Christmas Is for Lovers: 6 Hot Holiday Romances Read online

  Christmas Is For Lovers

  Six Hot Holiday Romances

  Kelly Collins

  Sharon Coady

  Stacy Eaton

  Rachelle Ayala

  Jude Ouvrard

  Chantel Rhondeau

  Contents

  Christmas is for Lovers

  Kelly Collins

  The Trouble with Tinsel

  Other Books by Kelly Collins

  Get this eBook for free when you join my mailing list.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  An excerpt from Cole for Christmas

  About the Author

  Also by Kelly Collins

  Sharon Coady

  Candy Kane Kisses

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  About Sharon

  Other books by the author

  Stacy Eaton

  Mistletoe & Cocoa Kisses

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Cocoa recipes courtesy of Cooks.com

  Sneak Peek

  About the Author

  More by Stacy Eaton

  Rachelle Ayala

  Santa’s Pet

  Description

  Praises for Santa’s Pet

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Epilogue

  Excerpt - Bad Boys for Hire: Nick

  Reading List

  Many Thanks

  Jude Ouvrard

  Sweetness

  Other Books by Jude Ouvrard

  Note from the Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  21. Epilogue

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  WHO IS JUDE?

  Chantel Rhondeau

  Tempting Trish

  Description

  Chantel’s Books

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Author’s Note

  Loving Lucy Excerpt

  Afterword

  Christmas is for Lovers

  Six Hot Holiday Romances

  All hearts come home for Christmas… This Christmas, fall in love with six hot and sassy Christmas lovers. On the ranch or at sea, Christmas is a time for love, homecoming, and family. Six bestselling authors bring you six full-length love stories to keep your toes toasty and your heart fluttering.

  Summoned to Bell Mountain by meddling mothers
, Beau and Mandy must revisit their painful past to have a shot at their true destiny.

  When two unlikely strangers are brought together will holiday magic sprinkle happiness or melt away like Christmas snow?

  It’s like stepping into a fairytale, only Robin has to almost freeze to death first, and Chris has a crazy ex-girlfriend who wants to keep her claws in him. Will they figure it out in time for the holidays?

  A brilliant girl genius plays elf to a substitute Santa and turns both their lives upside down when he is charged with a sex crime and she loses her company to hackers.

  After being betrayed and humiliated, Iris goes home for Christmas, not expecting to meet a holiday fling that might lead to happily ever after.

  Christmas on a singles’ cruise, what could be better? Until Rider and Trish’s shipmates start disappearing. Is love possible while everyone is under suspicion?

  The Trouble with Tinsel

  Kelly Collins

  Copyright © 2016 by Kelly Maestas

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For all the elves in my life. You are the sparkle on my pinecones, and the tinsel on my tree.

  Other Books by Kelly Collins

  Set Free

  Set Aside

  Set in Stone

  The Dean’s List

  The Graduate

  Honor Roll

  True North

  Just Dessert

  Brownie Points

  Whipped

  Tempo

  Fated and Furr-oscious

  Nailed by Love

  Blue Ribbon Summer

  Billion Dollar Smile

  Lucky in Rio

  Cole for Christmas

  Meet Me Under the Full Moon

  Meet Me On the Dance Floor

  Meet Me In the Middle

  Meet Me In Secret

  Get this eBook for free when you join my mailing list.

  Click here to download.

  Tilly Shanters has big plans to make this summer a blue ribbon event. She’s heading off to college in the fall and has a few things to check off her list.

  ~ Win the county fair pie contest

  ~ Pack for college

  ~ Lose her virginity

  Author Alex Saunders is just passing through. He has a few things to check off his list as well.

  ~ Clean out the house that was willed to him

  ~ Sell it

  ~ Get to Hollywood to see his book turned into a movie

  They had their summer set, until fate stepped in to redirect them. One night—one event—everything changed.

  Chapter 1

  Mandy

  Tommy lounged sleepy-eyed in front of the television as I whisper-yelled at my mother. “You lied to me.” Frustration blazed through me like dry kindling set afire. “You said you fell and broke your arm, and here you sit, decorating cookies?”

  Unrepentant, Mom gripped the icing bag in her left hand while her bandaged right wrist sat on the table. “I didn’t lie. I slipped on the ice. I thought I’d broken my hand.” She dropped the bag, tugged at the binding, and tightened the clip. “It was a serious sprain, Mandy.”

  I’d do anything for my mother, but I was tired of being manipulated—of people stealing my choices—and my mother was the queen of doing that. All my life, she’d cajoled and nudged, pushing me in the direction that benefited her most. Just when I thought she’d changed…

  “I dragged Tommy across the country for a sprain?” I stomped to the old percolator. It burped and spit on the counter while I poured a fresh cup. I needed caffeine, and Mom needed to move into the present. The past wasn’t a place I wanted to dwell upon or repeat.

  Cloves, and cinnamon, and hope filled the air. Mom sat at the table and dressed the gingerbread men in white icing pants and button down vests, with delicate, precise movements. When I was a little girl, those scents would dare me to dream that my mother would be like everyone else’s mom—that I would walk in the door and she’d want nothing more than to hug me and ask me how I was. But that wasn’t the game my mother played. Every smile, every cookie, was a bargaining chip—a way to get me to bend to her will. Yet, here I was, hoping all over again, like a kid who couldn’t give up on Santa.

  In all honesty, she couldn’t help herself. She’d clung to whatever control she could since Daddy died.

  “Mom.” The hours of travel had roughened my voice. “You called me in tears telling me to come home, the shop would perish without me.” I waved my hands through the air as I spoke. I didn’t usually act with such flair, but Mom had made it sound like her world would implode without me.

  “I can’t run the shop with this on my hand.” She pulled at the elastic bandage again and sighed. “Besides, it was time for you to come home. You hate New York.”

  A fact she’d been trying to convince me of since I moved there. “I don’t hate New York, Mom.” I didn’t hate the city; I was indifferent to it. It served its purpose—it was far away from Bell Mountain and it held my job.

  In retrospect, being here for two weeks would be a nice respite, but I’d never allow my mother to own that victory.

  Mom traded the white icing bag for the red and squeezed out perfect little buttons on the tiny vests. “Bell Mountain is the perfect place to raise my grandson,” she whispered, ignoring what I said. She lifted her gaze in Tommy’s direction and gave him a nod.

  The legs of the chair squeaked as I pulled it from the table and flopped onto the cracked, red vinyl cushion. Mom was stuck in the decade she was born with her diner décor, and black and white checkered flooring. Stuck was something I was familiar with. I hadn’t been living my dream. I’d been living in New York and working as a pastry chef for Henry Lefebvre, or as I like to call him, Ornery, and that was no dream. My dreams had died the day a certain man walked out of my life.

  Sipping my coffee, I glanced around the kitchen. Nailed to the walls were records by Buddy Holly, Chubby Checkers, and the king himself, Elvis Presley. The chipped jar I painted in fourth grade sat in the corner next to the stove overflowing with utensils. My elementary school pictures were still taped to the side of the refrigerator. No matter how far I strayed, how crazy she drove me, or how long I stayed away, this would always be home. “You’re right, Tommy will love it here, but this isn’t permanent. It’s just to get you through the holidays.” I grabbed the white icing bag from the plate and helped her with the cookies. It was time to let go of my annoyance, and embrace the holiday spirit. Tonight, we were going to decorate the Christmas tree together for the first time since Tommy was born.

  “You used to love Bell Mountain too, sweetheart. Everything you could ever want is here.” Mom cupped my cheek with her bandaged hand. Her eyes lit up with love.

  Not everything, Mom. Bell Mountain had broken me ten years ago when Beau Tinsel left town with his guitar and my heart.

  Whoever said picking out a Christmas tree was fun, never did it in subzero weather. Cloudy puffs of steam escaped my mouth each time I breathed. “What about this one?” My teeth chattered while I yanked down Tommy’s hat to cover his reddened ears.

  Mom, Tommy, and I stood in front of the tree and analyzed it from all angles. “Can’t we have a flucked one, Mommy?” Tommy pointed at the tent where a man was glazing a perfect green tree in spongy white material. The fake snow glittered like diamonds under the fluorescent lights.

  “It’s called flocked, and no, we can’t. All white trees belong outside.” Surrounded by naturally snow-coated trees, it was overkill to bring a poser into the house. “If you want, we can decorate the pine tree in Grandma’s front yard, too. Then you can have a white and a green tree.”

  My little man jumped up and down with the energy only a child can possess and maintain. “This one’s super-duper then.
”

  An uncontainable shiver raced from the tip of my head all the way to my boots. I looked toward my mother, praying she would give her seal of approval before any part of me froze and dropped off. “Okay with you, Mom?”

  Mom rounded the tree again. Tommy and I watched as she analyzed each full branch and prickly needle. Just when I thought she’d put a kibosh on it, she smiled and said, “super-duper with me, too. I’ll pay.” She turned and walked toward the man at the front of the lot.

  “Mandy Sawyer?”

  I recognized his voice right away. It was pure warmth. “Greg Anderson, how the heck are you?” I wrapped my arms around the boy who’d been my Godsend the last year of high school. We’d stayed in touch for a time, but eventually, I found it easier to sever as many ties with my past as I could. “You’re still here?”

  Stepping back, I looked at him. He was tall, handsome, and totally not into girls. In fact, Greg Anderson came out on prom night. He was my date, and we had arrived to the dance wearing matching pink gowns. It was a testament to our friendship and a show of solidarity. The fact he had looked better in the dress than I did should have pissed me off, but I could never get angry with Greg. He had been the best boy friend a girl could ever have. And, he was the perfect prom date. He paid for his own dinner, and didn’t expect to get lucky in the back seat of his car when the night ended.

  He opened his arms with a flourish and looked around him. “I couldn’t leave all this behind.” He kneeled down in front of Tommy. “And who’s this handsome young man?”

  Pride radiated from my pores. “This is my son, Tommy.” Tommy stared up at Greg and smiled like he was looking into the face of an angel. Greg had that effect on everyone. Something wonderful and happy arrived each time he did. He was hot chocolate on a frigid day and fuzzy socks on a cold morning. He was one of those feel good people.

  “Tommy, this is my friend, Greg.”

  Tommy offered his hand, “I’m Tommy Sawyer, it’s nice to meet you.” For a six-year-old, he was already a charmer. I’d have to keep an eye on him. With his devilish good looks and charisma, he was bound to break the hearts of many.