Wild about Weston (The English Brothers Book 5) (17 page)

Kiss Me Kate!

(Excerpt from
Kiss Me Kate
, The English Brothers #6)

Chapter 1

From the moment Kate English found out about Étienne Rousseau’s accident, she’d been stalking him on Facebook.

What made this especially challenging—and infinitely more pathetic—was that Étienne Rousseau didn’t, in fact, have a Facebook page. So, Kate had essentially been stalking him by proxy, via the Facebook pages of his younger sisters, Jax and Mad.

If either Rousseau sister had been curious about a sudden Friend Request from Kate English, they hadn’t let on. It was common knowledge in their shared social circle that Kate had recently moved from New York City to Philadelphia, so perhaps they just assumed she was reaching out to them now that she was living locally.

She wasn’t.

She was creeping on their brother...

…which was such a rare brand of lunacy, even Kate couldn’t completely get her head around it. And yet, here she sat, on her lonely bed, at ten o’clock on a Saturday night, lurking on Jax’s Facebook page for any mention of her older brother, Étienne, who had once—a long, long time ago—broken Kate’s heart into a million pieces…begging the question:

Why did she care so much?

Kate grabbed her glass of wine off the bedside table and sipped the Pinot Grigio as her index finger continued its snooping and her brain tried to ignore this nagging question.

The fact of the matter was that Kate didn’t have a good answer. She supposed, if she had to come up with something, she’d admit that she’d never totally gotten over Étienne. The only way someone can break your heart into a million pieces is if you gave it to them in the first place, and Kate had done just that. As a gullible and innocent girl, she had believed herself deeply in love with Étienne. Catastrophically in love, even.

And catastrophic love never really dies, does it?
she thought bitterly.

Touching the mouse on her laptop gingerly, she scrolled through a series of Jax-selfies taken an hour ago at the same party Kate had been attending: Jax looking dark-haired, dark-eyed and fierce in front of a skyscraper-shaped ice sculpture…Jax and Mad pursing their lips for the camera…Jax posing with one of the Ambler sisters, her index finger between her teeth, and somehow managing to look both sexy and bored-to-tears at once…

Kate kept skating up through pictures and status updates, chuckling softly at a quip about stiletto heels and rainy spring nights. Though they’d been childhood acquaintances, Kate had gotten to know Jax pretty well through a month’s worth of lurking, and she liked the feisty young brunette. Plus, Jax updated her Facebook account about three times more often than Mad, which meant that mentions of Étienne, still occasional, were a little more frequent.

Peeking over the rim of her glass as she took another sip of wine, Kate almost missed it…Her eyes widened and she jerked her finger on the mouse, scrolling back down quickly. Changing her sip to a gulp, she read a status from earlier today.

Jacqueline “Jax” Rousseau:
Big Bro still in a leg cast. WTF? It’s been 10 weeks. Doc says 2 more should do it. Gird your loins, females of Philly. Ten’ll be back in action soooooon, bitches!

Staring at the screen, Kate read the post three more times before snapping the laptop closed and swinging her legs over the side of her bed with disgust. She huffed softly, causing Oliver, her latest rescue cat, to leap off the bed and hide beneath it, while Annie, the marmalade tabby she’d rescued two years ago, gave Kate the stink eye for disrupting her sleep.

Kate’s baggy pajama bottoms whooshed softly as she marched through her rented condo, heading for the kitchen to refill her wine glass.

“Gird your loins,” she muttered to Cinderella, a blue-eyed Himalayan cat who followed her mistress to the kitchen. Kate was fostering her until the local shelter could find a family equipped to care for an HIV-positive feline.

Peggy, her contact at PAWS for LOVE, had called Kate just this morning and asked her to foster one more, and Kate was still feeling guilty that she’d said no. Probably because Kate never said no. Not to anyone. The greatest joy of Kate’s life was being needed, feeling useful, offering help, and it rankled that she wasn’t able to make space for another cat in need. But until she had a house of her own with some grounds to build a small kennel for orphans and strays, she didn’t feel her condo could accommodate another body. Not to mention, one more cat and she’d be approaching “crazy cat lady” territory, which was a little too close to the truth for Kate to bear.

Buzz. Buzzbuzz.

She glanced at her phone.

Stratton. Hmm.

Her favorite cousin, Stratton English, had looked pretty content when Kate had left him at the benefit, an hour ago. Cozy in a corner with his new girlfriend, Valeria, he’d appeared more comfortable at that party than Kate had ever seen him…and that was saying something, because Stratton loathed parties.

She pressed Talk.

“Why are you calling me?”

Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, she placed her glass beside the sink with one hand and opened the frig door with the other.

“Kate?”

“Yeah. What’s up?” she asked, kicking the refrigerator door closed and uncorking the half-drunk bottle of wine. “Are you still at the party?”

“Yes and are you sitting down?”

“Nope. But I’m drinking.” A loud splash of Pinot Grigio in her empty glass confirmed this truth.

“I guess that’ll have to do,” said Stratton.

“Why are you using your doomsday voice?”

“Maybe because you’ve got ESP?”

“I definitely don’t. Out with it.”

“Okay, but before I say anything else, I want you to know…we’re going to fix this, Kate. I promise.”

Kate sighed, taking a swig directly from the bottle before re-corking it and putting it back in the frig. If Kate was a classic nurturer, her favorite cousin, Stratton, was a classic fixer, which made them strangely compatible. Kate understood Stratton’s compulsion to “fix” things for the people he loved, because she would—literally—do
anything
for the people she cared about.

In fact, she thought, thinking of her hot laptop and cold, ungirded loins, that was probably why she couldn’t stay away from Jax’s Facebook page.

Despite the years between Kate’s fleeting week with Étienne and now—despite the way he’d hurt her so long ago—the second she’d heard about Étienne’s accident, she’d irrationally longed to race to his bedside and hold his hand. She wasn’t under any illusion about his feelings for her. He’d
never
really cared for her—his actions had made that abundantly clear. Hell, at this point, she didn’t even know if he still
remembered
her—she hadn’t seen him or heard from him in over twelve years. But even at fifteen-years-old, Étienne Rousseau had more demons chasing after him than anyone Kate had ever met, which pretty much made him the tortured nip to Kate’s comforting cat. Back then, in addition to his lips on hers and his hands all over her body, she’d wanted to take care of him, to offer him a soft landing. And—she remembered, stiffening her spine—in thanks for her kindness, he took her virginity and she never saw his face again.

“Out with it, Strat.”

“I don’t know how this happened…but Barrett and his stupid Scotch… and Weston! If Weston was still at English & Company—”

“I wouldn’t be,” finished Kate, leaning her elbows on her kitchen counter as Cinderella wove between her legs. Four weeks ago, Kate had taken over as legal counsel for English & Company when her cousin Weston decided to take a job at the Philadelphia DA’s office.  “I’m actually
aging
here, Stratton…”

“Barrett just got into bed with the Rousseau Trust,” he blurted out.

Raising her eyebrows, Kate quipped, “Is Emily okay with that?”

Stratton’s silence confirmed that Kate’s wine-buzzed silliness was unwelcome.

“Um, sorry,” she backpedaled, picking up her wine glass and walking through the kitchen and dining room to the bright-white painted French doors that led to Kate’s favorite room in the condo: a sunroom furnished with a white wicker sofa and rocker, complete with comfy cushions as plump as Kate’s backside. “I’m sitting down. Catch me up.”

“Are you still drinking?”

“Definitely.”

LOVING THE ENGLISH BROTHERS?

Kiss Me Kate

The English Brothers, #6

is available for purchase/pre-order now!

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And stayed tuned for…

~
Coming Summer/Fall 2015
~

STANDALONE BOOKS:

Four Weddings and a Fiasco: The Wedding Date

(a Kindle Worlds novella)

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THE WEDDING DATE
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Playing for Love at Deep Haven

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PLAYING FOR LOVE AT DEEP HAVEN
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The Vixen and the Vet

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THE VIXEN AND THE VET
now!

THE ENGLISH BROTHERS
:

Breaking Up with Barrett

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Falling for Fitz

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Anyone but Alex

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ANYONE BUT ALEX
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Seduced by Stratton

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SEDUCED BY STRATTON
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Wild about Weston

Thank you for reading!

Kiss Me Kate

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KISS ME KATE
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Katy Regnery
, award-winning and Amazon bestselling author, started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract for a winter romance entitled
By Proxy
.

Now a hybrid author who publishes both independently and traditionally, Katy claims authorship of the six-book Heart of Montana series, the six-book English Brothers series, and a Kindle Worlds novella entitled “Four Weddings and a Fiasco: The Wedding Date,” in addition to the standalone novels,
Playing for Love at Deep Haven
and Amazon bestseller,
The Vixen and the Vet
.

The Vixen and the Vet
is included in the charity anthology
Hometown Heroes: Hotter Ever After,
and Katy’s novella “Frosted” will appear in the upcoming (Jan ’15) anthology,
Snowy Days Steamy Nights
. Additionally, Katy’s short story, “The Long Way Home” will appear in the first RWA anthology (Feb ’15),
Premiere.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, and two dogs create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.

Don’t miss upcoming English Brothers books!!

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