A Mad Mood Suddenly Turned Manic.
A macho pass suddenly had a complete shift of power, and became her kiss instead of his. Her taking a mood out on him, instead of the other way around. His knees knocking. His hands unsteady. His lungs begging for oxygen in gulpswhen it was supposed to be her, bowled over by his experienced sexual prowess.
The damn woman didnt have any prowess.
But mancould she kiss! Lexie could make a man believe he was the hottest thing ever to emerge from a Y chromosome. The only guy in her universe. The only man she ever needed or ever wanted in her universe. The only man
Aw, hell.
Dear Reader,
As we celebrate Silhouettes 20th anniversary year as a romance publisher, we invite you to welcome in the fall season with our latest six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire!
In Septembers MAN OF THE MONTH, fabulous Peggy Moreland offers a Slow Waltz Across Texas. In order to win his wife back, a rugged Texas cowboy must learn to let love into his heart. Popular author Jennifer Greene delivers a special treat for you with Rock Solid, which is part of the highly sensual Desire promotion, BODY & SOUL.
Maureen Childs exciting miniseries, BACHELOR BATTALION, continues with The Next Santini Bride, a responsible single mom who cuts loose with a handsome Marine. The next installment of the provocative Desire miniseries FORTUNES CHILDREN: THE GROOMS is Mail-Order Cinderella by Kathryn Jensen, in which a plain-Jane librarian seeks a husband through a matchmaking service and winds up with a Fortune! Ryanne Corey returns to Desire with a Lady with a Past, whose true love woos her with a chocolate picnic. And a nurse loses her virginity to a doctor in a night of passion, only to find out the next day that her lover is her new boss, in Doctor for Keeps by Kristi Gold.
Be sure to indulge yourself this autumn by reading all six of these tantalizing titles from Silhouette Desire!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
Rock Solid
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 two RITAs from the Romance Writers of America in the Best Short Contemporary Books category, and a Career Achievement award from Romantic Times Magazine.
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
One
The Idaho sky was a brilliant blue, the mountain scenery breathtaking, the spring afternoon as seductive as a lovers kissand Lexies heart was slamming with panic.
Shed always loved flying, and this bitsy single-engine Piper was more fun than a roller-coaster ride. Flying wasnt the problem. Her recent bout with insanity was.
For several months now, shed tolerated these silly symptoms. She was old friends with insomnia; that wasnt new. It was this other stuff. On a perfectly wonderful day, her heart would suddenly pound, her palms turn cold and clammy, her stomach twist and tangle up with nerves. Her doctor had diagnosed the symptoms as an anxiety attackwhich was total bullcracky.
She had nothing to be anxious about. At twenty-eight, her life was luckier than a dreamshe was making money hand over fist, success charging her way faster than she could keep up with it, her work a joy and challenge both. Every day was filled with a frenzy of excitement, commotion, risk, everything she loved. There was no excuse whatsoever for these sudden attacks of panicyet she could feel it starting againthe lump of anxiety welling up in her throat, the stupid roiled-up feeling in her stomach, the loneliness of fear nipping and nagging at her normally cheerful nature.
Hey, you okay, Ms. Woolf? The pilot of the Piper Cub was named Jed Harper. Jed was quite a character, with his unshaven white whiskers and wrinkled face and Hawaiian shirt. She strongly suspected that the wad in his cheek was tobacco.
Just fine, she assured him. Or she would be. Shed signed up for a month at Silver Mountain specifically to solve these idiotic health problems of hers.
Well, were headed down, maam. Be on the ground in five more minutes, now. Silver Mountains one of the most beautiful places on earth. Youre gonna love it.
Uh-huh. Mountains. Trees. Fresh air. It was enough to make a girl nauseous. Momentarily Lexie closed her eyes, fantasizing about her Victorian office with the red velvet office chair and the draperies dripping fringe and the billowing, delicate Boston fernand the giant TV in the background with nice, soothing CNBC shooting the ticker tape past every second of the stock market day.
Perhaps this particular anxiety attack was justifiable, Lexie considered. Not only was she suffering from Dow Jones withdrawal, but she considered a stay in the country on a par with grape cough syrup. A tough, strong woman, of course, bit the bullet and took her medicine without whiningbut that didnt mean she had to like it.
The baby-size plane hit the grass landing strip, bounced, hit the ground again and finally settled into a jog-skipping-pace before wheeling into a turn. God knew where it was turning. There was nothing in sight but endless sharp, spiked pine trees covering endless sharp, spiked mountains. She saw no buildings, no telephone poles, no asphaltnothing comforting or familiar.
The wizened-faced Mr. HarperJedturned off the engine, grinned at her and then hustled to open the door. Now dont you worry about a thing, Ms. Woolf. We handle city folks like you all the time. Youll feel like a new person after a month here. I guarantee itand here comes Cash now. Youre going to love Cash. All the women do.
Lexie ducked under the door frame and climbed down. She wasnt here to love anyone. She was here to get over these anxiety attacksor die tryingyet her first second in all the blasted fresh air made her stomach buck uneasily. Everything smelledgreen. Suspiciously, verdantly green. As if she were in the middle of a jungle of overgrown Christmas trees that just went on forever. This high, this far from anything civilized, the air was so pure it stung the lungs. How was a woman supposed to breathe without pollution? Where was the comforting carbon monoxide, the diesel fumes, the traffic stinks? Where were the malls?
Hey, Jed. You made record time. And weve been waiting for you, Alexandrawelcome to Silver Mountain.
It wasnt that she didnt hear the warm masculine tenor. For a couple of seconds, though, she was so distracted by the view of all that appalling, petrifying green that she couldnt seem to look away. Swiftly she reminded herself that she was not only willing to be hereshed paid a fortune to be hereso it was no ones fault but her own if she felt plunked down on an alien planet in the middle of a Star Trek episode. Quickly she spun around with her smile on and her hand out. Thanks, Mr. McKayCash. And lets forget that Alexandra business. No one calls me that. Its either Lexie or Lex
Her voice petered out faster than a stalled engine. She knew the man reaching out to shake her hand was Cashner Aaron McKay, the owner of Silver Mountain. Shed have known his voice from their telephone calls even if the pilot hadnt identified him, and hed been so natural and easy to talk with that Lexie had been looking forward to meeting him. Still was. It was just that the blazing sun had first shadowed his face, and from their phone calls, shed just assumed that McKay would be someone like Jed Harpersomeone older. Someone with skin leathered by a hundred million years in the sun who wore cowboy boots. Someone who didnt slap her snoozing female hormones wide-awake.
But now he was closer. So close the sun wasnt blocking her vision. So close that she realized two startling things simultaneously. Her host for the next few weeks was the Marlboro man come to lifesans cigarette. The hunk was take-your-breath adorable, tall and lean and blue-eyed and downright edible. And the second thing she realized was that she was standing downhillwhich meant that the hand shed shot out to shake his was coming perilously close to poking the hunk in the crotch.
Faster than lightning she yanked her hand up to an appropriate height. Humor seemed to responsively glint in his eyesnot that she had time to analyze his reactions. They did the handshaking thing, which thankfully gave her throat a chance to swallow some of that saliva before she drooled all over him. Shed already resigned herself to the month of torture aheadbut being able to regularly look at McKay was definitely going to lighten her suffering significantly.
Lexie His gaze was direct, the slow grin friendly, but the callused palm that had so warmly gripped hers abruptly dropped. She never sensed any negative vibes, just that he hadnt noticed her in any particularly personal way. Possibly he didnt go for short-haired, sprite-size brunettes with city pale skin. Glad to finally meet you in person. And I hope youre going to love our Silver Mountain. Well get your gear, get you settled in. Jed, you coming up to the house for an iced tea?
You bet. And wheres our favorite hellion?
Cash let out a low, easy chuckle. Sammys still doing that home-schooling we set up out of Hammondsbut hell be raring home in another hour or so.
Sammy? Lexie asked.
Sammys my son. Well, I guess technically hes my nephew, but hes my son in every way that matters. Youll meet him at dinner, if not sooneralthough hes a little more shy around the women guests. At least you can hope hell be shy. Otherwise youre at risk of his talking your ears off.
Again, that slow, easy grin. Jed grabbed two of her designer bags and loped on ahead. Cash grabbed four. Neither remarked on the amount or size of her luggage. Thats it, Lex? Anything else you need carrying?
No, no sweat. Briefly Lexie wondered what he meant by referring to this Sammy-child as being both nephew and son, but right then she stumbled over a gnarled root. There was nothing particularly new there. Shed always been able to trip on thin airathletics werent exactly her strong pointbut she really did need to promptly change clothes. Her Italian sandals had been comfortable for flying, but lacked a certain sturdiness for this type of terrain. Worse yet, the hike was all uphill. The strip where the teensy plane had landed was the only flat spot anywhere in sight. A stitch in her side was screaming by the time theyd gone a hundred yards, and the only things she was toting were her purse and laptop. Im not too used to exercise, she huffed.
Thats okay, no one is when they first come here. Thats the point. That you get a serious break from constant work and the stresses of city life, right?
Right. Although no one had warned her about all this ghastly fresh air.
Even if youre not normally into country life, I think youll find it grows on you. There are no bottom lines here, no deadlines, no tests to pass
She knew all the reasons why shed signed up to come here, so there was no particular reason to listen. Besides, she could have looked at his back all day. My. At fourteen, shed thumbtacked posters of hunks on her bedroom wall like every other hormone-driven adolescent girl. Then, of course, shed grown up and realized that looks were no measure of character or anything else that mattered. By twenty-eight, shed come to another realization milestone. Maybe heartache was the pits, but just looking was a lot of fun and didnt cost a dime.
Over the years, shed tried picking out potential lovers with the same meticulous care she picked stocksstudying assets, start-up costs, long-term growth potential, how long one needed to be patient before seeing a return, that kind of thing. Her analysis methods worked fabulously with stocks. But with menwell, temporarily shed sworn off gambling with anything so high-risk.
As she told her friend Blair, vibrators were just a whole lot less aggravation.
But that wasnt to say that she didnt enjoy looking. On a scale of l to l0, McKay easily had a l0 fannyand Lexie had always been a fanny type of woman. Still, eventually, she got around to noticing the rest. The flannel plaid shirt looked straight out of L. L. Bean; the boot-cut jeans were old and loose and worn-in like an old friend. His hair was short and as straight as mink fur but tawny, a mix of sun-streaked caramel and butterscotch. Even this early in May, his skin was sun bronzed, that tan incredibly striking against his light blue eyes. He had a mans-man look all day, his jaw looking cut out of stone, the cheekbones jutting out to give him an even more rugged profile. And there was that cute itsy-bitsy guy butt again
Not too far, now, Lexie. The house is just around the corner.
No problem, she sang out. She was loathe to tear her eyes away from the only seriously interesting viewhis buttbut around the last curve, the lodge loomed in sight. The big, fat log house stood three stories high, with a wraparound veranda graced with porch swings and wooden rocking chairs. She clumped up the porch steps behind Cashstumbled on the doorjamb, but thankfully didnt falland then stepped in. Jed had already dropped her two bags and disappeared from sight when the screen door clapped behind her.
Whew. The place made her think of a movie set for a Western oil baron story. The front door led into a square foyer with a giant staircase, but off to the right was a living room with sprawling couches and groups of oversize chairs in forest-greens and honey-leathers. Man-size windows opened on the mountain view, and nests of thick-pile rugs were scattered around. She glimpsed a gaming table in a dark, scarred mahogany. An upright piano. An oil painting on the far wall, almost as big as the wall itself, a mystical painting of the mountains bathed in a morning mist in ghost-whites and whisper-greens and blues.
A stone fireplace dominated the great room, smoke-scarred and full of character. The chestnut floor and oak ceiling beams looked equally well-worn and well loved.
This is the hangout place in the evenings. Cash led her through, either because they had to go that way, or to help familiarize her with the layout. If youre bored, you can usually find a game of poker or pinochle going on after dinner. Even summer nights, its cool enough that we usually light a fire here. Then in heres the dining room.
She poked her head in, saw an oblong pine table with a million leaves and a wagon wheel chandelier.
Meal hours are posted in your room, but if you get hungry other times, you can always raid the kitchen on your own. Were not running this place like an inn. We want you to feel its your home while youre herewith one little exception. Before we go any further, we need to make a stop. Past the dining room, he popped a door on another room, this one stashed with the desk and file cabinets of a no-nonsense office. Temporarily he thumped her luggage down. Afraid you need to strip here, Lex.