The Bachelor’s Christmas Bride by Victoria Pade Page B

selling my parents’ business and the building it was in, and from Gramma’s house, to be a partner in the school. I could head the pre-K and kindergarten portion and teach, too.”
    â€œWow. That sounds exciting. But how does that fit in with marrying Wes Rumson and potentially becoming Montana’s First Lady?”
    Oh, for a minute she’d forgotten.
    Shannon could have kicked herself.
    It was just too easy to talk to this man.
    And too easy to forget herself and everything else she should be remembering.
    â€œWell, sure…I mean…I couldn’t do both…at least not the work parts. I could still invest in Dani’s school,” she said haltingly as she stumbled to keep the secret of her nonexistent engagement. “Anyway, you asked if I was going back to work after Christmas and I’m not. I have plans to visit Dani, to check things out, to see what I think. Right now I’m just considering what to do.”
    Dag went on studying her for a long moment as they continued to dance, and Shannon had the sense that she was being read like a book.
    Then he proved her right when he said, “So, really, you have your choice of two lives bigger than what you’ve known. You’re engaged to a Rumson who will likely be the next Governor. Or you could invest in your friend’s school, be instrumental in setting the educational foundation of kids of the rich and famous, and make your own flashier life—”
    Dag definitely saw things too clearly.
    â€œWes says I’d just be wiping their noses,” Shannon heard herself say before she even knew she was going to, appreciating that Dag’s view of her opportunity was not so pompous.
    But she knew she’d ventured further than she should have already and she needed to rectify it, so she shrugged and said, “It’s just the investment opportunity I’m checking out after Christmas.”
    Dag nodded but she didn’t think he completely believed her.
    Before he could pursue it, though, the bandleader’s voice came over the muffled strains of music to announce that the next song would be the last.
    â€œWe better make this good,” Dag said as the band segued into a romantic ballad.
    That was when comportment finally went out the window.
    In keeping with custom, Shannon’s right hand was in Dag’s left. He raised her hand to his shoulder and let it rest there in order to clasp both of his hands at the small of her back in a very informal—and even more intimate—dance posture. He also closed that respectable space between them completely by pulling her near enough for their bodies to touch, for Shannon to have no choice but to put her cheek to the rock-hard wall of his chest while her other hand pressed to the expanse of his broad shoulders.
    â€œWouldn’t your mother be upset with your comportment? ” Shannon whispered.
    She half expected him to say Wouldn’t your fiancé have a fit if he knew you were letting me do this?
    But the only sound Dag made was a soft response into her hair. “Shhh…I won’t tell if you won’t.”
    Shannon knew that if she truly had been engaged,she probably shouldn’t have gone along with this. But his arms were strong around her, bracketing hers like muscular parentheses. He smelled of a fresh, citrusy cologne. His body was big and warm and powerful. And it was just all too nice to deny herself what she continued to insist was nothing more than a dance. A simple, harmless dance…
    A dance that really just amounted to swaying in place now…
    Then the music ended and the distant voice from below congratulated Chase and Hadley one last time and wished them well.
    And while Shannon regretted it, Dag stopped their dancing on cue, too, and released his hold of her enough for there to be a separation between them again. Enough for his arms to only be loosely around her still as he smiled down at her.
    â€œSooo