Make-Believe Husband
Three Weddings and a FamilyOn the road to happily-ever-after, a long-lost family is found!MAKE BELIEVE MATRIMONY…They were married…and still almost complete strangers. Gabriel Dillard and Jessica Landers had struck a dry-eyed deal to wed in name only, for Gabe needed a wife to be eligible for a lucrative job and Jessica needed a daddy for her adorable little girl.OF LIFETIME OF HONEYMOON BLISS?But sharing such tiny quarters with all six feet of georgeous Gabe was making Jessica feel that their marriage would be anything but platonic. Especially when Gabe's friendly pecks turned into heart-stopping kisses, and Jessica could no longer deny the feelings he stirred in her…. Linda Varner has arrived! Here's her 20th Silhouette Romance for your enjoyment. Savor every romantic moment! 20th BOOK SILHOUETTE ROMANCE
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Gabe tried to imagine life without Jessi, and couldn’t. She was that much a part of him now.Letter to ReaderTitle PageDedicationLINDA VARNERChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveCopyright
Gabe tried to imagine life without Jessi, and couldn’t. She was that much a part of him now.
“Ever thought about living in Washington?” Gabe’s question just asked itself, leaving him as startled as Jessi appeared to be when she glanced over her shoulder at him.
“You mean make our marriage legal?” Jessi sounded shocked.
“Surely the thought has crossed your mind.”
“Maybe,” Jessi murmured, confessing nothing.
“Admit it, Jessi,” Gabe said. “You’ve thought about what it would be like to be married to me, probably more than once.”
“And if I have?”
“What did you decide?”
“You’re a good man, Gabe. You appreciate the worth of family. I think you’d make a great husband.”
“Your husband?” Gabe couldn’t resist asking....
Dear Reader,
July brings you the fifth title of Silhouette Romance’s VIRGIN BRIDES promotion. This series is devoted to the beautiful metaphor of the traditional white wedding and the fairy-tale magic of innocence awakened to passionate love on the wedding night. In perennial favorite Sandra Steffen’s offering. The Bounty Hunter’s Bride, a rugged loner finds himself propositioned by the innocent beauty who’d nursed him to health in a remote mountain cabin. He resists her precious gift...but winds up her shotgun groom when her father and four brothers discover their hideaway!
Diana Whitney returns to the Romance lineup with One Man’s Promise, a wonderfully warmhearted story about a struggling FABULOUS FATHER and an adventurous single gal who are brought together by their love for his little girl and a shaggy mutt named Rags. And THE BRUBAKER BRIDES are back! In Cinderella’s Secret Baby, the third book of Carolyn Zane’s charming series, tycoon Mac Brubaker tracks down the poor but proud bride who’d left him the day after their whirlwind wedding, only to discover she’s about to give birth to the newest Brubaker heir....
Wanted: A Family Forever is confirmed bachelor Zach Robinson’s secret wish in this intensely emotional story by Anne Peters. But will marriage-jaded Monica Griffith and her little girl trust him with their hearts? Linda Vamer’s twentieth book for Silhouette is book two of THREE WEDDINGS AND A FAMILY When two go-getters learn they must marry to achieve their dreams, a wedding of convenience results in a Make-Believe Husband...and many sleepless nights! Finally, a loyal assistant agrees to be her boss’s Nine-to-Five Bride in Robin Wells’s sparkling new story, but of course this wife wants her new husband to be a permanent acquisition!
Enjoy each and every Silhouette Romance!
Regards,
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor Silhouette Books
Please address questions and book requests to:
Silhouette Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
This book is dedicated to
Dr. Annette Meador and her wonderful nurses. Thanks for keeping me writing!
LINDA VARNER
confesses she is a hopeless romantic. Nothing is more thrilling, she believes, than the battle of wits between a man and a woman who are meant for each other but just don’t know it yet! Linda enjoys writing romance and considers herself very lucky to have been both a RITA finalist and a third-place winner in the National Readers’ Choice Awards in 1993.
A full-time federal employee, Linda lives in Arkansas with her husband and their two children. She loves to hear from readers. Write to her at 813 Oak St., Suite 10A-277, Conway, AR 72032.
Chapter One
“Jessica Landers, do you take Gabriel Dillard to be your husband?”
“I do,” Jessi said, her gaze locked with that of her blue-eyed, brown-haired groom, a disconcertingly handsome male she’d met for the first time mere hours ago. Dressed in his suede jacket, denim jeans, and boots, he looked like one gorgeous hunk of mountain man. Jessi tried to picture herself cooking up some vittles for him over an open flame.
She couldn’t. Was that an omen?
“And do you, Gabriel, take Jessica to be your wife?”
“I do.”
His gaze swept Jessi from top to bottom and back up again, not missing a curve. Flustered by the appraisal, Jessi glanced away and instantly spied, of all things, the door.
Could she still escape?
Should she?
Unsure, she looked back at Dillard, who now stared at the octogenarian preacher who’d so graciously agreed to perform their Saturday-night wedding.
Desperate to affirm that she wasn’t making the biggest mistake in her thirty—almost thirty-one—years, Jessi stole the moment to study Dillard’s profile. Surely there were hints of character there, she thought, at once noting the telltale dimple in his cheek. Companion to the wicked twinkle in his eye, it promised a crooked sense of humor even as the set of his nose and chin promised bullheaded stubbornness.
