She Was The Princess To His Frog. Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Letter to Reader Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Copyright
She Was The Princess To His Frog.
Thats just the way it was.
But now something was happening between him and Rachel. Something new, something different. Something threatening...
Rachel loved him. Or believed she did. It was the vulnerable, yearning way she was looking at him. It was the way her kisses started out playful and turned into something soft and dark real, real fast.
He was enjoying her treating him like a princehe couldnt deny it. But when push came to shove, he was the same old frog.
For once in his life, thoughfor Rachelhe desperately wanted to be that prince she believed in....
Dear Reader,
Welcome to Silhouette Desirewhere youre guaranteed powerful, passionate and provocative love stories that feature rugged heroes and spirited heroines who experience the full emotional intensity of falling in love
This October youll love our new MAN OF THE MONTH title by Barbara Boswell, Forever Flint. Opposites attract when a city girl becomes the pregnant bride of a millionaire outdoorsman.
Be sure to rope in the next installment of the exciting Desire miniseries TEXAS CATTLEMANS CLUB with Billionaire Bridegroom by Peggy Moreland. When cattle baron Forrest Cunningham wants to wed childhood fnend Becky Sullivan, she puts his love to an unexpected test.
The always-wonderful Jennifer Greene returns to Desire with her magical series HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Kiss Your Prince Charming is a modern fairy tale starring an unforgettable frog prince. In a sexy battle-of-the-sexes tale, Lass Small offers you The Catch of Texas. Anne Eames continues her popular miniseries MONTANA MALONES with The Unknown Malone. And Shen WhiteFeather makes her explosive Desire debut with Warriors Baby, a story of surrogate motherhood with a twist.
Next month, youll really feel the power of the passion when you see our new provocative cover design. Underneath our new covers, you will still find six exhilarating journeys into the seductive world of romance, with a guaranteed happy ending!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
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Kiss Your Prince Charming
Jennifer Greene
www.millsandboon.co.uk
JENNIFER GREENE
lives near Lake Michigan with her husband and two children. Before writing full-time, she worked as a teacher and a personnel manager. Michigan State University honored her as an outstanding woman graduate for her work with women on campus.
Ms. Greene has written more than fifty category romances, for which she has won numerous awards, including three RITAs from the Romance Writers of America in the Best Short Contemporary Books category, and a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine. She was also recently inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame.
Dear Reader,
This is the second book in my HAPPILY EVER AFTER series. Do you remember The Frog Prince fairy tale? Where the girl has to kiss the frog to get the prince? Well, personally, I thought that story needed a drastic feminist update. In my version, theres a woman, of course. And a man whos a prince of a guy. But todays woman is way smarter than in generations past, yes? No way, no how, would we be willing to kiss any frogs....
Unless, of course, there was an extraordinarily good reason for doing so.
I hope you like the story! And wishing you all my best
One
Rachel Martin had had it. She zipped her ancient yellow VW into the driveway, cut the engine and then scowled at the debris piled on the passenger seat. There was no way she could carry the mail, groceries, her purse and her briefcase into the house in one haulbut she was too darn hot and cranky to make two trips.
Since the divorce, of course, Rachel had learned the obvious. A woman could always find a way to do the impossible. Sometimes the impossible was just a little more challenging than other times.
Once she climbed out of the car, she stuck the mail between her teeth, hooked the key ring on a finger and then used both arms to scoop up the grocery sack, briefcase, and purse tote. The success of her hauling mission seemed assured until she tried slamming the car door closed with her fannywhich jostled everything, particularly threatening to topple the ice cream at the top of the overstuffed grocery bag.
Oh, man. She needed that ice cream. She deserved it. The whole day had been a nonstop test of sanity. The air-conditioning had malfunctioned at work. All six of her engineers had been testy and demanding. Shed skipped lunch and then had to work late. Her blue linen suit had more limp wrinkles than a shar-peis face, her right stocking had a run and her stomach was making pitiful growling sounds of starvation. The unrelenting heat was so unfair. This was Milwaukee, for Petes sake. Cool nights should have been a guarantee by the middle of Septemberparticularly by seven oclockand yet the temperature still registered a mean, cruel ninety degrees with enough humidity to melt steel.
Carefully juggling her packages, sweat drooling down the back of her neck, Rachel mentally pictured her life ten minutes from now. Forget chores. Forget the sounds of lawn mowers and honking cars and kids shrieking as they skateboarded down the sidewalks of the old neighborhood. She could be inside her rented house in two minutes. Naked in six. A few seconds after that, she could be draped under the air-conditioning vent in her living room, dipping a spoon into an entire gallon of Fudge Ripple, with an old classic Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn flick plugged into the VCR.
The fantasy was almost as satisfying as sex. Maybe even better. Sex wasnt a remote possibility in her life right now, where ice cream was definitely a can-do.
Ms. Martin? Wait, Ms. Martin!
She recognized Leo Rembrowskys voice coming up behind her, and any other time she wouldnt have minded chatting a few minutes with her elderly neighbor. Leo was okay. Occasionally hed tried to peek in her bathroom window and he was an incurable busybody, but mostly he was just lonely since his wife died. Swiftly she turned around, so Leo could see her arms were completely stuffed and she was in no position to stop and visityet he didnt seem to notice.
I been waiting for you. He huffed and puffed up the driveway until he caught up with her, his Slavic accent even heavier than usual. Youre late today. I wait outside in the heat. But I thought you should know. Mr. Stoner was in big car accident.
Her heart clutched. She dropped her briefcase and yanked the mail out of her mouth. You mean Greg? Our Mr. Stoner?
Yes, yes. I heard from Tilda. She heard on scanner. Then Josie, she call the hospital
Vaguely Rachel heard the details of the neighborhood gossip vine. Vaguely she was aware of the bloodred sun, dropping fast now, painting the maple leaves gold and brushing the sky with dusky sunset shadows. Life just seemed so everyday normal that it took a jolting few seconds for Rachel to believe something had really happened to Greg. Mr. Rembrowsky, which hospital? And do you know how badly he was hurt?
Leo crouched down to pick up the spray of envelopes. St. Johns, I hear. It was three-car pileup. Early afternoon. Tilda called hospital, but no one would say how he is. You have to be family or nobody wants to talk to you. But I still thought you would want to know.
I do. I did. Thank you, Mr. Rembrowsky, and Im so sorry you waited out in the heat....
He straightened up and piled the mail on top of her grocery sack. You just tell me when you find out news, okeydoke? And if theres something we neighbors can do, you say.
Okeydoke. I promise. She hustled up the sidewalk, shifted everything so she could unlock the back door, then swiftly jogged in and dropped all the debris on the counter in her yellow-and-white kitchen.
Inside, the air conditioner was wheezing and gasping like a four-pack-a-day smoker, but at least it was workingfor now. Like most homes in the neighborhood, her two-story frame house dated somewhere around the turn of the century. On the plus side, the rooms had personality and character and unique little architectural features. On the minus side, every appliance in the place had a capricious personality. Gregs theory was that she needed to get tougher and show the appliances who was boss.
Again her heart squeezed tight at the thought of Greg injured, and she quickly grabbed the phone book and searched for the hospitals number. Once she dialed and was stuck waiting for someone to answer, her gaze peered outside.
Her kitchen window overlooked his kitchen window. The distance between houses was a mere fifty yards, but the economic chasm between them might as well have been miles. Her rental house mimicked most structures in the respectable-turned-shabby neighborhood. Gregs elegant Victorian house, though, was the exception, and stood out like a treasured castle with its manicured lawn and wrought-iron balconies and gleaming casement windows. Why he lived alone in the big old white elephant, Rachel hadnt yet figured outbut over the last couple years, shed spent countless hours in that house. Theyd had dinner in his kitchen two nights ago. Cripes, shed shared a cup of coffee with him just that morning.
Finally someone at the hospital answered. Hello, this is Rachel Martin. Im inquiring about a patientGreg StonerI believe he was brought in this afternoon after a car accident... Swiftly she crossed her fingers. Oh, yes, of course Im a relative. Thats exactly why Im askingI just heard about the accident, and Im his sister
The lie slipped out smoother than butter. Thankfully Leo had mentioned the hospitals unwillingness to give out patient information to anyone who wasnt kin. Greg had kinretired parents in Arizona, a brother working for some company in Japanbut there was no one Rachel knew how to contact. If she wanted immediate answers on Gregs condition, she had to find some way to get them on her own.
And the fib workedat least claiming to be his sister successfully got her transferred to another hospital floor. But then she was put on hold. And then transferred to yet another floor. One could interpret all this monkeying around as great news, she told herself. If they were moving him around, he was obviously alive, right? And he couldnt be in too bad a shape or hed be immobilized in ICU. Yet her fingernails drummed a worried rhythm on the old yellow linoleum counter.
It seemed like she was stuck on hold for hours this time. A dozen memories of the lumbering, gentle giant flashed through her mind. Shed met Greg two years before, the day shed moved into the neighborhood. Hed stopped by to welcome his new next-door neighbor. Shed nearly bitten his head off.
It hadnt been exactly her best day. Mark had just announced that hed discovered true love with the bimbo. Rachel knew nothing about divorces then, had no idea you werent supposed to leave the marital homeor the savings accountsunarmed and undefended. Shed never lived anywhere but her hometown of Madison, but shed impulsively taken off for Milwaukee because it seemed best. She didnt want to live in the same town as the cheating creep, and had craved a distance from her overprotective family, as well. This house was the cheapest rent she could find, at a time when even cheap was too expensive for her. She had no job, no money, an ego in shreds and a life in shambles. She never planned to trust another man as long as she lived.
Shed never planned on trusting Greg, either. But tarnation. Hed given her absolutely no choice.
Ms. Martin?
Finally a live body answered at the other end of the receiver, but the call proved worthless. Greg was still undergoing tests. His condition was labeled serious. No one would say exactly what his injuries were, or when hed be settled down in a room and okayed for visitors.
Rachel heard out all the hospital rules, hung up, jammed the ice cream in the freezer and then simply hurled out of the house again for her car. Never mind their rules. Never mind anyones rules. Greg had put her pieces back together when she thought she was too broken to mend. It wasnt his fault that he was one of the Enemy Species with that unfortunate Y chromosome. He was still the best friend shed ever hadand nobody was going to stop her from seeing him.
Naturally St. Johns was one of the oldest hospitals in the city, which naturally meant it was way downtown, which naturally meant she had no idea how to get there. She knew where to shop, how to locate the art and entertainment centers, could find Rudysthe die-cast company where she worked as an engineering secretaryin her sleep. But Milwaukees industrial section was a tangle of tanneries and foundries, railroads and shipping canals. Roasting hops from the downtown breweries added an alien, bitter smell to the humid night air. Rachel never had reason to become familiar with these inner-city neighborhoodsnor would she be driving them alone in the dark if she had a choice. Tonight, of course, she had no choice, but fear of getting lost only made her more anxious, and her tummy was already roiling with nerves.
By the time she was parked and galloping through the hospitals entrance doors, though, that problem was forgotten and another one nipping on her mind. If anyone questioned her claim about being Gregs sister, Rachel figured no one was going to believe her lie. Obviously lots of siblings looked dissimilar, but man, she and Greg were drastic opposites in physical appearance.