The Yuletide Engagement

The Yuletide Engagement
Carole Mortimer

Carole Mortimer is one of Mills & Boon’s best loved Modern Romance authors. With nearly 200 books published and a career spanning 35 years, Mills & Boon are thrilled to present her complete works available to download for the very first time! Rediscover old favourites - and find new ones! - in this fabulous collection…A proposal for Christmas…When Patrick McGarth offers to take Ellie Fairfax to her company's Christmas party, she reluctantly accepts. If nothing else, she can show the world—and her cheating ex-boyfriend—that she is not nursing a broken heart!But what does a wealthy and powerful man like Patrick want with an ordinary girl like her? It doesn't take long for Ellie to find out as she tries to resist the temptation of Patrick under the mistletoe… This Christmas, will Ellie find a diamond in her stocking?

To the rescue…armed with a ring!

Marriage is their mission!

Look for more titles in this ongoing and adventurous new series.

Available only from Mills & Boon

.

The Yuletide Engagement

Carole Mortimer

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

For

Peter

Table of Contents

Cover (#u8f7bdb29-da59-520e-99d6-eb0f41515f9d)

Title Page (#ud92e8b7d-f477-5ac0-bdb7-07a36004ec17)

Dedication (#u3e521175-7f0e-5915-9909-86cb3ee11fad)

CHAPTER ONE (#ufbc64b3c-cb92-5717-9e72-c81690a94628)

CHAPTER TWO (#u4df4efb1-2f7c-579f-b004-ab64a5f75d12)

CHAPTER THREE (#u9ea55021-8025-5ded-bed9-e607d5414983)

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 ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_38dbc46a-e066-5091-a76a-a29fc94b48b9)

‘CINDERS shall go to the ball!’ Toby announced as he stood poised in the kitchen doorway, a look of triumph on his boyishly handsome face. ‘Although the first person to call me the Fairy Godmother is going to get slapped!’

Ellie looked up from the newspaper she had been reading where she sat at the kitchen table, blue gaze narrowing as she took in the pleased flush on her brother’s cheeks. ‘Toby, did you call into the pub again on your way home from work?’ she prompted suspiciously. His eyes looked overbright, and he wasn’t making much sense, either!

‘That’s all the thanks I get for getting you out of a difficult situation—accusations of inebriation!’ He grinned widely as he came fully into the kitchen, leaving the door open behind him, despite the fact that snow was forecast for later this evening.

Ellie gave an involuntary shiver as a cold blast of air followed her brother into the room. ‘At least shut the door, Toby,’ she reasoned with indulgent affection. ‘You—’

‘Didn’t you hear me, Ellie?’ He pulled her easily to her feet, swinging her round in the close confines of the kitchen.

‘Something about Cinders and a ball.’ She nodded, starting to feel slightly dizzy as the kitchen became a giddy blur; maybe intoxication was infectious? ‘Toby, will you please stop?’ she gasped weakly.

He did, holding onto her hands as she swayed slightly. ‘Ellie, I asked him and he said yes. Can you believe that?’ he exclaimed happily. ‘Didn’t I tell you he’s one of the good guys? He’s even coming round later this evening to sort out the details,’ he announced triumphantly. ‘Isn’t that just—?’

‘Toby, will you just slow down and tell me who you have asked to do what?’ Ellie cut in impatiently, but she already felt a terrible sense of foreboding as it slowly started to dawn on her exactly what Toby might have done. Surely he hadn’t—he wouldn’t have—? She had been joking, for goodness’ sake!

Toby let go of her hands, grinning at her victoriously as he reached for an apple from the bowl in the middle of the kitchen table, biting down on its crispness with complete enjoyment.

‘Toby!’ Ellie said warningly. ‘Will you just tell me exactly what it is you’ve done?’ Although she had a feeling she already knew the answer to that!

Her brother returned her gaze with guileless blue eyes. ‘I’ve asked Patrick to escort you to your company Christmas dinner, of course,’ he dismissed with satisfaction.

‘Patrick…?’ she echoed faintly.

‘Patrick McGrath. My boss,’ her brother enlarged impatiently as she just stared at him. ‘Remember? We were discussing the problem at the weekend and you said that what you really needed was someone high-powered like Patrick to accompany you. That way—’

‘But I wasn’t being serious, Toby,’ she cut in incredulously, sinking back down onto the kitchen chair, staring disbelievingly at her brother. He was the younger by only a year, but sometimes—like now—it could feel like ten!

The company Christmas dinner was quickly looming, and this year, after Ellie’s recent break-up with Gareth, a junior partner in the law firm they both worked for, it promised to be something of an ordeal for her. Not to go would give the impression she was too much of a coward to face Gareth and his new girlfriend, but to go on her own would make it look as if she were still pining for him. Which she most certainly was not!

Which was why, over the weekend, as she and Toby had lingered over their meal together on Sunday evening, she had drunk one glass of wine too many and suggested that she needed someone like Patrick McGrath, Toby’s wealthy entrepreneurial boss, to go with her to the dinner—no one could possibly think she was still interested in Gareth when she was in the company of such a man.

Tall, dark, handsome and extremely successful, Patrick McGrath was the ideal man to allay any doubts anyone might have as to her having any lingering feelings for Gareth.

But she had thought Toby knew that it had only been that third glass of wine talking, that she hadn’t really meant for it to happen!