other projects – you have such a talent for interiors I thought you might be interested in taking an interior design course.’
Eva was beginning to feel wonderfully dizzy, hardly believing Ben had thought of all that for her.
‘I’ve also decided to rent out my old London home again but it’s going to need a total makeover, if you were interested. But of course, these are only ideas I’ve had – it’s entirely up to you.’ He took her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing it softly. ‘I just want you to be happy, Eva.’
‘I am happy and I love all your ideas.’ She smiled. ‘Sounds like I’m going to be busy then …’
‘Not too busy for a honeymoon at some point, I hope?’
Eva felt a joyous smile spread across her mouth, warmth and happiness flooding into her very being. She buried her face in his neck, feeling safe and warm and lovely. She couldn’t wait to tell Moira and Donald that she’d be moving in – they would love that as much as she did.
Ben cupped Eva’s face in his hands and looked lovingly at her. ‘You once said to me home is about knowing you don’t want to be anywhere else. For me, home is wherever you are, Eva.’
‘In that case,’ she said kissing him, ‘welcome home.’
A Kiss At Midnight
New Year at the Boss’s Bidding
Rachael Thomas
Slow Dance with the Best Man
Sophie Pembroke
The Greek Doctor’s New-Year Baby
Kate Hardy
New Year at the Boss’s Bidding
Rachael Thomas
Moretti’s by midnight
Jilted bride Tilly Rogers hopes her luck is changing when she’s offered a prestigious catering contract for billionaire businessman Xavier Moretti’s New Year’s Eve party. But then she ends up snowbound alone with her boss...and at his bidding!
It’s the end of the year and the end of Tilly’s contract, which leaves Xavier free to seduce her at his will. Hardly shy of a challenge, this notorious playboy makes it his resolution to have virgin Tilly crumbling by his experienced touch.
Before the snow settles, Xavier is determined to have Tilly under a brand-new set of tantalizing terms!
To editors Laurie Johnson and Charlotte Mursell.
Thank you so much for your fantastic support,
guidance and encouragement as I’ve moved from
unpublished finalist in SYTYCW 2013 to this my
fifth book.
TODAY NOTHING COULD dampen Tilly Rogers’s enthusiasm for the exciting contract she had landed. Tonight she would be catering for Xavier Moretti’s New Year’s Eve dinner party, a contract that was a much-needed boost to her new business.
The manor house he’d hired for the occasion, set on the edge of Exmoor, was proving difficult to find, but even that didn’t faze her. She was away from London and thankful that this New Year’s Eve would be very different from last year’s.
Tilly gripped the steering-wheel of her small white van a bit tighter as the light flurry of snow landing on the windscreen increased to a constant bombardment of small fluffy flakes. She must be almost at the manor by now. At the next turn in the road she was relieved to see a large set of wrought-iron gates loom ahead of her, but that relief soon faded.
The gates were firmly closed and she looked down the long drive. No sign of the manor house, but on one of the tall pillars ‘Wimble Manor’ was proudly announced. She was in the right place.
Judging by its grandeur, this must be the main entrance and from her brief conversation with the caretaker she knew that, as hired staff, she needed the back entrance. Slowly she pulled away, aware of the snow beginning to settle on the tarmac road ahead of her. Thank goodness she’d left London earlier than planned.
A little further along she saw a small gatehouse. A set of open gates nestled in the winter-bare hedgerows and she turned in, following a set of tyre tracks that were just still visible on the now white driveway. Someone else had just arrived, but it couldn’t be her staff, Katie and Jane. They weren’t due until later this afternoon, by which time she hoped it would have stopped snowing.
Cautiously she drove along the snow-covered lane, but couldn’t resist a glance around the grounds of the manor, which were turning, very quickly, into a winter wonderland. The narrow road led through a small wood, over an old stone bridge and on the other side, Tilly got the first sight of Wimble Manor.
‘Oh, my goodness,’ she said as she looked up at the imposing manor house. The snow, now blowing horizontally, gave it a mysterious air, filling her head with romantic notions of the house in its heyday. If only she had time to take a walk, but that was a luxury she couldn’t afford. Tonight’s contract was one she had to get right. As undisputed king of the motorcycle racetrack, who’d turned businessman and mentor for young riders, Xavier Moretti was her most high-profile client to date.
The email asking her to take on his New Year’s Eve dinner party had been a shock, to say the least. Not only was it just what her fledgling business needed, it was also what she needed on a personal level. It would provide her with a welcome distraction from dwelling on what had happened last New Year’s Eve and created the perfect excuse for not attending parties.
Although her best friend, Vanessa, had complicated things when she’d told her she planned to announce her engagement on New Year’s Day so she couldn’t completely escape the party scene. After last year, Vanessa had been anxious but Tilly had reassured her she was over it all now. She knew that whatever happened she would be at the party to prove this to herself as well as her friends. It would be part of reinventing herself, just as starting the business had been.
She dragged her mind away from thoughts of engagements and parties and focused on Xavier Moretti’s request for authentic Italian home cooking, something she really wanted to specialise in after the hours she’d spent in her Italian grandmother’s kitchen as a young girl. She smiled at the memories, determined to make this evening’s meal so special he and his guests would remember her name for a long time.
Thoughts of the menu she was going to present them filled her
