The #Christmas Morning After Jack Frost’s #1NightStand (aka Bonus Sexy Scene from Frosty Relations)

Hi Everyone! I’m one of the many Decadent Publishing authors offering up a bonus scene as part of the 1Night Stand blog’s holiday celebration. For it to make sense, you’ll need to know a wee bit about my characters from Frosty Relations, Mina and Jack. If you haven’t read the book, you can either watch a quick 71sec video here, or read the blurb below.

Frosty Relations: A Witch’s Night Out
 by Tara Quan

Attorney Jack Frost never understood why holidays did weird things to people. His secretary went on vacation, his best friend ditched their annual Aspen trip, and the law firm’s stubborn human resources assistant refuses his clerical support request. What’s a warlock to do on Christmas Eve but go on a 1-Night Stand? But when an oddly familiar empath shows up as his date, this ice mage has a hard time denying the magic of the winter solstice.

Faced with an anemic employment market and financial woes, college graduate and former witch Mina Mao lands an HR assistant job at Frost and Sons. Having spent her day saving Christmas from Frost Junior’s Grinch-like behavior, she accepts the gift of Madame Eve’s service and heads over to the Castillo Capital. When her date turns out to be her childhood crush and workplace nemesis, she braces herself for the sexiest icy ride of her life.

  

***

SPOILER ALERT! HUGE REVEAL COMING UP!!

Jack and Mina get together for a 1Night Stand at the end of the book. I hope that didn’t come as too much of a surprise.

And here’s what happens the morning after, on Christmas Day:  

    “Okay, I know I said I’d spend Christmas with you, but this isn’t going to work.” Mina went down on her haunches in front of the massive stainless steel refrigerator. The ice-covered penthouse was so cold, the appliance’s chilled confines seemed warm by comparison. “I’m freezing my butt off, and you don’t have any food.”

   The apartment’s platinum-blond owner padded over to stand at her back, all the while munching on fresh strawberries. He swallowed with agonizing slowness before bending at the waist to hover above her. 
   “Don’t be so melodramatic. If you’d just walk around naked, all surfaces would warm on skin-contact. It’s not my fault you insist on wearing one of my shirts.” He pulled out a massive fruit drawer containing a single bunch of grapes. “And there’s this, not to mention the loot on the kitchen counter.”

   Yanking the half-empty Steuben glass bowl out of his other hand, she popped some icy fruit into her mouth. As she chewed, she made the mistake of tilting her head back. The warlock’s bare chest had a mesmerizing effect on her, the toned array of pectoral and abdominal muscles never failing to attract her gaze. Clad in a pair of silk boxers, his mere presence interfered with her ability to focus. She remained in the trance-like state until a loud growl from the pit of her stomach ended the scintillating scrutiny.

Survival trumped sex, and no amount of drop-dead gorgeousness would save Jack from her escalating h-anger. 
   “By loot, you mean the two crushed cereal bars you dug out of your briefcase.”

    “Don’t be so grumpy. I tried to feed you, but my usual delivery place didn’t answer.” His fingers closed over a handful of strawberries.

    She smacked his knuckles. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Resources had grown scarce. “Of course they’re closed. It’s 8 a.m. on Christmas.”

   Pouting, he sat cross-legged next to her on the frost-covered floor and eyed the bowl. “So?”

   Pivoting her head to the side, she stared at him. “So everyone knows to stock up on food before the holidays. You’re twenty-seven years old. How did you survive all the Christmases before this one?”

   His broad shoulders lifted and fell. “Leo and I would usually be in Aspen by now. I still can’t believe my best friend ditched me to hook up with some crazy cat lady.”

   “Her name is Cat,” she muttered under her breath.

   “Huh?”

   “Leo is dating a witch named Catalina.” Having finished the strawberries, she refilled the bowl with the pitiful-looking grapes. “She doesn’t even own a pet, so stop calling her a crazy cat lady.”

   He scratched his head. “Doesn’t the woman turn into a cat?”

   She arched an eyebrow. “So do I, along with half of all mage-kind. You don’t call me crazy. ”

   Rubbing his jaw, he tilted his head to one side. “Sure I do. At least three times a week, but usually more often than that. I can’t help it if your cockamamie ideas limit my access to support staff.”

   “You mean—the legal requirement for companies to allow employees to take sick-leave and vacation days?”

   He dismissed her point with another exaggerated shrug. “Whatever. Either way, everyone knows you familiars are all a little nuts.”

   Times like these reminded her why she felt the urge to strangle him on a regular basis. If his dad didn’t own the company, she might have attempted it long before now.

   “You think I am a little nuts?” She pointed in the general direction of the living room. “You’re the guy who uses ice blocks for sofas.”

   He squinted at her. “It’s expedient, practical, and—”

“Ridiculously uncomfortable.”

   Huffing out a breath, he tugged the bowl fruit off her lap and put it to the side.

“Hey!” She wasn’t quite sure how she got there, but she found herself flat on her back on the frosty floor a moment later. When she tried to get up, he manacled her wrists on either side of her head. Using his knee, he wedged her thighs apart. “What do you think you’re doing?”

   “Reminding you,” he nipped the sensitive spot behind her ear, “how much you liked my furniture a few hours ago.”

   A sensuous shudder rolled down her spine. She’d spent most of last night flat on her back, pinned against a fur-covered glacier by the frost mage who held her captive. Even as her hips lifted in a silent invitation, she mumbled a protest, “I’m too hungry to have sex.”

   “Wanna bet?” He brought her wrists above her head and adjusted his grip so he could immobilize them with a single hand. His gaze drifted to her chest. A split-second after his gray eyes flashed silver, the row of buttons holding the sides of her shirt together froze and disintegrated, leaving behind a fine white powder. Retrieving a grape with his free hand, he ate half before using the remainder to draw a cold wet trail along her cleavage.

   She shivered. “Jack…. Wait….”

   “I plan to.” He pulled one of her shirttails to the side. His breath warmed the slope of her breast as he shifted over her. Anticipating his next move, she arched her back, moaning when his mouth hovered over the rosy tip. When his teeth scraped her sensitive flesh, a high-pitched cry escaped her throat.

   He closed his lips over her nipple and sucked. The pressure between her legs intensified, prompting her to shift against his knee in a futile attempt to relieve the ache. A different kind of hunger overwhelmed her, its voracity prompting her to writhe in place.

   With a low chuckle, he released her arms. All thought of resistance a distant memory, she laced her fingers through his silky hair and drew him closer. She whimpered as he licked the underside of her breast, kissed his way down her stomach, and lingered an inch below her navel for what seemed like an eternity.

   She tried to urge him to go lower, but he stalled above her hip bones, tantalizing her with teeth and tongue until she dropped her arms to her sides, her hands clenching into fists as she struggled to endure wave after wave of frustrated pleasure.

   With her panties missing in action long before Christmas dawned, there were no barriers to hinder his exploration when he heeded her pleas at long last. His head between her legs, he first teased her with an icy breath, which he followed with flicks of his tongue. By the time he pressed a finger into her, slickness eased his entry. The exquisite friction vaulted her over the edge, the orgasm bursting over her closed eyelids in a burst of white light.

***

Okay, so … ahem… Sorry to cut this short, but I have strict instructions from the Blog Maven to heed the 1000 word limit, which I’m sorta kinda already over (shh…don’t tell). If you’d like to find out what happened between Mina and Jack before this fun-filled Christmas morning, check out Frosty Relations at all the usual places (Amazon, Amazon UK,  ARe, B&N, Decadent, among others). You can also find an excerpt on my website.

In keeping with the holiday spirit I’m giving away a $15 gift card to celebrate this release. To enter, leave a comment here and drop your details in the Rafflecopter widget at the bottom of this post (or at TaraQuan.com/FrostyRelations)

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