Free Holiday Read!

Last, year I posted a free holiday read for a limited time on my website, so I thought I’d share it again this season. Only this time I’m only posting it here on the blog. Why? Because I like you. ;) So, here’s an excerpt of CHRISTMAS IN HIGH HEELS. Hope you enjoy! (Now I’m off to load my Amazon cart with Christmas goodies… I love online holiday shopping!)




CHRISTMAS IN HIGH HEELS

“Maddie, what is that?” a deep voice asked behind me.
I looked up at the green sprig I was currently pinning to the ceiling of my boyfriend’s living room.
“Mistletoe.”
“Mistletoe?”
“Yeah, you know, you’re supposed to kiss under it.”
I felt a pair of large, warm hands at my waist as I strained forward on my stepladder. “I know what it’s for. I just don’t get why you’re risking life and
limb to stick it to my ceiling. Whoa, careful,” he added, grabbing my hips as I
teetered to the left.
“Use your imagination, big guy,” I responded, stepping down to face him.
“Hmmmm.” He looked up. We were standing directly underneath the green sprig. “Good point.”
He leaned in close, his warm breath hitting my lips just a second before his
mouth did. He tasted like coffee and the rocky road ice cream we’d had for
dessert. Yum. I kissed him back. Hard. With tongue.
“So,” he said when we finally came up for air. “What’s on the agenda tonight?”
I nipped at his lower lip. “Use your imagination, big guy,” I repeated with a
grin.
Tonight was Christmas Eve. Our first together. Not that it was the first
Christmas Eve that had passed since we’d started dating, but it was the first one
we’d spent together. In fact, it was the first holiday of any kind that we’d really
spent together.
Jack Ramirez was tall, dark, and handsome with a capital H-O-T. He was
also a homicide detective with a captain who tended to call at all the wrong
times. Like on my birthday when our opera tickets had gone to waste over a
double homicide in the West Hills. And last Valentine’s Day when he’d made
reservations at this romantic, little Italian bistro with drippy candles and
everything. Then had to cancel when some stockbroker got hopped up on one
too many triple lattes and shot his partner in their office downtown. And then
there was Halloween. My best friend, Dana, had thrown this huge costume
party, and Ramirez and I were supposed to go as two-person horse. An outfit
that doesn’t work so well when the front half gets called to a triple homicide near
the airport.
So, when Ramirez had sworn on his grandmother’s grave that his captain
was not only not calling him in this Christmas but was also in Vancouver visiting
his mother, I immediately made the agenda for our evening. Ramirez, me, and a
nice romantic evening at home. Quiet. Alone.
Possibly even naked.
And from the look in Ramirez’s eyes, I’d say he was totally on board with that plan.
He leaned in close again, doing a sort of deep growl thing in the back of his
throat, before his hands snaked up my sides, pulling me taut against a six-pack
Budweiser would kill for.
I planted my lips squarely on his, nibbling again until we both started panting like Dobermans.
But just as his fingers began flirting with the button fly of my jeans, the
“William Tell Overture” rang out from my purse.
Ramirez groaned.
“Hold that thought,” I told him, quickly locating the offending cell and
hitting the on button.


Want to read the rest? Download the .pdf version here:
http://www.gemmahalliday.com/christmas_in_high_heels/Christmas_in_High_Heels.pdf


~ Trigger Happy Halliday