Perfect Christmas: The Agency, #2.5

By Elizabeth Grey

Violet Archer has never looked forward to a Christmas more. She's got a lot to celebrate: after a whirlwind year of secrets, lies and heartache, she gets to spend this festive season as the fiancée of her best friend (and boss), Ethan Fraser. Everything's going to be wonderful. Isn't it?

 

Will Violet get the quiet, cosy and totally loved-up Christmas of her dreams? Between one extremely irate CEO, two warring best friends, and a temporarily homeless and implausibly half-dressed German, Violet's vision of festive bliss seems to be melting away faster than Frosty the Snowman on a sunbed…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth Grey
• Release date: Dec 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201389031

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Perfect Christmas – The Agency (Short Story 2.5)

Published 2021

ISBN-13: 9798778975071

Copyright © Elizabeth Grey 2021

The right of Elizabeth Grey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All the characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Condition of Sale

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

Set in 12 pt, Times New Roman.

Cover designed by Elizabeth Grey Art & Illustration of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK.

Copy Edited by Kia Thomas Editing of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, UK.

www.kiathomasediting.com

www.twitter.com/kiathomasedits

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

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Elizabeth’s Books

Message from Gunther

About the Author

1

Violet

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I FEEL LIKE I’LL NEVER be able to sleep again. If I close my eyes now, will he still be here tomorrow? I don’t want tonight to end. I don’t want to find out everything was some very weird drink-and-stress-infused hallucination.

Ethan’s arm lies possessively over my chest as he twirls his fingers around my hair. I love it when he does that. I don’t even mind that it takes a few minutes to brush through the knots the next morning because it reminds me of how much he loves messy – how much he loves messy, chaotic me.

His soft, wispy breaths beat out a rhythm on my neck and I decide to stay awake all night. Tomorrow is the start of my forever with him, so who needs sleep anyway? I can miss one night if it means I get to enjoy as much of this moment as is humanly possible.

He snuggles against my skin. Are you ever going to go to sleep? he asks, his voice ragged with exhaustion.

I’m sorry, I just can’t stop replaying tonight over and over in my head.

Which part? He lifts himself up on his elbow and lightly strokes my cheek. His face lights up with a familiar smile – one that’s been missing from our lives for far too long.

I wrap my arms around his neck. Every part. All the parts.

His gorgeous smile turns into a cocky grin. I’ve done that to you before, he says, pointing under the duvet.

You have, I say, holding in a laugh. But not for a while. And definitely not when you were my fiancé.

He puts on a frown. I’m your fi-what now?

I playfully bat his arm. Stop. I’ve already told you I’m having trouble processing what happened tonight. My brain is still firmly stuck in insecure mode.

His expression softens. I don’t want you to feel insecure. What can I do?

Erase the last few months from my memory?

His eyes become two twinkling pools of regret. I wish I could. I wish I could erase them for both of us. Seeing you every day, but not having you . . . He kisses me slowly, like it’s the first time he’s ever placed his lips on mine. The last few months have been torture. I was living on autopilot. Just going through the motions like a robot. Losing you meant I lost who I was.

Tears flood my eyes as his words find a spot in the centre of my heart. My heart doesn’t seem to have a problem processing that I’m in love with someone who wants to spend the rest of his life with me, but my brain is killing the mood. Even as he’s holding me in his arms, telling me words I know are true, my brain is spinning them upside down and having a good ol’ laugh.

His fingers dance against my cheek. This is it, Violet. You and me, forever. There’s no going back now. I couldn’t live that life again. It would kill me.

I feel him harden against my hip as we kiss, and my own desire floods my body. It’s only been a few hours since he asked me to marry him, but sex is different when you’re someone’s fiancée. It feels more permanent. More serious. Like we’re signing an everlasting contract with our bodies.

Wow, you think you’ve got a five-times-in-one-night in you? I say as his kisses get stronger.

Ethan laughs. "It seems we’re about to find out,