Rochelle Alers - Summer Vows

A Hideaway Wedding Wager

Twins Ana and Jason, along with 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?

Can she trust him with her life…and her heart?

As CEO of Serenity Records, Ana Cole never backs down. Now the hot new recording artist she’s signed has made her the target of death threats, forcing her to go into hiding. And protecting her is U.S. marshal Jacob Jones.

Jacob has better things to do on his vacation than play bodyguard. Until he gets a glimpse of the body he’ll be guarding… Spending days and nights together in close quarters stokes their mutual attraction into an inferno of desire. But if Jacob can outwit a would-be assassin, will their love outlast his assignment?

Summer 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

Prologue

Martin Diaz Cole extended the lacquer and walnut burl finish humidor to his youngest brother, waiting for David to select a cigar. He repeated the gesture with his brother Joshua, and then his nephew Timothy before he selected his. It was hours from dawn and yet the other three men seemed reluctant to retire to the suites assigned them or to their respective homes.

It was a ritual that had been repeated for more years than Martin could remember. The entire Cole extended family came to West Palm Beach, Florida, on Christmas Eve for a reunion that usually culminated with a wedding before the end of the year. But unfortunately there had not been a wedding in several years—not since his nephew Diego married Vivienne Neal. His niece Celia didn’t figure into the equation because she’d married her FBI special agent husband in Virginia and hadn’t been able to repeat her vows for the entire family because a winter storm had blanketed North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains with nearly two feet of snow. She’d also been in the second trimester of her pregnancy and had curtailed traveling until after the birth of her daughter.

Using a cutter, Martin snipped the end of the cigar, moistened, lit it and pulled in a mouthful of sweet, fragrant tobacco. It wasn’t the quality of the finest Cuban cigar, but it came close.

David Cole blew out a perfect smoke ring. “Are you certain these aren’t contraband, Martin?”

The first time Martin had smoked a Cuban cigar was when he’d visited his late mother’s country of birth after graduating college, and he’d found himself enthralled with them. Over the years he’d smoked cigars from around the world, but none compared to a Cuban. “Bite your tongue, little brother. We both wish.”

Squinting through a cloud of smoke, David Cole’s jet-black eyes narrowed. “When am I going to stop being your little brother, Martin? I’m old as dirt, almost completely gray, and I’m a grandfather.”

“And you still have two kids who should either become a priest or nun, because they’re never going to get married,” Joshua Kirkland teased.

David glared at his half brother, hoping to intimidate him, but knew there were few things or people who could intimidate or frighten the retired career army officer. “Don’t act so smug, Josh. Serena and I had four children to your two, so there’s no comparison.”