Marriage is their mission!
From bad boys to powerful, passionate protectors! Three tycoons from the Outback rescue their brides-to-beâ¦.
Meet Ric, Mitch and Johnnyâonce rebellious teenagers, they survived the Outback to become best friends and formidable tycoons. Now these sexy city slickers must return to the Outback to face a new challenge: claiming their bridesâ¦.
This month, itâs sexy lawyer Mitch Tylerâs turn!
The Outback Marriage Ransom (#2391)
The Outback Wedding Takeover (#2403)
The Outback Bridal Rescue (#2427)
Emma Darcy is the award-winning Australian author of over eighty novels for Harlequin Presents>®.
Her intensely emotional stories have gripped readers around the world. Sheâs sold nearly 60 million copies of her books worldwide and has won enthusiastic praise.
âEmma Darcy delivers a spicy love storyâ¦a fiery conflict and a hot sensuality.â
âRomantic Times
Dear Reader,
To me, there has always been something immensely intriguing about bad boys whoâve made good. With every possible disadvantage in their background, what was it that lifted them beyond it, that gave them the driving force to achieve, to soar to the heights of their chosen fields, becoming much more than survivorsâ¦shining stars?
In OUTBACK KNIGHTS Iâve explored the lives of three city boys who ended up in juvenile court and were sent to an Outback sheep station to work through their sentences. There, at Gundamurra, isolated from the influences that had overwhelmed them in the past and under the supervision and care of a shrewd mentor, Patrick Maguire, the boysâ lives became set on different paths as they learned how their individual strengthsâtheir passionsâcan be used constructively instead of destructively.
But the big unanswered need is love. Even at the top itâs lonely.
And it seemed to me beautifully fitting that as these boys had been rescued, so should theyâas menârescue the women who will give them love. I think there are times when all of us want to be rescuedâto be cared for, protected, understood, made to feel safe. Itâs not that we canât manage independently, but, oh, for a knight in shining armor who will fight and slay our dragons with a passionate intensity that makes us melt! Here they areâRic Donato, Mitch Tyler and Johnny Ellis: OUTBACK KNIGHTS!
With love,
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
THE plane was heading down to a red dirt airstrip. Apart from the cluster of buildings that marked the sheep station of Gundamurra, there was no other habitation in sight between here and the horizonâa huge empty landscape dotted with scrubby trees.
âWish I had my camera,â Ric Donato murmured.
Mitch Tyler frowned over the other boyâs words. Apparently the stark visual impact of the place didnât intimidate Ric. But then the guy had been copped joyriding in a stolen Porsche. He probably got off on wide-open spaces, while Mitch had always been happiest with a book in his hands. No local library here to tap into.
âThe middle of nowhere,â he muttered dispiritedly. âIâm beginning to think I made the wrong choice.â
âNah,â Johnny Ellis drawled. âAnythingâs better than being locked up. At least we can breathe out here.â
âWhat? Dust?â Mitch mocked.
The plane landed, kicking up a cloud of it.
âWelcome to the great Australian Outback,â the cop escorting them said derisively. âAnd just rememberâ¦if you three city smart-arses want to survive, thereâs nowhere to run.â
All three of them ignored him. They were sixteen. Regardless of what life threw at them, they were going to survive. And Johnny had it right, Mitch thought. Six months working on a sheep station had to be better than a year in a juvenile jail.
It was half the time, for a start, and there were only two other guys with him, not a horde of criminals who would have established a pecking order. Mitch hated bullies with a passion. Heâd learnt how to look after himself. No-one touched him anymore. But he sure didnât want to be incarcerated with a mob of power pushers.
He hoped the owner of this place wasnât some kind of little Hitler, exploiting the justice system to get a free labour force. Mitch decided heâd work out for himself what was fair and challenge anything that wasnât.
What had the judge said at the sentencing? Something about getting back to ground values. A program that would teach them what real life was about. Wouldnât teach him a damned thing about real life, Mitch had thought at the time. Heâd majored in real life, ever since his father had walked out on his crippled wife, leaving him and his sister to look after their mother. The lionâs share of that had fallen to Jenny, whoâd only been eleven years old to his eight when their father had deserted them. Not that heâd been much help anyway, getting drunk every night, drowning his sorrows instead of facing up to them. A coward. That was what his father had been. A contemptible coward.