The Power of Christmas…
When I close my eyes and think about Christmas, I see my parents’ dark living room. In the corner is the biggest tree they could get through the front door and it’s covered with twinkling lights and tinsel that catches that light and spins it around, reflecting it to the ornaments where it sparkles and shines. I can almost smell the baking ham, homemade bread, cookies and pies.
If I blink, I’m older. The tree is mine, the one I decorated with my husband. I’m the one baking the ham, cookies and pies. It’s my kids who are ooohhhing and aaahhhing at the sparkling tree.
If I blink again, I’m in my son’s house. The tree is his, though the whole family has decorated it with ornaments passed down to his wife from her grandparents. His kids are ooohhhing and aaahhhing at the tree, chattering about Santa, eager to go to bed so morning will come sooner.
There is nothing that speaks to the continuity of life the way Christmas does. In STOLEN KISS WITH HER BILLIONAIRE BOSS that’s what breaks Hugo Harrington’s heart. He feels he was betrayed by his family, yet longs to bring them back together when he buys the family’s hotel. The hotel had hosted London’s grandest Christmas Eve celebration and he wants it back. He wants the feeling of being surrounded by family. He wants old wounds healed. Most of all, he wants the misunderstandings and misconceptions to be discussed and cleared up.
He chooses Erin Hunter to help him get the Christmas Eve party details right and she does because she’s the best. But she’s only the best because she has an intuition about people, and she soon realizes the façade of perfection that Hugo presents to the world has a chip. There’s something wrong with this little family. A secret. Some betrayal. And no one wants to talk about it.
Her own past is checkered. Her husband died far too young, but there was a betrayal there too. Something far worse than an affair. He had confided his cancer diagnosis to a female coworker though he never told Erin he was dying, leaving her to feel she wasn’t his partner or even a real friend, and making her a washout as a wife.
She has their son after Josh dies and builds a life for herself, not willing to risk her heart again. But fate has a way of testing a person’s resolve. In Erin’s case, it tempts her with the most untrustworthy man around, a guy who – rumor has it – betrayed his own family: Hugo Harrington. He wants Christmas with all the trimmings, but his brother and sister can’t forgive him for breaking up their family.
Erin doesn’t want to like him – he’s the Grinch in Gucci – but he’s as sexy as a brooding stare or an unexpected first kiss.
And something seems off with the story the tabloids keep repeating.
Christmas past clearly haunts him. He hasn’t celebrated the holiday since “that” night. She should leave him alone. She should do her job and go back to Manhattan when the big party is over.
But Christmas has a way of softening people’s hearts, of building continuity from one generation to another, of reminding us of what’s important.
And this Christmas might just be the one when Hugo Harrington gets his all his wishes. Even a few he didn’t know he had.
This is why I love Christmas and Christmas stories. When I was a kid the world was a bright, shiny place at Christmas time. When I had my own kids, the world became even brighter. If there are miracles to be had they can’t help but pop up when the world is so filled with love.
Stolen Kiss with her Billionaire Boss
And she’s spending it with her boss!
New Yorker Erin is intrigued when Hugo Harrington asks for her help on a hotel renovation in London, just weeks before Christmas! But Erin soon discovers how personal this project is to her brooding boss. Watching him wrestle with the memories of his past uncovers a side to Hugo she’s never seen. And then a stolen snowbound kiss changes everything…
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