Next To Nothing!

Next To Nothing!
Barbara Dunlop

Jenna McBride is making a new start: a new city and a new business with a shot at the big time. She and her best friend–and interior decorating partner–jump at the chance to refurbish a venerable Seattle hotel. For a hands-on approach, Jenna is assigned a suite for a week's stay…it'll also give her an opportunity to ditch all the private investigators hired by her ex to spy on her!Tyler Reeves may be a blue blood, but he's the black sheep in his family–making a living the hard way as a P.I., instead of opting for corporate finance. Now he has no choice but to accept a case he normally wouldn't–tailing some guy's fiancée. Easy enough. Until Tyler meets Jenna and falls for the sexy siren in a flash. It looks as if his undercover work will take on a whole new meaning–who will be the first left wearing next to nothing!

Nobody said no to body language like that

Tyler also knew that nobody said no to a woman who looked and smelled, sounded and felt like Jenna.

He needed to stop this. He needed to let her down easy. She was the subject of his investigation, for goodness sakes.

“Tyler?” she breathed. She closed her eyes and leaned into him.

He clenched his hands into fists, trying to get the right words, the right phrases to form in his mind. But they didn’t. There was no way out of this without kissing her. Just a taste, he promised himself.

Aw, hell. Tyler gently pressed his lips against hers, but promised he wouldn’t pucker.

Jenna wound her arms around him, her soft body cradling his tightly.

A roar started in his ears and quickly overwhelmed his brain. Forget puckering, his lips parted. She tasted of sweet wine and summer sunshine.

Damn.

Dear Reader,

I love a hero with a secret. I particularly love a hero who has to choose between his secret and his principles. Add to that a sexy heroine who tempts him to compromise both, and you’ve got Tyler Reeves, private investigator, a man going quietly insane while he watches the one woman in the world he can’t possibly touch.

Growing up in Vancouver, Canada, I often drove with my family across the border to visit Seattle. With its towering hotels, exciting shopping and extraordinarily beautiful scenery, it remains one of my favorite cities. The last time I visited, my good friend Jane Porter drove me along the winding lakeshore roads to view the magnificent homes set between cedar forests and the rocky shore. This laid-back luxury was the inspiration for the Quayside hotel, the fictional setting for Next to Nothing!

I had a great time writing this story. I hope you enjoy the atmosphere of the West Coast.

Best wishes,

Barbara Dunlop

Books by Barbara Dunlop

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

848—FOREVER JAKE

HARLEQUIN DUETS

54B—THE MOUNTIE STEALS A WIFE

Next to Nothing!

Barbara Dunlop

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

For my editor, Kathryn Lye.

Thank you for your advice and encouragement,

and most of all for your unfailing patience.

Contents

Chapter 1 (#u4ff7ade4-906e-51e5-88bf-de1f97a56d87)

Chapter 2 (#u0514dbbd-1be6-526c-9846-9d23985c2a8a)

Chapter 3 (#u75d4a944-2c33-5acc-86ff-f63da251fbd5)

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)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

1

“HE STILL OUT THERE?” Jenna McBride watched as her business partner, Candice Hammond, crossed in front of the waterfall fountain in the hospital’s new atrium lobby.

“Short guy?” asked Candice, her high heels clicking on the freshly finished sienna tile floor. “Balding. Doesn’t know polyester is dead?” She spoke loudly enough to be heard above the rushing water.

“That’s him.” Jenna snapped her pencil into the clasp at the top of her Canna Interiors clipboard. The closed-for-construction lobby was nearly empty now that most of the workers had left for the day. “Where on earth did Brandon find that guy?”

Jenna’s partner in Canna Interiors arched her perfect eyebrows, her dark lips curving up in a half smile that revealed the dimple in her left cheek. “One-nine-hundred aging gumshoe?”

Jenna shook her head and raked her auburn, shoulder-length hair back from her forehead. She was hot from working all day, and a fine sheen of sweat dampened her hairline.

“I can’t believe he’s still trying.” She’d finally broken off her engagement to Brandon four months ago. Then she’d moved from Boston to Seattle to put some distance between them.

“You always did live in denial,” said Candice as she settled on the bench facing the fountain, crossing one stocking-clad leg over the other. “Ol’ Brandon’s like the Energizer Bunny.”

“Not in bed,” scoffed Jenna, surprising herself with the moment of pithy honesty.