Read an Excerpt

Who Wants To Marry A Heartthrob?

Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.

Chapter One

"Huh?"

"We have a problem," Bridget Connor repeated, although she didn't know why she bothered. Her employer clearly was not listening. Right now his gaze was pinned on fourteen gorgeous women, each dressed more scantily than the next. Bridget had never seen so much Spandex in one sitting in her life. And she wondered about the engineering of some of the clothes that managed to hold certain body parts in place when it seemed as if the slightest shift might give away the farm, so to speak.

Not that her employer was waiting for a quick flash. Or maybe he was - he was a man after all. But he wasn't ogling the women with the same intent that some of the other men in the room had. No, Richard Wells's priority wasn't sex right now.

It was money.

He turned his head and she could see him squint in her direction. Squinting was Richard's universal sign for "Huh?" After three years of working for him, she was an expert on all of his subtle little expressions.

"Did you say something?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Something about a problem," he recalled. "In Houston?"

"No, here in New York."

He looked confused. "Then why did you say Houston?"

"It's an expression. Work with me, Richard." Then she reminded herself that she needed to be patient with him tonight. Not that it didn't require a great deal of patience to work with the moody ad executive on a normal day, but tonight was different. His focus was solely on the event that was to take place within the next half hour. Nothing short of a nuclear explosion would distract him from that.

"What is it?" he snapped impatiently.

She considered him while he continued to study the room. "You have no intention of listening to a word I say, do you?"

When he turned back to her, he was squinting again.

"I don't have time for problems," he announced.

"I can see that, but you do. Have a problem, that is."

He shook his head as if to deny her words. "What could possibly go wrong? The camera crew is here, the women are here - well, most of them anyway - and my heartthrob is most definitely here." Richard pointed to the man standing by himself, away from the women. Brock Brickman was broad, blond, buffed and the perfect choice for Breathe Better Mouthwash's newly sponsored show - Who Wants To Marry a Heartthrob?

"It's about one of the girls," Bridget tried.

Distracted, Richard looked over his shoulder and spotted two men in suits walking through the entryway into the large living room, which had been temporarily transformed into a television set. Don and Dan Meadle were the co-CEOs and owners of Breathe Better Mouthwash. They also happened to be twins, which never failed to amuse Richard and cause him to silently mock the parents who had named them. Obviously, they were here to check up on the project, but he refused to be nervous. Everything was on schedule for his advertising masterpiece.

Who Wants To Marry a Heartthrob? a reality dating show set in New York, was going to put the burgeoning mouth-wash company on the map. Two live group shows, four taped individual dates and two romantic weekend getaways, also taped and edited for maximum dramatic effect, would feature exclusively the mouthwash commercials that he had created.

The entire package had been Richard's concept. Once he had found a cable channel that would support the dating show over the course of eight weeks, his vision had become a reality. Now it was time for the show to air and his nerves were being put to the test, although there was absolutely no reason for it, he assured himself. He had left no stone unturned.

The first piece of the puzzle had been finding the location. He and Bridget had searched the summer play area of New York's wealthy, South Hampton, for days. Then they had stumbled on a house that was both markedly luxurious and effortlessly romantic.

The sprawling Victorian sat on an inlet of Long Island Sound. Done in white both inside and out, except for the hints of color strategically added throughout, it lent itself to a summer dream. A covered pool took up space on the green lawn that extended toward the water. And in back of the house there was a massive patio, complete with a hot tub and porch swing. It was a heartthrob's ultimate bait.

The season was right. It was late fall, a little chilly perhaps, but the summer season was over and most of the tourists were gone. This would allow them more flexibility to get the shots on the beach and in the restaurants that they wanted for the four hour-long dates that would be aired individually.

That's right, Richard thought. Not one stone. He had handpicked each of the fifteen women as well as the heartthrob. Every detail of the show was in his control. Nothing escaped his notice. Not Brock's cologne, not the host's tie, not the wardrobe of the ladies. Nothing.

He was investing everything he had into this ad campaign. If it was successful - and it would be because the idea was genius - the Breathe Better Mouthwash executives would have no choice but to follow him when he branched out and opened his own agency. He'd worked for this night for years and success, real success, which to date had been an elusive lady, was within his grasp.

Unfortunately, it was usually moments like this when he thought he was so close to something that nothing could go wrong - that it all went wrong. He need only reflect on that last week before he was to have graduated from Yale to get a reminder of that particularly painful lesson.

"They're here," Richard announced ominously, his chin lifting slightly in the direction of the twins.

Bridget turned and glanced at the two men who were standing off to the side observing the spectacle that was a live television show.

"This is it," Richard told her somewhat fatalistically, feeling his heart beat hard against his rib cage and his palms beginning to sweat. For the most part he wouldn't have considered himself a nervous man, but right now it felt as if his whole life was coming down to this one crucial moment. He glanced at Bridget, grateful for her presence. Not only did he know that he had her support throughout this endeavor, but he also knew that she would cover his tracks if he needed to leave the room real quick to puke. "If this works - And it is going to work, right? We both agree it couldn't fail. Right?"

"Right."

"You're only saying that because you know that's what I want to hear, aren't you," he accused her.

"Right."

He could live with that.

"This will be the big one. The one I've been looking for. The one that is going to free me and my creative genius from the death grip of the V.I.P. Advertising Agency."

Bridget rolled her eyes.

"I saw you do that."

"You're so dramatic," she said. "You've been looking for the 'one' for years now. And V.I.P. doesn't have you in a death grip. They pay you really well. That's why you stay with them."

"It's just that I have a loft in Soho. You know what I pay in rent. I can't quit and start my own agency until I'm positive, absolutely sure, that one of these big companies is going to follow me. But this is it. I can smell it."

"You don't think that's the mouthwash?"

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Who Wants To Marry A Heartthrob? by Stephanie Doyle Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---