Rochelle Alers - Eternal Vows

A Hideaway Wedding Wager

Twins Ana and Jason and their cousin Nicholas are successful thirtysomethings who are single—and loving it. They have no idea that their relatives are betting on which one of them will get married first. But by the family’s New Year’s Eve reunion, will all three have learned what it means to be really lucky—in love?

An irresistible attraction…

Among Virginia’s horse-country elite, Nicholas Cole-Thomas is the ultimate eligible bachelor. After escaping one disastrous relationship, Nicholas plans to remain single. Yet, when the beautiful veterinarian working on his horse farm needs help, he invites her to stay under his roof. And the closer he gets to her, the closer he wants to be.…

Blurring the lines between business and pleasure is risky for Peyton Blackstone. It’s not just Nicholas’s charisma but his gentleness that enthralls her. But when trouble from her past resurfaces, will he be man enough to trust her…no matter what the consequences?

Eternal Vows

Rochelle Alers

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Hideaway Wedding Series

Good-natured boasting raises its multimillion-dollar head at the Cole family compound during a New Year’s Eve celebration. Family patriarch Martin Cole proposes each man in attendance place a one-million-dollar wager to the winner’s alma mater as an endowment in their name. The terms: predicting who among Nicholas, Jason or Ana will marry before the next New Year’s Eve.

Twins Jason and Ana Cole have given no indication they are even remotely thinking of tying the knot. Both claim they are too busy signing new talent to their record label. Former naval officer Nicholas Cole-Thomas has also been dragging his feet when it comes to the opposite sex. However, within the next six months Ana, Nicholas and Jason will encounter a very special person who will not only change them, but change their lives forever.

In Summer Vows, when CEO of Serenity Records Ana Cole signs a recording phenom to her label, she ignites a rivalry that targets her for death. Her safety and well-being are then entrusted to family friend, U.S. Marshal Jacob Jones, and Ana is forced to step away from the spotlight and her pampered lifestyle. She unwillingly follows Jacob to his vacation home in the Florida Keys until those responsible for the hit on her life are apprehended. Once Ana gets past Jacob’s rigid rules, she finds herself surrendering to the glorious sunsets and the man willing to risk everything, including his heart, to keep her safe and make her his own.

Nicholas Cole-Thomas’s entry into the world of horse breeding has caused quite a stir in Virginia’s horse country. Not only is he quite the eligible bachelor, but there is also a lot of gossip about his prized Arabian breeding stock. In Eternal Vows, Nicholas meets Peyton Blackstone, the neighboring farm’s veterinarian intern. He is instantly drawn to her intelligence, but recognizes the vulnerability she attempts to mask with indifference. Nicholas offers Peyton a position to work on his farm, and when they step in as best man and maid of honor at his sister’s spur-of-the-moment wedding he tries to imagine how different his life would be with a wife of his own. Just when he opens his heart to love again, someone from Peyton’s past resurfaces to shatter their newfound happiness, and now Nicholas must decide whether their love is worth fighting for.

Record executive Jason Cole will admit to anyone that he has a jealous mistress: music. As the artistic director for Serenity Records Jason is laidback, easygoing and a musical genius. His brief tenure running the company is over and he’s heading to his recording studio in a small remote Oregon mountain town to indulge in his obsession. But all that changes in Secret Vows, when Jason hears restaurant waitress Greer Evans singing backup with a local band. As they become more than friends, he is unaware of the secret she jealously guards with her life. And when he finds himself falling in love with Greer, Jason is stunned to find she is the only one who stands between him and certain death, at the same time realizing love is the most desperate risk of all.

Don’t forget to read, love and live romance.

Rochelle Alers

Happy the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days; a worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life.

—Sirach 26:1, 2

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Prologue

Solar lighting illuminated the in-ground pool and property surrounding David and Serena Cole’s sprawling Boca Raton mansion. The house was filled with four generations of Coles. The men who’d gathered in the library at the West Palm Beach family compound New Year’s Day had gotten together again—this time in David’s private office. The four men lit cigars and raised snifters of aged brandy, toasting their success for a covert investigation that had thwarted a hit man’s attempt to kill Ana Cole.

“¡Salud!”

David peered at his brothers and nephew over the rim of his glass. “I know it’s not in good taste to toast someone’s demise, but if anyone needed to be put in the dirt then it is Basil Irving.”

“I agree with David,” intoned Timothy Cole-Thomas. “The bastard should’ve been taken out a long time ago.”

Martin Cole lifted an eyebrow when he stared at his nephew. “Damn, Timothy. That’s cold. What happened to you being the gentle Cole?”

Running a hand over his cropped salt-and-pepper head, Timothy returned Martin’s steady gaze. “Niceness stops whenever someone threatens my family.”

“I have to agree with Timothy,” Joshua Kirkland said quietly, his deep voice carrying easily in the soundproof room. “Irving may have met an untimely end, but there’s still the matter of his younger brother who has taken over as CEO of Slow Wyne Records. I don’t know how much baby boy knows about the music industry but instinct tells me he bears watching.”

Timothy nodded. “You’re right, Josh. That’s why Diego told Simon to keep an eye on him. Ana may have evaded the trap, yet who’s to say they won’t shift the focus to Jason.”

“My son isn’t as benign as he appears,” David said. “Let’s just hope someone doesn’t decide to challenge him.” He set his glass on a side table. “Now that we’ve offered our insincere condolences I’d like to discuss the wedding wager. Those of us who bet on Ana marrying first are one-third closer to the grand prize.”

David, his brothers Martin and Joshua and his nephew Timothy had each wagered a million dollars to establish an endowment in the name of their alma mater as to whose unmarried thirty-something children would marry before the end of the year. David had had to put up two million because he had an unmarried son and daughter.