Kate Hoffmann - Your Bed or Mine?

Jake felt a warm body beside him.

It had been years – eleven, to be exact – but Caley Lambert was exactly as he’d remembered her. His gaze drifted down to her lips, soft and full and slightly parted. She was all woman now – sexy, soft and warm. And she was sleeping in his bed…

Jake leaned over, touching his lips to hers. She obviously wanted something to happen. It was a pretty bold move…but Caley had never been known to wait when she wanted something. And he could only hope she wanted him as much as he was starting to want her…

“Jake,” she whispered.

The sound of his name on her lips was like fuel on a fire. His desire surged and he kissed her again, deeper, harder this time. This was Caley, the girl he’d wanted all his life. She could be his now…

But as he settled above her, an uneasy feeling came over him. Something wasn’t right.

“Caley. Open your eyes.”

Her lashes fluttered, and a moment later she was looking at him, first in confusion, then in absolute shock.

He’d known it was too good to last…

KATE HOFFMANN

has been writing stories for Mills & Boon since 1993. She’s written over fifty books for Mills & Boon, including the popular MIGHTY QUINNS series. kate lives in a small town in Wisconsin with her cats and her computer. Besides writing, she works with school students in theatre and musical activities. She also enjoys golf, movies, music of all kinds and genealogy research.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always had a soft spot for stories about childhood sweethearts. And when I was working on this idea for THE WRONG BED series, I thought about twisting that concept a little and giving you a hero and heroine who weren’t quite sweethearts but still managed to carry a pretty big torch for each other.

Jake and Caley come back to the small lake community where they’d spent their summers to serve as best man and maid of honour at a Valentine’s Day wedding between their two siblings. The book is set in my home state of Wisconsin. And since Wisconsin can be pretty cold in February, I had to find new ways to keep my hero and heroine warm – and then hot. But I have to admit, it was a pain dealing with all those layers of clothes.

I hope Your Bed or Mine? keeps you nice and warm wherever you are.

Happy reading,

Kate Hoffmann

BY

KATE HOFFMANN

www.millsandboon.co.uk

1

HUGE SNOWFLAKES drifted down through the night sky, spattering against the windshield of Caley Lambert’s rental car. She watched through tired eyes as the wipers slapped them away, the rhythmic sound lulling her toward complete exhaustion. Her eyelids fluttered and she felt herself drifting, then reached down and opened the window.

The chilly night air was a slap to the face and Caley drew a deep breath. The flight from New York had been late getting into Chicago and by the time she’d arrived, the airport hotel had given away her room. Left with nowhere to sleep, she’d decided to drive the two hours to her parents’ lake house rather than waste time searching for a room.

It wasn’t so much an urge to get home that sent her into the midst of a snowstorm, but the fact that Caley just hated wasting time. After eleven years of living in Manhattan and seven years of working the cutthroat world of public relations, she’d learned to be very efficient with every minute of her day. She didn’t waste time on anything that couldn’t get her ahead in the world professionally. She worked out because the gym was a good place to network. She belonged to seven different professional organizations because all those names looked good on her résumé. And she had worked sixteen-hour days for seven years because that was the way to get herself a partnership.

“So what am I doing in North Lake, Wisconsin?” she muttered.

Her younger sister, Emma, had called a few weeks ago, insisting that Caley come home for the week before Valentine’s Day. Emma had a very special event planned at the lake house, but she refused to give any details, only that every one of the Lamberts should be in attendance. Caley’s parents had been married on Valentine’s Day thirty years ago, so it hadn’t been difficult to guess at the purpose of her sister’s plans.

An electronic version of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” interrupted Caley’s thoughts and she glanced over at her cell phone sitting on the passenger seat. Snatching it up, she looked at the caller ID, then tossed it back onto the seat. Brian. He’d called at least twenty times since she’d left New York for a business trip in San Francisco a few days ago. So far she’d avoided answering.

She and Brian had been exclusive for nearly two years and he’d planned to come to North Lake with her and meet the family. But at the last minute, he’d canceled, begging off because of work commitments. It was at that moment Caley realized her relationship with Brian had become a waste of time. Between out-of-town business trips and busy schedules, they’d spent three nights together in the past month—not much considering they lived in the same apartment.

She squinted through the snow, searching for the sign pointing to West Shore Road. There was a time when she’d known every inch of the tiny town of North Lake. She’d spent every summer of her life here until she’d gone to college.

Even after years of being away from this place, and in the midst of a chilly winter night, she felt a familiar sense of excitement course through her. She remembered the frantic packing the day after school let out for the summer. And then came the ride from Chicago to the lake in an overstuffed minivan, her mother behind the wheel. Her older brother, Evan, always sat in the front and controlled the radio while Caley sat between her younger siblings Emma and Adam. The youngest, Teddy, was wedged into the far back seat between the suitcases and the boxes of kitchen supplies. Her younger siblings had always worn their swimming suits on the ride up so they could jump out of the car and into the lake without having to change.

But Caley had always had other things on her mind. With each mile that passed, she’d grown more excited, the anticipation building, the nerves fraying. What would he look like? Would he be exactly as she remembered or would he have changed? Had she changed? Would he see her differently? Would this summer finally be the summer when she’d kiss him?

Year after year, drive after drive, her every thought had always been focused on him. Even now, Caley found herself falling back into old habits. Jake Burton. He’d been her fairy-tale prince, her knight in shining armor, her schoolgirl crush and her first love, all wrapped up into one incredibly hot boy.

His family had the summerhouse next door. They’d all summered together for years: the five Lamberts and the five Burtons, an unruly tribe of kids known around North Lake as the Burtberts. For years she’d looked at Jake like her older brother, Evan—an icky, gross, burping and spitting cad who had more cooties than she cared to count.

Then, one day they were swimming out to the raft and Jake dunked her under. She’d gone under as an eleven-year-old girl and surfaced a teenager with her first crush. He’d been thirteen that summer and a handsome boy. Even now she recalled his pale blue eyes and his perfect teeth. How little droplets of water had clung to his dark eyelashes as he smiled at her and how his face was so smooth and tanned she felt compelled to reach out and touch his cheek.

When she had, Jake had slapped her hand away, a confused frown wrinkling his forehead. But from that moment on, she’d been in love. It was only later that her hormones had turned chaste puppy love to teenage lust. And later still to feelings that bordered on obsession and finally, ended in humiliation.