Gladness rushed through me. “Yes. That wasn’t what it looked like.”
“I know.”
“You see, I—” I stuttered to a halt. “You know?”
“I could see your face,” he said gently. “You were looking at that diamond like you had a spider on your finger. I mostly came in to make sure you were okay and that you didn’t need help. Once I saw you had things under control, I figured I’d wait for you to come out.”
My breath whooshed out. “You are unreal.”
“Nope.” He grinned. “Very real. Want to go ice skating? I’ll buy you a hot chocolate after.”
“I never did my shopping,” I remembered. “Or packed my bags.”
“You got by last night without your bags, and the stores are open tomorrow. But you don’t need to get me anything. Time with you is all I want. How about it?”
I straightened his stocking cap. “Okay. I never could resist a man in a beaver hat.”
“That’s what all the MIT girls say.” And he kissed me. Long and soft and sweet.
~ Epilogue ~
I blinked up at the Christmas tree lights, my naked skin warm from the fire, listening to the little train going ’round and ’round on its track. Eartha Kitt finished crooning “Santa Baby,” and “Angels We Have Heard on High,” sung by Annie Lennox, came on.
“Hey.” Jon nudged me. “It’s our song.”
I rolled onto my side, the furry rug soft beneath me, and laughed. “We cannot have a Christmas carol for our song.”
“Well, it’s either that or The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha,” which is what you were dancing to the first time I saw you.” Jon lay on his back, also naked, except for his Santa hat.
I groaned, closing my eyes. “I can’t believe I practiced sexy dancing, thinking it would be my entrée to popularity.”
“You were really good at it.” Jon grinned at me. “I fell in love at first sight.”
“Yes, well, you were clearly easily…” I couldn’t decide on the word.
“Dazzled?” He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “You dazzle me, darling Amy. Every year I wished for you and look, here you are, naked and under my Christmas tree.”
I laughed, kissing him. “This will have to be our Christmas tradition then.”
“One of many,” he agreed.
“I like that,” I decided. “I like the idea of making our own Christmas, how we want it to be.”
“Lots of hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps,” he suggested. “And Julie’s sugar cookies.”
“Now your sugar cookies, as I know you tinkered with the recipe.”
“Granted. And we can sleep under the tree on Christmas Eve.”
“I always wanted to do that,” I said, rolling back to look up through the branches.
“I know.” Now he levered up onto his elbow, trailing a finger down to trace my belly button. “You told me that once.”
“You remember so many things,” I groused.
“My gift to you,” he replied. “Since I will likely never be able to give you a fifty-thousand-dollar diamond ring.”
I shook my head a little. “I don’t need that. You know, I had it on my hand and I was looking at it… and I realized I’d tried to make Christmas be about that. Make love and happiness be that.” I reached up and stroked Jon’s cheek. “Maybe I’m evolving, because I’m discovering that love and happiness are this.”
He turned his face and kissed my palm. “Merry Christmas, Amy.”
“Merry Christmas,” I answered. And pulled him down to show him exactly how I felt.
Sparkly Sugar Cookies
1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 egg yolks, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the real stuff, not the imitation flavoring)
2 teaspoons almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (if you used salted butter, skip this)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. On this step, it’s hard to go too long. Let that sugar really melt in. A standing mixer is ideal for this! Add in the eggs and egg yolks, one by one, mixing until smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts gradually, mixing until smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, salt (if you’re using it) and baking powder. Gradually sift this mixture into the creamed butter mixture, beating constantly.
Cover the bowl with an airtight seal or wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Working with a fist-sized ball of dough at a time, on a flour-sprinkled surface, roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to about ¼” thick. (Keep the rest of the dough in the fridge while you work, so it stays nice and cold.) Use cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes or, if you don’t have them, a drinking water glass will work just as well. Bake each batch for 6-8 minutes and let cool on a wire rack. When I get a good rhythm going, I can roll out and cut one batch while the other bakes.
Let the cookies cool completely before frosting. To make the (very basic) icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk (I use skim or 2% and it’s fine. Not that it matters with all that butter, but it’s what I usually have on hand.)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
Mix together in a bowl. You want it to be very thick, so if it turns out runny, just add a little more powdered sugar. Use food coloring or sparkly sugars to add more festive fun!
Hot Buttered Rum
1 lb brown sugar (2 ¼ cups)
1 lb powdered sugar (3 ½ cups)
1 lb butter (4 sticks)
Cream together thoroughly. Then mix with:
1 qt vanilla ice cream (softened)
Mix in:
1 T cinnamon
2 t nutmeg
Freeze and keep frozen!
Mix generous dollop of batter with hot water and rum, to taste.
Titles by Jeffe Kennedy
* * *
FANTASY ROMANCES
A COVENANT OF THORNS
Rogue’s Pawn
Rogue’s Possession
Rogue’s Paradise
THE TWELVE KINGDOMS
Negotiation
The Mark of the Tala
The Tears of the Rose
The Talon of the Hawk
Heart’s Blood
For Crown and Kingdom
Amid the Winter Snow
THE UNCHARTED REALMS
The Pages of the Mind
The Edge of the Blade
The Snows of Windroven
The Shift of the Tide
The Arrows of the Heart (Coming 2018)
SORCEROUS MOONS
Lonen’s War
Oria’s Gambit
The Tides of Bára
The Forests of Dru
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
MISSED CONNECTIONS
Last Dance
With a Prince
Since Last Christmas
CONTEMPORARY EROTIC ROMANCES
Exact Warm Unholy
The Devil’s Doorbell
FACETS OF PASSION
Sapphire
Platinum
Ruby
Five Golden Rings
FALLING UNDER
Going Under
Under His Touch
Under Contract
EROTIC PARANORMAL
MASTER OF THE OPERA E-SERIAL
Master of the Opera, Act 1: Passionate Overture
Master of the Opera, Act 2: Ghost Aria
Master of the Opera, Act 3: Phantom Serenade
Master of the Opera, Act 4: Dark Interlude
Master of the Opera, Act 5: A Haunting Duet
Master of the Opera, Act 6: Crescendo
Master of the Opera
BLOOD CURRENCY
Blood Currency
BDSM FAIRYTALE ROMANCE
P
etals and Thorns
OTHER WORKS
Birdwoman
Hopeful Monsters
Teeth, Long and Sharp
Thank you for reading!
About Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award, and recently received the Rita® Award for paranormal romance.
Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, was also nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA® Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and was a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, released in August, 2017.
She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance, and continued in With a Prince. Since Last Christmas is the third in the series, and two more will follow.
A high fantasy trilogy taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world, The Lost Princess Chronicles, is forthcoming from Rebel Base books in 2018. In 2019, St. Martins Press will release the first book, The Orchid Throne, in a new fantasy romance series, The Forgotten Empires.
Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
httpeffekennedy.com
facebook.com/Author.Jeffe.Kennedy
twitter.com/jeffekennedy
goodreads.com/author/show/1014374.Jeffe_Kennedy
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Missed Connections Box Set Page 42