my skull. “A what?—I’m not…” Then I descended into a fit of giggles.
“Well, youarestanding right in front of the display,” he said with a giant grin on his face. “It makes a person wonder.”
The unfortunate thing about this was that now all I could think about was Easton’s cock. Would he need a jumbo-sized warmer? The man was big and tall. I didn’t know if it was true that big men had big dicks, but I kind of wanted to test the theory out.
I giggled again. “I was looking at one of the other displays. But I will admit that this craziness in their shop window was the reason I stopped in the first place.”
Easton grinned. “One of my buddies makes these with his wife. It’s some kind of an inside joke for them. And all the knitting women went crazy over it and demanded they start selling them. Cock warmers are pretty popular on Red Oak Mountain these days. They started a trend.”
Pushing past all the shyness in me, I squeaked out, “Which one would you want for Christmas?”
Then I realized what I’d just said and stammered, “That wasn’t appropriate. Your wife would be upset. Or your girlfriend. Forget I said that, please?”
Easton shook his head. “Nope on both counts. No wife. No girlfriend. Just me and my dogs. I’ve got a pack of them. Do you like dogs?”
The way he asked that made it seem like it was critically important to him. But the only thing that was important to me was finding out that Easton was single. “Really? Because you’re not on the list.”
He looked at me with curiosity brimming in his eyes. “I might have heard something about a list. What list am I not on, Violet?”
“T-the list at work. It’s silly, Anyway, uh, I was trying to figure out… Oh, just forget I said anything.” I wasn’t going to tell him he wasn’t on the singles office list that Peter had made for me.
