All I Want Read online

  Copyright © 2015 Jill Shalvis

  Couple © Rock and Wasp/Shutterstock

  Author photograph © zrstudios.com

  The right of Jill Shalvis to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  First published in this Ebook edition in 2015

  by HEADLINE ETERNAL

  An imprint of HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by arrangement with Berkley,

  a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  A Penguin Random House Company.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

  eISBN 978 1 4722 1733 2

  HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

  An Hachette UK Company

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  www.headlineeternal.com

  www.headline.co.uk

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Praise for Jill Shalvis

  By Jill Shalvis

  About the Book

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  The Animal Magnetism series

  Visit Lucky Harbor

  Jill’s Cedar Ridge series

  Find out more about Headline Eternal

  About the Author

  New York Times bestseller Jill Shalvis is the award-winning author of over four dozen romance novels, including her sexy, heartwarming contemporary ‘Animal Magnetism’, ‘Lucky Harbor’ and ‘Cedar Ridge’ series. She won two RITAs for Simply Irresistible and One In A Million, and is a three-time National Readers’ Choice winner as well.

  Connect with Jill on her website www.jillshalvis.com for a complete book list and to read her daily blog, where she recounts her Misplaced City Girl adventures, or visit her at www.facebook.com/jillshalvis or @JillShalvis for other news.

  Praise for Jill Shalvis:

  ‘Packed with the trademark Shalvis humor and intense intimacy, it is definitely a must-read . . . If love, laughter and passion are the keys to any great romance, then this novel hits every note’ Romantic Times

  ‘Heartwarming and sexy . . . an abundance of chemistry, smoldering romance, and hilarious antics’ Publishers Weekly

  ‘[Shalvis] has quickly become one of my go-to authors of contemporary romance. Her writing is smart, fun, and sexy, and her books never fail to leave a smile on my face long after I’ve closed the last page . . . Jill Shalvis is an author not to be missed!’ The Romance Dish

  ‘Jill Shalvis is such a talented author that she brings to life characters who make you laugh, cry, and are a joy to read’ Romance Reviews Today

  ‘What I love about Jill Shalvis’s books is that she writes sexy, adorable heroes . . . the sexual tension is out of this world. And of course, in true Shalvis fashion, she expertly mixes in humor that has you laughing out loud’ Heroes and Heartbreakers

  ‘I always enjoy reading a Jill Shalvis book. She’s a consistently elegant, bold, clever writer . . . Very witty — I laughed out loud countless times and these scenes are sizzling’ All About Romance

  ‘If you have not read a Jill Shalvis novel yet, then you really have not read a real romance yet either!’ Book Cove Reviews

  ‘Engaging writing, characters that walk straight into your heart, touching, hilarious’ Library Journal

  ‘Witty, fun, and sexy — the perfect romance!’ Lori Foster, New York Times bestselling author

  ‘Riveting suspense laced with humor and heart is her hallmark, and Jill Shalvis always delivers’ Donna Kauffman, USA Today bestselling author

  ‘Humor, intrigue, and scintillating sex. Jill Shalvis is a total original’ Suzanne Forster, New York Times bestselling author

  ‘Fast-paced and deliciously fun . . . Jill Shalvis sweeps you away’ Cherry Adair, New York Times bestselling author

  By Jill Shalvis

  Cedar Ridge Series

  Second Chance Summer

  My Kind Of Wonderful

  Animal Magnetism Series

  Animal Magnetism

  Animal Attraction

  Rescue My Heart

  Rumour Has It

  Then Came You

  Still The One

  All I Want

  Lucky Harbor Series

  Simply Irresistible

  The Sweetest Thing

  Head Over Heels

  Lucky In Love

  At Last

  Forever And A Day

  It Had To Be You

  Always On My Mind

  Once In A Lifetime

  It’s In His Kiss

  He’s So Fine

  One In A Million

  Merry Christmas, Baby &

  Under The Mistletoe Omnibus (e-novellas)

  About the Book

  The sky’s the limit when it comes to love.

  Pilot-for-hire Zoe Stone finds her quiet life thrown for a loop when her brother’s friend Parker comes to stay. The US Fish and Wildlife special agent is a handsome flirt with a gift for getting under her skin – which only intensifies when Parker hires her to fly him around the area while he collects evidence on a suspected smuggler.

  Now Zoe has to live and work with the guy. But in the air, she sees another side of him. He’s driven, focused, and sharp. And she quickly realises with a shock that Parker also has a gift for setting her heart racing – and that she never wants him to stop.

  Want more sexy, fun romance? Return to Sunshine, Idaho for more of the captivating Animal Magnetism series, or visit spellbinding Lucky Harbor in Jill’s bestselling series.

  And don’t miss Jill’s Cedar Ridge books – the gorgeous series set in the Colorado mountains, that we promise will capture your heart.

  One

  Zoe Stone had tried on everything in her closet and not only did her room now look like an explosion in a mattress factory, not one single item of clothing had worked for her.

  She was still standing there eyeing the carnage when her sister, Darcy, appeared in the doorway, arms loaded with clothing. “Got your 911 freak-out text. Here’s all the stuff I’ve ever borrowed from you.”

  “You mean stolen?”

  “Tomayto, tomahto.” Darcy dumped the entire pile of loot in the only space available—on top of the slightly tubby Bernese mounta in dog snoring in the center of Zoe’s bed.

  “The pretty little black dress of yours is in there,” Darcy said. “You should absolutely be wearing that for your date instead of the granny dress you’ve got on. Seriously, how old are you, eighty-five?”

  She’d just had her first anniversary of turning thirty, thank you very much, but Zoe looked down at herself. Her floral print dress was soft and clingy, fell to just past her knees, and hid a multitude of sins—such as the fact that she’d been stress-eating her feels all week. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Zoe, you could walk into any Denny’s before five o’clock and get a discount.”

  “I like this dress,” Zoe said, “and so does Oreo.”

  Oreo, the aforementioned Bernese mountain dog, cracked open an eye and looked up at Zoe with love and adoration. “See?” she said, ruffling the dog’s big head. “And not that I have time to change anyway, but I don’t see what’s wrong with this outfit.”

  “Absolutely nothing,” Darcy said, “assuming that you don’t care if you ever get laid again. And for God’s sake, stop taking fashion advice from a dog who rolls in bear poo and thinks he smells good.”

  Panting happily, Oreo smiled up at the both of them.

  Through the open window came the sound of a vehicle pulling up. Darcy moved to the second-story window and peered out. “Looks like your blind date’s here. What’s his name again?”

  “Newman Taylor.”

  “Well, Newman’s in a black Jeep with the top off. Not his top, the Jeep’s top, but still very nice—Whoa.”

  “What?”

  Darcy’s nose was glued to the window now. “Holy crap on a stick—he’s hot for a guy named Newman. Way too hot for that dress you’re wearing. Quick,” she said, waving a hand at Zoe. “Exchange it for the LBD.”

  “I’m fine in this,” Zoe said. Maybe because she couldn’t wear the LBD; she hadn’t shaved her thighs—her own little insurance policy against making any rash decisions tonight such as getting naked. No way would she be tempted knowing she had hairy thighs. “And get away from there and stop spying on him.” But then she moved to the window next to her sister and sucked in a breath because Darcy was right, Newman was hot. Dark hair, a little wavy, a lot wind tousled. Black shirt that fit him well enough to define broad shoulders. Dark jeans. An easy gait that said confident male.

  Butterflies took flight low in her belly and she pressed a hand to it. “Oh boy.”

  “And I bet he’s got a six-pack, too,” Darcy whispered. “Maybe even an eight-pack. I’m going to need you to remember every detail for me.”

  For Darcy, abs were a requirement in a man.

  But Zoe had learned a lot for a woman who’d just had her thirtieth birthday—again. She had a completely different list of requirements. Honesty and kindness. That was it. Easy to remember and simple. But she’d also learned that nothing about men was simple.

  “I wonder what color his eyes are—” Darcy broke off as the guy stopped on the path to the house and unerringly looked up at the window where the two of them stood staring at him.

  With a commingled squeak, they dropped to the floor.

  Afraid he was missing some fun new game, Oreo barked happily and leapt off the bed and right on top of them.

  “Oomph.” Darcy pulled the silly dog in for a hug. “You big lug. You need a diet.”

  Zoe pushed Oreo’s tail out of her face. “Think he saw us?” she asked, panicked.

  “Nah,” Darcy said.

  Zoe let out a relieved breath. “Really?”

  “No.” Darcy grinned and sat up. “He totally saw us.”

  Oh for God’s sake. The guy’s a dentist, she reminded herself. By definition, that meant he most likely was a people person, right? Right, she decided. And him being a people person was a good thing since one of them needed to know what they were doing.

  She and Darcy—and Oreo—crawled away from the window and stood.

  “Feels a little like old times, doesn’t it?” Darcy asked, dusting herself off. “Remember when we sneaked out of the house to do that midnight full moon climb up White Eagle with the Connelly brothers? We climbed out the window and got caught by Grandpa and were grounded for the rest of the summer.”

  “That was you and Wyatt,” Zoe said. Their brother had always been able to find trouble. “I never got grounded.”

  “That’s right. Wyatt was way more fun than you.”

  Zoe slipped into a pair of flats and Darcy rolled her eyes.

  “What’s wrong with the flats?” Zoe asked. “You wear flats all the time.”

  “Yes, because I have a spinal injury that makes me want to drop to the floor and curl up in a ball whenever I wear heels,” Darcy pointed out. “You don’t have such an excuse. Plus you have legs a mile long that look amazing in heels, which makes me hate you just a little bit.”

  “Flats,” Zoe insisted.

  “Fine. So what do we know about this guy?”

  “He’s a dentist from Hennessey Flats,” Zoe said. “Karen set me up with him. He’s her neighbor.”

  “The Karen who does your hair, the Karen who’s been married and divorced three times?” Darcy asked.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Sooooooo,” Darcy said, “don’t you think if her neighbor was hot, she’d date him herself, if not make him husband number four?”

  Well, crap. She hadn’t thought of that.

  “Plus . . . a dentist?” Darcy asked doubtfully.

  “What’s wrong with him being a dentist? At least he’s gainfully employed.”

  “Nothing’s wrong with it,” Darcy said reasonably. “If you want to sleep with a guy whose hands have been inside other people’s mouths all day long. Do you know how many germs that is? A million. A million trillion.”

  Zoe shuddered. “Great. Thanks for that. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

  “Yep,” Darcy said, but moved back to the window. “You got a reprieve; he stopped to take a call.”

  Zoe grabbed her purse and turned to Oreo. “Hold down the fort for Mommy, okay?”

  Darcy snorted. “If a bad guy showed up, he’d hide in your closet.”

  This was probably true but the big, goofy dog was the only home security system she had right now. In the past few months both Wyatt and Darcy had moved out, Wyatt to live with his fiancée, Emily, and Darcy to live with her boyfriend, AJ.

  Zoe had told herself she was good with that. Sure, she missed bossing them around as she’d been doing since the dawn of time because one, their foreign diplomat parents had never seemed to notice that they’d had children, and two, well, Zoe kind of just loved to boss people around. But she wasn’t going to complain. Not when she’d seen just about every corner of the world and knew exactly how good she really had it right here in Sunshine, Idaho, alone or not.

  Besides, with her newfound freedom she had a lot planned for herself. She wanted to fix up the house, although she admittedly had very little talent in that area. She wanted to learn to bake, even though she had even less talent in that realm. She wanted to date—where she had absolutely zero talent.

  It might seem silly, but to a woman who’d been uniquely unlucky in her love life, Zoe had never gotten the hang of dipping her toes into the wading pool, especially with the audience of her siblings.

  But now, with the house empty, it seemed like a perfect time.

  Hence blind date number one. And she was ready. She wanted this. She totally almost did.

  “He’s off the phone,” Darcy reported, back at the window.

  Oh God. “I changed my mind,” Zoe whispered.

  Darcy turned to her. “No.”

  “Yes!”

  “Then why did you tell everyone to set you up with blind dates so that you could get laid?”

  “I never said that! I really wish you’d stop saying it.”

  “What?” Darcy asked. “That you want to get laid?”

  Zoe shot Darcy a look that went completely ignored. “And that’s not why I wanted to go out. I just wanted . . .” She trailed off, because what she wanted was much more complicated than her short list of man requirements.

  She had a job she loved: being both a pilot-for-hire and giving flying lessons out of the small regional Sunshine Airport. Sunshine was a sleepy ranching town at the base of the heart-stopping Bitterroot Mountains and didn’t see a lot of action, but she managed to keep busy enough to eke out a living.

  She had Wyatt and Darcy, whom she loved fiercely even though on any given day she felt like strangling and/or smothering them, but she was working on that.

  And then there was the ancient—and some might argue dilapidated—150-year-old Victorian house that her grandparents had left the three of them, which she loved with the same fierceness she loved her annoying siblings.

  Not to mention Oreo, whom she’d rescued not all that long ago and who’d quickly become her favorite family member.

  So yeah, her life was good and she was happy, blah blah blah.

  But something had been missing for a while now.

  Joy.

  She’d never given that particular emotion much thought before. She’d always been too busy keeping things together. But now that she had an empty nest, so to speak, she’d decided she was due. Past due—

  At the knock on the front door downstairs, she nearly leapt out of her skin.

  Startled, Oreo gave a loud bark and farted at the same time, and then as he did every single time this happened, he whipped his big head around to stare at his own hind end in surprise.

  Darcy grinned. “Killer protective instincts, this one.” She rumpled Oreo’s fur. “I’m going to sneak out the back door, okay?” At the door, she blew Zoe a quick kiss and then smacked her own forehead. “Oh, almost forgot! Wyatt told me to remind you that his friend Parker could be showing up any time over the next few days. And change your dress and shoes!”

  “I’m not going to change!”

  Darcy sighed the put-upon sigh of a sister who thought she knew everything. “Fine. But do me a favor?”

  “Anything if you’ll leave.”

  “For once,” Darcy said, “just once, act spontaneously, okay?”

  “Spontaneously?”