Jillian Chantal

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of food, fun and drama-free family time!

If you get bored and need a read, here’s the blurb and an excerpt from my newest story: All I Want for Christmas is a One Night Stand.

Blurb:
Attorney Anna Kincaid doesn’t celebrate Christmas. It’s been a time of loss and sadness for her for too many years.

Matteo Sanchez, a criminal prosecutor, has been searching for the right woman for more years than he cares to recall.

In a local deli, Matteo, seated at the next table overhears a conversation Anna has with her friends that she wants a one night stand for Christmas. The next day, he introduces himself to her at the local bar association Christmas party. After an evening of passion, Anna discovers that Matteo knew about her wish before meeting her. Believing him to be a stalker and a cad, she throws him out of her house. Christmas may prove to be her enemy yet again.

Excerpt:

Her phone on the top of the table also kept vibrating with messages from Gina about the stupid bar party that night. Gina had a date and so did Renee and they wanted her to come and be with them. She had no doubt that they would hunt her down if she didn’t agree to go. Damn them. It was so not what she wanted to do. She wanted these depositions to end so she could go home, put on a cozy robe and have cocoa.

It didn’t seem that was going to happen and sure enough, when the day was over and she stepped out of her office to head home, Renee and Gina were standing there.

“Come on. We’re getting ready at Renee’s.” Gina took Anna by the arm.

“I told you I didn’t want to go. What’s so hard to understand about that?”

“We understand. We’re just not letting you do it. You need to get over being Scrooge and get into the party spirit,” Gina said.

“I don’t like Christmas.” Anna wanted to stomp her feet.

“Look, you like Halloween, right?” Renee asked.

“Yeah. I do. So what?”

Gina pulled Anna down the street. “So, let’s pretend it’s a Halloween party and someone has decorated their haunted house as a Christmas house. Can you do that?”

Anna laughed then. “You’re crazy.” She looked over her shoulder. “Both of you.”

“At least you’re laughing now. Come one. We got you a great dress to wear.” Renee jogged to catch up as they headed to the parking deck.

After changing at Renee’s house, Anna and her friends drove to the hotel where the bar association had its party every year. She shivered in the cold when they turned the car over to the valet.

Renee and Gina hurried Anna inside where they met their dates right inside the double doors. Anna glanced around at the number of Christmas trees scattered throughout the lobby. Way too much red and green for her. She giggled a bit at the dress her friends had made her put on. It was a black silk with an orange shawl-back collar. It was prim from the front with a high neckline but from the back, the orange shawl showed her muscled lateral muscles. It was pretty daring for her.

When she slipped the dress on, her friends reminded her of her wish for a one-night stand and their bet. Anna knew there would be no one at the bar party she’d care to run off with for the night but she wore the dress to humor them and to pretend it was a Halloween outfit. They really had tried hard to get her in the spirit of things— the spirit of a holiday that didn’t bother her, that is.