Dear Reader,
Welcome to another fun-filled month of Duets!
Duets #29
Award-winning author Kristin Gabriel returns this month with Beauty and the Bachelor, the last book in the delightful CAFÉ ROMEO trilogy, about a coffee shop that doubles as a dating service. What better place to find both lattes and love! And talented Gwen Pemberton delivers Counterfeit Daddy, the tale of a sexy bachelor hero who poses as a family man in order to impress his gorgeous female boss!
Duets #30
Author Julie Kistler teams up this month with Colleen Collins to serve up BEDS & BACHELORS, two linked stories about a romantic but unusual B & B in San Francisco. Every bedroom has a movie theme! Julie’s tale, In Bed with the Wild One, is a romp about a mousy heroine who sets off to have an adventure with the bad-boy hero. Then B & B owner Kate encounters her very own fantasy man in In Bed with the Pirate.
I hope you enjoy both Duets volumes this month!
Birgit Davis-Todd
Senior Editor, Harlequin Duets
In Bed with the Wild One/In Bed with the Pirate
In Bed with the Wild One
Julie Kistler
In Bed with the Pirate
Colleen Collins
Contents
The innkeeper grinned at Tyler.
“I’ve got the perfect themed bedroom for you. The Wild One. You get to sleep under Marlon Brando’s picture. Cool, huh?”
“The Wild One?” Tyler looked bemused. “I can’t wait.”
An eavesdropping Emily couldn’t wait, either. She knew that movie. Leather jackets, motorcycles. Bad attitude. She tried to contain her growing excitement. Wow.
She continued to peek as he signed the register. He was so sexy. He had this hard-edged, smoky attitude that just screamed sex and lust and bad, bad things. Perfect for a good girl like her.
The minute Tyler disappeared up the stairs, Emily moved to the desk. Maybe there would be a Mata Hari room with her name on it, she mused. Or Xena, Warrior Princess. “I’d like a room, please.”
“Only one left, I’m afraid.” The innkeeper beamed. “But it’s just perfect for someone like you. Pollyanna…”
“Pollyanna…?” Sheesh. Emily might have known. Tyler was The Wild One and she was Pollyanna. And never the twain would meet….
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the world of Beau’s B & B! When Colleen Collins and I put our heads together to come up with a concept for a linked Duets volume, even the conversation was hilarious. We had so much fun, I can hardly remember who came up with what. I’m pretty sure the matchmaker angle was Colleen’s and I think the cat was my idea. But the eccentric B & B with the goofy, movie-themed rooms…Well, that could have come from anywhere.
But then I drove poor Colleen bananas when I kept changing the name of my hero’s bedroom. It only became “The Wild One” after we met with our editor, Malle Vallik, in Chicago. The three of us tripped out to dinner in 103 degree heat, ending up at a gorgeous restaurant where we laughed ourselves silly and probably embarrassed our waiter to death. Oh, well. We had fun! The best part is that this BEDS & BACHELORS concoction ended up exactly the way I’d hoped it would—funny, romantic, sexy and a little crazy. Many thanks to Colleen, Malle and Birgit Davis-Todd for making this such a pleasure to work on.
Enjoy!
Julie Kistler
To Colleen and Malle, who were the most fun and entertaining collaborators anyone could wish for.
Chapter 1
“EMILY, IS THAT YOU? Sneaking in late? Surprise, surprise!”
Emily Chaplin stopped in her tracks. It just figured. This Friday morning in June was the first time in her entire goody-two-shoes life she’d ever been late for anything. And now she was caught red-handed, tiptoeing her way down the hall to her office, by Alissa Bergman of all people, the snoopiest, most competitive lawyer in the firm.
Emily wavered there, unsure whether to respond to or just ignore Alissa. She’d figured if she hid behind sunglasses and kept her head down, dodged the law firm’s main reception area and took the stairs, surely she could sneak into her office before anyone saw her.
No such luck.
Of course, when you were among the lowly associates at Chaplin, Chaplin & Chaplin, Attorneys-at-Law, all competing to make partner someday, your co-associates watched your every move, eager to rat you out to the senior partner. They all knew the big guy was a stickler for associates making their quota of billable hours each and every day. It didn’t help that the big guy also happened to be Emily’s father. And he rode his family members harder than anyone.
“Emily, Emily,” Alissa murmured, making