The Kidnapped Christmas Bride (Taming of the Sheenans Book 3) by Jane Porter Page A

way, but Trey was in a whole other league. Trey was darkly beautiful, sinfully beautiful, and she understood why women looked.
    Men weren’t that handsome in real life.
    Men weren’t that tall and muscular. They didn’t have hair that thick and dark or eyes that brilliant a blue. Their cheekbones weren’t that high or their jaws that chiseled. They didn’t flash dimples when they laughed. Their laughter and voices didn’t rumble in their chests. They simply weren’t made so perfectly.
    They weren’t.
    But Trey was. And his brother Troy. However, Troy wasn’t Trey, and McKenna had only ever had eyes for Trey since seeing him at Marietta High, surrounded by a group of guys that looked like they were up to no good.
    And they weren’t. Trey’s friends cut class, showed up drunk or stoned, and spent more time in the front office than in class.
    McKenna shouldn’t have been intrigued. She shouldn’t have been attracted to someone so obviously bad.
    But when Trey looked at her, his gaze would always soften, his expression gentling. It happened so quickly she didn’t know if he was even conscious that his expression changed, and he didn’t look at anyone else that way. She knew because she watched him. She watched him a lot, fascinated by the way he carried himself, and the way others whispered about him, saying he was dangerous, reckless, saying he didn’t care about anybody, saying he would probably die young.
    She didn’t want him to die young. She wanted him to play it safer. She wanted him to look at her more. She loved seeing how his hard, handsome features transformed when he saw her…lips curving, blue eyes creasing.
    He might not enjoy school, but he was smart, and tough, and he made her feel safe.
    He made her feel pretty, too.
    And he might never ask her out, but she was his. They both knew it.
    “What?” he asked, shooting her a quick glance, black eyebrows lifting.
    “Nothing,” she answered, amazed that seventeen years later she still felt so connected to him.
    “You’re smiling.”
    “You’re humming,” she said. “Christmas carols .”
    “I like Christmas carols.”
    “You’re humming the sacred ones.”
    “I can’t like songs with a little substance?”
    His innocent expression, and his blue eyes, suddenly so guileless, made her laugh out loud. “I know you. I know who you are.”
    “And who am I, darlin’?”
    She looked up into his eyes, and he let her look, inviting her in, and she could have stood there all day, feeling close to him, feeling connected.
    Heart, mind, soul.
    And then someone tried to get past and accidentally bumped into McKenna and McKenna tripped a bit over TJ and the spell was broken.
    The old gentleman who bumped into her apologized and McKenna said no, it was her fault, and blushing, she felt like a fool.
    She wasn’t being smart.
    She wasn’t being careful.
    Trey Sheenan might be gorgeous and charismatic but he wasn’t good for her. He wasn’t settled or stable. She couldn’t let him back in, couldn’t drop her defenses.
    They could be friends. And friendly. But that was all.
    No romance, no love, no sex, no happy ever after.
    No happy ever after. It didn’t exist. Not with him.
    *
    After clothes shopping they stopped for lunch at one of the little cafes on Main Street. Trey asked TJ what he wanted for Christmas, and once TJ started in, he didn’t stop. He hadn’t seen Santa yet, and he hadn’t sent him a letter but usually if he left him a note at Christmas Santa brought him what he wanted, although last year he wanted holsters and pistols and Santa didn’t bring those. Santa never brought guns. Or any fighting things. TJ was disappointed that Santa wouldn’t bring him fighting things when everyone else got them. Didn’t Santa know he was a boy, not a girl?
    McKenna could feel Trey’s eyes on her now and then while TJ talked.
    She told herself she didn’t want to know what he was thinking. She told herself she was happy to keep distance