The Texan's Tiny Secret

Groaning, Suzy dropped her forehead to the arm she’d braced along the edge of the sink. The battering that Gil’s good name would take when news hit the streets that the governor had fathered a baby out of wedlock!

Slowly she raised her head. They can’t find out, she told herself. If anyone learned of this, Gil would be ruined!

She gripped her hands on the edge of the sink and pulled herself shakily to her feet. No one knows, she reminded herself. No one but me. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. And no one will ever know, she promised herself as she went to pack her bags.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where every month you’ll find six passionate, powerful and provocative romances.

October’s MAN OF THE MONTH is The Taming of Jackson Cade, part of bestselling author BJ James’ MEN OF BELLE TERRE miniseries, in which a tough horse breeder is gentled by a lovely veterinarian. The Texan’s Tiny Secret by Peggy Moreland tells the moving story of a woman in love with the governor of Texas and afraid her scandalous past will hurt him.

The exciting series 20 AMBER COURT continues with Katherine Garbera’s Some Kind of Incredible, in which a secretary teaches her lone-wolf boss to take a chance on love. In Her Boss’s Baby, Cathleen Galitz’s contribution to FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS, a businessman falsely accused of a crime finds help from his faithful assistant and solace in her virginal embrace.

Jacob’s Proposal, the first book in Eileen Wilks’ dynamic new series, TALL, DARK & ELIGIBLE, features a marriage of convenience between a beauty and a devastatingly handsome financier known as the Iceman. And Maureen Child’s popular BACHELOR BATTALION marches on with Last Virgin in California, an opposites-attract romance between a tough, by-the-book marine drill instructor and a free-spirited heroine.

So celebrate the arrival of autumn by indulging yourself with all six of these not-to-be-missed love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

published her first romance with Silhouette in 1989 and continues to delight readers with stories set in her home state of Texas. Winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award, a nominee for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award and a finalist for the prestigious RITA Award, Peggy has appeared on the USA Today and Waldenbooks bestseller lists. When not writing, she enjoys spending time at the farm riding her quarter horse, Lo-Jump. She, her husband and three children make their home in Round Rock, Texas. You may write to Peggy at P.O. Box 2453, Round Rock, TX 78680-2453, or e-mail her in care of eHarlequin.com.

For Helen Heilmann, Janelle Shields and Vickie Monroe, Kentuckians who took this displaced Texan under their wings, offering friendship and moral support.

Thanks, ladies!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Gil Riley considered himself a simple man with simple tastes. He liked his jeans worn, his beer cold and his horses—as well as his women—gentle, but with enough spirit in ’em to make the ride exciting. Though his age placed him in a generation that shunned family values, considered work a four-letter word and embraced the theory “if it feels good, do it,” Gil didn’t quite fit the mold. He honored family second only to God, considered his mother an angel straight from heaven and his father one of the wisest men he’d ever known. He believed a hard day’s work strengthened a man’s character, treated women with the respect he was taught they were due, and never did anything without first weighing the consequences upside down, sideways and backward.

All of which made him wonder how in the hell he’d ended up in an airless room filled with blowhards, suck-ups and women whose mothers had obviously never taught them that a man’s privates were just that. Private.

Duty, he reminded himself as he clasped a hand thrust his way and responded with a “good to see you, too.”

Though the handshake he offered was firm and the sentiment sincere, Gil delivered both without slowing down. He feared if he did, and he was waylaid by one more person wanting a favor or had to dodge another female’s straying hands, he would…

Well, he wasn’t sure what he would do, but, whatever it was, he was sure it would be shocking enough to make the headlines in the morning paper.

With his smile feeling as if it were set in concrete and his tie like a noose around his neck, he set his sights on a possible escape route in the distance. He hadn’t taken more than two steps in that direction when a beefy hand closed around his arm from behind and dragged him to a stop. Struggling to keep his frustration from showing, he turned to find a balding man, shaped like a whisky barrel and about as tall, beaming up at him, a horse-faced young woman hugged up against his side.

“Have you met my niece, Melanie, Governor? My brother Earl’s oldest girl. Visiting here from California.”