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Hung Up on You
Holly Jacobs
Somewhere in between managing the family business and dealing with out-of-control relatives, Ari Kelly had done something for herself–finished her thesis on stress and phone-answering systems.And now that was causing her more stress than anything else! Because her brilliant thesis had been picked up by the newspapers (yeah!) and had had the facts twisted (uh-oh). Now her phone was ringing off the hook–and a gorgeous hunk was pounding down her door, determined to make her retract her statements about his new answering service.Yep, Ari knew stress. Because just when she'd least expected it, at the very worst possible moment, the guy she'd been waiting for her whole life finally showed up….
Dear Reader,
Readers frequently ask where I get my ideas for stories. This one started exactly where the book starts…with me lost in the clutches of a phone maze. I’d punched buttons until my fingers were mere nubs and my head was throbbing from way too much Muzak. I mean, how many times can you listen to an instrumental version of “Like a Virgin”? Try as I might, I couldn’t navigate my way to a real live human being who might help me. I sat there feeling my blood pressure spike and suddenly I thought…hey, this could be a story. After that the wait wasn’t nearly as bad because I was busy scribbling the opening to what would become Hung Up on You! No one ever said life was easy…but as Ari and Simon discover, sometimes love can be! And this particular love story was ever so easy to tell, because I totally fell for Ari and Simon’s plight.
I hope you enjoy their adventures with phones, family and a friendship that turns into something more. And I hope you enjoy Harlequin Flipside…the name may be new, but there’s still laughter and lots of love at the heart of every story.
Best wishes!
“We’ll be using each other for our mutual pleasure,” Simon explained
He continued, “We’ll set a time limit right now, then no one will be confused or angry.”
“I’ll think about it,” Ari promised. She turned and left the office, Simon’s proposal playing over and over in her mind.
If they did set a time limit, an expiration date of sorts on their “relationship,” then maybe no one would get hurt.
It meant she’d be able to have him guilt free.
It meant she’d do all the things she’d been fantasizing about.
It was an enticing offer.
She was tempted.
But then, so was Eve in the Garden…
And just look how that had turned out….
Hung Up on You
Holly Jacobs
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When Erie, Pennsylvania, writer Holly Jacobs heard about a new romantic comedy series called Flipside she knew she’d found her future home. After all, her life had always seemed a bit…well, flipped! That’s what a large family and an even larger (200-pound) slimy dog will do to a woman—flip things around and inspire all sorts of laughs.
Having penned several popular Harlequin Duets novels, Holly had become a key author for that series. Now, with Harlequin Flipside, she’s hoping to repeat her success.
Holly also enjoys writing for Silhouette Romance. You can visit the author online at www.HollysBooks.com (http://www.HollysBooks.com), or snailmail her at P.O. Box 11102, Erie, PA, 16514-1102.
Books by Holly Jacobs
HARLEQUIN DUETS
43—I WAXED MY LEGS FOR THIS?
67—READY, WILLING AND…ABEL?
RAISING CAIN
84—HOW TO CATCH A GROOM
92—NOT PRECISELY PREGNANT
100—THE 100-YEAR ITCH
108—HOW TO HUNT A HUSBAND
SILHOUETTE ROMANCE
1557—DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?
1653—A DAY LATE AND A BRIDE SHORT
1683—DAD TODAY, GROOM TOMORROW
Thanks to Kathryn for being in my corner and for simply being the best; to Jess, Kate and Mandy for a taste of Philly; to Trooper Rob Erdely, who knows computers as well as plastic; and to Eda who’s lived through a dreaded thesis and was willing to share the experience. And a very special thanks to Pam and Susan for always listening.
I don’t know where I’d be without you all!
Finally to DJ, “W.D.W.”
Contents
Prologue (#udb0ee428-6359-51c6-ad3f-7b5a04ded80e)
Chapter 1 (#u20e8b971-da42-52aa-b963-d18eaf34b014)
Chapter 2 (#u42fc34b8-7c50-52f7-acbf-b4bb29798294)
Chapter 3 (#uc7a87eae-780e-5f57-b1cd-924580d43e1b)
Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
“YOUR CALL is very important to us….”
Adrienne Kelly felt a spurt of annoyance. She didn’t feel as if her call was important to anyone but herself.
“Please stay on the line….”
Her pencil tapped an angry beat against the desktop.
“We’ll be right with you.”
She’d been trying to talk to a real-live-breathing-human-being-type for what seemed like forever and all she’d gotten was bad Muzak and that annoying mechanical voice that kept repeating, “Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line. We’ll be right with you.”
Right must be a subjective word, but in Ari’s vocabulary ten minutes of bad Muzak wasn’t quite right…it was torture.
The pencil slipped and flew across the room.
She sighed. The phone maze wasn’t just torture; it was cruel and unusual punishment.
She was throwing pencils, her head ached and she was sure her blood pressure was probably through the roof all because of the computer-induced runaround.
“Your call is important to us….” the machine began again.
Suddenly, it was as if a lightbulb went off over her head. A bolt of inspiration struck.
Ari actually smiled, despite the fact that the machine was now playing a horrible instrumental version of “Like A Virgin.”
The machine had it all wrong. This call wasn’t important to the company, but it was very important to Ari’s future.
Very, very important.
1
“SO, I GUESS we should just do it,” Collin Walters said without a hint of enthusiasm.
“Pardon?” Adrienne Kelly asked her long-time fiancé.
Collin looked rather pale today. And pale for Collin’s blond-haired, fair-skinned complexion was just about as white as a sheet.
The only plus to this particular shade of ghost-white was that it made his eyes look very blue, rather than their normal washed-out sort of grayish-blue.
Maybe Ari was just being exceptionally dense today, but she didn’t have a clue what Collin was talking about.
They were sitting on a bench in a quiet corner of Penn’s Campus. It would have been more convenient to sit right outside Penn Hospital, but the view would have consisted of Philadelphia traffic. The green space in the center of the campus was much prettier to look at and worth the short walk.
They often shared lunches here, but Collin had never just blurted out doing it statements before.
Now, if it were any other man, she might think he was talking about sex.
Hey, babe, let’s just do it.
She felt a bit hot and tingly at the thought.
Not that Ari was the type of person who would want to do it in a public place. But it might be nice to have someone want her bad enough to want to do it in a public place.
But Collin would never suggest doing it on a park bench. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t overly prone to doing it at all.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t. But his sex drive rode a few notches below her own.
Not that she was a nympho.
But Ari liked sex.
Hot, wild, abandoned sex. Fast and hard. Slow and soft. She just liked it.
Collin blamed his less than lustful sex drive on his stress-filled career as a surgeon. Ari sometimes worried that maybe it was something more. Maybe they just didn’t click.
No, of course she clicked with Collin. They were perfect for each other. He just worked too hard.
Collin interrupted her wild musing and repeated, “A date.”
She must have still looked puzzled, because he said, with exasperation tingeing his voice, “Don’t play coy with me, Adrienne.”
Coy?
That was the description of someone who promised sex, but didn’t follow through.
Coy didn’t describe Ari at all. She’d follow through in a New York minute…a Philadelphia minute, to be more exact. She’d gotten herself quite worked up thinking about hot sex in a public place.
Of course, unless Collin had become psychic or suddenly much more perceptive than he normally was, he didn’t know that she’d been thinking about doing it right here, right now, so what was he talking about?
“Coy?” she repeated, knowing she sounded as confused as she felt.
“You’ve been nagging about setting a wedding date since the day we got engaged.”
Ah, wedding dates.
No nooky on a park bench.
A wedding date.
That’s what this was all about. Just then his statement fully hit her.
