Мишель Роуэн - Hot Spell

Dear Reader,

Hot Spell , my first book for Harlequin Blaze, was inspired by three little words spoken on a talk show about how love can “feel like magic.”

Jacob Caine and Amanda LaGrange are clearly—at least to me and their matchmaking boss—meant for each other. But because of that stubborn streak both of them have, self-protection, denial, practicality, the wrong thing said at the wrong time—or all of the above—they’re going to need a little push.

A little… magical …push.

Thanks to an enchanted grandfather clock the two paranormal investigators uncover in a haunted house at the stroke of midnight, they’re going to find out exactly how much love can feel like magic—whether they’re ready for that particular discovery or not.

I’m thrilled to not only get the chance to write for my favorite Harlequin line, but to have my release during their sixtieth anniversary celebrations. It’s truly an honor!

Happy reading…

Michelle Rowen

CHAPTER 1

Amanda La grange shook her head so vigorously it felt as though it might come loose from her shoulders. “Please, not him. Anyone but him.”

“Jacob’s the only agent currently available, and we need this house investigated tonight. The owner paid extra for an immediate assessment.” Patrick McKay’s voice was firm.

It was pointless to argue. Knowing Patrick, her boss, there was no way she’d be able to get out of this. Besides, making a fuss about her last official assignment for the Paranormal Assessment and Recovery Agency would make her look childish.

She finally sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it.”

“I don’t understand why you two can’t stand each other after all this time. Why is that again?” Patrick sounded both curious and distracted. He was a born multitasker, and was currently having a conversation with Amanda while he replied to a long list of text messages from other agents on his BlackBerry.

“It’s…it’s just…many reasons. Too many to list.”

PARA had hired Jacob Caine two years ago because of his empathic abilities. He could get a sense of people and places just by touch. Before that, he’d worked as a private detective for five years. Both talents came in very handy at an agency that investigated paranormal phenomena. PARA agents were often called in to assess haunted properties and cursed or enchanted objects, and would then take the necessary precautions to ensure no one was harmed.

Jacob had it easy, like many of the other agents in-house. He hadn’t even known he was psychic until recently.

Amanda? Not so much.

She’d seen her first ghost—and had a pleasant conversation with him, in fact—when she was only eight years old. At the time, it had been natural and not scary at all. However, that encounter had led to many others in quick succession, and some of the ghosts weren’t as friendly as the first. Her frightened parents had tried to get her to stop, but it wasn’t as though she’d been trying to attract otherworldly attention—it just happened. Ghosts were drawn to her. One ghost, annoyed at being interrupted by her father, had pushed him down a flight of stairs. Luckily, other than a twisted ankle, he wasn’t injured, but the event did its damage in another way.

Not able to deal with his daughter being a “ghost-magnet freak,” which was how he’d put it at the time, Ed LaGrange had packed his bags and left Amanda and her mother that very night. She’d never spoken to him again.

The memory still brought a painful lump of emotion to her throat.

Her mother blamed Amanda and her clairvoyant ability for shattering their home. Amanda grew up feeling like more of an outcast every day of her childhood. Her being different had destroyed her family.

Being at school didn’t help, either. Normal kids gave her the nickname “Amanda the Strange,” which, while not a terribly original taunt, came to represent verbally everything she hated about herself. She was a freak—she was strange .

Therefore, she had tried as hard as possible to ignore her psychic abilities. It had worked for a while, at least until PARA came to her college looking for potential agents. Patrick McKay had seen Amanda’s file, met with her personally, and offered her enough money to justify dipping back into her despised abilities.

Other than the money, the bright side of working for PARA was that there were other agents who subsequently became her good friends—kind of like a bizarre extended family. She was invited to their weekly “tequila and séance” parties. She’d gone a couple of times since her best friend Vicky, another clairvoyant, rarely took no for an answer in pushing Amanda to get out and have more fun, but it wasn’t really her scene.

Even though she was surrounded by happy psychics who liked her and who she liked in return, she’d never gotten over her father’s rejection and her childhood traumas. It had made her the woman she was today, for better or for worse.

As far as her dating life—well, she tried not to tell her boyfriends about her psychic abilities at first—or at all, if possible. PARA agents were a close-knit group, but “normal men” outside that circle didn’t understand or were scared off by anything unusual—just like her father and schoolmates had been. When Amanda’s boyfriends found out her secret, they usually found the nearest exit as quickly as possible.

And then there was Jacob Caine. Decidedly not a normal man.

She’d met him at a staff party held at O’Grady’s, a local pub, two years ago, shortly after he’d moved to the area and joined the agency. Her friends, especially Vicky, had already told her how hot the new recruit was, how devastatingly charming, and how most of them—the single or even not so single—wanted to have extremely imaginative sex with him. Like, immediately .

And he was. Hot , that is. Darkly attractive with short, scruffy black hair and flashing green eyes framed with thick black lashes. He dressed casually—no tie for him. She could vividly recall his navy-blue shirt being unbuttoned at the neck that night to reveal a glimpse of his obviously chiseled torso. He was six feet tall with broad shoulders, lean hips…and an amazing ass.

At least, that had been her first impression.

Instant attraction.

Amanda’s mouth had literally watered at the sight of him despite the fact she wasn’t usually romantically drawn to fellow psychics. Then again, she’d been celibate for over a year after a bad break-up—another guy who’d freaked at the thought she could talk to ghosts—so she was certain that was to blame for her heightened sensitivity to such a fine specimen of male hotness.

From across the room, Jacob caught her staring and their eyes met. She was sure he’d be able to tell just from a glance that she wanted to climb onto his gorgeous body and do things to him she wouldn’t even trust to her diary.

He disengaged from the throng of cleavage-revealing women and came toward her with his hand extended.

“I’m Jacob,” he said without losing her gaze. “And you are?”

“Amanda.” She inhaled sharply as she felt the strength and warmth of his long fingers wrap around hers. An unbidden surge of desire curled inside her. His aftershave was a spicy musk with just a hint of cinnamon and a whole lot of man.

He frowned, but she had no idea why. Maybe it was because she was practically drooling on him.

Pull yourself together , she commanded herself.

“Something wrong?” she asked when his grip tightened.

“No…” But his frown deepened as he looked down at her hand. “It’s odd. It’s like you have a psychic wall up around yourself. I normally get a sense of someone when I touch them for the first time, but I’m getting nothing from you at all.”