A few years ago, when Dangerously Sweet was a new release, the wonderful, funny, talented, amazing (is that enough adjectives yet?), blogger at Scandalicious Book Reviews asked me to participate in a fun holiday project they were doing. I wrote this bonus scene for Dangerously Sweet during the holidays and I still love it SO much that I wanted to share it with all of you here, too!
Get a sneak peek at two of my all-time favorite characters, Amelia & Dex from Dangerously Sweet and if you’re paying really close attention you’ll get to meet Natalie from Dangerously Distracted.
Don’t forget you can now grab all three books in the Dangerously series in one bundle for your favorite eReader or in print!
Happy Holidays!
Dangerously Sweet, the bakery in Barefoot Bay, had transformed into holiday baking central, and Dex wouldn’t have it any other way. Watching his wife in the bakery filled his heart with joy, and that’s exactly what the holidays would be filled with this year. For the first time in his memory he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his family, and he owed all of that to his beautiful bride.
The scent he now knew to recognize as baking sugar, warm vanilla and even a hint of gingerbread hung in the air. A few months ago, he didn’t know one type of cookie or baked good from another, but he’d had a very thorough education thanks to his wife. Since those teaching sessions usually ended with him distracted by getting her naked he hadn’t minded even a little bit.
He could hear his mother and sisters laughing from the kitchen as he made his way through the empty storefront. A smile spread across his face as he flipped the lock on the door behind him.
“You forgot to lock the door…again!” He chided his wife as he came around the doorway into the kitchen.
“Oops! I got distracted by your family, it’s not my fault.” Amelia’s smile lit up the room, as it always did. He found himself rushing home from work every evening just to see her beautiful face, and taste her sexy mouth. Gone were the days of living life alone, and keeping the world at a safe arm’s reach, now he ached to pull her close no matter what he was doing.
Amelia made her way around the work counter in the kitchen to press a warm kiss to his waiting mouth. Her expanding waistline made her progress slightly slower than usual, but her excitement over the holiday and his family joining them made up for any slowness the pregnancy was causing.
“How are you feeling?” He asked.
“Tired, happy, in love, pregnant, and maybe slightly high on sugar.” She laughed.
A timer dinged behind them and she went towards the oven to remove yet another batch of cookies from the oven. The counters were lined with cooling racks filled with cookies in every shape and size imaginable. Large bowls of frosting sat on the opposite counter, tinted to match every holiday color he could think of, and probably a few new ones.
“Every time I think you can’t surprise me in this bakery you prove me wrong again.” Dex shook his head in disbelief. “Is this place secretly Santa’s workshop and nobody told me?”
“More like Mrs. Claus’s workshop I’d say.” His mother laughed and came to press him in her own warm embrace. Behind them, his two sisters were deeply involved in piping frosting onto cookies shaped like reindeer.
“Tomorrow we’re having the event at Mimosa Elementary where I’m demonstrating how to frost the cookies for the kids and I promised I’d have a cookie for each of them to decorate and take home with them,” Amelia explained as she looked around at all the cookies she had baked. “That way every child has at least one cookie to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve.”
“If they don’t eat it.” His sister Naomi laughed and the whole room seemed to join her in the silliness of the moment.
Leslie came through the back door at that moment looking flustered. “Sorry I’m late, I got hung up.” She explained.
“Mmmm, hmmm,” Amelia said in a sing-song voice near the oven. “One of these days you’re going to have to break down and tell me about this guy, at least his name!” She insisted with a friendly smile.
“There’s no him, just life with two kids and no husband around to help out.” Leslie tossed her jacket on a coat rack in the corner and rolled up her sleeves. Dex had never seen her frazzled or heard her complain about being a single mom. She always seemed to be happy alone with her two adorable little boys.
The idea of having a son of his own soon made Dex smile again, something he did more and more of these days.
***
Curled in Dex’s arms in their bedroom Amelia could still detect the smell of sugar cookies in her hair, even though Dex had thoroughly washed her hair in the shower earlier. In fact, Dex had washed every part of her and then made love to her until she thought she’d turn into a puddle and rush right down the drain with the soap suds.
His lovemaking had always robbed her of breath, but now that she was pregnant his fascination with the changes in her body combined with how sensitive she’d become to every touch had taken things to a whole new level.
With a smile, she thought about how different things would be for them a year from now at Christmastime. This would be her first Christmas without her brothers in Alaska, but it would be her first as a wife and mother-to-be.
Life had changed so much since she’d run away to Barefoot Bay and shared a car to the resort with a brash, sexy, overly confident, undercover cop who would not only save her but ultimately steal her heart and make all her dreams come true.
Next to her Dex stirred in his sleep and pulled her even closer to his side. Amelia couldn’t think of anywhere on earth she’d rather be right now as she snuggled against her husband’s shoulder with a sigh and drifted off to sleep with their baby wiggling in her womb.
