'Tis the Season to Get Lucky

By Heidi Rice

'Tis the Season to Get Lucky (Entangled Indulgence) by Heidi Rice
Unlucky-in-love PR manager Kate Braithwaite doesn't think her Christmas could get any suckier. Until a trip into work on Christmas Day leaves her snowbound in the Fifth Avenue department store with her boss's far-too-tempting playboy son Ryder Sinclair. Ryder's rugged, reckless and none too pleased to be stuck in a place he hates with an uptight workaholic like Kate—but as the night draws on, the lights go out and the temperature rises, until they're both wondering is this the season to get lucky?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781622663569

Heidi Rice

Heidi Rice was born and bred and still lives in London, England. She has two boys who love to bicker, a wonderful husband who, luckily for everyone, has the patience of Job and a supportive and ever-growing British/French/Irish/American family. She also has two hamsters, one of whom looks suspiciously like a rat. As much as Heidi adores "the Big Smoke", she also loves America and every two years or so she and her best friend Catri leave hubby and kids behind and Thelma and Louise it across the States for a couple of weeks (although they always leave out the driving-off-a-cliff bit). Some of their favorite haunts so far have included Monument Valley, the Nantahala Forest in North Carolina, St. Michls in Maryland, Marfa in Texas and the Big Easy itself, New Orleans-but they're always on the lookout for new places to explore. Heidi's been a film buff since her early teens and a romance junkie for almost as long. She indulged her first love by being a film reviewer for the last ten years for the British newspaper The Daily Mail and its Irish sister paper. Some might call this a dream job-until they had to watch five-hundred Jean-Claude Van Damme films and find something new to say about each one. So a few years ago Heidi decided to pursue a new dream job, writing romance. Discovering the fantastic sisterhood of romance writers (both published and unpublished) in Britain, Australia and America made it a wild and wonderful journey to achieve her dream and become a published Harlequin novelist. That said, she still finds time to watch the odd movie-preferably ones with Johnny Depp. She loves to hear from her readers.

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‘Tis the Season to Get Lucky

Heidi Rice

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Heidi Rice. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Edited by Liz Pelletier

Cover design by Liz Pelletier

ISBN: 978-1-62266-356-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition November 2012

Second Edition November 2013

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Gucci, Disney Channel, Lucky Charms, Reese’s Pieces, Hershey, Baby Ruth, Lego, Skype, Vanity Fair, Disneyland, YouTube, Cornell, Bollinger.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Keep your Indulgence going with these classic contemporary romances…

To Aimee, Amy, and Kate, my fabulous fellow Flirtettes, let’s do this again sometime, ladies!

Chapter One

Why did Christmas always have to be such a colossal pain in the arse?

Kate Braithwaite hurried along Fifth Avenue, the clatter of her boots on the sidewalk barely audible above the sleeting rain which, like everything else in her recently adopted city, was so much bigger and brasher than what she was used to in England. She dumped her ruined umbrella in a bin.

Shivering under her sodden coat, she tried to figure out where exactly she’d gone wrong with Christmas this year.

Knowing she would be alone on the day itself, she’d planned accordingly: she’d arranged a Skype chat with Benedict for two o’clock on the dot to account for the time difference between Manhattan and London; she’d forked out thirty dollars for a gourmet turkey dinner for one from Sinclair’s luxury food hall; and she’d stocked up on a demi-bottle of Bollinger and a couple of cheesy movies to while away her evening. She’d even bought a real miniature blue spruce a week ago and decorated it with baubles and snowflake lights to keep her spirits up. She’d been so enchanted with the result, she hadn’t even returned it to the flower store on Lexington when the needles began to drop off two days later.

And all for what?

So she could still feel sad and desperate and miserably alone on the big day, her thirty-dollar gourmet turkey dinner sitting forlornly in the fridge because she couldn’t bring herself to eat it.

She swiped the wet hair off her forehead and concentrated on the twinkle of lights a block ahead that outlined the art deco frontage of Sinclair’s, shining like an oasis through the gloom.

Work.

Warmth chased away some of the chill at the thought of her well-ordered desk in her well-ordered office on the sixth floor of the stately department store. She picked up the pace as icy water seeped under her collar and dripped down her back.

Opening the e-mail from Benedict over breakfast this morning had been her first mistake. A subject line marked Sorry should have been a warning to her. But she’d assumed it would be a message about rearranging their Skype chat—not a message to cancel it all together, followed by a two-thousand-word dissertation on the untenable nature of long-distance relationships.

Kate’s bottom lip quivered. She bit into it. Trust Benedict to dump her via e-mail on Christmas morning and then add insult to injury by patronizing her to death while doing it. Absorbing the festive finery of Sinclair’s window displays as she rushed past, Kate pushed aside the image of Benedict and the less-than-sexy frown of concentration he always wore whenever they made love.

However bad his timing, perhaps Benedict had been right to end their relationship. They’d been apart for six months—ever since she’d relocated to Manhattan from London after being contacted by a prestigious head-hunting firm—and she hadn’t missed him as much as she thought she would.

She turned into the sheltered alleyway at the back of the store, her boots echoing a little eerily on the rutted paving stones before she reached the metal security door of the staff entrance.

A sense of calm and purpose settled over her as she pressed the button on the intercom. Maybe it was a little sad and pathetic to be coming into work on Christmas Day because she couldn’t quite face her empty apartment. But so what? Work had always been what grounded and sustained her, and she had an invaluable opportunity to start working on her pitch for next month’s PR forum while the store was blessedly quiet.

Charles, the store’s chief of security, answered on the second ring. Oh my, Ms. Braithwaite, what happened? he clucked as she stepped out of the rain. You want me to get you a towel?

Don’t worry, Charles, I’ll be fine. I have some dry clothes in my office. Or at least she hoped she did.

What you doing here on Christmas Day, if you don’t mind me asking?

She did mind a little bit, but pasted on a smile regardless. Americans had a habit of asking what they wanted to know and didn’t tend to see

Reviews for 'Tis the Season to Get Lucky

[bette_hansen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully fun story. Who would have thought getting trapped in a snowstorm could be so interesting. This is a fast fun sexy read that will brighten your day.