Scotland for Christmas

These secrets won’t stay hidden

Jacob Ross needs Isabel Sage. She’s a beautiful, brilliant heiress to Scotland’s wealthiest family fortune—but Jacob isn’t interested in her looks or money. Isabel holds the key to questions about his past. And when he gets a weekend assignment as her bodyguard, Jacob finally has a shot at getting the truth.

But Jacob never expected Isabel to be anything other than a spoiled rich girl. Never expected to feel such a connection. And when Isabel realizes why he’s really there, she’ll be furious at being used. Jacob will have to convince her that she’s become so much more than an assignment…

Isabel didn’t know what she was feeling.

All she knew was that Jacob seemed furious on her behalf. It was…shocking to her.

And a wee bit flattering.

She bit her lip and stared at the red traffic light—yet another one. Jacob seemed to be attracting each and every stop along their route. She tried not to sneak looks at him.

“How long were you two a couple?” His voice was so low she had to strain to hear him. “Were you engaged to him? Did you expect to be married to him?”

Should she answer? He seemed like he was on her side. He seemed…to intrinsically believe in her.

“Sort of,” she whispered. “I mean…” She glanced at him. His eyes were warm and understanding. She really felt as if she could trust him.

But this was madness. She’d only met him a few hours ago, and she was Isabel Sage—she couldn’t trust outsiders.

Dear Reader,

Thanks for picking up Scotland for Christmas! I loved writing about the Sage family of Edinburgh, Scotland, so much for my last Mills & Boon Superromance book, The Sweetest Hours (December 2013), that I decided to set two more stories in their romantic world.

This story is primarily a bodyguard tale. Jacob Ross is an emotionally cut-off US Secret Service agent who needs to find out how his police officer father was killed in action years ago while rescuing the kidnapped niece and nephew of John Sage, billionaire CEO of the Sage family empire. Isabel Sage is John’s lonely other niece. Though she is smart, hardworking and—above all—loyal to her family, she is drawn to the gruff protector who initially hasn’t been honest about his agenda with her. As a potential successor to the CEO job, it’s not in her best interests to help Jacob. And Jacob certainly can’t afford to fall for this gentle woman from a completely different world from his.

But the healing power of love shines through, and as they return to Scotland for Christmas, Jacob is reconciled to his family’s painful past while Isabel finds the one love who truly makes her feel at home.

I hope you enjoy Isabel and Jacob’s story.

All the best,

Cathryn Parry

Scotland for Christmas

Cathryn Parry

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CATHRYN PARRY loves to travel—especially to Scotland!—at any time of year that she can manage. At all other times she lives in New England with her husband and her neighbor’s cat, Otis. Cathryn is an active member of Romance Writers of America and enjoys presenting inspirational workshops to writers. Her Mills & Boon Superromance books have received such honors as a Booksellers’ Best Award, HOLT Medallion Awards of Merit and several readers’ contest nominations. Please see her website at cathrynparry.com.

This story is dedicated to my grandmother, Ruth McLeod, who loved Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with the family.

I miss you, Nana.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

U.S. SPECIAL AGENT Jacob Ross was sitting in an intimate Italian restaurant in midtown Manhattan, next to a woman he wasn’t interested in being with, when the text message that he’d been waiting for came in.

Jacob reached for his jacket and stood.

“Where are you going?” Eddie asked from across the table.

Jacob glanced at his oldest friend and ex-partner, the guy who’d ridden with him nearly every day for seven years, back when they’d still been on the New York Police Department together. Clinging to Eddie, practically in his lap, was his wife, Donna, and though she leaned forward, desperately trying to catch Jacob’s eye, he was purposely avoiding the two women and their blatant interrogation.

“A job,” he said to Eddie. “Sorry, but I have to go.”

Eddie put down his wineglass and raised his eyebrow. He probably figured Jacob was bluffing about the text message, but would never say so in front of Donna.

“Right,” said his ex-partner. “The Cifelli bust?”

The Cifelli bust was their personal code. It was nonsense—meant absolutely nothing. Jacob and Eddie had made all kinds of fake codes and shorthand between them over the years. Since they’d been special agents in the U.S. Secret Service together, though, they’d been working under stricter protocol, as part of bigger teams with more complex oversight.