Bayou Vows
The Bayou Bachelors
#3
by Geri Krotow
Genre: Contemporary
Romance
Pub
Date: 1/8/2019
Not even
the wildest Bayou Bachelor of all can resist the right woman.
Jeb DeVillier has a lot of explaining to
do. True, he did steal millions from the sailboat business he ran
with his partner, Brandon, and disappear to South America. But Jeb
has a good reason—Brandon’s sister, Jena Boudreaux. A decade ago,
she broke his heart when she chose career over their relationship.
Still, when he learns she’s being held for ransom by drug dealers,
he doesn’t hesitate. He’ll save her life, no matter what the
danger.
When Jena called Jeb out of the blue, it
was to ask him to give her last words to her family. She knew the
risks when she took one final mission for the CIA. Suddenly, Jeb’s
riding to the rescue like her own personal Cajun knight. Yet now that
they’re both safe in New Orleans, he refuses to give her a second
chance.
That’s not good enough for
Jena. Because when you find someone crazy enough to risk everything
for you, the only sane thing to do is to hang on tight . . .
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Chapter 1
Rain battered the condo roof, and for the fifth time in as
many minutes Jeb DeVillier reread the contracts from the many accounting firms
eager for his CPA experience. He wondered which job he’d pick to start his life
over. All four positions were out of state, far away from his native New Orleans,
which had been his comfort zone for too long.
Away from Jena Boudreaux.
Usually the rain soothed him and gave him the peace he
needed to think, but since he’d come back from Paraguay nothing had filled the crater
in his soul.
Her face had been cut
from lip to cheekbone.
No matter how many times he went over what happened last
month—especially the part where he stole his best friend’s money to save that
same best friend’s sister from certain death—he hadn’t been able to justify his
actions to himself. At the very least he should have told
Brandon he was taking the company coffers to Asunción, Paraguay, to save Jena.
She could have died.
Should have, statistically.
He’d saved Jena by getting the ransom to the Paraguayan drug
cartel in time, gaining a lifetime’s worth of stress in the process. His first
trip to South America had been a matter of life or death. There’d been no time to
think, no chance to second-guess. He’d received the alarming text from Jena and
acted on instinct.
The image of her motionless figure, bloody and battered,
flashed into his mind for the millionth time. Unlike any other memory in his
life, this one didn’t fade. It grew stronger, the utter despair it elicited
strangling out any flicker of hope left in his battered heart.
And he’d realized that he could no longer see Jena as a fuck
buddy, and in fact, that he had never seen her like that. It’d been sheer
stupidity to agree to her proposal in the first place. They’d reconnected last
year at Christmas, after barely having seen one another in seven years. Like a
fool, he’d convinced himself that the years and space had allowed him to see
their shattered adolescent and college relationship for what it was: growing
pains with a childhood friend and first love, nothing more. But their red-hot
chemistry was still there, and it’d been too tempting to turn down no-strings
sex with Jena. He’d gone along with her offer, anything to be able to be with
her. Even risking his relationship with her older brother, Brandon Boudreaux,
his lifelong best friend. They’d kept their sex-only relationship secret, and
it worked. Until it didn’t.
After seeing Jena at her physical bottom at the hands of her
kidnappers in Paraguay—a haunted ghost of herself—the bubble he’d been living in
exploded. While he’d happily engaged in their very private, indeed clandestine,
relationship, he’d also fallen for what she’d told her family: that she was in
the Navy Reserves and got called to active duty as often as she did because she
was doing refugee work in various spots around the globe.
And it made sense, on the surface. Jena had her degree in
social work, and she’d said the Navy had assigned her as a general unrestricted
line officer, which gave her the ability to serve wherever she was needed, whenever.
Jena excelled at channeling her compassionate tendencies in the most beneficial
way—he’d witnessed it firsthand when she’d helped the teen daughter of his work
colleague early last year.
He grunted. That was when he’d had work colleagues. The
destruction his split-second decision had wrought on the boating company he and
Brandon had built from the ground up was immeasurable. The fifteen million
dollars of absconded funds were easily counted, a solid figure to wrap his head
around. And as rough as stealing the money was, it had bought Jena her life
back. But the damage between him and Brandon—irreparable. Brandon had been his
best friend, his chosen brother, much as the Boudreauxes had been his chosen
family since the day Brandon brought him home after school to play Atari.
The only commonality he’d shared with the Boudreaux children
was school. Jeb’s family struggled economically. His father left when he was still
in kindergarten, and his mother struggled with alcoholism until he was almost
in middle school. Jeb had felt responsible for his siblings, but also craved
the attention and security he thought the Boudreaux children had. He’d met
Brandon Boudreaux in gym class at the local private Catholic school where Jeb
was enrolled as a charity case. Their bond had been immediate, as had his
friendship with Brandon’s younger sister Jena. He couldn’t remember his life
without her.
How had the girl he’d known, the woman he’d thought he’d
loved on and off over the last two decades, been an undercover CIA agent and
he’d never had a fucking clue?
The not-knowing about her work wasn’t what painfully stuck
in his craw, though. He hated to admit the truth of it, even to himself in the
small apartment he might very well lose in a matter of days. What crushed him was
that Jena had never needed him, had only used him for booty calls. And he’d
been too blinded by his attraction to see through it. To be fair, he’d used her
for the same things, but deep down he believed that Jena needed him, what only he could
offer her.
He’d been a fool.
Jena never stopped calling him her best friend. When they
were kids, when they dated in high school, and then, later, college, she never
stopped saying that he was the only one who really “got” her.
After seeing what kind of horrible human beings she’d fought
and fortunately won against, he had to face facts. The young kids they’d been—and,
yes, even the more recent fuck buddies—had been based on his assumption that
Jena needed
him. That he was a requisite part of
her life. And he’d thought it would be that way forever. That Jena knew he was
the one she’d always be able to turn to, no matter what. While that part was
true, what wasn’t was his fatal assumption: that Jena wanted to turn to him all
the time.
Because Jena Boudreaux was a self-made woman who required
help from no one, least of all her grade-school friend who happened to know her
body better than anyone else.
He slammed his laptop shut, stood, and stretched. Hadn’t he
had enough counseling about his alcoholic mother to know that he was a classic caretaker,
that his codependency had spilled over onto Jena for too long? He’d destroyed
his best friend’s business, their relationship, and his own livelihood, all
because of a single text from Jena.
Not the text asking him to tell her family she loved them,
to let the FBI know what was going on. No, that hadn’t been the biggest
revelation. It was the short, three-word text that came two hours later, when
he’d thought it was too late, that he’d never reach her in time.
Bare
Devotion
The Bayou Bachelors #2
Sweet
and sultry, hot and wild…that’s desire, Louisiana-style. And
there’s no one better to explore it with than one of the Bayou
Bachelors…
Returning to her
flooded New Orleans home to face Henry Boudreaux, the man she jilted
at the altar, is the hardest thing attorney Sonja Bosco has ever
done—even before she discovers she’s pregnant. Sonja backed out
of the marriage for Henry’s sake. He wants to be part of his
father’s law firm, and his parents will never approve of an
interracial marriage. Better to bruise his heart than ruin his life.
Henry can’t forgive
Sonja, and doubts that he can trust her again. But learning that
they’re going to be parents means there’s no avoiding each other.
Springtime on the bayou is already steamy enough…now they’re
living in the same small space while their damaged house is repaired.
And with each passing day they’re getting a little more honest. A
lot more real. And realizing that nothing—not even New Orleans at
Mardi Gras—glows brighter than the desire they’re trying to deny…
Fully
Dressed
The
Bayou Bachelors #1
There’s
nowhere hotter than the South, especially with three men who know how
to make the good times roll. But one of the Bayou Bachelors is about
to meet his match…
New
York City stylist Poppy Kaminsky knows that image is everything,
which is why she’s so devastated when hers is trashed on social
media—after a very public meltdown over her cheating fiancé. Her
best friend’s New Orleans society wedding gives her the chance hide
out and lick her wounds...
Brandon
Boudreaux is in no mood to party. His multi-million dollar sailboat
business is in danger of sinking thanks to his partner’s sudden
disappearance—with the company’s funds. And when he rolls up to
his estranged brother’s pre-wedding bash in an airboat, a
cold-as-ice friend of the bride looks at him like he’s so much
swamp trash.
The
last person Poppy should get involved with is the bad boy of the
Boudreaux family. But they have more in common than she could ever
imagine—and the steamy, sultry New Orleans nights are about to show
her how fun letting loose can be…
“New
Orleans serves as a strong supporting character in Fully
Dressed as
Krotow gives an inside view on the sights, sounds, and tastes of the
bayou.” —RT
Book Reviews
Geri
Krotow is the award winning author of more than thirteen
contemporary and romantic suspense novels (with a couple of WWII
subplots thrown in!). While still unpublished Geri received the
Daphne du Maurier Award for Romantic Suspense in Category Romance
Fiction. Her 2007 Harlequin Everlasting debut A Rendezvous to
Remember earned several awards, including the Yellow Rose of Texas
Award for Excellence.
Prior to writing, Geri
served for nine years as a Naval Intelligence Officer. Geri served as
the Aviation/Anti-Submarine Warfare Intelligence officer for a P-3C
squadron during which time she deployed to South America, Europe, and
Greenland. She was the first female Intel officer on the East Coast
to earn Naval Aviation Observer Wings. Geri also did a tour in the
war on drugs, working with several different government and law
enforcement agencies. Geri is grateful to be settled in south central
Pennsylvania with her husband.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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