All He Ever Needed: Book Four of The Kowalskis

by Shannon Stacey

Overview

He won't stay put for a woman, and she won't chase after any man...

Mitch Kowalski lives out of a suitcase—and he likes it that way. Traveling for work has the added bonus of scaring off women who would otherwise try to tie him down. But when he's called home to help with the family lodge, he's intrigued by the new girl in town and her insistence that she doesn't need a man. If there's one thing Mitch can't resist, it's a challenge.

After a nomadic childhood, Paige Sullivan is finally putting down roots. Determined to stand on her own two feet, she lives by the motto "Men are a luxury, not a necessity." But when Mr. Tall, Dark and Hot pulls up a stool in her diner and offers her six weeks of naughty fun with a built-in expiration date, she's tempted to indulge.

They're the perfect match for a no-strings fling. Until they realize their sexy affair has become anything but casual...

70,000 words

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426894336
Publisher:	Carina Press
Publication date:	09/10/2012
Series:	Kowalskis
Sold by:	HARLEQUIN
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	206,232
File size:	348 KB

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey lives with her husband and two sons in New England, where her favorite activities are writing stories of happily ever after and riding her four-wheeler. The Stacey family spends many weekends on their ATVs, making loads of muddy laundry to keep Shannon busy when she’s not at her computer. However, she prefers writing to laundry and considers herself lucky she got to be an author when she grew up. Visit her at ShannonStacey.com.

Read an Excerpt

Mitch Kowalski was doing sixty when he blew past the Welcome to Whitford, Maine sign, and he would have grinned if grinning on a Harley at dusk in a shorty helmet wasn't an invitation to eat his weight in bugs.

He was home again. Or he would be after he passed straight through town and nursed the bike down the long dirt drive that led to the Northern Star Lodge. As eager as he was to get there, though, he eased up on the throttle as the first lights of Main Street came into view.

It had been three years since he'd visited his hometown, but he could have navigated the road with his eyes closed. Past the post office where he'd landed his first real job, then lost it because old man Farr's Playboy subscription was a hell of a lot more interesting than sorting electric bills. Then the Whitford General Store & Service Station, owned by Fran and Butch Benoit. Junior year, he'd taken their daughter to the prom and then taken her up against the chalkboard in an empty classroom.

Mitch downshifted and executed a lazy rolling stop at the four-way that passed for the town's major intersection. To the left were two rows of ancient brick buildings that housed the bank and town offices and an assortment of small businesses. To the right, the police department—which had had its fill of the Kowalski boys in their youth—and the library, which had been fertile hunting grounds for a teenage boy looking to charm the smart girls out of their algebra homework.

Yeah, it was good to be home, even if everything was closed up tight for the night. The people of Whitford knew if they had business in town, they'd best get it done before the evening news.

He went straight through the intersection, but he didn't go far before the old diner caught his eye. Or the sign did, rather, being all lit up. Last time he'd passed through, the place had been closed up tight—driven out of business by a bad economy and an owner who didn't care enough to try to save it. But now there was a new name on the sign, a couple of cars in the parking lot and flashing red neon in the window declaring it open.

His stomach rumbled, though he felt it rather than heard it due to the loud pipes on his bike, and he pulled into the parking lot. Josh, his youngest brother, wasn't expecting him—unless the boxes of clothes and other stuff he'd shipped ahead had arrived—and he would have already eaten anyway. Rather than go rummaging for leftovers, Mitch decided to grab a quick bite before heading on to the lodge.

The first thing he noticed when he walked through the door was the remodeled fifties decor, with a lot of red vinyl and black-and-white marble. The second thing he noticed was the woman standing behind the counter—a woman he'd never seen before, which was rare in Whitford.

Mitch put her at maybe thirty, seven years younger than him, and it looked good on her. She had a mass of brown hair twisted and clipped up into one of those messy knots that begged to be let loose. Jeans and a Trailside Diner T-shirt hugged sweet curves, and her ring finger was bare of either a gold band or a fresh tan line.

A little plastic rectangle was pinned above the very nice mound of her left breast. Name tags were a rare thing in a town where relationships were formed in playpens and cemented in the kindergarten sandbox, so it caught his attention. By the time he took a seat on a red padded stool at the counter, he could read it. Paige.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

I'm madly in love with the Kowalskis!"- NewYork Times Bestselling author Nalini Singh

"Shannon Stacey's books deliver exactly what we need in contemporary romances.... I feel safe that every time I pick up a Stacey book I'm going to read something funny, sexy and loving." –Jane Litte of Dear Author on All He Ever Needed

"Books like this are why I read romance."

- Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on Exclusively Yours

"This contemporary romance is filled with charm, wit, sophistication, and is anything but predictable"– Heart to Heart, BN.com, on Yours to Keep

Editorial Reviews

Bestseller Stacey (Slow Summer Kisses) launches a series with smalltown charm. Demolitions expert Mitch Kowalski seduced his way through his hometown of Whitford, Maine, and left behind “dreamy-eyed nostalgia” rather than broken hearts. After three years away, he arrives back in town for a temporary stay while his youngest brother is laid up with an injury and meets a relative newcomer: Paige Sullivan, who runs the Trailside Diner. Sparks immediately fly, but both try to resist it. Paige has sworn off men after watching her mother endure endless romantic woes, and Mitch just wants no-complications sex. But as Mitch tries to get into Paige’s pants, he realizes he’s beginning to dream of forever with her, while Paige struggles to balance her growing love for Mitch with her hard-won independence. A deeply satisfying ending will charm readers, and Mitch’s four siblings provide plenty of material for future books. Agent: Kimberly Whalen, Trident Media Group. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"I'm madly in love with the Kowalskis!"- NewYork Times Bestselling author Nalini Singh

"Shannon Stacey's books deliver exactly what we need in contemporary romances.... I feel safe that every time I pick up a Stacey book I'm going to read something funny, sexy and loving." –Jane Litte of Dear Author on All He Ever Needed

"Books like this are why I read romance."
- Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on Exclusively Yours

"This contemporary romance is filled with charm, wit, sophistication, and is anything but predictable"– Heart to Heart, BN.com, on Yours to Keep

From the Publisher