Under the Mistletoe
Page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
First Epilogue
Second Epilogue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
First Epilogue
Second Epilogue
Under The Mistletoe
Aria Cole
For My Readers.
Contents
Introduction
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
First Epilogue
Second Epilogue
Bonus Book: Cheeky Christmas
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
First Epilogue
Second Epilogue
Also by Aria Cole
Connect with Aria Cole
Acknowledgments
Introduction
As the head of the ER at Snowpass Mountain Hospital, Aurora Snow hardly has time to decorate, much less be wooed by every mouthy carpenter who lands in her emergency room this holiday season. But you won't find Declan Callaghan on Santa's nice list, and the devilish dimples and twinkle in his eye leave Aurora wondering what it would be like to be at the top of this cocky carpenter’s naughty list.
Together, they’re the biggest natural disaster to hit this Rocky Mountain town, but that won’t stop Declan from trying to win the heart of the sassy, curvy caregiver who’s left an indelible tattoo on his soul. He’s going to have to move mountains to get Aurora under the mistletoe, but maybe a sprinkle of Christmas magic is all they need to find their way to each other—and to everlasting love.
Warning: Grab your jingle bells and hold on tight, Declan and Aurora are about to light up your holiday! Stuffed full of festive cheer, cheesy one-liners, Christmas confessions, and a lifetime of love, this classic love story with a dirty twist is sure to leave you wishing for your own cocky carpenter under the mistletoe!
Introduction
Chapter One
Declan
“Fuck!” Another roar rushed past my lips. “Doesn’t anyone work around here?” I pressed the towel tighter against my thumb, desperate to quell the throbbing. “Got time enough to put up these stupid-ass decorations, but no time for a bleeding man. Great emergency room response here. I’ll be sure to tell all my friends—”
“Hello, Mr. Callaghan, is it?” The curtain pulled away, revealing long, blond waves and a pair of iced-over blue eyes, trained directly on me. “So you’re the guy who’s been moaning like a dying cow back here.”
Both my eyebrows shot up, the incessant throb in my mangled thumb increasing another notch. “Pounding a nail through your thumb will do that, I guess.”
For the first time, my eyes dipped down her neck, over the soft swell of ample tits, a curvy little waist, and hips that looked perfect for digging my hands into when I—
“Can I get a look at the damage?” She stepped closer, eyes zeroing in on my aching hand.
This woman had more curves than a country road. Suddenly, the throb in my hand wasn’t as persistent as the throb in my dick.
I sucked in a quick breath when she slowly unwound the white towel, stained with dark slashes of red.
My blood.
Oh, shit.
My head swam as she discarded the towel and leaned in for a closer look. “That’s gonna need stitches.”
“You don’t say,” I blurted before I could put a lid on my mouth.
“You always such an asshole to people tryin’ to help you?” She shot me a glare.
“Well, I nearly bled out on the table waiting for ya. Isn’t the customer always right or some bullshit?”
She narrowed her eyes, the faintest hint of a grin turning up one side of her lips. “That’s in retail, so, no, that’s not a rule the emergency room subscribes to. Actually, we prioritize patients, and the elderly gentleman in cardiac arrest trumped you.” Her eyes were on mine again, mesmerizing in their depths. “And according to your intake paperwork, you’ve been here about four minutes, so I don’t think that constitutes bleeding out.” She took hold of my thumb to wrap it with a roll of gauze. “Are you always so dramatic?”
I shot her a cocky grin. “You’ve got a winning bedside manner—” my eyes shot to the name tag on her chest “—Dr. Snow.”
A soft grin ticked across her face at my words before she took a step back, cocking her head to the side. “My patients call me Dr. Aurora, and since it looks like I’m stuck with you for at least the next few hours, you’re welcome to as well.”
“No shit?” I settled a little deeper into the cot underneath me.
“No shit, what?” She pressed the clipboard to her tits, eyes holding mine.
“Your name is really Aurora Snow?” I didn’t believe it. I’d never met anyone with a name like that.
“Yup.” She began wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my bicep.
“Anyone ever tell you you look like that Disney ice queen? Ya know, the blond hair, the blue eyes?”
A soft huff pushed past pretty pink lips, and my heart nearly shattered like a fallen icicle. “The mean one? Nothing I haven’t heard before.”
She stood close as she waited for the machine to stop its incessant buzzing. I sucked in a quick whiff of her scent. Sweet, warm, like cinnamon hot chocolate on a winter day, she soothed my mind and made me hungry for something, way down deep.
I’d never met anyone like Dr. Aurora Snow.
“So how long am I gonna be holed up here with your sparkling personality?” I couldn’t help the dig. Something about the way she could take my sharp tongue drew me to her, made me want to demonstrate all the other things I could do with that tongue. The waves of pleasure cascading through her while she called my name at the top of her lungs.
“I’m off at eleven Nurse Harriet will be in after that—”
“Eleven?” I glanced at the clock hanging above the door. “It’s already nine.”
“Indeed, it is.” Her eyes glistened as they lit on mine. “Mind if I ask how it was you drove a nail into your thumb this time of night?”
I shoved my uninjured hand through my hair, thinking back on the hellish day I’d had. “Been on the worksite since six this morning, trying to get it finished before the holiday.”
“So you were at work?” She unwrapped the cuff on my bicep and set it aside.
I shook my head again, wishing to hell it was that easy. “Nope, left a little after eight and went straight to Mama’s house to hang up Christmas lights.”
A soft chuckle filled my ears. “You put a nail through your thumb hanging Christmas lights for your mom?”
“Seems so,” I grumbled.
“How sweet.” Her lips teased up in a smile. “Didn’t peg you for the festive type.”
I shrugged. “I’m not. I fucking hate the holidays, but hell if I can say no to Mama.”
“Well, you probably should have waited until daylight…also maybe on a day you didn’t work fourteen hours. You shouldn’t be so careless.”
“I know what I’m doing. I don’t need any advice from an—” Her eyes darted up, waiting on my next word. “Ice queen.” I winked at her.
She tried to stifle a smile behind her hand, but she failed, her cheeks pinking up the prettiest shade of red I’d ever seen.
A vision came to me of her spread underneath me, all that golden hair fisted in my hands, those lips attached to mine, and stealing all the air from her lungs.
“You work tomorrow night?” I asked, no longer giving a fuck if I ever got a stitch. My thumb could fall off for that matter, and as long as Dr. Aurora was in the room, I’d be just fine.
“That’s a probing question.” She averted her eyes as she tried to act busy. She wasn’t busy, just trying to hide her reaction to me. The way her thighs were shifting back and forth, how her gaze kept landing on my eyes, and everything in her expression again told me I was right.
“I can get a lot more probing than that.” I cocked a sideways smile.
“Are you always such a wiseass?”
“Just wondering what poor bastard is gonna be graced with your lovely personality next.”
“You’re a real…” She shook her head, no longer able to stifle her laugh.
“Bastard?”
“Cocky bastard,” she added, pushing that clipboard against her tits again before stepping away.
Hell, I wasn’t ready for her to leave yet. My stubborn ass began conjuring ways to keep her here. I didn’t give a fuck if she had a job to do. I wanted to be the center of her universe.
Aurora Snow might be walking away now, but not for long. Not if I had anything to do with it.
Chapter Two
Aurora
My mind was still on Declan Callaghan the following night. Something about that smile, the way his eyes cut into me, had my stomach flipping, still. Never had a patient left an impression like he did. But never had a patient been quite like him either. I’d heard a lot, seen even more… But Declan Callaghan, like a ghost, was still haunting my thoughts.
Dark hair, eyes lined with heavy, dark lashes, and an angular face chiseled so finely he could have been rendered by a professional artist—in other words, right out of my dreams. My fantasies swam with visions of his coarse beard rubbing between my thighs, rough against my clit and making me orgasm so hard stars would burst behind my eyelids.
I glanced up at the clock that hung over the unit doors, waiting not so patiently to end my shift and head home. Not that I was heading home to much. Twinkles would be waiting for me, perched on the back of the couch and then proceeding to wrap herself around my leg with a huge “meow” for food. I was the proud owner of the fattest cat in Snowpass Mountain. She was the furry little buddy that kept me warm during the long winter nights, a companion to me more than anyone else ever had been.
I sighed, typing notes into a patient’s file as I thought about yet another upcoming holiday, just Twinkles and me to eat leftover ham and green beans from the hospital feast on Christmas Day. I knew my life looked lonely from the outside, but the truth was I really had no desire to invite anyone else into my life. Just the thought of being laid bare to criticism made my skin crawl.
I’d taken a lifetime's worth of criticism from my mother through all of my growing up years. And I’d learned from her that just because you had the perfect life, marriage, and a baby, it didn’t mean it would last.
Mom was on her seventh marriage. Seventh. I still rolled my eyes thinking about it. Thankfully, she’d eloped with this latest one last summer, and I hadn’t had to be there to watch her exchange another set of vows with another stranger.
She had a way of falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat. Because of that, I had a way of shutting off my emotions, avoiding love as if it were a fast-moving train aimed right at me. My mom’s life had had a helluva impact on mine, made me a bit of a hard-ass toward love, but Twinkles and I were just fine without a man roaming around the house. In my bed. Taking over the bathroom with all his whiskers and man stuff.
Nah, Twinkles and I were good.
In fact, I had plans to take her to the local pet store this weekend and get her picture taken with Santa Paws for our annual Christmas card. I had big plans, and I was doing just fine.
I glanced up at the clock again, and my stomach started a slow rumble as I thought about picking up dinner from Taco Verde on the way home. I looked back down to the laptop in front of me just as the ER doors whooshed open, and Declan Callaghan walked into my emergency room with confident strides.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when he caught my eye and sauntered straight for me. His eyes never left mine, and my stomach fell out onto the floor between my feet.
“Sweet Jesus,” I breathed as I cast my eyes up and down his broad physique. Tall, broad-shouldered, powerful thighs obvious under the worn blue denim of his work jeans. My eyes shuddered closed for a moment when I thought of the heady scent of sawdust and spice that’d rolled off him yesterday. Why the hell was this man back in my ER looking at me like that?
“Dr. Snow.” He stopped at the chair I’d been perched on, forcing my eyes in line with the bulging package just below his belt.
“Pound a nail through the other thumb?”
One side of his mouth crooked up, and I nearly melted into a puddle.
Damn, why did he have this effect on me? A slow bubble of anger formed in my stomach.
“Something better.” He thrust his palm out, displaying something wrapped with a sparkly red bow. “Brought you a thank-you gift.”
My head shot up, and I was unable to keep the surprise from my face as I took the gift he offered.
“Wow.” I slipped my thumb along the smooth curve of a wooden figurine, about six inches high. “Did you…” My words trailed off as I realized what the figurine was. “Wait a minute, is this—”
“An ice queen?” His grin deepened as he leaned closer. The sawdust-and-spice scent filled my nostrils, rushing through my body, sending tingles down to my toes. “Made it this morning.”
My eyes widened. “I don’t know if I should be offended or grateful.”
He hunched down, his eyes now in line with mine, and stroked the pad of his thumb across my cheekbone. A lump the size of the state of Colorado filled my throat. “Wanted to do something to show my thanks.” He leaned closer, lips hovering just out of reach of mine. Was he trying to kiss me? Was this cocky bastard really flirting with me right now? “And make sure you never forget me.”
I shook my head, completely flabbergasted by this turn of events. “I could never forget you.”
His eyes held mine, warm and inviting. I’d never connected with a man like this before, never connected with any man. “I owe you more. Is there anything I can do? My talents are pretty limited to woodworking and ’round the house shit, but I’m happy to help. I want to give something back to you.”
“Oh, you’ve given me enough as it is, Callaghan.”
His grin spread, one hand landing on my knee and squeezing.
My stomach churned with unbridled lust. If just his hand on my knee had this effect, what would it feel like if he was pressed against me? His lips trailing across my skin? His body heavy and imposing, caging me against him?
“You get off soon, right? I was gonna pick up tacos for dinner. Wanna join me?”
My heart stuttered to a stop as I looked at him looking back at me, waiting on my answer. Waiting on any words. But I didn’t have words. Declan Callaghan had rendered me utterly speechless.
“Unless you don’t like tacos. I’m game for whatever you are.”
I huffed, “I like tacos.”
He chuckled before sliding his wounded hand on my other knee. “Good.”
“I can leave now. I was just going to pick up food and head home to my cat—”
“Wait, you’re not dumping me for the cat, are
you?” he teased, faking offense.
Suddenly, all thoughts of Twinkles fled straight out of my head. Declan could have offered to take me to the Arctic, and I would have agreed. What the hell was he doing to me?
“I should go home and feed her. She gets cranky if dinner is late.” I gnawed on my bottom lip, not even sure what I was saying anymore. Declan had my mind all twisted up.
“So, let’s grab tacos and bring them home to the cat. The cat eats tacos?”
“No.” I giggled. “You really don’t owe me anything, Declan. Fixing you up is my job.”
He only shrugged, pulling the laptop from my lap and setting it on the desk at my side. He took my hand in his, lacing our fingers and pulling me up and against his body. Hard and angular, warm and so inviting. Suddenly, a flash of falling into bed with him shook me, left butterflies whizzing around my stomach and that Colorado-sized boulder in my throat blocking all words.
“What if I said coming here tonight had nothing to do with owing you and everything to do with wanting to see you again?” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me a little tighter, the hard bulge of his cock pressing between us. “Your sparkling bedside manner left an impression, Dr. Snow.”
Chapter Three
Declan
We walked out of the ER, her hand locked in mine. I wanted to show my ownership of this woman. Nothing had affected me like she had, and I’d spent all night lying awake in bed thinking of those soft lips and the sass coming out from between them. It made me want more. She made me want more. For the first time, I wanted to lay claim to something, and Aurora Snow was it.