Strangers When We Meet

by Marisa Carroll

• ISBN13: 9780373612543
• ISBN10: 0373612540
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Harlequin

Summary

Arriving at Twin Oaks for a restful vacation, Emma Hart meets Blake Weston, who has just discovered his bethrothed in bed with a real estate agent, who happens to be Emma's fiance, and as the two scorned lovers turn to each other for support, they unexpectedly find true love. Original.

Excerpts

"Michael from Manhattan's up next. Seems like Michael's got a problem most guys only dream of. His girlfriend wants a ménage à trois. And get this. He's got second thoughts! You're listening to seven-eighty, radio WTKX, the voice of Extreme Talk Radio in the Big Apple. This is your host, Emma Hart. It's ten fifty-five p.m. Time for adult radio. So don't be shocked at the subjects, and don't call the station complaining your kids are listening. They shouldn't be up at this time of night, anyway."

Blake Weston punched the button on the dashboard console to bring up the volume another notch. Not because he didn't want to miss a word about the guy with too many oversexed ladies in his life, but just to hear Emma Hart speak. There was unadulterated sex in the whiskey smooth voice coming over the car radio, just as there was every night he listened. He sometimes wondered what the woman behind the microphone looked like. But he wasn't a fanciful man, and he knew there was no way her face could match that come-hither voice. To tell the truth, he didn't want it to. He was involved with a beautiful woman, and beauty like that demanded a lot of a guy. At least Heather did.

"We're here tonight and every night to discuss what matters to those of you out there who make this city hum. Men. Women. Relationships. Sex. What's your problem? Too much love? Not enough? Tired of looking for Mr. Right in all the wrong places? Give me a call at one-eight-hundred five-five-five WTKX. For those of you who've had too long a day, that's one-eight-hundred five-five-fivenine-eight-five-nine. Michael's up next on `Night Talk with Emma Hart' after our commercial break. Stick around, folks. This one ought to be good."

Blake's mouth twisted into a mirthless grin as he glanced at the dashboard clock. Nearly eleven. He'd had a long day. A long week. A long year. In fact, five long years. But tomorrow he was leaving the city and his responsibilities at Braxton, Cartright and Wheeler Investments, Inc., behind for a week in the Berkshires. It was a little past prime color season, and that suited him just fine. It meant the leaf peepers would be gone for another year, and Cooper's Corner, Massachusetts, would have returned to the sleepy little village he'd first come across last spring.

The light turned yellow, and he gunned the Dakota through the intersection, wondering for the thousandth time why he continued to drive in the city, and a truck at that. The parking fees alone would keep his parents in tofu and bean sprouts for a year. He ought to sign up for a driving service like any sane man, but so far he'd resisted. You could take the Indiana farm boy out of the country, but you couldn't take the country out of the farm boy. At least not where his pickup was concerned.

The break ended, and her voice filled the night once more, making him forget about parking fees and beating the lights.

"Hi, Michael, are you still there?"

"I'm here."

"From what it says on my screen, you've got the kind of trouble most guys only dream about. What's the matter? Afraid you're not up to it?"

"Well ..." The guy named Michael cleared his throat. "Not really. Well, yeah," he finally muttered.

"Hey, I imagine deep down a lot of guys feel just like you do," Emma Hart responded. The husky voice was teasing, but with an underlying warmth that took the sting from the words. Blake tipped his head toward the radio, anticipating what she'd say next.

"No kidding?" Michael sounded dumbfounded, too.

"Sure. Sex is the most intimate act we share with another human being. It makes us vulnerable. Men and women both. Being in the right place in your head is important. Especially if this is really making love, not just some kind of recreational roll in the hay. Am I right, Mike?"

"It's not. I mean, it is love. At least for me." Michael was, sounding a little more sure of himself. "I love, her, but - Well, things haven't been quite as good between us lately. Maybe I haven't been, you know, paying as much attention to her as I should. I work sixty, seventy hours a week. So does she. Hell," he blurted out. "That's not the reason. I'm not James Bond. I don't want to get naked with her girlfriend. And what if - well, even if I do, and then ... you know ... nothing happens ..."

"Have you told her you're not comfortable with this?" The teasing note was gone from Emma Hart's voice. Her program was cutting edge, and she didn't pull any punches when it came to sex in the city, but if you stripped away the titillating double entendres and shock-value lead-ins, her advice was pretty straightforward.

"No. She thinks I want to. Like you said, man, it's every guy's dream, right?"

"Every adolescent's dream, maybe. But what about a grown man who wants to make a commitment? And yeah, ladies, there are such animals among us. Pretty rare, I admit, but out there all the same if you're willing to track one down. Or is Michael just being stodgy and uptight? It's the twenty-first century, after all. Use a little caution, practice safe sex and why not take a bite or two of forbidden fruit? Stay on the line, Michael. Let's get some other opinions here. This is Emma Hart on Extreme Talk Radio seven-eighty. The number is one-eight-hundred five-five-five nine-eight-five-nine. Get on the phone and let Michael know what you think of his dilemma. He says he loves his lady. She wants to try something a little bit kinky, a little naughty, but Michael's an old-fashioned kind of guy. And come on, listeners, let's face it. That's a lot of body parts to keep track of. Anyone could get ... cold feet." Her laugh was every bit as sexy and appealing as her voice.

"Hey, this one's lighting up the lines like Fourth of July fireworks. We've got two guys, Hank and Antoine, saying go for it. And three ladies with other suggestions. Let's take Diane from Queens first. Diane you're on `Night Talk.' What advice do you have for our shy guy?"

"Hi, Emma. I've listened to you every night for almost two years."

"Thanks, Diane, that's what I like to hear."

"Tell him he can call me any time he wants. I've been dating losers in this town for ten years who couldn't get their pants off fast enough if someone made them an offer like that. I'd give my right arm for a nice, old-fashioned kind of guy like Michael who's only interested in one woman at a time. Believe me, he won't need an extra body around if I'm in bed with him. Hey, Michael, are you listening? She's a pervert. Dump her. Call me. My number's -"

There was a click, and Emma Hart's voice reached out to him once more with laughter. "No can do, Diane. This isn't a dating service. We're just here to talk about the things that are important to us Gen X-ers. And sex is sure one of them. We're coming up on the top of the hour. I have to go to the news. Michael, can you hang on until after the break?"

"I'll wait."

"Great. When we return, we'll see if we can't come up with a solution to your problem that will make you both happy. And maybe all three of you."

With that provocative tag line, the show's theme music came up and Blake switched off the radio. He pulled the Dakota into his parking bay in the garage beneath his coop building and switched off the engine. The last caller had said she'd been dating in the city for ten years. That was a long time to be in the game. She sounded tired of the whole scene. He was, too. Maybe that's why he tried so hard with Heather, despite their differences. Was he sticking with her because he couldn't live without her, or simply because he was tired of living alone?

He sure as hell was too tired for one-sided self-awareness sessions this late at night. He didn't believe in love at first sight. Love was something you worked at, invested in, kept a close eye on, just like the stock market. It wasn't romantic, it was damned hard work, but it was a good formula for success. Hard work was the name of the game in managing a multibillion-dollar investment fund and in life. So he was going to keep working on his relationship with Heather, and sooner or later it would turn into love.

Excerpted from Strangers When We Meet by Carroll Copyright © 2002 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.