The Bachelor

Eric’s proposition caught Jenny off guard. Oh, if only you knew, she thought. She brought her attention back to the situation at hand.

This was a bad idea. But it wasn’t about her. This was about a bachelor auction for charity and she had to think less like an adolescent with her first crush and more like a mature adult.

A woman who turned to mush while looking into the warm, chocolate-brown eyes she could easily get lost in.

Exercising tremendous self-control, Jenny forced herself to remember what she had to do later that day. “Sounds good to me,” she said, slowly peeling the words off the roof of her mouth one by one.

Jenny looked away from Eric’s smiling face. She had to. There was no other way she could possibly regain the use of her legs.

MARIE FERRARELLA

This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author has written almost two hundred novels for Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide.

Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.

Be a part of

Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.

She had a crush on a billionaire playboy who had no intention of settling down…or so she thought.

Jenny Hall: She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t love Eric Logan. But when her colleagues bought her a dream date with him, she found herself tongue-tied—and wondering how their worlds would connect.

Eric Logan: On a break from his life of fast jets and corporate boardrooms, Eric strutted his stuff at a bachelor auction…and became sweet Jenny Hall’s date for one night. As he entered her world, he realized his bachelor days were numbered!

Who’s the mysterious woman at the bachelor auction? Peter Logan can’t take his eyes off her…and has no idea that this beauty will soon make a serious impression on his heart.

Because birthright has its privileges and family ties run deep.

AVAILABLE JUNE 2010

1.) To Love and Protect by Susan Mallery

2.) Secrets & Seductions by Pamela Toth

3.) Royal Affair by Laurie Paige

4.) For Love and Family by Victoria Pade

AVAILABLE JULY 2010

5.) The Bachelor by Marie Ferrarella

6.) A Precious Gift by Karen Rose Smith

7.) Child of Her Heart by Cheryl St.John

8.) Intimate Surrender by RaeAnne Thayne

AVAILABLE AUGUST 2010

9.) The Secret Heir by Gina Wilkins

10.) The Newlyweds by Elizabeth Bevarly

11.) Right by Her Side by Christie Ridgway

12.) The Homecoming by Anne Marie Winston

AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2010

13.) The Greatest Risk by Cara Colter

14.) What a Man Needs by Patricia Thayer

15.) Undercover Passion by Raye Morgan

16.) Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton

To the dreamers.

Never give up.

Contents

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

One

E laine Winthrop Hall hooked her Donna Karanclad arm through her daughter’s, and accompanied her into the living room. Jenny knew her mother was trying hard to keep from commenting on Jenny’s shapeless sweatshirt and her small apartment.

Jenny called the room cozy; her mom called it tiny, pointing out that she had bigger walk-in closets. But square-footage meant nothing to Jenny.

Neither, her mother was always quick to interject, did prestige, breeding and other people’s opinions. People who counted.

Elaine’s perfectly made-up eyes slanted a glance at the small four-year-old boy who sat on the carpet in the middle of the room, silently playing with an imaginary friend. Jenny knew Cole was the reason she’d come to these crammed quarters, to once more try to talk some sense into her “obstinate” daughter’s head.

The woman didn’t have to speak for Jenny to know what was on her mind. It was all fine and good to let your heart rule once in a while, she’d say, but that should involve the matter of men over the height of three feet, not small “anchors” that would only get in the way of the family’s best-laid plans for the future of their only daughter.

Elaine finally spoke, modulating her voice to something that could pass as a stage whisper. “He’s not your problem, Jennifer,” she insisted not for the first time. “He’s not your responsibility.”

It had been a very long, very stressful day, following on the heels of other equally long, equally stressful days. Jenny surprised herself by finding an untapped vein of patience. She always tried to keep an ample supply under the heading of “Mother,” but she’d been pretty certain that she’d exhausted the allotment on their last visit.

Nice to know some of the patience had managed to regenerate itself.

“He is not a problem,” Jenny told her mother softly but firmly. “And he is my responsibility. I gave my word to a dying woman.”

This was not news to her mother. Jenny had already said as much several times over when she’d explained to both of her parents why she was adopting the once sunny child. Jenny studied her mother’s perfectly made-up face, searching for a hint that the milk of human kindness was not a myth, but existed within the breast of the woman she, despite so many shortcomings, really did love.

She tried again. For the umpteenth time. “What would you have me do, Mother, go back on that? Go back on my word? You were the one who taught me to honor my commitments, remember?”

The woman sighed. “To honor them, yes, but you keep this up and you’ll be the one being committed. To an institution.” She glanced again at the little boy and shook her head. “There are places for children like Cole. Lots of people would love to adopt him. He’s still viable.”

“Viable?” Jenny stared at her mother in disbelief. “He’s not a plant, Mother, he’s a little boy. A little boy who’s been through a great deal, who saw his mother die.” What did it take for her mother to finally get it? She was Cole’s last chance. If she couldn’t get through that protective wall he’d constructed around himself, no one could. “You want me to run out on him, too?”

Elaine pressed her lips together. Jenny knew her mother didn’t like coming off as a villainness, but the woman had been shaped by decades of adhering to rules and regulations about what was permissible and proper, all of which prevented her from even leaning toward her daughter’s side.

Casting the boy a glance, the older woman said, “I’m not saying run out on him exactly, just give him to a family. A traditional family.” Jenny knew that her mother had never approved of one-parent families. In Elaine Hall’s world, you began with a husband and wife, then you introduced children into the setting. Anything else was unpardonable. Her mother had nearly had apoplexy when she’d told her about adopting Cole.

“You know, Jenny,” the woman continued, “You’re not SuperWoman.”

Jenny hated having limits applied to her, hated all the rules her mother lived by. They were like something from another century. “Just because you don’t want me to be doesn’t mean it’s not so.”

Elaine paused, looked at her oddly, then shook her head. “You always could confuse me with your rhetoric.”

Jenny grinned. “Call it a self-defense mechanism.” Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she’d skipped lunch and the dinner hour had already arrived and was in jeopardy of leaving. “If you wanted to browbeat me, Mother, you could have e-mailed.”

Her mother frowned, transforming her attractive face into a weary one. “What I want is for my daughter to find her rightful place in the world.”

Translation, Jenny thought, what her mother deemed to be a rightful place. They were worlds apart when it came to that. Her mother didn’t approve of Jenny’s career, her apartment, her almost monastic lifestyle. Not that the latter had much appeal for her, either, but until they found a way to create more hours in the day, dating and men were just going to have to stay on the back burner.

Jenny tried to keep her voice cheerful. “News flash, I have.”

“What?” Elaine fisted her hands at her waist and forgot all about her stage whisper. Cole looked her way and she dropped her voice an octave. “In that awful legal aid firm, housed in a building with faulty electrical wiring and bad plumbing?”

Trust her mother to hone in on the bad points. But the firm had to be where the poor people were, not in some upscale building in the best part of Portland. “We took the landlord to court over that,” she informed her mother, then added proudly, “and won.”

“What is wrong with being a lawyer in a respectable, well-known firm? What’s wrong with trying to make money?”

Jenny straightened the newspaper she’d left in disarray that morning. Other than that, nothing was out of place in the apartment. Cole was in preschool most of the day. When Sandra, her baby-sitter brought him home, Cole rarely touched any of the toys Jenny had bought for him. They remained in the toy box, leaving her nothing to tidy up now. She was forced to look at her mother as she fought the good fight and tried to remind herself that she wasn’t ten years old anymore.

“Nothing is wrong with making money,” she replied. “I’m trying to make it for my clients.”

Elaine’s frown deepened. “I meant for yourself.”

“I don’t need much money.” Leaving Cole in the living room, she moved into the kitchen, several steps away, and began getting out dishes in anticipation of calling out for a pizza. Her mother had arrived just as she was about to dial the phone, postponing the order. “Haven’t you heard, Mother? The best things in life are free.”

Elaine scoffed. “It wasn’t true when Al Jolson sang it, and it’s not true now.” A note of desperation entered the woman’s voice. “This is breaking my heart, Jennifer. You’re wasting your talent and your life.”

Jenny felt sorry for her mother. They were never going to see eye to eye about this. “My life, Mother, my talent.”

Elaine closed her eyes, momentarily retreating. “Your brother told me this was a waste of time.”

At the mention of Jordan, Jenny grinned again. She needed to get in touch with him and soon. “My brother, at times, is wise beyond his years.” She thought of a way to usher her mother out without resorting to anything physical. “Want to stay for dinner? I was just about to order a pizza.”

Elaine cringed. A pizza had yet to ever cross her perfectly shaped lips. “I have an engagement.”

This time it was Jenny who hooked her arm through her mother’s and very gently escorted her toward the door. “Of course you do. Don’t let me keep you from it.” Separating herself from her mother, she opened the door. “Your mission was a failure, Mother, but it was nice seeing you.”

Crossing the threshold, Elaine paused long enough to turn around and shake her head. “Do you realize that there are girls who would kill to have your background and opportunities?”

And if she didn’t, Jenny thought, there was her mother to remind her. Endlessly. To her credit, she didn’t roll her eyes. “By all means, Mother, give it to one of them before someone gets hurt.”

Elaine drew herself up. “Everything isn’t a joke, Jennifer.”

“No,” she admitted, although heaven knew both her parents could do with a little more humor in their lives, “but if you smile, you can get through anything.” She leaned forward and brushed a dutiful kiss against her mother’s cheek. “Smile once in a while, Mother. It keeps the lines at bay.” And then, straightening, Jenny took pity on her mother. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m chairing the annual bachelor auction again for the Parents Adoption Network. Some of your society ladies are bound to be there, drooling over the eligible studs who’ll be parading around.”

Elaine’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be vulgar, Jennifer. A lady doesn’t drool.”

Jenny held up an index finger, begging to differ. “A lady doesn’t let anyone see her drool,” she corrected with a grin.

In the face of undeniable defeat, Elaine squared her shoulders, a determined soldier to the end. “You are impossible.”

Jenny cocked her head. “Yes, but I love you and you’ve got another one at home to work your magic on.”

“Jordan doesn’t live at home, Jennifer. He hasn’t for years now. You know that.”

Her mother had always been a stickler for precision. “Figure of speech, Mother,” she said as she began to close the door.

Elaine stopped her for one last-minute order. “Eat something.”

Jenny held up her right hand, taking a solemn oath. “The moment they deliver it,” she promised, then closed the door quickly just in case her mother changed her mind and found something else to criticize. She leaned against it, looking out toward the living room and Cole. “That woman spreads joy whenever she goes.” She sighed, straightening, then walked into the living room. “She doesn’t mean anything by it, Cole. She’s really got a good heart. It’s just hard to find under all those layers of designer clothes and jewels.”

She glanced through the window. It faced the parking area and she could see her mother getting into her car, assisted by the chauffeur. Jenny tried to remember if she’d ever seen her mother actually driving a car, but couldn’t.

“It’s true what they say, you know, the rich are different from you and me.” She nodded as if the boy had responded. It was something she did each evening in the hopes that someday she could coax more than a word or two at a time out of him. A precocious little boy, he’d talked all day long—until his mother had died. “Right, I know what you’re thinking. That I’m one of them, but I’m not. You can’t hold the accident of birth against me, you know. I didn’t ask to be part of the elite and I got out as soon as I could.”

Which was true. She never felt as if she fit into her parents’ world, not really. The girls her mother wanted her to socialize with were so shallow, so vapid. She had more of an affinity for the people she was trying to help, but she didn’t quite fit in their world, either. Jenny sighed quietly. There were times that she felt like a fish with feet. She could swim in one world and walk in the other, but fit in neither.

“The privileged think just that—that it’s a privilege for anyone else to look upon them. They don’t realize that floating from cocktail party to cocktail party around the world doesn’t lead you to discover the true meaning of life.”

Cole merely went on playing with his imaginary friend as if she hadn’t said anything at all, but she tried to convince herself that the sound of her voice was comforting to him somehow. She remembered the boy he had been until six months ago, a bright, sunny child who laughed all the time. But he had been very attached to Rachel and her death had hit him very hard.

Almost right after the funeral, when the death had finally sunk in, he withdrew from the world. He hardly spoke at all, but he screamed in his nightmares, calling for Rachel, pitifully sobbing out “Mommy” over and over again.

She would rush into his room and hold him until he’d fallen back asleep again, her own heart breaking. Someday, Jenny promised herself, someday, she was going to reach him. Until then, she would go on being there for Cole.

Jenny glanced at the kitchen table where the file she’d brought home lay spread out, covering every square inch of surface. She was in the middle of a court battle on behalf of Miguel Ortiz. If she won, it would go a long way to easing the man’s life. It would never, barring a miracle, put him back on his feet again, or free him from the endless pain he’d been subjected to ever since a highly respected and highly inebriated surgeon had worked less than magic on his spine, but it would pay for Miguel’s bills and allow the man to regain some measure of self-respect.

They were getting closer to the end now. For the last five weeks, she’d done nothing but eat, sleep and breathe the case, but she needed to steal a little time for herself. And she could think of nothing better than creating a tiny island of time where she could share herself with the one person who truly mattered to her. Cole.

Bending over, she gathered the towhead into her arms and drew him close as she stood up again. Jenny kissed the top of the boy’s head.

“Don’t you worry about what the Wicked Witch of the West said. I’ll always be here to take care of you. You and me against the world, kid, right?” He raised his head to look at her with Rachel’s soft green eyes, his expression never changing. “Of course right,” she murmured softly. “C’mon, we’ll order that pizza and then I’ll read you a story. I think we both need to unwind after that surprise visit.”

In her heart, she knew her mother meant well. For that matter, both of her parents did. But there was no way she was going to give up any part of her life. She loved being a champion for people who had all but lost hope. And she loved Cole. More than anything, she wanted to be a mother to him.

If there was a part of her life that didn’t feel quite right, that felt as if there was something missing, like a supportive prince to turn to in times when her spirits flagged and she desperately needed bolstering, well, whose life was perfect anyway? Hers was close to it as far as she was concerned, and that was enough.

Juggling the child and the phone, she placed her call to the local pizza parlor. On a first-name basis with most of the people who worked there, she asked Angelo for an extra large pizza with extra cheese and three kinds of meat. He promised to deliver it within the half hour.

“There,” she told Cole, hanging up, “that should hold us.”

Going to the small bookcase in the corner, she selected a book she knew was a favorite of Cole’s and sat down in the oversized recliner. She took a moment to nestle Cole on her lap and then started reading.

Slowly, the tension began to drain out of her.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun,” Jordan Hall urged his best friend, Eric Logan.

He had to raise his voice in order to be heard over the rhythmic whack of the handball as it bounced against the far wall in the exclusive gym where they both had a membership. He and Eric were evenly matched and he had to concentrate in order not to lose the game. Not an easy feat when he was preoccupied with subtly laying the foundations of a plan.

He’d come up with the plan after getting off the phone with his mother. Elaine Hall had been bewailing the fact that, when Jennifer finally ventured out into the arena to which she had been born, it had to be for a deplorable bachelor auction.

“Of course it’s for charity and that’s all well and good,” his mother had said to him, “but when is that sister of yours ever going to think about finding a suitable match for herself and finally settle down the way she’s supposed to?”

It was the same refrain that his mother harassed him with. The same one, he knew, that Eric’s mother, Leslie, occasionally played for him. Ordinarily, it would have gone in one ear and out the other, like a good many of the other one-way conversations his mother had had with him, except that this one had struck a chord. It had melded with one other piece of information in his brain that he was fairly certain no one else was privy to. He knew for a fact that Jenny had once had a major crush on Eric.

For all he knew, she still might.

In any event, the thought of the upcoming bachelor auction had led him to formulate an idea. Jenny was always about work and had completely forgotten how to play. In his less than humble opinion, his sister was in serious need of play. And he wanted to deliver it to her.

This was phase one.

“Fun,” Eric snorted as he returned the serve, sending the ball slamming against the wall and then directly at Jordan. “Being paraded like a piece of meat in front of a room full of bored, aging society matrons with checkbooks is your idea of fun?”

“No, being paraded in front of the daughters of bored, aging society matrons with checkbooks of their own is fun,” Jordan corrected, leaping up to reach the ball and send it shooting back toward the wall. “I’ve taken part in one of these auctions before. Trust me, it’s for a very good cause and it fulfills your charity quota for at least six months.”

A charity quota was the last thing Eric felt he needed to fill. “I gave at the office,” he quipped, returning the serve. Despite the glove, his palm stung as he made contact.

They both knew his comeback was true. Everyone in Eric’s family was dedicated, in varying degrees, to the concept of charity. Although Eric himself was seen as the carefree one in the family, a charming, desirable, eligible bachelor who was part of the vast Logan Corporation, a company that had long been near the top of the computer empire thanks to certain innovations and technology they’d developed, he was as serious about doing his part for charity as the rest, just not as visible about it. But Jordan knew that his friend had an affinity for the underdog and secretly did what he could to help things along.

That gave his best friend something in common with Jenny, Jordan thought. And he was counting on that to pave the way for an evening his little sister both deserved and wouldn’t soon forget.

First, however, he needed to get Eric there.

“Give a little more,” Jordan coaxed, his voice straining. He’d almost lost that last serve and struggled to recover it.

Sweat was pouring into Eric’s sweatband. The terry cloth fabric felt as if it was glued to his forehead. He went long, captured the ball and sent it hurtling back to the wall.

“Why the sudden interest in my participation in this beefcake extravaganza?”

“My sister’s chairing it.” Jordan sneaked a side glance at Eric, but the latter’s expression gave no indication that he even remembered Jenny. That could have just been his involvement in the game, since Eric always played to win. “And I thought I’d be a good big brother and recruit a few men for her. Besides,” he said with a grin, “misery loves company.”

With one mighty whack, Eric sent the ball flying over Jordan’s shoulder. Triumph surged through his veins. The point was his.

Sports was the only field in which he allowed his natural sense of competition to emerge. God knew it wasn’t at work. There his older brother Peter was the fair-haired boy, the company CEO to his department VP now that their father had retired. He’d become thoroughly convinced that Peter never slept. His older brother was there in the morning when Eric arrived at the office and remained there long after he went home.