This Heart for Hire Read online

  “May I kiss you, Jessi, for old times’ sake?”

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Books by Marle Ferrarella

  Books by Marie Ferrarella writing as Marie Nicole

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Copyright

  “May I kiss you, Jessi, for old times’ sake?”

  Logan had never asked to kiss her before. Never had to. They’d been drawn together with the force of an attraction that was far too great to resist.

  Jessica knew she should say no. But something inside her wanted to see if she was up to the challenge. To see if she was really over him. The way she told herself she was. The way she wanted to believe. “All right, but no hands.”

  The moment his lips touched hers, Jessica knew she should have added “no lips” to her clause.

  She wasn’t over him. If anything, this kiss, so tenderly executed, made it even worse by reminding her how much she missed him.

  Jessica was stumbling, heading straight for the abyss that was gaping in front of her. How could she have said yes?

  But how could she have said no?

  Dear Reader,

  Once again, we’re back to offer you six fabulous romantic novels, the kind of book you’ll just long to curl up with on a warm spring day. Leading off the month is award-winner Marie Ferrarella, whose This Heart for Hire is a reunion romance filled with the sharply drawn characters and witty banter you’ve come to expect from this talented writer.

  Then check out Margaret Watson’s The Fugitive Bride, the latest installment in her CAMERON, UTAH, miniseries. This FBI agent hero is about to learn all about love at the hands of his prime suspect. Midnight Cinderella is Eileen Wilks’ second book for the line, and it’s our WAY OUT WEST title. After all, there’s just nothing like a cowboy! Our FAMILIES ARE FOREVER flash graces Kayla Daniels’ The Daddy Trap, about a resolutely single hero faced with fatherhood—and love. The Cop and Calamity Jane is a suspenseful romp from the pen of talented Elane Osborn; you’ll be laughing out loud as you read this one. Finally, welcome Linda Winstead Jones to the line. Already known for her historical romances, this author is about to make a name for herself in contemporary circles with Bridger’s Last Stand.

  Don’t miss a single one—and then rejoin us next month, when we bring you six more examples of the best romantic writing around.

  Yours,

  Leslie J. Wainger

  Executive Senior Editor

  * * *

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S 3010 Walden Ave., PO. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  * * *

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  THIS HEART FOR HIRE

  To Leslie Wainger,

  for being patient and for being indulgent,

  and to my Jessica, for being.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  *Holding Out for a Hero #496

  *Heroes Great and Small #501

  *Christmas Every Day #538

  Callaghan’s Way #601

  *Caulin’s Guardian Angel #661

  ‡Happy New Year—Baby! #686

  The Amnesiac Bride #787

  Serena McKee’s Back in Town #808

  A Husband Waiting To Happen #842

  Angus’s Lost Lady #853

  This Heart for Hire #919

  Silhouette Romance

  The Gift #588

  Five-Alarm Affair #613

  Heart to Heart #632

  Mother for Hire #686

  Borrowed Baby #730

  Her Special Angel #744

  The Undoing of Justin Starbuck #766

  Man Trouble #815

  The Taming of the Teen #839

  Father Goose #869

  Babies on His Mind #920

  The Right Man #932

  In Her Own Backyard #947

  Her Man Friday #959

  Aunt Connie’s Wedding #984

  †Caution. Baby Ahead #1007

  †Mother on the Wing #1026

  †Baby Times Two #1037

  Father in the Making #1078

  The Women in Joe Sullivan’s Life #1096

  ‡Do You Take This Child? #1145

  The Man Who Would Be Daddy #1175

  Your Baby or Mine? #1216

  **The Baby Came C O.D #1264

  Suddenly Marriage #1312

  ‡‡One Plus One Makes Marriage #1328

  ‡‡Never Too Late for Love #1351

  Silhouette Desire

  ‡Husband Optional #988

  Silhouette Special Edition

  It Happened One Night #597

  A Girl’s Best Friend #652

  Blessing in Disguise #675

  Someone To Talk To #703

  World’s Greatest Dad #767

  Family Matters #832

  She Got Her Man #843

  Baby in the Middle #892

  Husband. Some Assembly Required #931

  Brooding Angel #963

  ‡Baby’s First Christmas #997

  Christmas Bride #1069

  Wanted Husband, Will Train #1132

  Wife in the Mail #1217

  Silhouette Yours Truly

  ‡The 7lb, 2oz Valentine

  Let’s Get Mommy Married

  Traci On the Spot

  Mommy and the Policeman Next Door

  ‡*Desperately Seeting Twin

  The Offer She Couldn’t Refuse

  ? Fiana and the Sexy Stranger

  ? Cowboys Are For Loving

  ? Will and the Headstrong Female

  ? The Law and Ginny Marlow

  ? A Match for Morgan

  Silhouette Books

  In The Family Way 1998

  Silhouette Christmas Stories 1992

  “The Night Santa Claus Retumed”

  Fortune’s Children

  Forgonen Honeymoon

  World’s Most Eligible Bachelors

  Detective Dad

  †Baby’s Choice

  ‡The Baby of the Month Club

  **Two Halves of a Whole

  *Those ++Sinclaurs

  ?The Cutlers of the Shady Lady Ranch

  ‡‡Like Mother, Like Daughter

  Books by Marie Ferrarella writing as Marie Nicole

  Silhouette Desire

  Tried And True #112

  Buyer Beware #142

  Through Laughter And Tears #161

  Grand Theft Heart #182

  A Woman of Integrity #197

  Country Blue #224

  Last Year’s Hunk #274

  Foxy Lady #315

  Chocolate Dreams #346

  No Lauglung Matter #382

  Silhouette Romance

  Man Undercover #373

  Please Stand By #394

  Mine by Write #411

  Getting Physical #440

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  lives in southern California. She describes herself as the tired mother of two overenergetic children and the contented wife of one wonderful man. This RITA Award-winning author is thrilled to be following her dream of writing full-time.

  Prologue

  Maybe the death threats were getting to him.

  Loga
n Buchanan ran a restless hand through his dark blond hair as he stood by the racetrack, watching the mechanic fix his car. Dampness hung in the air like an oppressive blanket, reflecting his mood.

  Maybe he was actually beginning to believe the melodramatic threats in the letters he’d been receiving these past few weeks at his home and office. Maybe that was why he felt as if he couldn’t find a place for himself lately.

  Ironic, wasn’t it? Here he was, Logan Buchanan, one of the country’s richest men, courtesy of his farseeing grandfather, able to wallow in any indulgence, satisfy any whim, and yet he felt edgy. Not nervous, edgy. As if nothing was quite right anymore.

  Maybe it was more than the threats, he thought. Maybe the threats had just brought it all home to him. If by some quirk of fate these threats were actually on the level and he died tomorrow, would he really have lived at all? By his own standards, not other people’s. Had he really been alive at all by his own standards?

  He hadn’t felt alive, really alive now for two years. Not since Jessica had left his life.

  Left because he’d pushed her away, he thought. But he had done it, and now he had to live with it. There was no going back. He’d made sure of that. Burned his bridges behind him. Every damn last one.

  And most likely burned his only real chance at happiness. Hindsight was a bear, mocking him even as it swiped a big, hairy paw at him, claws outstretched, saying “Too late.”

  “You finished tinkering yet?” he asked the mechanic who was making a timing adjustment on his sleek, gunmetal gray car. His latest toy.

  “Almost.”

  Almost. Sounded like the adjective for his life, Logan thought. Almost happy, but not quite. Almost there, but not really.

  Looking off into the cloudy horizon of Southern California, Logan shoved his hands into his pockets. It took him a second to realize they were clenched. He straightened his fingers out with a jerk. Usually he would have been the one doing the adjusting. Ever since he’d first hung around a racetrack, he’d had a natural feel for cars, a way with them that transformed them from complex machinery into extensions of himself. It was a knack he’d inherited from his late grandfather.

  But lately, he was losing interest. Even his love for exhilarating speed wasn’t enough to erase this inner turmoil he was constantly wrestling with. As the mechanic worked, Logan remembered another time, another place. It was evening, beneath a sky littered with stars, a night created just for him. And for Jessica.

  Or perhaps created because of Jessica.

  Her laughter had filled the air, making him feel a myriad of things all at once. So many emotions, so many feelings, all colliding into each other, taking possession of him. It had been frightening at the time, not to be able to control his own response to a woman who whispered along the perimeter of his mind like a light spring breeze filled with the heady perfume of first blossoms. Damn frightening, especially to a man who was so accustomed to controlling things.

  Funny, nothing was ever the same again after she’d gone. Mornings and evenings were just that, mornings and evenings. Not beginnings or endings, not celebrations of life, just a continuation of what had gone before and would come after. Nothing special.

  “She’s ready, Mr. Buchanan.”

  Logan looked blankly at the mechanic. It took a moment before the words sank in.

  “Right.” He nodded at the man and slipped in behind the wheel. It was a perfect fit.

  Just the way he and Jessica had been.

  Logan swore under his breath. What the hell was the matter with him? Was it the letters that were doing this to him, causing him to reassess his life and come up short? They had nothing to do with Jessica, but somehow all the threats he read seemed to evoke thoughts of her. Reminding him that the greatest thing he could have had, he’d already lost. By his own design.

  For a while, after the breakup, he’d seen one woman after another, trying to lock all thoughts of Jessica out. It had worked. For a while. But not now. Not anymore. He realized now that he couldn’t fool himself indefinitely. She was still there, hiding in the shadows of his mind.

  He had a feeling that she would always would be. Keeping him humble. Making him regret.

  But that didn’t change things. It was over and would have to stay over. Jessica’s pride, he knew, would never allow anything else.

  Turning the key, he couldn’t blame her, much as he wanted to. He revved up the engine for his practice run.

  Chapter 1

  Who was he?

  Jessica Deveaux had almost come out and asked point-blank when she first saw him, but the telephone repairman moving around in her third-floor office would have undoubtedly thought it was a come-on. So she kept the nagging question to herself.

  Jessica sighed. She’d remember soon enough, probably when she least expected it. Everything was filed away in the recesses of her mind. As a private investigator, she never knew what tidbits or stray pieces of trivia could prove useful, and she was blessed with total recall.

  It just didn’t come every time she called, that’s all, she mused, watching the man disappear into the outer office.

  It was more his body than his voice or face, she decided. There was something almost defiant about the set of his shoulders. Something that struck a distant chord. A chord that refused to yield an audible sound. But it would. In time. It would come to her.

  “There,” the repairman announced. “That should put you back in business.”

  Jessica blinked as she realized he’d come up beside her, holding out his work order for her to sign. Some detective she was, she thought, looking up. He gave her a quirky smile, waiting.

  “I’ll sign that,” Albert announced, entering the room. The repairman trowned in annoyance as Albert pulled the clipboard away from Jessica.

  Albert Tyler took his job as Jessica’s secretary and office manager the way he took everything else in life: very seriously. With a flourish, he signed his name and handed the board, paper and pen back to the man, acting just like the queen’s chief minister dismissing a servant, Jessica thought.

  Just the vaguest hint of a scowl crossed the man’s face before he nodded at Jessica and retreated, leaving the office.

  Jessica stared after the repairman, then looked up at Albert. All six foot six of him. “Did he look familiar to you, Albert?”

  “Page 1012 in the encyclopedia, under the telling heading of ‘Neanderthal.’”

  “Then he wasn’t familiar to you.” She sighed, wishing it wasn’t eating at her this way. The repairman probably resembled someone she’d seen on television, or at a party. She had no idea why there was this feeling of uneasiness when she looked at the man. He seemed amiable enough, except when Albert got in his face.

  “Never saw him before in my life,” Albert replied crisply. His sharp gaze shifted to the pamphlets he’d brought in for her. The ones he’d insisted she look over. It was obvious she hadn’t. “So, where are you going on your vacation?”

  “Nowhere.” She appreciated the fact that Albert took far more interest in her life than her own parents did, but fond of him though she was, she wasn’t about to allow him to run her affairs for her. “I don’t need a vacation, Albert.”

  She’d spent almost the first twenty years of her life on vacation, cocooned in her parents’ jet-setting life. Now she was finally catching up, making up for lost time. Just because she was a little testy and worn around the edges the last few days didn’t mean she needed to lie on some beach like an inert seashell.

  Very carefully, Albert spread out the pamphlets she’d swept off to one side. “Well, you certainly need something. You’re becoming impossible to live with these days.”

  Just as he’d opened each pamphlet, she closed them. “Don’t bully me, Albert. I just need a stimulating case, that’s all.”

  Albert halted his fruitless endeavor, temporarily giving up. He looked down a nose that would once have made a Roman patrician proud. “More like a stimulating man if you ask me.”


  Jessica raised her eyes to his. “I didn’t ask.”

  Whether or not she asked made no differince to Albert, she knew. His theory was that some people needed to be helped despite themselves. Hi had thrown in his lot with her, and that meant looking out for Jessica even if she didn’t want him to. “Cloistered nuns have a more active social life than you do.”

  The sad thing was that he was right, but she didn’t want to hear about it. She would have killed to have the phone ring. Having wrapped up her last case Monday, except for a few loose ends here and there, she was painfully in between clients. And while money was never, and would never be, a problem for her, inactivity was. When she was inactive, she started thinking, and that wasn’t good.

  “Thank you for sharing,” Jessica said with an edge. “Don’t you have some file updating to do?”

  Albert drew himself up and looked even taller than he was. And thinner. His burgundy sweater hung shapelessly around his frame. “Already done.”

  She felt the ends of her temper slipping away and did her best to hang on to them. “Then find something else to do, Albert My social life is not your project of the month.”

  He began to ease out of the room, muttering, “More like of the year.”

  She looked at him sharply, struggling between anger and amusement Albert did have her best interest at heart, she supposed. “I heard that.”

  He stopped, giving her a significant look. As if anything ever happened that he didn’t intend to have happen. “You were supposed to.”

  The phone rang, answering her silent prayer. Finally, a moment of respite.

  Albert went to answer the call.

  Curious, Jessica waited, hoping that at the very least it wasn’t a wrong number. Her office telephone number shared six digits with a local restaurant. On the average, she received five calls for reservations a week.