ebook of the month :: a hero is born

A NIGHT WITH THE SOCIETY PLAYBOY ::  ebook

The hero 

Caleb Gilchrist  first appeared in the award-winning best-selling THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL, as the hero's Lothario best friend.  A total cad.  Irrepressible.  Shameless.  Soooo not hero material.  And then as I neared the end of revisions on that earlier book something happened.  As Caleb and Damien sat in a darkened bar, Damien lamenting the loss of his true love, Caleb let something slip.  The reason behind his playboy ways. He said:

'...if it wasn’t for the number their divorce did on the two of you I would have run off with your sister years ago.’

Damien kept his mouth shut and let Caleb’s words sink in.  Chelsea.  The one.  His sister?

‘You and Ava?’

Caleb smiled though there was no roguish humour in his eyes.  ‘We’re focussing on you right now my friend.’

And just like that it all made sense!  Poor Caleb was nursing a broken heart!  For his best friend's sister.  The one who got away.  How could I not make it alright?  And what with Damien all set for a big wedding, guess whose little sister is all set to come home?

  

The excerpt:

 ‘So,’ Ava said, head down, hair falling in a waterfall over her face as she scuffed her shoe against the step, ‘which of the bevy of beautiful blondes out there under the stars is your arm candy for the evening?’

‘Who says I have any interest in arm candy.’

She lifted her chin, her mouth twisted as she pinned him with her trademark flat, discerning, too smart for her own good gaze.  ‘There is such a thing as email you know.  And from what I hear from those who’ve used said email to tell me things about home, these days you’re a regular hound dog.’

Caleb laughed.  The sudden explosive release of tension was such a surprise he let it rumble through him a good deal longer than he’d normally bother.

And it felt good.  Really good.

It was enough to make him glad he’d sought her out again.  For one thing she didn’t seem to have an inordinate interest in Roman blinds.  And for another he was definitely enjoying her attempt at being sassy.  She honestly had no idea she looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

‘And what makes you think you can trust such stories?’ she asked.

‘The source.’

He glanced her way, eyebrow raised.

‘My brother.’

Caleb laughed again.  ‘You can’t be quoting your brother, I’m sure.’  Damien would have used far less ambiguous language.

‘I am,’ she said.  ‘Or I think I am.  He may have put things another way and I simply extrapolated that meaning.  So you’re not a hound dog?’

The minx actually looked disappointed.

‘Honey, I’m not sure any man has been a ‘hound dog’ since the 1950s.’

‘But – ‘

‘But I understand your meaning.  And he was quite wrong.  I’m perfectly discriminating,’ he said with a devilish smile.

‘How’s that?  No blondes after Labour Day?’

‘I said I was discriminating, not an imbecile.’

This time Ava laughed.  Her eyes brightened, her hair shimmied, and those lips...  Damn but she was one gorgeous creature.

Caleb’s extremities stirred as he wondered how long it might take for butter to melt anywhere else on her body.

‘So anyway,’ Ava said, before he could sink too deeply into that fantasy, ‘I was thinking of heading up to my old bedroom for a sticky beak.  See if my mother turned it into an aquarium, or a gift-wrapping room, or a yoga studio.  What do you reckon?’

‘Knowing your mother I’d say...trophy room.’

Ava clicked her fingers.  ‘Right.  Of course it is.  So, do you want to come see if you’re right?’

Caleb waited for the other shoe to drop, but she merely blinked at him, all ingenuous blue eyes.

Ava was inviting him up to her old bedroom.

It didn’t mean what the sudden surge of adrenalin throughout his body indicated it meant.  Or did it?

Only one way to find out for sure...

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