A Codfish and Custard Tarts Christmas: Naughty or Nice? A Christmas Romance

By Rebecca Fairfax

FROM EXCITING ROMANCE AUTHOR REBECCA FAIRFAX

From the Naughty or Nice? collection

Take one repressed Portuguese lawyer, one irrepressible Irish clown and add the magic of Christmas...

Strait-laced law student Luis Tavares Barros Serralves—aka Luis Triple-Barrelled-Surname—met the self-styled happy-go-lucky Irish scamp Quinn during Quinn's year abroad at the Lisbon university where Luis was studying. Met and fell hard for, with the exuberant, irreverent drama student Quinn bringing colour and music into Luis' neat and tidy world...until he had to return home.

Too cowardly then to follow his heart and be with Quinn, Luis let him go and has regretted it ever since.

Now, two years later, Quinn's back—in an even more eccentric role—and Luis has the chance of a Christmas wish to make his dreams come true. But is he brave enough now to defy convention and take a stand for what he really wants...and truly loves?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839430930

Book preview

Author

Naughty or Nice?

A CODFISH AND CUSTARD TARTS CHRISTMAS

REBECCA FAIRFAX

A Codfish and Custard Tarts Christmas

ISBN # 978-1-83943-093-0

©Copyright Rebecca Fairfax 2020

Cover Art by Claire Siemaszkiewicz ©Copyright December 2020

Interior text design by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

Pride Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Pride Publishing.

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The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2020 by Pride Publishing, United Kingdom.

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Naughty or Nice?

Take one repressed Portuguese lawyer, one irrepressible Irish clown and add the magic of Christmas…

Strait-laced law student Luis Tavares Barros Serralves—aka Luis Triple-Barrelled-Surname—met the self-styled happy-go-lucky Irish scamp Quinn during Quinn’s year abroad at the Lisbon university where Luis was studying. Met and fell hard for, with the exuberant, irreverent drama student Quinn bringing colour and music into Luis’ neat and tidy world…until he had to return home.

Too cowardly then to follow his heart and be with Quinn, Luis let him go and has regretted it ever since.

Now, two years later, Quinn’s back—in an even more eccentric role—and Luis has the chance of a Christmas wish to make his dreams come true. But is he brave enough now to defy convention and take a stand for what he really wants…and truly loves?

Dedication

To all alfacinhas everywhere, especially Isobel and her madrina, Cristina.

Trademark Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Carrefour: Carrefour S.A.

Erasmus Programme: The European Union

Gulbenkian Foundation: The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Nespresso: Nestlé Nespresso S.A.

O Pavilhão Chines: Luis Pinto Coelho

RADA: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Vaseline: Unilever plc / Unilever N.V.

Chapter One

Trainee lawyers, especially ones at prestigious law firms, were supposed to envy those who’d made heads of practice, say, or ascended to the dizzying heights of counsel, but Luis Tavares Barros Serralves felt jealous of Bruno the building assistant…in as much as he envied anyone working at Barros Serralves.

Bruno got to come and go throughout the day, doing this, that and the other in and around the city’s business district and courts. Well, so did Luis to some degree, with the number of extra tasks and chores he volunteered for. But it said a lot about the twenty-four-year-old lawyer’s love for his chosen career and chosen place of work that some days he thought he’d prefer Bruno’s job.

Hi! Bruno swerved up to Luis as soon as he got inside the building’s foyer, moving in his trademark smooth, shoulders-first quick-paced glide. He tapped a slim finger to his headset, turning it off or on—Luis didn’t know. That was quick. Get it?

Luis hefted the yellow and pink toyshop bag containing the present he’d been to the city’s downtown area to buy. Unremarkable on Lisbon’s shopping streets, the plastic carrier looked gaudy in this tasteful off-silver and off-white lobby, and clashed with the restrained dark amber old Leonel Barros Serralves had ordered mixed way back when he’d started the law firm and which was now the discreet accent in its livery, with muted touches of it visible here and there.

Luis took a wrapped Neapolitan chocolate from the dull silver dish on the main receptionist’s desk, ignoring whatever winning slogan had been chosen for the branded chocolates—his motto had been passed over. He held one out for Bruno, but Bruno shook his head, darting his gaze left and right. The corporate chocolates were for clients, visitors and top-tier lawyers, certainly not the back-office staff, and Bruno not only knew his place but would never overstep the mark.

Sonia straightened the dish, aligning it between the plaques announcing the legal awards Barros Serralves had won last year—national and European—giving Luis a quarter smile and failing to supress a medium sigh. What? Not like I’m hitting on her, or even making