Bachelor Unclaimed

Bachelor Unclaimed
Brenda Jackson

In the wake of political defeat, Ainsley St. James has a one-night stand with a seductive stranger. Never expecting to see him again, she accepts a new job…only to discover that the island’s most desirable recluse is the lover she cannot forget.

Hell, he didn’t even know her real name, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to him was he wanted her and he wanted her bad. More than he could recall ever wanting a woman before, and that was definitely a new experience for him.

He led Red into the elevator and no sooner had the door swooshed close behind them, he crushed her to him, had her against the wall, and his mouth came charging down. He heard her purse drop seconds before she wrapped her arms around his neck and parted her lips to return his blazing kiss. He actually felt every part of him on fire and blood was pumping through his veins like crazy.

He loved her taste and deepened the kiss. His tongue skillfully moved from one side of her mouth to the other, exploring, tasting, stirring sensations he wanted her to feel. Some primitive force was taking over his senses, somehow convincing him that she would be different than all his other one-nighters. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand or accept that nonsense. But still, a part of him was helpless to control the raging desire fueling within him.

Dear Reader,

Please envision six men who, for various reasons, are members of the Bachelor in Demand Club, and are determined to stay single for as long as they can. With each book I write in this series, I am having fun making each man open their hearts to love when the right woman comes along.

Bachelor Unclaimed’s hero is Winston Coltrane and his leading lady is Ainsley St. James. Winston is a dedicated, hard-working marine biologist who knows when he needs play time. When he meets Ainsley while she is vacationing in Hilton Head, he is ready for the fun to begin. They soon discover too much fun can lead to memories you can’t shake no matter how much you try. The big question is whether Winston and Ainsley can have their fun and keep their hearts intact.

I hope all of you enjoy reading Winston and Ainsley’s story.

Happy reading!

Brenda Jackson

About the Author

BRENDA JACKSON is a die “heart” romantic who married her childhood sweetheart and still proudly wears the “going steady” ring he gave her when she was fifteen. Because she’s always believed in the power of love, Brenda’s stories always have happy endings. In her reallife love story, Brenda and her husband of thirty-nine years live in Jacksonville, Florida, and have two sons.

A New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over ninety romance titles, Brenda is a retiree from a major insurance company and now divides her time between family, writing and traveling with Gerald. You may write Brenda at PO Box 28267, Jacksonville, Florida 32226, USA; email her at AuthorBrendaJackson@gmail.com or visit her website at www.brendajackson.net.

Bachelor

Unclaimed

Brenda Jackson

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

To the love of my life, Gerald Jackson, Sr.

To the ladies of Diva Dayz 2012.

I enjoyed the week of friendship and sisterhood during our time in Savannah and Hilton Head.

Special thanks to author Beverly Jenkins for her history lesson on Robert Small.

To the Michelville Preservation Society for providing tours and lectures that were rich in Hilton Head Island and Gullah history and heritage.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

Chapter 1

“So, what brings you across the Port Royal Sound, Win?”

Winston Coltrane sat across the counter from his childhood friend, Grady Parker, who moonlighted as a bartender at the Sparrow, a popular nightclub located within the Regency Resort in Hilton Head. Winston shrugged and asked, “I need a reason?”

Grady chuckled. “Hell, yeah. Even when we were kids it was hard to get you off that damn island.”

Winston couldn’t help smiling as he took a sip of his Scotch. What Grady said was true. Even leaving Barrett Shores, the ten-thousand-acre barrier island that had been in his family since the end of the Civil War, to attend college hadn’t been easy for him. The island had withstood a lot over the years, including several hurricanes and a hostile takeover attempt by a group of developers with plans to transform the island into an exclusive resort community. “Well, I’m here with a room upstairs for the next two nights,” he said.

One of those cheesy grins slid onto Grady’s face. “Two nights? Must mean you need to get laid pretty bad. I understand. Happens to the best of us.”

Grady paused from wiping off the counter to add, “If you thought Sophie was going to take care of your horny needs then I hate to disappoint you. She left New Year’s Day for Miami.”

A hot liaison with Sophie Causey had been foremost in Winston’s mind. He hadn’t had a woman in over six months, and he’d counted on those two nights with her. “Who does Sophie know in Miami?”

“Some cousin who’s competing in a tennis tournament. She’ll be gone for two weeks.”

Disappointed, Winston took another sip of his drink. His very casual affair with Sophie worked well for him and for her. After Sophie’s divorce three years ago, she’d sworn up and down Main Street that she would never marry again and that her only relationship with men would be for pleasure-sex only. Those had been Winston’s sentiments exactly. Any thoughts of settling down with one woman had come to a screeching halt in college when a coed by the name of Caroline Darling had shown him just how deceitful some women could be.

He was about to ask for a refill on his glass of Scotch when something beyond his shoulder made Grady’s eyes almost pop out of the sockets. “Hell, if I didn’t love my wife so much, I would be all over her. She’s hot.”

Curious, Winston jerked around his head, nearly getting whiplash in the process. He let out a low whistle as his gaze roamed up and down the woman who’d just walked through the door. His pulse quickened and a breath was released from his lungs in one heated rush. She was more than hot. The woman was in flames.

Her hair, a mass of spiral curls, highlighted her cinnamon-toned complexion and made every feature of her face striking. His fingers actually itched at the thought of running through those curls on her head.

But what really had his erection throbbing big-time was her outfit—a one-sleeved formfitting red mini dress that showed off every curve of her body. And she definitely had the legs for it in those killer red stilettos.

She had captured the attention of every man in the room, even the musicians who all but stopped playing their instruments to stare at her. But she seemed oblivious to the attention she was getting as she glanced around for an available table.

“Um, do you think Carol would forgive me if I was unfaithful just this one time?” he heard Grady ask. He knew his friend was joking because Grady loved his wife to distraction.

“Carol might forgive you but I won’t because I’m going to claim that woman tonight for myself, so don’t get any ideas,” Winston said.

“Evidently you have a few ideas of your own. You think she’ll agree to any of them?” Grady asked him.

“Yes.”

He heard Grady chuckle. “You sound pretty damn confident as usual, Win.”

The woman crossed the room to an empty table and Winston watched how the hem of her short dress rode up her thighs with every step she took. And when she slid into her chair, that itsy-bitsy dress barely covered those same thighs. He swallowed deeply. And they were luscious brown thighs.

“That’s the only way to get anything done,” he finally said. “Just watch how things are about to go down.”

And going down they would, he thought, already envisioning their hot naked bodies on silken sheets making love nonstop. He took another sip of his drink, licked his lips and then placed the glass on the counter and slowly began moving across the room toward the woman in red.

Ainsley St. James glanced around thinking this was exactly what she needed, especially tonight. She had been in Hilton Head only a couple days and was still trying to replace the angry Ainsley St. James of Claxton, New Jersey, with the I-don’t-give-a-royal-damn Ainsley. The same one who’d escaped to this seaside community, to forget that the man who’d defeated her in her bid as mayor of her hometown had been sworn in today, and she hadn’t wanted to be anywhere near Claxton.

She could just imagine what kind of inauguration party Luis Higgins was throwing about now. She’d heard the guest list was long and it wouldn’t surprise her if the small town of fifteen thousand was going in debt to pay for the new mayor’s extravagancies.