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Love So Tender: Taking Care of Business / Play It Again, Elvis / Good Luck Charm
Joanne Rock
Stephanie Bond
Jo Leigh
It's now or neverThese three women can't help falling in love… Vegas styleGracie Sergeant hires black-haired, sultry Steve Mulcahy as the new "Elvis" for her Las Vegas wedding chapel - not realizing he's an undercover FBI agent out to nab a mob boss at his upcoming nuptials. Or that Steve's secret weapon is all in the hip.Alyssa Reynolds is trying to conjure up The King in a backroom seance at her Elvis memorabilia shop when Brett Neale walks into her store. With his hypnotic blue eyes, Brett is Elvis - or he will be once she helps him win Vegas's American Idol-style Elvis Legacy contest.Stand-up comic Ellie Evans is determined to keep her relationship with comedy writer Charlie Webster strictly professional - in spite of the attraction. But just when Charlie's about to check into the Heartbreak Hotel, he gets personal advice on how to make his moves… from The King himself.Three romantic novellas that could only happen in Vegas.
PRAISE FOR THESE AUTHORS
Stephanie Bond
“Stephanie Bond’s Two Sexy! will ‘Blaze’ a hot trail right through you!”
—TheBestReviews.com
“Stephanie Bond never fails to entertain and deserves to be an auto-buy.”
—Romance Reviews Today on “Diamond Mine” in Behind the Red Doors
Jo Leigh
“Jo Leigh knows how to blend heartwarming romance and witty dialogue into sheer joy.”
—Romantic Times
“Jo Leigh delivers lots of laughs.”
—Romantic Times
Joanne Rock
“For frolicking, sexy fun, Joanne Rock always delivers!”
—Julie Elizabeth Leto
“Sensual stories, sexy heroes and sassy heroines—fabulous Joanne Rock delivers keeper-shelf reads!”
—RITA® Award winner Catherine Mann
Dear Reader,
The editors at Harlequin and Silhouette are thrilled to be able to bring you a brand-new featured author program for 2005! Signature Select aims to single out outstanding stories, contemporary themes and oft-requested classics by some of your favorite series authors and present them to you in a variety of formats bound by truly striking covers.
We want to provide several different types of reading experiences in the new Signature Select program. The Spotlight books offer a single “big read” by a talented series author, the Collections present three novellas on a selected theme in one volume, the Sagas contain sprawling, sometimes multi-generational family tales (often related to a favorite family first introduced in series) and the Miniseries feature requested previously published books, with two or, occasionally, three complete stories in one volume. The Signature Select program offers one book in each of these categories per month, and fans of limited continuity series will also find these continuing stories under the Signature Select umbrella.
In addition, these volumes bring you bonus features…different in every single book! You may learn more about the author in an extended interview, more about the setting or inspiration for the book, more about subjects related to the theme and, often, a bonus short read will be included. Authors and editors have been outdoing themselves in originating creative material for our bonus features—we’re sure you’ll be surprised and pleased with the results!
The Signature Select program strives to bring you a variety of reading experiences by authors you’ve come to love, as well as by rising stars you’ll be glad you’ve discovered. Watch for new stories from Janelle Denison, Donna Kauffman, Leslie Kelly, Marie Ferrarella, Suzanne Forster, Stephanie Bond, Christine Rimmer and scores more of the brightest talents in romance fiction!
The excitement continues!
Warm wishes for happy reading,
Marsha Zinberg
Executive Editor
The Signature Select Program
Taking Care of Business
Stephanie Bond
Play It Again, Elvis
Jo Leigh
Good Luck Charm
Joanne Rock
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
Taking Care of Business Stephanie Bond (#u19f29424-ec63-5019-80d1-ea19724efccb)
CHAPTER ONE (#u93d5ba94-6916-5dc2-9271-8cb4d3f51f25)
CHAPTER TWO (#u337d4fa6-ff8a-55c7-81df-b75f5e7cddb5)
CHAPTER THREE (#ubda44c12-5494-545f-af51-1bbb5326fb75)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u2e42817c-bc41-5ca8-80f7-68fd2e0e856b)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u504db242-95f0-55c3-8633-5265d705748b)
CHAPTER SIX (#u345f98dc-67c6-53e2-a726-da71553cca61)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u440f920e-be59-5ec7-8662-f4edc4f4c6fb)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Play It Again, Elvis Jo Leigh (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Good Luck Charm Joanne Rock (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Taking Care of Business
Stephanie Bond
CHAPTER ONE
FBI SPECIAL AGENT Steve Berringer sat in a loaner SUV studying the Taking Care of Business wedding chapel, a fireball of apprehension in his stomach. He’d walked into some of the most seedy bars, basements, betting parlors and brothels in Las Vegas with his weapon drawn and expecting the worst, but none of those places had put a sweat on the back of his neck like this innocent-looking little white building across the parking lot with pink and yellow flowers on either side of its covered entrance.
Maybe it was the August heat, he reasoned, glancing up through the windshield at the afternoon sun from behind his polarized shades. But a cool breeze was blowing today, making the cute little trees in front of the chapel sway in the most depressingly precious way. Plus he had the air conditioner on full blast.
Steve rubbed his hand over his painful midsection. In thirty-four years, this was the closest he’d ever come to the whole marriage process. He’d never even seen a wedding. He had ducked countless requests to be a groomsman, had RSVP’d with regrets to every invitation he’d received, had sidestepped requests from girlfriends to attend weddings as an escort. To a commitment-phobic guy like him, a wedding chapel was the ultimate nightmare. Churches, after all, could be used for other things: religious services, christenings, funerals. But a wedding chapel—man, that was hard core.
The phone on his belt rang and he checked it. Karen, his partner. He flipped up the receiver with a grunt. “What’s up?”
“Just calling to give you a pep talk.”
He frowned. “That’s not necessary.”
“I saw you pop an antacid before you left—are you sure you’re up to this undercover assignment? I mean, I know how you get when someone mentions the ‘M’ word.”
He poked his tongue into his cheek. “You know I’d do anything to nab Lundy. This time he’s not getting away.”
“But our informant said it could be a week before Lundy shows up there with his child-bride-to-be. It’s hard to say how many weddings you’ll have to video, how many vows you’ll have to witness, how many garters you might accidentally catch.”
“Are you through being funny?”
She laughed, then sighed. “Actually, I wish I was with you, partner—hanging out at an Elvis wedding parlor sounds like more fun than pulling desk duty.”
“That’s what you get for being pregnant.” Karen was expecting her first child with her husband Daniel, and the last few weeks were wearing on her. To be honest, Steve was relieved to have her tucked away where it was safe. He expected this undercover operation to end smoothly, with Mitch Lundy being apprehended quietly after he exited the chapel as an unsuspecting married man, but the fewer people—especially pregnant ones—on the scene, the better.
“I know,” Karen said. “But I’d give anything to watch you squirm being around all those men saying ‘I do.’”
“Did you need something?” he snapped.
“Not as badly as you do,” she sang.
“I’m hanging up.”
“Bye.”
Steve closed the phone and clipped it back onto his belt, then dabbed his neck with his handkerchief. God deliver him from smart-alecky females. He’d rather deal with a hard-nosed criminal any day—they were more predictable.
Heaving a sigh, he turned off the engine and lifted his camera bag from the passenger seat. Who knew that his long-neglected hobby would come in handy on a work assignment? And taking photos of the chapel would be the perfect foil for making sure Lundy was covered from every angle.
As he strode toward the chapel, he noticed the abundance of neon on the sign and the building itself—in the daylight, the little white chapel looked out of place on the garish Las Vegas strip, but after sundown, this place would probably outshine its flashy neighbors.
It was a one-story building, narrow along the street front, but deep. Cordelia Conroy was the owner of the place, early sixties, a former showgirl who once had ties to the mob. She owed the FBI a favor for helping her out of a jam years ago, so she’d agreed to let Steve come in undercover as an employee to keep an eye out for Lundy, on condition that the arrest wouldn’t take place at the chapel and that her employees wouldn’t be in danger. In return, the FBI had demanded confidentiality—none of the regular employees could know Steve’s real identity or why he was there.
So, dressed in casual clothes, having purposefully missed his regular haircut last week and sporting two days’ worth of beard, he would be Steve Mulcahy, scruffy photographer. If the undercover position were in any other place, he might actually be happy for some downtime, but being surrounded by flowers and music and gushing couples—damn. Not counting the oddballs he’d likely be working with in an Elvis wedding chapel. Steve tucked his sunglasses into his shirt pocket, then inhaled and opened the front door. He was looking forward to cuffing Lundy, but this would definitely go down as his worst assignment ever.
He stepped inside a foyer of sorts, immediately enveloped by the strains of “Love Me Tender” floating from mounted speakers. Spin-racks of postcards and Elvis Presley memorabilia occupied every available space, leaving a narrow path to a counter surrounded by poster-sized menus of wedding packages and bulletin boards full of photos of happy couples.
The willowy woman standing behind the counter glanced up, her violet-colored eyes wide, her pink lips open in a welcoming smile. Her hair was platinum-blond and short, sticking up at spiky angles. Her unusual pixie beauty hit him like a punch to the chest, and he suddenly was feeling a little better about the um…the um…
Oh yeah—the assignment.
Steve took a step forward, tripped over something solid and went down hard. The hidden gun in his waist holster stabbed into his diaphragm, driving all the air from his lungs.
The blonde gasped and ran around the counter to where he fell. “H.D., are you okay?”
Steve rolled over onto his back and panted for air. “My…name…isn’t…H.D.”
