Hot Chocolate This Winter: Book 2 of Sag Harbor Black Romances Paperback

This holiday season, Chriselle Mason is finally giving herself the ultimate gift. She’s leaving the nightmare of her ten-year marriage. While she’s busy with her husband’s controlling schemes, she doesn’t expect a sexy, Ivy League-trained bank executive, Sheldon Rouse, to come to her rescue. Despite their instant connection, Chrissy pushes him away since she doesn't need to further complicate her life.


When the beloved, historic Ivory restaurant goes up for sale, Sheldon becomes Chrissy's chief rival to buy it. As the competition heats up, so does their steamy attraction. Sheldon isn't here for the word "no". A lot of money is on the line, and he refuses to walk away-- from business, or his feelings for Chrissy. But her marriage to Blake has always offered financial security and Hollywood connections. Is she finally ready to let it go, and embark on an uncertain new future for the New Year?

*Trigger warning: *One moment of empowering light domestic violence, strong language; sex

The candle between them danced, illuminating the softness of his stare. Illuminating Chrissy’s fear.

He’d ordered Cherries Jubilee. “Two spoons, please.”
As Chrissy sank her worries inside the brandy, he reached out to her with ice cream and confection. He waved it in front of her mouth. “Come on. Your fairy godfather wants you to open up.”

A reluctant grin pushed through her melancholy. “What am I? Five?” She parted her lips so he could slide in warm, dripping dessert.

“Yep, I feed hungry women everywhere,” he laughed, intentionally letting some sauce glide over her lip. “Uh-oh.”

She sputtered, laughing and trying to lick it off. The liquor was settling into her, softening her muscles, and the whole effort was sloppy.

Suddenly, in a moment too fast for her to react, Sheldon got up from his chair. He leaned over the table and sucked the cream from her mouth.

Wet, liquor-laced, his tongue played at the corners of her lips. Patient fingers touched the exposed skin above her turtleneck.

The skin over her cheekbone reacted to his thumb’s caress by telegraphing the inside of her panties. Tortured, sweet, and hot, his kiss fell like rain on Chrissy’s desert that hadn’t seen water in years. The parched earth inside her begged for moisture.

She buried the tiny voice in her head and kissed him back. Their tongues danced an exhilarating waltz. Deeper and wetter, she forgot herself in warm passion so foreign to her.

Until he pulled away.

His chest rose and fell like it was lifting a heavy weight. That kiss had clearly rocked him too. “I can’t say I’m sorry for that. But I did promise you I wouldn’t hurt your vows. If you want me to take you back to the helicopter, now’s the time. We should go so you can get back, and I’ll give you some tips on how to protect yourself.” He signaled for the check.

“What if I don’t want you to?”

Was she speaking the words coming out of her mouth?

Sheldon stared back at her across the candlelight.

“Sweetheart, you didn’t want to come here,” Sheldon said, and appeared as remorseful as a kid who’d eaten too many cookies. “I did all this without asking.”

The scorched earth inside Chrissy pleaded for water.
“Now I don’t want to leave.”

He paused a moment. She saw the wheels of his mind turning, likely conducting the same analysis as she. All the ways this could go wrong, how their reputations were on the line, that they barely knew each other, how people got murdered over extramarital affairs.

“Stay with me for New Year’s,” he whispered. “I can’t say what else happens after that. But I do know what happens for the next forty-eight hours that you’re with me.”