Turning a certified disaster into a certifiable dish!
Image consultant Haven Hoyt needs to take former pop superstar Mark Webster from boozing, brawling mess to presentable musician—capable of keeping his tacky boot out of his mouth. Mark has no interest in being molded, but once she’s finished with him, he’ll be a work of art.
Haven has very simple rules for herself: be perfectly put together, don’t crack under pressure and never sleep with your client! But under the scruff and the surly attitude, Mark is hot. Haven’s careful image is unraveling with every look of lust and too-tempting touch. This talented musical hunk wants to pluck her strings. If she’s not careful, she’ll fall for her work of art...and break each of her rules in the process!
“I don’t want him to touch you...”
He’d said it without thought, without realizing what those words would feel like said out loud. How they would affect him—or her.
Mark watched the heat leaving Haven’s face, her posture softening. She understood what he was trying to say to her: I don’t want anyone but me to touch you.
She was staring at him. Her eyes were big, her lower lip soft and full, begging to be kissed, something uncertain in her stance. A hesitation he’d only noticed a few times before, those exposed moments in the mirror when he knew—knew—she was feeling the same pull he was. So unlike the woman Haven Hoyt presented to the world. So unlike the woman he knew she desperately wanted him and everyone else to see.
He acted on impulse, taking her mouth the way he’d wanted to so badly at the jam session, the way he’d wanted it staring at her reflection all day Saturday, the way he’d wanted it the first time he’d sat across from her in Charme. And she opened to him, pressing against him, all heat and spark.
Ever since Haven Hoyt made her grand entrance midway through Still So Hot! rolling her hot-pink patent-leather suitcase behind her, I’ve known she needed her own book. So I was delighted when the petite image consultant with the big personality hired Still So Hot!’s dating coach, Elisa, to find her the perfect guy.
Haven’s idea of the perfect guy is someone just like her—polished, worldly and ready for prime-time viewing. But for some reason these guys never stick. Then Haven meets former pop star Mark Webster. On paper, Mark is all wrong for her—huffy, scruffy and a PR disaster waiting to happen. Plus, he’s her client—it’s Haven’s job to clean up Mark’s bad-boy image for an upcoming band reunion tour.
But Mark’s got other ideas. He wants to teach Haven how to get messy. And before long, things between Haven and Mark are exactly that, complete with the jealous ex-bandmate who will stop at nothing to take away the things that matter most to Mark.
Welcome to a world of image, glitz, love and heart, a world where outside appearances matter, but what’s inside matters more!
Love,
Serena
Hot and Bothered
Serena Bell
SERENA BELL writes stories about how sex messes with your head, why smart people do stupid things sometimes and how love can make it all better. She wrote her first steamy romance before she was old enough to understand what all the words meant and has been perfecting the art of hiding pages and screens from curious eyes ever since—a skill that’s particularly useful now that she’s a mother of two avid readers. When she’s not scribbling stories or getting her butt kicked at Scrabble by her kids, she’s practicing modern dance improv in the kitchen, swimming laps, needlepointing, hiking or reading on one of her large collection of electronic devices. Serena blogs regularly about writing and reading romance at serenabell.com and wonkomance.com. She also Tweets like a madwoman as @serenabellbooks. You can reach her at [email protected].
I’ve learned it takes a village to write a book.
Huge thank-yous to my agent, Emily Sylvan Kim; my editor, Dana Hopkins; the Mills & Boon Blaze team; savvy readers Amber Belldene, Samantha Hunter, Ruthie Knox, Amber Lin, Mary Ann Rivers and Samantha Wayland; and indispensable morale boosters Rachel Grant, Lauren Layne, Ellen Price, Charlene Teglia, Mr. “Personal Shopper” Bell, the not-so-little- anymore MiniBells, my dad—who reads my books and loves them!—and, always, my amazing mom.
Contents
Dear Reader
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Epilogue
HAVEN HOYT SIPPED her water, smoothed her napkin over her lap and cast yet another glance toward the door of Charme, the see-and-be-seen Manhattan restaurant. Her newest client was late, but that didn’t surprise her. Mark Webster had a reputation for being all kinds of unpredictable. Compared to some of the reasons his name had been splashed in the press, late to lunch was a minor sin.
She surveyed the restaurant again to make sure she hadn’t missed him. She loved this place, with its half-circle booths like enormous club chairs and high ceilings baffled with great swoops of black and white. Light flooded the room through big front windows and from a million tiny halogens. She knew the restaurant’s owner and its interior designer. And the publicist who had made it a sensation was a friend of Haven’s—she made venues the way Haven made people.
Speaking of people Haven had made, Amanda Gile was dining with a well-known fashion writer two booths over, her adorable short haircut drawing attention to her high cheekbones and long neck. Haven smiled. A year ago, Amanda had opened a small boutique on Amsterdam. The New York fashion retail world had been ready to chew her