Kara Lennox - Plain Jane's Plan

Plain Jane Allison was now pretty. No, gorgeous!

Her clothes were stylish and revealing, her hair fluffed around her face. People she’d known her whole life passed her on the street without a flicker of recognition. Allison hadn’t run into Jeff yet, but he was due to pick her up soon. She tried to corral the butterflies in her stomach. Would he whistle with appreciation? Would he stare with his mouth open? Would he take her in his arms and kiss her passionately?

The doorbell rang. Allison held her breath and opened the door.

“Hey, Allie.” Jeff flashed an easy smile. “Are you ready?”

“Um, yeah,” she managed.

“I’ll get these.” He took her two bags to the car and stashed them alongside his. “Hey, we have matching bags.”

Allison wasn’t sure how she managed to assemble words and phrases, but she must have done all right, because Jeff didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

And that was just the problem, wasn’t it? She had changed everything about her appearance. And Dr. Jeff Hardison hadn’t even noticed!

Dear Reader,

What a special lineup of love stories Harlequin American Romance has for you this month. Bestselling author Cathy Gillen Thacker continues her family saga, THE DEVERAUX LEGACY, with His Marriage Bonus. A confirmed bachelor ponders a marital merger with his business rival’s daughter, and soon his much-guarded heart is in danger of a romantic takeover!

Next, a young woman attempts to catch the eye of her lifelong crush by undergoing a head-to-toe makeover in Plain Jane’s Plan, the latest book in Kara Lennox’s HOW TO MARRY A HARDISON miniseries. In Courtship, Montana Style by Charlotte Maclay, a sophisticated city slicker arrives on a handsome rancher’s doorstep, seeking refuge with a baby in her arms. The Rancher Wore Suits by Rita Herron is the first book in TRADING PLACES, an exciting duo about identical twin brothers separated at birth who are reunited and decide to switch places to see what their lives might have been like.

Enjoy this month’s offerings, and be sure to return each and every month to Harlequin American Romance!

Happy reading,

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin American Romance

Plain Jane’s Plan

Kara Lennox

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Texas native Kara Lennox has been an art director, typesetter, advertising copywriter, textbook editor and reporter. She’s worked in a boutique, a health club and has conducted telephone surveys. She’s been an antiques dealer and briefly ran a clipping service. But no work has made her happier than writing romance novels.

When Kara isn’t writing, she indulges in an ever-changing array of weird hobbies, from rock climbing to crystal digging. But her mind is never far from her stories. Just about anything can send her running to her computer to jot down a new idea for some future novel.

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

840—VIRGIN PROMISE

856—TWIN EXPECTATIONS

871—TAME AN OLDER MAN

893—BABY BY THE BOOK

917—THE UNLAWFULLY WEDDED PRINCESS

934—VIXEN IN DISGUISE *

942—PLAIN JANE’S PLAN *

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

“You are coming to the conference, aren’t you, Jeffy?” the sultry female voice asked through Jeff’s answering machine. “We had so much fun last year, and I just can’t wait to see you again.” The voice lowered to a sexy whisper. “I’ve got the most incredible new black dress. You’ll love it. Okay, Jeffy? See you next weekend, bye-byeeeeee!”

Jeff Hardison groaned and flopped onto his leather sofa. He could almost see Sherry McCormick’s frosted lips as she’d cooed her way through the message. Last year, at the medical products convention in Dallas, he’d found the man-crazy nurse an amusing distraction. But a little of Sherry went a long way, and he had no intention of spending four days with her stuck to him like a tick.

He briefly considered skipping the conference, but he really needed to go, since his father couldn’t make it this year. Jeff and his dad prided themselves on having all the latest diagnostic equipment, despite the fact they ran a small-town medical practice in Cottonwood, Texas.

So how was he going to dodge Sherry? In fact, he’d just as soon dodge any female who had her sights on him. He was tired of shallow relationships with shallow women who saw a single doctor as their ticket to the country-club life. He was even a bit tired of the ones who just wanted to party.

A knock on his door distracted him momentarily from his dilemma. When he opened the door, he was pleased to see his friend Allison Crane on his porch.

His pleasure quickly turned to concern when he realized she had a bleeding elbow. A huge tear in the leg of her sweatpants revealed a nasty case of road rash along the side of her leg. Her bike was lying in the grass in his front yard with a bent wheel, telling the rest of the story.

“Hi, Jeff,” she said quickly before he could express his concern. “I’m fine, don’t worry, I just slid in a patch of gravel, hit a pothole, and got myself two flat tires. Since I was right up the street—” she shrugged “—I just want to use your phone.”

Jeff dragged her inside. “Hell, Allie, you’re going to kill yourself on that bike if you don’t slow down.”

“I wasn’t going that fast,” she protested as he led her into the kitchen. “Can I use your phone?”

“To call 911?”

She laughed. “I’m not hurt that badly, just a scratch. I was going to call Anne and see if she could run me and the bike home in her van.”

In the kitchen, he took a piece of sterile gauze from the cabinet where he kept his first-aid supplies, then poured some antiseptic onto the gauze and faced Allison with a determined expression.

“Get away from me with that stuff. It stings.”

“You can use my phone after you let me fix you up. God knows what kind of germs are lurking in gravel.”

“Oh, you and your germs.” But she capitulated, sitting in a chair at his kitchen table and rolling up the sleeve of her oversize T-shirt.

“I can give you a ride,” he offered.

“That’s not necess—ouch!” She jerked her arm out of his grasp when he tried to clean the cut on her elbow. “Surely medical science has invented a disinfectant that doesn’t sting by now.”

“Stop being a baby.” After wiping away some of the blood, he inspected the cut more closely. “You’re bleeding like Niagara Falls here. You need stitches.”

“No way. I’ll just apply pressure. It’ll stop bleeding in a minute.”