Nancy Warren - Breakaway

Welcome to Last Bachelor Standing!

How long can three sexy single men hold out?

Our next bachelor? Mr. Business-Before-Pleasure, Max Varo. He’s a genius billionaire with the cojones to go after anything he wants—and win. Now this tempting man is disguised as a “pilot” while he checks out a small Alaskan airline he wants to buy. But he’s about to meet his (very sexy) Waterloo….

Pilot Claire Lundstrom hasn’t a clue that her family’s struggling business is on the cusp of a takeover. What she does know is that she has some rather unbosslike lusty thoughts for Max. But Claire will have to convince him—in the most exquisite ways possible—that losing can be way more fun than winning!

She felt a surge of sexual heat so strong she caught her breath…

Max rose, never letting his gaze drop, and Claire felt powerless herself to break the connection.

Closer.

Never breaking stride until he stood right up in front of her, so close she could see the stubble on his face and glimpse the black flecks in his dark brown eyes. Eyes that stared at her with an intensity that made her shiver.

He moved even closer. She didn’t step back but held her ground, held his gaze.

He grabbed her shoulders, pulled her to him and kissed her with the same urgency he’d drunk deep of the stream only moments ago.

She felt the roughness of a face that hadn’t seen a razor in two days, the coldness of the river water on his lips, the hot, potent energy of the man flowing through him and into her.

She wanted more.

More of that energy, more of his solid sexiness in her arms.

And more of the feeling that something positive and wonderful was happening in the midst of this madness….

Dear Reader,

In Breakaway, book two in the Last Bachelor Standing trilogy, aeronautics billionaire Max Varo is looking for a challenge. He finds it in Alaska with sexy bush pilot Claire Lundstrom. Max and Claire also love playing hockey and it was great fun watching them challenge each other on the ice and off.

A thirty-five-year-old bachelor, Max is a little tired of being courted for his wealth. Going undercover for his company to see what’s up with Polar Air, the small airline owned by Claire and her grandmother, is supposed to be a lark, not change his whole life. For Claire, having an affair with the newest bush pilot is only supposed to be a lark. Not change her whole life. It’s funny how love can mess up a perfectly good plan.

An avid hiker myself, I based Polar Air on some of the small airlines I’ve flown with to get into remote hiking areas. And the bear encounter? That’s based on my own experiences.

Up next? Look for bachelor number three Dylan’s story, Final Score, coming in June 2014.

Visit me on the web at www.nancywarren.net.

Happy reading!

Nancy Warren

Breakaway

Nancy Warren

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

USA TODAY bestselling author Nancy Warren lives in the Pacific Northwest, where her hobbies include skiing, hiking and snowshoeing. She’s an author of more than thirty novels and novellas for Mills & Boon and has won numerous awards. Visit her website at www.nancywarren.netfor news on upcoming titles.

I dedicate this book to Sharon and Stewart McKenzie

for their many years of friendship and career help.

I love you guys.

Acknowledgments:

I have come to rely on friends, friends of friends, and in this book, husbands and sons of friends who are so generous in spilling about things they know. Thanks to Mary, Trish and Ted for their assistance in flying and crashing a plane. Thanks to Karen, her son Guillaume and his friend Leo for brilliantly helping with the big hockey scene. Thanks to John for all his wilderness backpacking expertise. I dedicate this book to all of you, with thanks.

Contents

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

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Excerpt

1

THREE MEN SAT around a campfire on a warm June evening at a wilderness site in Oregon. All were rugged, fit and experienced outdoorsmen. Two were single. One was about to be married. Four days of kayaking had seemed like the perfect choice for their last trip as three single guys. Max Varo, Adam Shawnigan and Dylan Cross had known each other since they started playing together in the sandbox three decades earlier. Now in their mid-thirties, they had successful careers and still played together, though now their sandbox was a hockey rink.

The fire crackled, throwing a little light and a little warmth their way. Max’s muscles ached from paddling all day against choppy currents. He rolled his shoulders, knowing tomorrow would bring more of the same. Their dinner, beef Stroganoff that came in a foil pack from someplace called Backpackers’ Pantry, had been eaten. Now they sat around holding metal mugs of campfire coffee, their tents pitched behind them, kayaks pulled up for the night. Max and Adam stared into the fire, each lost in his own thoughts, while Dylan, always the restless one, built an inuksuk out of nearby stones. Then, bored with that, he suddenly said, “So, Adam, any regrets about getting hitched?”

Adam turned from the fire to glance over at his old friend. “No,” he said simply. “In fact, if I could be granted one wish, it would be to have met Serena earlier.”

Recalling some of the women Adam had dated in his very full bachelor life, Max was inclined to wish the same thing. He’d been forced to spend time with some of Adam’s women and they tended to be—well, flaky would be putting it kindly. But Serena Long had been right for Adam from the first day they’d met. Not that either of them had known that, of course.

Max took some pride in the fact that he’d been the one to introduce his old friend, a performance coach, to his buddy, a cop who was having some performance issues in the hockey arena. When Serena started getting threatening emails, Adam had done everything he could to keep her safe, even as the crazy psycho who was stalking her stepped up the threats. But some good had come out of it. A notorious killer was behind bars, and Adam and Serena were getting married.

“One wish. Wow,” Dylan said. “Hey, Max, if you could have one wish what would it be?”

As he opened his mouth Dylan held up a hand. “And no ‘world peace’ or ‘cure cancer’ allowed. Let’s hope we’d all man up and choose something noble if we actually stumbled across some genie who could give us anything. But, you know, what would you want for yourself?”

Max hoped he’d be big enough to ask for world peace if this magic genie appeared, but he suspected he was too weak. There was one thing that all the money and hard work in the world couldn’t buy. “I’d ask for infection-proof ears. Retroactive to childhood.”

There weren’t many people in the world who knew his secret regret, but these two guys were the closest friends he had. They knew that he’d always dreamed of being an astronaut. And that a couple of stupid childhood ear infections had weakened his ears to the point that he was out of the running before he even started. By the time he finished high school he knew he’d never be an astronaut.

“Yeah, that really sucked. But, you know, how many people get to be astronauts? For real?”