Jill Shalvis - Simply Irresistible

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright 2010 by Jill Shalvis

Excerpt from The Sweetest Thing copyright 2010 by Jill Shalvis

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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First eBook Edition: October 2010

ISBN: 978-0-446-57646-8

A few snowflakes floated down, soft and lazily spinning in the wind, and through them Jax cocked his head, watching her as if something about her didnt quite add up for him.

She could have told him not to bother trying to figure her out. No one had managed yet, not even herself.

You okay?

Working on it, she said and gave him a small smile. It was hard not tohe just had that kind of face.

He returned the smile and stepped a little closer to her, which was when she discovered several things.

He smelled good. Guy good. As in, she wanted to inhale him. Her body tingled, suddenly brought to a hyper-awareness that felt almost foreign.

Desire. Bone-melting desire.

When she opened her eyes again, he was even closer, and his eyes werent the solid warm caramel shed thought but had flecks of gold dancing in them, as well. She could have happily, willingly, drowned in all that deliciousness. Death by deliciousness.

Not a bad way to go.

__________

Jill Shalvis is a total original! It doesnt get any better.

S UZANNE F ORSTER ,
New York Times bestselling author

Shalvis thoroughly engages readers.

Publishers Weekly

Jill Shalvis has the incredible talent of creating characters who are intelligent, quick-witted, and gorgeously sexy, all the while giving them just the right amount of weakness to keep them from being unrealistically perfect.

RomanceJunkies.com

Ms. Shalviss characters leap off the page.

RT Book Reviews

Shalviss writing is a perfect trifecta of win: hilarious dialogue, evocative and real characters, and settings that are as much a part of the story as the hero and heroine. Ive never been disappointed by a Shalvis book.

SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com

A Jill Shalvis hero is the stuff naughty dreams are made of.

VICKI LEWIS THOMPSON, New York Times
bestselling author of Chick with a Charm

Witty, fun, and sexythe perfect romance!

LORI FOSTER, New York Times
bestselling author of Back in Black

Fast-paced and deliciously fun. Jill Shalvis sweeps you away!

CHERRY ADAIR, New York Times
bestselling author of Black Magic

Riveting suspense laced with humor and heart is her hallmark and Jill Shalvis always delivers.

DONNA KAUFFMAN, USA Today
bestselling author of Some Like It Scot

A fun, hot, sexy story of the redemptive powers of love. Jill Shalvis sizzles.

JOANN ROSS, New York Times
bestselling author of The Homecoming

To another middle child, the middle sister,
the middle everything. To Megan, the peacemaker,
the warrior princess, the fierce, loyal protector
of our hearts.

I chose the path less traveled,
but only because I was lost. Carry a map.

PHOEBE TRAEGER

M addie drove the narrow, curvy highway with her past still nipping at her heels after fourteen hundred miles. Not even her dependable Honda had been able to outrun her demons.

Or her own failings.

Good thing, then, that she was done with failing. Please be done with failing, she thought.

Come on, listeners, the disc jockey said jovially on the radio. Call in with your Christmas hopes and dreams. Well be picking a random winner and making a wish come true.

Youre kidding me. Maddie briefly took her eyes off the mountainous road and flicked a glance at the dash. Its one day after Thanksgiving. Its not time for Christmas.

Any wish, the DJ said. Name it, and it could be yours.

As if. But she let out a breath and tried for whimsy. Once upon a time, shed been good at such things. Maddie Moore, you were raised on movie setsfake the damn whimsy. Fine. Ill wish for What? That she couldve had a do-over with her mother before Phoebe Traeger had gone to the ultimate Grateful Dead concert in the sky? That Maddie had dumped her ex far sooner than she had? That her bossmay he choke on his leftover turkeyhad waited until after year-end bonuses to fire her?

The lines are lit up, the DJ announced. Best of luck to all of you out there waiting.

Hey, maybe thats what shed wish forluck. Shed wish for better luck than shed had: with family, with a job, with men

Well, maybe not men. Men she was giving up entirely. Pausing from that thought, she squinted through the fog to read the first road sign shed seen in a while.

WELCOME TO LUCKY HARBOR!

Home to 2,100 lucky people

And 10,100 shellfish

About time. Exercising muscles she hadnt utilized in too long, she smiled, and in celebration of arriving at her designated destination, she dug into the bag of salt and vinegar potato chips at her side. Chips cured just about everything, from the I-lost-my-job blues, to the my-boyfriend-was-a-jerk regrets, to the tentatively hopeful celebration of a new beginning.

A new beginning done right, she said out loud, because everyone knew that saying it out loud made it true. You hear that, karma? She glanced upward through her slightly leaky sunroof into a dark sky, where storm clouds tumbled together like a dryer full of gray wool blankets. This time, Im going to be strong. Like Katharine Hepburn. Like Ingrid Bergman. So go torture someone else and leave me alone.

A bolt of lightning blinded her, followed by a boom of thunder that nearly had her jerking out of her skin. Okay, so I meant pretty please leave me alone.

The highway in front of her wound its way alongside a cliff on her right, which probably hid more wildlife than this affirmed city girl wanted to think about. Far below the road on her left, the Pacific Ocean pitched and rolled, fog lingering in long, silvery fingers on the frothy water.

Gorgeous, all of it, but what registered more than anything was the silence. No horns blaring while jockeying for position in the clogged fast lane, no tension-filled offices where producers and directors shouted at each other. No ex-boyfriends who yelled to release steam. Or worse.

No anger at all, in fact.

Just the sound of the radio and her own breathing. Delicious, glorious silence.

As unbelievable as it seemed, shed never driven through the mountains before. She was here now only because, shockingly, her mothers will had listed property in Washington State. More shockingly, Maddie had been left one-third of that property, a place called Lucky Harbor Resort.

Raised by her set-designer dad in Los Angeles, Maddie hadnt seen her mother more than a handful of times since hed taken custody of her at age five, so the will had been a huge surprise. Her dad had been just as shocked as she, and so had her two half-sisters, Tara and Chloe. Since there hadnt been a memorial servicePhoebe had specifically not wanted onethe three sisters had agreed to meet at the resort.