The Widow’s First Kiss Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

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  Filthy Neighbor

  The little cutie next door is spying on me. She watches me when I exercise. She watches me when I use my hot tub, and when I take a lover into it. It’s clearly a crush—and I like it. Those bright, longing eyes of hers turn me on. They make me want to show her that some things are much more fun to do than watch.

  There’s just one problem—if she’s been watching me, she may have seen too much. I’m a problem-solver for my uncle Ezio, the local mob boss. I leave at odd hours. I keep odd company. One day she may figure it out. And if that happens, I have to make sure she’s already too attached to me to give me up to the cops.

  But there’s a simple solution. The little lady has a crush. She wants me to show her what it’s all about in bed. And with my secrecy at stake, I have to ask: why not give her what she wants?

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  The Widow’s First Kiss

  A Billionaire and A Virgin Romance

  Dreams Fulfilled

  Book One

  By Scarlett King

  ©Copyright 2017 by

  Scarlett King - All rights

  Reserved

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  The afternoon that the mistletoe sprigs appear all over town, impoverished military widow Lorena Webster is about to spend her last twenty dollars so that her daughter Cindy can at least have one Christmas gift. As they walk down to the toy store from the apartment they share with Lorena’s sister Andie, they happen to see Lorena’s longtime man crush window shopping up ahead.

  James Norris is a heartthrob actor turned billionaire producer who returns upstate every year to visit his family. He’s shopping for a replacement gift for his mother, after accidentally leaving her Tiffany lamp at home, when he notices the lovely young mother in the inadequate coat coming his way. Caught under the mistletoe, he’s startled and amused when the little girl in her arms leans over and kisses his cheek as she passes by.

  Lorena and James quickly connect as the determined Cindy plays Cupid. But there’s just one problem: James’s meddling ex Andrea Case is using his family Christmas as a bid to get him back—and she has James’s gullible mom on her side.

  Lorena

  All I want for Christmas is to give my little girl any Christmas at all. Since my husband Manny died in Afghanistan in a military operation that couldn’t go on his record, I never received any death benefits, or even a body to bury. For two and a half years, we’ve been living on the edge of starvation while I work two jobs and scramble to save our house. It’s been hell—and I’ve done everything in my power to shield my little girl from the worst of it.

  But then comes the day when my baby girl leans over to kiss a random stranger under the mistletoe while I’m walking by. The stranger turns out to be the James Norris, a hot Hollywood producer worth more money than anyone could ever spend. And the weirdest part of all is—he’s wonderful. And he likes me. When he promises me and my little girl to give us a proper Christmas after all, I wonder if I’m getting a second chance at love—and life.

  James

  When the prettiest young widow in the world comes walking into my life with her adorable daughter, I fall pretty damn fast. I’ve put my career first for most of my life, and now that I’m past forty, I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to think about all the things I sacrificed. Like having a family. Having a sweet face to wake up to in the morning, and loving arms to fall into at night. Lorena just might be the right person to fix all of that for me.

  Winning her over is going to take some work; she has a baby daughter to protect, along with her own broken heart. But that’s not the complication I’m worried about. My ex, expert gold digger Andrea Case, is inserting herself into my family’s Christmas celebration, manipulating my mother into making sure she can stay. Is she going to ruin Christmas? Or can I find out a way to save it for all of us?

  Chapter 1

  Lorena

  Twenty dollars has never made me feel so happy. It’s December 23rd and finally, after months of scrambling to keep the heat on and have food in the fridge, I have twenty dollars leftover to buy my baby daughter, Cindy, a Christmas present. It hurts to be this grateful for something so small—especially when Christmas dinner will be a cheap takeout pizza—but it’s still a relief, something I haven’t felt in months.

  So when I walk out of the front door with my two-year-old nestled in my arms, a thick wool blanket wrapped around us both to make up for our inadequate jackets, I’m distracted enough by our good fortune that I don’t notice the mistletoe at first.

  Phoenicia is one of those tiny little towns in Upstate New York that survives on being pretty, having touristy shops and venues, and having the only late-night gas station for several miles. It has a bed and breakfast, a theater, a fifties-style diner, boutiques, an old German butcher, and a whole lot of drafty old Victorians. One of those drafty Victorians was left to me in my aunt’s will, so Cindy and I moved here from Long Island after my husband, Manny, died.

  Getting the house was a bittersweet, survival-level stroke of luck—but a big one, with Manny’s benefits tangled up in red tape for over two years. I wouldn’t be so scared if it was just me, but I have our daughter to worry about too—to keep warm, sheltered, and fed. I swore on Manny’s grave that I’d do my best job. Cindy is the one steady light in my life, and as usual my focus is on her more than anything else as we walk along the sidewalk—up until everything starts going weird around us.

  I smell the fresh scent of cut mistletoe first—that slightly astringent smell, mixed with the slightly piney perfume of the berries. I’m used to catching whiffs of it all through the Christmas season, but as I draw near the main street, the wind picks up and blows the overpowering smell of the plant into my face.

  I stop, eyes watering from the wind, and look around in confusion. The smell is so intense that it’s almost like someone’s burning a pile of the stuff. I look around and see no fire, but abruptly notice the sheer quantity of the stuff. Mistletoe is hanging everywhere, all over town.

  Every doorway, the corners of every house and awning, the arching light displays running over the streets, the lampposts, everywhere that a sprig of mistletoe can hang, at least one dangles, hung by a red ribbon. I start moving slowly toward the closest one, not entirely sure what I’m seeing.

  “Mommy, what’s the smelly green stuff?” Cindy is immediately fascinated, but I gently steer her out of grabbing distance of the sprigs. The stuff is poisonous, but the berries smell nice. Bad combination around a tiny kid
.

  “It’s mistletoe, honey. People kiss under it. See?” I point to an elderly couple smooching while a couple of Millennial girls take their picture, looking charmed. The couple is pretty cute. I wonder how many decades of marriage they have under their belt—and then I remember Manny and look away, my heart stinging.

  “Oooh. Is it magic?” Cindy sounds excited. Magic is her thing. Her favorite stories are fairy tales—even the creepy ones.

  “I don’t know,” I reply honestly. I’m that way about everything: magic, prayer, Santa, karma, God. I’ve always believed that any kind of religious opinion or paranormal belief should be sorted out by individuals, and not fed to them by their parents.

  I also never want Cindy thinking that I know everything, or that I never make mistakes. No pedestal for me means less chance of disappointing her later—a consideration I wish my parents had given me. Not that I would ever leave my daughter to drag me to bed at night because Mommy and Daddy had too much happy juice, but still.

  It’s the middle of the day two days before Christmas, and of course the streets are jammed with last-minute shoppers. There’s a toy store two blocks down that has plushy snowshoe hares. That’s what Cindy wants: a snow bunny. Fifteen dollars plus tax, and enough change left over for a bag of Christmas candy.

  Unfortunately, I’ll have to push through this gawking crowd to get to our destination. It’s not going to be easy—because like me, they’re shocked by the sudden appearance of all this … greenery. And that means they’re mostly standing around, blocking my way.

  They’re either standing around talking about the mistletoe, or bustling around trying to clear it from their properties, sweeping small piles of mistletoe into the gutters—and yes, some of them are standing around kissing under it. It’s very cute and kind of ridiculous, and I wonder how many people had to get together early this morning to pull this prank. Not to mention, who they were.

  There’s a man leaning against a lamppost on the corner as I cross the street. It takes me a moment to recognize him as Jack Whitman, a local billionaire’s son and world-class skier. He’s beautiful, with his pale face and coal black hair, those bright blue eyes and that deep blue overcoat. He gives me a smile and a wink as I walk past, and I blush slightly while Cindy waves at him.

  I wonder what he’s doing out watching all this? Is he involved? Is he behind this, maybe? He certainly does seem to be gloating a little. I glance back at him and see that he’s wiggling his fingers back at Cindy, his eyes dancing with mischief and good humor. No way of knowing.

  The Whitmans—just the father and his adult son, as far as I know—live in a giant old house far up the mountainside, and venture down to see us once every week or so. The local rich eccentrics, they are known for their grand gestures around the holidays—such as the massive food donations to the local church that I hope Dr. Whitman will make again. Last time netted each of us enough frozen and canned food to see every poor person in and around Phoenicia through to mid-January.

  The elder Whitman is his son’s opposite in looks, aside from them both being tall and blue-eyed. Dr. Whitman’s complexion is ruddy; his features are generous. He wears a full white beard and mustache, and he always wears a cap over his bald spot, with silver hair flowing from beneath it. Nobody knows why the pair picked a tiny, sleepy town like Phoenicia to settle in, but the kids love them, and they never seem to do any harm.

  If the mistletoe prank is their doing, though, this latest grand gesture is … beyond bizarre.

  “I’m cold, Mommy. Can we stop for a cocoa?” The chirpy little voice at my ear drags me back to earth. Cindy’s getting big—I’m strong, but my arm is starting to ache. Still, we only have the one wool blanket to use as a shawl, and I can’t wrap it around us both if she walks beside me.

  I do a quick bit of poverty math in my mind. A big cup of cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkles for each of us at the candy shop will mean temporary relief from the cold, but no Christmas candy. But I do have baking chocolate, sugar, vanilla, and milk at home.

  “Can you hold out until after we get your bunny and go home? If you can wait that long, you can have two mugs of chocolate.” Made from scratch, each mug costs maybe forty cents apiece.

  I hate having to bargain with my baby daughter over tiny things, but I have no choice. Not even at Christmas. That’s just how it is. She’ll get two gifts from the toy drive that she won’t get to pick, Christmas cookies because I bake them, a five-dollar pizza, one bag of chocolate drops in bright foil for her stocking, and her snow bunny. And then I’ll be broke again until my next check, and praying that the Whitmans give us another break.

  She lifts her head to peer at me, her dark eyes thoughtful in her round little face. She has her father’s looks and his way of drawing her little brows together as she thinks something over. “All right, Mommy,” she says very solemnly, and snuggles closer to me. “But hurry up!”

  “I’ll do my best.” The sidewalks are slippery from all the slush from a recent snowfall. The shopkeepers try to sweep the worst of it back into the gutters, but I can feel my worn boot treads slide slightly every few steps. I take deep breaths and fight a surge of panic every time I slip more than half an inch, praying we won’t go down in this crowd of shoppers and gawkers.

  We’re half a block from the toy store when I see a man step out of the tobacco shop two doors down and stop dead for a moment, my eyes widening. It’s him—James Norris. Former leading man, billionaire media mogul, and the only man associated with Phoenicia who could give the mysterious Whitmans a run for their money in terms of wealth and success. I’ve heard before that he sometimes visit town, but I’ve never seen him myself.

  I’ve had a crush on him since I hit puberty. Now in his forties, he’s every bit as hot as he was back when I fell asleep next to open magazines filled with pictures of his tanned and smiling face. His thick brown hair sweeps back from a high forehead; his features are rugged and his mouth generous. His smile is like a flash of light, making his golden-hazel eyes twinkle. Only the slight crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes give him away as being over thirty.

  He’s dressed down today in jeans, snow boots, and a thick Irish sweater in storm-cloud gray. He rocks on his heels as he checks his phone, seemingly oblivious to the gigantic bundle of mistletoe he’s just stopped under. We’re headed straight for him.

  Oh God. For a split second I’m torn between marching up and ambushing him for a kiss that would probably warm me through the next year, and crossing the street just to avoid him. My heart bangs in my ears. I’m suddenly terribly aware of the way my pale blonde hair has slipped loose in wisps from my messy braid, of my cheap lipstick and wind-flushed cheeks.

  It’s the chance of a lifetime, but weird proliferation of mistletoe or not, I just can’t face him.

  I take the third option, walking toward him in the crowd, stepping around him politely, and pretending I don’t recognize him even though my whole body feels like it’s vibrating with rushes of adrenaline. I’m almost past him when I feel Cindy’s weight shift. I turn around—just in time to see her lean over and lay a big kiss on James Norris’s cheek.

  Chapter 2

  James

  I didn’t intend to go down the hill to town today. It’s ridiculous, really, how I ended up wading through Phoenicia’s last-minute shopping crowd while everyone else up at Mom’s house had all their presents tucked under the tree already. It’s my own fault, though. I managed to leave the Tiffany lamp I bought for my mother’s collection sitting on my penthouse couch as I left to drive upstate.

  My distraction was understandable; my mother had just informed me that Andrea, my ex, would be staying with us for Christmas. The smartest thing that surgically-enhanced little gold digger ever did was ingratiate herself with Mom. I’ve been looking forward to getting away from my New York City problems for a few weeks. It irritates me to discover that one of the worst of them has followed me home for the holidays.

  Mother has never forg
iven me for breaking up with Andrea, and has tried to get me and Andrea back together more than once. She doesn’t understand that Andrea is a high- maintenance gold digger who whines and nags to get her way and refuses to even contemplate having kids. Even if Andrea wasn’t a bitch, she’s not the one for me, and both she and my mother refuse to see that.

  In a way, the errand is a welcome vacation from the tension up the hill. Andrea, demanding that the heat be turned up to eighty, has spent the whole day since I showed up slinking around in a gold lamé mini dress and matching pumps, with her red hair piled artfully and hard gray eyes ringed with kohl. Clouds of musky perfume follow her around; like her artfully revealing taste in clothes, it once attracted me, but now it makes me a little sick.

  I can’t breathe until I go out. Andrea refuses to go out in the cold with me, for which I’m grateful. The only part of me that still likes her is my cock, and the sway of her hips in that tight, shimmering dress had gotten my libido and me into a hell of a fight on the way out the door. It leaves me distracted and thinking of sex—and wishing I had someone kind and friendly to have a little fun with.