Barbara Daly - Kiss and Run

Cecily felt like moaning. Eros had shot an arrow straight to her crotch. One look at Will and her heart had dropped to the tips of her unpedicured toenails. God help her, had he ever aged well.

Memories flooded back. That hair, short and tousled now. His shoulders had broadened and they held up a loose-fitting, short-sleeved white polo shirt that showed off muscled arms and a spectacular tan. Stone-colored pants hung casually off tight buns.

A shiver ran down her thighs. She felt hot and wet, and couldn’t stem the sudden attack of heavy, dreamy lethargy. One look at him and she’d fallen for him again—drippily, stickily in lust with a married man.

Dear Reader,

Speaking as one who has an out-the-car-window relationship with cows, I can easily see how life as a big-animal veterinarian in rural Vermont could have its limitations, even if you had eleven cats to keep you company. So I understood why Cecily Connaught would view an obligatory wedding weekend in Dallas as her time to break out, have a fling with a stranger. Nor was it difficult to imagine that Will Murchison, no matter how much he wants to be Cecily’s weekend fling, could get a little distracted by the missing groom, his client, whom he suspects of tax evasion.

But how can these two encounter a host of problems, conflicting life goals and continual interruption and still manage to fall in love, all in twenty-four hours? Read on….

Cheers!

Barbara Daly

P.S. Share your twenty-four-hour romance story with me at bdalybooks@aol.com.

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

859—A LONG HOT CHRISTMAS

887—TOO HOT TO HANDLE

953—MISTLETOE OVER MANHATTAN

974—WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT…

HARLEQUIN DUETS

13—GREAT GENES!

34—NEVER SAY NEVER!

69—YOU CALL THIS ROMANCE!?

ARE YOU FOR REAL?

Kiss & Run

Barbara Daly

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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In loving memory of my own Cecily, who gave her family sixteen years of pure pleasure and unconditional love.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

“KEEP THE CHANGE.”

“But lady, it’s a—”

“Smallest the ATM had.” Cecily Connaught got a grip on her luggage, leaped out of the taxi and ran hell-for-leather into the church foyer, narrowly avoiding collision with a person hauling a chicken-wire structure out of a florist’s van. Once inside, she halted for a moment, dizzied by the whirlwind of activity that surrounded her.

“Cecily, is that you?” Elaine Shipley’s eyes were wide as she darted toward Cecily.

“Now is not the time for chit-chat,” said a woman wearing peach who followed closely behind Elaine. “You’re late,” she told Cecily.

“At least she’s here,” said Elaine, “which is more than I can say for—”

“Now is not the time for gossip,” said the woman in peach. “Get out of those shoes and put these on.”

“But—” Apparently now was also not the time for protests. Someone took the bags out of her hands, sat her down, stripped off her comfortable, clunky sandals and slid her feet into a pair of mother-of-pearl satin stilettos—instant Misery by Manolo.

“You must rehearse in the shoes,” Miss Peach said firmly, hauling Cecily to her feet. “We don’t want any klutziness going down the aisle tomorrow. Now that you’re here we have to get started,” she muttered. “I don’t give a damn who else is missing.”

She got a tourniquet-strength hold on Cecily’s arm and rushed her over to a group of women. Cecily took one look at them and segued from dazed to fashion-panicked. They were perfectly made up and coiffed and were wearing cute little skirts, short but not too short, that showed off endless, thin, tanned legs and were topped with belly shirts that revealed flat, tanned tummies. In the long, droopy bachelor’s-button-printed sundress she’d bought at the Blue Hill Thrift Shop when Vermont had an unprecedented heat wave and it got too hot for jeans, she was hands down the worst dressed among them. Her careless appearance explained Elaine Shipley’s wide eyes. If Cecily’s mother had been there, she would have died of shame.

But then, her mother had vegetated into a person who was incapable of understanding any choice Cecily made, especially her choice to be a veterinarian instead of a—fashion designer, maybe?

“The maid of honor,” Miss Peach said with a note of triumph in her voice, “is present and accounted for.”

A dark-haired beauty at the center of the group, whirled, and her eyes widened just as her mother’s had. “Cecily? Cecily!” she said and pulled Cecily into a bear hug.

The bride, Sally Shipley, daughter of Elaine, was dressed even more sedately than her entourage and even more perfectly pulled together. Cecily got as far as saying, “Sally, it’s been a long—” before Miss Peach, who had to be the wedding planner, interrupted.

“No time for reminiscence.” Much like a gravel truck, she scooped up all of them and hustled them down the aisle, shoving them into place. “Leave a space,” she said to Cecily. “The matron of honor hasn’t shown up yet. Reverend Justice,” she commanded the cleric who already stood facing an imaginary crowd, “go for it. I’ll bring in the others when they choose to grace us with their presence.” Her voice dripped annoyance.

The bride grabbed her groom by the elbow. “This is Gus,” she whispered to Cecily.

Cecily held out a hand. “Nice to meet—”

“No introductions now.” Miss Peach practically yelled the words, then sprinted up the aisle.

Sally meekly turned toward the minister, who intoned, “Dearly beloved…”

Feeling dizzy and disoriented, Cecily shifted her weight from one aching foot to the other. The rest of the wedding party might be dearly beloved by each other, but she wasn’t even dearly beloved by the bride, whose maid of honor she’d foolishly agreed to be. Barely remembered was more like it.

But however reluctant to be in the wedding of a woman she hadn’t been friends with since they were five years old, she now had a mission, one she could start on while the wedding party was…

“…gathered here today to share with Sally and Gus that most sacred moment when they join their lives in holy—”

Hell. Marriage was such a crock. It was a mistake Cecily didn’t intend to make. She’d never do what her mother had done—give up a career to marry a man who largely ignored her.

Her father. He didn’t understand Cecily’s choices, either, the only difference being that he didn’t particularly care. He loved only one thing, making…

“…that most honored of all commitments, most binding of all vows, to love, honor and cherish…”

…news in the academic world by writing brilliant papers in his field, finance. Her mother had wanted her to be a socialite. Her father had wanted her to go into marketing. No wonder she’d chosen to hang with cows.