Jamie Pope - Kissed By Christmas

Christmas in paradise

Hallie Roberts has had a string of bad luck, beginning with her fiancé dumping her! Now she is disillusioned and ready to leave her beloved big-city teaching job behind and return to her idyllic island hometown. Then fate intervenes, and a slip and fall on the ice brings gorgeous, brave paramedic Asa Andersen to her rescue and into her chaotic life.

Saving victims can take its toll, but Hallie fills Asa with hope and renewed purpose. His mission to show the homesick English teacher a romantic New York Christmas culminates in a passionate, brief affair. But Asa isn’t about to lose the best thing to ever happen to him. When they meet again on Hideaway Island, the magic and sensuality of the sultry isle affects them both. Can he convince Hallie to trust in their future and a love that’s worth every risk?

Her body went slack beneath him, and he knew there was no stopping what he was going to do next.

He kissed her. Beneath the Christmas tree. She tasted like chocolate and spiced rum. That combined with the flavor of her lips made her delicious. It made him greedy, and he couldn’t stop himself from going back for more and deepening the kiss. She responded by opening her mouth beneath his and welcoming in his tongue.

He didn’t need alcohol tonight. He could happily get drunk off her.

She broke the kiss and set her lips on his jawline, sliding them across and leaving behind little sweet kisses.

He didn’t think he had ever been kissed so sweetly in his life. He didn’t think he had ever been this turned on in his life, especially by a woman who was wearing so many clothes.

“You’re not supposed to be kissing me, Asa Andersen.” Her voice was breathy. Sexy. She had no idea how crazy she was driving him. The sweet little schoolteacher made him want to burst out of his skin.

“You’re not supposed to be kissing me back.”

Dear Reader,

I have always had a deep love for the holiday season...and sexy men in uniform. Kissed by Christmas combines those loves into one romance-filled story! You’ll travel the country with Asa and Hallie as they meet in snowy New York City and fall in love on the lush Hideaway Island.

I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

xoxo,

Jamie

Kissed by Christmas

Jamie Pope

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JAMIE POPE first fell in love with romance when her mother placed a novel in her hands at the age of thirteen. She became addicted to love stories and has been writing them ever since. When she’s not writing her next book, you can find her shopping for shoes or binge watching shows on Netflix.

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To Josh, future driver and manservant.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

Extract

Copyright

Chapter 1

Hallie Roberts had never been so cold in her life.

Freezing wasn’t accurate.

Bone-cold wasn’t enough.

She was arctic-tundra cold. The kind of cold where jumping into a blazing-hot fire wouldn’t even be enough to thaw her out.

Her nose was ice. Her toes were so scrunched and frozen in her shoes that they threatened to break off and move back to Florida where they thought they belonged. She didn’t blame them—in a few weeks, she was planning to follow.

New York City in December was no joke, especially when it was experiencing a historic cold snap. There was snow on the ground. Mounds and mounds of graying snow and a brutally chilling wind that whipped through her thin but fashionable trench coat and caused her to break out in what seemed like a permanent case of gooseflesh. She hadn’t known that weather like this existed. Before she moved from Florida she’d had this romantic idea of winter. Of New York in winter. That it would be all snow-globe beautiful with crystal flakes that gently floated to the ground and made whatever they touched seem magical.

But there was nothing magical about the nor’easter that had covered the city in white. It kept her snowed in and prevented her from going home for Thanksgiving and seeing the family she so sorely missed. So instead of eating her mother’s delicious sweet potato pie and slow-cooked ham, and walking on the beach with her grandmother after the big meal, she sat in her apartment and ate General Tso’s chicken along with an entire pint of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. And instead of taking an extra day off to breathe in the fresh ocean air and let the sun warm her face, she was trudging through icy snow on her way to work to teach her tenth graders about the brilliance of James Baldwin.

What a way to start the Christmas season.

Even though her plans had been ruined she didn’t mind going back to work. Her job was the only thing she liked about New York since she had moved there nearly six months ago. She had been mugged, her brand-new iPhone stolen by a hipster with a full beard wearing an ironic T-shirt. Her car had been towed because she had no idea what alternate-side-of-the-street parking was all about. And she’d once gotten so hopelessly lost on the subway she had to call her cousin back in Florida to help her navigate her way back home because she was too embarrassed to ask for directions. She didn’t know anyone in the Big Apple, aside from the people she worked with. She never thought she would be lonely in a city of eight million, but she was. And the longer she stayed here, the more she longed for the sandy beaches and small-town feel of Hideaway Island.

But going back to Hideaway Island wouldn’t be easy for her. Back in Hideaway Island was a man who had broken their engagement the day after she had the final fitting for her dress. Back in Hideaway Island was a man who’d told her that he wasn’t really sure if he loved her enough to spend the rest of his life with her.

I’m just not sure you’re what I need.

I’m not sure if you’re good for me at this point in my life.

It was hard being away from her close-knit family for the past half year but it was harder for her living on that tiny island and running into him everywhere she went. They had been together for over five years this time, but they had first started to date in high school. Brent had been her prom date. Nearly every place in town held some sort of special meaning for them. The dock where they had their first kiss. The beach where he proposed to her. The yacht club they were supposed to have their reception in. Reminders of him slapped her in the face at every turn. She had heard about heartbreak, but she had never expected to feel like she had felt.

He had made promises. They had made plans. She had made sacrifices. She had spent the last ten years of her life thinking she was going to be his wife and when he abruptly ended things she knew she would never plan her life around a man again. So when the opportunity came up to teach at this prestigious charter school, she’d jumped on it. Teaching inner-city kids wasn’t always easy, but she genuinely enjoyed them.