Friendship On Fire

Fool her once, as her best friend.

Fool her twice...as her fake fiancé?

Top Boston interior designer Jules Brogan has no shortage of work. So why say yes to designing a yacht with Noah Lockwood—her former best friend who disappeared from her life ten years ago after one smoldering encounter? Especially since the job requires posing as Noah’s fiancée! But what are old friends for...especially if she can coax him into one more kiss?

JOSS WOOD loves books and traveling—especially to the wild places of Southern Africa. She has the domestic skills of a potted plant and drinks far too much coffee.

Joss has written for Mills & Boon Modern and, most recently, Mills & Boon Desire. After a career in business, she now writes full-time. Joss is a member of the Romance Writers of America and Romance Writers of South Africa.

Also by Joss Wood

Convenient Cinderella Bride

The Nanny Proposal

His Ex’s Well-Kept Secret

One Night to Forever The CEO’s Nanny Affair Little Secrets: Unexpectedly Pregnant

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Friendship on Fire

Joss Wood

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07660-9

FRIENDSHIP ON FIRE

© 2018 Joss Wood

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Epilogue

Extract

Extract

About the Publisher

Prologue

Callie...

As she’d done for nearly thirty years, Callie Brogan kissed her daughter’s sable-colored hair, conscious that nothing was guaranteed—not time, affection or life itself so she took every opportunity to kiss and hug her offspring, all seven of them.

God, no, she hadn’t birthed them all. Levi and the twins—Jules and Darby—were hers. The Lockwood brothers—Noah, Eli and Ben—were the sons of her heart. Biologically, they belonged to her best friend and neighbor, Bethann Lockwood, who had passed away ten years ago. Dylan-Jane, well, DJ was another child of her heart.

The life Callie had lived back then, as the pampered wife of the stupendously wealthy, successful and most powerful venture capitalist in Boston, was over. Her beloved Ray was gone, too. She’d been a widow for three years now.

Callie was, gulp, alone. At fifty-four, it was time to reinvent herself.

So damn scary...

Who was she if she wasn’t her kids’ mom and her exuberant, forceful husband’s wife?

At the moment, she was someone she didn’t recognize. She needed to get to know herself again.

“Mom?”

Callie blinked and looked into Jules’s brilliant eyes. As always, she caught her breath. Jules had Ray’s eyes, that incredible shade of silver blue, incandescently luminous. Callie waited for the familiar wave of grief, and it washed over her as more of a swell than a tsunami.

Damn, Callie missed that man. His bawdy laugh, his strong arms, the sex. Yeah, God, she really missed the sex.

“Mom? Are you okay?” Jules asked, perceptive as always.

Callie waved her words away. She considered herself a modern mom but telling her very adult daughter that she was horny was not something that she’d ever do. So Callie shrugged and smiled. “I’m good.”

Jules frowned. “I don’t believe you.”

Callie looked around and wished Noah—and Eli and Ben—were here. Eli and Ben had excused themselves from Sunday lunch; both were working overtime to restore a catamaran. And Noah was in Italy? Or was it Greece? Cannes? The boy used jet travel like normal people used cars.