Retired Navy Seal Duncan has a stellar set up. After years of covert operations dodging bullets, he’s living the high life, teaching tourists basic outdoor survival skills at Silver Springs Ranch. The only thing he is evading these days are the countless women trying to trap him into a relationship. He enjoys women and their company immensely, but the institute of marriage and committed relationships are not for him.
And yet the newest maid, Eve, leaves him stymied. She’s heart-stoppingly gorgeous, one of the worst maids he has ever encountered, and is holding on to dark secrets—ones that engage his every need to protect and shield her from whatever darkness eats at her.
She’s a total thorn in his side, turning him inside out and tying him up in knots with unquenchable desire. Due to the severity of his fascination, he cuts a wide berth around her, figuring it’s best to stay as far away from her as possible…
Until she comes to him one night and begs him to teach her self-defense. Duncan discovers he can’t contain his need any longer, not when she is looking to him for guidance—and like his every fantasy come to life. He yearns to have her on her knees, begging for his dominance.
And when she becomes a target, he will do whatever it takes to save her.
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. From billionaires to BBWs to
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.
Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance under the name Maggie Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.
Eve Richards has made every sacrifice to become a rising corporate executive in the big city–until this December. Her grandmother needs help running the family bakery, so Eve is finally taking her unused vacation to return to her small hometown to count cookies instead of corporate cash.
Eve isn’t the only person returning to town. Her childhood sidekick, the recipient of her very determined (but fairly disastrous) first-ever attempt at a kiss, has returned as well. Daniel Shepherd, the once-shy boy from England, is now the town’s swoon-worthy new veterinarian. Grandma’s obvious matchmaking attempts are as mortifying as the memory of the awkward kiss that ended their friendship so many years ago, but the more time Eve spends with Daniel, the harder it is to resist the temptation to take a second chance at that first kiss.
But Daniel has come back to Masterson to put down roots; Eve will be gone after the holiday rush at the bakery. Nothing good could possibly come from letting herself fall for the man who was once her best friend.
A kiss before Christmas could be the key. Will it be the sweet ending to their childhood story…or will Eve risk everything for the chance to turn her first love into a forever love?
A heartwarming wintery romance from a USA Today Bestselling Author and RITA Award winner, set in a wonderfully unique 1980s setting. Perfect for fans of sweet and sincere happily-ever-afters.
Eve had been on her feet since six in the morning, but her good mood held as she went to turn the bakery’s Open sign to Closed. “It’s almost two, Grandma. I’ll lock the door.”
“Give it another few minutes. There might be someone else.”
“Who? Are you expecting somebody?” But as soon as Eve asked, a very good-looking man in polished boots and dark jeans came in the door, a cowboy all cleaned-up to come to town.
“Hullo, Evie.” But this cowboy had a British accent and wore an Irish fisherman’s sweater over those jeans, rather than a plaid Western shirt. Daniel looked so at home, yet just slightly exotic for a small town like Masterson.
Oh, heck. He’d turn heads in a big city like Pittsburgh, too.
Eve’s flushed-cheeks thing had to stop. She couldn’t spend her three-week visit turning red whenever her old schoolfriend walked by.
“Hi, Daniel. What can I get for you?”
“Nothing at the moment. Your grandmother’s expecting me.”
Grandma had to know he was here. The jingle bells had announced his arrival, yet she’d evaporated into thin air. Poor Daniel was being forced to talk to Eve instead, like it or not.
He had a cardboard box in his hand. “I told her I’d bring these over for you. My patients pay me in eggs fairly often.”
They weren’t ordinary eggs. Most of the eggs were beige and brown. The few white ones were petite, and two cream-colored ones were absolutely huge.
“Duck eggs,” Daniel explained. “Mrs. Henderson has decided to keep an entire flock.”
“I’ll bet they’re your favorite patients.”
“I like all of my patients equally well. Mrs. Alvarez’s snowball puppies are no more and no less delightful than Andy Ryan’s snake.”
“Wow. Your nose didn’t even grow an inch with that one, Pinocchio.”
“That’s because I did not tell a lie. Snakes are quite interesting creatures.”
“There’s no way you don’t have a soft spot for the ducks. I knew you too well, back in the day. You can’t have changed that much.”
“Don’t give away my secrets.” He placed his finger on his lips to indicate silence, but he winked at her. She caught a quick glimpse of that almost-dimple.
This was nothing like catching up with everyone else from school today. It felt more like picking up where she’d left off with a good friend, but that friend had gotten ridiculously attractive. Eve couldn’t seem to keep her guard up around Daniel for long, so those winks and smiles slipped right past the cool, calm public persona she’d polished as a professional. In short, being around Daniel knocked her off kilter.
She didn’t like it. In her real life, she was in charge of her career, her district, the associates who answered to her, of everything. She hadn’t thought anyone could make her feel like a gauche schoolgirl, not when she’d never been gauche as a schoolgirl, but this casually debonair man seemed almost out of her league.
It’s just Daniel Shephard from elementary school.
She reached for a childish topic for a boy, not a man. “We never got my grandma to bake you a duck-shaped gingerbread cookie. Maybe I should make you one, for old time’s sake.”
“I’d love that.” This time, there was more than a hint of a dimple.
She needed to keep things under control. “It will make up for you being forced into that embarrassing dinner setup last night.”
“Embarrassing?” The dimple disappeared.
“Totally.”
His answering silence made her wish that Grandma would come out and say hello, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. No doubt Grandma thought a marriage proposal might result from throwing Eve in front of a bachelor under age forty and leaving her there to make small talk.
Eve gave Daniel a little salute with the box of eggs and started edging toward the kitchen door. “I’ll just go give these to my grandmother. They’re so interesting. Eggs at my grocery store in Pittsburgh are just boring and white. Did I tell you that’s where I live now? In an apartment. With a balcony. I can see where all three rivers meet. I’m on the twenty-sixth floor. It’s a great view.”
Was she babbling?
Daniel nodded. “You didn’t have a chance to tell me while you were rescuing my gingerbread giant, but you know how small towns work. I got the full update upon my arrival in September.” He slipped his now-empty hands into the back pockets of his jeans, a movement that emphasized the breadth of his shoulders so nicely, Evie paused in her creeping escape to appreciate it.
“You always did want to live in the big city.” Daniel turned serious, as he had last night when he’d said I want you to say yes. “Not a lot of people do what they say they’re going to do in life, but I’m not surprised you did, Evie.”
It’s just Eve. She’d been gently correcting people all morning when they addressed her as if she were still in elementary school, but she didn’t say it to Daniel. There was something lovely about the way he said her old name. Maybe it was the accent.
Maybe it was the memories—the sweet ones. Not the awkward, embarrassing ones, the kind her grandmother seemed to determine to create more of with her matchmaking attempts.
The swinging door was at Eve’s back. With a little push of her butt, she backed through it. “Bye, now.” She was a bigger chicken than the ones who’d laid these eggs.
Despite a no-nonsense background as a West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer, Caro Carson has always treasured the happily-ever-after of a good romance novel. After her military service, she worked in the healthcare industry with a Fortune 100 company, talking science with doctors who were rarely handsome bachelor Texans like the doctors in her books. Now a USA Today bestselling author and RITA™award winner, Caro is delighted to be living her own happily-ever-after with her husband (who actually is a handsome Texan) and their two children. They live in the great state of Florida, a location which has saved the coaster-loving theme park fanatics a fortune on plane tickets.
“Caro Carson writes books that touch the heart; they’re witty, wise, emotional and filled with intricately layered, fascinating characters.” –NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne
Carter Roy, the man that attracts all the ladies, but never gets them. He’s sexy and charming, but hasn’t found the woman that can keep his attention.
Abby I just moved to this town six months ago, but I’m already loving it! Granted, I get lost a lot and I tend to stick out like a sore thumb. And then there’s the deputy-sheriff. He’s hot, but fighting this attraction every step of the way. I just have to find a way to make him see me through my six cats, crazy outfits, and my propensity to get into car accidents.
“Who is she?” Jack asked, bringing me out of my inner-musings.
“Who?”
“The woman you’re going all googly-eyed over.”
I waved him off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not googly-eyed over anyone.”
“Right, you just got this far off look in your eyes that I only see when you’re dating someone new.”
“Well, then you’re wrong, because I’m not dating anyone.”
“You don’t have to be to appear that way. So, it’s someone you’ve met, but you’re not with,” he nodded to himself as he started walking around the room. “And it can’t be someone you’ve already dated, so that knocks out half the town.”
I rolled my eyes at him. He placed his hand against his chin, scratching at his jaw as he thought.
“And it can’t be someone from out of town, at least, not that far out of town, because you hardly ever leave town.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“You were just at the hospital. It’s possible you met someone there.”
I held my breath, wondering if he would guess who it was.
“But you’re not the type to fall for a damsel in distress. You’ve always liked women that could watch after themselves. Like Anna,” he grinned.
He would definitely never guess Abby then. She was the opposite of Anna in every way.
“So, it’s got to be someone new to the area, someone that you’re interested in, but since you haven’t actually asked her out, there has to be something holding you back.”
He stopped his pacing, snapping his fingers at me. “That new chick.” He snapped his fingers as he tried to come up with a name. “Abigail. Yes, that woman you hugged in the middle of the street. That’s who it is, isn’t it?”
Crap, I was so screwed. “Why would you think it’s her?”
“Oh, come on! You were hugging a woman!”
“Yeah, because she was upset.”
“And you don’t like to comfort women. That’s not your MO at all.”
“Exactly,” I said, hoping he would disprove his own theory.
“And that’s what it is about her. She’s good looking, and despite the fact that you don’t like weak women, you like her.”
“She’s not weak,” I argued, giving myself away. I closed my eyes, shaking my head as he laughed.
“Holy shit. So, what is it about her?”
“Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing about her. It’s not her.”
“It’s gotta be the whole damsel thing. The question is, what makes her different?”
“I just said it’s not her.”
“Right, which means it is.”
He rushed over to his computer and started typing.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking her background.”
“Why?” I asked, rushing over to his side.
“Because I want to know more about her.” He pulled up her name in the system, laughing at what he found. I sighed, rubbing at my eyes. “So, not only is she a damsel in distress, but she’s a very chaotic damsel, and that’s what you like about her.”
“I never said I liked her!”
“I should have known it. The moment I saw the footage of you holding her in the street, I should have known you were going to fall for her. Of course, I’m surprised it took this long. But now that I think about it, whenever we go out—”
“The people always shout,” I interrupted, hoping to throw him off, but he kept going.
“—you’re always looking around, like you’re watching for someone.”
“Bullshit. You’re seeing what you want to see.”
“No, I’m finally paying attention. So, tell me about her.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I argued. “I don’t know anything about her.”
“You must know something,” he laughed, “otherwise you wouldn’t be so wrapped up in her.”
I walked away from him, sitting down at my desk with a huff. “I’m not wrapped up in anyone. I don’t like her. I don’t know her, and I definitely am not the man for her.”
“So you do know something about her. Because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t know if you were the right man for her or not,” he said, jabbing a finger in my direction.
“Fine, you want to know about her? She’s some kind of hippie. She has a living room filled with fluffy pillows, no furniture, and weird tea.”
He nodded, grinning at me the whole time. “Did you drink the tea?”
“Fuck off,” I said, storming out of the station, his laughter floating behind me.
I’m a stay at home mom that loves to read. Some of my favorite titles are Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Horatio Hornblower. I started writing when I was trying to come up with suggestions on ways I could help bring in some extra money. I came up with the idea that I could donate plasma because you could earn an extra $500/month. My husband responded with, “No. Find something else. Write a blog. Write a book.” I didn’t think I had anything to share on blog that a thousand other mothers hadn’t already thought of. I decided to take his challenge seriously and sat down to write my first book, Jack. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed writing. From there, the stories continued to flow and I haven’t been able to stop. I hope my readers enjoy my books as much as I enjoy writing them. Between reading, writing, and taking care of three small kids, my days are quite full.
