Temptation at Christmas Read online

  Nothing says “Christmas”

  like red-hot scandal!

  “We weren’t supposed to do this.”

  “Baby, we were born to do this...”

  A luxurious Christmas cruise should be paradise. Instead, Mia Harper has a confession to make to her billionaire ex: they’re still married! Now she’s trapped with sexy-as-sin Sam Buchanan—and their searing desire. But Sam’s serving up a little holiday blackmail. He’ll grant Mia a divorce...if she gives Sam what he really wants for Christmas: a no-strings fling with her.

  “Sam, we’ve already said goodbye to each other...

  “Why make this harder than it has to be?”

  Sam laid his hands on Mia’s shoulders and the heat of her body rose up to slide into his. “Hello isn’t hard, Mia. Unless you’re doing it right.”

  “Sam...”

  He bent his head to hers and stopped when his mouth was just a breath away from her lips. Waiting for acceptance. For her to let him know that she shared what he was thinking, feeling.

  “This could be a big mistake,” she said, with a slow shake of her head.

  “Probably,” he agreed, knowing it wouldn’t change anything.

  Seconds passed and still he waited.

  Finally, though, she dropped her purse to the floor, reached up to cup his face between her palms and said, “What’s one more mistake?”

  Dear Reader,

  Oh, I love a Christmas book! During the holiday season, there are so many wonderful things happening that a romance set during that time has a special feeling to it.

  In Temptation at Christmas, you’ll experience a Christmas-themed cruise with Sam Buchanan and Mia Harper. Their divorce should be almost final—but turns out, the papers were never filed. So they’re not as “ex” as they think.

  Sam owns Fantasy Cruise lines, so Mia takes the cruise to tell Sam the news in person—and her family comes along as backup. What could go wrong?

  They have fourteen days at sea to either find a way to save the marriage or to accept that what they’d once had is gone forever. Of course, shipboard romances are legendary, and these two have a head start.

  So, when the shopping and wrapping are done, make yourself a cup of tea, curl up and dive into a Christmas romance. I really hope you enjoy this book, and the Christmas magic, as much as I did while writing it.

  Happy reading!

  Until next time,

  Maureen

  Maureen Child

  Temptation at Christmas

  Maureen Child writes for the Harlequin Desire line and can’t imagine a better job. A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism Award, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill Award. She is a native Californian but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah.

  Books by Maureen Child

  Harlequin Desire

  Rich Rancher’s Redemption

  Billionaire’s Bargain

  Tempt Me in Vegas

  Bombshell for the Boss

  Red Hot Rancher

  Jet Set Confessions

  The Price of Passion

  Temptation at Christmas

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or maureenchild.com, for more titles.

  You can also find Maureen Child on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!

  To Patti Hambleton,

  because since we first met at six years old,

  she has been the friend I could always count on.

  The sister of my heart. And the one person

  I never have to explain the jokes to!

  I love you.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Excerpt from High Society Secrets by Karen Booth

  Excerpt from Scandalous Secrets by Synithia Williams

  One

  Sam Buchanan hated Christmas.

  Always had, but this year, he had more reason than ever to wish he could wipe the “holiday season” off the calendar for good.

  “So go on a Christmas cruise,” he muttered darkly. “Good call.”

  He’d known it would be hard, but he wasn’t one to step back from duty just because it was difficult. Sam had a business to take care of and he wouldn’t let the personal get in the way of that.

  Didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

  From the owner’s suite at the top of the Fantasy Cruise Line ship, Fantasy Nights, Sam looked out on the curved bow with its sky-blue deck and the sea beyond...because he didn’t want to look at the dock. San Pedro, California, harbor was crowded with passengers excited to get their cruise to Hawaii going and damned if he’d look down on a bunch of happy, celebrating people. Once the cruise got underway, he could hole up here, in his suite, only venturing out to check on his employees.

  Sam took four cruises a year—on different ships in the Buchanan line—to maintain good communication with both crew and passengers. He’d always believed experiencing the cruises in person was the best way to keep his fingers on the pulse of what his guests and employees needed. Not to mention it was the only certain way to make sure those employees were doing their jobs to his expectations.

  Gripping his coffee cup, he narrowed his gaze on the expanse of ocean waiting just beyond the harbor. Once they were on the open sea, he’d slip out of his suite, check in with the ship’s captain and then do a walk through the restaurants.

  He wasn’t looking forward to it.

  Normally, the Fantasy Cruise Line didn’t allow children onboard. Adult-only cruises were their mainstay. But at Christmas, the rules were relaxed so that families could enjoy sailing together on their smaller, more intimate ships.

  So for this cruise, not only would he be faced with miles of Christmas garland, brightly lit trees and piped-in Christmas carols, but there would be dozens of kids, hyped up on Santa and candy, to deal with as well. And still, he told himself, it was better to be on this cruise than in his own home where the lack of Christmas would taunt him even more completely.

  “Yeah,” he assured himself solemnly, “no way to win this year.”

  The phone on the wet bar rang and Sam walked to it. “Yes?”

  “Captain says we sail in an hour, Mr. Buchanan.”

  “Fine. Thanks.” He hung up and listened to the silence in the owner’s suite. There would be plenty of it for the next couple of weeks and he was looking forward to it even as he dreaded it.

  A year ago, things had been different. He’d met a woman on another cruise and two months later, they’d had a Christmas-themed wedding. And they had taken this Christmas cruise for their honeymoon. Yes, for Mia’s sake, Sam had even given Christmas a shot. He hadn’t thrown himself into it or anything, but he also hadn’t been quite the Scrooge he usually was.

  Now the marriage was gone. She was gone. And Christmas was back, just to rub it in.

  He set his coffee cup down on the bar top, shoved both hands into the pockets of his black slacks and stared around the beautifully appointed room. The owner’s suite was twelve hundred square feet of luxury. Teak floors gleamed in
the sunlight, paintings of the sea and several of Sam’s cruise ships lined the walls. On the ocean side of the suite, the wall was one-way glass, affording an incomparable view of the ocean and the wide balcony that stretched the length of the suite.

  Leather club chairs and sofas were gathered atop a rich, burgundy throw rug in the middle of the living room and there were tables with lamps bolted onto them, in case of rough seas. There was a flat-screen television on the wall and a dining room off to one side.

  There were two bedrooms and three bathrooms along with the private balcony/terrace that added an extra two hundred square feet to the suite. The master bedroom and en suite bath boasted a view of the sea from behind one-way glass. He could see out, but no one could see in.

  And in spite of his surroundings, Sam felt...on edge. He stalked out to the terrace and let the cold wind slap at him. Glancing down at the nearly empty deck of the bow, Sam noticed a woman with long, wavy red hair and it felt as though someone had punched him in the chest.

  “It’s not her. Why the hell would she be on this cruise?”

  Still, he couldn’t look away. She wore white slacks and a long-sleeved green shirt and her hair lifted and twisted in the wind. Then she turned sideways and Sam saw that she was very pregnant. Disappointment tangled with relief inside him, until the redhead stopped, looked up and seemed to stab his stare with her own.

  Mia?

  His heart jolted and his hands fisted on the cold, white iron railing. She’s pregnant? Why wouldn’t she tell him? Why didn’t she say something? What the hell was she doing here? And why didn’t she take off her sunglasses so he could see the green eyes that had been haunting him for months?

  But she didn’t comply with that wish. Instead, she shook her head, clearly in disgust, and then stalked away, disappearing from view in less than a moment.

  Mia. Pregnant.

  Here.

  Sam went inside, rushed across the room and hit the front door at a dead run. Somebody had better tell him something fast. He didn’t waste time with a phone call. Instead he went down to the main deck where passengers were still filing onboard. The purser was there, along with two of the entertainment crew, to welcome people onto Fantasy Nights. Ordinarily, Sam would have been impressed with how easily his employees handled the streaming crowds—all smiles and conversations. But today, he needed answers.

  “Mr. Wilson,” Sam said and the purser turned. Instantly, the older man straightened up as if going to attention.

  “Mr. Buchanan,” he said with a nod. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  “Yeah. Has a woman named Mia—” he almost said Buchanan, but Sam remembered at the last minute that his ex-wife had returned to her maiden name after the divorce “—Harper, checked in?”

  The man quickly checked through the list of names on the clipboard he held. Then he glanced at his boss and said, “Yes sir. She did. A half hour ago. She—”

  That was Mia. A very pregnant Mia.

  “Which suite is she in?”

  He knew she had a suite because all of the staterooms on the Fantasy Nights were suites. Some more luxuriously appointed than others but every suite on this ship was roomy and inviting.

  “It’s the Poseidon, sir. Two decks down on the port side and—”

  “Thanks. That’s all I need.” Sam threaded his way through the crowd already spilling into the atrium, the main welcome spot on any ship.

  On Fantasy Nights, the atrium was two stories of glass-and-wood spiraling staircases, now draped in pine garland. There was a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the room boasting what looked to Sam like a thousand twinkling, colored lights, along with ornaments—that the passengers could also purchase in the gift shop. There was a group of carolers in one corner, and miles of more pine garland draped like bunting all around the room.

  Hanging from the ceiling were hundreds of strands of blinking white lights, to simulate snowfall and on one wall, there were tables set up, laden with Christmas cookies and hot chocolate.

  Sam barely noticed. He didn’t have time to wait for the elevator. Instead, he headed for the closest staircase and took them two at a time. He knew every ship in his fleet like the back of his hand, so he didn’t need to check the maps on the walls to know where he was headed.

  The Poseidon suite was one of their larger ones and he wondered why Mia had bothered to book a two-bedroom suite. If she was pregnant, why the hell hadn’t she come directly to him months ago? He had no answers to too many questions racing through his mind, so Sam pushed all of them aside, assuring himself he’d solve this mystery soon enough.

  The excited chatter of conversations and bursts of laughter from children and their parents chased him down the first hallway on the port side. On most cruise ships, hallways dividing the staterooms were narrow and usually dark in spite of carefully placed lighting. Fantasy Cruise Line hallways were wider than usual and boasted overhead lighting and brass wall sconces alongside every stateroom.

  Here, the floorboards were also teak and on each door was attached a plaque describing the name of the suite itself. For example, he thought as he stopped outside Mia’s suite, her doorway held the image of Poseidon, riding a whale, holding his trident high, as if ready to attack an enemy. He wondered if that was an omen for what was to come.

  He didn’t have long to think about it. He knocked and a moment later, the door was yanked open. Long red hair. Sharp green eyes. Green shirt. White pants. Pregnant belly.

  But not Mia.

  Her twin, Maya.

  Was he feeling relief? Disappointment? Both? Sam just stared at her. Damned if he could think of anything to say.

  Maya didn’t have that problem. She glared at him then and snapped, “Happy anniversary, you bastard.”

  * * *

  Almost instantly, Mia appeared behind her twin. Rolling her eyes at her sister’s drama, she said, “Maya. Stop.”

  Her sister stared at her for a second or two. “Seriously? You’re going to defend him?”

  “Defend me from what?” Sam asked.

  “What?” Maya repeated, shifting a hard look to him before turning back to her twin. “Really? Even now you want me to play nice?”

  “Really.” Mia tugged on her sister’s arm. “I love you. Go away.”

  “Fine,” Maya said, throwing both hands into the air. She threw one last hard look at Sam. “But I’m not going far...”

  “What the hell?” Sam muttered, keeping a wary eye on the woman as she walked away.

  This was not the way Mia had wanted to handle this. But then, nothing about this trip was how she’d wanted it. She hadn’t planned on bringing her entire family with her, for instance. But there was nothing she could do about that now, except maybe keep Maya away from Sam.

  “Yeah, she’s not your biggest fan,” Mia admitted, then stepped into the hallway, forcing him to move back to make room. She pulled the door closed behind her, leaned against it and lifted her gaze to the man of her dreams.

  Well, she amended mentally, the former man of her dreams.

  He was tall. She’d always liked that. Actually, it had been one of the first things she’d noticed about him the night they met. She was five feet nine inches tall, so meeting a man who was six foot four had been great. That night she’d been wearing three-inch heels and she’d still had to look up to meet his eyes.

  And they were great eyes. Pale, pale blue that could turn from icy to heat in a blink of time. His black hair was a little too long for the CEO of a huge company, but it was thick and shiny and she’d once loved threading her fingers through it. In fact, even after everything that had happened between them, Mia’s fingers itched to do it again.

  He was wearing a suit, of course. Sam didn’t do “relaxed.” He wore his elegantly tailored suits as if he’d been born to wear them. And maybe he had been, Mia mused. All she was sure of was
that beneath that dark blue, pinstriped suit, was a body that looked as if it had been sculpted by angels on a very good day.

  Her heartbeat jumped skittishly and she wasn’t surprised. She had met him and married him within a two-month, whirlwind span and though the marriage had lasted only nine months—technically—she knew it might take her years to get over Sam Buchanan.

  Then he started talking.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Mia scowled. “Well, that’s a very gracious welcome, Sam. Thank you. Good to see you, too.”

  He didn’t look abashed, only irritated. “What’s going on, Mia? Why is my ex-wife on this cruise?”

  Hmm. More ‘wife’ than ‘ex’, she thought, but they’d get to that.

  “This was the only way I could find to get you alone long enough to talk.”

  He snorted and pushed one hand through that great hair. “Really. You couldn’t just pick up the phone?”

  “Please.” She waved that away. “Like I didn’t try? Your assistant kept putting me off, telling me you were in a meeting or on the company jet heading off to Katmandu or something...”

  “Katmandu?”

  “Or somewhere else exotic, far away and out of reach apparently, of my phone.”

  Sam tucked his hands into his slacks pockets. “So you take a fifteen-day cruise?”

  Mia shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “With Maya.”

  “And her family.”

  He glanced down the hallway and then to the closed door, as if expecting to see Joe and the kids pop out of hiding. “You’re kidding.”

  “Why would I kid?”

  The door flew open and Maya was there, glaring at him. Mia sighed, but gave up trying to rein in her twin.

  “Why wouldn’t she bring her family along as backup when she has to face you?” Maya asked.

  “Backup?” He pulled his hands free, folded his arms across his chest and glared at the mirror image of Mia. “Why the hell would she need backup?”