Kristin Gabriel - Engaging Alex

A handsome, sexy, charming jerk, but a jerk all the same. Paige blamed herself for indulging in a whirlwind romance. For agreeing to marry a man she’d known for barely a month. For letting him break her heart.

She blamed Alex for everything else, though. The cowardly way he’d run off before the wedding. All the silly hype that had followed. But most of all, she blamed him for the way he’d made her doubt herself.

So it was time to put him in the past, once and for all. Carefully pulling her chain over her head, Paige undid the clasp and a diamond ring fell into her palm. The platinum band glistened in the waning sunlight. She closed her fist around it…then hurled it over the balcony. “Goodbye, Alex.”

She leaned over the railing to watch the ring fly through the air. It bounced down the sidewalk several feet before she finally lost sight of it.

Gone forever. Just like Alex. A perfect ending to what she’d once believed was a perfect love.

Paige headed for the door, ready to step into her new life…and saw Alex Mack standing on the other side.

“Hi, honey,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I’m home.”

Dear Reader,

Most women have had one, at one time or another—an unforgettable love affair with a sexy, irresistible guy who steals their heart…and then steals away. But what would you do if that man came back? Would you let him in, or would you barricade the door?

Paige Hanover not only remembers the man who left her at the altar, she’s ready for him when he makes the mistake of coming back. She wants revenge on Alex Mackopoulos for romancing her under false pretenses—and under a phony name! Alex says he’s willing to do almost anything to make her love him again. Anything…except tell her the truth.

I hope you enjoy Alex and Paige’s story. It’s set in San Francisco, which was voted one of the sexiest cities in America on the SINGLE IN THE CITY Web site. You can find even more information about this popular Temptation miniseries at www.singleinthecity.org. And be sure to watch for Cara Summers’s Flirting with Temptation, the final SINGLE IN THE CITY book, available next month.

All my best,

Kristin Gabriel

860—MOONSTRUCK IN MANHATTAN—Cara Summers

864—TEMPTED IN TEXAS—Heather MacAllister

868—SEDUCED IN SEATTLE—Kristin Gabriel

892—SKIRTING THE ISSUE—Heather MacAllister

896—SHEERLY IRRESISTIBLE—Kristin Gabriel

900—SHORT, SWEET AND SEXY—Cara Summers

928—MALE CALL—Heather MacAllister

932—ENGAGING ALEX—Kristin Gabriel

936—FLIRTING WITH TEMPTATION—Cara Summers

SINGLE IN SAN FRANCISCO—Cara Summers, an eHarlequin online read

Engaging Alex

Kristin Gabriel

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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For Ann Auten—thanks for the party!

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

Epilogue

PAIGE HANOVER realized too late that she should have worn black sackcloth to celebrate her first wedding anniversary. Although it wasn’t technically her anniversary. After all, her fiancé, Alex Mack, had left her high and dry before the ceremony exactly one year ago today.

Now as she stood in the rain looking up at the old Victorian house that had been renovated into a four-unit apartment building, Paige could feel her new red leather pants literally shrinking onto her legs. Already skintight when dry, the pants would probably shut off her blood circulation before long.

She stepped forward to rap on the solid front door again, then peered through the ornate glass sidelight. A doorman sat with his back to her, totally engrossed in a television program on the small set in front of him. She could collapse from lack of blood flow to the brain and he probably wouldn’t even notice her on the doorstep for hours. Not that Paige needed a man to rescue her—not anymore.

Twisting the antique brass knob in her hand, she was surprised to hear it click open. Paige stepped into the foyer, dripping rainwater onto the clean tile floor. The doorman didn’t even flinch at her arrival. His gaze was firmly fixed on the screen that flickered in the gloomy light.

So the place wasn’t exactly a bastion of security. Paige didn’t plan to stay long anyway. But when she saw the program he was watching on television, she almost considered running back out into the downpour and forgetting this whole crazy idea.

She saw herself on the screen trying to escape a tenacious reporter who kept thrusting a microphone under her chin as she tried to hurry down the narrow sidewalk.

“Do you believe in UFO abductions?”

“No,” she said tersely, her eyes straight-ahead as she walked.

“Then how can you explain your fiancé’s sudden disappearance on the day of your wedding? Or the fact that his whereabouts are unknown?”

“No comment,” she clipped, before hastily ducking into a doorway.

The male reporter turned to the camera and spoke in a solemn tone. “One year ago today, this San Francisco woman woke up on her wedding day to discover that her fiancé had mysteriously disappeared. In our special edition of UFO Watch, we will hear why her mother believes aliens may be involved. And discuss why this left-behind bride is afraid to talk. Is the government responsible for silencing her? Or is it simply fear of the aliens that may have absconded with the love of her life?”

The reporter cleared his throat. “This is Cleo Dimont asking you to stay tuned and to always keep an eye on the sky.”

The doorman shook his head as the program went to commercial. “Amazing.”

“Pathetic,” Paige countered, feathering her fingers through her short curls.

The doorman jumped at the sound of her voice, whirling around as he clutched his slim hand to his chest. “You shouldn’t sneak up on a person like that! Especially a person watching a show about alien abductions.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I wasn’t scared,” he countered. “I have black belts in karate and judo. You could have been seriously injured.”

“Too bad you weren’t around when that UFO Watch reporter pounced on me outside my house last week.”

The doorman blinked, looked at the television, then back at Paige. “I don’t believe it! You’re her. You’re the Left-Behind Bride!”

She clenched her teeth at the moniker the show had given her. Not that many people watched it among the hundreds of other local cable shows available. Still, she didn’t like having her private life beamed down from a satellite in the sky for public viewing.

That’s what she called alien abduction.

“My fiancé was not abducted by a UFO,” Paige told the doorman, a story she’d repeated too many times to remember. “He just got cold feet. But that’s not what the reporter wanted to hear.”