.Will your holiday be....An Almost Perfect Christmas by Jenna Jaxon

An Almost Perfect Christmas


Is love enough to make their Christmas perfect?

As Pam Kimball and her computer geek boyfriend, Roger Ware, prepare to celebrate their first Christmas together, Pam is having doubts about their relationship.  Roger can barely stop working at his new software business long enough to join her under the tree. And when he does, her present to him backfires, bringing their lovemaking plans to a crashing halt. So when Roger announces his plans to leave after Christmas to visit his family have changed and he won’t be back for New Year’s Eve, Pam fears the worst. Does the man she loves really care for her, or might a break-up be her present this Christmas Eve? Will there be enough magic in the air to turn this disastrous Christmas into a perfect one?

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Pam Kimball sat in front of their small but full Christmas tree, mashing down the tape on the festive green and red holly wrapping paper, finishing the final present, thank God.  She grabbed the last bow, bright blue that didn’t go with the paper, but the only one left in the bag.  The thought counted, not the wrapping, right?  She placed the gift under the tree on top of the small mountain of presents she had gotten her boyfriend.

“Come on, Roger.  Christmas Eve is almost over and we haven’t opened our gifts yet.” She checked the clock on the wall beside the front door.  Eleven thirty-five.  Still enough time.  She leaned forward and dug through the pile, searching for the right box.

“Be there in a second, babe.”  The hushed, absent-minded tone carried from the dining room where her boyfriend sat at his computer, eyes glued to the screen as they had been all night.

“That’s what you said an hour ago,” she mumbled, then seized the big square package she had been looking for and carefully pulled it from the bottom of the heap.  “Now, Roger Ware.  Or you’re going to be sorry!”  She added a playful lilt to the last word.  This was their first Christmas as a couple and she was determined it would be perfect.

She had helped decorate his small apartment by putting up the tree, draping woodland garland around the living room, lighting a scented candle with a balsam fragrance, and even putting electric candles in the two windows. Now the room glowed with a romantic aura, lit by the candles and the twinkling white lights of the Christmas tree. The local cable company had even cooperated by playing White Christmas starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.  Her absolute favorite Christmas movie. She breathed deeply, waiting for magic to happen.

“I’m here.  I’m here.  Where’s the fire?”  Roger plopped his tall frame down next to her. Dressed in an old dark blue flannel shirt and jeans he looked good enough to eat.

“Right here.”  She grabbed his face, pulling his lips onto hers.  Tingles shot down her arms—always did every time he kissed her.  He settled his arms around her and drew her closer.  His tongue thrust into her mouth, probing her with bold sweeps.  Pam moaned and clutched him, pressing against his chest until he toppled backward onto the carpet with her on top.

He disengaged their mouths long enough to say, “We should have started this in the bedroom.”

“Oh, we’re heading there.” In the two months that they’d been dating, most of their evenings had ended with them making love. One of her favorite things to do was to get him all hot and bothered. Like now. She ground her hips against his and was rewarded with a groan from above and hardness from below.  “But you need to open a present first.”

“But it’s not Christmas yet.”  He ran his hands down her sides, under her jeans to cup her butt.  “Can I open this one?” 

Jenna Jaxon is a multi-published author of historical and contemporary romance.  She has been reading and writing historical romance since she was a teenager.  A romantic herself, she has always loved a dark side to the genre, a twist, suspense, a surprise.  She tries to incorporate all of these elements into her own stories. She lives in Virginia with her family and a small menagerie of pets.  When not reading or writing, she indulges her passion for the theatre, working with local theatres as a director.  She often feels she is directing her characters on their own private stage.

Jenna is a PAN member of Romance Writers of America as well as President of Chesapeake Romance Writers, her local chapter of RWA. Her debut novel, Only Scandal Will Do, is the first in her House of Pleasure series, set in Georgian London. Only Marriage Will Do, the second book in the series, is set to release in 2015 from Kensington. Her medieval serial novel, Time Enough to Love: Betrothal, Betrayal, and Beleaguered, is a Romeo & Juliet-esque tale, set at the time of the Black Death.

She has equated her writing to an addiction to chocolate because once she starts she just can’t stop.