Katy Regnery
Bidding on Brooks
5/11/2015
Blurb:
Bidding on Brooks is the first
of four books about the Philadelphia-based, wildly-handsome Winslow brothers
who are all on the look-out for love.
(Except Preston. He's been down that road before and still
has the scars to prove it. And maybe Cameron, because he's super hot, but too
hot-headedto be decent boyfriend material...)
Railroaded into a bachelor auction by his sister, Jessica,
Brooks Winslow asks his friend, Skye Sorenson, to bid on him to avoid the
possibility of any romantic entanglements. Fiercely competitive and protective
of those he cares for, Brooks was profoundly affected by the loss of his father
at an early age. A witness to his mother’s terrible loneliness and his
siblings’ grief, the ex-Olympian has never allowed himself to fall in love.
Skye Sorenson, the plucky mechanic at Sorenson Marina, where
Brooks moors his three sailboats, is a credible sailor in her own right…and has
quietly lusted after Brooks for years. But her longstanding friendship with
Brooks has always made romance seem impossible.
When Skye agrees to bid on Brooks, the two cast off for a
weeklong ocean adventure on Brooks’ sailboat, The Zephyr,
where the last thing Skye expects to lose is her heart.
Return to the world created in the English Brothers books
with this fresh foursome of scorching hot Winslow Brothers!
Buy:
Excerpt:
“Please, Skye. Just listen. You’re the perfect person for
this. You’ve got to help me out.”
Skye Sorenson rolled her eyes at Brooks Winslow, adjusting
the brim of her baseball cap as she swept past him and headed down the dock for
her next job.
“I mean it, Skye. I’m up a tree…and we’re friends. Can’t you
give me a hand?”
Dreamy Delight needed a new float
switch and bilge pump, which would be difficult to manage with Brooks Winslow
standing on the dock, looking casually gorgeous as he yammered at her about
some charity event he wanted her to attend.
Gazing at her hands, she noted they were still covered with
engine grease from the oil change she’d just handled on the outboard motor of a
J-24 sailboat. Not wanting to get black fingerprints on the white fiberglass of
the motorboat she was about to service, she took a bandana out of the back
pocket of her overalls then turned to face Brooks as she wiped her fingers.
“Are you going to follow me around all afternoon if I don’t
listen?”
“Umm…pretty much.”
She sighed with feigned annoyance. “Fine. You have my
attention. Tell it to me again.”
Brooks looked relieved and gave her a small grin
that—damn it—made Skye’s stomach flutter.
“Knew you wouldn’t let me down.”
“Haven’t said yes to anything yet,” she said, shoving the
bandana back into her pocket and crossing her arms over her chest.
“My sister, Jessica, is back in Philly this summer to get
married. To keep busy, she’s organized some big benefit for the Institute of
Contemporary Art. She and her girlfriends thought it would be fun to volunteer
their single brothers to be auctioned off.”
“Auctioned off?”
“Yeah…a bachelor auction.”
“Some sister,” said Skye, unable to keep the teasing from
her voice.
“It’s for charity,” he said defensively, running a hand
through his waves of jet black hair.
“Okay. So you got roped into it.” She thought back to an old
movie she’d seen once where women were auctioned off as dates. At each of their
feet had been a pretty lunch basket, and the man that was the highest bidder
won a homemade lunch with the girl of his choice. “What do you have to do? Have
lunch with someone?”
“Oh, no,” he said with irritation, pursing his lips.
“Nothing that painless. Jess wants to make money. Big
money. She had to think bigger than lunch.”
Skye stared up at him. “Dinner?”
“Nope.”
“Two dinners?”
“Nuh-uh.”
She gestured to the sleek Sportscruiser moored at the end of
the dock that she was supposed to be working on. “I’m out of guesses,
Brooks…and that pump isn’t going to fix itself, so—”
“A sail. She’s auctioning off a sail. With me.”
“Well, I don’t know why you’re complaining. You love
sailing. You love women. What’s the problem?”
Skye tilted her head to the side, looking at Brooks’
way-too-handsome face with a cheeky grin.
Long ago Skye had accepted the fact that Brooks would never
see her as anything but a great mechanic, a proficient sailor, and a long-time
friend. She was—honestly and truly—satisfied with that status quo between them.
He was rich and powerful, an ex-Olympian and world-renowned sailor from
Philadelphia, while Skye lived a much quieter life, working as a “handyman” at
her dad’s marina in Maryland. What they had in common was a deep love of boats
and mutual respect for one another’s nautical skills, and that was just enough
to keep their friendship intact.
The first time Skye had ever seen Brooks Winslow was the day
he came down to her father’s marina to claim the fifteen foot Primrose
wood-hulled sailboat gifted to him from his parents for his fifteenth birthday.
He swaggered into Sorenson Marina, flashing his perfect smile at her, and her
ten-year-old heart had grown wings as she’d discreetly followed him down the
dock. She was instantly infatuated with Brooks, of course, but much more, Skye
harbored a deep devotion to his Primrose, the most beautiful little
double-ended Daycruiser she’d ever seen. Her stomach had been in knots as she
walked behind him from a discreet distance, hopeful that he would handle the
little sailboat with the grace and care she deserved. But Skye’s worries turned
out to be unfounded. He’d treated that pretty boat with respect and skill, and
Skye had breathed deeply with relief, whispering, “I’m gonna marry you
someday,” as he sailed away.
Twenty years later, Skye knew two things for certain:
One, that Brooks was one of the most talented, natural,
organic sailors she’d ever met in her life. Heck, he’d made it all the way to
the Olympics and come home with a medal to prove what Skye had always
known—that any boat was safe in his hands. She respected him more than most of
the sailors she knew.
And two, the chances of her ever marrying him were next to
none in the approximate area of zero. He was gorgeous and rich and talented and
fascinating…and completely out of her league.
“Not a one-day sail,” Brooks continued in a terse voice,
jettisoning her memories as he prompted her back to their conversation. “Not
even two. Jessica signed me up for a cruise. From Baltimore to Charleston.”
Skye felt her eyes widen as she stared at him. “That’s a
week. Minimum.”
“Yeah.”
“Crew?”
Brooks grabbed the back of his neck with his hand, rubbing.
“Nope. It’s supposed to be… romantic.”
A romantic cruise. For a week. Alone. With Brooks.
Lucky girl, she thought, ignoring the
ridiculous spike of jealousy that jabbed a little at her heart and made her
feel instantly guilty.
She couldn’t help her attraction to him, but the fact that
it was totally unreturned made it manageable in a way that didn’t hurt. For
heaven’s sake, it wasn’t like she had feelings for Brooks
beyond friendship. She just liked looking at him. Her eighty-year-old granny’s
heart would flutter at the sight of Brooks’ thick, dark hair, flashing
sea-green eyes, square jaw, muscular body, and perennially-tan hands that
handled a boat with the same finesse that he probably handled his women.
Noticing Brooks’ good looks didn’t make Skye unique or special, and it didn’t
mean she wanted more from him than friendship either (she tried to convince
herself). It just made her human.
“Romantic,” she murmured. Turning away, she looked out at
the harbor where sailboats bobbed up and down in afternoon sun.
“Yeah.”
“But you won’t know who she is,” said Skye, “until she wins
you.”
“Bingo,” he said.
“And then you’ll be trapped at sea for a week.”
“Precisely.”
“She could be anyone.”
“Yep.”
“Does your sister really hate you?”
Brooks scoffed. “No. But she really loves modern art.”
“Okay. Yeah. It’s a pretty sucky situation. But how can I
help?”
He grinned. “You can bid on me.”
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.” Katy’s short
story, “The Long Way Home” appears in the first RWA anthology, Premiere, and she has published two
standalone novels, Playing for Love at
Deep Haven and the Amazon bestseller, The
Vixen and the Vet, which is book one in Katy’s a m o d e r n
f a i r y t a l e collection. The
Vixen and the Vet was nominated for a RITA® in 2015.
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.
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