Three Weddings and a Kiss

by Lisa Kleypas

Overview

Everyone loves a wedding...

Nothing lifts our hearts like the joyous peal of wedding bells. Or the sight of a happy couple being showered with confetti and good wishes. Now the most exciting new names in romantic fiction and the bestselling author who started it all -escort you down the aisle to a place of honor at four glorious celebrations of everlasting love:

KATHLEEN E. WOODIWISS reintroduces us to the beloved characters from THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER including Jeff Birmingham, who seals an impetuous proposal with one brief, precious and passionate kiss.

CATHERINE ANDERSON calls us to meet a tempestuous pair of wild western hearts, in a tale of a frontier revenge that backfires.

LORETTA CHASE melts our hearts with a story of an unconventional young woman's offer of marriage to a "mad" and presumed dying earl.

LISA KLEYPAS shows us how true love will always win in a romance about one stubborn lady -and the persistent suitor who opens her heart.

So come join the celebration and experience THREE WEDDINGS AND A KISS

Love for now...and always.Everyone loves a wedding...

Nothing lifts our hearts like the joyous peal of wedding bells. Or the sight of a happy couple being showered with confetti and good wishes. Now the most exciting new names in romantic fiction and the bestselling author who started it all -escort you down the aisle to a place of honor at four glorious celebrations of everlasting love:

KATHLEEN E. WOODIWISSreintroduces us to the beloved characters from THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER including Jeff Birmingham, who seals an impetuous proposal with one brief, precious and passionate kiss.

CATHERINE ANDERSONcalls us to meet a tempestuous pairof wild western hearts, in a tale of a frontier revenge that backfires.

LORETTA CHASEmelts our hearts with a story of an unconventional young woman's offer of marriage to a "mad" and presumed dying earl.

LISA KLEYPASshows us how true love will always win in a romance about one stubborn lady -and the persistent suitor who opens her heart.

So come join the celebration and experience THREE WEDDINGS AND A KISS

Love for now...and always.

Author Biography: Marion Morra is the Associate Director of the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut. She is Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of Medicine and Associate Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Nursing. Marion is widely published, having written articles and authored books for both health professionals and the public, with emphasis on health, especially in the field of cancer. She serves on major national committees for the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society.Eve Potts has been writing on medical subjects for more than 30 years. Her expertise is in making difficult medical information easy to understand. She has served as a medical writer and consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services and many medically oriented companies and institutions. Her interest in history is represented by another book, Westport A Special Place, 1987The two authors who are sisters, have collaborated on five other books: three editions of the best-selling book for cancer patients Choices (Avon Books, 1980, 1987, and 1994), Triumph: Getting Back to Normal When You Have Cancer (Avon Books, 1990), and Understanding Your Immune System (1986). In 1993, the authors received the Natalie Davis Springarn Writer's Award from the National Coalition for Cancer Survivors for "their valuable contributions to the literature of survivorship and for their books, Choices and Triumph." They also were awarded the 1995 National Health Information Silver Award, which honors the nation's best consumer health information programs and materials, for Choices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060829414
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/15/2005
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
File size:	644 KB

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. She’s a RITA award-winning author of both historical romance and contemporary women’s fiction. She lives in Washington State with her husband Gregory and their two children.

Catherine Anderson is a bestselling American romance novelist. She resides in the pristine woodlands of Oregon, is married to her high school sweetheart, and has authored more than 30 award-winning historical and contemporary romances. Throughout her career, she has made numerous bestseller lists, such as the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Ingram, Waldenbooks, and Barnes & Noble. She has received nominations for the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards, as well as being a RITA® Award finalist, and was given a Career Achievement Award by Romantic Times for Contemporary Romance.

Loretta Chase has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streets—as a meter maid—and in video, as a scriptwriter. She might have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction. Her bestselling historical romances, set in the Regency and Romantic eras of the early nineteenth century, have won a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s RITA®. For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn’t do on social media, please visit her at LorettaChase.com.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Heart pounding in her throat, Rachel Constantine stared at her intended victim as he drew abreast of her on the opposite boardwalk. She would have been pleased to see him stagger just a little, anything to assure her he had indeed been drugged. As it was, it was difficult to tell he'd even had anything to drink.

With a sigh, she plucked her wire-framed spectacles from her nose and stashed them in her skirt pocket. From here on, she would have to settle for looking at Rafferty through a blur. Better that than risk being seen wearing eyeglasses. Most men didn't find ladies with poor eyesight attractive, and for tonight, at least, it was vitally important that Rachel be a femme fatale. Drat! Why did he look so sober? Had something gone wrong inside the saloon? Maybe he wasn't drugged, after all. just the thought made her pulse race even faster and her knees go weak.

Biting her lip, she casta glance at the saloon. To her relief, she saw Dora Faye standing inside the doors, signaling just as they had planned, to let her know everything had gone smoothly. Unless Matt Rafferty had the constitution of an ox, he would be unconscious in a few minutes. Rachel smiled into the darkness. From her hiding place in the shadows, it would do no good to wave back at her friend, so she made a mental note to stop by the saloon tomorrow to thank Dora Faye profusely. None of this would have been possible without her help.

As Rafferty moved past the mercantile, he slowed to a stop, standing 'in silhouette against the moon-washed glass. Rachel squinted to see him better, then wished she hadn't. He seemed taller than she remembered, maybe a little broaderacross the chest and shoulders as well. just a trick of moonlight and shadow, she assured herself. Don't go letting your nerves get the best of YOU.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Matt Rafferty was walking, talking trouble, definitely not the type a decent young woman approached without some measure of trepidation. Nevertheless, the man couldn't be allowed to go around humiliating young girls and breaking their hearts. At the very least, he deserved to be taken to task. Because her fourteen-year-old sister Molly was his latest victim, Rachel felt that it was her job to do just that. Hence, the plan she'd concocted with Dora Faye's assistance.

As surefooted as a prospector's mule, Rafferty stepped off the boardwalk to cross the street. Watching him come toward her, Rachel felt her mouth go dry. This was it. Going down the list of dos and don'ts Dora Faye had given her, she stepped out from the shadow of the general store. "Well, hello, Mr. Rafferty!" she called, trying for a flirtatious twitter. "What a pleasant surprise!"

Evidently taken off guard, he broke stride and came to a slow stop. Without her eyeglasses, Rachel knew she tended to look a bit owlish, so she tried not to open her eyes too wide. As she closed the distance between them, his blurry edges took on better definition. No doubt about it, the man was bigger than she cared to admit.

"Rachel Constantine? Rachel Constantine, the marshal's daughter?"

Giving a throaty laugh, just as Dora Faye had taught her, she said, "How many Rachel Constantines do you think there are in Shady Comers, a baker's dozen?"

He seemed baffled by the question. Clearly, his thought processes were muddled, a sign the valerian Dora Faye had put in his whiskey was taking effect.

She drew up a few feet shy of him and struck a -seductive pose. It was hard to remember all that Dora Faye had taught her-how to move, stand, and smile.

"Trust me, sir," she informed him in a twittery little voice, "there is only one Rachel Constantine, My pa says that after me, they broke the mold."

She immediately wanted to call back the words. Irresistible temptresses did not talk about their fathers. Even she knew that.

Though the eight Rafferty brothers had been living in thearea for nearly a year now, her eyesight was such that she'd never gotten close enough to get a good look at any of them. It seemed to her that tongues had been buzzing forever about how handsome they all were. She was absolutely dying to see what all the fuss was about.

Not that she was personally interested. Goodness, no. She had her eye on Lawson Wells, the minister's son. Tall, painfully thin, and nearly as blind as she, he was about as far from handsome as a body could get. Consequently, he was sweet and thoughtful and caring, all the things Matt Rafferty obviously wasn't, no doubt because he was so handsome he felt he had no need to be. A pox on handsome men: that was Rachel's motto.

Even so., she was curious. At the risk of appearing myopic, she leaned closer so she could see his face more clearly and judge his looks for herself. No question about it, he was handsome. A bit older looking than expected, but she imagined working outdoors and drinking heavily would make anyone look older than he actually was.

Even shaded by his hat, his smoky blue eyes glistened in the moonlight like raindrops shot through with lightning. Thick waves of ebony hair fell lazily across his forehead, and whether it was a trick of light or an actual cast to his skin, he looked to be deeply tanned. Oh, yes, he was handsome, but not in the usual way. There was something about him, a lethal edge, that made her wary. Dangerous. Matt Rafferty wasn't merely dreamy, as rumor painted him, but dangerous. Little wonder poor Molly had come away lacerated and heartsick.

Rachel didn't like the way he studied her -- a lazy appraisal, his eyes glinting as if at some private joke. It seemed at odds with the stories she'd heard, namely that he was a charmer. Instead, he was making her feel awkward and more than a little frightened, which seemed more in keeping with the stories she had heard about his older brother, Clint. Now there was a man to avoid, always serious, never smiling. His gray-blue eyes could sear right through a woman, according to her friends.

After completing the slow appraisal of her person, Matt flicked his gaze to hers and said in a deep, silken voice, "That must've been quite some mold, sweetheart."

Mentally, Rachel stumbled about, trying to make sense of his comment. In her bewilderment, she forgot all about looking owlish. Lands, he was attractive. No wonder poor little ...

Three Weddings and a Kiss. Copyright © by Jean Various. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

Consisting of three novellas and a short story, this diverse collection of historicals focuses on marriage, sweeping from the wilds of the Colorado Rockies through the sultry antebellum South to the glitter of Regency England and the dark and misty reaches of Dartmoor. With stories written by experienced authors like Catherine Anderson, Loretta Chase, and Lisa Kleypas, this serviceable collection has something that will probably appeal to everyone. Although Kathleen Woodiwiss's "The Kiss" is the shortest and not necessarily the best, readers who remember Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower (1972) will enjoy revisiting Heather and Brandon and seeing what awaits Brandon's brother, Jeff.

Library Journal