All She Wants for New Year's -- A Contemporary Erotic Holiday Romance (All She Wants #2) by Nathan Stratton Read Free Book Online

Chapter 1: Bah, Humbug
     
    Jessica hated the holidays.
     
    It wasn’t the lights, the shopping, or the Christmas carols. She didn’t mind those, and even thought they were nice. It was the fact that every December, she was surrounded by images of happy couples, laughing and singing and celebrating the together. And every time she saw one, it was a sad reminder of her own loneliness.
     
    Jessica was never the type to wallow in depression. Self-pity just didn’t suit her strong, willful personality. So every year, she put up a strong front all through the holidays, keeping up her usual, cheerful personality even when she was hurting inside. Sometimes, though, that cheerfulness just didn’t come to her as naturally as she would like.
     
    This holiday season had been no different. Her parents had asked her to come home for Christmas, and she’d reluctantly obliged their request. Just as she’d suspected, they’d invited one of the neighbors’ sons over for Christmas dinner, the latest in a line of “eligible bachelors” they’d hand-picked as potential suitors for Jessica. Never mind that this one was fresh out of college, while she was twenty-seven. It also didn’t help that his name was Freddie. Jessica could have sworn she’d named one of her teddy bears “Freddie” when she was younger.
     
    This guy may have been twenty-two, but he looked no older than seventeen. He had big ears, an earnest-looking gleam in his eyes, and a dusting of freckles – God help her. Sitting next to him at dinner, listening to him blab on and on about college football, she felt like his baby-sitter. 
     
    “What’d you think of Freddie?” her parents asked anxiously, as soon as he and his family had gone home that evening.
     
    “I told him to call me when he gets his drivers’ license,” Jessica had replied, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
     
    She’d left early the next morning, making the long drive back from Connecticut to her house in Pennsylvania, amid hordes of traffic that indicated many people were doing the same thing. She worked in the HR department of a big healthcare company in Philadelphia, and the holidays were their busiest time of the year. That, of course, was another big reason Jessica loathed the holidays: it was hard to feel the Christmas spirit when you were back at work on December 26th.
     
    Jessica walked in just after 10 AM, an hour later than she normally got in. No sooner had she sat down at her cubicle than her creepy boss, Peter, oozed his way over to have a chat.
     
    “You’re late,” he said brusquely. He sure had a nice way of breaking the ice.
     
    “Yeah, well, the traffic was terrible this morning,” replied Jessica. “And a very merry Christmas to you, too, Peter.”
     
    “I don’t want to hear your excuses anymore, Jess,” said Peter, with a steely glint in his eye. She hated when he called her Jess. “There’s no excuse for being late, you got it? No matter what you were… up to last night.” He grinned lecherously, his eyes raking over her body from head to toe. Just the way he looked at her made her feel violated.
     
    “You keep your eyes to yourself, Peter,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “And leave me alone, or I’ll write up another incident report.”
     
    Peter laughed callously. “Ooh, an incident report,” he scoffed. “Who are you going to report me to? Human Resources? In case you forgot, Jess, we are Human Resources! I run this department, and I’m going to run it the way I want. You’re lucky I don’t write you up for chronic tardiness. Now get to work!” Feeling satisfied that he’d gotten the last word in, he slithered off down the hall. 
     
    Despite his tough-guy talk, Jessica knew he was worried about her threat. She’d reported him once already this year, for blocking her passage coming out of the women’s bathroom one day in August. Nothing had happened, but she’d been intimidated enough to say something about it. The report had