Heatherly Bell - More Than One Night

She had one night with a marine

And now she’s in command

A one-night stand so incredible, Jill Davis couldn’t forget. Memories so delectable, they sustained Sam Hawker through his final tour. Three years later, Jill is unexpectedly face-to-face with her legendary marine lover. And it’s clear their chemistry is like gas and a match. Except Sam is her newest employee. That means hands off, sister! Except maybe...just this once? Ooh-rah!

HEATHERLY BELLtackled her first book in 2004 and now the characters that occupy her mind refuse to leave until she writes them a book. She loves all music but confines singing to the shower these days. Heatherly lives in Northern California with her family, including two beagles—one who can say hello and the other a princess who can feel a pea through several pillows.

Also by Heatherly Bell

Wildfire Ridge

More than One Night

Heroes of Fortune Valley

Breaking Emily’s RulesAirman to the RescueThis Baby Business

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

More than One Night

Heatherly Bell

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09134-3

MORE THAN ONE NIGHT

© 2019 Maria F. Buscher

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

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“I’m here to make sure you don’t screw up.”

“Thank you.” She pressed her forehead to his. “But...you and me. That could screw things up. For me.”

With no words to make his case, he kept quiet, because she was right. More than she could have known. In his current condition, he’d ruin her. Just drag her down into the dark depths with him.

All her optimism and exuberance would be gone. And that would kill him.

“Unless it’s just one more time.”

Again, he thought perhaps words were going to get in his way at this point. Especially when he liked where this was headed.

“Sam?”

Great, now he was going to have to say something that might possibly risk this. “Right there with you.”

“So, you agree? One more time? Just to see if—”

“If it was a fluke.”

“Right. Because maybe it was that night, or the mojitos, or the city, or the fact that we were both lonely.”

He knew it was none of those things. Not for him. “Sure. We could tell ourselves that.”

“Or we could find out. For sure.”

* * *

WELCOME TO WILDFIRE RIDGE!

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Wildfire Ridge and the romance between two soul mates who might have never seen each other again after one special night. But fate, or kismet, whichever you prefer, intervenes and throws these two together again.

Jill is a secondary character from This Baby Business , so engaging and entertaining that I knew I’d have to tell her story. I love writing about strong women, and Jill Davis is just that. She’s the CEO of her own company, confident and capable. But when her one-night stand shows up to work for her company, she’s not certain how to react. She’ll never turn away a military man in need of a job, but it’s going to be a challenge to be around Sam and keep it professional.

Sam Hawker is a former US marine in need of a job, but he’s surprised to find his boss is the woman who got him through a very difficult time based on the memory of one single night. Because Sam needs far more than a job, even if he won’t admit it.

I hope you enjoy this first book in the Wildfire Ridge series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Heatherly Bell

To

Sergeant David Mock, USAF, WWII 1943–1946

and

Tim Buscher

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

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

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Note to self: should you ever again decide to hang the American flag on a rusty old pole, do not wear shorts when doing so. Definitely going on her long list of “Things to Never Do Again.”

Stuck. She was 100 percent stuck. Story of her life.

Jill Davis clung to the metal pole on which she’d hung the flag, eyeing the ladder that had toppled to the ground with a mixture of longing and plain old disgust. Her legs were wrapped tightly around the pole, her arms clinging like it was the last box of shoes on clearance at Macy’s.

It was a beautiful late spring day in Fortune, California, the sun shining brightly, the temperature in the mild and comfortable midseventies. Hence the shorts, which had seemed like a good idea at the time. Not so much now.