“The owner, who turns out to be gay—”
“Really?”
“It happens, so I hear. He went to Los Angeles to sell the book and apparently met the love of his life. So he gave his new lover the book.”
“Sweet.”
“And the man was a book collector so naturally he couldn’t bear to part with it. Except the sale of the book was supposed to finance a special school the original owner had been dreaming of building. So the new owner hit on the idea of having the book published as a limited Christmas edition.” Stephen nodded to the book. “It’s an exact replica of the original.”
“Brilliant. I can’t wait to read it. I hope it pays off for them.”
“I imagine they’ll make a fortune.”
“I have something special for you, too.”
Stephen raised his eyebrows, his expression droll.
“Close. But no. That comes next.” I rose and went round to the tree and found the package I wanted.
Stephen unwrapped the small box and held up the plane tickets. “Montreal?”
“Paris without the jet lag. You’ve never been there and neither have I. I thought we could explore it together.”
“I thought you wanted to stay home for the holidays?”
“That’s not your idea of the holidays. And all I really wanted was for us to have time together. Alone.”
Stephen’s smile was quizzical. “So you decided to fly us to a foreign metropolis for New Year’s?”
“There’s no place more alone than a big city where you don’t know anyone. Anyone except the bloke you’re with.”
He glanced at the tickets and then back at me. “Are you sure about this? I wanted our first Christmas to be exactly what you wanted.”
I leaned forward to kiss him. “It is.”
About the Author
Bestselling author of over sixty titles of classic Male/Male fiction featuring twisty mystery, kickass adventure, and unapologetic man-on-man romance, JOSH LANYON has been called “arguably the single most influential voice in m/m romance today.”
Today Josh’s work has been translated into nine languages. The FBI thriller Fair Game was the first Male/Male title to be published by Harlequin Mondadori, the largest romance publisher in Italy. The Adrien English series was awarded the All Time Favorite Couple by the Goodreads M/M Romance Group. Josh is an Eppie Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads All Time Favorite M/M Author award.
Josh is married and lives in Southern California.
Find other Josh Lanyon titles at www.joshlanyon.com
Follow Josh on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.
If you enjoyed this story, check out the following titles, also by Josh Lanyon:
Novels
The ADRIEN ENGLISH Mysteries
Fatal Shadows
A Dangerous Thing
The Hell You Say
Death of a Pirate King
The Dark Tide
Stranger Things Have Happened: A Write Your Own Damn Novel
So This is Christmas
The HOLMES & MORIARITY Mysteries
Somebody Killed His Editor
All She Wrote
The Boy with the Painful Tattoo
The ALL’S FAIR Trilogy
Fair Game
Fair Play
The ART OF MURDER Trilogy
The Mermaid Murders
Other novels
This Rough Magic (A SHOT IN THE DARK Series)
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks
Mexican Heat (with Laura Baumbach)
Strange Fortune
Come Unto These Yellow Sands
Stranger on the Shore
Winter Kill
Jefferson Blythe, Esquire
Murder in Pastel
The Curse of the Blue Scarab: A Monster Mash-up
Novellas
The DANGEROUS GROUND Series
Dangerous Ground
Old Poison
Blood Heat
Dead Run
Kick Start
The I SPY Series
I Spy Something Bloody
I Spy Something Wicked
I Spy Something Christmas
The IN A DARK WOOD Series
In a Dark Wood
The DARK HORSE Series
The Dark Horse
The White Knight
Snowball in Hell (DOYLE & SPAIN Series)
Haunted Heart: Winter (HAUNTED HEART Series)
Mummy Dearest (XOXO FILES Series)
Other novellas
Cards on the Table
The Dark Farewell
The Darkling Thrush
The Dickens with Love
Don’t Look Back
A Ghost of a Chance
Lovers and Other Strangers
Out of the Blue
A Vintage Affair
Lone Star (in Men Under the Mistletoe)
Green Glass Beads (in Irregulars)
Blood Red Butterfly
Everything I Know
Baby, It’s Cold (in Comfort and Joy)
A Case of Christmas
Murder Between the Pages
Short stories
A Limited Engagement
The French Have a Word for It
In Sunshine or In Shadow
Until We Meet Once More
Icecapade (in His for the Holidays)
Perfect Day
Heart Trouble
In Plain Sight
Wedding Favors
Wizard’s Moon
Fade to Black
Night Watch
PETIT MORTS (SWEET SPOT Collection)
Other People’s Weddings
Slings and Arrows
Sort of Stranger Than Fiction
Critic’s Choice
Just Desserts
OTHER COLLECTIONS
Merry Christmas, Darling (Holiday Codas)
Christmas Waltz (Holiday Codas 2)
Dark Horse, White Knight
I SPY… THREE NOVELLAS (The Complete I Spy Series)
January 2017
Copyright (c) 2017 by Josh Lanyon
Cover by K.B. Smith
Edited by Keren Reed
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from JustJoshin Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-945802-19-5
Published in the United States of America
JustJoshin Publishing, Inc.
3053 Rancho Vista Blvd.
Suite 116
Palmdale, CA 93551
www.joshlanyon.com
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.