The Christmas Baby Bonus Read online

  Snowbound with the boss—and a baby! Only from USA TODAY bestselling author Yvonne Lindsay.

  When his assistant finds an abandoned baby at his family’s lodge, wealthy Piers Luckman takes full responsibility. He might be clueless about children, but being snowbound with his capable, sexy employee has its benefits. Except Faye Darby shies away from little Casey and wants nothing to do with baby-rearing, Christmas...or the smoldering attraction between her and her boss. For the first time in his life, Piers must fight for what he wants—this little family...and Faye by his side and in his bed.

  “This little one isn’t going to grow up alone,” Piers said.

  He kept his gaze on the baby in his arms and added, “I will always be there for him.”

  “You don’t even know for sure he’s your brother’s child,” Faye protested.

  Piers caressed the baby’s cheek. “It fits. I want to offer him the kind of life he deserves.”

  His words made something twist deep in Faye’s chest. Made her see another side of him that was all too appealing. It was the baby. It had to be. After the terrible tragedy she’d been through thirteen years ago, she’d learned to inure herself to getting involved, to forming an emotional bond.

  And here she was, stranded with a man who appealed to her on so many levels, despite her best efforts to keep her reactions under control—and a helpless infant who called on those old instincts she thought she’d suppressed.

  She knew he was determined to get to the root of why she was so unwavering about having nothing to do with the baby. Or him.

  She couldn’t give in to temptation.

  * * *

  The Christmas Baby Bonus is part of Harlequin Desire’s #1 bestselling series, Billionaires and Babies: Powerful men...wrapped around their babies’ little fingers

  Dear Reader

  Are you a fan of Christmas? I remember a time when I loved everything about it. The anticipation, the food, the decorations, the shopping, the wrapping and especially the unwrapping. These days I prefer things a great deal more low-key, and the festive season is more of an opportunity to celebrate family and loved ones and to simply spend time together.

  In planning this Billionaires and Babies story, I thought hard about family and asked myself, what happens if you have no family and the family you did have died on Christmas Eve? And what happens when a baby is left for you to find and you really, really don’t like being around babies because they remind you too much of what you lost? Thus, this story was born and had a working title, during the writing process, of The Grinch and the Manger.

  Commitment-shy playboy Piers Luckman is lucky by name and luckier by nature. He has everything money can buy—except the sense of family he’s always craved. Faye Darby lost everyone she loved when she was fifteen and still blames herself for their deaths. Terrified of loving and losing again, she’s vowed to remain single and childless her entire life. Can a baby, abandoned in the old stables at Piers’s luxury mountain lodge, bring them both what their hearts desire?

  I love to hear from readers, so feel free to contact me via yvonnelindsay.com or through my Facebook page, Facebook.com/yvonnelindsayauthor.

  Happy reading,

  Yvonne Lindsay

  YVONNE LINDSAY

  The Christmas Baby Bonus

  A typical Piscean, USA TODAY bestselling author Yvonne Lindsay has always preferred her imagination to the real world. Married to her blind-date hero and with two adult children, she spends her days crafting the stories of her heart, and in her spare time she can be found with her nose in a book reliving the power of love, or knitting socks and daydreaming. Contact her via her website, yvonnelindsay.com.

  Books by Yvonne Lindsay

  Harlequin Desire

  The Wife He Couldn’t Forget

  Lone Star Holiday Proposal

  One Heir...or Two?

  Christmas Baby Bonus

  Wed at Any Price

  Honor-Bound Groom

  Stand-In Bride’s Seduction

  For the Sake of the Secret Child

  Courtesan Brides

  Arranged Marriage, Bedroom Secrets

  Contract Wedding, Expectant Bride

  Little Secrets

  Little Secrets: The Baby Merger

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

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

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  To my wonderful friends,

  who often know me better than I know myself. In particular to Nalini, Nicky and Peta for prompting (aka pestering) me to write this book while I stared with loathing (yes, I’m a Grinch) at a Christmas tree, and to Shar, who couldn’t make it that night but who would have been pestering, ahem, prompting me right along with them.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Excerpt from Little Secrets: His Pregnant Secretary by Joanne Rock

  One

  There, let that be the last tartan bow to be tied, Faye begged silently as she stood back and eyed the turned-wood balustrade that led to the upstairs gallery of the lodge. Swags of Christmas ribbon looped up the stairs, with a large tartan bow at each peak.

  Not for the first time, she cursed the bad luck that had seen her boss’s usual decorator fall off a ladder and dislocate her shoulder a week before Piers was due to arrive at his holiday home here in Wyoming for his annual Christmas retreat and weeklong house party.

  Faye had suggested he go with a minimalistic look for the festive season this year, but, no, he’d been adamant. Tradition, he’d called it. A pain in the butt, she’d called it. Either way, she’d been forced out of her warm sunny home in Santa Monica and onto an airplane, only to arrive in Jackson Hole to discover weather better suited to a polar bear than a person. So, here she was. Six days away from Christmas, decorating a house for a bunch of people who probably wouldn’t appreciate it. Except for her boss, of course. He loved this time of year with a childlike passion, right down to the snow.

  She hated snow, but not as much as she hated Christmas.

  She turned slowly and surveyed the main hall of the lodge. Even her late mother would have been proud, Faye thought with a sharp pang in her chest, before she pushed that thought very firmly away. The entire house looked disgustingly festive. It was enough to make a sane person want to hurl, she told herself firmly, clinging to her hatred of the season of goodwill. There was no reason to be sad about being alone for the holidays when she hated the holidays with a passion, right?

  At least her task was over and she could head back to the sun, where she could hide in her perfectly climate-controlled apartment and lose herself in her annual tradition of binge-watching every Predator movie made, followed by every Alien DVD in her collection, followed by any other sci-fi horror flick that was as disassociated from Christmas as it was from reality.

  She moved toward the front door where her compact carry-on bag was already packed and waiting fo
r her retreat to normality and a world without decorations or Christmas carols or—

  The front door swung open and swirl of frigid air preceded the arrival of her boss, Piers Luckman. Lucky by name and luckier by nature, they said. Only she knew what a hard worker he was beneath that handsome playboy exterior. She’d worked for him for the past three years and had the utmost respect for him as a businessman. And as a man...? A tiny curl of something unfurled deep inside her. Something forbidden. Something that in another person could resemble a hint of longing, of desire. Something she clamped down on with her usual resolute ferocity. No. She didn’t go there.

  Piers stomped the snow off his feet on the porch outside then stepped into the lobby and unslung his battered leather computer satchel from one shoulder.

  “Good flight?” she asked, knowing he’d probably piloted the company jet himself for the journey from LA to Jackson Hole.

  He had no luggage because he always kept a full wardrobe at each of his homes peppered around the world.

  “Merry Christmas!” Piers greeted her as he saw her standing there and unzipped his down-filled puffer jacket.

  Oh, dear mother of God, what on earth was he wearing underneath it?

  “Weren’t you supposed arrive on Saturday, the day before your party? You’re four days early,” she commented, ignoring his festive greeting. “And what, by all that’s holy, is that?”

  She pointed at the gaudy hand-knitted sweater he wore. The reindeer’s eyes were lopsided, his antlers crooked and...his nose? Well, suffice to say the red woolen pompom was very...bright.

  A breathtaking grin spread across Piers’s face.

  Faye focused her gaze slightly off center so she wouldn’t be tempted to stare or smile in return. The man was far too good-looking, and she only remained immune to his charms because of her personal vow to remain single and childless. That aside, she loved her job and getting a crush on her boss would be a surefire way to the unemployment office.

  After all, wasn’t that what had happened to a long line of her predecessors? It wasn’t like he could help it if personal assistants, who had an excuse to spend so much time with him, often found him incredibly appealing. He was charming, intelligent, handsome and, even though he’d been born with a silver spoon lodged very firmly in that beautiful mouth, he wasn’t averse to working hard, overseeing his empire with confidence and charisma. The only time Faye had ever seen him shaken had been last January, when his twin brother had died in a sky-diving accident. Since then he’d been somewhat quieter, more reflective than usual.

  While Faye had often felt Piers had been a little on the cavalier side in his treatment of others—particularly his revolving door of girlfriends—he’d become more considerate over this past year. As if Quin’s death had reminded him just how fleeting life could be. Even Lydia, his latest girlfriend, had been on the scene far longer than was usual. Faye had even begun to wonder if Piers was contemplating making the relationship a permanent one, but then she’d received the memo to send his usual parting gift of an exquisite piece of jewelry in a signature pale blue box along with his handwritten card.

  It was purely for reasons of self-preservation that she didn’t find him irresistible, and she was nothing if not good at self-preservation. Besides, if you didn’t have ridiculous dreams of happy-ever-after then you didn’t see them dashed, and you didn’t get hurt—and without all of that, you existed quite nicely, thank you.

  “This?” he said, stroking a hand across the breadth of his chest and down over what she knew, from working with him at his place on the Côte D’Azur where swimwear replaced office wear, was a tautly ripped abdomen. “It’s my great-aunt Florence’s gift to me this year. I have a collection of them. Like it?”

  “It’s hideous,” she said firmly. “Now you’re here, I can go. Is there anything else you need me to attend to when I get back to LA?”

  * * *

  Piers looked at his erstwhile PA. He’d never met anyone like Faye Darby, which was exactly why he kept her around. She intrigued him, and in his jaded world there weren’t many who still had that ability. Plus, she was ruthlessly capable, in a way he couldn’t help but admire. It might have been cruel to have sent her to decorate the house for him for the holidays—especially knowing she had such a deep dislike of the festive season—but it needed doing and, quite frankly, he didn’t trust anyone else to do it for him.

  And as to the sweater, although his late great-aunt Florence had knitted him several equally jaw-droppingly hideous garments in the past, the truth was that he’d seen this one in the window of the thrift store during his morning run and he’d fallen in love with it instantly, knowing exactly how much Faye would hate it. The donation he’d made to the store in exchange for the sweater was well worth the look on Faye’s face when he’d revealed the masterpiece.

  But now she was standing there, having asked him a question, and waiting for a response.

  “I can’t think of anything at the moment. Did you send the thank-you gift to Lydia?” he asked.

  Another thing he probably should have dealt with himself, but why not delegate when the person you delegated to was so incredibly competent? Besides, extricating himself from liaisons that showed every sign of getting complicated was something best left to an expert. And, goodness knew, Faye had gained more than sufficient experience in fare-welling his lady friends on his behalf.

  To his delight, Faye rolled her eyes. Ah, she was so easy to tease—so very serious. Which only made him work that much harder to get a reaction out of her one way or another.

  “Of course I did,” Faye responded icily. “She returned it, by the way. Do you want to know what she said?”

  Piers had no doubt his latest love interest—make that ex-love interest—had been less than impressed to be dusted off with diamonds and had sent the bracelet and matching earrings back to the office with a very tersely worded note. Lydia had a knack for telling people exactly what she thought of them with very few words, and he would put money on her having told him exactly where he could put said items of jewelry.

  He also had every belief that Faye agreed with Lydia’s stance. The two women had gotten on well. Perhaps a little too well. He cringed at the thought of the two of them ganging up on him. He wouldn’t have stood a chance. Either way, he would stick firm to his decision to cut her out of his life, although he’d had the sneaking suspicion that Lydia would not give up as easily as those who’d gone before her.

  “No, it’s okay, I can guess,” he answered with a slight grimace.

  “She isn’t going to give up,” Faye continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “She said she understands you’d be getting cold feet, given how much you mean to one another and your inability to commit.”

  “My what?”

  “She also said you can give the jewelry to her in person and suggested dinner at her favorite restaurant in the New Year. I’ve put it in your calendar.”

  Piers groaned. “Fine, I’ll tell her to her face.”

  “Good. Now, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.”

  She was in an all-fired hurry to leave, wasn’t she? He’d told her she was welcome to stay for his annual holiday house party, but Faye had looked at him as if she’d rather gargle with shards of glass.

  “No, nothing else. Take care on the road. The forecasted storm looks as if it’s blowing in early. It’s pretty gnarly out there. Will you be okay to drive?”

  “Of course,” she said with an air of supreme confidence.

  Beneath it, though, he got the impression that her attitude was one of bravado rather than self-assurance. He’d gotten to understand Faye’s little nuances pretty well in the time she’d worked for him. He wondered if she knew she had those little “tells.”

  Faye continued, “The rental company assured me I have snow tires on the car and that it will handle
the weather. They even supplied me with chains for the tires, which I fitted this morning.”

  “You know how to fit chains?” he asked and then mentally rolled his eyes. Of course she knew how to fit chains. She pretty much could do everything, couldn’t she?

  “You don’t need to worry about me.”

  While she didn’t ever seem to think anyone should worry about her, Piers was pretty certain he was the only person looking out for her. She had nobody else. Her background check had revealed her to be an orphan from the age of fifteen. Not even any extended family hidden in the nooks and crannies of the world.

  What would it be like to be so completely alone? he wondered. Even though his twin brother had died suddenly last January, both his parents were still living and he had aunts and uncles and cousins too numerous to count—even if they weren’t the kinds of people he wanted to necessarily be around. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be so completely on your own.

  She reached for her coat and Piers moved behind her to help her shrug it on, then Faye bent to lift her overnight case at the same time he did.

  “I’ll take it,” she said firmly. “No point in you having to go back out in the cold.”

  Her words made sense but grated on his sense of chivalry. In his world, no woman should ever have to lift a finger let alone her own case. But then again, Faye wasn’t of his world, was she? And she went to great pains to remind him of that. “Thanks for stepping into the breach and doing the house for me,” he said as they hesitated by the door.

  Faye gave one last look at the fully decorated great hall—her eyes lingered on the stockings for Piers’s expected guests pinned over the fireplace, at the tree glittering with softly glowing lights and spun-glass ornaments—and actually shuddered.

  “I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said with obvious relief.

  It was patently clear she couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  “Thanks, Faye. I do appreciate it.”

 
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