How the Glitch Stole Christmas

By Clare London

Greg and Perry's first Christmas dinner together. Cue a storm, a power cut, and rogue red cabbage in the Scottish Highlands!

This is a short story featuring the apparently mis-matched couple Greg and Perry.

Read how they first met - and the romantic rollercoaster that followed! - in the novel ROMANCING THE UGLY DUCKLING.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clare London
• Release date: Dec 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005705817

Clare London

Clare took the pen name London from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with the weekly wash, waiting for the far distant day when she can afford to give up her day job as an accountant. She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic and sexy characters.Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter 3 stage and plenty of other projects in mind . . . she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.All the details and free fiction are available at her website. Visit her today and say hello!Join up for her newsletter at http://bit.ly/2WpHlyK and receive a free short story!Clare also writes as Stella Shaw and launched her Love at the Haven series of rent boy romances in 2021.Website + blog: http://www.clarelondon.com / stellashawauthor.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarelondonTwitter: https://twitter.com/clare_londonGoodreads: http://bit.ly/2lNSfC2Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/clarelondonBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/clare-londonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarelondon11/Quids&Quills: http://www.quidsandquills.com (accountancy for UK authors)

Book preview

HOW THE STOLE CHRISTMAS

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Copyright ©2022 Clare London

Published by Jocular Press 2022

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This title has been written in UK English.

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All Rights Reserved

This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Blurb

Greg and Perry’s first Christmas dinner together. Cue a storm, a power cut, and rogue red cabbage in the Scottish Highlands!

Read how Perry and Greg met in the novel ROMANCING THE UGLY DUCKLING at books2read.com/uglyducklingcl.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

More by Clare London

About Clare London

CHAPTER 1

Greg woke to a strange whimpering noise from downstairs.

Reaching out, he found the bed cold beside him. His eyes still muzzy from sleep, the bedside clock blinked at him in the darkness: barely five a.m. Perry must have got up early. He shifted to the edge of the mattress, still wrapped cosily in the quilt, and peered over. Rory blinked silently up at him from his basket. Okay, so it wasn’t their dog making the noise.

Rory gave a hopeful whine.

Yeah, yeah. Greg sighed. Looked like he wasn’t going to get a lie-in after all, despite it being Christmas Day. He wriggled out of the bed and grabbed his sweats, socks, and the thick Aran sweater Aileen Mackie had knitted for him as a Christmas gift—to match the much smaller one of her exclusive designs she’d made for Perry, although she’d pointedly left off the bunch of golden sparkle she’d woven into Perry’s. Greg padded out onto the landing, Rory dogging his heels. The cottage was very cold this morning and, outside, he could hear the wind whipping up across the croft. The latest storm had been threatening for weeks, and was certainly living up to its reputation.

Winter weather in the Highlands was often a challenge, but this year the storm warnings were higher than usual. Perry had suggested the escalation was something to do with the polar bears. Hm. Greg smiled to himself. He wasn’t sure Perry had a firm grasp of the global warming debate, to be