Jessica Lemmon - A Christmas Proposition

“I need to get married...And the only one who can help me is you.”

Trading one scandal for another, Stefanie Ferguson must marry to save her brother’s political career. Luckily, her brother’s best friend wants to help. But until this moment, Emmett Keaton has been off-limits. Now their convenient vows on Christmas Day unleash a passion too long denied. Will this marriage for scandal become a marriage for real?

A former job-hopper, JESSICA LEMMONresides in Ohio with her husband and rescue dog. She holds a degree in graphic design currently gathering dust in an impressive frame. When she’s not writing supersexy heroes, she can be found cooking, drawing, drinking coffee (okay, wine) and eating potato chips. She firmly believes God gifts us with talents for a purpose, and with His help, you can create the life you want.

Jessica is a social media junkie who loves to hear from readers. You can learn more at jessicalemmon.com.

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Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

A Christmas Proposition

Jessica Lemmon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07699-9

A CHRISTMAS PROPOSITION

© 2018 Jessica Lemmon

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, 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 publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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To Dad,

for always making Christmastime feel special

(PS: you can stop reading now).

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

One

December 20

Source: thedallasduchess.com

EXCLUSIVE:

STEFANIE FERGUSON AND BLAKE EASTWOOD REUNION

Good morning, Dallas!

As maven of this fine city, the Dallas Duchess makes it her job to know the happenings of local royalty. In this town, no royalty is finer than the Fergusons.

“Princess” Stefanie Ferguson, socialite, heiress and party girl, has been spotted once again on the arm of cunning and charming Blake Eastwood, who just so happens to be the mayor’s biggest opponent. (Naughty, naughty!) And, my savvy duchess dolls, you’re all aware that the mayor=Stefanie’s gorgeous and recently betrothed brother. Yes, ladies, another of Dallas’s eligible bachelors is about to bite the dust.

(As an aside, you longtimers may recall my breaking story about the mayor shacking up in Montana during a snowstorm with his old flame. Hotcha! You always hear it here first.)

But back to Princess Stef and her dashing bad boy... By now you’ve no doubt seen the photo circulating on social media of Blake and Stefanie dancing cheek to cheek at a Toys for Tots fund-raiser. And if you’re an astute observer like moi, you felt the sparks flying from that photo. As of right this very minute, I can confirm what my pitter-pattering heart was hoping for the most:

Stefanie and Blake are together!

Recently, I spoke with Blake and while I couldn’t get him to commit to a timeline, I did learn a verrrry juicy bit of intel.

Dallas Duchess: I have to ask for the sake of my readers. Are you and Stefanie Ferguson seeing each other again?

Blake Eastwood: [emits a sexy chuckle] Um. Yes. We are.

DD: [squeals of delight] Can you tell me more?

BE: I can tell you that it’s new, but serious.

DD: Put-a-ring-on-it serious?

BE: Come on, Duchess, I can’t let every cat out of

the bag.

DD: But it’s almost Christmas! Surely you can give us one teeny-tiny hint?

BE: Christmastime is Stef’s favorite time of the year. She whispered in my ear just yesterday that it’s the perfect time to shop at Tiffany & Co. I’m a man who knows how to take a hint.

Ladies, gentlemen. If that’s not a confirmation that Blake is popping the question Stefanie is begging him to ask, I don’t know what is!

Go forth and share across social media with the links below. Looks like a Christmas engagement could be forthcoming!

Stefanie Ferguson paced the shining white floor of her sister-in-law’s home office in a pair of knee-high, spike-heel Christian Louboutin boots. Unlike the last public relations hiccup she’d gotten into with Blake, this one couldn’t be handled over a cup of coffee at Hip Stir.

Late last night, she’d been sipping on hot cocoa with Sambuca when she received a text from Blake.

Dallas Duchess has some news to share tomorrow. Me and you, gorgeous.

She’d pecked in an angry “Go to hell” followed by “Leave me alone” and then erased both lines in favor of ignoring him.

Lord only knew what he would’ve done with the screenshots if she’d texted him. It had taken everything in her not to respond to his baiting. Blake was Bad News with a capital B and N .

Last year, he’d gone to the Dallas Duchess via one of her brother’s staff members to break the story about Miriam Andrix returning to Chase’s life. The write-up was in defense of Chase and almost lecturing Miriam for ruining the city’s chaste mayor. Ridiculous. It was clear to anyone who saw them together that Miriam and Chase were gaga over each other—even Stefanie could see that, and she was Chase’s sister.