âYouâre Awake,â The Nurse Murmured.
A man turned and looked at her, too, his gaze piercing. He was strongly charismatic. Handsome as a pirate captain, exotically dark and obviously foreign. Masculine, strong. Anna blinked. There was a mark on his eye just like her babyâs. A dark irregular smudge that enhanced both his resemblance to a pirate and his exotic maleness.
âAnna!â he exclaimed. A slight accent furred his words attractively. âThank God you and the baby were not hurt! What on earth happened?â
âAre you the doctor?â she stammered.
His dark eyes snapped into an expression of even greater concern, and he made a sound that was half laughter, half worry. He bent down and clasped her hand. She felt his fingers tighten on hers in unmistakable silent warning.
âDarling!â he exclaimed. âThe nurse says you donât remember the accident, but I hope you have not forgotten your own husband!â
Dear Reader,
Happy New Year from Silhouette Desire, where we offer you six passionate, powerful and provocative romances every month of the year! Hereâs what you can indulge yourself with this Januaryâ¦.
Begin the new year with a seductive MAN OF THE MONTH, Tall, Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. A rancher seeking a marriage of convenience places a personals ad for a wife, only to fallâhardâfor the single mom who responds!
Silhouette Desire proudly presents a sequel to the wildly successful in-line continuity series THE TEXAS CATTLEMANâS CLUB. This exciting new series about alpha men on a mission is called TEXAS CATTLEMANâS CLUB: LONE STAR JEWELS. Jennifer Greeneâs launch book, Millionaire M.D., features a wealthy surgeon who helps out his childhood crush when she finds a baby on her doorstepâby marrying her!
Alexandra Sellers continues her exotic miniseries SONS OF THE DESERT with one more irresistible sheikh in Sheikhâs Woman. THE BARONS OF TEXAS miniseries by Fayrene Preston returns with another feisty Baron heroine in The Barons of Texas: Kit. In Kathryn Jensenâs The Earlâs Secret, a British aristocrat romances a U.S. commoner while wrestling with a secret. And Shirley Rogers offers A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow, in which a cowboy discovers his secret child.
So ring in the new year with lots of cheer and plenty of red-hot romance, by reading all six of these enticing love stories.
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
is the author of over twenty-five novels and a feline language text published in 1997 and still selling.
Born and raised in Canada, Alexandra first came to London as a drama student. Now she lives near Hampstead Heath with her husband, Nick. They share housekeeping with Monsieur, who jumped through the window one day and announced, as cats do, that he was moving in.
What she would miss most on a desert island is shared laughter.
Readers can write to Alexandra at P.O. Box 9449, London NW3 2WH, U.K., England.
For my sister Joy,
who held it all together in the bad times and makes things even better in the good
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
She crouched in the darkness, whimpering as the pain gripped her. He had made her wait too long. She had warned him, but heâd pretended not to believe her âlies.â And now, in an empty, dirty alley, nowhere to go, no time to get there, her time was upon her.
Pain stabbed her again, and she cried out involuntarily. She pressed a hand over her mouth and looked behind her down the alley. Of course by now he had discovered her flight. He was already after her. If he had heard that cryâ¦
She staggered to her feet again, picked up the bag, began a shuffling run. Her heart was beating so hard! The drumming in her head seemed to drown out thought. She ran a few paces and then doubled over again as the pain came. Oh, Lord, not here! Please, please, not in an alley, like an animal, to be found when she was most helpless, when the baby would be at his mercy.
He would have no mercy. The pain ebbed and she ran on, weeping, praying. âYa Allah!â Forgive me, protect me.
Suddenly, as if in answer, she sensed a deeper darkness in the shadows. She turned towards it without questioning, and found herself in a narrower passage. The darkness was more intense here, and she stared blindly until her eyes grew accustomed.
There was a row of garages on either side of a short strip of paving. Then she saw what had drawn her, what her subconscious mindâor her guardian angelâhad already seen: one door was ajar. She bit her lip. Was there someone inside, a fugitive like herself? But another clutch of pain almost knocked her to her knees. As she bent double, stifling her cry, she heard a shout. A long way distant, but she feared what was behind her more than what might be ahead.