Tall, Dark And Difficult
HE WAS AN OFFICER…BUT NO GENTLEMANOnce a dashing, decorated test pilot, embittered Major Hollis "Griff" Griffin no longer gave a damn about anything–except fulfilling his late aunt's eccentric last request, then leaving all lingering, loving memories behind. But he'd need help, dammit, from one Rose Davenport–surely a fluttery old antiques addict.Yet Rose proved leggy, delectable and mulishly optimistic about restoring castoffs–even unshaven, arrogant, former flyboys like him. Despite her fear of macho males, she bravely evoked Griff's random acts of tenderness, sentimentally spotting a hero beneath his bitterness. But Griff was no hero. So dare he wheedle this wary, wonderful woman into believing they'd share a bed of roses…forever?
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Griff sighed, longing for the good old days when life had been simple.
He flew, he ate, he slept, and when he had an itch, he scratched it with whatever woman was WA. Willing and Available—a term coined back in flight school, one he hadn’t thought of in a while.
Now he did. Was Rose willing and available?
Hell, his life before the crash might not have been perfect, but at least where women were concerned, it had come damn close.
This thing with Rose Davenport was different. She had a way of making him feel…something like hunger pangs—only, more intense, more focused…
More dangerous.
Some survival instinct encoded on the macho-male chromosome triggered in him, warning him that if he wasn’t careful, things with Rose could get way out of hand….
Damn!
Dear Reader,
Silhouette Books publishes many stars in romance fiction, but now we want to make you a star! Tell us in 500 words or less how Silhouette makes love come alive for you. Look inside for details of our “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest—you could win a luxurious weekend in New York!
Reader favorite Gina Wilkins’s love comes alive year after year with over sixty Harlequin and Silhouette romances to her credit. Though her first two manuscripts were rejected, she pursued her goal of becoming a writer. And she has this advice to offer to aspiring authors: “First, read everything you can, not just from the romance genre. Study pacing and characterization,” Gina says. “Then, forget everything you’ve read and create something that is your own. Never imitate.” Gina’s Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? is available this month. When a small-town reporter is guilty of loving the police chief from afar and then tries to make a quick getaway, will the busy chief be too busy with the law to notice love?
And don’t miss these great romances from Special Edition. In Sherryl Woods’s Courting the Enemy, a widow who refused to sell her ranch to a longtime archrival has a different plan when it comes to her heart. Tall, Dark and Difficult is the only way to describe the handsome former test pilot hero of Patricia Coughlin’s latest novel. When Marsh Bravo is reunited with his love and discovers the child he never knew, The Marriage Agreement by Christine Rimmer is the only solution! Her Hand-Picked Family by Jennifer Mikels is what the heroine discovers when her search for her long-lost sister leads to a few lessons in love. And sparks fly when her mysterious new lover turns out to be her new boss in Jean Brashear’s Millionaire in Disguise!
Enjoy this month’s lineup. And don’t forget to look inside for exciting details of the “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest.
Best,
Karen Taylor Richman,
Senior Editor
For my parents, Tom and Eileen Madden.
Thanks for always being there.
PATRICIA COUGHLIN
is a troubling combination of hopeless romantic and dedicated dreamer. Troubling, that is, for anyone hoping to drag her back to the “real world” when she is in the midst of writing a book. Close family and friends have learned to coexist peacefully with the latest cast of characters in her head. The author of more than twenty-five novels, she has received special recognition from Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times magazines. Her work also earned her numerous awards, including the prestigious RITA Award from Romance Writers of America. Ms. Coughlin lives in Rhode Island, a place very conducive to day dreaming.
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
Chapter One
Summer brought out the best in Wickford, Rhode Island. To be sure, other seasons held their own charms in the pretty little village. But even those die-hard locals who favored winter, when an icy wind blowing off the Atlantic kept tourists at bay, couldn’t deny that summer was somehow special.
It was more than simply a season; it was a mood, a scent, an attitude. Wild roses bloomed in the cracks in the sidewalks, time unraveled, and the heat made everything, and everyone, just a little bit looser. It began in late May, around the time the take-out window at Hanley’s Ice Cream Parlor opened for the season, and built, steadily and lazily, until peaking just before Labor Day. Then, sometime in mid-September, the inevitable combination of chilly nights and yellow school buses would snap everyone back to their senses.
Well, nearly everyone. There were rumors, legends really, passed down from one generation to the next in the beauty salon and hardware store—and if not everyone who heard believed, almost everyone wanted to.
That’s not to say that summer cast a spell over Wickford. Exactly. But facts were facts, and village history held that if an otherwise sensible person was going to swap a thriving medical practice for a fishing boat, or run off with a mysterious and much younger saxophone player, or blow the retirement account on a six-speed, dual-exhaust motorcycle, it would happen on a long, hot day in July.
