Heating Up the Holidays 3-Story Bundle (Play with Me, Snowfall, and After Midnight): A Loveswept Contemporary Romance

331 Pages·2013·1.4 MB·English

by  Jones Lisa Renee

Play with Me, Snowfall, and After Midnight are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Loveswept eBook Edition
Play with Me copyright © 2013 by Lisa Renee Jones
Snowfall copyright © 2013 by Mary Ann Hudson
After Midnight copyright © 2013 by Serena Bell
All Rights Reserved.
Published in the United States of America by Loveswept, an imprint of The Random House
Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New
York.
LOVESWEPT is a registered trademark and the LOVESWEPT colophon is a trademark of Random
House LLC.
Cover design: Susan Schultz
Cover photograph: © pictore/Getty Images
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8041-7840-2
www.ReadLoveSwept.com
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Play with Me by Lisa Renee Jones
Dedication
Part One: The first meeting…
Part Two: I’ve got your number…
Part Three: Where I belong…
Part Four: What just happened?
Part Five: Business or pleasure?
Part Six: A view from inside…
Part Seven: The contract…
Part Eight: Mr. Ward…
Part Nine: Running…
Part Ten: Sex therapy…
Part Eleven: Home is where the heart is…
Part Twelve: The truth will set you free…
About the Author
Snowfall by Mary Ann Rivers
Dedication
Christmas
Chapter One: First Inch, Early December
Chapter Two: Falling
Chapter Three: Break in the Weather
Chapter Four: Second Inch
Chapter Five: Comfort and Joy
Chapter Six: Whiteout
Chapter Seven: Let It Snow
Chapter Eight: Inches, Drifts, Storms
Chapter Nine: It’s Christmas Eve’s Eve
Christmas
Acknowledgments
About the Author
After Midnight by Serena Bell
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Play with Me
Lisa Renee Jones
To Louise, my fabulous agent, who I’ll gamble with any day of the week
Part One
The first meeting…
“Ms. Miller.”
At the sound of my name, I hop to my feet in the center of the Las
Vegas temp service. Rushing forward, I stop in front of my interviewer, a
forty-something woman in a navy suit not so unlike my own.
“Hi,” I say, sounding as awkward and nervous as I feel about being
unemployed for the first time in my life.
My greeting earns me a quick up-and-down inspection that has my
already rattled nerves swan-diving off an invisible cliff. She levels a stare
at me and asks, “Can I help you?” And her prickly tone says I’ve failed
her sixty-second assessment.
“I’m Ms. Miller,” I reply, and try to win her over. “But, please, you can
call me Kali.”
Her lips twist and tell me she is clearly not charmed, as I had
intended. Instead, she looks down her nose, which is as straight as the
long brunette hair neatly tied at her nape, and repeats with formality,
“Ms. Miller. I’m Ms. Williams, your job-placement counselor. Come with
me.”
“Ms. Williams” charges down a narrow hallway and I chase after her,
just as I did for the reporting job at the Vegas Heat that fell through
before I ever started to work. She disappears into an office and I follow,
swiping at a strand of my long blond hair, which suddenly feels as
disheveled as the new life I’ve gambled on.
Ms. Williams settles behind a basic wooden desk and motions me to
the burgundy cloth-covered visitor’s chair. Claiming the seat that might
as well be labeled FOR DESPERATE, UNEMPLOYED FOLKS, I adjust my skirt to
rest primly at my knees and watch Ms. Williams study my paperwork for
what feels like an excruciatingly long amount of time.
She glances up at me, and the skeptical glint in her eyes—real or
created by my insecurity—makes me wish she hadn’t. “Let me get right
to the point,” she declares. “You were working as a reporter in college.”
“And for a year at the Texas Sun,” I quickly add, afraid she’s missed
that line on my application. “I only left for a better offer, which was
eliminated while I was en route.”
“I was getting there, Ms. Miller,” she reprimands sharply. “My point is
that I do not have any reporting jobs. They’re hard to come by. In other
words, no one has any reporting jobs. If you can return to Texas and get
your job back, you should.”
The whiplash effect of her words has me slumping and then
straightening in rebellion. Even though my savings are gone, I will not
go back to covering watermelon festivals and, well, other … stuff I’d
rather not think about now. Or ever. I’d rather not think about it ever. “I
took your administrative tests,” I point out, “and, as you should be able
to tell, I have excellent clerical skills. Additionally, I’m highly organized
and I’m dedicated to whatever I do. I need work—therefore, I will be
timely and productive while on the job.”
“I saw your testing. The question is, will you be reliable if I send you
to a job that isn’t a reporting position?” It doesn’t come out as the
question it claims to be but more as an accusation.
“My experience in journalism should assure an employer that I’m
articulate and know how to censor when necessary. And I want to be an
asset. I need a stable career.” Not a dream that can’t pay the bills, no
matter how hard it is to let it go.
She purses her lips and stands up. “Give me a moment to look at our
job board.”
Yes. Yes. Yes. She’s going to the job board, whatever that is. I track her
departure, twisting in the chair and watching her from over my
shoulder, then sinking down when she disappears from sight.
Thrumming my nails on the arms of the chair, I anxiously feel every
second Ms. Williams is gone. I used my savings to come here and start a
new life. I couldn’t leave if I wanted to, which I don’t.
“Okay,” Ms. Williams announces, walking back into the office. “I have
a secretarial job opening, but you have to start today.”
I sit up on the edge of the chair. “Now? It’s already two in the