His Christmas Cinderella: San Francisco Dragons, #3

By Kate Willoughby

USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Willoughby appeals to the romantic in us all with a modern day fairytale that will warm you from the inside out.

On his way to the team holiday party, professional hockey player Gideon Aguilar mistakes Bailey Peng for his Uber driver. After inviting her to join him, they make more than merry, but at the end of the evening, the sexiest, most captivating woman he's ever met is nowhere to be found.

This novella was originally published in the Hockey Holidays charity anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kiwi Press
• Release date: Nov 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393450887

Book preview

1

Bailey Peng couldn’t believe it when professional hockey player Gideon Aguilar made eye contact with her and waved.

The mall parking lot was a total zoo and she should have known not to come here this close to Christmas, but she’d procrastinated so long on getting a dress for tonight’s party, she’d had to wear the new dress out of the store and get her face done up at one of the makeup counters. Even considering these desperate timesaving measures, she was still barely going to make it in time.

But anxiety over her lateness disappeared when Gideon flagged her down.

His handsome Latin features included a gorgeous bronzed complexion that complimented his jet-black hair and deep-set brown eyes. And that swoon-worthy beard…it wasn’t a bushy lumberjack tangle. No. It was a finely-groomed, masculine thing of beauty that somehow still managed to show off his square jaw.

Simultaneously confused and thrilled by his greeting, she waved back and he smiled.

Hi, are you my ride? Cindy? he asked after she pulled over and rolled the window down. His voice was deliciously gravelly and low and it did things to her insides.

OMG. He thinks I’m his Uber driver.

Her first instinct was to set him straight, but if she confessed, he would wait for his real driver and the encounter would be over before it started. She’d watched a few videos of him taking part in practical jokes, so she decided to go along with it to see how far she could get. At the very least, she could give him an actual ride wherever he was going.

‘Yes, but my phone is on the blink, she said. Remind me where you’re going…?"

As he got into her electric blue Prius, he pretty much filled the whole interior and her heart raced at being in such close proximity to the hockey star who just signed with her hometown NHL team, the San Francisco Dragons. She very quickly checked her appearance in her sun visor mirror. The makeup counter girl had done a great job accentuating her almond-shaped eyes and even lined her upper lid with a moderate cat-eye. Her lips were a gorgeous shade of red that matched the cocktail dress she’d ended up buying. She’d also splurged on a pretty headband with tiny poinsettias on it.

Hi, Gideon said, seemingly distracted by the gift bag he was holding that had somehow gotten caught up in his scarf. I’m going to a restaurant called Willow and Aspen.

Willow and Aspen, she echoed.

She’d lived in San Francisco her whole life but didn’t know where that restaurant was. She’d never even heard of it.

She picked up her phone intending to GPS her way but saw a text from her friend, Indigo Williams: Girl, where are you? Are you on your way?

Bailey was supposed to be going to her own work Christmas party with Indigo. They both worked as a cable car conductors. Their party, dubbed Sausages, Suds and Santa, was being held at a bar and grill that boasted twenty kinds of sausages and fifty brands of beer on tap. It sounded like fun, except for the fact that the only co-worker she genuinely liked was Indigo. As the only two females on the crew, she and Indigo had naturally gravitated toward each other, but now they were great friends. Their senses of humor meshed beautifully, they were both twenty-five, they both had overbearing families.

Because of the sausage party theme, they had planned to keep a tally of penis jokes. Two points if they made the joke themselves. One if they heard an innocent remark that could be taken as a penis joke. Whoever won had to treat the other to a spa pedicure and Bailey had intended to win. But that was before Gideon Aguilar got into her car.

Bailey replied to Indigo as fast her thumbs could tap: Gonna be criminally late. Huge apologies. Will explain later.

Glancing back, she saw Gideon putting on his seat belt.

Oh, look. My phone’s working again, she said as she entered Willow and Aspen into her navigation app. She got a travel time of twenty minutes, medium-to-heavy traffic, even though the place was only three miles away.

Twenty glorious minutes with Gideon Aguilar. Somebody pinch me!

So hot date? she asked in a jovial tone she thought an Uber driver might use.

Nah. A Christmas party. For work, he added.

Is the party going to be fun or a total bore? she asked.

Gideon shrugged. Something in between, I think. I’m not a big party guy and it’s a party where I don’t know that many people.

I hear ya. What would you rather be doing than enduring a night full of awkward?

He ran a hand through his luxuriously thick, wavy dark hair and Bailey shivered, wishing she could do the same. "Stay at