“In my defense, I didn’t know you were scheming. Had I known, I would have acted differently.”
“You would have schemed more cunningly?”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have schemed at all.”
She pressed her lips together, searching his eyes, and found the same thing she always did: more love than she’d thought existed in the whole world, all in this man, and all for her.
Her heart somersaulted.
“Don’t say that,” she complained with a grimace. “Then I might start to think we could have talked about this whole thing like sensible people, and webothknow that neither of us is sensible when it comes to Christmas.”
He gave a wry smile. “Good point. You’re right. I probably would have listened to everything you said, and then schemed evenmoresubtly to achieve the best Christmas ever without you noticing.”
“Don’t make me tie you up with tinsel to save you from yourself.”
“Being tied up was an option?” His eyes gleamed. “You know, I just remembered, I have a whole extra project I need to work on right now—”
She grabbed him as he pretended to stand up, and they both stifled laughter.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he reassured her. “Even for the promise of being tied up with tinsel.”
“Really? It’s sowiry.And the shiny bits would all flake off and get everywhere…”
“Stop, you’re turning me on.”
She giggled, and nestled against him. “All right. Who gave it away?”
“The schemes?”
“Mmm.”
He stroked her hair. “Nobody.”
“Then how did you—”
“You tried to confess what you’d been up to a few times. Once I began to put the pieces together, that suggested you had something to confess to.” His hand reached the nape of her neck, and he massaged the tight muscles there. “And then I began to get suspicious. I knew whatIwas scheming. The biggest, best Christmas ever. But somehow every time I got something started, someone grabbed it and ran away with it.”
“Didn’t you ask your friends to help you out?”
“Help me out, yes. Leave me with nothing to do except spend time with my wonderful mate…” The warmth in his eyes was tinged with regret. “It’s so obvious in retrospect. I’ve been a complete idiot, haven’t I?”
She grimaced. “We’re well matched, then. I admit it. I got my friends to sabotage all of your new schemes. I mean, I guess all our friends worked together to do it, by the end.”
“Terrible. It’s almost as though they want us to be happy.”
Her stomach squirmed. “But… that’swhyI did it. I thought I sensed you beingunhappythrough the mate bond. There was something there—some stress, or tension, and I thought it must have to do with all the extra Christmas stuff you were planning. I wanted you to take some time off. Sheena and Meaghan and the others thought I just wanted more date nights with you around our anniversary, that’s why they—and I know I was wrong, but—”
His forehead creased. “You weren’t wrong.”
“I wasn’t?”
He shook his head. “You saw through me better than I saw myself.” He kissed her, gently as a snowflake. “I’m sorry I messed up all your date night schemes.”
“I’m sorry I tried to sabotage your life’s work instead of have a simple conversation.” She bit her lip, and Jasper’s eyes caught on the movement. “And it’s not like I took advantage of all the opportunities the others made for me to whisk you away, anyway. Just spending time with you and Ruby when you weren’t running around was the perfect lead-up to Christmas.”
“Something I feel like I should have known, instead of focusing on the running-around part.” Jasper ran his fingertips along her shoulder. “But, you know… we’re not completely out of time.”
He nodded at the closed door they were both leaning against. “You think she’ll sleep all night?”
