Sleeping with the Soldier
A sleepless night too many!All Lara Connor knows about the hot-as-sin guy who lives above her is that his nocturnal activities are keeping her awake. A lot. Fed up – and not at all jealous! – she decides to confront the man head-on. Big mistake! Because, face to face, Lara sees just why so many women fall into Alex’s bed!Nights have been sheer torture for ex-soldier Alex ever since he returned from active duty, but he’s not about to share that with Lara. But, when she becomes his unexpected flatmate, temptation personified is sleeping in the room next door and keeping his distance is going to be difficult. Impossible. In fact… it’s the perfect opportunity to show her just why sleep is so overrated…The Flat in Notting Hill - Love and lust in the city that never sleeps!
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THE FLAT IN NOTTING HILL
Love and lust in the city that never sleeps!
Izzy, Tori and Poppy are living the London dreamâsharing a big flat in Notting Hill, they have good jobs, wild nights out ⦠and each other.
They couldnât be more different, but one thing is for sure: when they start falling in love theyâre going to be very glad theyâve got such good friends around to help them survive the rollercoaster â¦!
THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE by Nikki Logan
SLEEPING WITH THE SOLDIER by Charlotte Phillips
YOUR BED OR MINE? by Joss Wood
ENEMIES WITH BENEFITS by Louisa George
Donât miss this fabulous new continuity from Modern Tempted>â¢!
Well, here we are againâbut this time Iâm part of a team! This is the first book Iâve ever written in collaboration with other authors, and I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did planning and writing it.
Writing is usually very solitaryâjust me and my laptopâbut with this book Iâve had three other fab authors to brainstorm and chat with. We shared photos and decor plans for the flat in Notting Hill, and bounced around ideas for the café where all the flatmates meet up.
The best bit has been seeing glimpses of Lara and Alex in the other books in The Flat in Notting Hill series. For once the road to happy-ever-after for my couple isnât the limit of their story, and I can see a bigger picture of their friendships and their lives together. Add to that the wonderful vibrancy of the Notting Hill setting and this story really leapt off the page for me. I hope it does for you too!
Love
Charlotte x
CHARLOTTE PHILLIPS has been reading romantic fiction since her teens, and she adores upbeat stories with happy endings. Writing them for Mills & Boon>® is her dream job. She combines writing with looking after her fabulous husband, two teenagers, a four-year-old and a dachshund. When something has to give, itâs usually housework. She lives in Wiltshire.
For Sam, who keeps me smiling when I think Iâm rubbish. I am so proud of you.
Table of Contents
LARA CONNOR WAS aiming to corner the rich Notting Hill market in boutique lingerie and she wasnât about to achieve that heady dream with French knickers that looked as if a club-fingered chimp had sewn them together.
She stared in disbelief at the mass of pale pink silk and delicate lace now rucked up in a tangle of mad stitches beneath the foot of her sewing machine and gritted her teeth hard enough to make her jaw ache. Above her head the banging started again with a new urgency that really brought out the hostility in her.
She liked to think she was a glass-half-full kind of person, laid-back, live and let live, default mood: happy. But the noise pollution emanating from the flat above all night, every night, had meant her sleep had been broken for weeks now. Tiredness had pushed her normally sunny attitude to the brink of her patience and, frankly, if it didnât stop now, murder might be on the cards.
She lifted the foot of the machine, disentangled the ball of expensive fabric from the needle and examined it. Beyond saving. She lobbed it across the room into the âremnantsâ bin. The knickers werenât even salvageable enough to go into the âsecondsâ bin. And having sunk every penny into this venture, she couldnât afford to keep slipping up like this. The âremnantsâ bin was looking far too full for her liking, and it was all the fault of the Lothario upstairs, who apparently couldnât let a day pass by without getting laid.
The clanking and banging in the pipes had begun a few weeks ago, not long after Lara had moved in. The sudden increase in noise coincided with the return of the soldier brother of Poppy, who owned the flat upstairs. Lara had got to know Poppy quite well over the last four or five weeks, and her flatmate, Izzy. A brief hello on the stairs had quickly progressed to coffee and chat in the downstairs café. Both girls were excited to hear about Laraâs lingerie designs. Izzy had even bought a couple of samples. On her own in a new place, Lara was especially pleased to have made friends. If only Poppyâs brother could have a smidge of her consideration.
Sitting in Ignite, the ground-floor café, while Lara updated her blog courtesy of the free Wi-Fi, sheâd picked up plenty of gossip from the other old-fire-station residents about Alex. He was rumoured to be some military hero, honourably discharged from the army after frontline action abroad. The building was also awash with gossip about his endless stream of women; the word was that he bedded a different one every night! And two or three times sheâd actually seen said women, sporting that giveaway combination of evening clothes, bed hair and smug smile, making the walk of shame when sheâd nipped down to the café for a takeaway coffee first thing in the morning. Lara had watched pityingly; she couldnât think of anything more pointless. With all this evidence taken as a whole, there was no real question as to the source of the noise pollution that was tiring her out, disrupting her work and thus costing her money, of which she had absolutely no more.
