The desire to be good
The temptation to be bad...
Lingerie model Piper is a tabloidâs dream come true. Sheâs broken hearts, rulesâeven a few laws. After her last little âadventure,â however, Piper realizes her trashed rep wonât just destroy her careerâitâll destroy the one thing she really cares about. Now sheâs a Reformed Bad Girl. And nothing will stop her from being good.
Navy SEAL Neil Barrow is pretty much done being The Good Guy. Heâs hoping that the deliciously naughty Piper will set both his body and his reputation on fire. When they steal away for a few days, however, it becomes clear that this incendiary attraction is about more than just being bad. And Neil will have to choose between the woman he wants...and the man he really is.
âAnd here is the winner...â
A rugged man bounded confidently up the stairs. Dog tags hung around his neck. His sandy-brown hair was slightly longer than she thought a military manâs would be, and a few curls clung to his neck and temples. He flashed a smile to the crowd and then placed his hands low on his hips and glanced at Piper.
He did a classic double take as his gaze swept down her body and back up again to meet her eyes. She caught the gleam of appreciation and...surprise.
What? He didnât think world-famous lingerie model Piper would spend her day at a charity event? Well, that was why she was here. To clean up her image, right?
Piper stepped forward, offering the trophy to the man. As he took it from her, she leaned in to kiss his cheek, but he turned to face her and her lips touched his. After a split second of surprise he pressed closer, turning the peck into a real kiss.
His lips were gentle, inviting. Her breathing hitched and a heat that had nothing to do with the weather consumed her as his mouth moved over hers.
The audience erupted into applause. Someone whistled shrilly.
Snapped from her daze, Piper pulled away. Her heart was pounding. She touched the back of her hand to her flaming cheek.
Was she getting a fever?
Dear Reader,
When I wrote Night Maneuvers, I needed the âperfect guyâ for female Navy pilot Alex to date to make Mitch jealous. At that time, Iâd just read about the Navy SEAL sniper who had taken out the Somali pirates that had hijacked a US cargo ship. I thought how perfect a decorated hero would be to give Mitch an inferiority complex, and wrote Neil the SEAL as a secondary character. I didnât really think of him as a Blaze hero because he was so perfect. Flawed men are way more fun to write. But then, after Night Maneuvers was released, I started receiving emails from readers asking for Neil to have his own happy ending, and, of course, readers know best! Neil did need his own happy-ever-after.
So, this is Neilâs story. Piper is a complicated person and very young. And Neil is so...nice. I was afraid heâd be boring. But Piper is just what Neil needed to shake up his perfect world. I loved researching the South Beach, Miami, setting and learned way more about sailing than I ever thought I would care to, but it was fascinating!
Watch for the last book in this trilogy coming soon, and please check my website, jillianburns.com, for more info and excerpts. Happy reading!
Jillian
JILLIAN BURNS fell in love while reading such classics as Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice in her teens and has been reading romance novels ever since. She lives in Texas with her husband of twenty-five years and their three half-grown kids. She likes to think her emotional natureâsometimes referred to as moodiness by those closest to herâhas found the perfect outlet in writing stories filled with passion and romance. She believes romance novels have the power to change lives with their message of eternal love and hope.
To Natalie. Youâll always be my âBaby Girlâ even if you are all grown up now.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to sailing expert Joni Dahlstrom of Lynn Creek Marina for all the information about sailing. I appreciated you taking time out of your busy day to answer my questions. I canât wait to go sailing with you!
And, as usual, thank you to my dearest critique partners and plotting helpers, Pam, Linda, Von and Barb. And a huge debt of gratitude to my editor Kathryn Lye.
1
âI DONâT WANT to do this.â Waiting behind a backdrop, Piper rebelliously sneaked a peek at the crowd waiting on the terrace of the South Beach Yacht Club. The members of this club were conservative, distinguished. The movers and shakers of Miami.
âDonât worry,â Piperâs assistant, Ragi Bhagat, reassured. âAll you have to do is look beautiful and present the trophy.â
Hah. Piper clenched her fists. Story of my life. Looking beautiful was all sheâd ever been good for. But it paid the bills.
Ragi swept Piperâs long hair around to one side and flicked an imaginary piece of fluff off her linen dress. âYouâll be fine.â