My Sexiest Mistake

My Sexiest Mistake
Kristin Hardy

A simple mistake…A sexy mistake…In fact, it would be the most incredibly sexy mistake of their lives. One minute, Cade Douglas, delectable Boston businessman, is signaling for a waitress in the bar of a very fashionable hotel. The next, he's nearly racing upstairs with a beautiful stranger, who'd answered his summons instead.Gorgeous Ryan Donnelly can't believe it's all happened so smoothly. Before arriving, she had imagined how awkward it would be to meet the gigolo who'd been hired for her. Her gigolo. Her secret lover. The one who would ignite the intense passion she wasn't sure she'd ever experienced.She was the one, the one who would fill his senses, save his soul. Cade was certain of it.He was the one, summoning her so casually, so confidently. Ryan was certain of it, of him.If they'd only known.

He was a sure thing

Ryan let out a nervous laugh. She couldn’t help herself.

Cade raised an eyebrow. “What’s the joke? All I said was that I take what I do seriously. I deal with people who have a certain set of needs and I come in and make sure they get satisfied. It seems pretty worthwhile to me.”

“So you leave satisfied customers behind you?” She lost a beat watching him.

“I do my best. So what do you do, when you’re not hanging around hotel lobbies?” he asked innocently.

“Oh, I spin yarns.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell me a good story.”

When Ryan was a child, her family vacationed near a lake in Maine every summer. In early June, the water was still icy cold and there were two ways to approach it: stepping in an inch at a time, or running and jumping in, taking the shock all at once. Ryan had always jumped.

“Let’s go upstairs and I will.”

“Whatever you say, darlin’.” Cade rose and tugged her to her feet. “I’m all yours.”

Dear Reader,

Being a romance writer has been a longtime dream for me. I’m thrilled that it’s come true with the publication of My Sexiest Mistake, my first book for Harlequin’s new Blaze line. I like my sex hot and my writing even hotter, so when I had gorgeous but stubborn Ryan meet her match in sexy hunk Cade, it was easy to steam up the pages. Let the two of them take you on a rollicking ride that starts with mistaken identity and turns into a red-hot love affair that’s true-blue beneath.

Blaze is a line designed to appeal to women who demand more from their relationships and their reading—more steam, more tension, more romance. I’d love to hear what you think of Blaze, and of Ryan and Cade’s tale. Write me at kristinhardy@earthlink.net, or visit www.kristinhardy.com for contests, e-mail chats between characters in My Sexiest Mistake and Blaze-ing excerpts from upcoming books.

Enjoy!

Kristin Hardy

P.S. Don’t forget to check out tryblaze.com!

My Sexiest Mistake

Kristin Hardy

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

To my beloved Stephen

Te adoro, amor

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

1

“ARE THEY HAVING SEX YET?”

Ryan Donnelly jumped for the button that transferred the call from speakerphone to handset. In the stodgy offices of Beckman Markham Corporate Training, the last thing she needed was for her boss to hear a caller talking about sex. She blinked at the gravelly voice barking out of the phone. “Not even a hello today. You must be in a good mood, Helene.”

“Well are they?” her agent persisted.

“You know the plot line calls for a love scene in chapter five.” Ryan sounded evasive even to herself.

“Oh my god, you still haven’t done it.”

“I’m going to get to it.” Ryan strove to seem placating rather than panicked.

“Get to it? Your final manuscript is due in exactly fifteen days. You’d postpone my trip to the E.R. for hypertension and heart failure if you could be a little more specific.”

Ryan looked uneasily around her office. “Helene, I’ve got a class to teach in ten minutes. Can’t we talk about this later?”