Janice Sims - A Little Holiday Temptation

Two friends. One chance at a lifetime of love?

Ana Corelli and Erik Whitaker have always been there for each other. Trouble is, Ana’s starting to see the sexy entrepreneur as more than just a broad shoulder to cry on. After some soul-searching, she’s finally ready to tell Erik how she feels. But between missed opportunities and an unexpected push back into the spotlight, their timing never seems to be right.

As the new face of Corelli Fashions, Ana is putting her family’s international company on the map. Erik couldn’t be prouder…and feels this is the moment to confess his pent-up love for the voluptuous model. But now there’s another man in Ana’s life. With the magic of the holiday season around them, will Erik be able to show Ana that he’s the only one for her? And that sometimes best friends forever can become lovers for life…?

He lowered his head and inhaled

her unique fragrance. She’d noticed that he liked doing that, as though the

smell of her skin gave him

sensual pleasure. It turned her on, too.

Her body immediately reacted to his: her nipples grew hard and she became moist between her legs. It was a heady, all too erotic sensation that was so delicious she let out a soft sigh. She looked at his lips. He was smiling and his white teeth, coupled with those juicy lips, looked so inviting that she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Erik didn’t need any further provocation. Her lips were soft and her mouth so sweet that before he knew it he had lifted her body and her legs were wrapped around him in a bid to get even closer. Their tongues danced gently at first and found the encounter so pleasing that the kiss deepened and soon they were both sounding as though they were consuming something extremely tasty as, no doubt, they were. Erik, as the one who had most of the physical strength between them, knew that he had to back off before things got out of hand. Ana wasn’t ready for things to go any further than a kiss, but it was their first real kiss and, heaven help him, if her kisses were this good, what would sex with her be like?

It was Ana who came up for air first and looked him in the eyes. She pressed her cheek to his. “Oh, God, why haven’t you kissed me before now?”

“I’ve been a fool,” Erik said, and kissed her again.

JANICE SIMS

is the author of nineteen novels and has had stories included in nine anthologies. She is the recipient of an Emma Award for her novel Desert Heat and two Romance in Color awards: an Award of Excellence for her novel For Keeps and a Best Novella award for her short story “The Keys to My Heart” in the anthology A Very Special Love. She has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award by RT Book Reviews, and her novel Temptation’s Song was nominated for Best Kimani Romance Series in 2010 by RT Book Reviews. She lives in Florida with her family.

A Little Holiday Temptation

Janice Sims

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Dear Reader,

If you’ve read the previous Temptation books—Temptation’s Song, Temptation’s Kiss and Dance of Temptation—you’re already familiar with Erik Whitaker and Ana Corelli, who have been friends only for the past two years. It was my plan to end the Temptation series with Dance of Temptation; however, I received so many messages from readers via email, JaniceSims.com and Facebook wanting to know if Erik and Ana were going to get their story told that I knew I had to write it.

So this book is for you!

Janice Sims

Thanks to Glenda Howard for agreeing to publish

this book when I asked her if it could be

my next Kimani Romance book due to heightened reader interest. Also to Shannon Criss, whose editorial assistance was most appreciated. And, as always, thanks to my agent, Sha-Shana Crichton, for her kindness and encouragement.

Contents

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 1

The cab pulled up to the midtown Manhattan restaurant whose large picture windows spilled forth a welcoming golden light. After paying the driver, Ana Corelli paused a moment with her hand on the door’s handle. Nervousness caused her stomach muscles to clench painfully. Today she had made a decision that would change her life forever. If anyone would understand why she’d done it, Erik would.

With a determined grimace she opened the cab’s door and stepped out. She shivered a little in the cold October night’s air. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, Ms. Corelli,” said the driver, craning his neck to smile at her.

Ana was no longer surprised when someone recognized her. Due to magazine covers, print ads, fashion shows and TV ads, her image was all over the world. She returned his smile. “You have a good evening,” she said in parting, her Italian accent slight but present. She had grown up speaking both English and Italian. Her mother was an African-American opera singer who had married an Italian and moved to Milan. Ana, her brother, Dominic, and sister, Sophia, had been taught to revere both cultures.

After the cab sped away, she smoothed her leather jacket over her skirt and adjusted the bag on her shoulder before resolutely walking toward the restaurant’s entrance. The hostess, an attractive African-American woman, smiled warmly as she approached her. “Good to see you again, Ms. Corelli, Mr. Whitaker is at the bar. We anticipate a twenty-minute wait for a table.”

“Thank you,” said Ana pleasantly. “I’ll join Mr. Whitaker at the bar, then.”

“Enjoy your evening,” said the hostess, and returned to her post in time to greet a young couple entering the restaurant.

Ana stopped in her tracks when she spotted Erik sitting on a barstool at the cherrywood bar, a glass of lager sitting in front of him that looked like it hadn’t been touched. She smiled. He wasn’t a big drinker. Today, he was wearing a tailored dark blue suit with a white shirt and maroon-striped silk tie. It was Friday and he’d probably come straight here from the office. He rarely got out of there before seven.

She slid onto the stool beside him. He looked at her reflection in the mirror behind the bar, and smiled at her. Turning to her, his eyes swept over her face. “So, how does it feel to be back in the world of the living?”

She grinned, and leaned in to kiss his cheek. He smelled good, as if he’d taken the time to shave his five-o’clock shadow in his office bathroom before leaving to meet her. She placed her hand along his strong jaw. Erik looked at her in his enigmatic way. Those golden-hued eyes seemed to bore into her soul. “I finished the last painting only a few hours ago,” she told him softly. “I slept for a couple hours then woke up, phoned you, and here I am. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” he murmured close to her ear. The sound of his voice, as always, made her warm inside.

She’d spent the last two weeks exiled in her Greenwich Village loft, completing paintings that would comprise her first show at a New York City gallery. Erik knew this. However he didn’t know why she had asked to see him tonight.