Spotlight: The Magnate's Marriage Merger by Joanne Rock

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The matchmaker meets her match…in one very persistent tycoon!

Secretive matchmaker to the rich and famous, Lydia Whitney prefers to stay behind the scenes. But after one mistake, rich resort developer Ian McNeill is hot on her trail, and he’s more attractive—and persistent—than ever before.

Ian can’t believe it when he figures out who’s messing with his family: a woman who has deceived—and seduced—him before. What’s her agenda? And why can’t he resist her? He’ll get the answers to all his questions, if Lydia agrees to his convenient marriage proposal. But once she’s in his arms again, will he let her go?

Excerpt

She was a woman of habit and that would serve him well now. He hoped. He remembered how much she had enjoyed swimming first thing in the morning when they were working together in the islands of Tahiti. He’d accused her of being a mermaid with her daily need to return to the sea, but even when he’d been bleary-eyed from working late the night before, he never missed a chance to swim with her. For safety purposes, he’d told her, and not just because he enjoyed the occasional chance to slide a hand beneath her bikini top or wind the wet rope of her hair around his hand and angle her sea-salty lips for his kiss.

When the elevator sounded its dull chime, he slowly looked up. The doors opened and Lydia strode into view. His gaze fell on her long, shapely legs, the hem of her black mesh tunic revealing a hint of thigh.

“Ian?” Her voice tugged his attention higher, pulling his focus to her green eyes and creamy skin devoid of makeup.

With her hair scraped back into a ponytail, she looked every inch the part of his earthy, warmhearted lover from last summer. He had to remember that she hadn’t been the woman he thought, that he’d been wrong about her, or he might have swept her up into his arms and ridden the elevator back up to her hotel room to remind her how good they were together in at least one respect.

Sex. Raw, sensual, mind-blowing sex.

His pulse ramped up at the steamy memories, so much so that he had to shut down those thoughts and focus on the present or his plan would be doomed before he even started.

“Hope you don’t mind if I join you.” Ian tucked his phone back into the pocket of the cargo shorts he’d slid on over his swim trunks.

She halted in front of him abruptly. Then, eyes sliding to the desk attendant, she stepped closer. Probably she did it to minimize the chance of being overheard.

Ian liked the opportunity to breathe in the scent of her—the lavender fragrance of the detergent she washed her clothes in and a subtle perfume more complex than that.

“What on earth are you doing here?” She glanced over her shoulder. “You realize most of the consultants working on the Foxfire are staying in this hotel? What will they say if someone sees us together at this hour?”

“They’ll think we had a whole lot more fun last night than they did.”

Last night, he’d paced the floor of his penthouse suite for far too long, thinking through every aspect of a contract marriage and what details he should include in the paperwork.

In the end, she would sign. But she wasn’t going to like him forcing her hand, and that bothered him more than it should have.

“And that doesn’t concern you? I happen to enjoy a hard-earned reputation as a professional.” Her clipped words and the high color in her cheeks told him he’d gotten under her skin in record time.

“If you don’t want anyone to see us together, we might as well hit the beach. Take refuge in the water.” His hand itched to touch her. To rest on the small of her back and steer her out the door, across the street and onto the soft sand. But he had to be careful not to push or she could dig her heels in about his suggestion and delay the whole thing.

Now that he’d made up his mind and seen the benefits of a union between the two of them, he couldn’t think of one damn reason why he should delay.

After narrowing her green eyes at him for an instant, she pivoted on her wedge sandals and strode toward the exit.

He caught up to her in two long steps, holding the door wide for her before as they headed out onto Ocean Drive, which was strangely quiet in the predawn dark. There were more joggers on the beach than bathers; a few runners kicked up sand as they pounded past them.

“It’ll be quieter down here.” He pointed out a stretch of the shore where no beach loungers had been set up yet, a spot free from any hotel guests.

In fact, he’d claimed the location for them earlier when he’d ordered a cabana and sunrise breakfast. Lydia apparently didn’t notice his preparations, however, instead appearing too absorbed in her frustrated march toward the water, her feet churning through the sand at breakneck pace.

The horizon was starting to smudge from inky black to purple as she reached the shoreline and kicked off her shoes. Then she yanked the black mesh cover-up off and over her head. Mesmerized by her silhouette as his eyes adjusted to the light, Ian watched as she ran into the surf and made a shallow dive under an oncoming wave… She was a woman of habit and that would serve him well now. He hoped. He remembered how much she had enjoyed swimming first thing in the morning when they were working together in the islands of Tahiti. He’d accused her of being a mermaid with her daily need to return to the sea, but even when he’d been bleary-eyed from working late the night before, he never missed a chance to swim with her. For safety purposes, he’d told her, and not just because he enjoyed the occasional chance to slide a hand beneath her bikini top or wind the wet rope of her hair around his hand and angle her sea-salty lips for his kiss.

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About the Author

Four-time RITA nominee Joanne Rock has never met a romance sub-genre she didn't like. The author of over eighty books enjoys writing a wide range of stories, most recently focusing on sexy contemporaries and small town family sagas. An optimist by nature and perpetual seeker of silver linings, Joanne finds romance fits her life outlook perfectly--love is worth fighting for. A frequent speaker at regional and national writing conferences she enjoys giving back to the writing community that nurtured and inspired her early career. She has a Masters degree in Literature from the University of Louisville but credits her fiction writing skills to her intensive study with friend and fellow author Catherine Mann. When she's not writing, Joanne enjoys travel, especially to see her favorite sports teams play with her former sports editor husband and three athletic-minded sons.

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Spotlight: Surgeon’s Story by Mark Oristano

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What is it like to hold the beating heart of a two-day old child in your hand?  What is it like to counsel distraught parents as they make some of the most difficult decisions of their lives?

Noted pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Kristine Guleserian has opened up her OR, and her career, to author Mark Oristano to create Surgeon’s Story - Inside OR-6 With a top Pediatric Heart Surgeon.  

Dr. Guleserian’s life, training and work are discussed in detail, framed around the incredibly dramatic story of a heart transplant operation for a two-year old girl whose own heart was rapidly dying.  Author Mark Oristano takes readers inside the operating room to get a first-hand look at pediatric heart surgeries most doctors in America would never attempt.

That’s because Dr. Guleserian is recognized as one of the top pediatric heart surgeons in America, one of a very few who have performed a transplant on a one-week old baby. Dr. Guleserian (Goo-liss-AIR-ee-yan) provided her expertise, and Oristano furnished his writing skills, to produce A Surgeon’s Story.

As preparation to write this stirring book, Oristano spent hours inside the operating room at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas watching Guleserian perform actual surgeries that each day were life or death experiences. Readers will be with Dr. Guleserian on her rounds, meeting with parents, or in the Operating Room for a heart transplant.

Oristano is successful sportscaster and photographer and has made several appearances on stage as an actor. He wrote his first book A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game, and continues to volunteer at Children’s Medical Center.

“We hear a lot about malpractice and failures in medical care,” says Oristanto, “but I want my readers to know that parts of the American health care system work brilliantly. And our health care system will work even better if more young women would enter science and medicine and experience the type of success Dr. Guleserian has attained.”

Readers will find all the drama, intensity, humor and compassion that they enjoy in their favorite fictionalized medical TV drama, but the actual accounts in Surgeon’s Story are even more compelling. One of the key characters in the book is 2-year-old Rylynn who was born with an often fatal disorder called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and was successfully treated by Dr. Guleserian.

Book Excerpt

The first task is to examine the heart to see if the preoperative diagnosis is correct. Dr. G uses delicate instruments to retract portions of the tricuspid valve and examine the extent of the defect of the ventricular septum, the wall between the two ventricles. She determines the exact size and shape of the VSD and trims the segment of pericardium she saved earlier in preservative. She cuts miniscule pieces of the pericardial tissue and sutures them along the walls of the VSD, creating anchor points for the actual covering. Each suturing is an intricate dance of fingers and forceps, needle and thread. Dr. G works with a small, hooked needle, grasping it with forceps, inserting the needle through the tissue, releasing and re-gripping with the forceps, pulling the hair-thin suture through, using a forceps in her other hand to re-grip the needle again and repeat. The pericardial tissue being sewn over the VSD has to be secure, and it has to stand up to the pressure of blood pumping through Claudia’s heart at the end of the operation. This isn’t like repairing knee ligaments, which can rest without use and heal slowly. Claudia’s heart is going to restart at the end of this operation, and whatever has been sewn into it has to hold, and work, the first time. The VSD repair involves cautious work around the tricuspid valve, and their proximity is a concern because the valve opens and closes along the ventricular septum with each beat. Dr. G and her team find that it’s preferable to actually divide the cords of the tricuspid valve to better expose the VSD. After the patch is fully secured, the tricuspid valve is repaired.

Things don’t go as smoothly during the attempt to repair the pulmonary valve. When Dr. G looks inside Claudia’s heart she discovers that the pulmonary valve is not nearly large enough, and it’s malformed. It only has two flaps where there should be three. She repairs it by what she later says is “just putting in a little transannular patch.”

Here’s what it’s like to “just” put a transannular patch on the pulmonary artery of a child as small as Claudia:

First, take a piece of well-cooked elbow macaroni. Tuck it away in a bowl of pasta that has a bit of residual marinara sauce still floating around in it. Take several different sized knitting needles. Slowly, without damaging the macaroni, insert one of the knitting needles into it to see if you can gauge the width of the macaroni on which you’re operating. Then using a delicate, incredibly sharp blade, cut a small hole in the piece of elbow macaroni, maybe a little larger than the height of one of the letters on the page in front of you. Now use pliers to pick up a small needle with thread as fine as human hair in it. Use another pliers to pick up a tiny piece of skin that looks like it was cut from an olive, so thin that light shines through it. Take the needle and sew the olive skin on to the hole you’ve cut in the piece of macaroni. When you’re finished sewing, hook up the piece of macaroni to a comparable size tube coming from the faucet on the kitchen sink, and see if you can run some water through the macaroni without the patch leaking.

That’s the food analogy. Those are the dimensions Dr. G worked with as she patched Claudia’s pulmonary artery. She made it a little wider to give it a chance to work more efficiently, to transport more blood with less blockage, requiring less work for the right ventricle so that the built-up heart muscle could return to a more normal size. It wasn’t the repair she’d planned to make, but it was the most suitable under the circumstances, and it gave Claudia her best chance.

Before restoring Claudia’s natural circulation, the team makes certain that no air is in the heart or the tubes from the pump, because it could be pumped up to the brain. Air in the brain is not a safe thing. When all the repairs are completed, Claudia is rewarmed and weaned from the bypass machine. She was on pump for 114 minutes and her aorta was clamped for 77 minutes, not an extraordinary length of time in either case.

Claudia’s heart starts up on its own, with a strong rhythm. With her heart beating again the beeps, and the peaks and valleys on her monitor return. All is well. An echo technician wheels a portable machine into the OR and puts a sensor down Claudia’s throat where it lodges behind her heart to perform a transesophageal echo —a more detailed view than the normal, external echo. Everything looks good. Chest drains are put in to handle post-operative drainage, and wires are placed for external pacemakers, should anything go wrong with Claudia’s heart rhythm during her recovery from surgery. Dr. G draws Claudia’s ribcage back together with stainless steel wires, perfectly fastened and tightly tucked down.

Claudia and the surgical team return to the CVICU, and Dr. G monitors her reentry to the unit, making sure the nurses understand Claudia’s condition and the proper procedures to be followed for the next 24 hours. From there, Dr. G enters a small room tucked away from the noise of the unit to meet with the family. Claudia’s mother, father, and aunt are waiting. Dr. G sees Mom wiping tears away.

“Are you crying? Oh, no, no need to be crying, everything is fine.” Her wide smile reassured Mom who put away her tissues.

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About the Author

Mark Oristano has been a professional writer/journalist since the age of 16.

After growing up in suburban New York, Oristano moved to Texas in 1970 to attend Texas Christian University.  A major in Mass Communications, Mark was hired by WFAA-TV in 1973 as a sports reporter, the start of a 30-year career covering the NFL and professional sports.

Mark has worked with notable broadcasters including Verne Lundquist, Oprah Winfrey and as a sportscaster for the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network and Houston Oilers Radio Network.  He has covered Super Bowls and other major sports events throughout his career.  He was part of Ron Chapman’s legendary morning show on KVIL-FM in Dallas for nearly 20 years.

In 2002 Oristano left broadcasting to pursue his creative interests, starting a portrait photography business and becoming involved in theater including summer productions with Shakespeare Dallas. He follows his daughter Stacey’s film career who has appeared in such shows as Friday Night Lights and Bunheads.

A veteran stage actor in Dallas, Mark Oristano was writer and performer for the acclaimed one-man show “And Crown Thy Good: A True Story of 9/11.”

Oristano authored his first book, A Sportscaster’s Guide to Watching Football: Decoding America’s Favorite Game. A Sportcaster’s Guide offers inside tips about how to watch football, including stories from Oristano’s 30-year NFL career, a look at offense, defense and special teams, and cool things to say during the game to sound like a real fan.

In 2016 Oristano finished his second book, Surgeon’s Story, a true story about a surgeon that takes readers inside the operating room during open heart surgery. His second book is described as a story of dedication, talent, training, caring, resilience, guts and love.

In 1997, Mark began volunteering at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, working in the day surgery recovery room. It was at Children’s that Mark got to know Kristine Guleserian, MD, first to discuss baseball, and later, to learn about the physiology, biology, and mystery of the human heart. That friendship led to a joint book project, Surgeon’s Story, about Kristine’s life and career.

Mark is married and has two adult children and two grandchildren.

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Read an excerpt from The Boss by Melissa Schroeder

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Sick of the spy game, former CIA operative Vic Walker takes time off from his security firm to figure out just what he wants out of life. But peace and quiet isn’t in the cards with a former business partner and ex-lover like MacKenzie Donovan.

Mac doesn’t like asking for help from anyone, but this latest case has her in a little over her head. She crashes back into Vic’s life with the CIA, the Russian Mob, and the FBI, on her tail after a job goes south.

But even as old feelings rise to the surface while they’re busy dodging bullets, the authorities, and mobsters, they’ll need to get out alive before they can have a second chance at love.

Excerpt

He opened the door.

At first, he didn’t see her. He had been prepared for her to be standing on the other side of the door. Maybe that was part of their problem. He always expected her to be right there waiting for him, when she wasn’t. Instead, she was sitting on the bed, leaning back against the wall, one leg drawn up with her arm wrapped around it. Her eyes were closed, so he felt comfortable just staring for a few moments. She was such a solitary soul. He had never known another person who seemed so alone in the world, and maybe that is why he was drawn to her. Part of it was her personality. He liked the fact she would kick a man in the teeth if he didn’t respect her. But there were times like this, where he saw the softer side of MacKenzie that most people would never see. Right now, he could see it. She was tired, no doubt about that. Still, in this moment, she was probably formulating a response to the information she had obtained. It was another trait that drew him. She was just so damned hardheaded she would never give up.

“Are you going to stand there and stare at me all night?”

He smiled. “Maybe.”

Then, she opened her eyes. She had been breathtaking tonight. The dress, the makeup, the fuck-me heels. They all did a number on him. But here in the soft light, with no makeup, it was just her. Just MacKenzie.

Before, she’d tempted him. Now, she stole his heart. “Whatcha got going on in your head, Walker?”
He shrugged. “Just thinking.”
She closed her eyes again. “That always gets you into trouble.”
“Yeah. Usually. Especially when there is just you and me and a bed.”
Her mouth kicked up on one side. “Yeah.”
Her British accent deepened over the word, drawing it out. That did it. He couldn’t resist her anymore. He took four long steps and reached the bed. She sensed him approaching and opened her eyes again.

Before she could respond to him, he leaned down and grabbed her, dragged her up to him, and smashed his mouth down on hers. He let everything he had been feeling for months out in that kiss. His anger, his loneliness, and his love. He might not say it out loud, but he had known the moment she had crashed back into his life that there would be no turning away from her now. The only explanation was that he loved her. 

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About the Author

From an early age, USA Today Bestselling author Melissa Schroeder loved to read. First, it was the books her mother read to her including her two favorites, Winnie the Pooh and the Beatrix Potter books. She cut her preteen teeth on Trixie Belden and read and reviewed To Kill a Mockingbird in middle school. It wasn’t until she was in college that she tried to write her first stories, which were full of angst and pain, and really not that fun to read or write. After trying several different genres, she found romance in a Linda Howard book.

Since her first published book , Mel has had over 60 short stories, novellas, and novels published. She has written in genres ranging from historical to contemporary to futuristic and has worked with 8 publishers although she handles most of her publishing herself. She is best known for her Harmless and Santini series.

After years of following her military husband around the country and world, Mel happily lives with her family in horse and wine country in Northern Virginia.

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Spotlight: Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton

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A young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid lifelong poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her.

Pregnant, left behind by her lover, and banished from her Quaker home and teaching position, Lilli de Jong enters a home for wronged women to deliver her child. She is stunned at how much her infant needs her and at how quickly their bond overtakes her heart. Mothers in her position face disabling prejudice, which is why most give up their newborns. But Lilli can’t accept such an outcome. Instead, she braves moral condemnation and financial ruin in a quest to keep herself and her baby alive.

Confiding their story to her diary as it unfolds, Lilli takes readers from an impoverished charity to a wealthy family’s home to the streets of a burgeoning American city. Drawing on rich history, Lilli de Jong is both an intimate portrait of loves lost and found and a testament to the work of mothers. “So little is permissible for a woman,” writes Lilli, “yet on her back every human climbs to adulthood.”

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About the Author

Janet Benton’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Glimmer Train, and many other publications. She has co-written and edited historical documentaries for television. She holds a B.A. in religious studies from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and for decades she has taught writing and helped individuals and organizations craft their stories. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. Lilli de Jong is her first novel.

Visit Janet Benton’s website for more information and updates. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Spotlight: Cursed by Jennifer Chance

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A countess flees home—and the family curse requiring her to marry a prince—to hide out in the South Carolina low country. There, she meets a man who’s not quite a prince…but who steals her heart all the same.  

Find out what happens in the fifth installment in Jennifer Chance’s Crowns and Gowns series, CURSED!

When the prince she was supposed to marry falls for someone else, Edeena Saleri is done with Garronia's courts, crowns, and family curses. She grabs her sisters and escapes to the nobility-free coast of South Carolina, USA.

Refuge isn't anything like it's supposed to be, however. The family's island vacation home now borders a singles' retreat, which Edeena's sisters embrace all too eagerly. Worse, the private protection firm Edeena hires is run by the most infuriating man she's ever met--a rough-hewn, dark-eyed, charismatic charmer named, of course, Prince. He's not a royal and he's nowhere near noble, so there's no way he can break the family curse. And yet...

Vincent "Prince" Rallis has spent his whole life justifying his name. The son of hardworking immigrant parents, he's hustled for every dime, finally building a personal security firm with the muscle and grit to live up to its promises. He's used to keeping his cool, but when the high-strung, high-class Edeena shuts him down despite her obvious interest, pride demands he fight for her--even if he has to track her back to her glittering court to prove his point. Only once Prince arrives in the seaside kingdom of Garronia, he finds his troubles are just beginning.

Sometimes love in Garronia can be magic. And sometimes you're just Cursed.

Excerpt

Someday… my prince will come…

But he could stow it for the moment.

Countess Edeena Saleri strode along the bright, cheerful corridors of the Charleston International Airport, slightly behind her sisters Caroline and Marguerite, half-disbelieving they’d finally made it. The six-thousand-mile flight from Garronia had taken nearly two months to arrange, every day fraught with anxiety that her father would realize that Edeena and her sisters weren’t merely heading off for a vacation, but attempting to create a beachhead from which at least two of them could start a whole new life.

A life that had nothing to do with the kingdom of Garronia—or any of its princely curses.

Now Edeena focused on her sisters as they chattered excitedly. They’d all agreed to only speak English from the moment they got on the plane for the final leg of their journey, headed for the United States. It wasn’t much of a hardship; the trio could speak Garronois, Greek, and English proficiently, and Caroline spoke a little French as well, mainly because there were so many French visitors to their little seaside kingdom. Marguerite had started and stopped a dozen different languages in college, as the mood struck her. Like most things for Marguerite, she could never settle specifically on one language that made her happy, so she simply chose not to choose.

But neither of her sisters would have to make any choices for a while, Edeena resolved. This journey would take them to their mother’s vacation home of Heron’s Point, one of the largest houses on Sea Haven Island, South Carolina, perfect for a getaway. In fact, they were just coming to the secured exit of the airport now, where waiting for them should be…

Edeena’s stride faltered, her heart jolting as her gaze connected with a pair of intense, laser-beam eyes from across the corridor. She recovered as smoothly as she could while her sisters exclaimed in delighted recognition of their family name, featured on the tablet held aloft by Laser-Beam’s partner.

The two men stood slightly apart from the others car service representatives. Though they were dressed in subdued dark suits, they seemed far more restless, more competent than their peers—they should, of course. They were more than limo drivers.

The shorter man smiled broadly at Edeena as she caught his eye, his dark bald head gleaming in the harsh fluorescent lights. Then his gaze locked on her sisters as if he was memorizing their stride, their faces, the very distance between them as they walked. Edeena forced herself to study him as well, though it had been the taller man who’d nearly bowled her over.

Was he Greek? He had to be Greek. But in South Carolina?

Regardless of his nationality, he looked Greek—as in Greek god, to be more specific. Tall, dark and ridiculously good looking, with all the confidence and charisma to go with it, the man was easily over six feet tall, with cropped tawny brown hair and bronzed skin, his muscular physique filling out his suit with impressive solidity. Dismay skated through Edeena as she took in his no-nonsense expression. She’d long prided herself on being able to overwhelm her staff, friends and colleagues by the sheer force of her personality. Frankly, she’d expected to be able to do the same with anyone sent by the security firm she’d hired to protect herself and her sisters while they vacationed in America. This man didn’t look easy to overwhelm, however. He looked like…

She stared at him a little longer.

Hot, she decided. He looked hot.

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About the Author

Jennifer Chance is the award-winning author of the new adult Rule Breakers series as well as the contemporary romance modern royals Gowns & Crowns series. A lover of books, romance, and happily-ever-afters, she lives and writes in Ohio. In addition to her work in romance, she is also Jenn Stark, urban fantasy author of the Immortal Vegas series, and Jennifer McGowan, YA author of the Elizabethan spy series The Maids of Honor. She is truly NOT trying to become 27 Jennifers, but it's getting a little dicey. 

Connect with Jennifer: Website | BookBub | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Read an excerpt from One Little Kiss by Maggie Kelley

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Love blogger Kate Bell is finished with men—especially the hot ones. Of course her only chance to save her career requires snagging an interview with the man who literally wrote the book on love, reclusive and super-sexy relationship expert Jake Wright. Who happens to be her boss’s brother.

The last thing Jake Wright wants is to be dragged back into the spotlight as a bachelor for his sister’s dating website. But when a sweet and sexy blogger crashes onto his island in the middle of a storm worse than his love life, keeping his hands off proves to be a challenge—especially when they’re stuck sharing the same bungalow.

Excerpt

“If I could just ask a couple of questions—off the record.”

“What part of no interview do you not understand?” He yanked her duffle with its neon pink Smart Cupid tags from the underside of the plane, slung it across his shoulder, and stalked over to a truck parked at the edge of the airfield.

Kate stopped, a small voice inside her whispering, Give the guy a break. He’s not interested in being the bachelor. Just forget the interview and hunker down with some Ho Hos, a couple magazines, and a bottle of Chardonnay. But a second voice, a louder, drunken voice said, Let this sucker off the hook and you’re going home with no interview and no shot at Cosmo. A blonde, brokenhearted failure.

The drunken voice won.

She rushed forward on her damaged heel. “Being a hunk for Smart Cupid is a once in—”

“A lifetime opportunity.” He tossed the bag into the bed of the pickup and secured it under the tarp. “I’ve heard the company line, Miss Bell.”

“So why not grab the brass balls? Or, ring. I mean—grab the brass ring.” Damn, that didn’t sound right. She pressed a palm to her forehead and tried to organize her thoughts.

He yanked at the overlong curls at the back of his neck. “Despite what your boss may have told you, I’m not interested in love.”

Hold everything. Not interested in love? He was the expert. Her heart kicked in its reflexive response. “Everyone’s interested in love.”

“Not everyone.” The truck’s tailgate slammed into place. “Definitely not me.”

Kate stared back at him, her thoughts all jumbled together from the martinis…and the flying…and the hurricane. “Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe love’s not the problem. I mean, I know you’re the authority on the subject…”

“Ex-authority on the subject.” He fished his keys from the pocket of his chinos and let the beep of his auto-starter punctuate his words.

“…but maybe you’ve been looking in all the wrong places.”

He cocked a dark eyebrow. “There are right places?”

Like she needed his sarcasm right now. Where were all the good guys? The romantic ones who climbed fire escapes, flowers at the ready. “You just haven’t found The One.”

“Right. The One.” That muscle in his jaw ticked again, all cynical and derisive. “Sounds like three martinis talking.” He opened the passenger door and waved her inside.

“No, no, no, definitely not the martinis talking,” Kate said, depositing her butt inside the front cab. “Okay, maybe they’re talking a little. But they’re talking sense.” He moved to shut the door, and she stopped it with her kitten heel.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Can I stop you?”

She scooted to the edge of the leather seat. “Here’s the deal. I suck at dating.”

His head fell forward on a sigh. “Please get in the truck.”

Balancing her hands on his shoulders, she continued, “Seriously. I do. All kinds of dating. My one and only blind date actually had a warrant out for his arrest. Halfway through dinner, the police dragged him from our table in the back of this little Thai place in Queens. I spent the rest of the night scouring line-ups downtown.”

His eyes snapped to hers. “Jesus—really?”

Kate nodded. “Another guy I’d been dating for about a month left me in the middle of a movie. Went to get popcorn. Disappeared.” She blew at her open palm. “Like David Copperfield. In a puff of smoke.”

“You have to be kidding.”

A definitive shake of her head. “Not kidding here, Jake. We’re talkin’ blockbuster dating issues. So I get the whole ‘love’s not for me’ attitude. Easier to take a pass than commit to another round of love and face inevitable heartbreak.

Trust me. I. Am. Down. With. That.” Her voice dipped to a whisper. “But—and this is what I wanted to tell you.” She shifted closer. “This morning? My most recent company-line package smashed my heart. Smashed it. Like, with a ballpeen hammer.” She leaned out of the truck a little farther, her body swinging from the cherry-red door. “But even I know love is out there. And you—you’re the expert.”

“Ex-expert.”

She placed a hand over her heart. “And I—I am the new Kate.”

“That’s terrific. Now can ‘the new Kate’ please get in the truck?”

“No. This is important.” She shook her head and tried to focus on what he needed to know, but—wow—last martini was really kicking in, or maybe it was the tumble, or the prospect of being stranded, but keeping her thoughts together was tough. “Listen, Jake, you’re the guy who wrote the book on great sex. You should be looking for The One, too. Because great sex is part of that package…that whole star-spangled, bells ringing, love-forever package.” And her super-sized heart needed that package. The romance, the proposal on bended knee, the everlasting declaration of love. All of it. “I thought my ex was The One, but obviously I was wrong, because The One ponies up the great sex.”

“Really need you to get back in the truck now.”

“Truth be told, my ex wasn’t all that and a bag of chips on the old sex-o-meter.” She crooked her index finger, and he leaned in. “If you know what I mean.”

His eyes narrowed. “Think you might want to change the subject?”

“No, Jake, what I want is the chips.” Her elbow slipped a few inches down the open door. “Can you tell me where to find The One and some crazy hot chips?”

His hand gripped the doorframe. “Yeah, those martinis are definitely talking.”

She tilted closer. “Don’t you think I deserve the chips?”

Please say yes.

It wasn’t just a sales pitch. She needed to believe it.

He stabbed at his glasses. “Am I really qualified to answer that question?”

“Hell, yes, I deserve the chips.” Her fist flew into the air, Norma Rae–style. “All women deserve the chips. We all deserve the freaking chips.”

“Chips for all. That is extremely democratic. Now let’s get you back into the truck.”

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About the Author

After ten years of survival, aka working, in Hollywood, this former actress and current author of sexy contemporary romance is living happily-ever-after with her longtime sweetie, AKA Husband Number 1, and their two occasionally punky kids. When not carpooling to birthday parties or testing her gourmet cooking skills by throwing a frozen pizza into the oven, Maggie daydreams about sneaking off to the Vegas or Napa, or even just the movies. A love of red wine, Italian food, and music round out her list of life’s greatest joys. Oh, and Tuesday night karaoke, totally underrated fun!

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