The Naughty List Bundle with The Night Before Christmas & Yule Be Mine by Donna Kauffman Cynthia Eden Susan Fox & Lori Foster

Author:Donna Kauffman, Cynthia Eden, Susan Fox & Lori Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2010-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Cami told herself that she was fine, that she’d escaped from the experience in her office with Matt relatively unscathed. She told herself that all the way home, and all the way through her hot shower, and all the way through the next three hours in her bed, until her alarm went off at six A.M.

Just a torrid affair, like she’d always wondered about.

The after part had been a little rough, she could admit now—the coming-home-alone part. Matt had wanted her to go to his place, but she’d been unable to fathom repeating the whole mind-blowing experience and then walking away.

Once had been hard enough.

When her snooze alarm went off again, she got up and dressed. Christmas Eve. Most people wouldn’t be going into work, but she was going to. Dedication at its finest, she supposed.

And a telling way to hold at bay the memories from last night. Or the loneliness she knew would hit her any minute now. The Christmas loneliness. She could try to forget, she could try to pretend it didn’t exist, but it always came.

She entered her office and stopped short at the sight of her desk. The scene of her indiscretion, so to speak. Her momentary lapse in good judgment. Last night, she’d straightened it all up, she’d had to, but she didn’t need to see all her things on the floor to remember what Matt had done to her there.

Pulling out her chair, she sat down and tried not to look at the blotter, which now contained an imprint of her butt. She dug into work, feeling very mature for doing so, but by mid-afternoon, she gave up. She had to get out, or lose her mind, so she headed downtown, where she wandered the long row of art galleries and unique gift shops to find her last-minute family Christmas gifts. Determined to be chipper and in the spirit, she hit them all.

And found nothing for her picky parents or impossible-to-buy-for brother and sister.

All around her, the trees and streets were lit with seasonal lights. Each storefront had been decorated, and Christmas music and delicious scents surrounded her. So did people. Everywhere. Couples, families, friends…everyone talking and laughing and having a ball, all in the holiday spirit.

No one seemed to be alone.

Except her.

She ended up back at her car, arms empty. Damn it. Determined, she sat there waiting for the defroster to work, wracking her brain. Finally it came to her. Ski-lift tickets. Her parents would love the excuse to dust off their skis, and her siblings would think the present original and cool. Cami let out her first smile of the day, because she just might have hit upon the perfect gift and the perfect way to impress her impossible-to-impress family on Christmas morning.

Congratulating herself, she drove the seven miles out of town to Eagle Ski Resort. There she purchased the tickets, and had just put them in her purse when someone said in her ear, “Well, look at that. You tore yourself from work.

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