When Size Matters. Carly Laine

      Dear Reader,

      I’m a low-maintenance chick. The kind who’s happy with the way things turn out and not in need of a lot of extras to sustain me. So, naturally, Destiny thought it would be fun to dump me in Dallas, Texas—Planet Central for appearances and all things material.

      Fortunately, I’m also a survivor and found myself a group of great girlfriends—beautiful women who spent massive chunks of their waking hours in manicures, highlights and cosmetic procedures. We got along great, those diamond-loving girls and I. They thought I was a breath of fresh air. Which, translated, meant I needed lots of help. And they were willing to give it. Sadly, it didn’t take.

      But my experience got me thinking and another low-maintenance chick, Sky Dylan Stone, was born. Dylan’s friends think you can tell the depth of love by the weight of the diamond. All Dylan wants is a soul mate, someone to complete her, to set her on fire, capture her spirit, mind and heart. Not an easy find. Until Brad Davis comes along, the long-legged, boot-wearing guy of her dreams. If only he wasn’t so busy chasing his own!

      Be you a low-maintenance gal or a diamond-girl supreme, we could all use a soul-scorching love. Drop me a line at [email protected] or visit my Web site at http://home.comcast.net/~carlylaine.

      Happy reading!

      Carly Laine

      Sometimes it’s okay to be a virgin

      Like when you’re fifteen or seventeen or hell, even twenty.

      I could think of a few other situations when it’s not only okay, it’s a damn good idea.

      Like if you’re the heroine of a romance novel and you lost it on page eighty-six to the guy with the big pecs on the cover.

      Or you’re super-religious and want to wait until you’re married.

      But lots of times it was not okay. Like when life got messy early and things hadn’t worked out the way you planned. Your friends were settling down and you hadn’t even gotten started yet. Then it was just plain mortifying.

      I wasn’t sure when things changed, when I quit fighting off the guys who pretended they wanted nothing more out of life than to sleep with me.

      All I know is, by the time I was a senior in college, it had gone from being a prize to a problem and I couldn’t pay someone to do the deed.

      When did sex become such a hassle?

      When Size Matters

      Carly Laine

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      After residing in many places, including Texas and France, Carly Laine currently finds herself living in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, where she spends her days wearing a hard hat and her nights writing about slim-hipped guys with magical smiles. When Size Matters is Carly’s first novel for Harlequin.

      To my family, where the living is easy.

      Contents

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       Chapter 14

       Chapter 15

       Chapter 16

       Chapter 17

       Chapter 18

       Chapter 19

       Chapter 20

       Chapter 21

       Chapter 22

       Epilogue

      1

      DOES SIZE really matter? I mean, can how big it is actually tell you anything? Because my friends all think so. They’re convinced it shows how much he loves you. As if you can weigh love. That you measure it in carats. Mathematically, it looks like this: carats = love. And, despite appearances to the contrary, my diamond friends excel at math. Increase one side of an equation and they know the other side magically grows with it. More carats, more love. Therefore—and this is the most important part—a really big diamond = true love.

      The only thing is, I don’t know if I buy it.

      But if I did, then what I was witnessing on top of the hill that amber afternoon in October was the real thing. Capital T, capital L True Love. Because the bride’s ring was h-u-g-e, a diamond doorknob. And as I watched her turn from the makeshift altar they’d set up outside for the ceremony with her new diamond wedding band snuggled against the knob, I thought her left hand hung a little lower and that she had to kind of drag it back down the aisle. Think Quasimodo.

      I can see my friends if they heard me think that. “D. E.,” they’d sing. Knowing for sure that mine was just another sad case of soul-devouring, stomach-cramping Diamond Envy. They could spot it anywhere. And often did. Even if it wasn’t. Or maybe it was, I don’t know. I do know I wanted some. TL. Real love. The kind you could always count on. Lifetime guarantee.

      So maybe the real question was this: How do you find that? Or rather: How do you know you’ve found it?

      I’d been to ten weddings in nine months. That made this one number eleven. Like the Diamond Girls, I, too, am good at math. It was October and—somebody shoot me—there was still another one to go. All things considered, it had been a fairly depressing year.

      Number eleven was my fourth bridesmaid gig. The first time, back in April, I was excited. I got over it. My closest friends had trapped me into spending hundreds of dollars on