The Unwilling Bride
CELEBRATION 1000 PROBLEM: DESTINED FOR SPINSTERHOOD Passion. Longing. Fantasies. Paige Stanford never entertained such notions. Men - and marriage - only upset the balance of a well-ordered, celibate life. Case in point: sultry scientist Stefan. Ever since he'd moved next door, Paige's dreams were X-rated and restless.SOLUTION: GREEN CARD MARRIAGE?Stefan was new to America, but not to the universal language of love. The moment he saw Paige, he had to have her. But Paige was too uptight for her own good. So Stefan had to trick her into his bed… and into becoming his wife.THE STANFORD SISTERS: Three sister discover once-in-a-lifetime love and strengthen the bonds of family!CELEBRATION 1000: Come celebrate the publication of the 1000th Silhouette Desire, with scintillating love stories by some of your favorite writers!
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Table of Contents
“I Didn’t…I Never…Meant To
Lead You On,”
Paige told Stefan.
“Lead me on?”
“Lead you on means to tease you.” She swallowed.
“To make you think I was inviting a chance to sleep with you…”
That, he had no trouble understanding. “We neck, yes. But we did not get it on. We did not hit your sack. You still even have your socks on. No reason to be afraid, Paige.”
“I’m not afraid,” she said sharply.
She was disastrous at fibbing, Stefan noted. She’d come apart in his arms as if she were a lover born for him. That kinship of spirits was rare and precious, and he couldn’t believe he had mistaken her response.
And she was afraid. Of something.
Somehow Stefan had to find a way to uncover whatever it was.
Dear Reader,
It’s the CELEBRATION 1000 moment you’ve all been waiting for, the publication of Silhouette Desire #1000! As promised, it’s a very special MAN OF THE MONTH by Diana Palmer called Man of Ice. Diana was one of the very first Silhouette Desire writers, and her many wonderful contributions to the line have made her one of our most beloved authors. This story is sure to make its way to your shelf of “keepers.”
But that’s not all! Don’t miss Baby Dreams, the first book in a wonderful new series, THE BABY SHOWER, by Raye Morgan. Award-winning author Jennifer Greene also starts a new miniseries, THE STANFORD SISTERS, with the delightful The Unwilling Bride. For something a little different, take a peek at Joan Elliott Pickart’s Apache Dream Bride. And the fun keeps on coming with Judith McWilliams’s Instant Husband, the latest in THE WEDDING NIGHT series. Our Debut Author promotion introduces you to Amanda Kramer, author of the charmingly sexy Baby Bonus.
And you’ll be excited to know that there’s more CELEBRATION 1000 next month, as the party continues with six more scintillating love stories, including The Accidental Bodyguard, a MAN OF THE MONTH from Ann Major.
Silhouette Desire—the passion continues! Enjoy!
Senior Editor
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
lives near Lake Michigan with her husband and two children. Before writing full-time, she worked as a teacher and a personnel manager. Michigan State University honored her as an “outstanding woman graduate” for her work with women on campus.
Ms. Greene has written more that forty category romances, for which she has won numerous awards, including the RITA for Best Short Contemporary Book, and both a Best Series Author and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times.
Dear Reader,
I can still remember finding the first Silhouette Desire novel in the bookstores…and rushing home to put my feet up and savor those pages!
I moved to Silhouette over a decade ago. This is “home” for me, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of our Celebration 1000. When I write a Desire novel, I feel as if I’m talking to a fellow sister. I know you. You believe in love and commitment the way I do; you believe in families and healthy relationships…and you have the same problems I do as a woman living in the nineties. My books are to you as well as about you—and that caring between reader and writer is something that someone outside the romance field probably wouldn’t understand. Romances are about us—our struggles, our hopes, our needs. I never had to “work” to create a heroine…she’s every one of you, coping with the problems and trials of a woman today, striving to make the best life she can—and hopefully with a special lover, a man who deserves her.
I see our Celebration 1000 as a celebration of you—all of you Desire readers are the heroines of today. We share our dreams together in every love story.
My best wishes to all of you.
Someone was violently knocking on her front door, which Paige Stanford ignored. The phone had been ringing incessantly for the past hour, which she’d blithely ignored, too.
Growing up, her sisters used to tease her that she was so absentminded that she’d probably forget her own wedding. Paige had always vociferously resented that accusation. She wasn’t in the least absentminded. She simply had a gift for intense concentration.
Like now.
Heaven knew what time it was. Paige wasn’t sure when she had last eaten, either—and didn’t care.
Watery winter sunlight poured through the south windows on the bench counter and cement floor. Her whole workshop was strewn with veiners, gravers, chisels and pumice stones, grindstones and Eskimo stylers, drills and sanders and files. None of it would make a lick of sense to anyone but her. A stranger had no way to understand that sometimes it took chaos and a dusty mess to create a treasure of incomparable beauty.
Her eyes were riveted on the exquisite piece of jade. Weeks ago, the jade had been nothing more than a jagged lump of stone.
