Marie Ferrarella - The Bachelor

Eric’s proposition caught Jenny off guard. Oh, if only you knew, she thought. She brought her attention back to the situation at hand.

This was a bad idea. But it wasn’t about her. This was about a bachelor auction for charity and she had to think less like an adolescent with her first crush and more like a mature adult.

A woman who turned to mush while looking into the warm, chocolate-brown eyes she could easily get lost in.

Exercising tremendous self-control, Jenny forced herself to remember what she had to do later that day. “Sounds good to me,” she said, slowly peeling the words off the roof of her mouth one by one.

Jenny looked away from Eric’s smiling face. She had to. There was no other way she could possibly regain the use of her legs.

This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA ®Award-winning author has written almost two hundred novels for Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide.

Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.

USA TODAY Bestselling Author

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Be a part of

Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.

She had a crush on a billionaire playboy who had no intention of settling down…or so she thought.

Jenny Hall: She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t love Eric Logan. But when her colleagues bought her a dream date with him, she found herself tongue-tied—and wondering how their worlds would connect.

Eric Logan: On a break from his life of fast jets and corporate boardrooms, Eric strutted his stuff at a bachelor auction…and became sweet Jenny Hall’s date for one night. As he entered her world, he realized his bachelor days were numbered!

Who’s the mysterious woman at the bachelor auction? Peter Logan can’t take his eyes off her…and has no idea that this beauty will soon make a serious impression on his heart.

Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.

AVAILABLE JUNE 2010

1.) To Love and Protect by Susan Mallery

2.) Secrets & Seductions by Pamela Toth

3.) Royal Affair by Laurie Paige

4.) For Love and Family by Victoria Pade

AVAILABLE JULY 2010

5.) The Bachelor by Marie Ferrarella

6.) A Precious Gift by Karen Rose Smith

7.) Child of Her Heart by Cheryl St.John

8.) Intimate Surrender by RaeAnne Thayne

AVAILABLE AUGUST 2010

9.) The Secret Heir by Gina Wilkins

10.) The Newlyweds by Elizabeth Bevarly

11.) Right by Her Side by Christie Ridgway

12.) The Homecoming by Anne Marie Winston

AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2010

13.) The Greatest Risk by Cara Colter

14.) What a Man Needs by Patricia Thayer

15.) Undercover Passion by Raye Morgan

16.) Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton

To the dreamers.

Never give up.

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

E laine Winthrop Hall hooked her Donna Karanclad arm through her daughter’s, and accompanied her into the living room. Jenny knew her mother was trying hard to keep from commenting on Jenny’s shapeless sweatshirt and her small apartment.

Jenny called the room cozy; her mom called it tiny, pointing out that she had bigger walk-in closets. But square-footage meant nothing to Jenny.

Neither, her mother was always quick to interject, did prestige, breeding and other people’s opinions. People who counted.

Elaine’s perfectly made-up eyes slanted a glance at the small four-year-old boy who sat on the carpet in the middle of the room, silently playing with an imaginary friend. Jenny knew Cole was the reason she’d come to these crammed quarters, to once more try to talk some sense into her “obstinate” daughter’s head.

The woman didn’t have to speak for Jenny to know what was on her mind. It was all fine and good to let your heart rule once in a while, she’d say, but that should involve the matter of men over the height of three feet, not small “anchors” that would only get in the way of the family’s best-laid plans for the future of their only daughter.

Elaine finally spoke, modulating her voice to something that could pass as a stage whisper. “He’s not your problem, Jennifer,” she insisted not for the first time. “He’s not your responsibility.”

It had been a very long, very stressful day, following on the heels of other equally long, equally stressful days. Jenny surprised herself by finding an untapped vein of patience. She always tried to keep an ample supply under the heading of “Mother,” but she’d been pretty certain that she’d exhausted the allotment on their last visit.

Nice to know some of the patience had managed to regenerate itself.

“He is not a problem,” Jenny told her mother softly but firmly. “And he is my responsibility. I gave my word to a dying woman.”

This was not news to her mother. Jenny had already said as much several times over when she’d explained to both of her parents why she was adopting the once sunny child. Jenny studied her mother’s perfectly made-up face, searching for a hint that the milk of human kindness was not a myth, but existed within the breast of the woman she, despite so many shortcomings, really did love.

She tried again. For the umpteenth time. “What would you have me do, Mother, go back on that? Go back on my word? You were the one who taught me to honor my commitments, remember?”

The woman sighed. “To honor them, yes, but you keep this up and you’ll be the one being committed. To an institution.” She glanced again at the little boy and shook her head. “There are places for children like Cole. Lots of people would love to adopt him. He’s still viable.”

“Viable?” Jenny stared at her mother in disbelief. “He’s not a plant, Mother, he’s a little boy. A little boy who’s been through a great deal, who saw his mother die.” What did it take for her mother to finally get it? She was Cole’s last chance. If she couldn’t get through that protective wall he’d constructed around himself, no one could. “You want me to run out on him, too?”