He Came Upon a Midnight Clear

By Desiree Holt

Cody Alvarez needs to find a wife by New Years Day or he will lose the ranch his uncle willed to him.

Libby Morris just needs, for once in her life, to feel desired. Sensual. Appealing. Especially after an intense reshaping at a high-end spa.

When Madame Eve of 1Night Stand invites them to Christmas Week at the Castillo Lodge in Alaska, Cody and Libby are not given the names of the partners chosen for them. As they wait to learn the identities of their one-night stands, they discover an incredible spark of chemistry and a connection stronger than either has experienced before. Will spending a very erotic night together ruin their arrangements or offer another option?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Decadent Publishing
• Release date: Dec 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781613330395

Desiree Holt

A multi-published, award winning, Amazon and USA Today best-selling author, Desiree Holt has produced more than 200 titles and won many awards. She has received an EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and many others including Author After Dark’s Author of the Year. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Mail. She lives in Florida with her cats who insist they help her write her books, and is addicted to football.

Book preview

He Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Desiree Holt

A 1 Night Stand Holiday Story

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Desiree Holt

ISBN: 978-1-61333-039-5

Cover art by Dara England

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

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Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

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~DEDICATION~

To my late hero, who gave me the courage to always be myself and reach for the stars and who will always live in my heart…and my stories.

Chapter One

Cody Alvarez turned up the collar of his sheepskin-lined rancher’s jacket against the biting cold of a Seattle winter. Someone had been waiting for him when he exited his Southwest flight from San Antonio at SeaTac and delivered him to a one story metal building. Now, he had to wait until he got the go-ahead to board the private Castillo Resorts plane waiting on the tarmac to take him to his final destination.

Someplace very cold, the instructions said. Bring warm clothes. And a tuxedo.

What the hell?

But he reminded himself he’d agreed to the adventure, knowing it could be his best—maybe his only—chance. Uncle Cesar hadn’t given him much choice. The terms of the will were very clear—engaged by New Year’s Day or Rancho Alvarez would be sold. And Cody could not let that happen. He wanted that ranch more than anything. His parents had been unhappy that rather than follow them into their law practice, he’d opted for Texas A&M and studied both agribusiness and animal husbandry. But they saw how he thrived on it.

Pushing open the door to the private air terminal, he stepped gratefully into the blast of warm air.

We’re just waiting for the other passenger to join us, the man behind the small counter told him.

No problem.

I’m Carl, by the way. And there’s fresh coffee on the table over by the wall.

Thanks.

Cody poured some of the steaming liquid into a thick mug, carried it to one of the chairs and sat down, stretching his legs out. With his free hand he pulled two pieces of paper from his jacket pocket. The attorney had handed over the first one, from Uncle Cesar, at the reading of the will.

Cody,

You are