Sun-kissed (Au Pairs, The) Read online

  who for a long time was known as Mike "My Boyfriend" Johnston because I could never say his name without giving him his full title. Thanks for living on takeout for the last two months. We can eat real food now.

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  about the author

  MELISSA DE LA CRUZ is the author of many books for teens and adults, including Blue Bloods, The Au Pairs, and its sequel, Skinny-dipping. The Au Pairs has been published in ten countries. She is also the author of the novels Cat's Meow and Fresh Off the Boat and coauthored the tongue-in-chic handbooks The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-Inch Heels and Faux Pas and How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less (which was sold to Universal/Reveille as a reality television program and to Walt Disney Studios as a full-length motion picture).

  Melissa has appeared as an expert on style, trends, and fame for CNN, FOX News, and E! Entertainment Network and has written for Glamour, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Allure, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Cosmo Girl!, Seventeen, and the New York Times. She is a graduate of Columbia University, where she majored in art history and English and minored in New York nightclubs and shopping. She has many fond memories of writing for Hamptons magazine, where her wonderful editors were nothing at all like the one portrayed in this book. Melissa currently divides her time between New York City and Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband.

  Check out Melissa's website, www.melissa-delacruz.com , for her shopping diary and for more information on forthcoming books. She loves to hear from readers, so send her an e-mail at [email protected] .

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  not enough fun, sun, and romance? read on for a sneak peek at what the girls are doing next summer in the au pairs: crazy hot.

  Eliza's cell phone rang, playing Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back," and after giving her hips a little jiggle she picked it up. "Hello?"

  "Hey, gorgeous. What's shaking?" Her boyfriend Jeremy Stone's deep, sexy voice reached her ear.

  "Hey, yourself." Eliza smiled. "And I'm what's shaking, actually--I just got a new cell phone ring and I can't stop dancing every time someone calls."

  Jeremy laughed into the phone. "Oh yeah? I wish I were there to see it."

  "I wish you were, too. But I'll see you soon enough--I'm on the Montauk highway right now, less than half an hour away from my dad's house." She had to mentally remind herself not to say parents' house--her mom was with her boy toy, sunbathing in

  Saint-Tropez and Capri for the summer, and she'd left the house in Amagansett entirely to Eliza's father.

  "Oh yeah? Think he'll be there with her?"

  Elizas father had responded to the news that he was being left by his wife by immediately finding himself a new girlfriend--who just happened to be almost twenty years his junior.

  "Oh God, don't remind me." She rolled her eyes. "I really don't feel like having to play daughter to some woman who's not that much older than I am."

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  "Hey, don't worry about it--I'm sure you guys will get along fine." Jeremy's voice was consoling. "And besides, you'll be so busy with the new store you'll hardly even be around, you hotshot designer, you."

  Eliza couldn't suppress her grin. Jeremy always knew the right thing to say. Back at Parsons, she'd recovered from the shock of her parents' separation, presented her collection, and ended up receiving the highest grade in her design class. She'd been chosen as one of five students to show during Fashion Week in February at the big Bryant Park tents. Buyers from Barneys, Bergdorf, and Kirna Zabete had clamored for her childlike but edgy collection--the Times had described it as "Courtney Love meets Wednesday Addams." Bolstered by their enthusiasm, Eliza had decided it was high time she opened her own store. And since her clothes had been such a huge hit last summer in the Hamptons, what better place to do it?

  "Thanks, J." She held the phone close to her ear, wishing Jeremy were here so she could kiss him. "I really should go, though--I'm almost here. And I got so distracted talking to you that I think I may have just run over a pigeon."

  Jeremy laughed. "Okay, call me later. Love you, babe." Hearing those three sweet words, Eliza sighed. No matter how many times Jeremy said them, it still made her skin tingle. It was going to be another perfect summer in the Hamptons. Except, of course, for one thing: For the first time since they'd met, Mara wasn't going to be there.

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