Cathleen Galitz - Only Skin Deep

“I Never Thought I’d See The Day When I’d Be Entertaining Travis Banks In My Bedroom,” Lauren Said.

“Why not?”

“Need I remind you that when you were a senior in high school, you couldn’t be bothered to give a little nobody freshman like me the time of day?”

Travis looked as if he were taxing his memory. “I don’t recall you ever asking me for it.”

“I didn’t have the nerve,” Lauren admitted.

“Actually, I do vaguely recall you just about melting into the floor the few times I tried to make eye contact with you.”

“I’m afraid you still have the same effect on me,” she confessed.

“You have a different effect on me now.”

Travis’s voice was laden with palpable implications. Lauren could not have dreamed a more delicious scene than the one that was unfolding right now.

Now was not the time for caution.

Dear Reader,

This May, Silhouette Desire’s sensational lineup starts with Nalini Singh’s Awaken the Senses. This DYNASTIES: THE ASHTONS title is a tale of sexual awakening starring one seductive Frenchman. (Can you say ooh-la-la?) Also for your enjoyment this month is the launch of Maureen Child’s trilogy. The THREE-WAY WAGER series focuses on the Reilly brothers, triplets who bet each other they can stay celibate for ninety days. But wait until brother number one is reunited with The Tempting Mrs. Reilly.

Susan Crosby’s BEHIND CLOSED DOORS series continues with Heart of the Raven, a gothic-toned story of a man whose self-imposed seclusion has cut him off from love…until a sultry woman, and a beautiful baby, open up his heart. Brenda Jackson is back this month with a new Westmoreland story, in Jared’s Counterfeit Fiancée, the tale of a fake engagement that leads to real passion. Don’t miss Cathleen Galitz’s Only Skin Deep, a delightful transformation story in which a shy girl finally falls into bed with the man she’s always dreamed about. And rounding out the month is Bedroom Secrets by Michelle Celmer, featuring a hero to die for.

Thanks for choosing Silhouette Desire, where we strive to bring you the best in smart, sensual romances. And in the months to come look for a new installment of our TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB continuity and a brand-new TANNERS OF TEXAS title from the incomparable Peggy Moreland.

Happy reading!

Melissa Jeglinski

Senior Editor

Silhouette Books

www.millsandboon.co.uk

a Wyoming native, teaches English to students in grades six to twelve in a rural school that houses kindergartners and seniors in the same building. She feels blessed to have married a man who is both supportive and patient. When she’s not busy writing, teaching or chauffeuring her sons to and from various activities, she can most likely be found indulging in her favorite pastime—reading.

To Amber who has always been there for me no matter what.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Lauren Hewett felt an eerie connection to the imaginary person playing the piano in the corner of the room. Like him, she too was invisible. Actually, the ghost pianist had the advantage over her. He could at least make himself heard, if not seen—something Lauren hadn’t been able to manage since shortly after her thirty-fifth birthday. She wasn’t sure exactly what caused this phenomenon, only that one day she woke up and found herself of an age when no one bothered to ask her opinion on matters of importance anymore, or treat her as anything other than an oddity.

As the background music ground to a halt, she gave the antique player piano another crank and reached inside herself for a smile. Smiling vacuously was, after all, one of a maid of honor’s many duties—especially when she was the daughter of the bride. Still, Lauren couldn’t help but heave a little sigh of regret when a figure clad in ivory lace made her way up the gleaming spiral staircase in the foyer. The bride was the focal point of a room tastefully bedecked with the very floral combination Lauren always envisioned for her own wedding: pink roses, miniature white carnations and baby’s breath.

“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” she muttered under her breath.

Fighting back a wave of melancholy, Lauren focused her attention on a montage of framed pictures hanging on the wall behind her. In her favorite, a little girl with wide green eyes and dark pigtails sat upon her father’s lap, blissfully unaware that he would pass out of this world before his only daughter would receive her high school diploma. The woman standing behind the two of them with a hand lovingly draped on her husband’s shoulder was a younger version of the smiling bride who was at the moment addressing her guests from halfway up the stairs.

Lauren touched a finger to her own lips before placing it to her father’s as if to prevent him from saying anything to ruin the moment.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. You’d like him. He makes Mom happy.”

Across the crowded room, she caught a glimpse of Travis Banks, looking just as bored as she felt. At six-three he stood a good head taller than anyone else in the room. In a tailored black Western suit, he looked even better than she remembered—a feat she hardly thought possible. Lauren was surprised to see him in attendance. It was widely believed that the county’s most eligible bachelor avoided all weddings for fear of contracting a highly contagious disease that he was fond of comparing to the plague: nuptialitis.

“Hurry up, everybody,” a voice called out. “Barbara’s about to toss the bouquet.”

Younger, prettier and far more visible bachelorettes pressed to the front of the crowd for a chance to catch the flowers that by tradition signaled the end of their single status. Too old and jaded for such nonsense, Lauren faded even more deliberately into the wallpaper and continued to covertly study the man she’d had a crush on since high school. She had been a lowly freshman when, as the senior quarterback for the Wranglers, Travis carried her heart—along with every other girl’s in good old Pinedale High over the goal line.

Not that he’d been able to see her back then either….

Lauren decided that time had only improved Travis’s boyish good looks. There was no sign of gray in his sandy blond hair, and the weight he’d put on looked to be mostly muscle. Although Lauren had little interest in catching a bouquet, she secretly fantasized about catching him. Unfortunately, she doubted she’d be lucky enough to claim a single dance with him all evening.

Certainly not when I look like a cupcake whose frosting runneth over in this hideous pastel gown, she thought to herself. How can it be possible that my own mother can be married twice when I’ve yet to so much as be engaged? And all these years I thought I was the one doing Mom a favor by being there for her. Turns out that I’m the one who’s been holding her back….

Determinedly Lauren steered her thoughts away from self-pity to more practical matters. Like where she was going to live now that Cupid’s heat-seeking missile had found the target painted on the roof of her house. Not that her mother was kicking her out or anything so melodramatic. It went without saying that she was always welcome here. But while it was one thing to rationalize living at home when she had the excuse of taking care of an aging mother, it was quite another sharing a home with a pair of honeymooners. That they were in their sixties was inconsequential to the fact that Lauren’s mother was getting more action than she was…