#MFRWhooks - Celeste learns to drive - CHRISTMAS AT SOLACE LAKE - And a #Sale!

It's time for a Christmas story! Here's an excerpt from CHRISTMAS AT SOLACE LAKE where Celeste learns to drive. Drew offered to teach her to drive after she expressed frustration at having to rely on others to take her places. But spending so much time alone together means that they're falling for each other and Celeste is afraid to love again. She's already lost one man she loved.

CHRISTMAS AT SOLACE LAKE is on sale for .99 cents at Amazon from November 25 to December 2, 2024! Click here to get your copy.

Excerpt:

The enormity of what she’d just done suddenly hit her. “Oh, my God! I did it!”

He accepted the keys with one hand and squeezed her shoulder with the other. “You sure did. You drove!”

“I drove!”

Celeste opened the door and jumped out. She squealed and launched into a happy dance beside the car. Euphoria overtook her. Learning to drive was going to change her life. And Hope’s. They’d both be independent women.

Drew came around to her side of the car. “I’m really proud of you, Celeste.”

On impulse, Celeste threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, thank you! I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

His arms tightened around her, pulling her close. It felt so good to be held in a man’s arms. In Drew’s arms.

She leaned back to look up at him. The amusement left his face, replaced by intensity in his dark eyes as he stared at her. Celeste cupped his cheek with her bare hand, needing to touch him, skin to skin. She couldn’t think, or reason, or back away. She could only feel.

They came together in mutual need, their lips touching, questing, hands reaching, stroking. She met his lips with eagerness, opening her mouth to him. At her unspoken invitation, he plunged inside, sweeping her mouth with his tongue over and over until her knees weakened.

He trailed kisses across her throat. His breath was warm on her skin as he nuzzled behind her ear.

“Celeste.” His voice was husky and low. “I need you.”

She snapped to attention. What was she doing? She’d let herself get carried away. It was only the excitement of driving for the first time, nothing more.

Wasn’t it?

“Drew, I can’t.”

Celeste pushed gently against his chest, and he immediately dropped his arms. She caught a fleeting look of hurt before he wiped his face of expression.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I promised I wouldn’t do that again, and I blew it.”

She couldn’t let him take the blame. “No, I shouldn’t have…I can’t…I…I have to go.”

He stepped back. Celeste wanted to go to him, to tell him she’d wanted to kiss him as much as he wanted to kiss her. That she loved kissing him, that she wanted to do it again and again.

Instead, she turned and ran all the way to the lodge, too frightened by her own thoughts to tell the truth.

Blurb:

Widow Celeste Bishop has made a comfortable life for herself and her nine-year-old daughter in the three years she's worked, and lived, at Solace Lake Lodge. But this Christmas, Celeste is unsettled by a series of thefts that has staff suspecting one another. Then Drew Barnes arrives and totally upends her comfort, making her feel things she never thought she’d feel again.

An emergency brings Drew to Solace Lake Lodge. He’s sure that’s the only reason his uncle asked him to fill in as bookkeeper. No one in his family has believed in him since his mistake got him fired from his previous job.

As Drew gets to know Celeste, the pieces of his life tumble into place. He doesn’t care that she’s nine years older. But while he's falling in love, she's pulling away. She’s afraid to risk loving and losing again.

As Christmas approaches, the thefts increase. Drew is determined to stop the thief and redeem himself in his family’s eyes—and his own. But can he convince Celeste they deserve the gift of a happily-ever-after this Christmas?

On Sale November 25 to December 1, 2024 for .99 cents at Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH5DTYNS

For more excerpts, check out this week's bloghop!