Worth the Risk

By Robin Bielman

Samantha Bennett put Dean Malloy out of her mind five years ago, when he broke her heart after a summer fling. But now he's back in her life, and ready to steal a heritage protection contract that could make or break her career--if he doesn't steal her heart first. Samantha's vowed to hate him, but it's more than anger heating the competition between them.

With sparks flying across the conference table and sizzling in every touch, Dean proposes a weekend liaison. Anything to have Sam again; anything to get her out of his system. But the unresolved feelings between them complicate both their personal and professional lives, and one wild weekend could turn into a disaster that would destroy the one job that means more to Samantha than anything. For a shot at love...is it worth the risk?

Each book in the Take a Risk series is a standalone, full-length story that can be enjoyed out of order.
Series Order:
Book #1 Worth the Risk
Book #2 Risky Surrender
Book #3 His Million Dollar Risk

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781622669219

Robin Bielman

Robin Bielman is the USA Today bestselling author of over twenty novels. When not attached to her laptop, she loves to read, go to the beach, frequent coffee shops (and by frequent she means daily but she's trying to break the habit), and spend time with her family and friends. Her fondness for swoon-worthy heroes who flirt and stumble upon the girl they can’t live without jumpstarts most of her story ideas. She writes with a steady stream of caffeine nearby (see above) and the best dog on the planet, Harry, by her side. She also dreams of traveling to faraway places and loves to connect with readers.

Book preview

Their love was ancient history…until their paths crossed again.

Samantha Bennett put Dean Malloy out of her mind five years ago, when he broke her heart after a summer fling. But now he’s back in her life, and ready to steal a heritage protection contract that could make or break her career–if he doesn’t steal her heart first. Samantha’s vowed to hate him, but it’s more than anger heating the competition between them.

With sparks flying across the conference table and sizzling in every touch, Dean proposes a weekend liaison. Anything to have Sam again; anything to get her out of his system. But the unresolved feelings between them complicate both their personal and professional lives, and one wild weekend could turn into a disaster that would destroy the one job that means more to Samantha than anything. For a shot at love…is it worth the risk?

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Discover more category romance titles from Entangled Indulgence…

The Prince’s Bride

Billionaire Blackmail

The Millioanire’s Gamble

His Heart’s Revenge

Discover the Take a Risk series…

Risky Surrender

His Million Dollar Risk

Kissing the Maid of Honor

Her Accidental Boyfriend

Wild About Her Wingman

Keeping Mr. Right Now

Yours at Midnight

Blame it on the Kiss

The Best Friend Bargain

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Robin Bielman. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Indulgence is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Adrien-Luc Sanders and Stacy Abrams

Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill

Cover art from Shutterstock

ISBN 978-1-62266-921-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition April 2012

For Greg ~ my happily ever after!

Chapter One

Somewhere between the first and third floors of the high-rise office building, Samantha Bennett leaned against the wall of the elevator and willed her rising temperature to cool it. She couldn’t show up to her job interview looking like she’d run the six blocks from her hotel.

The strangers filling the elevator on their way to work weren’t helping to ease her anxiety. And she really wanted to figure out who had decided to douse himself with cologne and tell him that less was more. Instead, she slid one sweaty palm down the skirt of her new black suit while the other squeezed the handle of the umbrella she’d bought this morning. Thank you, gloomy Idaho sky.

Five floors and a few deep breaths later, the nerves bunched across her shoulder blades had finally drifted away. But when the elevator doors opened and her gaze fell over the shoulder of the woman crowded in front of her, her legs shook. The man squeezing into the front swept a new kind of panic over her.

Dean.

Quivers traipsed down her spine. She angled herself for a better look, but hopefully one where he wouldn’t notice her.

God, he looked good. Better than she remembered. His caramel-colored hair was streaked with lighter shades, indicating he still spent a lot of his time outdoors. It hung a little longer now, more surfer-chic than Indiana Jones. Shoulders broader and a chest more developed hid behind a thin khaki T-shirt. Longing overcame panic. Her body tingled. Everywhere.

All the women in the elevator were eyeing him.

His nearness made everything she’d fought to forget come roaring back to the surface. Samantha worried her bottom lip. She wavered slightly, her hand twitching around the umbrella stem. The elevator doors shut, and—

The umbrella opened.

Oh my God! I’m so sorry!

The expanding nylon whacked several people in the back as bodies bumped. Gasps of annoyance filled the tiny space. Flustered, Samantha took a few seconds to close the damn thing.

Once the umbrella shut, she snuck a peek in his direction. He’d turned his head, but a swift duck while she’d gathered her dignity saved her from meeting his gaze.

Sorry, she muttered again, feeling her cheeks heat and perspiration slide down her side.

His face was the same. The same one she’d dreamed about countless times over the past five years: the square jaw, slightly crooked nose, piercing aquamarine eyes that never wavered during a conversation. The tiny smile that had passed over his lips had her itching to see if he was still ticklish in that little spot on his hip.

Get a grip, Sam.

At this moment, if he asked her, she’d forget all about the job interview and once again follow him from Yosemite to the Badlands.

No, she wouldn’t. She was indifferent to him now. And she needed to focus on the meeting, on landing the contract, or she might not be going anywhere but the unemployment line.

It should have been a done deal. The World Heritage Fund was the largest international nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historical sites. Global climate change contributed more and more to the organization’s plight, and they were looking for a partnership with another environmental company to preserve Route 66. The famous highway, stretching over two thousand miles from Chicago to Los Angeles, had been replaced by an interstate highway system a long time ago, but a recent bill signed into law to preserve and restore historic features like gas stations, cafés, and trading posts along the route had put it back on the map.

Samantha’s employer, Global Site Preservation, wanted the job. It meant national exposure. It meant an unprecedented alliance. It meant Samantha’s freelance position with the company could turn into something more permanent. If she didn’t come through with the account, she feared they’d start looking for someone more established.

That could not happen. She needed to keep this job more than she needed anything else. It would prove to her father that she could make it on her own. His scathing words when she decided to leave his law firm still flooded her with sadness. And doubt.

The elevator doors chimed and people exited. Her body tensed at the loss of barriers. At the next floor, the woman she’d been trying desperately to hide behind abandoned her, leaving her feeling exposed. Naked. Uncomfortable in her own skin. She prayed Dean wouldn’t turn around.

He’d left World Heritage Fund a year ago to start his own preservation company—Monument & Heritage Recovery—and Samantha hadn’t been able to resist keeping track of the California-based organization. Dean had gained a great deal of respect in a short time. So why was he in town? If she’d known he’d be here, she could have prepared herself. Or better yet, done everything possible to avoid him.

The risk he posed to her was too great, even after all this time.

Dizziness swooped in as she realized they’d be getting off the elevator at the same floor. She blinked back the disorientation to glance at her watch. Was there time to pass her floor and circle back after he departed?

Nope.

He’d probably come to town for a simple visit. His father owned World Heritage Fund, after all, and while everyone in the field knew Dean’s departure had strained the father-son relationship, she imagined he still came to Idaho now and then.

Dean. His name conjured up all sorts of images she needed to extinguish from her mind. Pronto.

Thank you, a woman said, exiting the elevator while he held out an arm to hold the doors open.

No problem, he replied, his familiar voice causing all sorts of flutters in her stomach. Dammit. The smooth texture of his tone still affected her in ways she was powerless to control.

You don’t care about him, remember?

She focused on the metal doors closing. If she didn’t, she’d slide down the elevator wall like hot fudge on ice cream. There were only two more floors to go, so she needed to buckle down. She could do this. She had to do this. Sure, his presence rattled her, but she was meeting with his father, not with him. Besides, five years had passed since they’d seen each other. Reason indicated they could offer each other friendly hellos and be done with it.

Unless Samantha took into account the broken heart he’d left her with. The broken heart she hadn’t let anyone else come close to healing.

Suck it up, she thought. The job matters and nothing else. She’d dedicated the past few years to getting herself to this point, and she had no intention of blowing it now just because Dean Malloy stood three feet away from her.

Finally they arrived at the twenty-third floor. She waited, pretending it wasn’t her stop, so that Dean would exit first. After he did, she followed, catching the closing elevator doors with her trusty—not!—umbrella.

Hanging back, she watched him greet the receptionist before moving deeper into the office and disappearing from view. The sight of his broad shoulders, nice-fitting khakis, and easy swagger sent her entire body into an unwelcome mess of memories. She wondered what it would be like to touch him again, to hold his hand, to kiss him.

Good morning, she said to the receptionist, her voice more strained than she would’ve liked. She cleared her throat. I have a nine o’clock appointment with William Malloy. I’m Sam Bennett.

The fifty-something woman with warm eyes moved a mouthpiece away from her lips. Yes, Miss Bennett. Have a seat, please, and I’ll let him know you’re here. She gestured toward a sitting area with dark green couches.

Sam willed her body to relax as she grabbed a magazine off the table beside the couch. It wasn’t easy in her suit, the skirt riding up a little higher than she’d realized it would. She pressed her knees together, sat taller, and tried to pull it down. No luck. With a defeated sigh, she opened the magazine to a photograph of a backpacker on a mountain.

The image immediately reminded her of Yosemite, and the first time she’d met Dean. She’d decided to take a month off before law school to journey around the western part of the country, wanting to see the great outdoors that her uppity father had deemed too incidental for their family vacations. On her second day there, she’d bumped into Dean at the top of Vernal Falls.

Fresh off graduation ceremonies at Harvard, Dean was the daring adventurer she’d always dreamed of meeting. Not to mention his adorable charm and irresistible

Reviews for Worth the Risk

[bette_hansen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fun, sexy, heartwarming read that I hated to see end. One summer five years ago Dean and Samantha had the summer of their life and neither one forgot the other. This is the story of when the meet again. It's a great quick read you don't want to miss. Highly recommended.

[tanat-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Robin Bielman has given us a contemporary romance novel, this is what I call my Sunday afternoon reading, and it was a romance novel with a happy ending. I enjoyed Robin Bielman writing, her characters felt real, the plot was good and if you’re a fan of romance this is a book for you to read.

We meet Samantha Bennett who is trying to follow her dream and if she doesn’t win this contract she knows she may be out of a job. Her father has pretty much disowned her, she is lonely and still in love with a man who broke her heart 5 years ago and today she just wants to secure the job. On her way to the interview she sees him in the elevator Dean Malloy the one who broke her heart. All she can do at this moment is pray he doesn’t see her. But of course like any great romance novel they are destined to bump into each other and to make matters worse they both are trying to secure the same contract.

They talk….they agree to meet for a drink………can she do this? What if she loses the contract and end’s up jobless…? Will he break her heart again? Will she lose everything?

The answers to these questions can only be found by going out and picking up this book. Worth the Risk is a fantastic romance novel, it is well written and I enjoyed it immensely. Robin Bielman made the characters come to life and I loved the romance, she add a bit of suspense and I didn’t put the book down praying I was going to get my happy ever after ending. If you love a good romance novel this is the one to read!

I have rated it 4 stars and would recommend it to any of my friends who love a great romance story.

[arlenadean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Author: Robin BielmanPublished By: Entangled Publishing Age Recommend: AdultReviewed By: Arlena DeanRaven Rating: 5Blog Review For: Great Minds Think AloudReview:"Worth The Risk" by Robin Bielman was a wonderful romantic read. The author did a wonderful job presenting these two people. Wow, is all I can say for a well written romance. Certainly, Ms. Bielman knows how to bring out the plot, good dialogue, sex, and the adding other good characters.. to only present a good contemporary romance and we get a wonderful sweet read. This is definitely a page turner that was well written dialogue. These two people... Samantha and Dean had been apart for five years, but after a rush for a historic preservation job they are now back together again. Will the sexual tension and chemistry be the same as it had been before? What will come of this? ... Will they get back together? Now, this is where I say you must pick up "Worth The Risk" to find out will the guy get the girl? All I can say is get ready for 'steamy scenes and the dramatic tension that comes from these two hard working, passionate people who are competing for the same job.' Just who would get this job...again you will have to get this read to find out!If you are a romance lover you will simply enjoy this quick short read. I like this novel because it was fun and sexy and I would recommend "Worth The Risk" to you as a good adorable read.