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The Bachelor
Marie Ferrarella
Event planner Jenny Hall didn't have time for men. Between organizing a bachelor auction and caring for her son, she barely had time for herself! So she was stunned when her friends pooled together the money at the auction to buy her a date with Eric Logan, billionaire playboy–and Jenny's secret crush since childhood.Even more surprising was Eric's interest in her!Eric was shocked to see how the shy girl he remembered had become a stunning and confident woman. When their dream date turned into a quiet night at home, he couldn't shake his growing attraction to her. And as Eric got to know Jenny, he found himself longing to make her his–forever.
“Why don’t we grab a cup of coffee and discuss what, exactly, you want me to do?”
Eric’s proposition caught Jenny off guard. Oh, if only you knew, she thought. She brought her attention back to the situation at hand.
This was a bad idea. But it wasn’t about her. This was about a bachelor auction for charity and she had to think less like an adolescent with her first crush and more like a mature adult.
A woman who turned to mush while looking into the warm, chocolate-brown eyes she could easily get lost in.
Exercising tremendous self-control, Jenny forced herself to remember what she had to do later that day. “Sounds good to me,” she said, slowly peeling the words off the roof of her mouth one by one.
Jenny looked away from Eric’s smiling face. She had to. There was no other way she could possibly regain the use of her legs.
MARIE FERRARELLA
This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA
Award-winning author has written almost two hundred novels for Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide.
Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
The Bachelor
Marie Ferrarella
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Be a part of
Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.
She had a crush on a billionaire playboy who had no intention of settling down…or so she thought.
Jenny Hall: She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t love Eric Logan. But when her colleagues bought her a dream date with him, she found herself tongue-tied—and wondering how their worlds would connect.
Eric Logan: On a break from his life of fast jets and corporate boardrooms, Eric strutted his stuff at a bachelor auction…and became sweet Jenny Hall’s date for one night. As he entered her world, he realized his bachelor days were numbered!
Who’s the mysterious woman at the bachelor auction? Peter Logan can’t take his eyes off her…and has no idea that this beauty will soon make a serious impression on his heart.
Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.
AVAILABLE JUNE 2010
1.) To Love and Protect by Susan Mallery
2.) Secrets & Seductions by Pamela Toth
3.) Royal Affair by Laurie Paige
4.) For Love and Family by Victoria Pade
AVAILABLE JULY 2010
5.) The Bachelor by Marie Ferrarella
6.) A Precious Gift by Karen Rose Smith
7.) Child of Her Heart by Cheryl St.John
8.) Intimate Surrender by RaeAnne Thayne
AVAILABLE AUGUST 2010
9.) The Secret Heir by Gina Wilkins
10.) The Newlyweds by Elizabeth Bevarly
11.) Right by Her Side by Christie Ridgway
12.) The Homecoming by Anne Marie Winston
AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2010
13.) The Greatest Risk by Cara Colter
14.) What a Man Needs by Patricia Thayer
15.) Undercover Passion by Raye Morgan
16.) Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton
To the dreamers.
Never give up.
Contents
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
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
One
E laine Winthrop Hall hooked her Donna Karanclad arm through her daughter’s, and accompanied her into the living room. Jenny knew her mother was trying hard to keep from commenting on Jenny’s shapeless sweatshirt and her small apartment.
Jenny called the room cozy; her mom called it tiny, pointing out that she had bigger walk-in closets. But square-footage meant nothing to Jenny.
Neither, her mother was always quick to interject, did prestige, breeding and other people’s opinions. People who counted.
Elaine’s perfectly made-up eyes slanted a glance at the small four-year-old boy who sat on the carpet in the middle of the room, silently playing with an imaginary friend. Jenny knew Cole was the reason she’d come to these crammed quarters, to once more try to talk some sense into her “obstinate” daughter’s head.
The woman didn’t have to speak for Jenny to know what was on her mind. It was all fine and good to let your heart rule once in a while, she’d say, but that should involve the matter of men over the height of three feet, not small “anchors” that would only get in the way of the family’s best-laid plans for the future of their only daughter.
Elaine finally spoke, modulating her voice to something that could pass as a stage whisper. “He’s not your problem, Jennifer,” she insisted not for the first time. “He’s not your responsibility.”
It had been a very long, very stressful day, following on the heels of other equally long, equally stressful days. Jenny surprised herself by finding an untapped vein of patience. She always tried to keep an ample supply under the heading of “Mother,” but she’d been pretty certain that she’d exhausted the allotment on their last visit.
Nice to know some of the patience had managed to regenerate itself.
“He is not a problem,” Jenny told her mother softly but firmly. “And he is my responsibility. I gave my word to a dying woman.”
This was not news to her mother. Jenny had already said as much several times over when she’d explained to both of her parents why she was adopting the once sunny child. Jenny studied her mother’s perfectly made-up face, searching for a hint that the milk of human kindness was not a myth, but existed within the breast of the woman she, despite so many shortcomings, really did love.
She tried again. For the umpteenth time. “What would you have me do, Mother, go back on that? Go back on my word? You were the one who taught me to honor my commitments, remember?”
The woman sighed. “To honor them, yes, but you keep this up and you’ll be the one being committed. To an institution.” She glanced again at the little boy and shook her head. “There are places for children like Cole. Lots of people would love to adopt him. He’s still viable.”
“Viable?” Jenny stared at her mother in disbelief. “He’s not a plant, Mother, he’s a little boy. A little boy who’s been through a great deal, who saw his mother die.” What did it take for her mother to finally get it? She was Cole’s last chance. If she couldn’t get through that protective wall he’d constructed around himself, no one could. “You want me to run out on him, too?”
Elaine pressed her lips together. Jenny knew her mother didn’t like coming off as a villainness, but the woman had been shaped by decades of adhering to rules and regulations about what was permissible and proper, all of which prevented her from even leaning toward her daughter’s side.
Casting the boy a glance, the older woman said, “I’m not saying run out on him exactly, just give him to a family. A traditional family.” Jenny knew that her mother had never approved of one-parent families. In Elaine Hall’s world, you began with a husband and wife, then you introduced children into the setting. Anything else was unpardonable. Her mother had nearly had apoplexy when she’d told her about adopting Cole.
“You know, Jenny,” the woman continued, “You’re not SuperWoman.”
Jenny hated having limits applied to her, hated all the rules her mother lived by. They were like something from another century. “Just because you don’t want me to be doesn’t mean it’s not so.”
Elaine paused, looked at her oddly, then shook her head. “You always could confuse me with your rhetoric.”
Jenny grinned. “Call it a self-defense mechanism.” Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she’d skipped lunch and the dinner hour had already arrived and was in jeopardy of leaving. “If you wanted to browbeat me, Mother, you could have e-mailed.”
Her mother frowned, transforming her attractive face into a weary one. “What I want is for my daughter to find her rightful place in the world.”
Translation, Jenny thought, what her mother deemed to be a rightful place. They were worlds apart when it came to that. Her mother didn’t approve of Jenny’s career, her apartment, her almost monastic lifestyle. Not that the latter had much appeal for her, either, but until they found a way to create more hours in the day, dating and men were just going to have to stay on the back burner.
Jenny tried to keep her voice cheerful. “News flash, I have.”
“What?” Elaine fisted her hands at her waist and forgot all about her stage whisper. Cole looked her way and she dropped her voice an octave. “In that awful legal aid firm, housed in a building with faulty electrical wiring and bad plumbing?”
Trust her mother to hone in on the bad points. But the firm had to be where the poor people were, not in some upscale building in the best part of Portland. “We took the landlord to court over that,” she informed her mother, then added proudly, “and won.”
“What is wrong with being a lawyer in a respectable, well-known firm? What’s wrong with trying to make money?”
Jenny straightened the newspaper she’d left in disarray that morning. Other than that, nothing was out of place in the apartment. Cole was in preschool most of the day. When Sandra, her baby-sitter brought him home, Cole rarely touched any of the toys Jenny had bought for him. They remained in the toy box, leaving her nothing to tidy up now. She was forced to look at her mother as she fought the good fight and tried to remind herself that she wasn’t ten years old anymore.
“Nothing is wrong with making money,” she replied. “I’m trying to make it for my clients.”
Elaine’s frown deepened. “I meant for yourself.”
“I don’t need much money.” Leaving Cole in the living room, she moved into the kitchen, several steps away, and began getting out dishes in anticipation of calling out for a pizza. Her mother had arrived just as she was about to dial the phone, postponing the order. “Haven’t you heard, Mother? The best things in life are free.”
Elaine scoffed. “It wasn’t true when Al Jolson sang it, and it’s not true now.” A note of desperation entered the woman’s voice. “This is breaking my heart, Jennifer. You’re wasting your talent and your life.”
Jenny felt sorry for her mother. They were never going to see eye to eye about this. “My life, Mother, my talent.”
Elaine closed her eyes, momentarily retreating. “Your brother told me this was a waste of time.”
At the mention of Jordan, Jenny grinned again. She needed to get in touch with him and soon. “My brother, at times, is wise beyond his years.” She thought of a way to usher her mother out without resorting to anything physical. “Want to stay for dinner? I was just about to order a pizza.”
Elaine cringed. A pizza had yet to ever cross her perfectly shaped lips. “I have an engagement.”
This time it was Jenny who hooked her arm through her mother’s and very gently escorted her toward the door. “Of course you do. Don’t let me keep you from it.” Separating herself from her mother, she opened the door. “Your mission was a failure, Mother, but it was nice seeing you.”
Crossing the threshold, Elaine paused long enough to turn around and shake her head. “Do you realize that there are girls who would kill to have your background and opportunities?”
And if she didn’t, Jenny thought, there was her mother to remind her. Endlessly. To her credit, she didn’t roll her eyes. “By all means, Mother, give it to one of them before someone gets hurt.”
Elaine drew herself up. “Everything isn’t a joke, Jennifer.”
