Dec 16, 2012

Sunday Smooch -- The Nanny Who Saved Christmas


Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from The Nanny Who Saved Christmas by Michelle Douglas, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- Scarlet Wilson!


Congratulations, Scarlet! Can you please contact Nikki at

nikki (at) nikkilogan (dot) com (dot) au

and she'll send you a copy of Once A Rebel.


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Nanny Who Saved Christmas by Michelle Douglas...



This Christmas Nicola McGillroy will:

1. Be a great nanny to Cade Hindmarsh's two adorable little girls, and give them the best Christmas they've had since their mother left.

2. Enter into the Christmas spirit and forget the fact she should have been planning her own wedding right now.

3. Keep a straight head in her attraction to her gorgeous off-limits boss... Surely this is just a rebound thing and not true love--for the both of them?





[Set up: Nicola and Cade have just had a heart-to-heart and have agreed to help each other out. She'll make sure his daughters have a fabulous Christmas, and he'll help her with her makeover plan to get fit and lose weight.]

   Was he serious—all she had to do was be Christmassy? She stuck out a hand before he could change his mind. 'You have yourself a deal.' 
   He closed his hand around hers. His grip was firm and she could feel the way he tempered his strength so as to not crush her fingers. He didn't let go again immediately and her heart started up its silly pounding and erratic fluttering again.
   'Nicola...'
   Her name was a caress in the warm night air. Brad had never uttered her name like that. Her heart pounded louder, harder. 'Yes?'
   'I know your confidence has taken a beating, and I respect the fact that you'd like to get fit, but as for your weight...and everything else, I don't think you need to change a damn thing.' 
   For a moment she actually believed he was sincere.
   Oh, Nicola Ann, the man's a comedian!
   She flinched as she imagined her mother's scornful laughter. She pulled her hand from his and leapt up, moving across to the nearest veranda post. She wrapped her hands around it. 'Is that a way of saying you'll help me with my makeover plan, but as you don't think I need to change there's nothing you need to actually do?'
   'Damn it, no!'
   He shot to his feet and strode across to her, gripping her chin in his hand to force her to meet his gaze. 'You're a hell of an infuriating woman, you know that?'
   Infuriating was better than pitiful.
   His face softened as he stared down at her. 'Sorry,' he murmured, his touch on her chin becoming gentle. 'I shouldn't have snapped.'
   'I...um...' She swallowed. 'I'm probably a touch sensitive,' she allowed.
   'A person doesn't bounce back just like that after the kind of blow you've suffered, Nicola. But you don't need to change and eventually you'll see I'm right.'
   She doubted that, but she couldn't utter a single sound. Under his fingers her skin had leapt to life. His thumb traced the skin beneath her bottom lip. It made her drag in a breath that made her whole body tremble.
   'You have the most amazing eyes I have ever seen,' he murmured.
   It wasn't her eyes he was staring at, but her mouth. And he was staring at it as if he was hungry, as if he was starved. That gaze held her spellbound. It promptly cut off her mother's disbelieving comments and hurtful contradictions. She should step away. She should flee. She knew that in some deep, dark recess of her mind, but her hand curled about the veranda post all the more tightly to anchor her into place.
   Cade had become the brightest star in the night and she wanted to bask in the glow of his warmth and his...desire. Even if for only ten seconds more. 
   His free hand travelled down the post until he found her hand. He closed it around hers. He stepped in so close their chests touched. 'You smell like strawberry jam.'
   She tried to ask him if that was a good thing, but her throat wouldn't work. All that happened was her lips parted.
   And that he saw them part. 
   And knew what it meant. 
   His eyes glittered. His mouth took on a wolfish edge of satisfaction. He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. She gasped and a low rumble of approval emerged from his chest. 
   'Amazing eyes,' he repeated. 'Hair that shines in the starlight.' His thumb stopped alternately tormenting and pleasing her lips as his hand drifted around the back of her neck to slide into the hair at the base of her skull. He tipped her head back so he could devour her face with his gaze, and she let him.
   He was going to kiss her. She knew he was going to kiss her. She hovered between breaths, waiting for it, waiting to welcome it...hungering for it.
   And from the glittering satisfaction in his eyes she could tell that he'd read that thought in her eyes—that she wanted it as much as he did, that there would be no argument or resistance.
   His mouth descended. The pressure of his hand at her nape partly lifted her to meet him, demanded that she meet him.
   And she did, with her lips ready to taste him completely.
   The kiss was not tentative on either side—it was assured and demanding. Nicola was twenty-seven years old but she had never had such a blatantly adult kiss in all that time.
   Had never enjoyed such a blatantly adult kiss. There was no game playing and no teasing or preliminaries. A question had been asked. An answer given. And then the thorough enjoyment, a wholehearted participation in the slaking of a mutual need.
   And the pleasure rocked her to her toes. She clutched his upper arms, not aware of when she'd moved, his heat and strength rippling through the thin cotton of his shirt to her palms and fingers, filling her with a sense of invincibility. His arm snaked around her waist—to pull her more firmly against him or to give her support? She didn't know and she didn't care. She was simply grateful that it gave her the freedom to dance her fingers across his throat, to smooth them over his shoulders and then plunge them into his hair to pull him closer.
   The kiss went on and on and it filled her with energy and strength and the yearning for more...so much more!
   Eventually Cade lifted his head, but he didn't remove his arm from around her waist. She didn't remove hers from around his neck. She met his gaze head on. With Cade she didn't need to be coy.
   His eyes didn't waver from hers. 'If this goes on for much longer we're going to get to the point of no return,' he rasped out.
   She nodded. 
   His chest, pressed to hers, rose and fell. 'I need to think about that.' 
   So did she. 
   In unspoken agreement they unclasped each other. Nicola moved back to the bench as reaction set in and her knees started to shake. 
   Did she want to take this any further? Did she want to go all the way with Cade? Oh, her body was in no doubt but what about her brain...and her heart?




To be in the draw to win a signed copy of The Nanny Who Saved Christmas, just tell me what you'd most like Santa to leave for you under the tree!


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced!

25 comments:

  1. You know, I really can't think of anything. Seriously. I don't NEED anything, as I am lucky to have a roof over my head and a well-stocked pantry; I really don't WANT anything either - at least under the tree. I WANT to spend time with family and friends, and it appears that this wish will come true. I WANT nobody to be in the hospital, but time will tell on that (as several people have been ill lately, plus four friends/relatives have died in the last six weeks). I WANT worldwide peace, but apparently that's asking too much, so I'll settle for I WANT to do my best to achieve peace in MY part of the world.

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  2. Laney, I think that's really what makes Christmas special -- the time we get to spend with loved ones! I'm sending you massive hugs on all the losses you've had recently, and will keep fingers crossed that nobody is in hospital on Christmas Day -- that everyone gets to enjoy the spirit of the season.

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  3. Michelle, loved Bella's Impossible Boss and I'm really looking forward to this one!
    For Christmas I want all my family together - happy, laughing and discussing plans for next year.

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  4. Nice excerpt. Santa can leave more books.

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  5. Aw, thanks, Robbie.

    And I love the sound of your Christmas. :-)

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  6. I totally agree, bn100! Where I come from, one can never have too many books.

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  7. Michelle you know already that I loved this book.

    I'm a bit like Laney this year. I just want all my extended family to have a wonderful Christmas. My brother in law is beginning to show some signs of dementia. I am hoping that this doesn't spoil my sister's Boxing Day get together. He's 15 years older than my sister and up until this past year that never mattered.

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  8. More books, sounds like bliss. And an e-reader to "get with it" would make some sense - it's hard reading e-books on the cloud...
    I love the excerpt - very interesting premise!!

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  9. You're a sweetheart, Kaelee. :-)

    Hugs on your brother in law. I hope you and your sister and the rest of your family have a magical, wonderful Christmas, and get to spend lots of memory-making time together.

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  10. Joanne, I'm hoping Santa will leave a Kindle under the Christmas tree for me too. And if it's preloaded with a book or two all the better. ;-)

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  11. That's such an amazing smooch thank you.

    I'd actually like my bathroom re-painted as a Christmas gift. I don't expect to find it under the Christmas tree (a tad difficult to wrap), so I think sometime in the new year I'm going to treat myself.

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  12. Hugs to you, Kaelee. My mother-in-law's Alzheimer's was at the root of why she was taken to the hospital via ambulance last week. Dementia is not pretty....
    In the last six weeks, my 50-year-old sis-in-law died during cancer surgery. A woman I called Mom died of heart failure. My favourite boss's 52-year-old son died of cancer (while his 48-year-old sister has been battling cancer longer). Another sis-in-law was diagnosed with bone cancer. A woman whose children I long ago babysat just died. And then Mom has recurring back/leg pain that is exacerbated by her dementia, so here's hoping things have calmed down here and can return to whatever our new normal is.
    Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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  13. Gorgeous smooch, Michelle! Can't wait to read more of Nicola and Cade's story.

    All I want for Christmas is more TIME. No matter how early I get up in the morning my to-do list always seems just as long!

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  14. Ooh, Michelle, what a gorgeous treat for a Christmas read! I've got this book on my bedside table right now waiting for me to pick it up! So looking forward to it.

    As for gifts from Santa, with our lovely cool change here now i'm thinking it would be fantastic if Santa brought a drop in temperature for Christmas Day. Much nicer cooking and eating a traditional Christmas Dinner when it's not 40 degrees C!

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  15. Mary, I undersand your dilemma with wrapping your bathroom and fitting it under the tree, but... you could wrap up the picture of your ideal bathroom and place it there. Just for reference. :-)

    I hope you do treat yourself and get your dream bathroom!

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  16. Oh, Laney, you really have had a rough time of it lately! Like you I'll keep my fingers crossed that you and yours manage a quiet and calm Christmas. Wishing you all the joy of the season.

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  17. Oh, Barb, good luck with that! But if you do manage to find more time, can you come back and share the secret with us? :-)

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  18. Aw, if you manage to pick it up any time soon, Annie, I hope it adds to your Christmas cheer.

    And I will definitely second your hope that Christmas Day is mild and cool...or at least not 40C! Please, Santa, please...

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  19. Michelle, that's a gorgeous kiss! Roll on the mistletoe for Cady and Nicola!

    I do have something I'd like Santa to leave for me - enthusiasm for exercise! I don't like my chances! ;)

    Hugs to Kaelee and Laney, you've both had a tough time.

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  20. oops that should have been Cade and Nicola!

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  21. Glad you liked it, Sharon. ;-)

    OMG -- can I have what you're having please? Oh, to find as much love for exercise as I do for reading! *snort* Afraid I don't like my chances either.

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  22. A haircut! (Can you wrap a hairdresser?) I've only had one in the past year and now summer's here, my thick hair is not helping any. I'm sure Santa's going to bring me lots of lovely things anyway, but a haircut is definitely the treat I need to find under the tree!

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  23. Oh, Jo, I hear you on that! But at least I've managed two haircuts this year. :-)

    I hope you find the time to spoil yourself in said fashion before 2013 rolls around!

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  24. Michelle, that was a beautiful smooch! Can't wait to read this one - you know I love your books and this looks like it will be another favourite.

    Kaelee and Laney, hugs for both of you and I hope things look up for you and those you love very soon.

    As for me, I'll have what Sharon's having. :)

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  25. Aww, Rach ;-) I hope you enjoy it.

    Mmm, yes, we'll both have what Sharon's having!

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