Bachelor In Blue Jeans

Bachelor In Blue Jeans
Lauren Nichols

HOMETOWN HUNK SOLD TO EX-GIRLFRIEND!At the charity auction, Kristin Chase outbid Wisdom's gossip circle for a date with Zach Davis - the only man she'd ever loved. She told herself she pitied him, standing on that stage and facing the leering crowd.No, he had no effect on her whatsoever, not even when he came to her rescue as her livelihood went up in smoke - or now, the way he whisked her to his beach house and made hot love to her under a starry sky.She and Zach had a bitter history, but history repeated itself for a reason. This time, Kristin had to find out just what the handsome bachelor had in mind !

“As Scarlett O’Hara said, ‘Tomorrow’s another day.’”

Resolved, Kristin reached around him to grab her purse. Zach caught her hand.

Kristin stopped breathing as he moved closer, his gray eyes telegraphing his intent and giving her ample time to refuse the kiss she knew was coming. Her heart banged against her rib cage as he slid his hands inside her open jacket and coaxed her to him.

Why wasn’t she pushing him away? Why wasn’t she telling him that he had no right to touch her anymore?

She had no answers. Because she was suddenly too involved in the texture and feel of him to care. It had been so long since she’d felt like this. She’d been sure that a normal physical response was dead to her forever. And yet, here it was…that nervous quiver, that breathless tremble, that downward whoosh of the Ferris wheel.

Then instinct took over, memories took over, and they came together in a hard, hungry kiss that was an explosion of heat and hormones.

Dear Reader,

July is a sizzling month both outside and in, and once again we’ve rounded up six exciting titles to keep your temperature rising. It all starts with the latest addition to Marilyn Pappano’s HEARTBREAK CANYON miniseries, Lawman’s Redemption, in which a brooding man needs help connecting with the lonely young girl who just might be his daughter—and he finds it in the form of a woman with similar scars in her romantic past. Don’t miss this emotional, suspenseful read.

Eileen Wilks provides the next installment in our twelve-book miniseries, ROMANCING THE CROWN, with Her Lord Protector. Fireworks ensue when a Montebellan lord has to investigate a beautiful commoner who may be a friend—or a foe!—of the royal family. This miniseries just gets more and more intriguing. And Kathleen Creighton finishes up her latest installment of her INTO THE HEARTLAND miniseries with The Black Sheep’s Baby. A freewheeling photojournalist who left town years ago returns—with a little pink bundle strapped to his chest, and a beautiful attorney in hot pursuit. In Marilyn Tracy’s Cowboy Under Cover, a grief-stricken widow who has set up a haven for children in need of rescue finds herself with that same need—and her rescuer is a handsome federal marshal posing as a cowboy. Nina Bruhns is back with Sweet Revenge, the story of a straitlaced woman posing as her wild identical twin—and now missing—sister to learn of her fate, who in the process hooks up with the seductive detective who is also searching for her. And in Bachelor in Blue Jeans by Lauren Nichols, during a bachelor auction, a woman inexplicably bids on the man who once spurned her, and wins—or does she? This reunion romance will break your heart.

So get a cold drink, sit down, put your feet up and enjoy them all—and don’t forget to come back next month for more of the most exciting romance reading around…only in Silhouette Intimate Moments.

Yours,

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

Bachelor in Blue Jeans

Lauren Nichols

LAUREN NICHOLS

Lauren Nichols started writing by accident, so it seems fitting that the word accidental appears in her first three titles for Silhouette. Once eager to illustrate children’s books, she tried to get her foot in that door, only to learn that most publishing houses use their own artists. Then one publisher offered to look at her sketches if she also wrote the tale. During the penning of that story, Lauren fell head over heels in love with writing fiction.

In addition to writing novels, Lauren’s romance and mystery short stories have appeared in several leading magazines. She counts her family and friends as her greatest treasures, and strongly believes in the Beatles’ philosophy, “All You Need Is Love.” When this Pennsylvania author isn’t writing or trying unsuccessfully to give up French vanilla cappuccino, she’s traveling or hanging out with her very best friend—her husband, Mike.

This book is for my brother Bill and my aunt Buckey,

who have left this world for a better one.

I love and miss you both.

And for my good friend and always-smiling

cappuccino buddy, Jeanne Hassleman.

And last but not least, for Taylor Nicole Haight,

the newest addition to our family.

Welcome to the world, little sweetheart.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Zach Davis scowled, his humiliation building as shrieking women beyond the velvet curtain nearly drowned out the bump-and-grind music blasting from a speaker somewhere.

God help him.

God help every bachelor on the auction block this evening.