Amy Jo Cousins - At Your Service

With a wolfish smile, Tyler reeled her in close and she knew he was going to kiss her in front of the entire bar.

And because she wanted him so badly, could feel herself rising up on to her toes to lean in to his kiss, she panicked.

Next time, hit him with this.

Susannah’s words raced through her head, along with the fleeting thought that later on she’d regret this, before she reached out blindly with one hand. She had only a moment to realize that she’d grabbed the dirty spoon Tyler had been using to stuff olives with blue cheese and then she was rapping it sharply against his skull.

Tyler rubbed his head and grimaced as he smushed the blue cheese in his hair.

The crowd of onlookers had doubled in number. She threw her hands in the air. “His mother told me to do it,” she announced, and marched out from behind the bar with whatever dignity remained intact.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to another compelling month of powerful, passionate and provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire. You asked for it…you got it…more Dynasties! Our newest continuity, DYNASTIES: THE DANFORTHS, launches this month with Barbara McCauley’s The Cinderella Scandal. Set in Savannah, Georgia, and filled with plenty of family drama and sensuality, this new twelve-book series will thrill you for the entire year.

There is one sexy air force pilot to be found between the pages of the incomparable Merline Lovelace’s Full Throttle, part of her TO PROTECT AND DEFEND series. And the fabulous Justine Davis is back in Silhouette Desire with Midnight Seduction, a fiery tale in her REDSTONE, INCORPORATED series.

If it’s a whirlwind Vegas wedding you’re looking for (and who isn’t?) then be sure to pick up the third title in Katherine Garbera’s KING OF HEARTS miniseries, Let It Ride. The fabulous TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE STOLEN BABY series continues this month with Kathie DeNosky’s tale of unforgettable passion, Remembering One Wild Night. And finally, welcome new author Amy Jo Cousins to the Desire lineup with her superhot contribution, At Your Service.

I hope all of the Silhouette Desire titles this month will fulfill your every fantasy.

Melissa Jeglinski

Senior Editor,

Silhouette Desire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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loves words of all kinds, and her love of reading naturally led to a love of writing. Amy also has a passion for languages and there’s nothing she likes better than learning a new language and using it to explore the history of a foreign country, whether standing on the beaches of D Day in Normandy or outside the Olympic Stadium in Munich.

Her collection of books is slowly crowding her out of her home, although her cat seems more than willing to fall asleep upon the various piles. Other than that, Amy loves learning how to do anything that takes her outdoors and away from her computer, including kayaking, sculling, rock climbing and landscape water painting.

For all the women in my life, but most of all for the number-one diva-queen-goddess, my mother.

Not many people would know that in her heart of hearts, what an eleven-year-old girl dreamed of was an electric typewriter, new or used. Thank you for always managing to give me everything I needed to pursue everything I wanted.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

“Trust me, buddy. You want me. You need me. I know it, and you know it. Just give in to the inevitable.”

Grace crossed the fingers of one hand behind her back and stuck her other hand across the bar to shake on it. The man behind the recently varnished oak counter, with the hooded, skeptical eyes and the sculpted mouth pressed closed, just stared at her. She hoped he didn’t notice that her hand was shaking.

The man—Tyler, she assumed, since the banners outside read Tyler’s Bar & Grill, Grand Opening Tonight—kept his unreadable, unnerving eyes on her. She was certain that a less welcoming face had never frowned on a more desperate, out-of-work woman in the world. She tugged on her newly blond hair and considered walking back out the front door before she made a complete fool of herself.

Then she remembered her original reason for walking in the bar. She’d needed change for the bus, because the only thing filling out her wallet was a single twenty-dollar bill. A job started to sound pretty good when a girl was down to her last twenty.

She kept her hand hanging out there over the bar and prepared to outwait this Tyler. After two weeks in hiding, she was out of options. When she heard her grandmother’s voice echoing in her head, Grace wasn’t surprised. She blinked back the reflexive tears and stretched her smile a little wider.

You’re a Haley, girl, and do not forget that. You have a genetic history of ancestors who defined the word tenacious.

Grace knew that in all likelihood she still wouldn’t have had the nerve to face off against the ridiculously handsome man behind the bar, except for one thing. As she’d entered the bar, she’d had to squeeze past what looked like an entire Mexican family, all ripping off long white aprons and shouting in gleeful excitement. If her Spanish was good enough, she thought they were calling out apologies to Señor Tyler because they were leaving for Acapulco immediately, their cousin having won the state lottery.

Tough break for this Tyler on his opening night.

She’d feel sympathetic after she talked herself into a job, thank you very much. The muscles in her shoulder were starting to tremble from the effort of keeping her hand hanging in midair, but she’d be damned if she’d let Mr. “I’m So Sexy” behind the bar see that.

Not even 10:00 a.m., Tyler thought to himself, and his day had already been flushed down the toilet. He was happy for the Garcias—it wasn’t often that good people got such a lucky break—but having no staff did put a bit of a crimp in his Grand Opening plans.

He’d work it out, make some phone calls, call in some favors. But all that would take time, something he was rapidly running out of. Meanwhile, he had enough to do without dealing with the runaway teen staring determinedly across the bar at him.

She practically had desperate tattooed across her forehead. The shadows under her lake-blue eyes gave her an almost painful look of fragility. And although her hair was gloriously, deeply blond, with just enough of a hint of wave to make it slide around her cheekbones and chin and shoulders like a caress, he’d seen her tug on the ends sharply after making her ridiculous proposition. This girl was nervous enough for three ex-cons on the lam.

He felt bad about it, and took that as some consolation that he wasn’t an irredeemable jerk on the sliding scale of morality, but he just didn’t have time for that much trouble today. He’d been working toward this day for almost ten years, and if he wanted it to go smoothly, he didn’t have time to baby-sit.