Winter Wishes [Anthology]

248 Pages·2016·1.08 MB·English

by  Arend Vivian

Winter Wishes

A Twist on Tradition
A woman has the Christmas Eve from Hell. Two cat shifters play naughty
games. And a witch brings out the beast inside the man. The magic of the season
takes on a whole new meaning in these three fantastic—and festive—novellas
from some of the best voices in paranormal romance.

Anthology includes:
Tangled Tinsel by Vivian Arend No Angel by Vivi Andrews Freeze Line by
Moira Rogers
Stories also available for purchase separately.
Dear Reader,
There’s something magical about the holiday season, whether you celebrate
Christmas or Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Diwali. The energy and excitement
surrounding these holidays charges the air and our emotions, providing a perfect
platform for romance and love. So I knew we couldn’t let Carina Press’s first
holiday season pass without celebrating it with a collection of special novella
releases.

This holiday season, celebrate with our first collection of invitation-only
novellas. We’ve pulled together eleven talented authors and author duos, all of
whom have made their mark in their respective niches, and invited them to
transport our readers with holiday delights. In Naughty and Nice, join Jaci
Burton, Lauren Dane, Megan Hart and Shannon Stacey as they show you both
the sensual and sweet sides of the holidays. Visit post-apocalyptic worlds and
paranormal beings in an enchanted journey with authors Vivi Andrews, Moira
Rogers and Vivian Arend in Winter Wishes. And celebrate the beauty of the
season in His for the Holidays with m/m authors Josh Lanyon, Z.A. Maxfield,
Harper Fox and LB Gregg.

Through the talent of their writing and their captivating storytelling, I believe
you’ll find something in each of these special novellas to put you in the magic of
the holiday moment.

Wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons.

~Angela
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Contents
Copyright
Tangled Tinsel: Vivian Arend
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About the Author
No Angel: Vivi Andrews
Chapter One: Cloudy with a Chance of Angels
Chapter Two: Mistletoe & Mephistopheles
Chapter Three: How to Cope When Your Boyfriend is Abducted by the
Prince of Darkness
Chapter Four: Waking the Dead
Chapter Five: The Blurry Lines Between Heaven, Hell & Hollywood
Chapter Six: No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service
Chapter Seven: So You’re Dating a Demon
Chapter Eight: When the Hordes of Hell Attack
Chapter Nine: Hell Hath No Fury Like Satan’s Mistress
Chapter Ten: Truths & Consequences
Chapter Eleven: Angels We Have Heard in Hollywood
Chapter Twelve: Dawn of the Damned
Chapter Thirteen: Mistletoe Merry-Go-Round
About the Author
Freeze Line: Moira Rogers
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
About the Author
Tangled Tinsel
By Vivian Arend
She’s the cat’s meow, and he’s ready to pounce!

Five miles of leather-clad leg is all it takes to lure Kyle Branegan out from his
carefully hidden lifestyle as part of the Cougar Corp, a secret branch of the
Shifter Enforcer League. He’s hoping for a night of fun and frolic, cat-style, no
strings attached. With a sultry swing of her hips, Eloise Scott tangles him up in
her ball of tricks, and just when he thinks he’s about to get lucky, she cuffs him
—naked—to her bed.

An undercover cop in the human police force, El’s been given a top-secret
mission to keep the big cat under her paw until he’s needed to testify in court in
the New Year. Her decision to take him home for a quiet Christmas in her sleepy
hometown turns out to be far more interesting than she expected. Her parents are
suddenly rich, her old boyfriend is sniffing around and all six-feet-plus of sexy
cougar male is sleeping in her bed.

And that’s before they announce their fake engagement…
Dedication
For my Mom, who was totally thrilled when I told her I was writing a book for a
division of Harlequin. But sorry, Mom, you’re still not allowed to read it. I
promise to write something less spicy…someday.
Chapter One
Five miles of leg strutted past him. Leather clad legs with incredibly high boots
that wrapped lovingly around her thighs, leaving a scant three inches of bare skin
visible below the bottom of her fuck-me leather miniskirt.
He’d died and gone to heaven.
And when she paused and bent over, exposing a tantalizing slice of two
perfectly rounded ass cheeks, he lost control and purred in public.
The human females at the next table looked up from their frothy mugs of
frou-frou coffee to gawk at him in concern. Kyle Branegan returned their stares
with a smile, waggling his brows until one looked away and the other woman—
well, she licked her lips and swallowed hard. Yeah toots, you were flirting with a
cat before. Kyle wiped his mouth, threw the napkin down and unfolded his legs
from under the teeny table.
Hunting time.
His target had disappeared around the corner, but Kyle didn’t feel any need
to hurry. The full sun shone down, fresh morning air filling his lungs as he strode
in pursuit. There weren’t many people out yet, the pre-Christmas rush nowhere
near as frantic as it would be in a few weeks. Black Friday was over and he’d
finally found a few clues he needed to progress in his investigation. He deserved
a day off. He deserved a little fun, and the woman—or should he say, the pretty
kitty—he now trailed? She deserved a bit of fun too.
One corner after another Kyle followed the delicate scent of the other cougar
shifter. He hadn’t seen another of his kind in the area for months, and a female?
Rawr. He could hardly wait. They might be territorial—a carryover from their
animal natures—but the human twist in their bodies meant they had mastered the
art of sharing space. Sort of. At least temporarily.
He spotted her in the distance, weaving through the growing crowds as she
entered the shopping district of the city. Her head stuck out above the others, the
red highlights in her thick auburn hair glinting in the sunlight. A quick mental
assessment put her just shy of six feet with that lovely hair that hung past her
shoulders. The flickering glimpses of the rest of the package were enough to
make his mouth water, and he hurried his pace. Yeah, it had been a long time
since he’d had another cougar in his bed, and while the human women he’d been
with lately were fun, there was something so much better about sex with a fellow
shifter. He wouldn’t have to temper his strength. Behind his jeans, his cock lined
up a little too intimately with the teeth of his zipper. Yup, he was hard. Rock
solid in fact.
She ducked into a shop and he grinned as he glanced at the signage. Naughty
Lingerie. Hmm…hunting and entertainment. The day was looking better and
better all the time.
A small bell tinkled his arrival as he opened the door, careful to leave the
etched glass intact. Fruity scents overwhelmed him, filling his head with a sickly
perfume. He sneezed involuntarily.
“Good morning, sir.” A clerk slithered up to him, blinking her eyes rapidly,
her breasts bulging from the top of her squeezed hourglass torso. “May I help
you with anything? Anything at all?”
She laid a hand on his forearm, the light touch tickling him. His thick hair
stood upright as she smoothed her fingertips down his arm. Hmm, she was
obviously a shifter fan—the type that liked to get it on with guys that could turn
furry. Usually that would be a fabulous thing to discover. While people were, on
the whole, cool about shifters since the revealing had happened a decade ago,
there were a few issues that still arose. At times the pro-shifters were almost as
bad as the anti-animal camp.
Yeah, he liked to be petted, but not by her, at least not now. “A woman came
in a moment ago. Where is she?”
Disappointment washed over her features for a second before she schooled
herself and gestured into the shop. “A friend of yours?”
The sweet smell of cougar filtered through the air. “Yes.”
It wasn’t a lie. She would be. Cats being cats and all, he figured they were
only a small step away from being very intimate friends. Kyle strode forward
toward the change room area.
The store clerk hovered at his back as he surveyed the wall. Tall individual
compartments greeted him. One cracked open a slit and an arm shot out, wisps
of fabric hanging from her manicured fingertips. “Can you find me one of these
in a size up, please?”
Kyle grinned as he wordlessly took the garment and passed it back to the
clerk. Through the open slit he caught a brief glimpse of honey-brown skin, lots
of honey-brown skin, and a happy rumble started in his belly.
Lots of naked honey-brown skin that he planned on getting to know very
thoroughly, very soon. He turned and followed the clerk to the main shop.
“We don’t have that style in a larger size in the same color.” The clerk slid
her admiring gaze over him, ignoring the rack in front of her as she sighed,
eyeing him up and down. “Does your friend have another preference?”
Red. The image of red silk on his mystery woman’s skin increased the
pressure in his groin. He pointed and when the clerk pulled the garment from the
rack he accepted it with a smile. “I’ll take it from here.”
The sighs rising behind him as he made his way back into the change area
made him grin. Oh yeah, there was something in the shifter psyche that loved the
admiration of the chicks, but right now he wanted to be getting hot and sweaty. It
was time to howl. He knocked lightly on the dressing room door and it swung
open, the hand shooting out again.
He ignored it and stepped in, closing the door behind him.
She raised one perfectly arched brow, her fists moving to rest on her hips.
Then he wasn’t too sure what kind of expression she wore, because to be honest,
he wasn’t looking at her face. He’d already ventured farther down the body.
Honey-brown skin, oh yeah, tapered waist, nicely flared hips. The tiny scrap of
fabric covering her mound didn’t hide the scent of her sex, light and yet
mesmerizing in the confining quarters.
Strong limbs. Oh damn, he loved a woman with thigh muscles. It made it so
much more pleasurable when she wrapped her legs around him and held on tight
as he plunged into her again and again—
A light cough forced him to reluctantly drag his gaze up to her face.
She wore a smirk. This had oh-so-much potential.
“You lost, sweetheart?” Pure vocal sex. Her voice curled around his senses,
licking into his ears as if she’d lapped with her tongue. Wet heat thrilled down
his spine and his pants grew another size too small. Damn, if he kept her talking
he would come without a single touch.
Kyle held out the soft red silk and she laughed. “You give all your customers
this kind of personalized attention?”
Their fingers brushed as she gathered the material to her, and electric passion
sizzled along his arm, over his shoulder, wrapped around his throat and yanked
him forward. He crowded her toward the far wall of the change room. She never
took her gaze from his, not as she paced backward. Not when the heat between
them increased as the space between them decreased.
Not when he eliminated the air between them completely and sealed her to
the wall with his body.
Hot flesh burned through the fabric of his clothes and he regretted not taking
the time to strip before joining her in the room. It would have made it so easy to
reach down, drag his elbow under her knee, open her up and drive his aching
cock into the welcoming of her sex—
She purred, and something along his spine melted, pooling what little
remained of his brains in the heavy weight of his balls.