Tessa Radley - The Jarrods, Falling for His Proper Mistress  

and to my son, Guy, I leave ten acres of private land. They compose the meadow, just beyond Willow Lodge. The view overlooks Roaring Fork. It was here that I often came to contemplate life and the choices I had made. Some I have regretted, others I have gladly lived with. It is my hope that you will build a home on this land, a place you will feel is truly your home. And if you are as lucky as I was, youll build that home with someone you deeply love. Make the right decisions in your life, my son, and happiness will find you.

E verything was running smoothly.

Well, almost everything, Guy Jarrod amended as he strode into the cobbled square that lay at the heart of Aspens famous Jarrod Ridge resort.

Erica Prentice, his newly discovered half sister, had sprung the unwelcome news on the family at breakfast this morning that Art Lloyd, one of the Food and Wine Gala speakers, had called yesterday to cancel his appearance because of a bad bout of influenza. Apart from the minor headache of finding someone to replace Art, the annual festival was on track and the tall, snowy-white marquees that lined the square on three sides hummed with activity.

If his old man had been here, even he wouldve admitted that the spectacle was impressive.

Heaviness pressed down on Guys heart. Don Jarrod, his fatherand an Aspen legendwas gone. Forever. Yet Jarrod Ridge remained a monument to his fathers lifes work.

A large shadow floated over Guy. Squinting skyward, he saw awestruck faces peering down at him from baskets that hung below brightly hued balloons drifting lazily across the morning sky. Guys mood lifted and he raised a hand to wave before making for the nearest marquee that, even this early in the day, was already crowded.

He could see Erica huddled next to Gavin, one of his two younger brothers, her finger stabbing the air as she emphasized a point. And over to the right, beside the wine-tasting tent where an early-bird charity auction was already happening, his twin brother, Blake, was talking to

The press of people opened for an instant, long enough for Guy to catch a tantalizing glimpse. He blinked.

It couldnt be.

The crowd shifted again.

It was.

His gaze homed in on an achingly familiar blond head and a petite curvy feminine body that shouldve been nine hundred miles away in California.

His twin bent courteously to hear what the blonde was saying, and Guys eyes narrowed dangerously when her slim hand pushed a pair of designer sunglasses to the top of her head. The action revealed the curve of a cheek hed stroked with his fingertips under the cover of darkness, the corner of a lush, smiling mouth hed kissed until all smiling had ceased and shed moaned instead.

God, he remembered those moans.

Little mewing sounds that had clawed at his groin and made him go wild with hunger.

So what the hell was Avery Lancaster doing staring up at his twin in that intent fashion?

Without conscious thought, Guy began to move, long strides that ate up the ground. All too soon he was looming over the Barbie-blonde who barely reached his shoulder.

She must have sensed his approach. It took only one startled glance from those wide china-blue eyes for Guy to feel the imperceptible tightening of his skin, the rippling of the muscles below. A slight shudder quaked through him before he remembered to breathe and sucked in a lungful of air. Being this close to Avery had always made him feel invincible, like some kind of superhero.

Not anymore.

Yet, for once, Avery looked rattled, too. Guy!

In the month and a halfokay, so hed kept count forty-nine days since hed last seen her, Averys sorcery hadnt diminished a whit. In her absence, Guy had half convinced himself hed imagined it. No woman had that much power.

But standing beside her brought home that he hadnt imagined a thing. A once-over showed that her composure was backif indeed it had ever slipped. Avery looked like shed stepped from the pages of a glossy magazine that would have every female reader rushing to buy the floral dress she wore. Her soft honey-gold skin tempted his touch. Only the blond tendrils that had escaped the restraining sunglasses broke the model-like perfection and made her look tousledand very, very kissable.