Christmas Eve Marriage

Christmas Eve Marriage
Jessica Hart

A bride for the holidays…?The only thing Thea's looking for on her vacation on the Greek island of Crete is a little R and R–she certainly doesn't expect to find herself roped in to being Rhys Kingsford's pretend fiancée! It definitely isn't relaxing being around Rhys–in fact being with him is exciting, exhilarating…and everything Thea's ever wanted!Back home, Christmas is coming and reality sinks in. Perhaps it was just a holiday fling? Rhys is a single dad, and Thea's not sure there's room in his life for her. But Rhys has other ideas.

“So what do you think?” asked Rhys after a tiny pause.

“Um…about a goodbye kiss?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I…I suppose it wouldn’t do any harm. I wasn’t sure Kate was entirely convinced last night.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Another silence, longer this time. Long enough for Thea to wonder if he could actually hear her pulse booming.

“We’d better make it look good then,” said Rhys.

It was too much for Thea. As if of their own accord, her hands lifted to his arms, slid upwards to wind around his neck and pull him toward her. Or maybe she didn’t need to pull him. Maybe Rhys was closing the distance anyway. But, however it happened, they were kissing at last, and the release from all that anticipation was so intense Thea gasped in spite of herself.

So much for cool, calm and in control.

Jessica Hart had a haphazard career before she began writing to finance a degree in history. Her experience ranged from waitress, theater production assistant and outback cook to newsdesk secretary, expedition assistant and English teacher, and she has worked in countries as different as France and Indonesia, Australia and Cameroon. She now lives in the north of England, where her hobbies are limited to eating and drinking and traveling when she can, preferably to places where she’ll find good food or desert or tropical rain.

If you’d like to find out more about Jessica Hart, you can visit her Web site at www.jessicahart.co.uk (http://www.jessicahart.co.uk)

Books by Jessica Hart

HARLEQUIN ROMANCE®

3757—FIANCÉ WANTED FAST!* (#litres_trial_promo)

3761—THE BLIND-DATE PROPOSAL* (#litres_trial_promo)

3765—THE WHIRLWIND ENGAGEMENT* (#litres_trial_promo)

3797—HER BOSS’S BABY PLAN

Christmas Eve Marriage

Jessica Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE (#u57738102-cb2c-5289-935a-65fe757e2dbf)

CHAPTER TWO (#u58b718ab-0e35-5f90-9a15-d6e3fc674fb9)

CHAPTER THREE (#ufb1cd863-536d-593b-b556-c6b2e1f904fc)

CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE

NOTHING.

Thea closed the fridge with a sigh and began investigating the kitchen cupboards, but they were equally empty of anything remotely resembling breakfast.

What a great start to the holiday! A nightmare journey, an unfriendly neighbour, less than four hours’ sleep, and now nothing to eat.

‘Have a fortnight in Crete, she said,’ Thea muttered her sister’s words as she bent to peer. ‘You need a break. It’ll be beautiful. Nothing to do but read, relax…starve to death…’

‘What are you doing?’

Clara’s voice made Thea straighten and push her tangled hair away from her face. Her niece was at the bottom of the stairs, looking sleepy and tousled and very sweet in a baggy pink T-shirt. There was no doubt that it was a look that was easier to pull off after four hours’ sleep at nine, when you had peachy skin and a nice, firm little body, than at thirty-four, when peachy skin and a firm body had never figured largely among your assets in the first place.

‘Trying to find some breakfast,’ she said, yawning.

‘Oh, good. I’m hungry.’

‘Me too,’ said Thea glumly.

Nothing new there, then. Easy to tell that she and Clara were related. You’d think they’d be too tired to be hungry. It had been nearly half past five before they got to bed that morning, and it was only just after nine now. Any normal stomach would be daunted by a nightmare trip, arriving in a strange country and utter exhaustion, but Martindale stomachs were tougher than that! A massive asteroid could be hurtling towards earth and her stomach would still be going, Mmm, nine o’clock, no wonder I’m a bit peckish…Bacon and eggs would be nice, or perhaps a little croissant before the end of the world…Oh, and make that a double cappuccino while you’re at it.

She hadn’t even lost weight over Harry. It wasn’t fair. All her friends lost their appetites the moment they hit an emotional crisis, but the misery diet never worked for Thea. She just went in for comfort eating on a massive scale.

Not that there was much chance of eating now, worse luck.

‘I can’t find anything to eat,’ she told Clara. ‘I think we may have to go shopping before breakfast.’

Clara’s face fell. ‘But there aren’t any shops here. We’ll have to drive all the way back to that town we passed last night, and it’ll take ages. It’s miles away.’

‘I know.’ Thea grimaced at the memory of their hair-raising journey through the hills in the small hours. ‘I’m not sure I can face those hairpin bends again, let alone on an empty stomach,’ she said with a sigh.

‘What shall we do?’