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Santa Baby: 5 Sexy Reads For Cold Winter Nights
Charlotte Phillips
Lorraine Wilson
Sun Chara
Vonnie Davis
A 5 book festive collection of steamy romance tales. Perfect for snuggling up on those long, cold winter nights . . .Kiss Me on this Cold December Night, Charlotte PhillipsThe third novella in the deliciously sensual Do Not Disturb series, and Ella Scott is bumping into the ghosts of one night stands past…Santa Wore Leathers, Vonnie DavisThere’s only one thing on Becca Sinclair’s Christmas list this holiday season – her very own column in the local paper. Enter Dan ‘Wolf’ Wolford, a Navy SEAL turned commander of the Florida Marine Rescue Unit, and the new star of Becca’s popular, post-divorce blog about men. It isn’t long before Becca finds herself the target of Wolf’s irresistible attentions…All Wrapped Up In You, Sun CharaWhen Ellie hooked up with world renowned neurosurgeon, Peter Medeci, aka 'Prince Charming’, she thought her dreams had come true. But the demands of being the model wife isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and she decides to ditch the 'royal' life until he sees her as more than his bedroom playmate…Secrets of a Chalet Girl, Lorraine WilsonSet in the exclusive Swiss ski resort of Verbier, the winter playground of the rich and famous, Secrets of a Chalet Girl is the second book in Lorraine Wilson’s fabulous Ski Season series.Confessions of a Chalet Girl, Lorraine WilsonThe first sexy novella in the Chalet Girl series. Pack your salopettes and pour another shot of Jägermeister, it’s time to hit the slopes!
Santa Baby: Sexy Reads for Cold Winter Nights
Kiss Me On This Cold December Night
Charlotte Phillips
Santa Wore Leathers
Vonnie Davis
All Wrapped Up In You
Sun Chara
Confessions of a Chalet Girl
Lorraine Wilson
Secrets of a Chalet Girl
Lorraine Wilson
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
HarperImpulse an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2014
Kiss Me On This Cold Winter Night by Charlotte Phillips
Copyright © Charlotte Phillips 2013
Charlotte Phillips asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this works.
Santa Wore Leathers by Vonnie Davis
Copyright © Vonnie Davis 2013
Vonnie Davis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this works.
All Wrapped Up In You by Sun Chara
Copyright © Sun Chara 2013
Sun Chara asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this works.
Confessions of a Chalet Girl by Lorraine Wilson
Copyright © Lorraine Wilson Ltd 2013
Lorraine Wilson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this works.
Secrets of a Chalet Girl by Lorraine Wilson
Copyright © Lorraine Wilson Ltd 2013
Lorraine Wilson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this works.
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014.
Cover design by Jane Harwood.
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com).
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © 2014 ISBN: 9780008125950
Version 2014-11-20
Contents
Cover (#u802e865a-753c-53f1-be21-547dcc1c26de)
Title Page (#u0d34d8f5-037b-566f-a5c5-dd387e610a50)
Copyright (#u1f0bd9e8-79cd-59cc-a86d-d71979b9870b)
Kiss Me On This Cold December Night
Santa Wore Leathers
All Wrapped Up In You
Confessions of a Chalet Girl
Secrets of a Chalet Girl
Keep Reading: Cold Feet at Christmas
Love Romance?
HarperImpulse
About the Publisher
(#uce878d39-c767-59c1-96c8-d60cedce2a98)
Kiss Me on This Cold December Night
Charlotte Phillips
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Contents
Cover (#u435552b5-fb81-52f6-8fc5-614298a06597)
Title Page (#u62535e70-ec1f-586d-a867-eec202b8a195)
Dedication (#u9c60d5fc-59f8-5c02-a9f6-da905a8454b7)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
For my lovely mum and dad. Mum, thanks for everything. And Dad, wherever you are, if it has internet access I know you’ll be reading everything I write and forcing everyone else to do the same. Love you both.
CHAPTER ONE (#u17ebe9ad-b830-5ed5-bf34-d414995f94df)
‘A suite if you have it, but I’ll take anything.’
Tom Henley wrestled his credit card from his wallet. He might have had his plans thwarted by the bonkers British weather, which for some insane reason had decided to dump a shedload of snow over the entire country in late December, putting it bang on track for the first white Christmas in years, but that didn’t mean he had to take it lying down.
‘Odds on for a white Christmas,’ the receptionist said, giving him a wink.
He stared at her beaming smile across the marble counter.
‘And that would be a good thing because…?’
When you’d spent Christmas in Barbados every year for pretty much your entire life, snow was not something to be excited about. On the contrary, it was a complication. Christmas to him meant sunshine and white sandy beaches and swimming in the calm Caribbean sea. And family of course. Let’s not forget that. This year, family responsibility would feature more than ever before. He pressed his thumb and finger to the bridge of his nose. The day had been on a steady nosedive since he’d attempted check in at Gatwick five hours ago only to be told that the entire place was at a standstill because of ‘the wrong sort of snow.’ Faced with the prospect of sleeping rough in the airport concourse, there was no way he was about to see it as a great adventure. A quick change of plan and now he was checking into the Lavington Hotel, his place to stay of choice whenever he came to London. Crystal chandeliers, velvet sofas, marble floors and freshly brewed coffee. Just what he needed after hours of airport tannoys, irritable crowds and fast food outlets. The relaxed luxury and familiarity of the place soothed him.
Or would do, if everyone would stop with the excitement over the UK’s inability to cope with a bit of frozen water.
The receptionist’s smile faltered.
‘It’s romantic, isn’t it? Doesn’t everyone always dream of a white Christmas? It’s only a week away, I’m sure we’ll hang onto the snow long enough for that. And it’s really not that bad in London. The North has got the worst of it.’
Hang on to the snow? Oh just bloody great.
‘I don’t dream of a white Christmas,’ he snapped. ‘I’ve got commitments.’
‘Work, is it?’ Her tone had an edge of frost now that perfectly matched the weather.
‘Work and family,’ he snapped. The two things were going to be inseparable for him, more now than ever. ‘The airport was at a standstill. It might not be too bad in London but apparently it’s the wrong sort of snow. Whatever the hell that means. And there’s some kind of issue with fog and visibility. In twelve hours I’m meant to be holding a glass of eggnog at the yearly family reunion and instead I’m stuck here for the foreseeable.’
Not that he had any particular sense of excitement about going. Anything lost its charm when you’d done it twenty-eight times. But of course the Christmas trip had nothing to do with his own excitement or his idea of what might constitute R and R. It was about duty and responsibility; had been for years now. And in his world those were things that weren’t to be messed with.
‘Ah well, that’s what you get when you tie yourself into tradition.’ An amused voice drifted across from the adjacent check-in line, a faint west-country burr lacing it, and he turned to look at the girl checking in next to him – obviously another snow-lover, was he completely surrounded? His intended cutting response never made it out of his mouth.
Ella carried on filling in the check-in documentation without looking up.
‘Get hooked on traditions and you just set yourself up for a ton of stress when things don’t work out,’ she carried on. ‘Can’t see the point myself. Go with the flow and make the best of the situation, enjoy London in the snow for once. No one’s died, although my will to live is on its last legs listening to you lamenting about some eggnog get-together. I’m sure your family will all still be there in a few days.’
Unlike her own, who’d never actually managed to be present often enough to qualify any situation as ‘tradition’. To her the snow was an exciting twist to what would otherwise be a fun weekend away. Christmas shopping in London had been elevated to something a bit more magical.
She finished signing her name and glanced across to look at him, knowing she was probably about to get a mouthful but really not caring because he was sucking the joy out of the room. She looked straight into the eyes of the one person she’d never expected Christmas to throw at her again.
***
His mind slipped back down the years to the last time he’d looked into those almond-shaped hazel eyes with the slight tilt at the outer corner. Her hair was still the same light brown, not windswept by the sea air today but curling against her neck beneath a knitted beret. The fine-boned face gave her a fragile look that belied the girl he remembered. She had known exactly what she wanted and she took it without hesitation. His blood was pumping faster just at that recollection. Her nose and cheeks were pink from warmth of the lobby after the icy cold outside and her eyes sparkled with the cheeky grin that now faded from softly curving lips. Her eyes widened as she looked him in the face and he knew instantly that she’d recognised him too.
