This was my American Title III entry that made it to the Top 6.

 

Beauty and The Best

Love can be just a stroke away

 

Jolie Gardener's new boss, reclusive widowed landscape artist, Todd Best, who hadn't produced anything since the death of his wife two years ago, was a pretty interesting guy. He a) showed up buck naked on her first day on the job, b) asked her to pose for him - in the nude! and c) discovered she was an aspiring romance novelist who found the tragedy of his lost love inspiring, thereby throwing her out of his house, his life...and his heart. What's a girl to do? Fall in love, of course!

 

 

Chapter One

 

There’s a naked man in my kitchen.

The thought registered just as the terse, “Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?” had Jolie Gardener spinning around faster than a figure skater on speed.

He had the nerve to ask this? He of the broad shoulders, six-pack abs and other, nice, um, parts...

Really. A naked man. In her kitchen.

Well, technically, she was in a naked man’s kitchen. Even more technically, she was in a naked Todd Best’s kitchen--and there wasn’t one hint of self-consciousness or embarrassment on his part.

’Course with that body, there shouldn’t be. The reclusive artist should flaunt his nudity for the world to see. Which, at present, consisted of one single, solitary person: Jolie Gardener, aspiring writer and personal chef extraordinaire.

“Well?” he barked, hands on hips.

“You’re naked,” she squeaked, which, really, was the only way to state that kind of obvious.

“I’m what?” Mr. Six-Pack Abs glanced down.

Jolie tried not to--so unsuccessfully it was pitiful.