by Elisa Leigh
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jonah asks when I storm into the office.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snap, walking to my desk.
“Don’t give me that. You’ve been an asshole for weeks.”
“Fine. It’s you!”
“Me?”
“Yes. You are what is wrong,” I shout.
“Me? What the hell did I do?” He asks, standing up from his desk.
Walking up to my brother, I push him back into his chair. “You pulled me away from the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I left her lying in my bed for hours until she’d had enough and left me. I don’t know her last name or her number. I know nothing, except she possibly lives in town and drives a green fucking Subaru.” I yell in my brother’s face.
“Wait, you met a woman,” He asks, a huge grin transforming his face.
“Not a woman, I met the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with, once I find her that is.”
“No shit!” He laughs. “And how did you meet, ‘the one?’” He says, holding up air quotes around ‘the one.’
I tell him the story of how I met Delaney and some of what happened after, leaving out the details no one will know but me and her.
When I’m done, Jonah shakes his head. “Shit, I’m sorry bro. I had no idea. I’m sure she’ll pop up eventually. If fate brought her into your life once, I’m sure it will happen again.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I sigh. “I’m going to take a walk. I know it’s not your fault, just shitty circumstances.”
“So you just knew?” He asks as I get to the door.
“I saw Delaney and all the pieces of my life finally made sense. I know it’s crazy, hell I’ll be the first one to admit I thought Dad was jerking our chain when he told us that’s what happened with him and Mom. I didn’t believe in love at first sight until it happened to me.”
“When you find her, I’d love to meet the woman who has done this to you.”
“When I find her, you’ll have to wait a few days and lose my number.”
Jonah throws his head back and laughs.
I walk out of the office to go cool down on the patio and pass the Christmas party an insurance company is holding for their employees in our largest reception hall. Bypassing the entrance I take a side door out so that I don’t disturb the guests.
When I step outside, a woman is standing up against the railing with her back to me, staring out into the woods. Her long blonde hair shifts in the wind. She’s wearing a red wrap-around dress, black knee-high boots, similar to the ones she wore the last time I saw her, and a white scarf. I’d know that perfect ass anywhere.
“Delaney?” I yell, getting her attention.
She turns to face me and her beautiful eyes go wide as she freezes where she stands. I stomp over there, pissed that she’s here and not trying to find me, but happy at the same time.
“Where the hell is your coat?” I ask, taking my leather jacket off and wrapping it around her shoulders. “You’re going to freeze your ass off out here,” I growl.
Her face crumples and I swear she looks as if she may break. Shit. That’s not what I wanted to happen the first time we spoke after not seeing her in weeks. That’s not what I ever want to happen.
“Oh, Darlin’ come here,” I say, pulling her into my arms as she starts to cry.
Once she’s composed herself and wiped her face dry she looks up at me. “Justice, we need to talk.”
Fuck. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
She shrugs and gives me a sad smile. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
I pull her out of the cold and into my office, locking the door behind us so my brother doesn’t barge in.
“Here, sit down. What’s wrong?” I ask, guiding her to sit on the couch.
“I’m pregnant,” she blurts out, just as I’m about to sit down beside her, but change my mind.
“Pregnant?” I shout, crossing my arms and staring down at her.
She winces and nods. “I just found out a couple of days ago. I was planning on telling you, I just needed to figure out how. I know this isn’t what you wanted, and I’m not asking you to be a part of the baby’s life. I just thought it was only right that you know.”
“Let me get this straight, you aren’t expecting me to be a part of my child’s life, and you’re only telling me because it’s the right thing to do?” I growl.
She nods.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I want to be a part of their life?”
“Because you didn’t want to be a part of mine,” She explodes, throwing her hands up into the air.
“Jesus Christ, I’m going to kill him,” I mutter.
“Kill who?” She asks with wide eyes.
“My brother. He’s the one who called me out that night for a plumbing emergency up here at the main building. What we didn’t know was that it was a much bigger job than either of us anticipated. I’ve been pissed at him for weeks because of it. I would have called to tell you what was going on, but I didn’t have your number, and I sure as shit wasn’t sending anyone down to my cabin to tell you.”
“Oh,” she says, biting her bottom lip.
“Delaney, I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you since the moment I turned around and saw you standing there looking like the goddess you are.”
“So you’re not mad?” She asks, biting her bottom lip.
“Hell no, I’m not mad. Didn’t you hear me? I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m not mad, I’m ecstatic. This is just the start for us.”
She starts laughing as tears roll down her cheeks. “Thank God. I was so worried you’d think I was trying to trap you or something. I knew I should have taken the morning after pill since I wasn’t on birth control, but when I was at the pharmacy to pick it up, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It didn’t feel right.”
“You’re goddamn right it didn’t feel right,” I say, walking to the safe in our office. I twist the dial back and forth until the door pops open and grab what I’m after then close the safe. Walking back to Delaney I get down on one knee. “Darlin’, will you marry me?” I ask, holding out my grandmother’s engagement ring that my father gave me before he passed away.
Delaney studies me intently. “Justice, we don’t have to get married because of the baby. I’m just happy you want to be a part of their life, and mine.”
I grab her hand and slide the ring on her ring finger. “I’m marrying you because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. You okay with that?” I growl.
“Yeah,” She smiles. “Perfectly okay with that.”
“Good,” I say before kissing her sweet lips. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed kissing you Darlin’.”
Standing up, I pull her into my arms bridal style and head to the door. “Where are you taking me?” She asks.
“Back home, so I can make love to my sweet fiancé.”
“You’re pretty confident,” she laughs.
“That I am. I know what I want and I get it,” I wink, then kiss her.
“I love you too, Justice.”
“Good.”
Epilogue
DELANEY
It’s been ten years since I showed up for a blind date on a sleigh ride with one man, and wound up in bed with another. It’s not exactly how I tell the story to our children though. To them, Justice and I met on a sleigh ride through a winter wonderland a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving and we lived happily ever after. That’s the way I like it.
Our oldest daughter Justine begs to hear the story every night before bed. Justice usually tells it since he says I leave all the good parts out. I swear he makes up half the stuff he tells her, changing and adding parts each time he tells it. What’s never changed and probably never will is that he has her believing we started out as some real life fairytale.
Reality isn’t that simple.
One day I’ll
tell my sweet nine year old that you have to wait for your Prince Charming to come along and that sometimes, while you’re waiting you’ll meet a lot of toads. Justice will probably tell her that she’ll know instantly when she’s found her one, but I’m a little more skeptical, I’ll tell her to be sure. I’ll tell her not to give up and give in to the toads because they’ll do nothing but hurt you, even if it doesn’t seem that way at the time.
I never want my daughter to settle for anything less than she deserves. But if she ever does, I’ll be there to help heal her wounded heart.
A few days after the first night Justice and I met I found out what happened to Louis. He texted me several times, telling me how sorry he was that he missed our date and that he’d love to try again. I wasn’t interested. Justice ruined all other men for me. Louis explained he had come down with food poisoning and was really sick for two days, that’s why he wasn’t able to message me. I don’t know how much of that story I believe, but either way, I wasn’t interested. I asked him not to contact me again.
Justice demanded I move into the cabin with him right away. I told him we could take things slow and he told me he didn’t know the word slow. I moved in after a few weeks, even though I spent most nights at his cabin during the time before I moved in officially. It’s crazy how fast we went from meeting, falling into bed, falling in love, to pregnant and married. If anyone would have told me that’s how I’d meet my husband, I would have laughed hard.
We ended up getting married when I was seven months pregnant. While I loved Justice and knew I wanted to be with him, I still needed that time to adjust to us being us. Justice gave me the time that I needed, as long as I was with him. We had a beautiful summer wedding at the resort surrounded by a few of our friends, and our family.
I quit working at the insurance company before I had Justine and never went back. I help out around the resort here and there doing whatever they need, but for the most part I’m home with my children. We still live in the same cabin, we’ve just added on, making enough room for our family.
I just tucked Maisie and Jericho, our six year old fraternal twins into bed, and I stop in to see Justice finishing our story, once again, with Justine.
“And then I told her we were getting married and we lived happily ever after.”
“Daddy, Momma said you can’t tell a lady what to do.”
I giggle, but cover up my mouth so they don’t hear me listening in.
“Your Momma is right. Don’t you ever let a boy tell you what to do.” Justice says.
“Then why did you tell Momma what to do?” Justine asks, sounding very confused.
“Because she was being stubborn and I knew she wanted to marry me. She was just nervous because it all happened so fast. I had no doubts though. I knew your momma’s heart. She was my future, she is the rest of my life.”
Justine sighs happily. “I think Vance Hall is my future.”
“The hell he is,” Justice growls. “He’s probably just a toad.”
“Uh huh. Goodnight Daddy,” she yawns, effectively blowing him off.
“Goodnight sweetie,” He says, kissing the top of her head and pulling her covers up to her chin.
He turns on her bedside lamp then walks out the door, switching her light off and leaving her door ajar as he bumps into me and glares.
“That is all your fault,” He growls quietly.
I throw my head back and laugh then walk to our room, Justice on my heels. Justine learned the art of blowing her daddy off, from me. He closes our door and walks up behind me as I’m pulling my shirt over my head, then wraps his arms around me from the back.
“I love you so fucking much Delaney. Do you know that?” He asks, kissing down my neck.
“Not as much as I love you,” I tell him, turning around in his arms. “I have something to tell you,” I say, moving his hand to rest on my stomach.
His eyes light up, “Are you sure?”
“I took the test this morning.” I smile.
“You’ve made me the happiest man in the world Delaney,” He says before taking my mouth in a deep kiss.
The Warming Up to Love authors have teamed up to bring you nine new romances guaranteed to chase away the winter chill. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, love, and hot book boyfriends & get ready to be warmed up to love!
Hugs and KISSES,
The Warming Up to Love Authors
Check out all the Warming Up to Love books!
Christmas Kisses by Mila Crawford & Aria Cole
Winter Kisses by Flora Ferrari
Mistletoe Kisses by Shaw Hart
Unwrapped Kisses by Jenna Rose
Sugar Kisses by Megan Wade
Warm Kisses by Loni Ree
Naughty Kisses by Mayra Statham
Holly Kisses by Penelope Wylde
Join My Reader Group
Elisa Leigh’s Readers
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Acknowledgments
Thank you Tamira for beta reading Snowy Kisses. I love brainstorming ideas with you. You are truly an awesome human!
Thank you Loni Ree for including me in this collaboration. It’s been a dream and I can’t wait to work on more.
To my readers, thank you for reading Snowy Kisses. I hope you enjoyed Justice and Delaney as much as I loved writing them. If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.
xoxo,
Elisa
About the Author
Elisa Leigh writes dirty talking alpha men who are rough, possessive, and totally in love with their women. Elisa promises with every book she writes, to give you a sometimes sweet and always steamy love story that will end with a Happily Ever After!
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Visit www.elisaleigh.com for current releases and book updates.
Also by Elisa Leigh
Please check my Amazon Author page for a full list of my books.
Holiday Books
Christmas
His Christmas Promise
Pining For Davis
Sleigh Me Baby
A Queen For Christmas Co-Written with MK Moore
The Bride’s Christmas Miracle
A Bride for Theo
Daddy Captain Co-Written with MK Moore
Valentine’s Day Their Virgin Valentine
St. Patrick’s Day The Irishman
Father’s Day Bringing Home Daddy
4th of July Red, White, & Mine
Halloween
Hunting Lucy
His Curvy Witch
Thanksgiving
Hungry For Wade
Falling for Sadie Mae
Contemporary Romance
His Curvy Woman
Owning Madison
Roped Into Love
Tempting Fate
Hot for the Soldier
Sweet Curves
Loving Summer Co-Written with MK Moore
Sweet Love
Curvy and the Beast Co-Written with MK Moore
Holding Onto Kinsley
Shifter and Paranormal Romance
New Hope Shifters Series
Cole’s Salvation
Ruby’s Strength
Rescuing Their Mate
Bishop (Part One)
Panthera Security Series
Finally Our Forever
Keeping Our Forever
Fighting Our Forever
Motorcycle Romance
Diablo Sinners MC
Nixon
Steel Daggers MC (Series Complete)
PRES
ROCK
RASH & JESTER (MMF)
PRINCE
TRITON
CARTER
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Snowy Kisses
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Epilogue
Warming Up to Love Series
Join My Reader Group
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Elisa Leigh
