Merline Lovelace - 'I Do'...Take Two!

“I know you need more time. I won’t push you. But while you’re weighing the pros and cons, don’t forget to include this in your calculations.”

He lowered his head, giving her time to draw back, feeling the jolt when she didn’t. At the first brush of his mouth on hers, hunger too long held in check kicked like an afterburner at full thrust. The heat, the fury burned like a blowtorch.

His palm slid to the nape of her neck. His mouth went from gentle to coaxing. From giving to taking. He circled her waist, drew her into him. They were hip to hip, thigh to thigh, her breasts pressed against his chest, her palms easing over his shoulders.

This was what he needed. What he’d ached for. The feel of her. The taste of her.

* * *

Three Coins in the Fountain:When you wish upon your heart …

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A career air force officer, MERLINE LOVELACEserved at bases all over the world. When she hung up her uniform for the last time, she decided to try her hand at storytelling. Since then, more than twelve million copies of her books have been published in over thirty countries. Check her website at www.merlinelovelace.comor friend Merline on Facebook for news and information about her latest releases.

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To my own handsome hero, who’s explored Italy with me from tip to toe.

What great memories we’ve made, my darling … with so many more to come!

Contents

Cover

Introduction Travis tipped her chin up, drew his thumb along Kate’s lower lip. “I know you need more time. I won’t push you. But while you’re weighing the pros and cons, don’t forget to include this in your calculations.” He lowered his head, giving her time to draw back, feeling the jolt when she didn’t. At the first brush of his mouth on hers, hunger too long held in check kicked like an afterburner at full thrust. The heat, the fury burned like a blowtorch. His palm slid to the nape of her neck. His mouth went from gentle to coaxing. From giving to taking. He circled her waist, drew her into him. They were hip to hip, thigh to thigh, her breasts pressed against his chest, her palms easing over his shoulders. This was what he needed. What he’d ached for. The feel of her. The taste of her. * * * Three Coins in the Fountain: When you wish upon your heart …

Title Page “I Do”…Take Two! Merline Lovelace www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author A career air force officer, MERLINE LOVELACE served at bases all over the world. When she hung up her uniform for the last time, she decided to try her hand at storytelling. Since then, more than twelve million copies of her books have been published in over thirty countries. Check her website at www.merlinelovelace.com or friend Merline on Facebook for news and information about her latest releases.

Dedication To my own handsome hero, who’s explored Italy with me from tip to toe. What great memories we’ve made, my darling … with so many more to come!

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

Chapter Fifteen

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Cm’on, Kate. We have to do it.”

“No, we don’t.”

Katherine Elizabeth Westbrook—Kate to the two friends tugging her through the crowd lined up at one of Rome’s most famous landmarks—dragged her feet. The water spouting from the Trevi Fountain’s gloriously baroque sculptures glistened in the late August sunshine, but Kate had no inclination to participate in the time-honored tradition of tossing a coin in the sparkling pool.

“This is too touristy for words.”

“No, it’s not.” Vivacious, auburn-haired Dawn McGill dismissed Kate’s protest with an airy wave. “We’ve talked about doing this forever.”

“Remember the first time we watched Three Coins in the Fountain?”

That came from Callie Langston, the quiet one of the unbreakable triumvirate forged more than twenty years ago, when eight-year-old Kate and her family moved to the small town of Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Callie’s reminder of that long-ago sleepover won a smile from Kate. “How could I forget?”

They’d been friends for years by then, all three hopeless romantics and avid movie buffs. In that particular all-night extravaganza, they’d devoured pizza and Twinkies and a gallon of triple ripple mocha fudge while bingeing on rented movie classics.

Callie had chosen the 1940 megahit The Philadelphia Story, which had the three teens drooling over a debonair Cary Grant. Dawn had opted for Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina, a sparkling romance that provoked laughter and tears and a burning desire to run off to Paris. Kate had gone with the 1954 version of Three Coins in the Fountain, starring Dorothy McGuire and a dreamy Louis Jourdan as a playboy Italian prince. The story of three single women finding love and adventure in Rome made all three girls vow that one day they, too, would visit the Eternal City and toss a coin in its famed fountain.

Kate had loved the movie. Then. Back when she was young and naive and stupid enough to believe in happy endings.

“The wish won’t come true unless all three of us do it,” the irrepressible Dawn insisted.

“That’s right,” Callie chimed in. “All for one...”

“...and one for all.” Kate dredged up another smile. “Okay, okay! Who’s got a coin I can bum?”

“Here.”

Dawn thrust a euro into her friend’s left hand. It was dull and tarnished and banded by a rim of brass. Soon to be replaced, Kate knew from her work at the World Bank, by a newer, shinier model.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Like her life, she thought, although her new was uncertain and her old hurt almost more than she could bear. Her fist closed around the euro while images cut through her mind like shards of jagged glass. Of Travis roaring up to her college dorm on his decrepit but much-loved Harley. Their engagement the day she’d pinned his air force pilot’s wings on his uniform. The wedding two years later that Kate and her two friends had planned in such excruciating detail. The much-dreamed-of trip to Italy that she and her husband had been forced to put off repeatedly while he rotated in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq and a dozen other locales he couldn’t tell her about.

The irony of it ate at Kate as she remembered the hours she’d spent planning this dream trip. She remembered, too, all the days she’d buried herself in her own work to dull her gnawing worry about her husband. And the long, empty nights she’d tossed and turned and prayed for his safe return from whatever hot spot he’d been sent to this time.

Now here they were. She and Major Travis Westbrook. In Italy! Separated by only a few hours’ train ride. The sad part was that Kate hadn’t even known her soon-to-be ex was operating out of the NATO base near Venice until she’d talked to his mother just before she and Dawn and Callie had left for their Roman Holiday.