Christmas From Hell by R. L. Mathewson Page A

moved away from the fireplace.
     
    “ They had to seal it off,” she said absently, trying to figure out the polite way to kick a guy out.
     
    Was there even one?
     
    She pondered that for a minute before deciding that there probably wasn’t. If her grandfather had been home she wouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing. He would just throw Duncan out on his-
     
    No, he wouldn’t, she realized with a pathetic sigh.
     
    If it was anyone else besides Duncan Bradford, her grandfather would tell him to get the fuck out of his house, yes, those exact words, and if they didn’t listen the first time then he’d show them the way to the door in a manner that would probably cause them to spend a night in the hospital. Unfortunately for her, her grandfather had figured out pretty early on how she felt about Duncan. She wasn’t sure how he’d figured it out, but he had and ever since then, he’d done his best to get her to, “Grow some balls,” yes, his words, and go for it.
     
    So, perhaps it was for the best that her grandfather was away right now.
     
    “ We’re going to have to hold up in your room until the power comes back on or they clear the roads so that I can get you out of here,” Duncan said, apparently at some point appointing himself her boss.
     
    “ I’m sorry. What’s this now?” she asked, positive that she’d misheard him, because there really was no way in hell that the guy who’d turned avoiding her into an art form was now volunteering to stay with her not only in her house, but in her room…
     
    Where there was only one bed.
     
    Yeah…umm, even though she’d fantasized about how it would feel to have him hold her at night and wake up with him in the morning, the whole glaring thing hadn’t been part of it. There was absolutely no way that she was trapping herself in a small room with a man that couldn’t stand her and yes, she’d finally accepted it.
     
    She didn’t have a chance in hell with him.
     
    To him, she would always be the pain in the ass neighbor who couldn’t do anything right and that definitely didn’t sit well with her. She’d been raised to be independent, levelheaded and above all, to know her worth and she was worth a hell of a lot more than some guy’s pity.
     
    With that in mind, she finally decided to end this now. She’d made a fool of herself for long enough and it was time to move on. More determined than she’d ever been before, she took a slow breath, faced him and said, “I think it would be for the best if you left.”
     
    *-*-*-*
     
    “ What are you doing?” Necie asked, sounding frustrated and annoyed.
     
    Not that he could really blame her or really cared.
     
    “ I’m leaving the water running so that the pipes don’t freeze,” he said, inwardly shaking his head, because really, she should know this.
     
    “ No,” she said, pausing to take another deep breath and making him bite back a smile, because she really was so damn cute when she was annoyed, “I meant, why are you still here?”
     
    “ Because the power’s out,” he said with a shrug as he walked past her, leaned over, grabbed the thermal sleeping bag he’d brought over and headed towards the double bed.
     
    “ Yes, yes I know that,” she said in that same tone, making him chuckle as he opened up the sleeping bag and spread it over the bed. “That really doesn’t explain why you’re still here… in my room .”
     
    “ Because your room is the smallest room in the house and will be the easiest to stay warm in,” he explained, waiting for her to try and kick him out again.
     
    He’d of course ignore her like he had the last twenty-three times that she’d asked him to leave and did what needed to be done. When she only stood there, glaring at him, he decided that she was probably either trying to think up a different approach to kicking him out or she’d finally just accepted the fact that he wasn’t going anywhere until the electricity came