by Celeste Hall
A Yowling Yuletide
A Kitty Coven Christmas Story
By Celeste Hall
A Yowling Yuletide
A Kitty Coven Christmas Story
Copyright © 2014 by Celeste Hall
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Please purchase only authorized editions.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgement
This series is dedicated to my amazing “Katie-Cat”. Ever since she was a little girl, she was always bringing home stray felines. Despite being scratched, bitten, peed on, and a mild case of ringworm, she has never met a cat that she hasn’t liked. If anyone deserves to find happily ever after in the arms of a handsome werecat, it’s her!
Also by Celeste Hall
~ Seduction Series ~
A paranormal erotic romance series, best read in the following order…
Ethan
Kye
Rico
Gavin
All The Queen’s Men
The Brothers Sin – Coming Soon!
~ Kitty Coven Series ~
A new adult romance series, best read in the following order…
Something Wicca This Way Comes
The Bare Witch Project
Love’s a Witch
A Yowling Yuletide
Cheaper By The Coven – Coming Soon!
~ Standalone novels and novellas ~
Fealty
Lady Silence
Prison of Dreams
Simple Musings
His Pale Prisoner
Error: Please Try Again
Secret Admirer
~ Short stories and Anthologies ~
The Inventor’s Throne
A Touch of Irish
Their First Time (A collection of just the first love scene from several of her other books)
The Pied Piper
The Seven Ravens (Once Upon an Apocalypse anthology, via Chaosium Inc.)
The Girl Who Cried Wolf (Once upon a Ménage anthology, via Ravenous Romance)
Beware of Wolves
Angels Among Us
Because he had only passed the bar exam in May, and was therefore the lowest ranking partner in the firm, it was Matt who was assigned desk duty after their receptionist gave her two weeks’ notice.
But he supposed it was a fitting punishment, since the receptionist was his sister, and he was the direct reason for her leaving.
He scowled at the stack of mail in front of him, finding it hard to focus on the names as painful memories flooded up to drown him.
It was less than a month since his sister, Rachel, had driven away Matt's fiancé. Leaving him with a monstrously empty new home and a hole in his chest that he was sure would never heal.
He'd loved Tanya since they were in high school together, although she'd never said more than a few words to him in passing.
She'd been the head cheerleader, the queen of every prom, and the wet dream of every heterosexual male within the entire town of Aspire, New York.
Tanya was movie star beautiful, and her parents had given her every financial advantage their productive dairy farm could offer. The day she'd finally agreed to go out with him, Matt had thought his chest might actually explode. He was that proud to have her on his arm.
His sister had warned him over and over that Tanya was only a gold-digger, looking to use him for the money he'd put aside, and then toss him away as she had so many others. But when he'd been with Tanya, she'd treated him as if he were the first man she'd ever loved. And he'd sucked all that affection up like a damned newborn calf.
He'd spent his life savings turning an old stable on their family farm into a beautiful home, to entice her to move in with him.
A few months later, he worked up the courage to propose. And after weeks of persuasion, she'd finally said yes.
It wasn't until now that he could look back at the events and see the financial motivation that Rachel had warned him about.
It was just after his mother signed the farm over to him and his sister that Tanya agreed to date him. And she hadn't agreed to marry him until Avgard Real Estate Investment and Development had made a multi-million dollar offer to buy the farm from him.
Of course, he'd had no real intention to sell the farm, and as soon as his new fiancé figured that out, she quickly canceled their marriage and moved off to the big city.
He knew that it wasn't entirely Rachel's fault that his love life had imploded so impressively, but she had sure given it a few good kicks along the way.
Her new boyfriend was Tyson Avgard, the man who'd approached him about selling the farm, and indirectly encouraged Tanya to accept his proposal.
He was also the man who'd helped Tanya move away after she learned that Matt wouldn't be selling and making her the millions she craved.
Matt suspected Rachel had a part in that vanishing act as well, but she hadn't admitted to anything.
Abruptly, the office door opened and a blast of frigid December wind threatened to scatter all of the mail and paperwork he'd been sorting. In a move that was neither masculine nor attractive, he flattened himself over the desk, using himself as a giant paperweight in an effort to salvage all of his work.
When the door closed and he was at last able to straighten up, he found himself looking up into the glorious face of a Christmas angel.
That was the best way he could have described her, because she looked exactly like the white robed cherubim that his mother had used to top her Christmas trees for as long as he could remember.
Bright red hair glowed like a halo around her face, perfectly framed by the white fluff on the hood of her long winter coat. She had beautiful porcelain white skin, now pinked from the cold, and golden Topaz eyes that sparkled as if lit from within.
He was so certain that she couldn't be real, he actually lost his ability to speak for several long seconds.
Thankfully, she didn't appear to notice his frozen state as she shrugged out of the heavy coat and revealed a tiny, almost spritely figure underneath.
He realized she couldn't be taller than five foot nothing and probably weighed as much as that coat she'd been wearing.
"Hi, I'm Miranda. The temp agency sent me," the redhead beamed, offering her free hand across the desk towards him. "I'll be filling in for your receptionist."
Despite his battered ego and crushed heart, he still felt his pulse speed up and muscles tense as if his body were preparing for a race.
Oh lord, Matt thought. This was going to end badly. He could already tell.
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
By noon, Matt was struggling to remember all of the reasons why he hated women and would never date again. He was doing his best to remain completely professional with the woman, but she was making the job nearly impossible.
Now, as he scowled down at her, she looked up at him with dancing eyes and smiled.
“Am I doing this right?” She asked, amusement curling the edges of her beautiful mouth as she leaned back to give him a better view of the computer. But it also gave him a spectacular view down her low cut blouse, which he found to be almost irresistible.
“You’re doing fine,” he growled trying to keep his gaze focused upon the work at hand, rather than the exquisite, feminine curves she was revealing.
From where he stood, bent over with his palms
braced against the desk so that he could monitor her progress, the sweet citrus scent of her shampoo would soon kill him, if the soft warmth radiating up from her body didn’t get him first.
Her golden eyes flitted quickly over his face, and he knew she must be struggling to understand his foul mood. But he wasn’t about to explain that he was just one reckless moment away from dragging her up out of that chair and kissing her until neither of them could think straight.
He’d never had such an overwhelming, almost violent, attraction to a woman before. Not even Tanya, despite all of the years that he’d fawned over her.
She licked her lips nervously and he found himself captivated by the motion. Combined with the open curiosity in her eyes, it was enough to make every muscle in his stomach harden to the point of pain.
It almost looked as if she wanted him to kiss her, in spite of how he’d treated her all morning. But he must be mistaken. His ability to understand women was seriously flawed, just look at how easily Tanya had played him.
“Keep going,” he ordered tersely, dragging his gaze away to look at the couple that had just walked in the door. The moment he saw who it was, his hands curled into fists and he felt a muscle in his jaw pop in protest of brutally clenched teeth.
“We’re just here to pick up my last paycheck,” Rachel assured him, with a discreet attempt to keep herself between Matt and the tall blue eyed man behind her. She knew that her brother still held a grudge against Tyson and she’d done a fairly good job of keeping them apart over the past month.
So why had she brought him here? Matt was instantly suspicious.
Then he saw the way that Tyson and Miranda were staring at each other, as if they were lovers long separated and eager to reunite. Although he’d only just met the girl, and had no right to claim her, a possessive jealously flared up hot and fierce inside him.
He actually considered telling Miranda to go wait in his office until Tyson was gone, but that would have confirmed what the girl must already suspect. That he had absolutely gone crazy.
So he clenched his teeth and turned his back on the others. The checks were stored in a locked drawer in his desk. Although he trusted his sister not to investigate any of the confidential and potentially volatile papers also secured in that drawer, it was against company policy for anyone but him to open it.
As he headed down the hall to his office, he heard the soft murmur of voices behind him and felt a silent snarl curl his lips. He didn’t even want to consider what they might be talking about.
Unlocking the drawer, he yanked it open with more force than necessary, nearly ripping it from its sliders. Reaching in for the check, he heard a noise at the door and looked up to see Rachel standing there, watching him.
His first reaction was a bone-chilling panic. If his sister was here, that meant Tyson and Miranda were alone at the front desk. Then he was filled with a blinding fury. With the little slip of paper crushed within one hand, he slammed the drawer shut so hard it rattled everything seated on his desk and nearly toppled a small receptacle filled with pens.
Marching back towards the door, he felt only a vague sense of regret as Rachel cringed away from him. She knew that he’d never hurt her, but she hadn’t seen him in this black a mood since they were small children.
Grabbing her wrist, he plopped the crumbled check down onto her palm.
“There’s your check, now get that guy out of here before I do something we’re both going to regret.”
Miranda’s lighthearted laughter was echoing down to him from the entry and it about made him insane to hear it. He wanted to punch Tyson just for making her that happy. The man obviously knew no boundaries.
Well, maybe it was time for Matt to teach him a few things. But Rachel caught his arm as he attempted to move past her and back down the hall.
“You broke Mom’s heart when you refused to come to Thanksgiving dinner with the family,” she murmured the one thing capable of derailing his murderous rampage.
The moment she mentioned their mother, Matt’s rage was swallowed up by a tidal wave of guilt.
His chin dropped slightly as he paused, sighing with regret.
“I know. I talked to her later,” he admitted. The day after Thanksgiving, his mother had piled up a big plate full of leftovers and hiked through the snowy pasture that separated their houses, so that she could tell him how much she loved him and had missed him.
He’d rather walk through fire naked than see that worry and sadness in his mother’s eyes again.
“She asked me to come today, to plead with you to forgive me and to come spend time with us on Christmas Eve,” Rachel explained. “She said she’s going to make all of your favorites, including the pumpkin spice rolls that you overdosed on last year. You know, the one with the cream cheese filling?”
He groaned miserably. He knew all right, he’d practically crawled away from the table after eating so many. Those rolls were sinfully good.
“I don’t know,” he wavered, not wanting to hurt his mother’s feelings, but desperately needing to keep a safe distance from the man that was currently standing in the office reception area, speaking to a woman that Matt was feeling unusually possessive of. “Will your boyfriend be there?”
Rachel gave him a reproachful look.
“At some point, you’re going to have to get over this irrational dislike for him,” she pointed out. “He wasn’t the one that made Tanya leave. You know that. Besides, Tyson cares about me and we’ve been talking about a more permanent future together. If I marry him, I won’t allow any more of this hostile attitude from you. You’ll have to at least learn how to tolerate him at family dinners.”
Not more than a month ago, Matt had given his sister a similar lecture about Tanya. The two women had never gotten along. Now he was the one alone and bitter, while she was the one envisioning wedding bells.
It made his gut clench.
“I’ll think about it,” he growled, looking down the hall toward the sound of Miranda’s lighthearted voice. What the heck was she talking to Tyson about? She sure hadn’t sounded that happy when she’d been talking to Matt earlier.
“Bring her,” Rachel abruptly suggested, startling him into hesitating a moment longer.
“What?”
“Bring Miranda to the Christmas dinner. She’s sweet and fun, and you obviously have a thing for her. You should see your face right now. You look as if you could eat nails for just being a room apart.”
He snarled something rude under his breath and turned his back on her, marching furiously back out into the waiting room.
The moment Matt entered, Tyson straightened from where he’d been leaning on the desk, completely wrapped up in whatever the petite redhead had been telling him. Rachel quickly hurried to his side, offering both men a warning look that suggested she would not put up with any further behavior from either of them.
“Shall we go?” She asked Tyson, looping her hand through his elbow and half dragging him toward the door without waiting for an answer. “We’ll see you at Christmas dinner, Miranda. Six o’clock at our mom’s house. Matt can pick you up.”
Matt nearly choked on his tongue, horror making him mute when he should have been challenging the invitation.
“Oh,” the redhead beamed a smile, looking from Rachel to Matt, and then back to Rachel. “Okay, that sounds great. Thank you!”
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Over the following week, Matt tried to avoid Miranda whenever possible. Yet he couldn't stop thinking about her. Worse, he couldn't stop dreaming about her. The kind of dreams which required an adult-only warning label and made him feel like a naughty boy at Confession every time she looked at him.
Aspire was experiencing blizzard conditions, so there weren't a lot of clients scheduling appointments this week, which allowed him some reprieve, but gave him far too much time to dwell on his problem.
Christmas was coming up fast and Miranda hadn't once mentioned the invitation Rachel had ext
ended. He was hoping she'd forgotten, but that hope was destroyed Friday morning as she stepped into his office.
A violent twist of dread and excitement raced through his body as the door clicked shut behind her. He was trapped.
"You shouldn't leave the front desk," he growled, trying not to look up from the file he'd been studying. It was much easier to be callous when he didn't have to see the resulting confusion or hurt on her beautiful face.
"It's almost five," she pointed out. "You may not have noticed, but we're practically snowed in. We haven't had a walk-in client all week."
"The phones are still working, aren't they?"
"Yes, but unless you've unplugged yours, I don't think we'll miss a call."
He sighed and finally dragged his gaze up to look at her.
"What do you want, Miranda?" Saying her name was almost painfully sweet. He couldn't begin to count how many times he'd awakened to the sound of it on his lips.
Rather than answer right away, she walked over and sat on the edge of his desk. He doubted she meant it to look so damned sexy, but in that little skirt, he was treated to a fantastic view of her legs.
Her sweet citrusy scent filled his nostrils and made his mouth water for a taste of her. Having her this close was destroying his ability to think or reason clearly.
"Did you know that my grandmother was really into genetics?" She asked.
He couldn't answer, so he just shook his head.
"She loved to sit with my great-grandfather as he was planning which of his sows should be bred to which boars in order to produce pigs that had exceptionally fine tasting, lean meat."
"I'm not following how this related to me," Matt interjected.
"Be patient," she commanded, nonplussed by his surly attitude.
