His Sleeping Beauty
Outside after midnight, Max Monroe 'spotted a woman drifting across his [yard–still sound asleep! Though Max knew that despite his wealth he was a far cry from Prince Charming, he still wondered what would happen if he stole a kiss to wake this sleeping beauty….Sheltered by her overprotective parents, 'shy Sarah Jennings yearned to be the kind of woman who could attract a cosmopolitan man like Max. But her innocence hadn't scared Max away–in fact, the gruff loner seemed to delight in showing her how to live life on her own terms. Soon Sarah had one more desire she just had to fulfill–if only she could persuade Max to agree!
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That one kiss didn’t mean anything
Not to him, not to her, either, Max rationalized. Sarah wasn’t the type for a flirtation or a brief affair. She didn’t date, and if she did, she would take it seriously. Max knew that.
But just a glance in her direction, seeing her hair tossed by the breeze, dark wisps on her cheek, watching her bite into a ripe strawberry, her lips stained red, he was not ready to say goodbye to her for good.
Max drank from the wine bottle and tasted her lips there. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more than a taste. He needed more. Maybe it was the sun. Maybe it was the warm air. Maybe it was her. He leaned across the blanket and framed her face in his hands. Sarah’s eyes widened. Such huge blue eyes.
What was so wrong with a kiss—or two—between friends?
Dear Reader,
As the days get shorter and the approaching holidays bring a buzz to the crisp air, nothing quite equals the joy of reuniting with family and catching up on the year’s events. This month’s selections all deal with family matters, be it making one’s own family, dealing with family members or doing one’s family duty.
Desperate to save his family ranch, the hero in Elizabeth Harbison’s Taming of the Two (#1790) enters into a bargain that could turn a pretend relationship into the real deal. This is the second title in the SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE trilogy. A die-hard bachelor gets a taste of what being a family man is like when he rescues a beautiful stranger and her adorable infant from a deadly blizzard, in Susan Meier’s Snowbound Baby (#1791)—part of the author’s BRYANT BABY BONANZA continuity. Carol Grace continues her FAIRY TALE BRIDES miniseries with His Sleeping Beauty (#1792) in which a woman sheltered by her overprotective parents gains the confidence to strike out on her own after her handsome—but cynical—neighbor catches her sleepwalking in his garden! Finally, in The Marine and Me (#1793), the next installment in Cathie Linz’s MEN OF HONOR series, a soldier determined to outwit his matchmaking grandmother and avoid the marriage landmine gets bushwhacked by his supposedly dowdy neighbor.
Be sure to come back next month when Karen Rose Smith and Shirley Jump put their own spins on Shakespeare and the Dating Game, respectively!
Happy reading.
Ann Leslie Tuttle
Associate Senior Editor
Books by Carol Grace
Silhouette Romance
Make Room for Nanny #690
A Taste of Heaven #751
Home Is Where the Heart Is #882
Mail-Order Male #955
The Lady Wore Spurs #1010
*Lonely Millionaire #1057
*Almost a Husband #1105
*Almost Married #1142
The Rancher and the Lost Bride #1153
†Granted: Big Sky Groom #1277
†Granted: Wild West Bride #1303
†Granted: A Family for Baby #1345
Married to the Sheik #1391
The Librarian’s Secret Wish #1473
Fit for a Sheik #1500
Taming the Sheik #1554
A Princess in Waiting #1588
Falling for the Sheik #1607
Pregnant by the Boss! #1666
**Beauty and the Big Bad Wolf #1767
**Cinderellie! #1775
**His Sleeping Beauty #1792
Silhouette Desire
Wife for a Night #1118
The Heiress Inherits a Cowboy #1145
Expecting… #1205
The Magnificent M.D. #1284
CAROL GRACE
has always been interested in travel and living abroad. She spent her junior year of college in France and toured the world working on the hospital ship HOPE. She and her husband spent the first year and a half of their marriage in Iran, where they both taught English. She has studied Arabic and Persian languages. Then, with their toddler daughter, they lived in Algeria for two years.
Carol says that writing is another way of making her life exciting. Her office is her mountaintop home, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and which she shares with her inventor husband, their daughter, who just graduated college, and their teenage son.
Contents
Prologue
Standing on his flagstone patio some time after midnight, Max Monroe almost missed seeing the mysterious figure dressed in white at his back fence. He stubbed out his cigar and took a few steps forward. There she was under the trees. Then she was gone. He shook his head. Real, or an illusion? He’d had wine with dinner, but not enough to bring on hallucinations. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he felt a cool breeze on his arms. Who was it? What was it?
It certainly wasn’t his neighbor Mary, a petite, silver-haired, lively older lady who lived next door was away on a Caribbean cruise. He’d been told that her niece was going to be house-sitting and by the way, if he wouldn’t mind looking in on her once or twice, Mary would be very grateful.
He owed it to Mary. She’d been more than helpful when he was moving in, letting the phone men into his house to set up his Internet connection, recommending gardeners and a cleaning crew.
According to Mary, her niece, Sarah, was too quiet, too shy and too studious. She was liable to stay indoors too much and keep to herself. Sarah needed a nudge to get out and smell the roses, which by the way, grew in abundance behind Mary’s house. Not the type of woman he’d be interested in getting to know, but still, what could he say?
