Bobby's pulse went from pounding to a dead standstill in the space between heartbeats.
Only one woman in the world looked like that. Stella Caine.
Bobby rubbed his eyes, but the vision stayed the same.
Stella.
How was this possible?
Enchanting was all he could think as her hips swayed toward him. A long black fur coat almost swallowed her whole, except for the flash of leg that cut through the night with every other step. When she hit the circle of light that spilled out of his trailer, she looked up at him.
Her eyes, the palest of green, flashed at him. For all her edgy style, her eyes were something completely differentâ soft. Vulnerable, even.
âHello, Bobby.â
He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her he wasn't going to let her out of his sight again.
But a gust of wind blew between them like a warning, and Bobby sensed just then that life as he'd known it was about to change.
* * *
Expecting a Bolton Baby is part of The Bolton Brothers trilogy:
They live fast, ride hard and love fiercely!
Available only from Sarah M. Anderson and Mills & Boon>® Desireâ¢.
Award-winning author SARAH M. ANDERSON may live east of the Mississippi River, but her heart lies out West on the Great Plains. With a lifelong love of horses and two history teachers for parents, she had plenty of encouragement to learn everything she could about the tribes of the Great plains.
When she started writing, it wasnât long before her characters found themselves out in South Dakota among the Lakota Sioux. She loves to put people from two different worlds into new situations and to see how their backgrounds and cultures take them someplace they never thought theyâd go.
One of Sarahâs books, A Man of Privilege, won the RT Book Reviews 2012 Reviewersâ Choice Best Book Awards Series: Mills & Boon Desire.
When not helping out at her sonâs school or walking her rescue dogs, Sarah spends her days having conversations with imaginary cowboys and American Indians, all of which is surprisingly well-tolerated by her wonderful husband. Readers can find out more about Sarahâs love of cowboys and Indians at www.sarahmanderson.com.
One
What was Stella doing right now?
For the hundredth time this week, Bobby asked himself that question. And the answer was still the same.
He didnât know. But he wished he did.
Maybe he should have tried harder to get her number after that wild night at the club. Yeah, he should have. But Bobby Bolton didnât chase women. He enjoyed their companyâusually for the evening, occasionally for a weekendâand that was that. He didnât do long-term, didnât do ârelationships.â Everyone had a good time and parted as friends. That was the way heâd always interacted with the opposite sex.
Until that night two months ago when heâd met Stella.
The last night heâd felt as if he had the world in the palm of his hand.
FreeFall, the TV network that had bought his reality show, The Bolton Biker Boys, had hosted a behind-the-velvet-rope party to celebrate the upcoming season. It was the sort of event Bobby lived forâglamorous people in a glamorous setting.
But even as heâd been doing some serious schmoozing, the woman sitting at the corner of the bar caught his eye. Sheâd had a sense of style that marked her as differentâinstead of too tight or too short, sheâd had on a long-sleeved dress covered in leather straps and buckles that was completely backless. The outfit demanded attention, but the woman wearing it had been alone, her gaze trained on the crowd.
He hadnât known who she was when heâd bought her a drink. Sheâd told Bobby she was a fashion designer, but she hadnât mentioned her last name. Sheâd enchanted him with her outrageous sense of style, soft British accent and distance from the rest of the crowd. Sheâd been a woman apartâexcept for him. Theyâd talked as if they were the oldest of friends, every joke an inside one only they found funny. Heâd been unable to resist her.
Which must have been how theyâd wound up in the back of a limo with a bottle of champagne and a couple of condoms.
It was only afterward, when heâd asked for her number, that sheâd dropped the bomb. She was actually Stella Caine, only daughter of David Caineâowner of FreeFall TV, distributor for Bobbyâs reality show, majority investor in Bobbyâs new resort and one of the most notoriously conservative men in the world.
Heâd felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under his feet. How could he not have known who she was? How could he have done something so stupid? What would happen when she told her father?
David Caine would ruin him, thatâs what, and everything heâd worked for would be gone.