скачать книгу бесплатно
A Gift For Baby
Raye Morgan
THE BABY SHOWER UNDERCOVER COWBOY Mitch Harper was only pretending to be a rugged cowboy. But as an undercover agent protecting Hailey Kingston, he was learning things about her that could get a confirmed bachelor in trouble. Like how she liked her coffee in the morning. And how many babies she was longing to have… .So maybe Hailey had kissed her sexy keeper. Distracting Mitch was the only way she could sneak away to her friend's baby shower. Problem was, she was enjoying his tender touch and now she needed a new strategy: one that ensured her escape - with a handsome new husband to boot!THE BABY SHOWER: We're excited 'cause you're invited to celebrate the arrival of one bouncing baby - and four brand-new brides! THE BABY SHOWER
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#ued48cbd9-707d-5496-9788-acd09a2704aa)
Excerpt (#u94ef1782-c510-5103-a3f7-0278e3c89fed)
Dear Reader (#u14438431-fe89-5551-b937-f66f0e50fb6c)
Title Page (#u6b1a35de-c809-5d02-8fd4-0cb5d57197d2)
About the Author (#u7cad852e-2266-5bf2-ada2-7338a67fc7ab)
The Invitation (#uf2b71337-e240-5006-9959-f07f72812eed)
One (#ud352bf15-3861-5ce1-b41c-c3b4255bf223)
Two (#ub85bc5f8-92e0-5c7c-b216-cd82f9fdedcf)
Three (#u345152fc-b153-52fd-a1c6-7c357db5e395)
Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
The Baby Shower (#litres_trial_promo)
Preview (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“Do You Want To Be Kissed?”
He Asked.
“I’ve been, thanks,” she said, though he thought he heard growing excitement in her voice.
“Oh, I see,” he said, his voice very low. “Once was enough, was it?”
She nodded. “Just about. I’ll admit I gave it a few more tries, but the result was the same.”
“You know what that tells me?” He had her shoulders in hand. He knew he was crossing the line, but it was too late to turn around now. “It’s been much too long since you’ve tried it.”
She stared up at him, fascinated by how full and soft his lips looked all of a sudden, by how fast her heart was beating. “Do you really think so?” she said faintly.
“Yes, I do,” he murmured as he bent to find her mouth with his.
Dear Reader,
Cowboys and cops…sexy men with a swagger…just the kind of guys to make your head turn. That’s what we’ve got for you this month in Silhouette Desire.
The romance begins when Taggart Jones meets his match in Anne McAllister’s wonderful MAN OF THE MONTH, The Cowboy and the Kid. This is the latest in her captivating CODE OF THE WEST miniseries. And the fun continues with Mitch Harper in A Gift for Baby, the next book in Raye Morgan’s THE BABY SHOWER series.
Cindy Gerard has created a dynamic hero in the very masculine form of J. D. Hazzard in The Bride Wore Blue, book #1 in the NORTHERN LIGHTS BRIDES series. And if rugged rascals are your favorite, don’t miss Jake Spencer in Dixie Browning’s The Baby Notion, which is book #1 of DADDY KNOWS LAST, Silhouette’s new cross-line continuity. (Next month, look for Helen R. Myers’s Baby in a Basket as DADDY KNOWS LAST continues in Silhouette Romance!)
Gavin Cantrell is sure to weaken your knees in Gavin’s Child by Caroline Cross, part of the delightful BACHELORS AND BABIES promotion. And Jackie Merritt—along with hero Duke Sheridan—kicks off her MADE IN MONTANA series with Montana Fever.
Heroes to fall in love with—and love scenes that will make your toes curl. That’s what Silhouette Desire is all about Until next month—enjoy!
All the best,
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
A Gift For Baby
Raye
Morgan
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
RAYE MORGAN
favors settings in the West, which is where she has spent most of her life. She admits to a penchant for Western heroes, believing that whether he’s a rugged outdoorsman or a smooth city sophisticate, he tends to have a streak of wildness that the romantic heroine can’t resist taming. She’s been married to one of those Western men for twenty years and is busy raising four more in her Southern California home.
The Invitation (#ulink_8c4c8fad-5cda-5778-a466-12b65eee8c37)
“Hmm, pretty nice fit on that pair of jeans,” Hailey Kingston thought idly as she glanced over the top of her sunglasses at the ranch hand walking by the pool. Then she stopped herself, appalled.
Good grief—had she come to this? Was she really so bored that she’d sunk to checking out the attributes of the local cowboys? There had to be something else to occupy her mind. Had to be.
Groaning, she stretched back on the chaise lounge and turned her face up to the sun, completely oblivious to the effect she was having on those very same cowboys. That was the way it always was. She just didn’t care. She could walk around in a bikini as though it were a sweat suit, completely unconscious of the picture she made. Hailey Kingston was, in many ways, as natural as a child.
She wore her honey blond hair haphazardly, shoulder length and untamed. She seldom used makeup, and when she did, it was nothing more than a slash of pearly pink lipstick against her smooth, tanned skin. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and she couldn’t help it. It was her blessing; it was her curse.
But it didn’t mean much out here in the middle of nowhere. There was no one to see her but the two tiresome excops who’d been sent to watch her every move, and the ranch hands and they’d been warned to stay away from her. At first, it had all seemed deliciously peaceful and serene, but after three weeks, it was just plain boring.
She heard the sound of boots scuffing along the gravel pathway and she turned, feeling defensive, to find one of the cowboys coming toward her, a shy grin on his young face. She frowned and waited until he reached where she was lounging, then asked, “May I help you?”
“Uh…” He held out a courier’s packet awkwardly. “Up at the house, they told me to bring you this.”
Lifting her sunglasses, she stared at his offering. “What is it?”
“I think it’s your mail, miss.”
“Mail!” She jumped up and took the bag from him greedily. Her quick thank-you was laced with a smile that made him gape, but she hardly noticed. News from the outside. Hallelujah. Maybe it was a letter from her father saying that this long nightmare was finally over and she could go home. He was the only one who knew where she was, the only one whose letters she was allowed to get.
But it wasn’t from her father at all. What she found inside the packet was a pink envelope that smelled like…she gave a sniff. Baby powder. How in the world had this made its way through to her?
She knew they were holding back her letters. They didn’t want her to have any contact with the outside world at all for fear someone would find out where she was. And yet, this little pink envelope had gotten through. This was her lucky day. It was bound to be an invitation to something. She ripped it open eagerly and pulled out a card shaped like a duck, wearing a silky satin bow and a silly smile.
A baby shower! She flipped open the card and read the details inside, along with a personal note at the bottom. “Hailey, it’s me! Can you believe it? You have to come and help me celebrate. No RSVP needed, because I know you’ll be here!”
Hailey laughed softly. So, Sara was going to have a baby. “Oh, how wonderful,” she said, sighing.
“What’s that, ma’am?” The cowboy had been taking his time sauntering away, and when she spoke, he stopped and looked back hopefully.
“Uh, nothing,” she said, nodding at him, then lifting her chin coolly. Tommy—wasn’t that the name she’d heard him called? She was always careful not to give them false hope. It was best to let on right away that she had absolutely no interest in making friends. She’d learned young that her beauty could be a danger to everyone involved. He looked suitably abashed and she felt a twinge of remorse, but she knew better than to act on it. Best to let him think she was a snob. That would keep him at the distance that had to be maintained. He turned and went on his way, and she sighed.
Leaning down, she groped in her purse, found her wallet and opened it to the pictures. The wallet fell open naturally to a snapshot of the four young women, and she smiled at it.
There they were, the Fab Four—she and her three roommates in college. She’d carried that picture with her for eight years, and whenever things got a little too glum, she’d pull it out and remember the good times they’d had together.
Sara was going to be the first to have a baby, and maybe the only one, the way things were going. Hailey had talked to Cami Bishop, one of the foursome, on the telephone only a few months before, and Cami had more or less conceded defeat. She’d said she wasn’t even looking for the “right man” any longer. She’d decided that illusive person was a member of a race that was now extinct. “Only a few fossils left,” she’d joked, “to remind us of what we’re missing.”
Her other roomie, J. J. MacKenzie, was too full of ambition and in a career that demanded every ounce of strength. She didn’t have time to think about babies. And Hailey herself—well, she had realized long ago that she would never be able to trust a man enough to build a lasting relationship. That was just the way it was.
But Sara—yes, they’d always known she would do it. Sara had come from the most perfect family and married someone who was, by all accounts, the most perfect man. And now she would have the perfect baby. It had been in the cards all along.
“Great,” Hailey said softly, smiling a dreamy smile. “Good for her. Let her have a perfect baby. And let her have a perfect baby shower, too.”
She pressed the invitation to her chest and looked around as though to guard it from prying eyes. “Oh yes, Sara. I will get to your shower,” she whispered under her breath. “Somehow, someway, I will escape and get to you.”
One (#ulink_f2ae275b-3373-56ab-9c83-950e5f2b3477)
“Hey, Mitch. Look at that. It’s the Ice Princess, come into town.” The tall, handsome cowboy rapped his knuckles against the glass of the telephone booth to get his friend’s attention. “Whachya say we go over and make ourselves helpful?”
Mitch Harper turned in the tiny booth, with the receiver still against his ear, more annoyed at the interruption from Larry than interested in seeing Hailey Kingston emerge from her low-slung sports car. Glancing at her, he shrugged and gestured his disinterest.
“I’m on the phone,” he told Larry. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
Larry nodded good-naturedly and started across the street toward where Hailey stood adjusting a scarf she’d worn over her hair in the open car. Mitch watched her for a moment, his eyes narrowing, then his gaze focused on a pair of brightly attired men getting out of a gray sedan half a block away, and he shook his head, going back to his call.
“You really ought to do something about those two excops they’ve got covering her,” he said softly into the receiver. “They stick out like sore thumbs.”
“Aren’t they dressed for the area?” asked the gruff voice on the other end of the line.
“Sure. Circa 1950. They look like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.”
There was a pause. “Aren’t they both guys?”
“Yup.”
“Oh.” The man on the line gave a snort of quick laughter. “I’ll say something to the surveillance coordinator.” He snickered again. “They don’t suspect you, do they?”
“Those two?” Mitch smiled. “They don’t have a clue. They think I’m a cowboy, just like everyone else does. Just another ranch hand.”
“Good. I thought you would fit in pretty easily.”
“Don’t worry about me. I grew up not far from here. I know the area.”
“But do they know you?”
“No. Not in this end of the valley.”
“Good. Be careful.” His voice got more businesslike. “Got anything for me?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Mitch replied. “She’s barely left the side of the pool for the past four days.” He glanced across the street at where Hailey Kingston was still talking to Larry. As he watched, she began to walk into the store, and he had to admit, her walk had something to it, something a man couldn’t ignore. Good thing he wasn’t affected by things like that.
Yeah, right. Pulling himself together, he returned to his call. “If she’s got anything inside that pretty head besides fluff, she’s pretty good at hiding it.”
“Don’t underestimate her. She’s the apple of her daddy’s eye. If he’s told anyone where the money is, it’ll be her.”
Mitch shook his head and his mouth turned down at the corners. The signs were not auspicious as far as he was concerned. “If she knows anything, she’s a great bluffer.”
“Hey, the best of them always seem innocent. Just keep an eye on her and give me a call if she does anything suspicious.”
“Like booking a cruise or buying a diamond?”
“Like that, and any number of other things.”
“You got it. And hey, Donagan.” A smile crept into Mitch’s voice. “Next assignment is back in the real world again—you got that? No more baby-sitting jobs.”
“Hey, the next suicide mission is yours, Harper. You got my word on it.”
After an exchange of friendly obscenities, Mitch rang off and made his way out of the booth, starting across the street toward where Larry was attempting to charm the lovely young woman in the sky blue jumper whose blond hair tumbled about her shoulders like surf on a rocky shore.
There was no doubt she was beautiful, and he was only human. But despite the reluctant admiration he couldn’t help but have for her looks, he had nothing but contempt for everything else about her. The virtuous act didn’t fool him for a moment. He’d been on a lot of these cases over the years, and it was his experience that these women were usually into things up to their delicately trimmed eyebrows, no matter how much innocence they pretended.
