Upstairs Downstairs Baby

A boss falling into bed with the help is the ultimate scandal...

But he’s never been one to resist temptation.

Millionaire Linc Thurston is expected to marry well—not take up with his live-in housekeeper. But Claire Robbins is unlike any single mom—any woman—he’s ever known. She’s beautiful, captivating...and hiding something. Even so, he can’t resist bringing her to his bed. But when her betrayals catch up with them both, will their passion hold strong?

CAT SCHIELD has been reading and writing romance since high school. Although she graduated from college with a BA in business, her idea of a perfect career was writing books for Mills & Boon. And now, after winning the Romance Writers of America 2010 Golden Heart® Award for Best Contemporary Series Romance, that dream has come true. Cat lives in Minnesota with her daughter, Emily, and their Burmese cat. When she’s not writing sexy, romantic stories for Mills & Boon Desire, she can be found sailing with friends on the St. Croix River, or in more exotic locales, like the Caribbean and Europe. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at www.catschield.net and follow her on Twitter, @catschield.

Also by Cat Schield

Upstairs Downstairs Baby

Royal Heirs Required A Royal Baby Surprise Secret Child, Royal Scandal At Odds with the Heiress A Merger by Marriage A Taste of Temptation The Black Sheep’s Secret Child Little Secret, Red Hot Scandal The Heir Affair

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Upstairs Downstairs Baby

Cat Schield

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07632-6

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS BABY

© 2018 Catherine Schield

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Extract

Prologue

Everly Briggs made sure she gave every appearance of listening sympathetically as London McCaffrey imparted her romantic woes. They were attending the “Beautiful Women Taking Charge” networking event, featuring a keynote from Poppy Hart, a motivational speaker and owner of Hart Success Counseling.

“And he gave you no reason for breaking off your engagement?” Everly sounded aghast, though in truth, she already knew all about London’s failed romance with professional baseball player Linc Thurston. It was the reason she’d contrived to meet her tonight.

London pressed her coral-tinted lips into a thin line as she shook her head. “He claims he isn’t ready to get married, but we’ve been engaged for two years.”

Everly tried not to wince at London’s affected Southern accent. The beautiful woman, with her silky straight blond hair and expensive clothes, was originally from Connecticut and that made her an outsider here in Charleston.

“Do you think he was cheating on you?” Zoe Crosby asked, her light brown eyes blazing with outrage from inside their frame of dark, lush lashes.

“Linc...cheat?” London toyed with her string of Mikimoto pearls as she considered this. “Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility. He travels more than half the year with the team and lives in Texas during the season.”

“And you know how women love professional sports players,” Zoe added. “My former brother-in-law is a race car driver and has women after him all the time.”