The Neighbor Who Stole Christmas: Mountain Peak Series, #1

By Brie Wilds

Nicole's plan was simple.

 

Storm the house and give him a piece of her mind.

His name was even befitting, Ebenezer

A modern-day Mr. Scrooge

The neighbor from hell

 

But she wasn't prepared for Ebenezer Steel Jr

Square jaw, black hair, handsome in a rugged way

…and sexy as hell.

Eben to his friends, and that, did not include Nicole

 

His Father and her Father…are sworn,enemies.

In fact, his Father put her Father in the hospital.

 

Awkward, right?

 

But technically…he's not her enemy.

Falling for him?

well, that chrysalis is now a Monarch butterfly.

 

Herein lies her problem.

 

Follow her heart,

and give her Father a second heart attack? Excuse the pun.

Or…Read on to find out!

THE NEIGHBOR WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS, Book #1 in the Mountain Peak Series, is a Contemporary Enemies to lovers Romance from Author Brie Wilds.
A  story about family, anguish, love, grief, and the beauty of sex. It contains snow-covered landscapes, billionaires, young love, deep hurt, deceit, broken pasts,  and one beautiful curvy girl who falls in love with an enemy's son. This novel is an MF steamy forbidden romance story. NO cliff-hanger, and a happily ever after ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ruttish Press
• Release date: Nov 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781635897364

Book preview

1

Nicole

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Nicole Kraner sat in her three-year-old red Honda Accord, idling in St. Luke's Hospital’s parking lot. Her mind drifted from one yet to be done task to another like the metallic ball in a pinball machine, hitting all the targets as it came down. Thank God Father was stable. What would they have done if something serious had happened to him? Thinking of ‘they,’ Nicole's heart skipped a beat. She looked at the clock on her dash, then let out a sigh of relief. Her sister’s plane wouldn’t be coming in for another two hours. She still had ample time, but things better start moving.

Their father had been admitted to the hospital. She’d received the call late last night that he had a minor cardiovascular incident but was in good condition. Nicole would have left last night from Allendale to Mountain Peak but for the snow.

Mountain Peak was a small little ski town in northern New Jersey. Low keyed, not pretentious, no chain stores or restaurants but with some excellent slopes. It was a hidden secret, and a few wealthy people had built winter estates there. She and her sisters had been looking forward to spending Christmas with their dad, and now this.

Some rich jerk had become her father’s neighbor. Of all the shitty luck, why did a neighbor from hell buy the Eastman estate? Nicole let out a shaky breath. Thank God he’s alive.

She glanced around the parking lot and squinted at the brightness. The sun reflected off the snow, and she’d forgotten her sunglasses in her other handbag. There was snow everywhere. The ski slope owners for sure would be having multiple orgasms by now with all the powder that fell overnight. It’s all about the Benjamins’ baby, thought Nicole.

Well, maybe that was one-sided thinking. A lot of families already planned to spend their Christmas vacation at Mountain Peak. With its cobblestoned Main Street, overboard Christmas decorations, locals and visitors alike coming together to mingle and sing Christmas carols, it would be a letdown if there wasn’t snow on the ground, no white Christmas.

All that snow on the ground was why there was limited parking in the hospital's parking lot too. A good example that one man’s trash is another man’s Christmas dinner.

A few parking spots had been confiscated as a dumping area for snow. Nicole reasoned that maybe there was an uptake too with an increase in emergencies like falls and slips and people coming down with one respiratory thing or another.

She tapped her fingers on the steering, then raised both hands and placed her palms over the vent. The warm blast massaged her palms. She wasn’t cold, just idle hands.

She’d squeezed into thermal tights and a long-sleeved thermal top. She preferred less is more in winter. Any more layers would make her look bigger than she was. So she preferred to buy thermal this or thermal that. Whatever the crazy people wear to run outside in the winter was good for her.

Nicole picked up the Dunkin cup from the cup holder in the middle console and swirled it around. A drop or two was left in the cup-the bottom of the barrel. She brought the cup to her lips and upended it. Cold sweet vanilla flavor flooded her taste buds, and then it was gone. It was just a tease; now she wanted more.

Nicole smacked her lips. The lingering taste in her mouth reminded her of another experience that lingered—an orgasm. Moments after you come, your body is still having tremors cooling off like the tick tick tick sound a car engine makes after it has been turned off.

Pew. Nicole fanned herself with both hands. You know it’s been a long time you had sex if your mind and a small drop of sweetness could almost get you off. Truth be told, it had indeed been a long time since anyone had visited her garden to play.

At twenty-seven, she wasn’t getting any younger; neither did she want a relationship that wasn’t fulfilling. Once burned, twice shy. She’d planned on using this reunion to hang out with her fun-loving sisters and maybe get laid before the year ended. Now with Father in the hospital, this Christmas would be, she predicted, uneventful.

She picked up the cup and up-ended it again, just in case there was something still there. She came up dry. Disappointed, she put the cup back in the cupholder. She could always buy more.

Nicole smiled to herself. Just as she could always get another cup of coffee, she could find herself a man that appreciated a curvy woman. Nicole was as sexy as Ashely Graham, just lacked her confidence. The little she had had been trodden on when her ex cheated on her with his coworker. Instead of owning up that he was just a dog, he’d blamed her.

You eat too much cake, he’d said.

She knew he was just grasping at straws because her weight had remained the same for the whole eleven months they were together. He’d loved her curves then. Now Nicole was getting hot, the pissed-off type of heat.

She rolled down her window to get some of that cold Mountain Peak air into her car. Instead, she got exhaust fumes from her vehicle and others idling, waiting for a parking spot to open up. She coughed and spluttered and wound her windows back up.

Nicole tapped her fingers on the wheel again in rhythm to the click click click sound of her left signal. She’d been waiting for that lady to back out of the parking space for how long now? Three minutes?

Nicole looked to her right. On the road parallel to hers sat a guy in a black car, tapping his steering wheel too. She could only see his left profile, but she liked what she saw. Then he turned in her direction. She looked away. Square jaw, black hair, handsome in a rugged way, not bad.

In her periphery, she noticed the reverse lights of the car she was waiting for come on.

Nicole got ready to move. About time. The car moved a little then stopped. Grrr! Nicole imagined steam shooting out of her ears like in cartoons. Must be one of those people that would stop at an ATM and spend about thirty minutes with the machine. She returned her gear to park and lowered her forehead on the wheel. Maybe she should just drive around some more.

Nicole heard an engine and looked up. The car had finally backed out and was in front of her. She smiled and waved at the old lady. Just as the old lady turned the wheel to straighten her tires and drive off, Nicole's eyes widened in horror. A black car slipped into the space the woman had just vacated.

She watched with disbelief as the guy she’d been admiring got out of the car. He tapped his jacket as if looking for a key, found it, and pointed it at the car.

Beep beep. The car lights flashed.

The man headed towards the hospital entrance without glancing at Nicole.

What the…? Nicole stepped down on the gas accelerator.

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Eben

Eben Stone drove around the parking lot of St Luke's Hospital, praying that his father’s neighbor was not in terrible shape. He’d flown in from Boston, landed at Newark Liberty, and taken an Uber to Mountain Peak.

He’d been looking forward to spending a quiet, restful Christmas in Mountain Peak. His father had bought an estate here after he’d retired as CEO of their family-owned home delivery pharmaceutical business. Nobody knew who he was here, and he hadn’t told anyone where he was going for the holidays. He just wanted to rest. He’d taken over the company's day-to-day operations, but his father still hovered in the background. This was his first time at Mountain Peak.

The GPS took him through Main Street and its snow-covered shops and hotels, flashing lights, and Christmas decorations. It looked like a scene out of a Christmas postcard or a Hallmark movie.

Thank God the butler was expecting him and had breakfast waiting when the Uber dropped him off at the house. No mother or siblings were waiting for him. It was just him and the old man.

The housekeeper, Mr. Peters, told him about the ambulance coming to whisk their neighbor away during the night. He also told him about the feud going on between his father, Eben Senior, and neighbor.

He’d wanted to wait and ask his father for his side of the story, but Eben knew his dad. He was happiest when there was some conflict to attend to, no matter how minor.

Eben Senior obliterated his enemies. His business competitors he drove out of business or forced them to sell to him. When there was no conflict, he would create one, and that was when Eben felt his father was at his best. There was no way his father hadn’t provoked this problem.

Eben took a sip from his steaming cup of coffee. The smell of coffee that had kept him awake since he’d landed was now a long-gone memory. His nostrils had acclimatized to it. He shook his head and wondered what would happen by the time Christmas came and then rolled into the New Year. His father was