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Invincible
Joan Johnston
Bella Benedict's five grown children are scattered around the world like a handful of precious jewels. Now she's dying and she has one last, secret wish. To bring her children home. And to give them what she once had: a marriage of passion.Wealthy playboy Max Benedict has no interest in long-term commitment. He had his heart broken once and that was enough. Instead, he travels the world, working as a sometime spy for the CIA. When he's asked to investigate a foreign threat against the president, he doesn't think twice about accepting–until he hears who he'll be working with in London.FBI Special Agent Kristin Lassiter is under investigation and on the verge of losing everything–her savings, her job, her beloved father. So when Bella Benedict approaches her with the offer to pay her mounting debts, she's tempted to accept. But there's a catch–a big one. Bella wants Kristin to win the heart of her son Max, the very man who destroyed Kristin years ago. A man unaware he fathered her nine-year-old daughter. If Kristin succeeds, she'll get the money she needs–and the priceless Blackthorne rubies Bella has offered to sweeten the deal. The only problem is, can she win Max's heart without falling back in love with him?
Praise for the novels of
JOAN JOHNSTON
“Johnston warms your heart and tickles your fancy.”
—New York Daily News
“Joan Johnston [creates] unforgettable subplots and characters who make every fine thread weave into a touching tapestry.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“[Johnston is] a top-notch craftsman.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Romance devotees will find Johnston lively and well-written, and her characters perfectly enchanting.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Ms. Johnston writes of intense emotions and tender passions that seem so real that readers will feel each one of them.”
—Rave Reviews
“Johnston’s characters struggle against seriously deranged foes and face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to true love.”
—Booklist
“A guaranteed good read.”
—New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Graham
JOAN JOHNSTON
New York Times bestselling author of
The Hawk’s Way series,
The Benedict Brothers series,
which includes
OUTCAST
INVINCIBLE
and the Bitter Creek series,
which includes
THE COWBOY
THE TEXAN
THE LONER
THE PRICE
THE RIVALS
THE NEXT MRS. BLACKTHORNE
A STRANGER’S GAME
SHATTERED
Please visit her website at
www.joanjohnston.com
for a complete listing
of her titles and series.
JOAN JOHNSTON
INVINCIBLE
For Donna Hayes, Loriana Sacilotto,
Margaret O’Neill Marbury, Valerie Gray and Linda McFall.
A writer couldn’t ask for a better support team.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Letter to Reader
Acknowledgments
Prologue
How hard could it be to find spouses for her five grown children before she died? Bella supposed it depended on how long it took for her failing heart to give out. No one had ever accused the five Benedict children of being easy to handle. All of them over twenty-five, and not one of them ever engaged, let alone married.
That might have something to do with the lives they led as members of British royalty. Bella was actually Isabella Wharton Benedict, Duchess of Blackthorne. She certainly had her work cut out for her finding mates for four British-American lords and a lady. Bella corrected herself. Make that four gentlemen rogues and a spoiled rotten lady.
Could she do it? Did she dare try?
Bella stared out the window from her hospital bed at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, wondering where to start. She ran a brush through her shoulder-length black hair, which was threaded with more silver every day. She might be in the autumn of her life, but here in Virginia it was spring, when love blossomed.
Cardinals flirted in the flowering dogwood trees. Blue-and-black-and-yellow butterflies cavorted in the daffodils. Squirrels chattered at each other and played tag, tails flying. With any luck, her titled offspring would find themselves equally vulnerable to romance during this fertile season.
She threw the engraved silver brush onto the bedside table and turned her attention back to the doctor standing at the foot of her hospital bed. “What’s the verdict?”
“You’re still at about thirty percent heart function.”
That was actually good news. At least she hadn’t lost function since her last checkup. She could live—for a while, maybe years—with that little heart function. But the point was, her heart was dying, and she was dying along with it.
That’s what she got for insisting she could ski down an icy slope in the Alps. She’d survived the blunt force trauma to her heart when she’d lost control and gone over a cliff. But the injury had caused scarring that had resulted in reduced heart function and continuing heart failure.
“How long do I have?” she asked.
“The new meds I gave you should keep you up and running for a while.”
“Running?” Bella said with a quirk of her lips.
“Figuratively,” the doctor qualified. “You should certainly be exercising regularly to keep what’s left of your heart muscle healthy. And take your meds!”
Bella eyed the numerous bottles of pills she needed to keep her heart functioning. She hated depending on all those pills, but they allowed her an almost-normal life. ACE inhibitors. Beta blockers. Aldosterone antagonist drugs. She couldn’t begin to name the individual prescriptions. The problem was, at some point—in the not too distant future—her heart was still going to fail.
“How long do I have?” Bella asked again.
“Can’t say,” the doctor replied.
“Guess.”
