Read A Very Daring Christmas (The Tavonesi Series Book 8) Online
Authors: Pamela Aares
Tags: #hot romance series secret baby, #Christmas romance, #wine country romance, #Baseball, #sport, #sagas and romance, #holiday romance
A Very Daring Christmas (The Tavonesi Series Book 8)
A Very Daring Christmas
Pamela Aares
Also Available
in the
Tavonesi Series
Love Bats Last
(Book #1, Alex and Jackie)
Thrown By Love
(Book #2, Chloe and Scotty)
Fielder's Choice
(Book #3, Alana and Matt)
Love on the Line
(Book #4, Cara and Ryan)
Aim For Love
(Book #5, Sabrina and Kaz)
The Heart of the Game
(Book #6, Cody and Zoe)
Love in the Vineyard
(Book #7, Adrian and Natasha)
A Very Daring Christmas
(Book #8, Cameron and Jake)
No Stranger to Love
(Book #9, Parker and Juliet)
also available:
A VERY DARING CHRISTMAS
(Tavonesi Series # 8, Jake and Cameron)
The Tavonesi Series continues with
A VERY DARING CHRISTMAS
, another captivating and page turning romance by USA TODAY Bestselling author Pamela Aares. Each book in the Tavonesi series can be read as a standalone.
Flying high after winning the World Series, Jake Ryder is in the Caribbean to rehab his season-sore body and coach village children who are crazy about baseball. Running into Hollywood sensation Cameron Kelley, though, may send him packing. The heat sparking between the two of them has him rethinking his Three-Date Rule, something he swore he'd never do. But when she tries to manipulate him into a publicity stunt to fund her UNICAN project, he decides it’s game over. He's been used too many times by women with an agenda.
A surprise invitation to Trovare Castle throws them together once more. A mysterious prince and a fatherless boy complicate their already tense reunion and they soon discover that the greatest dare is the one that leads to true love.
A VERY DARING CHRISTMAS
Tavonesi Series #9
Copyright 2015 Pamela Aares
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
For information contact:
[email protected]
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Table of Contents
Prologue
With labored breaths, Alia signed her handwritten will. If only the rains in the Amazon hadn’t come early. There was no hope of leaving the village, no possibility of reaching a hospital. Yet a return to civilization wouldn’t have mattered; there was nothing modern medicine could do to save her. The jungle fever gripping her had no cure.
She could only hope that Dylan would arrive in Dominia safely. At least she’d gotten him out before the rains. Sending him away with one of the village elders had been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. It could take weeks for them to reach Manaus and perhaps another week before they could catch a flight to Dominia.
She wasn’t afraid of dying, wasn’t afraid of the end of her life. She’d had a good life, pursuing the research she loved, living in the jungle she loved with a child she adored. But she should’ve made arrangements for Dylan earlier. With no family of her own, she should’ve seen to making provisions in case anything happened to her. But high on the thrill of her discoveries and her life in the Amazon, she’d believed herself invincible.
She should’ve believed the village shaman and heard the truth. But she’d been too focused on finding the cure for the very disease that would soon end her life. And the truth was, she hadn’t wanted to go back to the modern world. Her life was here, deep in the jungle.
Her only fear was for Dylan’s future.
She should’ve told Peter Ryder right away that he had a son. Though their one-night stand had resulted in the greatest gift of her life, saddling Peter with a child he hadn’t asked for hadn’t seemed right. But by the time she’d decided telling him was the right thing to do, she’d read online that Peter had died in a boating accident. And the deeper truth was that she hadn’t wanted a man in her life. Within months of Dylan’s birth, she’d become so caught up in her research, in their life in the rainforest, she’d never looked back.
Until now.
She’d sent instructions to Juan Alcedes, her colleague in Dominia, along with access codes for her savings account. But the money wouldn’t last, wouldn’t buy Dylan a safe and happy future. Juan was resourceful. She trusted that with Nonna’s help and connections, that Juan would find Aderro. His sister was a friend of Peter’s winterball teammate. Or so Peter had said.
Family ties ran deep in Dominia. She hoped they ran as deep in the States.
Before the Internet connection had been disrupted by the sudden storm, she’d seen online that Aderro was in Dominia overseeing the kids baseball camp he’d founded. She could only hope that when Aderro returned to the Bay Area to spend the holidays with his family, he would take Dylan safely to California. Hope that Peter’s brother, Jake, a successful baseball All-Star, would take him in, adopt him. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, think about any other outcome. The pain of her plan failing outstripped the pains telling her that her life would soon end.
She’d found little information online about Jake. Some team photos, an interview where he stuck to comments about the team and the games. Clearly he was publicity shy. But she hoped he had the heart of an angel and the strength of the warrior he appeared to be—he’d need both for the task she’d set for him
if
he took Dylan on. No,
when
he took Dylan in. She had to think positive, give the outcome every chance to happen. God, how she wished she believed in such practices.
The door to her hut opened and the village shaman came in with one of her steaming potions. She pushed the shaman’s hand away. The shaman nodded and then wrapped Alia in her arms. It was time. With her last breath, she prayed for Dylan’s safety and future.
Chapter One
A morning run through the autumn-gold vines of the Trovare vineyards did nothing to clear Jake’s head. He shouldn’t have gone out gambling and partying with his teammates the night before a batting tournament; Alex and Ryan would be ruthless. But the lure of the tables and the promise of beautiful, available women had once again eroded his better judgment.
“You look terrible,” Alex said as Jake entered the sunny breakfast room of Alex’s home.
Jake still couldn’t believe Alex actually lived in a castle, even if it had been built recently
and
in northern California. He particularly couldn’t believe that it was in California. Alex’s father had been a man driven by dreams, and Trovare was the result of his obsession. The castle was set on a hillside, and the towers could be seen from miles around. And the vineyards Alex’s father had planted now produced the finest wines in the region. Everything about the place was a far cry from Jake’s roots in an impoverished North Carolina mining town.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you looks aren’t everything?” Jake chided as he grabbed a plate from the long table at one side of the room and filled it with scrambled eggs and home-fried potatoes.
“I think he looks just fine,” Alex’s cousin Coco purred.
Jake spun on his heel and pointed his fork at her. “Flattery will not get me to pose for your calendar.”
Coco wrinkled her nose. Like her sisters and cousins, Coco was a beauty. He’d cast lures to her a couple of times, but she’d made it clear over the past months that her only interest in his body was to get him to take his clothes off for a fundraising calendar she’d cooked up. He didn’t care that the damned thing was intended to fund a local homeless women and children’s shelter—he wasn’t for sale. Not now. Not ever.
His agent had had a hell of a time getting a clause in Jake’s contract limiting the PR he was required to do for the Giants, but Jake had stood firm. He owed his profession to the diehard fans of baseball—directly or indirectly they were the ones paying his salary. The team owners often forgot that fact, but Jake didn’t. The fans were the community that made it possible for him to pursue his dream and play the game he loved. Without the fans, he’d be hacking at balls in a sandlot somewhere.
But he didn’t owe anyone his soul. What he owed the fans was to play his heart out every time he stepped on the field. He’d keep it at that.
But just because he was allergic to PR didn’t mean he didn’t care. He’d instruct his agent to write an anonymous check to the women’s shelter. Back in his hometown he’d seen what sorts of challenges homeless single mothers faced. Hercules himself couldn’t shoulder that sort of load.
Coco fussed under her breath. “I have better tools than flattery,” she threatened in her Italian-accented English.
“Better watch out,” said Parker, another of Alex’s cousins, as Jake sat at the table. “If the Tavonesi women band together, you haven’t got a prayer.”
Jake scooped a forkful of potatoes. “Never been much for prayer.”
Alex glanced at his watch and jumped up from the table. “I’ll meet you out front in ten,” he said to Jake. “Ryan’s a stickler about being on time, and it’s a thirty-minute drive to the coast.”
“Hold on—what about our Christmas plans?” Parker asked.
Alex shot his cousin a grin. “I can’t believe you’re thinking about Christmas already. It’s barely November.”
“C’mon. You’re opening the new wing here at Trovare—let’s have a big family-and-friends house party. With the excitement of your World Series win over, we need something to look forward to.”
“Rest.” Alex pointed to Jake. “What we need is a little practice and loads of rest. Well, that and to get this year’s vintage bottled. That’s enough for me.”
“My party-planning skills will get rusty,” Parker protested. “You’re up for a party, aren’t you, Jake?”
Jake still had trouble believing that a world-class, hard-riding polo champion like Parker could be so focused on planning and executing parties. But he’d attended several of Parker’s events and had to admit that the guy was a wizard when it came to conjuring the perfect combination of fun, delicious food and drink, and just the right mix of guests to make Jake’s partying genes stand up and applaud.