Nikki Logan - A Puppy for Christmas - On the Secretary's Christmas List / The Patter of Paws at Christmas / The Soldier, the Puppy and Me

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader,

It’s that time of year again!

And what better way to celebrate the love of the Season than a love story between a heroine who has been deeply hurt by the past and a hero who realises she’s the only present he wants under his Christmas tree? Throw a gorgeously endearing little boy and an endearing puppy into the mix, and you have the recipe for a perfect Christmas.

A Happy and Perfect Christmas to you all!

Carole Mortimer

CAROLE MORTIMERwas born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978 and has now written over one hundred and fifty books for Mills & Boon ®. Carole has six sons, Matthew, Joshua, Timothy, Michael, David and Peter. She says, ‘I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.’

To everyone who loves Christmas—

and puppies—as much as I do!

‘OUR appointment was for this afternoon, Roger. Not tomorrow, not next week, but today!’

Bree looked up in alarm the moment her employer entered her office, growling into his mobile phone. Wincing, she realised he had to be talking to his two o’clock appointment today, Roger Tyler, a rock star who had become a legend in his own lifetime.

‘I don’t give a—’

Jerome Jackson Beaumont broke off mid-sentence, checking himself as he realised Bree was an unwilling listener.

‘I don’t give a—a flying monkey what’s “come up”, Roger. You asked—no, begged me to do the photo shoot for your next album, so you either get yourself over here this afternoon or forget the whole damn thing!’ He listened to the other man’s response for about two seconds before interrupting him. ‘You have five minutes, Roger, to cancel your date this afternoon with whatever bimbo has caught your attention this time, before ringing me back to say you’ll be here at two this afternoon after all!’

He flipped the mobile phone across the desk to Bree who, after almost a year of practice, caught it neatly in the palm of her hand, checking that Jackson had indeed ended the call—something he had a habit of forgetting to do, often exposing the unfortunate caller to the expletive-filled aftermath, before giving him a reproving glance.

She remembered when she’d first met him. ‘Just call me Jackson,’ he had ordered Bree when she’d come to work for him a year ago. ‘Not Jerome, never, ever Beau or Mr Beaumont, but Jackson.’

‘I really wish you would let me deal with all the incoming calls.’ She had unfortunately missed this particular call because of a two-minute visit to the bathroom!

Jackson gave an unrepentant grin as he leaned against the side of her desk. ‘I can’t imagine why!’

And really neither could Bree; this man seemed to be able to insult people, be rude to them, even totally ignore them and still they came back for more!

Because he was Jerome Jackson Beaumont, world-renowned photographer, whose work hung on the walls of royal palaces as well as in galleries all over the world. What was a little rudeness, the odd insult, a snub or two, when in the end you could own an original Jerome Jackson Beaumont?

The way he looked didn’t do him any harm either—especially where women were concerned. Six feet two inches of lean, tanned muscle, emphasised by the fitted T-shirts and denims he habitually wore—a blue T-shirt today, and black jeans—with eyes as clear and blue as the sky on a cloudless summer’s day, strong, high cheekbones, a sharp blade of a nose, and a mouth that was so wickedly sensual it should have a warning label attached to it.

As if that wasn’t enough Jackson had long silky hair that reached almost to his shoulders in a raggedly windswept style, and it was the colour of golden honey and molasses—neither gold nor brown but somewhere in between—the same burnt-sugar colour that women paid hundreds of pounds to achieve in exclusive salons all around the world!

Within minutes of meeting Jackson for the first time Bree had realised he was exactly as everyone described. Unique. A perfectionist. And utterly brilliant. He was also, she had registered in those same few minutes, totally and utterly impossible!

She had heard the rumours, of course—who hadn’t read about the eccentricities of Jerome Jackson Beaumont in the gossip columns of every newspaper? The employment agency had warned her too, telling her of the three other assistants they had sent to him in the previous month, two of whom had returned as gibbering emotional wrecks, and the third of whom had not come back at all.

Bree had taken those warnings in her stride. The job not only paid well, but also offered immediate rent-free occupation of the self-contained basement flat beneath the London mansion where Jerome Jackson Beaumont lived and worked. For Bree, who had been homeless at the time, the apartment had provided her with more than enough incentive to make up her own mind about her notorious new boss.

Yes, Bree had very quickly discovered Jerome Jackson Beaumont to be every bit as arrogant and impossible to work with as people had warned. With one exception.

His six-year-old son, Daniel.

Considering Jackson had never been married, Danny’s mother remained something of a mystery. A mystery Jackson had repeatedly refused to shed light on when questioned by members of the press about the one-year-old son he had brought to live with him five years ago.

As the woman was obviously no longer present in either Jackson’s or Danny’s life, her identity didn’t affect Bree on a day-to-day basis. That didn’t mean Bree didn’t feel a certain curiosity about her—mainly because Bree wondered how any woman could have just handed her son over to his father like that. Especially when that father was the charismatic Jerome Jackson Beaumont!

Danny was tall for his age, with hair of corn-gold, eyes the same clear blue as his father’s, and a sweetly mischievous disposition. And he was, without a doubt, his father’s one saving grace.

Bree had fallen in love with him on the very first day she’d come to work at Beaumont House.

The son, not the father.

She had already paid—and paid dearly—for loving the wrong man, and had no intention of repeating that painful experience!

This had turned out to be a wise decision, considering there had been legions of women flitting in and then quickly out of Jackson’s life over the past year. Redheads, blondes, brunettes, and every shade in between—all of them tall and beautiful.

Bree knew there was no danger of Jackson ever seeing her as anything more than his capable assistant: she was only a little over five feet tall, passably pretty rather than beautiful, and had a slender figure that men found all too easy to dismiss—something Bree knew only too well after her engagement had come to a traumatic end just over a year ago.