Let's kick off December with a holiday themed book from Decadent Publishing and Gina Wynn.
Blurb:
Christmas is
approaching and Phil is a girl out to get what she wants—the life of her
choosing. She wants it all: a good looking man, his money, and the respect he
commands. She just needs to throw her lot in with her criminal cousins for one day.
Long enough to pull off a theft and come to the attention of the man she
desires. But the job goes wrong.
Bastian is a man on
the run—from a lifestyle he never chose and can’t seem to escape. One last
favour before he disappears for good, and then he can start afresh somewhere
new. But the favour balloons into more than he anticipated, and suddenly there
are two of them on the run, and two of them snowed in and hiding out in his one
last safe place.
Can a woman who thinks
she knows where she belongs help a man who has never really belonged anywhere?
Excerpt:
He
shrugged her off his shoulder and stood her close to his body, hand clamped
firmly across her mouth.
“What
are you doing?” She’d get them both discovered, and the boys after him left Joe
looking like a pre-schooler who’d missed naptime.
She
shook her head and he loosened his grip as her teeth grazed his skin. “My
mother told me stories about you.”
“Well,
well. I didn’t know I was quite so widely known to have become part of London lore.
That must put me in the same league as legends like the Tooth Fairy and Father
Christmas. I’m honoured.” He kept his arm wrapped around her waist.
“More
like Wee Willie Winkie or that thing lurking under the bed.” She bent her leg
and stamped on his toe.
“Try
harder,” he whispered into her ear. “Not only do I have boots with superior
grip, they have steel toe caps. And, if you recall, you have bare feet.”
She
wriggled, grinding her body against his. He looked into her eyes, focusing on
the confusion he found there.
“If you
do that again, I’ll kiss you.”
She
stopped, and he would have plucked his words from the air to shove back down
his throat…but the thought of her lips teased him, still. He let his hands fall
away from her as sudden need pulsed through him.
“You’re
free to go. Tell your mother you met her bogeyman, her personal Pitch Black,
whatever. You won’t see me again. And I won’t hurt you.” He turned to go. “Or
kiss you, so don’t worry.” His last words were a regrettable afterthought.
“I…I
can’t. I don’t know how to get home. My cousins brought me.”
He held
his sigh in his chest and faced her. “There’s a bus stop over there, and busses
stop at it all day long.”
She cast
a glare in his direction that almost had a look of Rosa, and huffed out a
determined breath. “Well, good. I didn’t want you to carry me about, anyway,
like some abducting, murdering, debauching Neanderthal. Yet, now you expect me
to conjure a bus to get home, in a strange place, when it looks like we’re
expecting snow. Some gentleman you are.”
“I never
claimed to be that, JB.”
She
closed her eyes and let out a low groan. “Stop calling me that stupid name.
Phil. I’m Phil.”
He
swallowed hard and took a small step away before recovering himself. Bollocks, and shit and bollocks again.
Of course, Rosa didn’t have son. She had a daughter…with eyes so full of fear
as they peered out from her darkened bedroom, until Rosa noticed her watching
the adults talk and sent her back to bed, that the memory haunted him when he
slept. He’d always lurked in the shadows of Rosa’s life, unwilling for anyone
but Rosa to see him, especially anyone so scared. But…he juggled his thoughts.
Time had moved on. He’d grown older…so had Rosa’s daughter. Twelve years had
passed. She wasn’t eleven anymore, that much he could tell from her bad
attitude, with no need for some of the more appealing visual cues. His gaze
took her in once more, lingering a little longer than necessary on her curves.
Rosa’s “beautiful” comment made a little more sense with the new information.
He clenched his hands into fists, counting off the reasons not to embroil
himself in the situation further—too young, Rosa’s daughter, and he’d think of a third.
He
reached for her again, drawing her back into his arms and cradling her against
his chest. “Well then, that changes everything. I thought you’d stood me up.”
Buy Links:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Her-Undercover-Christmas-Gina-Wynn-ebook/dp/B0189S86UA/
http://www.amazon.com/Her-Undercover-Christmas-Gina-Wynn-ebook/dp/B0189S86UA/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-undercover-christmas-gina-wynn/1122995895?ean=2940157810504
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/her-undercover-christmas/id1060713093?mt=11
https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-herundercoverchristmas-1933598-149.html
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/her-undercover-christmas
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/pubs_product_book_info/decadent-publishing-c-93/her-undercover-christmas-p-14364#.VlDG-4QyDdl
About
Gina:
From a magical land of castles and
kings (Okay, it’s England), Gina doesn’t feel as old as she looks, owns three
children (aged 2, 5 and 7) who can’t be tamed, and writes in spare – usually
stolen – time. She sometimes bakes—not always with quite the desired results,
and has found the only solution to keeping the characters in her head quiet is
to placate them with lots of other lovely books and worlds. As well as Her
Undercover Christmas, Gina has written two other books. Her Dollmaker’s Desire
is also published by Decadent Publishing, and What You Wish For is published by
Three Worlds Press.
