A Wedding Worth Waiting For

A Wedding Worth Waiting For
Katie Meyer

ENGAGING THE OFFICERAs an officer devoted to protecting animals, Samantha Finley saves the innocent. Her weak spot? Opening herself up to people in her hometown of Paradise. Enter Dylan Turner, director of a local animal rescue. Something about him makes her trust in happily-ever-afters, but Sam knows there's no sense in trusting a guy who looks, walks, and talks like a heartbreaker…Dylan agrees eagerly when Sam proposes to a relationship of convenience so she can re- enter Paradise society. But the more he falls for her, the more Dylan knows he must tame the wild woman he's come to adore–for good! If he has his way, their next date will be at the altar…

Engaging The Officer

As an officer devoted to protecting animals, Samantha Finley saves the innocent. Her weak spot? Opening herself up to people in her hometown of Paradise. Enter Dylan Turner, director of a local animal rescue. Something about him makes her trust in happily-ever-afters, but Sam knows there’s no sense in trusting a guy who looks, walks and talks like a heartbreaker…

Dylan agrees eagerly when Sam proposes to a relationship of convenience so she can reenter Paradise society. But the more he falls for her, the more Dylan knows he must tame the wild woman he’s come to adore—for good! If he has his way, their next date will be at the altar…

“Now you tell me. Where were you a minute ago?”

“Fantasizing about you in nothing but a pair of glasses” probably wasn’t the right answer, so he just shrugged and bit into the now cooler appetizer. The slightly sweet and chewy conch contrasted perfectly with the spice of peppers and crisp batter. “Do you know there are people who have never had a conch fritter?”

She shook her head in mock sadness. “It’s a tragedy, really.”

“It is. I guess they don’t know what they’re missing. But still, life can’t quite be complete if you don’t have good seafood.”

A wistful look shadowed her face. “There’s a lot to be thankful about in Paradise.”

Dylan wanted to punch himself. She’d lived most of her life away from this, and it was obvious she’d missed out on a lot more than seafood while she was gone. He couldn’t give her that time back or fix everything that had gone wrong for her, but he could at least try to make her return as welcome as possible. And the more he got to know her, the more determined he was to do just that.

Proposals in Paradise: True love on bended knee!

A Wedding Worth Waiting For

Katie Meyer

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

KATIE MEYER is a Florida native with a firm belief in happy endings. A former veterinary technician and dog trainer, she now spends her days homeschooling her children, writing and snuggling with her pets. Her guilty pleasures include good chocolate, Downton Abbey and cheap champagne. Preferably all at once. She looks to her parents’ whirlwind romance and her own happy marriage for her romantic inspiration.

My friends, who try to keep me sane, and my family who love me even when I’m not.

The Busch Wildlife Sanctuary, a very special place doing great work.

And Tara, Luke, Stripes and “Tiny Cat”…my animal inspirations.

And most of all, to coffee.

Contents

Cover (#u446d90dc-9bf5-501d-aba5-81101a990e2b)

Back Cover Text (#u1b833caa-30cf-543d-a8bb-252c0c5abf7f)

Introduction (#u50f06710-a8cd-512b-b51a-fc4d8df63de0)

Title Page (#u758db777-bc57-5828-b1ce-e03cbb4fe236)

About the Author (#u4e4aa328-edbd-5c99-980e-6f96d5859d7b)

Dedication (#u6ec16fed-d8bc-55eb-b07a-a51b9fa1122e)

Chapter One (#ulink_43f085b4-8d3f-5e8b-80c2-cd5526cebfc1)

Chapter Two (#ulink_c37e3054-979c-55a4-b06c-339f2df7c3e6)

Chapter Three (#ulink_1c2c60ea-77ea-5c96-8a8d-e561558ce9f3)

Chapter Four (#ulink_a468477a-43f1-5077-97ed-c8abdf999244)

Chapter Five (#ulink_b72e4cbf-e28a-5213-b027-cbf1c894b34f)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_28b15af3-8ee1-5c90-b7d9-7cee8f4f88fd)

Usually, the small island town of Paradise lived up to its heavenly name. Today was not one of those days.

Dylan Turner had spent most of the day patching a leaking roof during one of Florida’s notorious summer storms, only to have the skies clear the minute he climbed back down onto solid ground. Soaked to the skin and covered in globs of roofing compound that stuck more to his skin than it did to the shingles, he’d done something completely unprecedented in his time as director of the Paradise Wildlife Rehabilitation Center—leave work early.

Now he was headed home smelling like tar, trying to navigate the water-filled ruts in the gravel road ahead of him. Wrenching the wheel hard to the right, he let the four-wheel drive take him up onto the soft shoulder and around a particularly washed-out section. Damn, he might have been better off staying at work after all. In a few hours, the water would have gone down, and there was always more work to do. More than he’d ever imagined when he’d taken the job over a year ago.

Fresh off an MBA from Harvard and ready to return to his home state, he’d thought the job would be a cakewalk, something politically correct to put on his résumé while leaving him plenty of time to surf and hike. Instead he’d found himself working eighty hours a week, often doing things conveniently left off the job description. Things like scooping panther spoor or chopping hundreds of pounds of vegetables. Or roofing repair. Luckily, he’d grown up on a ranch and wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty.