[12 Days of Romance] Mrs Roth's Merry Christmas by Holley Trent #giveaway #ChristmasCookies

Mrs. Roth’s Merry Christmas

All Gillian wanted was to pick up a third job so she could buy her preschool students Christmas gifts. She didn’t think she’d be the one getting picked up instead.

Her new boss, Nicholas Roth, is the big man in charge at Santa Incorporated—what Gillian thought was a seasonal staffing agency. But the sexy CEO has a holly jolly secret; he’s an equal opportunity employer and most of his staff are elves.

Santa has another secret. When he’s not delivering toys for his charity, he’s contending with political unease in the magic realm. To take his father’s throne as king of the elves, he has to get married…and only magic-proof Gillian will do. Gillian agrees thinking Nick will cut her loose after the busy Christmas rush, but he has other ideas.

Nick wants a permanent Mrs. Roth but Gillian doesn’t think she’s it.

Excerpt

He dropped the smirk and stood with a preternatural speed. I blinked, and the next thing I knew Nick was in front of me with his hands clamped around my arms. His expression was dark—more Krampus than Saint Nicholas. When he spoke again, his voice was completely without mirth. All joking aside, literally.

“Gillian, your mouth is going to get you in trouble.”

I squirmed beneath his strong grip, which only caused him to pull me in tighter. My heart pounded so hard that my pulse thrummed in my ears, blocking out all other sound. With a great deal of apprehension, I looked up into his face expecting to see anger, but instead read something else in the hard set of his jaw and the icy blue gaze: a kind of neediness that seemed untouchable. Or at least Nick thought it was.

I looked away. He may have had magical insight to my desires, but I felt invasive reading the emotions he thought he had so locked down off his face. They were private things I didn’t want to concern myself with.
When I looked up again his face was softer, giving less away. He really was handsome, especially when he wasn’t acting like he knew it. I cleared my throat and averted my gaze to his chest. “If you dislike my mouth so much, fire me.”

“You don’t want that.”

“It’s just a job, Nick.”

“You’re lying. You know and I know there’s something going on here.”

I finally shrugged off his arms and backed up a few paces…or I should say, Nick let me. Nick didn’t let anything happen he didn’t want. “I’m in a North Pole dormitory and being hit on by a six-foot elf.”

He scoffed, that smarmy demeanor of his having returned, and jammed his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “You think this is mere flirting?”

“Isn’t it?” I knew better. My body knew better. His did too, obviously, judging by how happy he was about having me pressed against him moments before.

“No. There’s a lot at play you don’t understand.”

“So explain it to me.”

Nick shook his head and turned his back to me as he walked out of the kitchen and toward the outer door. “Get some sleep. I’m sure the girls won’t bother you on the sofa. There should be some spare blankets around somewhere.”

“I’m—”

“Goodnight, Gilly,” he said without meeting my gaze again. The moment he shut the door, the elves came out.

Purchase Links

Musa Publishing (for Kindle, Nook, Mobi, PDF), Amazon (Kindle), All Romance eBooks, iTunes, Smashwords, and B&N.

Bio

Author Holley Trent is a Carolina girl gone west. Raised in rural Eastern North Carolina, she currently resides with her family on the Colorado Front Range. She studied fine English literature at the University of North Carolina, but prefers reading and writing popular fiction much more.

Holley writes romance because readers are guaranteed optimistic, upbeat endings, and in her books, she strives to blend Southern love with laughter. Her comedic influences include Lucille Ball, George Carlin, and Richard Pryor. She may be a Southern girl, but she’s not too genteel to tell a dirty joke (just ask her mother).

Her contemporary and paranormal romances are published by Crimson Romance, Musa Publishing, and Lyrical Press. Please visit holleytrent.com to see her full list of fiction works.

Recipe – Raspberry-Almond Sandwich Cookies

(Adapted from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Cookies)

Ingredients (for 32 2” round cookies)

-1 c  blanched almonds + 1/3 c chopped almonds

-1 ½ c all purpose flour

-3/4 c butter, softened

-1/2 c granulated sugar

-Grated rind of 1 lemon + 1 tbsp lemon juice

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1 egg white

-salt

-1 c raspberry jam

*Grind the 1 c of blanched almonds with 3 tbsp of the flour.

*Cream the butter and sugar.

*Add lemon rind and vanilla extract, stir.

*Add the ground almonds, the rest of the flower, and mix to form a ball.

*Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for an hour.

*Preheat over to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

*Separate the dough into four equal parts, and flour a board. Roll each ball into a sheet 1/8” thick.

*Use a pastry round or biscuit cutter (or even an overturned glass) to cut circles from dough. Use a smaller cutter to remove circles from the centers of half the rounds. The ones without the holes will be the bottoms. Be sure you have an equal amount of tops and bottoms.

*Arrange the cookies on wax paper-lined cookie sheets 1/2" apart.

*Beat egg white with a pinch of salt and brush only the top halves of the cookies (the ones with the holes) with the mixture. Sprinkle rings with chopped slivered almonds.

*Bake cookies 12-15 minutes or until tan (you don’t want them too brown). Cool on pan a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

*Simmer jam and lemon juice in a saucepan until well combined, and brush the mixture over the bottom halves of cookies.

*Top jam circles with cookie rings.

*Store cookies between layers of waxed paper in a sealed container.

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