Feastive Fire

By Libby Campbell

When her life is in pieces, can his tough love put it back together? As Christmas approaches, Roxy finds herself in the company of the people who almost destroyed her with lies and false rumors.She copes by drinking until the bottle runs dry. Alpha fireman Jax stops her from getting behind the wheel of her car. He sees she is vulnerable and wants to help. But her ability to trust others is in tatters and first she must face some stern consequences. Is she strong enough to accept Jax’s powerful medicine?
Disclaimer: this is a Christmas fairy tale with steamy sex scenes and more than a little spanking. If those themes make you uncomfortable, please do not buy this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libby Campbell
• Release date: Sep 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781999552404

Libby Campbell

My romance novels feature strong, self-reliant women and the powerful men who love them. Romantic by nature, I write the stories I want to read: those that feature a spicy power exchange and deliver a sting in the tale.Canadian by birth, I also lived in Australia for a couple of decades. While living there I overcame my aversion to saucer-sized spiders and, as a condition of marriage to my Aussie Prince Charming, I swore a lifelong allegiance to the Melbourne Football Club.Then family called and my husband and I packed up and moved. We now live on a rocky island on Canada’s West Coast, close to beaches that once were frequented by smugglers and rumrunners.My passions are reading and writing. I adore all animals and love hiking, beachcombing, and an occasional night of dancing.

Book preview

Festive Fire

FESTIVE FIRE

LIBBY CAMPBELL

CONTENTS

1. The fence

2. Dining with rich people

3. Recovery

4. Men for sale

5. Paying the piper

6. Claiming the prize

7. Settling scores

8. Finding Roxy

9. Fresh start

More from Libby Campbell:

His to Hold Series

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The Lighthouses of Devmaer series

Tales of Devmaer: Novellas attached to The Lighthouses of Devmaer series:

Bad Girls Grumpy Bosses

Other books by Libby Campbell:

Connect with Libby Campbell:

Libby Campbell in her own words:

Copyright © 2018 by Libby Campbell

www.libbycampbell.com

Published by Libby Campbell Romance

ISBN: 978-1-9995524-0-4

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information and retrieval systems, without permission from the author, other than short excerpts for the purposes of review, discussion, or promotion.

Disclaimer: this is a Christmas fairy tale with steamy sex scenes and more than a little spanking. If those themes make you uncomfortable, please do not read this novella.

New Cover design Nov 2022: Gavin Campbell

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1

THE FENCE

When Jax met Roxy for the first time she was pushing a baby carriage and holding onto an energetic labradoodle.

Home after a night shift, Jax had been sleeping with the window wide open, trying to fill his lungs with fresh air. He woke to the sound of branches breaking off his apple tree by the fence. Having been a recent victim of vandalism, he leapt to his feet and rushed outside. He didn’t expect to see a shapely young woman with a baby and dog walking away.

The ground beside the fence was littered with branches that had been ripped from his tree.

Hey! he shouted.

The woman spun around, nailing him with fierce brown eyes. Keep your voice down, she growled. I’ve just got the baby to sleep.

As she said that, the dog trotted to the end of its leash, tongue lolling, tail wagging.

Good boy. He rubbed the dog’s ears while holding out his right hand in a token of goodwill. Jax Boucher.

Roxy studied his long, tapered fingers, as if she couldn’t decide whether his gesture was some sort of trap. Her temple throbbed with annoyance.

When she looked up at Jax’s handsome face, a rare spike of desire made her heart race. He had good manners. That was always irresistible. His toned physique, emphasized by a clinging t-shirt, distracted her more than she wanted to admit.

Roxy Pearce, she said through clenched teeth.

You did that to my tree? He pointed behind them.

I did.

What the hell? I mean – why?

Look how narrow this sidewalk is. She spoke in a near whisper. I’m navigating it with a baby carriage and a dog. Every time I go past your place, one of those branches just about gouges my eyes out. If you don’t want other people pruning your freaking tree, get out here and fix it yourself.

Having vented, she shook hands with strength and confidence. The leather of her gloves was soft in Jax’s hand. He was seized by the impulse to undo the long braid that hung over her shoulder, to loosen her up somehow.

He frowned, more at himself than at her. Anger made some women ugly, but not this one. She was like a displeased god, calm, sure of herself, and implacable. For one irrational second, he thought about asking her for coffee. But angry women were crazy women. He’d had a brutal lesson in that over the past year.

Besides: baby and dog. She was obviously married and settled into some sweet domestic harmony that he wouldn’t intrude on.

You may be right, Jax said. When he looked back at the fence, he saw that she hadn’t broken off all the branches, just the ones that reached her head level. Sorry, I’ve been working double shifts for a while.

She didn’t need to know that but for some unknown reason he wanted to tell her. He bit his tongue before he blurted any further personal information.

Still, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her cheeks colored with temper, giving her a radiant beauty. Her eyes sparkled. She had a hot compact body, revealed by the clinging leggings tucked into knee-high boots. Everything about her said style. A scarf was tied with casual elegance at the open neck of her blue jacket. The tails of a white blouse hung below the hem of the jacket, as though artfully planned to emphasize the shortness of the jacket and the length and shapeliness of her legs.

Her stiff posture said she was tightly wound, as though every breath was measured and controlled.

Why was he apologizing to her?

The next time you get the impulse to do someone’s gardening for them, you might try knocking on their door and asking them to look after it themselves. He smiled.

I tried that two days ago. No answer. I dropped a note in your mailbox too. Didn’t you see it? As she spoke, she gently pushed the baby carriage back and forth. It was one of those expensive English numbers with the springs and rubber wheels.

The clothes. The buggy. The designer dog. She must be some rich bastard’s trophy wife. Jax tried not to stare at her legs. I work long hours so I’m out a lot. I don’t check my mail much because I get all my bills online. The only stuff that comes to the house is junk.

Or worse, he thought, chilling at the memory of Caitlin, the woman who’d stalked him for months. He wasn’t going to tell this beautiful stranger that he often didn’t answer his door unless he was expecting someone or something. He wasn’t sure that nightmare was over.

Remembering how Caitlin had tried to take over his life made Jax step back a bit. She’d stalked him with a manic obsession that had left him nervous about all women. Gorgeous or not, Roxy might be Caitlin’s clone.

Trying to cover up how unsettled he was, he turned to go. Got your message. I’ll trim the rest of these branches. In the future if you want my attention, I’m in the phone book and I’ve got voice mail. J. Boucher. I’m the only one around.

When he walked away, Roxy was disappointed and relieved at the same time. She could lose herself in those intense blue eyes. The lingering lime-salt scent that had reached her when they shook hands made her lick her lips. But no. She wouldn’t go there even if she could.

Her interest in men had been so low for so long, she thought she was past caring. The truth was, she didn’t want to care. She didn’t want the complication of having to trust someone new. She could barely trust the few people left in her life after last year’s debacle.

She pushed the carriage home, smiling at Oliver’s sleeping face. She loved these walks with her infant nephew. They gave her sister Tilly a chance to rest and have some time to herself. Roxy’s life was quiet and settled now. That was the way she liked it, with as few surprises as possible.

But her body had responded to Jax with such a rush of heat, she couldn’t ignore it. The last time she’d reacted to a male like that was when she’d been thirteen years old, watching music videos. No real-life man had ever triggered this dark tangled response. Something about Jax, the way he was both confronting and mannerly at the same time, sparked an attraction to him. Despite the conflict, she’d enjoyed meeting him. Even Enzo, the rescue labradoodle, seemed calmed by their chance meeting.

She’d only started doing the walks recently, getting out when