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  Charlotte braced both hands against Roman’s shoulders.

  “Your staying is not a good idea.”

  “Then why does it feel like one?”

  Waves of sensation rushed through her. “It feels good because there’s nothing rational about sex. But I’m being rational now. You can’t stay because you came over here to say good-bye.”

  “And then I kissed you and realized there’s no way in hell I can walk away.”

  “What? What are you saying?”

  “There’s always been something between us. Something that won’t go away.” His blue eyes stared into hers. “If you’ve got the guts to take the risk and see where it leads, then so do I.”

  “Ms. Phillips gives her fans something extra in her scrumptious tales that makes them keeper status.”

  —Rendezvous

  “Carly Phillips writes the best in hot, sexy romance today. … It’s impossible to put her books down.”

  —AOL Writers Club Romance Group

  Copyright

  WARNER BOOKS EDITION

  Copyright © 2002 by Karen Drogin

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Warner Books, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

  First eBook Edition: August 2003

  ISBN: 978-0-7595-2819-2

  To Mom and Dad for making me believe I could do anything.

  To Phil, who loves and supports me through everything.

  And to Jackie and Jen, who make it all worthwhile.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  Special Thanks

  Prologue

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Epilogue

  Special eBook Feature: Insights and Excerpts of Carly Phillips

  A Preview of "The infinite appeal of small towns"

  A Preview of "A step in the right direction"

  A Preview of "THE HEARTBREAKER"

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  A Preview of "THE PLAYBOY"

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  Acknowledgments

  To the people who made this book possible: Maureen Walters, agent extraordinaire, who believed in me from day one.

  Beth De Guzman, for welcoming me with open arms; and Karen Kosztolnyik, for making the experience the best I could hope for!

  Special Thanks

  Thanks to the people who contributed their knowledge and answered endless questions: Lynda Sue Cooper, the cop expert, and Terri Hall, journalism expert. Any errors or fabrications are mine alone.

  And last but by no means least, to the best critique partners a girl could have. To Kathy Attalla for your plotting brilliance and Janelle Denison for your panty thief expertise—without your endless patience and willingness to reread, I’d have lost it a long time ago!

  Prologue

  You’re fit, Mrs. Chandler. The cardiogram is normal and so is your blood pressure. Nothing more than a bad case of indigestion. An antacid, some rest, and you should be fine.” The doctor slipped her stethoscope around her neck and made another notation in the chart.

  Relief flowed through Raina Chandler as strong as the pain had ripped through her earlier. The fiery sensation in her chest and arm had caught her off guard. Ever since losing her husband to a heart attack at age thirty-seven, Raina had never taken unexpected pain lightly. She’d become health-conscious, watched her weight, and started an exercise routine of brisk walking she’d kept up through this very day.

  At the first twinge of pain, she’d picked up the phone and called her oldest son. Not even the bad memories of sterile, antiseptic hospital smells or the depressing graying walls could deter her from taking care of her health. She had a mission to accomplish before she left this earth.

  She glanced at the attractive young doctor who had met her at the Emergency Room. Any woman who looked good in drab hospital green had potential. “You’re new to this town, aren’t you?” But Raina already knew the answer before the other woman nodded.

  She knew everyone in Yorkshire Falls, population 1,723, soon to be 1,724, when the editor of the local section of the Yorkshire Falls Gazette and his wife had their baby. Her general practitioner had been Dr. Eric Fallon, a close friend for years. Widowed like herself, Eric only recently had succumbed to the desire to enjoy life more and work less. As Eric’s new partner, Dr. Leslie Gaines was his answer to less stress.

  She was new to town, and from Raina’s perspective that made her not just interesting, but fresh, potential wife material for her jaded sons. “Are you married?” Raina asked. “I hope you don’t mind my prying, but I’ve got three single sons, and—”

  The doctor chuckled. “I’ve only been here a few weeks and already your sons’ reputations precede them, Mrs. Chandler.”

  Raina’s chest swelled with pride. They were good men, her boys. They were her greatest joy and recently the source of continued frustration. Chase, her oldest, Rick, the town’s favorite cop, and Roman, her foreign correspondent and the baby brother, who was currently in London covering an economic summit.

  “Now, Mrs. Chandler—”

  “Raina,” she corrected and studied the good doctor. Nice laugh, sense of humor, and a protective nature. Raina immediately discounted the woman physician as a mate for Roman or Rick.

  Her no-nonsense demeanor would bore Roman and a doctor’s hours would clash with Officer Rick’s. But she could be just the right woman for her oldest son, Chase. Since taking over as publisher of the Yorkshire Falls Gazette for his father almost twenty years earlier, he’d become much too serious, bossy, and overprotective. Thank God he had his father’s handsome, chiseled face to make a decent first impression before he opened his mouth and started taking control. Good thing women loved a protective man and most single women in this town would marry Chase in a heartbeat. He was handsome, as were Rick and Roman.

  Her goal was to marry off all three of her boys, and she would. But first they had to desire more from a woman than sex. Not that there was anything wrong with sex; in fact, it could be more than pleasant, she thought, remembering. But it was her sons’ mind-set that presented her with a problem. They were men.

  And having raised them, Raina knew exactly how they thought. They rarely wanted any female for more than one night. The lucky women lasted a month, no longer. Finding willing women wasn’t the issue. With the Chandler good looks and appeal, women fell at their feet. But men, her sons included, wanted what they couldn’t have, and her boys had too much, too easily.

  The lure of the forbidden and the fun of the chase was gone. Why should a man consider until death do us part when he had women willing to give it up without commitment? It wasn’t that Raina didn’t understand today’s generation. She did. But she’d also loved the trappings of a family life—and was smart enough to hold out for the whole package.

  But in today’s world, a woman had to offer a man a challenge. Excitement. And even then, Raina sensed her boys would balk. Chandler men needed a special woman to pique their interest and keep it. Raina sighed. How ironic that
she, a woman who held marriage and children as her ideal, raised three sons who thought the word bachelor was sacred. With their attitudes she’d never have the grandchildren she desired. They’d never have the happiness they deserved.

  “Some instructions, Raina.” The doctor snapped her chart closed and glanced up. “I’d suggest keeping a bottle of antacid in the house, in case of emergencies. Often a cup of tea is the best remedy.”

  “No more late-night pizza deliveries, then?” She met the younger woman’s amused gaze.

  “I’m afraid not. You’ll have to find another way of entertaining yourself.”

  Raina pursed her lips. The things she endured for her future. For her boys. Speaking of whom, Chase and Rick would be back any second and the doctor hadn’t answered the most pressing question. Raina let her gaze slide up the doctor’s slender physique. “I don’t mean to push, but …”

  Dr. Gaines grinned, obviously still amused. “I’m married. And even if I weren’t, I’m sure your sons would appreciate finding their own women.”

  Raina tamped down her disappointment, then waved her hand in the air in response. “As if my boys would ever find their own women. Or should I say wives. Nothing short of a life-or-death emergency would force them to pick one woman and settle down. …” Raina’s voice trailed off as the import of her own words sank in.

  Life-or-death emergency. The only thing that would convince her sons of the necessity to get married. Her life-or-death emergency.

  As the plan began to form, Raina’s conscience begged her to dismiss the idea. It was cruel to lead her sons to believe she was ill. On the other hand, it was for their own good. They couldn’t deny her anything, not when she truly needed them, and by playing on their good natures, she’d ultimately be leading them to happily ever after. Not that they’d know or appreciate it at first.

  She gnawed on her lip. It was a risk. But without grandchildren, loneliness loomed large in her future, just as, without a wife or family, it loomed large for her sons. She wanted more for them than empty homes and emptier lives—the kind of life she’d had since her husband died.

  “Doctor, my diagnosis here … it’s confidential?”

  The younger woman shot her a slanted glance. No doubt she was used to that question with only the most dire of cases. Raina checked her watch. She was running out of time before the boys returned. Her newly formulated plan as well as her family’s future depended upon the woman’s answer, and Raina waited, tapping her foot impatiently.

  “Yes, it’s confidential,” Dr. Gaines said with a good-natured laugh.

  Raina relaxed a bit more. She hugged her cotton hospital gown closer. “Good. I’m sure you don’t want to have to evade my sons’ questions, so, thank you for everything.” She extended her hand for a polite shake, when she really wanted to shove the other woman through the curtain before the cavalry arrived with pointed questions.

  “It was a pleasure and an experience meeting you. Dr. Fallon will be back in the office tomorrow. If you have any problems before then, don’t hesitate to call.”

  “Oh, I won’t,” Raina said.

  “So what’s the story?” Rick, the middle child no one had ever been able to ignore, barreled through the drawn curtain with Chase on his heels. Rick’s brash nature echoed his mother’s personality. His dark brown hair and hazel eyes resembled Raina’s before her hairdresser had gotten hold and changed her to a honey-blond to obliterate the gray.

  In contrast, Roman and Chase were the bookends with jet-black hair and blazing blue eyes. Both her oldest and youngest were the spitting image of their father. Their imposing builds and dark hair never failed to remind her of John. Only their personalities were uniquely their own.

  Chase stood in front of his agitated sibling and faced the doctor head-on. “What’s going on?”

  “I think your mother’s condition is something she’d like to explain herself,” the doctor said, then slipped beyond the awful multicolored curtain.

  Ignoring the tug of guilt in favor of the greater good, and assuring herself they’d thank her in the end, Raina blinked back tears and placed a shaky hand over her heart. Then she explained her frail health and long-standing desire to her sons.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Roman Chandler glared at his oldest brother, or more accurately he glared at the quarter in Chase’s right hand. After getting the phone call about his mother’s heart problem, Roman had grabbed the first flight out of London. He’d flown into JFK Airport, taken a connecting flight to Albany, and then rented a car so he could drive an hour to his hometown of Yorkshire Falls, just outside of Saratoga Springs, New York. He was so tired even his bones ached from sheer exhaustion.

  And now he could add stress to his problems. Thanks to his mother’s heart condition, one of the Chandler brothers would have to sacrifice his freedom in order to provide Raina with a grandchild. A coin toss would decide which brother would shoulder the burden, but only Rick and Roman would be involved. Having already done his family duty by giving up college to run the paper and help his mother raise his younger brothers, Chase wouldn’t take part in the toss—despite his argument to the contrary. He’d wanted things equal. Rick and Roman had insisted he opt out.

  He’d play executioner instead.

  “Call it. Heads or tails,” Chase said.

  Roman glanced at the unpainted ceiling, toward the upstairs of his childhood home where his mother was resting, as per doctor’s orders. Meanwhile, he and his brothers stood waiting on the dusty, dirt-smeared floor of the garage that was attached to the family house. The same garage where they’d stored their bikes and balls as kids, and where Roman had snuck beers when he thought his older brothers weren’t around. And the same house they’d been raised in and their mother still held on to, thanks to Chase’s hard work and his success with the newspaper.

  “Come on, guys, someone call it,” Chase said in the wake of the surrounding silence.

  “You don’t have to sound like you’re enjoying this,” Rick muttered.

  “You think I’m enjoying this?” Chase twisted the coin between his fingers, frustration tugging at his lips. “That’s bullshit. I sure as hell don’t want to see either of you lose the life you chose just because of some whim.”

  Roman was certain his oldest brother felt so strongly because Chase hadn’t chosen his own life path. Instead he’d been thrust into the dual roles of publisher and parent overnight. At seventeen and the oldest sibling when their father died, Chase had felt a duty to take his father’s place as head of the family. And that was the motivating factor for Roman’s participation in the coin toss now. Roman had been the one to leave Yorkshire Falls and follow his dreams, while Chase had stayed behind and given up his.

  Both Roman and Rick looked to Chase as their role model. If Chase thought their mother’s dire health and her deep desire for a grandchild warranted a sacrifice, then Roman had to agree. Not only did he owe his brother, he shared the same sense of devotion to family.

  “It’s no whim Mom suffered,” Roman said to his siblings. “She said it’s a weak heart that can’t handle stress.”

  “Or disappointment,” Rick said. “Mom didn’t use that word, but you know damn well she meant it. We’ve disappointed her.”

  Roman nodded in agreement. “So if grandchildren will make her happy, then it’s up to one of us to give her one to coddle while she’s still around to enjoy being a grandmother.”

  “Knowing one of us is happily married will take the edge off that stress she’s supposed to avoid,” Chase said. “And a grandchild will give her life direction.”

  “Can’t we just get her a puppy?” Rick asked.

  Roman understood the sentiment. At thirty-one, his lifestyle precluded settling down. Marriage and family hadn’t been in the future. Until now. It wasn’t that Roman didn’t like women. He did. Hell, he loved women, how they smelled and how their soft skin felt gliding against his aroused body. But he couldn’t imagine giving up his career in favor of looki
ng at the same female face across the breakfast table every day for the rest of his life. He shuddered, amazed that his life choices had come down to this one moment.

  He turned to his middle brother. “Rick, you’ve tied the knot once. No need to do it again.” Though Roman had no desire to announce himself the man for the job, he couldn’t let his sibling repeat his past—marrying to help someone else while sacrificing himself in the process.

  Rick shook his head. “Wrong, baby brother. I’ll take part in the coin toss. Last time has nothing to do with this. This is about family.”

  Roman understood. The Chandlers were all about family. So he was back to where they left off. Would he return to his job as foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, continue to land in political hot spots and get the untold stories out to the rest of the world, or would he settle down in Yorkshire Falls the way he’d never planned? Though sometimes Roman wasn’t sure whose dream he was actually pursuing—his, Chase’s, or a combination of both—Roman lived in fear of replicating his brother’s life, of being closed in with no options.

  But despite his churning stomach, he was ready and nodded in Chase’s direction. “Get it over with.”

  “Whatever you say.” Chase flipped the coin high into the air.

  Roman inclined his head toward Rick, giving him the choice, and Rick called out, “Heads.”

  As if in slow motion, the quarter circled and flew in the air. Roman’s carefree life passed before his eyes the same way: the women he’d met and flirted with, the special ones who’d lasted long enough to constitute a relationship but not a life mate, the occasional hot, steamy encounter, less often now that he was older and more discriminating.

  The sound of Chase’s palm slapping against his hand stunned Roman back into reality. He met his oldest brother’s solemn gaze.