Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Wendy Etherington

Take two resort owners and one eccentric chef. Add a fussbudget food critic, mix up two rooms–and what have you got? Either a recipe for disaster…or all the ingredients for love.Suite dreams are made of this…. Francesca D'Arcy has just pumped her last penny into making her five-star fantasy come true. Feather beds, fine wines and fabulous food–the Cabernet Inn is a stage set for seduction. Except romance isn't on the menu for Francesca–at least not until after dark, when a figment of her imagination takes on a life of its own!Resort owner Tony Galini has never met anybody like his business partner, Francesca. She's smart, she's sexy…and she hasn't got a clue how much Tony wants her! Still, he's hesitant to risk their friendship by making a move on her. But the lust is getting pretty close to the surface…and when they accidentally fall into the same bed, all bets are off. After all, who says friends can't make even better lovers….

He wanted Francesca…

Tony leaned his forehead against the elevator wall, reliving the surprised look on her face when he’d nearly kissed her in the kitchen earlier. What in the world was wrong with him? Thankfully, the doors opened, saving him from reliving that exciting, wonderful, awful moment. Again.

Eyes half-closed, he stumbled to his room, only to curse when he reached into his pocket and found it keyless. He leaned back against his door. Maybe he could just sleep in the hallway. He didn’t want to wake anybody up, least of all Francesca, though she was in the room right next door. The sight of her mussed and sleepy eyed would overload his already weak system.

But then a part of his still-functioning brain—and where was that earlier when he’d been gazing at his best friend as if she was a steak and he a vegetarian who’d fallen off the wagon—reminded him about the key code.

He opened one eye long enough to input his code—the day he and Francesca had met in the fourth grade—and opened the door with a sigh of relief.

In the dark, Tony toed off his shoes, then stripped off his clothes. Little did he know he wasn’t alone….

Dear Reader,

The idea behind this story wasn’t a hard one to come up with-—I’ve always wanted to do a story about best friends falling in love. There’s something about the level of intimacy already established, the history between close friends that makes falling in love more difficult—and in the end, so much more satisfying….

But if my smart, successful heroine was going to fall in love and risk nearly twenty years of friendship, the hero had to be irresistible. So what kind of man could be a more perfect match for her than a rich, gorgeous Italian charmer? Maybe he’s got a few commitment issues, and his list of conquests is organized by zip code, but, hey, that’s just Tony.

I’m willing to bet, though, that you’ll thoroughly enjoy watching my heroine, Francesca, tame him….

I love to hear from readers! Visit my Web site at www.wendyetherington.com or write me via regular mail at P. O. Box 3016, Irmo, SC 29063.

Enjoy!

Wendy Etherington

Books by Wendy Etherington

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

944—PRIVATE LIES

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Wendy Etherington

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Jacquie D’Alessandro and Jenni Grizzle, who constantly, through every book, scene and sentence remind me that I can do this.

Contents

Chapter 1 (#u4106f74c-64c2-51e7-85bf-3e1e91516b1a)

Chapter 2 (#u6edc34a9-83b9-55d5-bade-2a7ca5c9ad98)

Chapter 3 (#uf0e426d7-01ac-5dfb-a12c-d9103ad493aa)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

1

“CHES, hand me a power cord.”

Francesca D’Arcy eyed the jeans-clad lower half of her best friend and business partner, Anthony Galini. Not a bad way to start a Tuesday morning, truth be told. The man did have an amazing body, and he was presently defenselessly flat on his back beneath his desk.

She could envision dropping beside him, pulling his snug black T-shirt from his jeans, rolling up the soft cotton to reveal the sprinkling of jet-black hair against his olive-toned skin, his washboard abs, his broad chest—

Tony nudged her with his bare foot. “Ches!”

“What? Oh, the cord.” She rummaged through the box of computer supplies sitting on the desk. “Uh—which one would be the power cord?”

“The one with three prongs that you’d plug into the wall,” Tony said dryly.

“Cooking’s my forte, not computers,” she muttered, yanking out cord after cord in search of the proper one.

“Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

“At least I got in bed before this morning.”

It seemed even Tony’s commitment to the resort and winery they were about to open together couldn’t compete with his goal of dating every gorgeous blonde in New York before he turned thirty. She’d lain awake until two-fifteen this morning—when she’d heard Tony enter his room at the resort, the one right next to hers.

“Which svelte blonde was it this time? Bambi? Or maybe it was Bunny?”

“I’ll have you know I’ve never gone out with anyone named Bambi or Bunny.” He paused. “But if you want to introduce me…”

As she finally pulled the right cord out of the box, she dropped it on him. Well, more accurately, she threw it on him.