Chase ran the back of his hand along her cheek
Sylvie could hardly breathe. Everything in her waited to hear what he would say, what he would do.
He gave in and pressed his mouth to hers, holding motionless, as if waiting for the spark to flare. And oh, did it flare. Just like all those years before, pure desire poured through her.
They were reliving a memory, fixing it. For once in her life, she was going for it. Arousal sparked along her nerves, like strings of twinkle lights. She felt light-headed and pulled back just long enough to take in a gulp of air. With their hands on each otherâs faces, their upper bodies close, the embrace was tender and hungry and wild all at once and she never wanted to stop.
Dear Reader,
I have to confess: Iâm not a good shopper. I walk into a mall and get overwhelmed. That dates back to childhood when my mother would take me shopping for a special dress and Iâd find something in the first store, but she would say, âShall we keep looking for something better?â Better? There might be something better? So off weâd go, to store after store after store. All that choice wore me out.
So why would a non-shopper write a story about a woman who practically grew up in a mall and loved it like home, its employees like family? Because malls fascinate me. A mall is a world unto itself under an air-conditioned sky. I used to have a fantasy of spending the night in the mall and exploring all the stores. Youâll see that happen in the book. Boy, did I have fun with those pages!
This story is also about familyâabout how family is what you make of it. With her mother largely absent from her life, Sylvie created a family out of the mall and Chaseâs relatives. The book takes place around Christmas, and even I love the crazy, festive fun of a mall at Christmas. Starlight Desert Mall does Christmas right, I think.
So weâve got malls, family, Christmas and falling in love. Can you see why this story was a delight to write? This is my first book for Harlequin Superromance, so I hope youâll find it a worthy fit.
Let me know what you think at [email protected] or visit www.dawnatkins.com.
Best,
Dawn Atkins
A Lot Like Christmas
Dawn Atkins
Award-winning author Dawn Atkins has written more than twenty novels for Harlequin Books. Known for her funny, poignant romance stories, sheâs won a Golden Quill Award and has been a several-times RT Book Reviews Reviewersâ Choice Award finalist. Dawn lives in Arizona with her husband and son.
In memory of my mother, the Starr of our family
Thanks to Thomas Randall, manager of Paradise Valley Mall, who graciously squeezed my questions into his jam-packed schedule. Any errors are my own.
Iâm also indebted to Paco Underhill, whose books Why We Buy: the Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall gave me enough intriguing shopping facts to last a lifetime.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THIS MALL SUCKS!
The spray-painted scrawl across the whimsical pueblo-style exterior of Starlight Desert Mall hit Sylvie Stark like a poison dart. Starlight Desert was her second home, the store owners and employees practically family.
Now the area looked like the aftermath of a frat party. Trash bags from the Dumpster had been torn open, their contents strewn about, and festoons of toilet paper dangled from the thorny mesquite trees and soiled the silver sage hedges.
The timing couldnât have been worse. In an hour, the mallâs owner, Marshall McCann, would arrive to make Sylvie the new general managerâher dream almost since she started working here at age fourteen.
Currently second-in-command, Sylvie was the obvious choice to replace Mary Beth Curlew, the former GM, whoâd left abruptly two weeks ago to care for her ailing mother in Michigan.
Mary Beth did tend to take credit for Sylvieâs work, but sheâd surely recommended Sylvie to Fletcher, Marshallâs younger son, the McCann Development liaison to the mall.
Still, Sylvie felt uneasy. Marshall was the decision-maker and he hadnât been to the mall since before his wife, Starr, passed away from cancer three years ago. The mall had been Starrâs baby.
Sylvie had a complicated relationship with the McCanns. Her mother, Desiree, had been best friends with Starr and when Sylvie moved in with her grandparents due to Desireeâs travel schedule when she was seven, Starr had treated her like family.
Now Sylvie feared Marshall still thought of her as the teenage assistant who served muffins at mall meetings or the little girl sitting quietly at the noisy McCann holiday dinners.
That was why sheâd included her work history and accomplishments in the update sheâd preparedâto assure Marshall that the mall was in capable hands.
Now this vandalism threatened her moment. It felt as though she were about to host a foreign dignitary with a pile of dirty laundry on the porch. Worse, it might make Marshall believe the slight down-tick in profits meant more than it did.