Mercury Rising

by Christine Rimmer

Overview

Mercury Rising by Christine Rimmer released on May 1, 2010 is available now for purchase.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426862175
Publisher:	Silhouette
Publication date:	05/01/2010
Series:	The Sons of Caitlin Bravo , #2
Sold by:	HARLEQUIN
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	601,182
File size:	588 KB

About the Author

A New York Times bestselling author, Christine Rimmer has written over ninety contemporary romances for Harlequin Books. Christine has won the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Reviewers Choice Award and has been nominated six times for the RITA Award. She lives in Oregon with her family. Visit Christine at http://www.christinerimmer.com.

Read an Excerpt

Mercury Rising

---

By Rimmer

Harlequin Enterprises Limited

Copyright © 2002 Harlequin Enterprises Limited
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0373244967

---

Chapter One

"Mom?"

Virginia Elliott turned from the window. "Ah. Thank you, dear." Jane gave her the fresh-cut blush-pink roses she'd just wrapped in a cone of newspaper. "So lovely ..." Virginia brought them close, breathed in their scent. "You do have a way in the garden. Your aunt Sophie would be proud."

Jane's beloved Aunt Sophie Elliott had been a single lady all her life. When she'd died, nearly three years ago now, she left Jane her beautiful old house and the gorgeous garden surrounding it.

Her mother turned back to the window. "I notice your new neighbor is at home."

"Yes." Jane kept her voice and her expression as bland as a clean white sheet. "He does travel a lot, though."

Virginia had the roses in her left hand. Her right strayed to the pearls at her throat. She fondled them, ticking them off like the beads of a rosary. "He was out there, on the side porch, just a moment ago." Each word was heavy with disdain.

Jane resisted the urge to say something sarcastic. Well, Mother. It is his house. I suppose he has the right to be out on the porch.

Word around town was that Cade Bravo owned an ostentatious new house in Las Vegas and a condo in nearby Lake Tahoe. He'd taken the small town of New Venice completely by surprise when he'dbought the Lipcott place next-door to Jane's. A rundown farmhouse-style Victorian seemed the last place he would ever want to live.

But the house wasn't run-down anymore. Renovations had gone on for months. Finally the various work crews had picked up and moved on and the new owner had taken up residence.

"At least he had the grace to respect the integrity of the original home," Virginia said grudgingly, hand still at her pearls.

Jane thought he had done a beautiful job with the old house. It looked much as it must have when it was first built, at the turn of the last century, a house a lot like Jane's house, one that harkened back to simpler, more graceful times, with an inviting deep wraparound porch and fish scale shingles up under the eaves.

Virginia muttered, "Still. One of those Bravo boys living on Green Street. Who ever could have imagined such a thing?" Green Street was wide and treelined. The charming old houses on it had always been owned by respectable and prosperous members of the New Venice community, people from well-established local families - the Elliotts and the Chases, the Moores and the Lipcotts.

True, Cade Bravo had surprised everyone by prospering. In that sense, he fit the profile for a resident of Green Street. Was he respectable? Not by Virginia Chase Elliott's exacting standards. But then, in Virginia's thoroughly biased opinion, no Bravo was - or ever could be - considered respectable.

"Does he bother you, honey?" Her mother was looking right at her now.

"Of course not."

"He was always such a wild one - the worst of the bunch, everyone says so. Takes after that mother of his." Virginia's gray eyes narrowed when she mentioned Caitlin Bravo. Her hand worried all the harder at her pearls. "I suppose he's got the women in and out all the time."

"No. He's very quiet, actually, when he's here - and you should get those roses home. Cut an inch off the stems, at a slant, and -"

Her mother waved the hand that had been so busy with the pearls. "I know, I know. Remove any leaves below the waterline."

Jane smiled. "That's right. And use that flower food I gave you."

Virginia sighed. "I will, I will - and how is Celia?"

Celia Tuttle was one of Jane's two closest friends. Her name was Celia Bravo now. A little over two months ago, at the end of May, Celia had married Cade's oldest brother, Aaron.

"Happy," said Jane. "Celia is very, very happy."

One of Virginia's eyebrows inched upward. "Pregnant, or so I heard."

"Yes. She and Aaron are thrilled about that."

"I meant, a little too pregnant for how long they've been married."

Jane shook her head. "Mother. Give it up. Celia is happy. Aaron loves her madly. They are absolutely adorable together, totally devoted - and looking forward to having a baby. I'd like to find a man who loves me the way Aaron Bravo loves his wife."

Her mother made a prim noise in her throat. Jane folded her arms and gave Virginia a long, steady look heavily freighted with rebuke.

Virginia relented. She waved her hand again. "All right, all right. Celia is a sweet girl and if she's happy, I'm happy for her."

"So good of you to say so."

"Don't get that superior tone, please. I don't like it when you do that - and I know, I know. Celia is your dearest friend in the world, along with Jillian." Jane and Celia and Jillian Diamond had been best friends since kindergarten. "I ought to have sense enough never to say a word against either of them."

"Yes, you should."

Virginia stepped closer, the look in her eyes softening. She reached out and smoothed Jane's always-wild hair in a gesture so tender, so purely maternal that Jane couldn't help but be soothed by it. Jane did love her mother, though Virginia was not always easy to love.

"You haven't mentioned how your date went Friday."

Jane gave her mother a noncommittal smile. "I had a nice time."

Virginia looked pained. "My. Your indifference is nothing short of stunning."

Indifference. Sadly that pretty much summed up Jane's feelings about Friday night. It had been her second date with that particular man. He taught Science at the high school and Jane had met him over a year ago now. He'd come into her bookstore looking for a good manual on Sierra birds and a well-illustrated book on weather patterns. He really did seem the kind of man she'd been looking for: steady and trustworthy, kind and wise. A man who had sought to be her friend first. He'd told her he admired her straightforwardness, said he respected her independence and valued her intelligence. Jane believed him when he said those things.

And he was nice-looking, too, with thick brown hair and a muscular build. There was nothing not to like about him. Jane did like him. She also knew in her heart that liking was all she felt for him.

Was she asking too much in daring to want it all - decency and steadiness and a kiss that turned her inside out?

Probably. "Gary Nevis is a great guy, Mom. I just don't think he's the guy for me."

---

Excerpted from Mercury Rising by Rimmer 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.

---