Christmas and the Lamp: Modern Christmas Fairy Tales

By Lexi Ostrow

Love at first sight isn't real, but Xander couldn't deny his attraction to the stunning woman he met at the Christmas market. Even if she was nobility from Europe and more than a little out of his league. Being a homeless, ex-military man wouldn't win him any favors. Xander wanted to be more than he was, to change his stars.

Lily ran from a list of suitors a mile long only to trip and fall into a man's arms. She let him think she was merely a tourist, and explored his city as he saw it. She didn't expect to find herself attracted to him, or to ever see him again.

When Xander saves the life of an antique shop owner, the man happens to see a rusty lamp Xander held onto from his days overseas. The owner offers Xander a handsome seller's fee, and Xander takes it, knowing with that amount of money, he would change his world. All that was left to do was find Lily and help her choose him over the other men fighting for her attention.

One magic lamp. One displaced army vet and one royal princess are thrown together for a Christmas adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexi Ostrow
• Release date: Dec 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201211943

Lexi Ostrow

USA Today Bestselling Author Lexi Ostrow has been in love with the written word since second grade when her librarian started a writing club. Born in sunny southern California she's spent time in various places across the country thanks to her husband's USCG career. Now, she's also mom to a far too adorable toddler, and a menagerie of pets, spinning fantastical worlds whenever she gets the opportunity. Lexi has been a writer ever since the second grade in some form or another. Getting her degree in creative writing and her master's in journalism she couldn't wait to get a chance to put her fantasies down on paper.  From paranormal romance to thriller there isn't a genre she doesn't love to spend her time reading or writing. With her BA in creative writing from UCR and her MA in multi-media Journalism from Emerson College, she's ready to take on the literary world one novel at a time. Reading and writing are her first loves, but her passion for shopping, love for yummy food and her love for all her many pets are not far behind. Lexi is an enthusiast Whovian and DC Comic Show lover who isn't afraid to talk someone's ear off about them. She hopes to one day help other readers fall in love with writing as she did.

Book preview

Chapter One

The purr of the engine was almost low enough to trick Xander into thinking a friendly cat slept somewhere in the car with him.

Almost.

The first flakes of winter drifted from high above him, beginning to blanket the already beautiful streets of New York City with a freshness only winter could bring.

And a chill that could kill you if you don’t find work.

Xander looked down at the orange light on the center console to ensure the seat warmer was still on. It was still earlier enough in December that he could get away with staying in his car - turning the engine on for thirty or so minutes at a time in intervals to keep warm.

Soon, he’d have to take his VA checks and pay for a crummy motel somewhere. The shelters were too full for a fallen hero.

Unconsciously, his eyes drifted to the purple heart medal pinned to a rope over his rearview mirror.

Everyone always assumed that those injured in war came back to life as heroes. To a parade fit for a hero and dozens of people willing to employ a soldier who could not fight any longer. The dirty truth was they often came home too broken to do anything but exist. Men and women who lived with horrors playing out in their heads every time they closed their eyes or heard certain sounds.

Xander wasn’t one of them, but he was little better. He joined the Army to prove that not every soldier needed to be born and bred in America. Though he was a native citizen, his father immigrated to America in his early twenties, and Xander was often harassed for his darker skin and obvious Arabic genetics despite only setting foot on foreign soil after joining the Army.

A small limp was an insignificant price to pay when his car went under fire on a routine mission to check on another post three years ago. Only, that small limp made him a victim to anyone who only saw dark brown skin and ebony hair assuming he’d harassed someone.

Business after business turned him away, many citing his work in the Army as a problem, not a positive. Xander couldn’t think of a single excuse that held any weight because he’d not applied to jobs outside his specialty. Security work. Police work. That was it. He was a bigger dude, and even with a limp, could out muscle most and quickly read a room.

He was qualified for more than life in his car, but that was all the VA checks could afford.

If his parents knew, they’d die. As far as they knew he’d taken a job that took him away from cell phones often and didn’t leave time for him to travel back home to Seattle that often - something he had to save for months to afford the plane ticket.

Some days, when the blistering heat from the sun couldn’t be fixed with a few minutes of AC or the bitter cold of winter forced him into a crummy motel with barely any money for food, Xander wondered if he shouldn’t go somewhere with a better cost of living.

He couldn’t, though. He had no degree and only the skills he’d learned straight out of high school with the Army. He’d not been a fancy special ops boy, just an enlisted man with the urge to help his country to prove himself.

New York City had more jobs in his field than any other city except L.A., and it was just as expensive. No, Xander would climb from the bottom if it killed him. He’d only been home three years. That wasn’t enough time to give up.

Not yet.

Two more Christmases. Two more years on the streets and he would go home to his parents. He’d figure out some story about needing to start over. He’d use his checks to pay his way and would find some cashier job somewhere.

But not yet.

Xander knew he’d get his due soon. He just had to work it.

Life had been anything but kind to a man shot in the face of protecting the only country he’d ever called home purely because he didn’t look like the everyday soldier. Still, if Xander could find a way back into the service, he wouldn’t hesitate.

Eleven years of service had taught him how to survive just about anything. Late nights with little sleep, sneaking around, making ends meet with little to nothing … the list could go on. He didn’t steal. He didn’t have need to yet. One day, he worried the VA checks would get smaller and smaller as the economy outgrew the pay, he was so very thankful for.

Xander took his gaze from the damned medal and looked out the window. In the distance, white began to build up. The skyscrapers of the city flickered and flowed with Christmas lights and probably a menorah or two that he couldn’t see from his distance.

Tonight, he’d parked out in Brooklyn, hoping to avoid the few cops that found his spot in Queens. Xander didn’t go near the obvious homeless gatherings. He didn’t want to be looped in with any drugs or theft. He wanted a chance to make his own identity whenever the found one.

It wasn’t that Xander was bitter,

The Christmas season was filled with miracles and tales of charity. There was still time to prove himself to someone. To build himself back up to the man his parents were proud of.

He just needed one lucky break to change his stars and set him back on course.

Lily glanced lazily out the limo’s window. Once upon a time, the blinking lights and towering buildings of the city left her in awe. After two decades of spending the Christian holidays in the city, she’d grown accustomed to it, the same way most New Yorker’s had. Yes, it was pretty, but it didn’t spark joy for her anymore.

Not to mention the reason you’re arriving so early is positively dreadful.

She closed her eyes and tried to push off the ugly, invasive thoughts, about why her parents came to New York nearly a month before Christmas.

They had decided it was time for her to marry - to embrace her political place in the world and accept that she was destined to be queen in her own time.

Just what I want. To be stuck inside all day signing papers and smiling at reporters.

Lily had done her absolute best to avoid what her parents called her destiny. First, by insisting she attend college in London. The country still held massive sway in the small country just outside Bahrain that so few people knew about. Her parents had been rather pleased that she’d get a fine Cambridge education.

Then, Lily insisted she needed a job outside the monarchy to truly understand her purpose.

A smirk crossed over her full lips as she thought of all the foolish things, she’d tried in the name of stalling her ascent to queen. Sixteen weeks serving ice cream at a small shop she frequented growing up to learn the value of service. Two years as a secretary for the board who ruled beneath the monarchy to understand those who worked for her. Nine months walking dogs to ensure she understood there were far worse jobs than being queen.

And now we’re here.

Twenty-eight years old and her parents were not only ready to retire, but marry her off because their backward country insisted only a pair could reign.

The limo rolled to a slow stop just over the silly red carpet outside The Ritz Carlton New York.

We meet again, she whispered as she slid across the seat to take the hand of the valet offering her assistance.

Your Majesties, Amil, her father’s advisor, came from nowhere as Lily stepped fully out of the limo and looked into the glass entryway to the only hotel she’d ever known during the Christmas season.

Amil came from a terribly long line of advisors, and he’d been trying to win her favor since they were kids. Now, he’d stepped into his role with his father’s retirement and insisted she join him.

And make him more powerful by marrying him. Lily pushed the thought back. If she didn’t stop being so negative with her thoughts something bad would surely find her.

Glancing up through the twirling door Lily couldn’t help but smile at the ginormous Christmas Tree in the center of the lobby. It wasn’t always in the center, but it seemed they took her suggestion to heart last year when she’d playfully suggested it.

The stunningly tall tree stretched clear to the ceiling and a gold ribbon sat on the top as nothing could fit without scraping the impressively decorated ceiling. The branches were flocked - covered in something like white spray paint that made the tree seem more inviting in her mind. Gold and red orbs dangled off every branch as far as she could see. Some sitting near enough to the edge to fall off, and others nestled inside the needles as if tucked away for a nap. Beautiful glass icicles seemed to catch the light and send rainbows dancing over the already patterned marble floor of the lobby.

There was one thing Lily loved most about Christmas, and it was seeing all the different trees. Unless designed to be, no two were ever alike. She could spend hours wandering from hotel