A bet worth the risk...
Taking over the boutiques at her grandmother’s Reno casino is a lucky break for fashion buyer Kenzie Russell. But while she relishes the challenges at Casa de Mariposa, Kenzie longs to launch her own designer line. There’s also another distraction—Reed Watson, the supersmart, übersexy tech guru who’s generously offered to fix the casino’s software glitches.
Ever since he made his first fortune before the age of twenty-one, Reed has been surrounded by people more interested in his millions than in him. Not Kenzie. Her ambition and zest for life are exhilarating, and she wants success on her own terms. They’re opposites in so many ways, except when it comes to a powerful, mutual attraction. But with a secret adversary trying to bring chaos to the casino, everything is at stake—Kenzie’s job, her family’s future and their sizzling, once-in-a-lifetime connection...
As they rose higher, Kenzie said, “This is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“You’re beautiful.” Reed kissed her. Not the delicate first kiss he’d given her, but a more searching one, more passionate and filled with promise.
She caressed his cheek, her thoughts in turmoil. She leaned against him, her head on his shoulder, and let all her cares drip away. This one moment was filled with promise and she wanted to savor it.
They stood, arms around each other as the balloon started to descend. As they stepped out of the gondola, an unusual shyness crept over Kenzie. She didn’t know what to say or how to act. Reed studied her cautiously as though expecting to be rejected.
“I’m not quite sure how to tell you this...”
He stepped back, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him to her.
“I apologize. It was wrong of me to take advantage of the moment...”
“Stop.” She held up her hand. “Stop. This was the most wonderful moment in my life. I want more. I want more with you.”
Dear Reader,
Kenzie Russell is the last of the Russell clan to fall...in love. Reed Watson, the last man she ever expected to love, storms into her life and into her heart. He woos her with a romantic dinner on Lake Tahoe and a fun weekend at a comic book convention in San Francisco. True love has twists and turns, peaks and valleys. Join Kenzie and Reed as they negotiate the path to love with humor and determination to discover the journey is as sweet as the destination.
Jackie and I are sorry to see the end of the Russell family saga. Next up on our docket is the Torres family, Scott’s in-laws and Nina’s rambunctious siblings, as they venture off in search of their ultimate happy endings. The first story is set against the annual pageantry of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade featuring Daniel Torres and Greer Courtland. Don’t miss it.
Jackie and Miriam
J.M. Jeffries
Jackie and Miriam live in Southern California. When they aren’t writing, Jackie is trying to take a nap and Miriam plays with her grandchildren. Jackie thought she wanted to be a lawyer until she met Miriam and decided to be a writer instead. Miriam always wanted to be a writer from her earliest childhood when she taught herself to read at age four. Both are avid readers and can usually be found with their noses in a book, or, now that it’s the twenty-first century, their eReaders. Check out their blog at jmjeffries.com.
Books by J.M. Jeffries
Harlequin Kimani Romance
Virgin Seductress
My Only Christmas Wish
California Christmas Dreams
Love Takes All
Love’s Wager
Bet on My Heart
Drawing Hearts
Visit the Author Profile page at
Harlequin.com for more titles.
To Rhonda: thank you so much for the wonderful years of friendship. You’ve been one of the best friends ever and thank you for letting me borrow your wonderful daughter. To Nikki: I watched you grow into an incredible woman. You are an inspiration. All my love forever, Shar-Pei puppy love.
—Jackie
To Warrick Aurelian Pace: such a huge name for such a small baby. I know you will live up to it and be as amazing as your cousins, Kathryn and Frederik Stein.
To Erin Pace: thank you for my new grandbaby and letting me bounce ideas off you.
To Jeff Pace: thank you for being you.
To Miriam Pace Stein: you are such an amazing mother. I’m so proud of all of you.
—Miriam
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Shannon Criss
and the entire Harlequin staff.
They provide us with wisdom, knowledge and care.
A special thank-you to the Harlequin Art Department for the best covers ever.
All of you rock!
Contents
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
Chapter 1
Kenzie Russell wanted to pound her laptop with her fists. The software she’d commissioned for the boutiques refused to work and Nina, perched on a stool with one leg crossed over the other, grinned at her frustration. The big flashy diamond on Nina’s left hand winked as the morning sun streamed through the open patio doors. Splashing and laughter drifted up from the pool far below.
“Explain to me how this software works,” Nina said, taking a sip of her iced tea.
Kenzie wasn’t certain how it worked, but she knew how she wanted it to work. “A customer enters the boutique and doesn’t find anything. This software will allow a clerk to take a photo of the customer, input the photo and the body measurements and then allow them to try on clothes in a virtual environment. The clothes would expand or contract depending on the body type. I’ve lined up a dozen designers who are ready to try this and I can’t make it work.” She tried not to give in to the urge to unleash her frustration out on the counter. She scowled at the screen.
“Sounds complicated.”
Her best friend wasn’t helping. “I’m sure the software engineer I dealt with understood my instructions.” She knew she’d been explicit enough; she’d even written down what she’d wanted so he wouldn’t misunderstand.
“I’m sure he did,” Nina replied.
Kenzie glared at her best friend. They’d been friends since college when they’d roomed together. “It has to work.”
“Maybe you need a hammer.”
“You’re not helping.” A hammer sounded good, but she didn’t think the laptop would survive. Kenzie turned back to the screen. “Let’s try again.”
Nina obediently stood and Kenzie activated the laptop’s photo function. She pushed a button and the photo embedded itself into the viewer with the background stripped out. She’d already added Nina’s dimensions. She tapped keys and once again the laptop froze. Kenzie ground her teeth in frustration. She’d thought her idea was brilliant, but the execution wasn’t turning out the way she’d envisioned it.
“I think it’s a great idea, but you have a few bugs to work out.” Nina hopped back on her stool and reached for a muffin.
“Bugs? I have pterodactyls to work out.”
“Why don’t you ask Reed?”
“Number one, we haven’t met. And how’s that going to sound? ‘Hi, I’m Kenzie, can you fix the bugs in my software?’” That
sounded so crass. He’d just arrived in Reno after months of dealing with family issues and here she was demanding help.
Nina chuckled. “He’s very nice. I’m sure he’d be willing to help someone as lovely as you.”
Kenzie growled. “You’re responsible for this. You didn’t want to try on wedding dresses.”
“I’d love to try on wedding dresses, but I have no time.” Nina sipped her coffee, unconcerned.
“I thought virtual wedding dresses were the answer.” Kenzie had arranged with Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Claire Pettibone and Carolina Herrera to take photos of wedding dresses so Nina could try them on in the virtual environment Kenzie developed for her. And once the idea took hold, Kenzie thought, it would work for other women. But the reality was turning out far different than she thought.
“It’s a terrific idea,” Nina said, “and I could spin this into a huge campaign, making the Casa de Mariposa a wedding destination.”
“And you’re envisioning...”
“We could have them try on their virtual wedding gowns in their home and have the gown waiting for them when they arrive as part of the whole package. And we could do this with the groom and the bridesmaids and the groomsmen. And if the bride doesn’t want to buy a gown, we’ll rent it to her. There are so many variations on the idea that I can’t stop thinking about it.” Nina picked up her iPad and started typing.
“Give you a bit of rope and you become a cowgirl.”
“I’d rather have glass slippers and be Cinderella. You know how I feel about nature.” Nina licked muffin crumbs off her fingers and took a long sip of her iced tea.
“Your idea of camping is a suite at the Waldorf Astoria.”
Nina simply grinned, pointing at her face. “This is my, ‘Oh, I’m so ashamed’ look. Your brother had the audacity to suggest we honeymoon on the Alaskan tundra.”
“Doing what?” Kenzie asked curiously.
“Nature crap,” Nina replied with a rich laugh.
“I assume you set him straight.”
“I told him there would be no boom boom without a room. I would never be in the ‘mood’ in the outdoors.”
Kenzie burst out laughing. The last person in the world she would have expected her brother, Scott, to hook up with was Nina. Yet she was thrilled. Nina got to be her legit sister, and life didn’t get better than that.
Nina paused to admire the rock on her finger. Scott had terrific taste. The diamond was marquise-cut with emeralds along the sides.
Kenzie went back to her computer. She had Nina’s photo on the screen and the pictures of wedding gowns on the side bar. She chose a gown to drag over to Nina’s photo and then it happened. The screen pixelated and started to go wonky. Lines appeared, scrolling from side to side and Kenzie half screamed. “No. No. No. Stop. Stop. Stop.”
The screen went blank.
“You hurt it,” Nina said.
“I didn’t do anything. Really.” Kenzie frantically pushed keys, but the screen stayed stubbornly blank. She rubbed her forehead. This wasn’t happening. Not now, when she so needed it to work.
“Can we hit it with a hammer now?” Nina asked, curiously. She bit into her muffin and smiled.
Kenzie didn’t reply. If she’d had a hammer she would.
“Call Reed,” Nina suggested. “Tell him to send someone here right away to save us. You can pull the granddaughter card.” She slid off the stool and headed to the door with a wave. “Got to go. Catch you later.”
“All right,” Kenzie said, reaching for the in-house phone.
* * *
Reed Watson knocked on the door to the suite. From the other side of the door he could hear the menacing sound of someone muttering and snarling. That didn’t sound good.
The door opened and Kenzie Russell stood there in all her beauty, wearing a red wrap dress that hugged her slender body like a glove. She was tall with curves in all the right places. Her brown hair was short and sort of spikey. His heart started racing and a bolt of heat hit him in the gut. And when she smiled at him her whole face lit up and he couldn’t stop staring at her. She was that beautiful.
“Hi,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Kenzie, and you are...?”
“Reed Watson.”
“Oh, I’m so excited to meet you.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him into her suite.
He looked down at her elegant hand in his, liking the way her silky cinnamon-colored skin looked against his whiteness. Please don’t let my palm start sweating. He was reluctant to let her go. He took a deep breath to steady himself and inhaled the subtle scent of vanilla, spiced fig and orchid. She smelled delicious and exotic. He just wanted to bury his nose in her neck. A heated flush crept up his face and he forced himself to turn away and pretend to examine the decor.
The suite itself mirrored his with a living room, dining room and entry on one side and two bedrooms and a galley kitchen on the other, all opening to a balcony and a view of the mountains beyond. “I’m pleased to meet you, as well.”
“You’ve been so elusive I thought you were an urban legend.” She led him toward the dining table with paper scattered across the surface and her open laptop.
“My father has been ill and I needed to be with him.” Chemotherapy did that to a person, but the last test results had shown the cancer in remission and Reed was finally able to get to Reno.
“Miss E. said you had family issues. I’m glad you’re here now—I need your expertise.” She gestured at her laptop. “It just stopped working.”
He sat down at the table and tried to concentrate on the laptop with its blank screen. Anything to distract himself from her. “What’s the problem?”
“It’s broken.”
“Broken in what way?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the expert.”
Okay, he thought. She was not a computer person. He glanced around and saw the disconnected power cord. He plugged it back into the computer, waited a few seconds and pressed the power button, and the laptop sprang back to life. It had just run out of battery power.
“How did you do that?” She stared at the flickering screen, one hand on her hip, the other pointing at the laptop.
“I have techno mojo.” Most computer problems were simple. “It helps to have the power supply hooked up. Your battery ran out of power.”
“That’s all,” she said.
He grinned. “That’s all.”
“So, you’re a computer wizard.” She leaned over his shoulder and slid her slender fingers over the mouse pad.
“I’m a god chained to Earth,” he ended with a chuckle. He pushed the power cord tightly into the laptop.
She laughed. “Well, then, can you use your godlike qualities to make my software work?”
He liked that she liked his humor. “You’re not a technophobe, are you?” he asked.
She frowned at him. “I know how to use my phone. I do everything on my phone.” She held up the newest, top-of-the line iPhone.
“Explain the problem.”
Leaning over his shoulder, she took the mouse and clicked on an icon. “I commissioned this program that will allow our boutique customers to try on clothes in a virtual environment, but the clothes won’t adjust to figures properly and my computer freezes every time I try to drag something over.”
For a moment he couldn’t force his thoughts away from the way her soft skin brushed against his hand. He gulped. No one had told him how beautiful and sexy Kenzie Russell was. The throaty quality of her voice started his heart hammering away. He fought to breathe. Never in his whole adult life had he reacted to a woman like this.
Beautiful women had been throwing themselves at him since he’d made his first ten million. They’d been more attracted to his money than they were to him. At first, he’d been
flattered, but later he’d grown jaded. Kenzie didn’t seem to be looking at him in quite the same way. In fact, at the moment she wasn’t looking at him at all as she frowned at her laptop.
“What do you want your software to do?” he asked when he found his voice again.
“I wanted the software to take a photo of the customer. A salesperson would input measurements and search for appropriate styles depending on what the customer wants.” She waved a hand at the screen. “It seems so simple. Why can’t it be simple?” She frowned at the laptop again.
If software was simple, he might be living in his dad’s basement playing video games. “Who developed the software?”
“A friend of mine knew someone.” She pulled a chair over and sat down next to him.
“The concept sounds interesting.” He studied the laptop screen as she slid her fingers over the mouse pad and tried to show him. The laptop froze and she slapped her hand on the counter. He gently pushed her hand away and unfroze the screen.
“I know,” she said eagerly. “Can you make it work? Miss E. says you can write software in your sleep. She says you can do anything.”
“I don’t know about ‘anything.’” He laughed. “I like to work in my pajamas.”
“You do?” She cast a sidelong glance at him. “I like a man who can joke about wearing his pj’s to work. For me, half the fun of going to work is dressing up.”
“I know you’re all about fashion.” He opened the program again and began clicking through, trying to get a feel for it. From the way the program sputtered and lagged, he knew the code hadn’t been very well written.
“How did you get into computers?” she asked, her dark brown eyes studying him.
“My father took me to a computer show in LA when I was around ten and bought all the components he’d need to build his own, because he figured it would be easy. Except it wasn’t. After a couple hours of grunting and cursing, he started making dinner, and I put the computer together.” Everything had fit exactly the way Reed had envisioned it. His father had been fascinated by Reed’s intuitive understanding of the process.
Drawing Hearts Page 1
