by Rebecca York
UNFORGETTABLE
CHRISTMAS DREAMS
Gifts of Joy
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors
Rebecca York
Patricia Rosemoor
Leanne Banks
Mimi Barbour
Patrice Wilton
Traci Hall
Jen Talty
Dani Haviland
Mona Risk
Nancy Radke
Susan Jean Ricci
Unforgettable
Christmas Dreams
Gifts of Joy
ISBN: 978-1-946752-59-8
As they seek peace, joy, and family life, these dedicated heroes and heroines struggle to heal wounded hearts, reveal dangerous secrets, travel to find a loved one, hide from danger, and work to save desperate patients. But their greatest wish is to bring holiday happiness to those around them. To you, our dear readers, we offer these gifts of joy at Christmas time.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors have mingled Christmas dreams and composed beautiful love stories that range from sweet to spicy, with romance and suspense, to keep you entertained and dreaming in Unforgettable Christmas Dreams.
Firelight Confession: Rebecca York, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: Mail order bride hiding a secret that can destroy her marriage before it has a chance to succeed.
Christmas Delivery: Patricia Rosemoor, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: He “returned from the dead” seeking revenge...only to reconnect with the girl he loved, and the daughter they conceived thirteen years ago.
A Rancher in her Stocking: Leanne Banks, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: When a holiday-happy school teacher gets stuck staying with a sexy, grumpy rancher at Christmas time, can she persuade him to embrace the season – and her?
Please Keep Me: Mimi Barbour, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: A homeless pup adores the child & his new master falls for her Mom.
Christmas Miracle: Patrice Wilton, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: Can these two wounded people, an ex-marine sniper and a broken heart nurse, open their hearts to the miracle of Christmas?
Secret Santa By The Sea: Traci Hall, USA Today bestselling author: Now back in her small town, Serenity faces the man who’d broken her heart. She finds out the truth behind why he’d once set her free.
Christmas in the Sand: Jen Talty, USA Today bestselling author: Not only could her dreams go up in smoke, but if she’s not careful, she’ll end up giving her heart away.
Lost and Found Family: Dani Haviland, USA Today bestselling author: Sometimes it takes decades to find your true family …but only a moment to lose them.
A Complete Family: Mona Risk, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: Her hands full with a little daughter, a ferocious German Shepherd, a meddling sick neighbor, and a charming but nosey boss, Nurse Melody dreams of a happy family.
Three French Hens: Nancy Radke, USA Today bestselling author: When you find something precious —like love— you give everything you own to keep it.
Sparkles of the Season: Susan Jean Ricci, USA Today bestselling author: Two unlikely couples rediscover love and commitment, after a magical meeting with Saint Nick.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
UNFORGETTABLE CHRISTMAS DREAMS
FIRELIGHT CONFESSION
CHRISTMAS DELIVERY
A RANCHER IN HER STOCKING
PLEASE KEEP ME
CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
SECRET SANTA BY THE SEA
CHRISTMAS IN THE SAND
LOST AND FOUND FAMILY
A COMPLETE FAMILY
THREE FRENCH HENS
SPARKLES OF THE SEASON
Also by the Authors’ Billboard
FIRELIGHT CONFESSION
Firelight Confession
Off World Series, Book #6
A Fantasy & Futuristic Romance Novella
Rebecca York
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling author
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Ruth Glick
writing as Rebecca York
All rights reserved.
Book Description
Mail order bride, Carin Tully, arrived on the frontier planet, Palomar, hoping for a better life—with her new husband Gabe Cooper.
Like all the guys on Palomar, he hadn’t seen a woman for fifteen years—since the plague that had sent men and their sons fleeing to this outpost on the edge of civilization.
Carin wants to seduce Gabe and prove she’s up to the job of farm wife, but she’s hiding a secret that could destroy their marriage before it has a chance to succeed.
Praise and Award
New York Times bestselling author
USA Today bestselling author
“Rebecca York delivers page-turning suspense.” —Nora Roberts
“Rebecca York never fails to deliver. Her strong characterizations, imaginative plots and sensuous love scenes have made fans of thousands of romance, romantic suspense and thriller readers.” —Chassie West
“Rebecca York will thrill you with romance, kill you with danger and chill you with the supernatural.” —Patricia Rosemoor
“(Rebecca York) is a real luminary of contemporary series romance.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
“Rebecca York’s writing is fast-paced, suspenseful, and loaded with tension.”—Jayne Ann Krentz
Chapter One
This was her last chance for a decent life, Carin Tully thought, steeling herself to step through the ship’s passenger door.
“Git goin’. You’re holding everyone up.”
The sharp comment came from the woman in line behind Carin.
“Sorry,” she murmured, then took a deep breath before walking stiffly down the ramp into the spaceport’s arrival area. Incongruously, the utilitarian space was decked out with a scraggly evergreen tree blinking colored lights in one corner and limp, glittering garlands hanging from the metal rafters. It took several moments to realize they must be Christmas decorations.
Someone had obviously tried to provide a festive welcome for the current shipment of brides to Palomar. Would her new husband—Gabe Cooper—do the same?
She didn’t know much about him—only that he’d grown up in this all-male colony that was just starting to add women to the population, and that he lived on an isolated homestead in the planet’s dangerous backcountry.
Well, if he’d survived for fifteen years under those condition, he must know what he was doing—at least as far as farming and security were concerned. What he didn’t know about was women, and she was going to educate him on that subject as quickly as she could.
No, put that differently, she warned herself. Her life depended on bonding with him and proving she could be the wife he’d dreamed of during his long, lonely nights.
She scanned the group of rough-looking men clustered at the bottom of the ramp and saw one of them staring at her intently, before looking down at the holo in his hand.
A dart of nerves flashed inside her as she recognized him—from a similar holo she’d been given. It must be her husband. He was good looking—in a rough sort of way, with dark hair, dark eyes and clothing nobody but a swamp rat would have worn back on Danalon. But this wasn’t the capital of the Federation sector, and the other men waiting for their brides were dressed in similar fashion.
&nb
sp; When she reached him, she stopped short.
“Gabe?”
“Carin?”
“Yes,” they both said. Then, “Pleased to meet you,” or something like that. She was too nervous to note the exact words as they sized each other up.
“Did you have a good trip?” he asked.
“As good as could be expected,” she answered, thinking about the bunk room and tiny bathroom she’d shared with five other women.
“I’ve got my hauler around the side, but we should wait for your luggage first.”
She nodded, knowing he was thinking about the recent trouble at the spaceport. On the trip from Danalon, they’d been warned about men who had come up short in the lottery and tried to grab wives away from their rightful husbands.
“I didn’t ship much,” she told him, gesturing toward the pack on her shoulder. “Just this and a small crate.”
He nodded, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and they both fell silent as they waited with the others for the women’s personal belongings to be loaded.
When he turned toward the cargo bay doors, she shot him sidewise glances, praying that she hadn’t landed herself into worse trouble by coming here. No, she assured herself. What could be worse than prison? She’d gotten out by agreeing to be part of the Palomar bride program. Too bad there had been another condition for getting off Danalon.
Luggage spewed down a conveyer belt into a service area. When she pointed toward her crate, he lifted it easily to his shoulder, and she followed him out of the spaceport to the area where the new husbands had parked their transportation.
Gabe’s hauler looked like it was a few years old, with some dents and dings, but it was in good shape compared to some of them.
He helped her into the passenger seat and shut the door before loading her crate into the back, along with some other supplies he must have already picked up in town. She sat with her fingers knitted in her lap as he climbed in and started the engine. It was quiet enough so that they could talk on the way to his homestead—if they had anything to say to each other.
She watched him carefully survey the area, then signal that he was about to take off. The hauler glided smoothly into the air, and moments later they were above the spaceport.
“How long does it take to get home?” she asked.
“About an hour,” he clipped out, and she wondered if he was trying to avoid speaking to her.
***
Gabe kept his hands on the controls and his eyes glued to the curved window at the front of the hauler until they had cleared the sky around Port City.
“Sorry about that,” he said as he glanced at the pretty young woman next to him. He’d seen women in videos. He hadn’t been this close to one since his mother had died in the Centorus plague. Now his senses were flooded with Carin’s feminine scent and the sight of her rich red-brown hair.
“Sorry about what?” she asked in a voice that caressed his ears.
He swallowed, trying to collect his scattered thoughts. “I wanted to focus on my flying until we were out of there.”
“Oh.”
So much for his brilliant beginning with her. He was nervous, but he could tell it was the same for her, although probably the reasons were different. She was worried about what life with this rough-looking guy was going to be like on an isolated homestead. He was worried about the sex part and about what she’d think of his spread.
“Tell me about your place,” she said.
“Right. It’s almost five square miles of land, although I don’t farm it all, of course.”
She nodded.
“I have cows, chickens, pigs, a lot of food crops like corn and potatoes. But I can buy stuff in town that I don’t raise. I have a well-stocked freezer. I have an excellent well, and the house has hot and cold running water. I’ve also got electricity, but I can’t use it for everything.”
She nodded. “What does that mean?”
“When I’m out in the fields, I have to divert power to the fences—to keep out the predators. Did they warn you about the granlings and the borgans?”
“Yes, at an orientation session on the ship.”
“We have to watch out for them, but I’ve never had anything dangerous in the farmyard.”
“Okay. Good,” she answered, and he wondered if he’d been reassuring or started her worrying.
“Have you worked a farm before?”
“I’m sorry. No.”
“It’s not that hard. I can teach you what you need to know,” he said, hoping it was true. Some women might think they were too good to slop pigs—but if so, why would they have applied for the Palomar brides’ program when the conditions were laid out up front?
“We’re over my land now,” he said, when they’d traveled for another fifteen minutes.
She stared down over a landscape that looked a lot like the flat, scruffy terrain they’d been flying over since leaving the spaceport. Finally, they came to the cultivated fields and then the house. It seemed pretty small from the air. He hoped she wasn’t going to be disappointed. Dad had been well off back on Centorus before the plague had wiped out all the women and a quarter of the men. He’d paid for an extended freight allowance, and they’d brought some pretty good furniture plus other household goods. But it had taken a lot of wear and tear since they’d set up the homestead on Palomar.
He landed in the farmyard, and they both climbed out. As he watched her smooth her hand down the side of the pretty dress she’d worn for the occasion, he was thinking about a custom some of the guys had been talking about. A lot of them had thought it was silly. Others—like him—had seen it as a way to get close to his new wife.
He led Carin toward the door, then stopped, turned to her and cleared his throat.
“I think I’m supposed to carry you over the threshold,” he said in a voice that he couldn’t hold perfectly steady as he waited to see her reaction.
Chapter Two
Carin turned to the man standing nervously beside her, and from the expression on his face, she was pretty sure he wanted to use the wedding custom as an excuse to get her into his arms.
Well, why not? It was probably a good idea—from her point of view as well as his.
He turned the knob and opened the door.
“You don’t lock up?” she asked.
“Nobody would bother the place while I’m away,” he said, taking a step closer.
She set down her carry bag, and he lifted her up, one arm under her knees and the other supporting her shoulder. As when he’d picked up her crate, she could tell he was strong. And she was alone out here with him. If he wanted to, he could hurt her.
Shoving that last thought out of her mind, she curled her arm around his neck and wedged her face against his shoulder as he carried her inside. A shaft of light streamed into the darkened interior from outside as he shifted her in his arms and lowered her feet to the floor, letting her body slide against his. The contact set up an electric current between the two of them.
A nice touch, she thought. How long had he been planning it? And what else did he have planned?
She could have stepped away. Instead she stayed in his arms, raising her face so that her gaze could meet his. She saw so many emotions in his eyes. Wonder, worry, tenderness.
Without giving herself time to change her mind, she cupped the back of his head and brought his mouth down to hers.
She felt his shock and heard him murmur something indistinct as she moved her lips against his, pressing, then sliding back and forth and finally using her tongue to play with the seam. He opened for her, and she investigated the inside of his lips, the line of his teeth, and the warm cavity beyond
When he gathered her closer, she felt his erection pressing against her middle. He wanted her. But how was he going to proceed now?
He sighed as his hand drifted over her back and shoulders, then to her waist.
They’d made it clear on the trip over from Danalon that none of the boys who
had grown up on Palomar had been with a woman. Instead of giving him directions, she slid her hands to his butt, pressing his body to hers—and heard him gasp as she pulled his hard cock against herself.
“I thought...”
“What?”
“That you were supposed to wait until nighttime.”
She raised her gaze to his again. “For what?”
“For sex,” he blurted, then looked like he wished he hadn’t said it so fast and so blatantly.
“Do you want to have sex?” she asked.
“Yes,” he choked out. “If you do.”
That was a good sign, she thought. He didn’t intend to force her or use caveman tactics. He was giving her a choice—for now. But he was her legal husband, and they were headed to bed with each other, sooner or later. As far as she was concerned, it might as well be sooner.
***
“But you know that I . . . haven’t been with anyone before,” he added, making sure she understood where he was coming from.
“Then I want this to be good for you. I mean, I want every time we do it to be good for you—and for me.”
“I want that too.” Another good sign. He cared about her pleasure as well as his own.
“Being with you like this is turning me on.”
“Why?”
“You’re my husband, and a very appealing man.”
“Am I?”