What a night. Face-to-face with Buck Bravo again.
And now she’d be expected to eat.
So B.J. faked drinking her wine. She even managed to get a little food down. On the polite conversation front, she nodded and made interested noises when spoken to. And she scrupulously avoided looking directly at Buck. No point in going there, nosiree.
Buck was, in all honesty, the man of the hour. There was talk that he’d get a Pulitzer for his last book. And the tabloids…to read what they wrote about him, you’d think every unattached woman in America longed to claim him for her very own.
Every woman except B.J. She didn’t long to claim him. She only longed for him to go away.
And soon he would go away. He’d go off and write his story and leave her alone to come to grips with the fact that she was going to have his baby….
Dear Reader,
The editors at Harlequin and Silhouette are thrilled to be able to bring you a brand-new featured author program for 2005! Signature Select aims to single out outstanding stories, contemporary themes and oft-requested classics by some of your favorite series authors and present them to you in a variety of formats bound by truly striking covers.
We want to provide several different types of reading experiences in the new Signature Select program. The Spotlight books offer a single “big read” by a talented series author, the Collections present three novellas on a selected theme in one volume, the Sagas contain sprawling, sometimes multi-generational family tales (often related to a favorite family first introduced in series) and the Miniseries feature requested previously published books, with two or, occasionally, three complete stories in one volume. The Signature Select program offers one book in each of these categories per month, and fans of limited continuity series will also find these continuing stories under the Signature Select umbrella.
In addition, these volumes bring you bonus features…different in every single book! You may learn more about the author in an extended interview, more about the setting or inspiration for the book, more about subjects related to the theme and, often, a bonus short read will be included. Authors and editors have been outdoing themselves in originating creative material for our bonus features—we’re sure you’ll be surprised and pleased with the results!
The Signature Select program strives to bring you a variety of reading experiences by authors you’ve come to love, as well as by rising stars you’ll be glad you’ve discovered. Watch for new stories from Janelle Denison, Donna Kauffman, Leslie Kelly, Marie Ferrarella, Suzanne Forster, Stephanie Bond, Christine Rimmer and scores more of the brightest talents in romance fiction!
The excitement continues!
Warm wishes for happy reading,
Marsha Zinberg
Executive Editor
The Signature Select Program
Bravo Unwrapped
Christine Rimmer
Dear Reader,
Strong women. You gotta love ’em. I do. I like to think that I am a strong woman. And I like to write about strong heroines, women who know what they want and aren’t afraid to go out and get it.
Such a woman is B. J. Carlyle, the heroine of Bravo Unwrapped. B.J. is brilliant and, okay, she’s more than a little domineering. She loves pricey designer shoes and she’s a New Yorker through and through. She also happens to be pregnant, and she’s just decided that she’s no good at the man/woman thing. Her relationships somehow never work out. She’s giving up men.
I know what you’re thinking: Not going to happen. You are so right. Because, of course, there’s the father of her baby, Buck Bravo, the one man she’s never been able to forget.
Buck can’t forget her, either—and he doesn’t even know there’s a baby involved. Buck has decided he’s getting himself another chance with B.J., whether B.J. wants that chance or not. From New York to California and back again, Buck is determined to lay claim to the woman he knows is meant for him.
Happy holidays everyone,
Christine Rimmer
For my dad, who always believed I could do anything I set out to do—and who made sure that I believed it, too.
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
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Author Interview:
A conversation with
Christine Rimmer
Recipe: Sierra Star Pumpkin Muffins
The Ballad of Blake Bravo
The Bravos: Heroes, Heroines and Their Stories
Sneak Peak: Bravo Family Way
One
For B. J. Carlyle, features editor at Alpha magazine, that fateful day in late October started out in abject wretchedness—and went downhill from there.
B.J. was not someone who hit the snooze button as a rule, but that morning she did. She hit it. And she kept hitting it every five minutes for over an hour. Eventually, she realized it was either get up—or admit she was taking a sick day. B. J. Carlyle did not take sick days.
So she crawled out of bed groaning and headed straight for the bathroom, where she dropped to her knees, banged the seat lid back and threw up. Repeatedly.
By the time she finally stopped gagging and staggered upright, it was much too late for her usual session on the Stairmaster, let alone her blenderized breakfast cocktail of fruit juice and vitamin-packed protein powder.
Okay, she told herself. Fine. Tomorrow for the Stairmaster.
And the protein drink? Skipping it was not a problem, considering that the thought of gulping it down had her queasy stomach threatening to bring her to her knees again.
B.J. ate three saltine crackers and grabbed a quick shower. Precious extra minutes went into her makeup. She troweled on the concealer in a mostly failed effort to hide the ravages incurred by five virtually sleepless nights in a row. Finally, she put on her favorite short black pencil skirt and that cute pink Donna Karan silk blouse