Catherine Mann - The CEO's Christmas Proposition / His Expectant Ex

Cal stood by the sitting room windows, taking in the frozen cityscape…

Devon’s breath caught as she went to stand beside him. Buildings, trees, the statues on the bridge, the river itself…everything as far as the eye could see lay under a blanket of glistening white. Not a single car or bus or snowplough moved through the frozen stillness.

“Looks like most of the city must be shut down,” Devon murmured, awestruck.

“Guess we’ll have to resort to plan B,” said Cal.

“Which is?”

“We talk politics. We try to guess each other’s favourite movies. We wrap up in blankets and share our body heat. We have wild, uninhibited sex.”

Her jaw dropped.

“We don’t have to follow that precise order,” he informed her solemnly. “We could start with the sex and work our way backwards.”

“You’re pregnant?”

“I’m fairly certain I’m two months along.”

“We’re having a child?” he asked in wonder.

It still seemed surreal to her, too. “If all goes well.”

He pivoted hard and fast toward her. “Is something wrong?”

“I don’t think so, but I only just took a home pregnancy test this morning.”

Sebastian sat down beside her and slid his arm along the back of the sofa, almost touching her shoulders. “I still don’t understand one thing.”

She fidgeted, trying to ignore the warmth of him moving closer. She could not, would not let hormones muddle the waters between them. “What’s that?”

“If you took a pregnancy test this morning, why didn’t you tell me before the final divorce decree?”

BY

BY

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by

A retired air force officer, Merline Lovelaceserved at bases all over the world, including tours in Taiwan, Vietnam and at the Pentagon. When she hung up her uniform for the last time, she decided to combine her love of adventure with a flair for storytelling, basing many of her tales on her experiences in the service.

Since then, she’s produced more than seventy action-packed novels, many of which have made bestseller lists. Over ten million copies of her works are in print in thirty-one countries. Named Oklahoma’s Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year, Merline is also a recipient of Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA ®Award.

When she’s not glued to her keyboard, she and husband enjoy travelling and chasing little white balls around the fairways of Oklahoma. Check her website at www. merlinelovelace.com for news, contests and information about forthcoming releases.

Dear Reader,

If you’ve never visited Germany or Austria during the Christmas season, you’ve missed something really special. Think Kris Kringle, angelic choirs singing “Silent Night” and outdoor markets crammed with beautiful handicrafts and the most scrumptious eats imaginable. What better place to strand a heroine who’s completely turned off by the way Christmas has been commercialised and a hero who decides on the spot she’s all he wants under his tree!

Here’s hoping you, too, enjoy the beauty of this season and the powerful message of love and joy that comes with it.

And be sure to watch for more HOLIDAYS ABROAD. The Duke’s New Year’s Resolution is coming next month from the Desire ™line, followed by The Executive’s Valentine Seduction.

Best,

Merline Lovelace

To Pat, my college roomie who went off to Germany

without me all those years ago but made up for it with

four decades of friendship. Al and

I still owe you and Norbert for the barn concert and dinner on the Elbe!

Shoulders hunched against the icy sleet pounding Germany’s Dresden International Airport, Devon McShay grimaced at the Christmas carols belting from the outdoor loudspeakers.

“Okay,” she muttered under her breath. “Call me Mrs. Scrooge. Call me the Grinchette. Call me the ultimate Krank. I hate this time of year.”

Well, that wasn’t totally true. The hopeless idealist in her still wanted to believe people might someday actually heed the messages of joy and peace the season signified. If they could get past the crass commercialization, that is. Not to mention the hole they dug for themselves every year by splurging on gifts they couldn’t afford.

Her parents’ increasingly bitter arguments over finances had always peaked this time of year and led eventually to an even more bitter divorce. Christmases after that had become a battleground, with each parent trying to outdo the other to win a daughter’s love.

Devon’s own holiday track record was just as dismal. As she sloshed through ankle-deep slush toward the terminal, she shook her head at her incredible idiocy in falling for a too-handsome, toococky newscaster at Dallas’s Channel Six. Silly her, she’d actually thought she’d broken the Christmas curse when Blake caught her under the mistletoe and slipped a diamond on her finger. Exactly one year later, she’d walked into the station to find her husband with his hand under the miniskirt of a female Santa and his tongue halfway down her throat.

Devon had put her jerk of an ex out of her life, but even now, three years later, she couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for colored lights or eggnog. That’s why she’d jumped at the chance to avoid yet another season of forced Christmas cheer when her friend and business partner came down with the flu yesterday, mere hours before she was supposed to leave for Germany.

Devon, Sabrina Russo and Caroline Walters had been friends before they became business partners. They’d met while spending their junior year at the University of Salzburg. Filled with the dreams and enthusiasm of youth, the three coeds had formed a fast friendship.

They’d maintained that friendship long-distance in the years that followed. Until last May, when they’d met for a minireunion. After acknowledging that their lives so far hadn’t lived up to their dreams, they’d decided to pool resources, educational backgrounds and interests. Two months later, they’d quit their respective jobs, relocated to Virginia and launched European Business Services, Incorporated. EBS for short. Specializing in arranging transportation, hotels, conference facilities and translation services for busy executives.

The venture was still at the risky stage. The three friends had sunk most of their savings into start-up costs. EBS now had an office, a small staff and a slew of international advertising. They’d landed a few jobs, but nothing big until the call from Cal Logan’s executive assistant.