Every woman has dreamsâdeep desires, all-consuming passions, or maybe just little everyday wishes! In this brand-new miniseries from Harlequin Romance® weâre delighted to present a series of fresh, lively and compelling stories by some of our most popular authorsâall exploring the truth about what women really want.
Step into each heroineâs shoes as we get up close and personal with her most cherished dreamsâ¦big and small!
Is she a high-flying executiveâ¦but all she wants is a baby?
Has she met her ideal manâif only he wasnât her new bossâ¦?
Is she about to marry, but is secretly in love with someone else?
Or does she simply long to be slimmer, more glamorous, with a whole new wardrobe?
Whatever she wants, each heroine finds happiness on her own termsâand unexpected romance along the way. And sheâs about to discover whether Mr. Right is the answer to her dreamsâor if he has a few questions of his own!
This month enjoy The Forbidden Marriage by Rebecca Winters.
And look out for more stories in the WHAT WOMEN WANT! miniseries, coming soon!
MICHELLE HOWARD had just reached the second floor of her brotherâs Spanish-styled home in Riverside, California, when she saw her niece Lynette come out of the guest bedroom at the other end of the hall.
As soon as their eyes met, the eighteen year old brunette jumped. âAunt Michelleâwhat are you doing here?â
Michelle had probably frightened her niece whoâd thought no one else was in the house besides Zak. Maybe that was the reason sheâd sounded faintly accusatory just now.
âI was about to ask you the same question. Your mom said you had classes at college this morning.â
âOnly one on Thursdays. It starts at eleven.â
Michelle glanced at her watch. âConsidering the heavy traffic, youâd better hurry if you want to get there on time.â
Lynetteâs pretty features hardened. âI think I can manage my own life, thank you.â
Both Graham and Sherilyn had been complaining about their only daughterâs change of attitude. It had come on over the summer. According to them sheâd turned into someone defensive and difficult.
After this experience Michelle was beginning to understand what they meant. Lynette was behaving like a different girl. Michelle had never known her to be outright rude before.
âForgive me, honey. I didnât mean anything by it. Iâm sorry.â With two ice bags and her blood pressure case tucked in one arm, she gave her niece a hug with the other, but Lynette barely reciprocated.
Puzzled, Michelle stepped back. Looping a strand of neck length ash blond hair behind her ear she said, âYour mother asked me to come over and check up on your uncle Zak while she did some grocery shopping.â
Her nieceâs expression remained mutinous. âI am capable of waiting on him.â
âI know. Itâs just that sheâs an anxious sister who wanted my medical assessment of her brotherâs condition this morning.â
âHe wouldnât be out of the hospital if he werenât getting better,â Lynette said on a sarcastic note. âIâm almost nineteen, but everyone around here still thinks of me as an adolescent. You can be damn sure my parents never treated Zak like this!â Her brown eyes flashed in anger.
Michelle winced because sheâd never heard Lynette so upset sheâd swear in front of her. âI think it has more to do with the fact that your uncle Zak was already nine years old when my brother married your mom.â
Even at nine, Zak had been a law unto himself. Michelle remembered back to those early days when her brother Graham had worked so hard to win Sherilynâs aloof younger brother around without coming across like a heavy handed stepfather type.
It had paid off. They had a great relationship as brothers-in-law now.
âWhy do you insist on calling him my uncle? Thereâs no blood tie between us.â
Lynette, Lynette.
Her nieceâs bizarre behavior was finally beginning to make sense. The stretch from teen to adult could be a very confusing, painful time.
âCome on, Aunt Michelle. You know itâs true. First his birth parents abandoned him and he lived in foster homes. Then Momâs parents adopted him and then they got killed. By the time I started kindergarten, Zak was already in high school. I hardly ever saw him.â
âNevertheless heâs your uncle, and that makes him a member of your family,â Michelle reminded her. âAfter Graham married your mom, they raised him and me with all the love two people possibly could. Zak and I were so lucky to have an older brother and sister who provided a stable home for us with both of our parents dead.â