A.C. Arthur - One Mistletoe Wish

All she wants for Christmas...

Everything schoolteacher Morgan Hill loves is in her hometown of Temptation, Virginia—her twins, her students and the charming community center where she’s staging their holiday play. But now the building’s new owner, Grayson Taylor, is putting sexy visions into Morgan’s head, making the young widow long for a future even Santa couldn’t deliver.

As the oldest of sextuplets, Gray grew up in the media spotlight. His family’s fame once helped Temptation thrive, but drove his parents apart. Coming back is just a bittersweet necessity until he meets petite firecracker Morgan. Somehow she gets the handsome tech guru to forget about big business in favor of small-town delights...and steamy winter nights. It’s a life he never knew he wanted, but can he put his past aside to turn a festive fling into the sweetest forever?

Then he moved quicker than she’d anticipated, and before she could stop him, he’d wrapped his arms around her waist and pushed her back against the wall.

“What if I said I want you?” he asked, his breath fanning warmly over her face.

“For...for Christmas?” she asked, and felt like a colossal idiot.

He didn’t smile, but shook his head, his hands slipping under her coat to rub along her back. “No. Right now. I want you, Morgan.”

He moved again and Morgan saw his arm lifting. He was going to touch her. No, wait, he was already touching her. She should move. She should put lots of distance between them to keep whatever was about to happen from happening. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. His fingers grazed her jaw, came over her chin, then up to tap her bottom lip.

“You can’t want me,” she said, her body beginning to tremble even though it was the last thing she wanted to do.

Dear Reader,

I love writing Christmas stories!

With that said, I was more than excited to begin the new Taylors of Temptation series with a Christmas-themed book. Gray and Morgan were the perfect couple to start with, as they were both struggling with things that distracted them from the holidays.

The Taylor sextuplets were born in Temptation, Virginia—a small town that I created because I like the community and closeness of small-town stories. The sextuplets were taken away from their hometown at a young age, now they’ve all come back, some to stay, and some just to visit. But when they return, they’ll remember all the magic that was once there.

When Gray returned to Temptation, he was certain that it would be temporarily, until he met Morgan and her twins. Their love wasn’t instant, but that initial incessant pull that refuses to let go when a couple first meets was definitely present. Unraveling all the layers of Gray’s past feelings and Morgan’s past losses was a task. Thankfully, I had lots of Christmas music and movies to help me along the way!

I hope you enjoy this first glimpse at the Taylors and have fun spending the holidays in Temptation!

Happy reading,

A.C. Arthur

One Mistletoe Wish

A.C. Arthur

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A.C. ARTHUR was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where she currently resides with her husband and three children. An active imagination and a love for reading encouraged her to begin writing in high school, and she hasn’t stopped since.

Working in the legal field for almost thirteen years, she’s seen lots of horrific things and longs for the safe haven reading a romance novel brings. Determined to bring a new edge to romance, she continues to develop intriguing plots, sensual love scenes, racy characters and fresh dialogue—thus keeping readers on their toes!

For all the latest news on A.C. Arthur’s books, giveaways, appearances and discussions, join A.C.’s Book Lounge on Facebook at Facebook.com/pages/AC-Arthurs-Book-Lounge/140199625996114.

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To those who watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music all year long. You rock!

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

Extract

Copyright

Chapter 1

“Bah, hamburger!” Ethan Malloy shouted. His skinny arms were wrapped around his chest, lips poked out and still red from the punch he’d had during the break.

Morgan Hill rubbed her temples and held back a sigh.

“It’s humbug, Ethan. Say it slower this time and remember the word is humbug.”

He wouldn’t remember. Or rather, he did know the correct pronunciation, but Ethan thought he was a five-year-old Kevin Hart, minus the cursing. So everything he said or did was in search of a chuckle or a laugh from those around him—his audience, so to speak. His personality worked Morgan’s last nerve. She’d chastised herself more than once about feeling this way about a little boy. She was trained to deal with children, as she’d gone to the University of Maryland and received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education. Unfortunately, there were no classes that would have prepared her for Ethan Malloy.

He was the only child of Rayford Malloy, the sixty-three-year-old president of the Temptation town council, and Ivonne Danner-Malloy, his twenty-five-year-old video-dance-queen wife. Between his father being too busy and too tired to discipline him and his mother being too young, too conceited and too everything else to be bothered, Ethan never had a chance. Those were the reasons Morgan used a good portion of her patience with the child. Morgan’s granny always said—whenever Ida Mae Bonet had the displeasure of being in the presence of her brother’s children—“we don’t get to choose who our parents are.”

That was certainly the truth, Morgan thought as she watched Ethan continue with his rendition of the scene where Ebenezer Scrooge continued to refuse heat or any other comfort for his only employee, Bob Cratchit, played by seven-year-old Wesley Walker. Wesley, unlike Ethan, knew his lines and probably the lines of everyone else in the play. He was a perfectionist and determined to prove himself to everyone in this small town, despite the fact that his father had run off and left his mother with four kids, a broken-down old Nissan and a mountain of debt. It was a shame, Morgan thought as she watched the young fella on stage, walking around and holding his head up high—even though Bob Cratchit wasn’t such a proud man. But a boy at such a tender age shouldn’t be faced with the gossip and cruelty that could be dished out in a small town.

They lived in Temptation, Virginia, population 14,364 as of the last census, two years ago. Temptation had a rich history and struggled to catch up with the modern world. With its ten-member town council—the majority of whom were descendants from families that had been around since the town’s inception in the 1800s—and the newly elected mayor, Cinda Pullum, going toe-to-toe in battles over everything from revitalizing Mountainview Park to the weekly trash pickup, Temptation could be as lively as any of the reality shows that littered today’s television channels.