Twice the Temptation. Cara Summers

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       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To my brother Andy who reads all of

      my books and thinks I’m a better writer than “Billy” Shakespeare! You are definitely my biggest fan. And thanks for posing for all of my covers, too! I love you!

       Prologue

      MAKING A SALES PITCH to a ghost wasn’t something they’d covered in the MBA program at Harvard’s Business School. No, indeedy, thought Avery Cooper as he stepped into the tower room where the spirit of legendary film star Hattie Haworth had resided for some forty-five years.

      Avery straightened his tie and took a deep breath. He’d been managing the Haworth House hotel for the Brightman sisters well over a year now, and he’d known right from the get-go that the original owner haunted the place. The story was that she’d fled to Belle Island to build her new home when both her marriage and her career had tanked in Hollywood.

      She’d appeared to all three of the sisters right in this very room. Jillian Brightman, his best friend and excollege roommate, had included that piece of information when she’d hired him to manage the hotel.

      Avery doubted that a dozen ghosts could have deterred him from accepting her job offer. Not once Jillian had explained what she and her sisters, Naomi and Reese, had in mind. And now, the picture she’d painted for him—a small exclusive hotel on an island off the coast of Maine—had become a reality.

      He let his gaze sweep the tower room. Late afternoon sunlight slanted through a circle of windows, and the muted sound of the sea could be heard crashing on the rocks below. During the renovation, the tower room had been turned into an office/sitting room where each of the sisters worked when they were in residence. But fifty-five years ago, this was where Hattie Haworth and her lover, a man from the village, had shared their love and lived out their fantasies for nearly a year.

      You’re stalling. Avery frowned. What in the world was wrong with him? In his line of work, he was never at a loss for words. And Hattie Haworth had already proven that she loved the sisters as much as he did. Not only had she played a role in saving both Naomi’s and Jillian’s lives but she’d brought them each together with their true loves by satisfying their most secret fantasies.

      And the fantasies were what he needed to talk to Hattie about. Avery strode forward until he stood in front of the gilt-framed, beveled mirror. Peering into it, all he could see was his own reflection—a tall, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned man in his late twenties. His grandmother would have approved of the clothes—a suit, tie and shirt in varying shades of gray. Grandma Cooper had always told him that it was important to dress well.

      He could only hope that Hattie shared that opinion. But so far, he saw no sign of that in the glass. All three of the sisters claimed to have glimpsed Hattie Haworth’s image in the mirror. Naomi and Jillian had also claimed to have carried on one-sided conversations with her.

      Shit. He fingered his tie again. He hadn’t been this nervous when he’d defended his Masters thesis at Harvard.

      “Hattie, I’m Avery Cooper. You may have seen me around.”

      Duh. Get to the point. “I came to talk to you about an idea I have. It concerns your fantasy box and Reese.”

      Avery blinked, then narrowed his eyes. Was that the tiniest flash of light he’d seen in the mirror?

      “Jillian told me all about how she found your secret room and the hat box with the fantasies in it, how she and her sisters each chose an envelope out of it on the night they bought Haworth House.”

      He paused, but saw nothing in the mirror. Had he imagined it?

      “Okay, old news. But I want you to know that I think the world of the two men Naomi and Jillian have hooked up with СКАЧАТЬ