Rochelle Alers - Dealmaker, Heartbreaker

About the Author Since 1988, national bestselling author ROCHELLE ALERS has written more than eighty books and short stories. She has earned numerous honors, including the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews . She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Iota Theta Zeta Chapter. A full-time writer, she lives in a charming hamlet on Long Island. Rochelle can be contacted through her website, www.rochellealers.org .

Booklist Also By Rochelle Alers Contents Cover Back Cover Text About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Introduction Dear Reader Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Epilogue Extract About the Publisher Wickham Falls Weddings Home to Wickham Falls Her Wickham Falls SEAL The Sheriff of Wickham Falls American Heroes Claiming the Captain’s Baby Twins for the Soldier The Eatons Sweet Silver BellsSweet Southern NightsSweet DestinySweet PersuasionsTwice the Temptation Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Title Page Dealmaker, Heartbreaker Rochelle Alers www.millsandboon.co.uk

Copyright ISBN: 978-1-474-09110-7 DEALMAKER, HEARTBREAKER © 2019 Rochelle Alers Published in Great Britain 2019 by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental. By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher. ® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries. www.millsandboon.co.uk Version: 2020-03-02

Introduction Noah rested a hand at the small of her back. “Why don’t you go sit down. Tell me what you want.” “Oh, you’re going to serve me?” He smiled. “Of course. We Wainwright men may not be able to cook well, but we do know how to serve a woman.” Viviana wanted to remind Noah that she wasn’t his woman or even a Wainwright woman but decided to play along. It was better than trading barbs with him. She executed a graceful curtsy. “I’m sorry I barked at you yesterday, and I want to—” Noah placed a finger over her parted lips, cutting off her apology. His mouth was a hairbreadth from hers. “No apologies. It’s in the past, and I don’t believe in reliving the past,” he said, winking at her. His eyebrows lifted questioningly. “Agree?” Viviana was too stunned to speak and nodded instead. Noah hadn’t kissed her, but that did not stop her heart from beating faster than normal. Did he not know he was much too virile for her to ignore? All he had to do was stare at her, and she felt things she did not want to feel. The scars from her last relationship were still healing, and she did not want to reopen them. * * * WICKHAM FALLS WEDDINGS: Small-town heroes, bighearted love!

Dear Reader

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

“How long have the Wolfes owned this property?”

Viviana Remington looked straight ahead rather than glance up at the tall, blond man walking a little too close for her to feel comfortable around him. When she and her brother had decided to sell off eight of twelve undeveloped acres of land on which their ancestral home sat, Giles Wainwright had suggested his developer cousin just might be interested.

However, when Noah Wainwright walked through the doors of The Falls House and stared rudely at her with his large aquamarine eyes, she’d suddenly felt like a specimen on a slide under a microscope. And he had continued to watch her when sharing a light repast with her brother, future sister-in-law and Giles.

Viviana concentrated, carefully putting one booted foot in front of the other as she led Noah down the sloping footpath into a valley. It had rained heavily the night before, and the earth was still soaked. She chanced a quick glance at him and would’ve lost her footing if Noah hadn’t caught her arm and steadied her. Viviana shivered, not from fear of falling but from the warmth of his hand and the sensual scent of his cologne. After her last disastrous relationship, she did not want a man to touch, look at or even smile at her. She was just that turned off by the opposite sex. And she did not know why, but there was something about Noah that intrigued her, even though she had a preference for dark-haired men.

This time Viviana did give him a direct stare. She wasn’t into stereotypes, but Noah did not look like any developer she’d ever seen. She thought he was the perfect prototype for the quintessential California surfer with his long, sun-bleached and shaggy hair falling around his tanned face and neck.

She felt the runaway beating of her heart against her ribs when he moved even closer. “Thank you.” The two words were a breathless whisper.

Noah released her arm. “You’re quite welcome. But you didn’t answer my question.”

Suddenly she recalled what he’d asked her. “One hundred fifty years.”

Noah whistled softly. “That’s a long time. And you want to sell eight acres of your legacy.”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Noah asked.

“I need the money to make repairs to the main house and update the guesthouses before I reopen the boardinghouse as a bed-and-breakfast.”

* * *

Noah stopped and shielded his eyes from the brilliant summer sun as he stared at the verdant landscape with towering trees and wildflowers growing in abandon. This was his second trip to Wickham Falls, a town boasting a population of four thousand permanent residents, and although he found it aesthetically beautiful, it still was much too rural and isolated for his tastes.

“I suppose that’s as good excuse as any to sell off land.”

“It’s not an excuse,” Viviana countered, “but a reason.”

Lowering his hand, he met her eyes. There was something so incredibly sensual about Viviana Remington that Noah found it difficult to draw a normal breath. He knew it was rude to stare, but sitting across from her at the table, he hadn’t been able to pull his eyes away from her black, curly hair framing her delicate face and cascading down her back, her flawless golden-brown complexion, her large and clear toffee-colored eyes, and her full, lush mouth.