An Irresistible Bachelor Read online

  Table of Contents

  Epigraph

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  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 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Teaser chapter

  “PURE TALENT. IF YOU HAVE NOT READ A BOOK BY JESSICA BIRD, YOU ARE MISSING OUT.”

  —Huntress Book Reviews

  An Irresistible Bachelor

  “I enjoyed every page of this book. It’s packed with mystery, intrigue, power, passion, and a love story too beautiful for words.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Irresistible . . . a well-written, engaging, and intelligent love story.”

  —The Romance Reader

  “[An] emotion-filled romance. . . . Readers who appreciate books rich in strong feelings, such as those by Barbara Freethy, Kathryn Shay, and Judith McNaught, will also enjoy this tale.”

  —Booklist

  “This is a warm contemporary romance that stars a delightful lead couple. . . . Jessica Bird’s tale is irresistible.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  An Unforgettable Lady

  “Searing tension and intense emotion add special flair to this sensational romantic suspense.”

  —Romantic Times continued . . .

  “I anxiously await her next book.”

  —The Romance Readers Connection

  “Exhilarating romantic suspense.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Fantastic characters, plenty of heat and tension.”

  —Errant Dreams Reviews

  Further Praise for Jessica Bird and Her Novels

  “A tumultuous tale.”

  —Escape to Romance

  “Truly awesome. Well done, Jessica Bird. Highly recommended reading here.”

  —Huntress Book Reviews

  “This romantic drama has it . . . an emotionally enthralling read.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Stunning.”

  —The Romance Readers Connection

  By J. R. Ward

  The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series

  Dark Lover

  Lover Eternal

  Lover Awakened

  Lover Revealed

  Lover Unbound

  Lover Enshrined

  The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide

  Lover Avenged

  Lover Mine

  Lover Unleashed

  Novels of the Fallen Angels

  Covet

  Crave

  Writing as Jessica Bird

  Heart of Gold

  Leaping Hearts

  An Unforgettable Lady

  An Irresistible Bachelor

  SIGNET

  Published by New American Library, a division of

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014, USA

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  Published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in an Ivy Books edition. Published by arrangement with the author.

  First Signet Printing, July 2011

  Copyright © Jessica Bird, 2004

  Excerpt from An Unforgettable Lady copyright ©

  Jessica Bird, 2004 All rights reserved

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  ISBN : 978-1-101-51633-1

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  For my Bluegrass Family, with love

  Dear Readers:

  An Irresistible Bachelor is the fourth of the first quartet of books I wrote, and to be perfectly honest with you, by the time I finished drafting the manuscript, I was pretty sure my career as a published writer was going nowhere. Well, to be honest, it was going somewhere . . . right into the sewer.

  Way to start this on a high note, right! Wait, stick with me, I’m going to get to how hot the hero is, I promise. . . .

  Here’s the thing. Most books are written well in advance of publication, and when I handed Bachelor in to its editor, it was clear that my print runs were declining, my sell-throughs were bad . . . and I was not likely to have my contract renewed. Which meant I was out of a job and wouldn’t have a home for my material anymore.

  Ultimately, this hitting rock bottom was the single best thing that has ever happened to me—because it forced me to get really clear really quick on what my strengths and weaknesses as a writer were and, thereafter, reinvent myself. (The irony, of course, was that the following spring, the book was nominated for the RITA, which is the Romance Writers of America’s big national award.) I firmly believe that the incredible success of my Black Dagger Brotherhood books and my Fallen Angels series would not have come about without the singeing fear that hit me as I was working on Bachelor.

  The idea that every book I write could be my very last has stuck with me—as has the idea that playing it safe with plotting and conflict is not the way to go for my stories.

  On that note, about the hero! I remember being utterly in love with Jack Walker. First introduced properly in An Unforgettable Lady, h
e’s your quintessential wealthy businessman, and in a lot of ways, he harkens back to the heroes I loved when I started reading Harlequin Presents a million years ago. Back in the early and mideighties, there were a lot of aloof, powerful men just waiting for the right women (come to think of it, there are still a lot of them out there on the shelves right now!) and I thought that shark-in-a-suit routine was just fabulous.

  But here’s the thing. During the editorial process, Jack actually got watered down a lot. He was much darker in the first draft—his self-destructive streak was more pronounced, and he was hotter-tempered and more edgy (remind you of certain alpha males with fangs and/ or wings I write about?!). With Lady and Bachelor, I was already heading in the direction that I give free rein to in the Black Dagger and Angels books, and sometimes I’ve wondered how different Jack’s story would have been if I’d been able to tease out more of his intensity.

  I still think this is a great story, however, and that Callie Burke’s down-to-earth innocence is the perfect foil for his worldly persona. Callie’s a great heroine . . . and she happens to be in a profession that I’m absolutely fascinated by. As an oil painting conservation and restoration expert, she is doing work that has always captivated me—and I was so lucky, while doing research on her job, to get a chance to visit the conservation department of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and to meet with their head conservationist. What an amazing afternoon that was—as well as a bit of a shock. When I arrived, he met me down in the lobby and took me to a back elevator. That thing was the size of an RV, and just as the doors were closing, someone yelled out to hold up. From around the corner, a man came forward with this huge rolling pallet, and as he pushed it in . . . I realized that it had a Monet on it that was big as a desktop. Along with about four other paintings. Okaaaaaay. It was my first and only time going anywhere with $100 million worth of art. And I remember glancing over at the conservationist, who was chatting up a storm, and thinking . . . Buddy, do ya see what’s next to us?? But he was used to it! And come on, it’s not like you could strap those puppies on your back and hoof it up a set of stairs. . . .

  I digress, however. The main conflict between Jack and Callie comes from the fact that she’s the product of an illicit love affair and is trying to keep that a secret to protect her half sister, who’s been really good to her. Jack, on the other hand, is deciding whether or not to run for governor—and if he does, the press is going to delve into every part of his life . . . including who he’s dating.

  At the time I was writing Bachelor, I was still pretty much seat-of-the-pantsing it when it came to the drafting. I had developed only a rather loose outline for the book and, as usual, handling the conflict between the hero and heroine was my big weakness. Naturally, when I got toward the last quarter of the story, I realized that I didn’t really have much of a dark moment. Which is like buying a pair of jeans that doesn’t have any material where the seat is: In romance novels, the standard rhythm is two people meet, they fall in love, BANG! something drives them apart . . . and then they come together at the end for their happily-ever-after.

  I had no BANG! in this book.

  Enter my first stab at “credible surprise.”

  One of the things I think good writers do is they create shock points in books—things that are seemingly out of the blue, but ultimately make you think, Well, hell, I should have seen that coming. I mean, that’s life, isn’t it. How many times have you been going about your merry business when suddenly something happens and you’re like WTF! Except then as you go back and look at what led up to it all, you realize the event or the conversation or the reversal of fortune (for good or bad) was inevitable.

  For a credible surprise to work, it absolutely must be believable in the context of the world you’ve created. Set your book in the Adirondacks and have a massive L.A.-style earthquake wipe out a town: Surprise? Yes. Credible? Ah . . . not so much. Assuming you’re not in a paranormal world with some bad guy who’s got a really powerful wand up his or her sleeve.

  When it came to Bachelor, I can remember feeling really stumped at the big, fat nothing I’d whipped up. For Jack to go against what he’d promised Callie (namely that he wouldn’t make up his mind about his candidacy before she decided if she could trust him fully with her secret) would be totally unheroic. So he couldn’t be the one to blow the whistle. And his close friend Gray Bennett was set to be a hero in a future book (assuming I ever got published again). Callie would never say a word. . . . What the hell was I going to do?

  At this point in my career, I was still trying to “think up” books, i.e., I was trying to manufacture specific endings and force characters into places I thought they should go (as opposed to just letting them do what they’re going to do and getting out of the way). (P.S. I’ve had much better luck NOT thinking.) Eventually, however, it dawned on me: Jack’s mother, the evil witch, could blow them apart. Perfect! The first credible surprise I ever tried. Not a big one, granted. But her announcing his candidacy before he was ready was exactly the kind of obstacle that Jack and Callie’s story needed. Was it believable? Yes. Did it come out of nowhere? Well, for Jack and Callie it sure did.

  And yes, they worked through it, and they did get their happily-ever-after.

  Man, do I remember feeling out of control as I came up to that announcement scene. And I guess that’s why I’m such a careful outliner now. I can’t write well if I’m not really grounded in the levers and pulleys of a book’s inner mechanics. Now I know that the better prepared I am, the more I can let myself go . . . if that makes any sense.

  After I was released from my contract, which happened, just as I had suspected, shortly after I turned this manuscript in for production, part of my restructuring myself as a writer focused on how to identify, magnify, and resolve conflict between characters. Which, in retrospect, is ironic. I spent a lot of time and money getting and reading books on the craft of writing. . . . I even ended up sitting down and deconstructing, chapter by chapter, the plotlines in some of the books that I loved the most . . . and yet I ended up as a writer taking all that formal stuff and all the “rules” out of my process and my plots.

  It’s weird, though. Courtesy of all that studying, I changed my game big time. I used to hate conflict. Now when I write, I wallow in it. Big emotions on the page used to scare me. Now I’m addicted to them. And finally, going dark used to be something that I was steered away from. Now that’s where I’m most comfortable—because I know that the inevitable redemption at the end burns all the more brightly for the contrast.

  I truly hope you love Bachelor as much as I do. I think it’s a very solid book, and rereading it now makes me see a lot of where I eventually ended up. This was the big turning point where everything changed for me, and for that alone, Jack and Callie will always have a special place in my heart.

  And, well, I still love a hot guy in a suit—whether it’s made of worsted wool or black leather. . . .

  Happy Reading,

  J. R. Ward

  January 2011

  1

  THE WOMAN came to him from the shadows and he knew her by the red of her hair. She moved slowly, deliberately, toward him and he released his breath with satisfaction. He wanted to ask her where she’d been because he’d missed her.

  But the closer she got, the less he felt like talking.

  As she stopped in front of him, he reached out and ran a finger down her cheek. She was achingly beautiful, especially her eyes. They were spectacular blue, a shade that perfectly complemented the auburn waves that fell past her shoulders. He wanted her. No, he needed her.

  Her smile deepened, as if she knew what he was thinking, and she tilted her head back. Staring at her upturned mouth, at her parted lips, a wave of urgency shot through his body. Giving in to the hunger, he put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close, wanting to take what she was offering quickly before she disappeared again.

  Bending down, he felt anticipation and something else, something that ma
de his heart pound with more than lust.

  Jack Walker’s eyes flipped open. Caught up in the raging hunger in his body, he wasn’t sure whether he was truly awake. Or where the hell he was. He knew the bed wasn’t his own, but not much else.

  He looked around at the dark shapes in the room. After a few deep breaths, the patterns made sense to him. He was at the Plaza Hotel in New York, in the suite he always used when he was in town.

  And the woman he still wanted so badly it hurt had disappeared into thin air. Again.

  He stared up at the ornate ceiling in frustration. He hadn’t slept well the last two nights and he needed some sustained shut-eye soon. He didn’t have much patience to begin with and lack of sleep wasn’t getting him any closer to Mother Teresa territory.

  The dream was driving him crazy.

  Every time it was the same. Just as he was about to kiss her, right before he knew what she would taste like, he’d wake up slick with sweat and in a hellacious mood.

  Jack pushed a hand through his hair. Without a suitable target for his frustration, he seethed in the darkness.

  He’d met the woman only once and he hadn’t thought she’d made that big an impression on him.

  Restless, he had to fight his way out of the sheets that had gotten tangled around his naked body. When he was finally free, he walked over to a bank of windows and looked outside. The view was characteristically New York. Skyscrapers reaching toward the heavens, taillights flashing in a maze of asphalt down below. It was late at night, but the city was still hopping.