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  “It’s Like We’re Married, Cooper.

  Only Without Any Of The Good Stuff. Like Sex.”

  He had to admit that up until the night before, he’d never really thought about Kara and sex in the same sentence. But now, he wasn’t so sure.

  “You want us to have sex?”

  “Of course I want sex. But I want more than that, too.” Sighing, she said, “I want a husband, kids. A home. I just got so comfortable that I didn’t notice that I wasn’t getting anywhere.”

  “What’s so bad about comfortable?” he demanded.

  “Nothing,” she said. “If that’s all you’re looking for, then comfortable is great. But it’s not enough for me. Not anymore.”

  He knew that once she’d made up her mind about something, that was it.

  And the thought of losing Kara hit him hard.

  MAUREEN CHILD

  Strictly Lonergan’s Business

  Books by Maureen Child

  Silhouette Desire

  Have Bride, Need Groom #1059

  The Surprise Christmas Bride #1112

  Maternity Bride #1138

  *The Littlest Marine #1167

  *The Non-Commissioned Baby #1174

  *The Oldest Living Married Virgin #1180

  *Colonel Daddy #1211

  *Mom in Waiting #1234

  *Marine under the Mistletoe #1258

  *The Daddy Salute #1275

  *The Last Santini Virgin #1312

  *The Next Santini Bride #1317

  *Marooned with a Marine #1325

  *Prince Charming in Dress Blues #1366

  *His Baby! #1377

  *Last Virgin in California #1398

  Did You Say Twins?! #1408

  The SEAL’s Surrender #1431

  *The Marine & the Debutante #1443

  The Royal Treatment #1468

  Kiss Me, Cowboy! #1490

  Beauty & the Blue Angel #1514

  Sleeping with the Boss #1534

  Man beneath the Uniform #1561

  Lost in Sensation #1611

  Society-Page Seduction #1639

  †The Tempting Mrs. Reilly #1652

  †Whatever Reilly Wants #1658

  †The Last Reilly Standing #1664

  **Expecting Lonergan’s Baby #1719

  **Strictly Lonergan’s Business #1724

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Forever…Again #1604

  Harlequin Historicals

  Shotgun Grooms #575

  “Jackson’s Mail-Order Bride”

  Silhouette Books

  Love Is Murder

  “In Too Deep”

  Summer in Savannah

  “With a Twist”

  MAUREEN CHILD

  is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur.

  To my “other” mother—Mary Ann Child

  For everything you’ve given me.

  For everything you’ve been to me.

  I couldn’t love you more.

  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

  Epilogue

  One

  “It’s really easy,” Kara Sloan told herself, giving her own reflection a narrow eyed glare in the rear view mirror. “He opens the door, you say ‘I quit.’”

  Right.

  If it was that easy, she’d have said those two little words six months ago. Heck. A year ago.

  The minute she’d realized she’d made the huge mistake of falling in love with her employer.

  The trouble was, every time she was anywhere near her boss, Cooper Lonergan, her brain shut down and her emotions took over. One look from the man’s dark brown eyes and she turned into a puddle of goo.

  She still wasn’t sure how this had happened. Heaven knew she hadn’t planned it. She’d been the man’s assistant for five years, and for four of those five, everything had been great. They’d had a comfortable friendship and easy working relationship. Until it suddenly dawned on her nearly a year ago, that she was in love with him.

  And ever since that day, she’d been miserable.

  She couldn’t even get mad at Cooper for not noticing that her feelings had changed. Why would he? To him, she was as familiar a sight in his life as the dark red leather sofa in his living room at home. And just as comfortable.

  This situation was her own fault. She’d changed the rules and he didn’t even know it. She was in love and he was in like.

  Not a good thing.

  “Which is why,” she said sternly, still meeting her own wide green eyes in the rental car mirror, “you have to quit. Just suck it up, face him down and say it.”

  She inhaled sharply, blew out a breath and nodded grimly. She could do this. She would do this.

  Muttering darkly, she swung her legs out of the car, slammed the door and then stared up at the big yellow Victorian farmhouse Cooper had rented for the summer. It looked…welcoming, somehow. As if the house had been waiting for her.

  Silly, but she was sorry she wouldn’t be staying. Sorry she’d have to leave and go back to New York in just two weeks. There was something about this place that ‘spoke’ to her.

  It sat far back on a wide, manicured green lawn and several old shade trees surrounded the structure. Window panes glinted in the morning sunlight, fresh flowers in terra cotta pots lined the porch, their bright summer colors dazzling in the morning light.

  She inhaled sharply, deeply, enjoying the scents of freshly mowed grass and the hint of the ocean, just a few miles away. Kara had always considered herself a city girl. Happy in Manhattan, she loved the rush and crush of the crowds, the blaring symphony of horns and shouted insults from the cabbies who drove as if every mile made was a personal victory.

  But, she thought, there was something to be said for this, too. The quiet. The color. The lazier pace.

  No point in getting used to it, though.

  Her three inch heels wobbled slightly on the crushed gravel driveway, and she thought that was only appropriate. Hadn’t she been off balance around Cooper all year? Besides, if she’d had any sense, she’d have traveled in jeans and sneakers. But no…she’d had to look good when she saw him. Not that he ever noticed what she was wearing.

  Gritting her teeth, Kara silently admitted that Cooper wouldn’t notice if she had shown up naked.

  Which, she reminded herself sternly, was exactly why she had to quit her job. It was just too hard. Too miserable to be in love with a man who only saw you as the world’s most efficient assistant.

  “My own fault,” she muttered, turning her back on the house to walk to the rear of the car. She pushed a button on the rental car key ring and the trunk slowly opened like a coffin lid in an old Dracula movie.

  They worked well together, had a lot of laughs, and Kara had had the satisfaction of knowing that she did her job so well, he couldn’t get along without her. Then she’d messed it all up by changing the rules.

  She wasn’t even sure when it had happened. When she’d stopped looking at Cooper like an employer and started having X-rated dreams about him. He’d slipped up on her. Sneaked under her defenses. Damn it, he’d made her fall in love with him without
even trying and didn’t even have the decency to notice.

  That’s why she had to quit. Had to get out while she still could. It was, as her best friend Gina had put it just the night before, a freaking emergency.

  Gina had taken her out for drinks and given Kara the pep talk that apparently was considered the best friend’s duty.

  “You know darn well that man is never going to change.”

  “Why should he?” Kara challenged, stabbing the olive in her martini as if it were an alien out to take over the world. “As far as he’s concerned everything is great. Fabulous.”

  “Exactly my point.” Gina blinked at her, lifted one hand to signal the bartender for another round, then turned back to look at her friend again. “He’s been in California what? Three days?”

  “Yesss…”

  “And he’s called you like a hundred times already.”

  True. Her cell phone, always on so that Cooper could get in touch with her whenever he needed to, had been ringing with alarming regularity. Kara checked her watch. Twenty minutes since his last call. He was due. “I work for him.”

  “Oh, it’s way beyond that, Kara,” Gina said, leaning across the glossy bar table until her long blond hair brushed the polished surface. “Last time he called, the man asked you how to make coffee. He’s thirty something and can’t make a cup of coffee without your help?”

  Kara laughed. “He’s thirty one and he can too make coffee. It’s just terrible.”

  Gina was not amused. Shaking her head, she sat back. “You did this to yourself, girlfriend. You made yourself indispensable.”

  “That’s a bad thing?” Kara reached for her fresh drink and turned her attention to the new olive.

  “It is when Cooper Lonergan sees you like a well-programmed robot.” Gina took a gulp of her appletini and then waved the glass in the air. “He doesn’t see you. He never will.”

  “That’s harsh.”

  “But true.”

  “Probably.”

  “So,” Gina demanded, “What are you going to do about it? Stick around until you’re old and alone and wondering what the hell happened to your life? Or get out now while you still can?”

  And that, Kara thought now, reaching into the trunk, is the million dollar question. She knew Gina was right. Heck, she’d known the truth for the last year. She had no future with Cooper. At least, nothing beyond what she had now. And that just wasn’t enough.

  Not anymore.

  A crisp, cool wind with the scent of the sea on it, swept across the yard, set the leaves on the trees dancing, and tossed her dark brown hair across her eyes. She plucked it back, blew out a breath and grabbed up both her suitcase, the small carry-on bag she’d filled with fresh bagels from Cooper’s favorite deli, the gourmet coffee he couldn’t write without, and five bags of marshmallow cookies.

  The man had the palate of a ten-year-old. She smiled to herself, thinking, as she always did, that it was kind of cute how Cooper had to have his favorite cookies on hand at all times.

  But she caught herself an instant later. Not cute. Annoying. Right.

  Nodding to herself, she pledged that the minute she saw Cooper, she’d give him notice. Two weeks. He could hire someone temporarily for this summer in California, then when he went home to Manhattan, he could find a more permanent replacement.

  As for Kara, the sooner she got back to New York and what was left of her life…the better.

  Grim determination fed her steps as she started toward the big house at the end of drive. With every wobble of her heels, she told herself over and over, It’s just a job. You can find another, better one. You don’t need Cooper.

  She’d almost convinced herself when the front door flew open, the ancient screen door slapped against the wall of the house and Cooper Lonergan stepped out onto the wide front porch.

  Tall and lean, he was wearing his New York uniform of black pants and black shirt. His features were sharp, angular and his black hair, just long enough to touch his shoulders, flew about his face like a dirty halo. His dark eyes glinted in the sun and when he smiled, Kara felt it deliver a solid punch to her belly. Probably had more impact because he didn’t really smile all that often. But brother, when he did…

  The man was mouthwatering.

  Damn it.

  “Kara!” He took the five steps down to the yard in two long strides and crossed to where she was still standing, dumbstruck by the force of her own emotions. He swept her up into a brief, hard hug that lit up her insides like Times Square on NewYear’s Eve, then let her go so abruptly, she staggered back a step.

  “Thank God you’re here.”

  A brief flash of something that might have been hope darted through her. “You missed me?”

  “Boy, did I,” he said. “You have no idea. I made coffee this morning and it pretty much tasted like I think motor oil with a dash of cinnamon would taste.”

  Right. Hope dissolved into reality. Of course he hadn’t actually missed her. When she took her three weeks of vacation every year, he didn’t miss her. He missed the convenience of having her around. Why should this time be any different?

  “Please tell me you brought real coffee and my cookies.”

  She sighed, accepting the truth. “Yes Cooper, you too tall four-year-old. I have the coffee and I brought your cookies.”

  “Excellent.” He ignored her jibe, just as he pretty much ignored her, Kara thought. Then he took her suitcase from her and started for the house. “Did you get the dry cleaning for me, too?”

  “It’s in the trunk.”

  “And bagels. Oh God, tell me you remembered the bagels.”

  She shook her head and kept pace with him. Ten seconds with him and she fell into the old, familiar pattern. What had happened to her vow? Where had her backbone gone? Why wasn’t she looking into those dark chocolate eyes of his and telling him that she quit?

  She took a breath and almost groaned. He even smelled delicious.

  “Yes, I remembered the bagels,” she muttered, disgusted with both of them. “When in the last five years have I not remembered?”

  “Never,” he said with a quick wink that weakened her knees even as it stiffened what was left of her resolve. “That’s why I can’t live without you.”

  Words spoken so easily, so lightly. She knew it meant nothing to him, but if they were only true, what those words would mean to her.

  Cooper ushered Kara into the house, standing back to let her pass in front of him. Her heels clicked against the wood floor and she flipped her long, dark brown hair back over her shoulder as she turned in a circle to look around the room.

  He took his first good look at the same time. Sure, he’d been there three days already, but he’d spent most of his time in the master bedroom, sitting at a makeshift desk, working.

  Well, trying to work. In reality, he’d played about three thousand games of solitaire. Which wouldn’t help him meet the deadline that was already flying at him.

  “It’s a great place,” Kara said, studying an old brass chandelier hanging in the center of the living room.

  He glanced around, noting the big, overstuffed chairs in faded cabbage rose upholstery. A braided rug covered most of the scarred wood floor and the pale yellow walls looked bright and cheerful, even to him. The property management company who’d leased the place to him had done a first-rate job keeping the old house in shape.

  “People say it’s haunted.”

  She whipped around and stared at him, her green eyes wide and fascinated. “It is?”

  He nodded. “When I was a kid, I spent every summer here in Coleville with my grandfather and my cousins.” Memories rushed in, nearly strangling him with the force of the accompanying emotions. He pushed them down, deliberately shut the door on the feelings rising in him as he said, “We’d ride our bikes over here at night and watch this house, tell each other scary stories and wait to see something otherworldly floating by.” He shrugged and smiled. “We never saw a damn thing.”
<
br />   “And since you’ve been here…?”

  “Nada.”

  “Well that’s disappointing,” Kara said.

  He smiled at the whine in her voice. No matter what, he could always count on Kara to see the same possibilities that he could. As a horror novelist, he’d really enjoyed the idea of renting the same haunted house that had fascinated him as a kid.

  But he should have known that the only ghosts he’d find this summer were those in his own past. Instinctively, Cooper cut that thought off neatly. He wasn’t going to go there.

  “Anyway,” Cooper said with a shrug, “It’s only a couple of miles from my grandfather’s place, so it was handy.”

  “Oh! How is your grandfather?”

  “Long story. But he’s actually fine.”

  “But his doctor said he was dying…”

  “Like I said,” Cooper repeated, not really wanting to go into it all at the moment. “Long story. First, tell me what took you so long to get here. I expected you yesterday.”

  “I told you it would take three days to close up your condo and take care of all the details—”

  “You’re right, you did. Just felt like a really long three days. You’re the best, Kara. Have I given you a raise lately?”

  “No,” she chided.

  “Put that on your list—” he cut her off before she could say anything else. “The important thing is you’re here now.”

  She smiled at him and Cooper added, “With you here, I can finally work. I’m telling you, I haven’t had a decent meal since I left home.”

  Her smile slowly faded.

  “The grocery store in Coleville doesn’t deliver, so you’ll need to make a trip over there to stock up.” He picked up her suitcase and headed for the stairs. “I’ll put your bags away. You’re in the room across from mine. It’s big, got a nice view of the fields. We have to share the bathroom, but we’ll work it out. You could make up a schedule and—”

  “Cooper!”