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The Maverick's Secret Baby
Teri Wilson
Two feuding families One baby on the way…. Avery Ellington knew sleeping with Finn Crawford was a mistake. And now she’s pregnant! But what she’s not expecting, is Finn’s immediate demand that they marry—or her surprising desire to turn their convenient marriage into something real…
This cowboy cutie won’t settle down
Until he gets unsettling news…
Finn Crawford is going to be a dad. He can only imagine the fireworks when the Ellington family learns he slept with their cherished daughter Avery. Their families have been feuding for years. It’s no wonder sweet, expectant Avery balks at Finn’s suggestion of a convenient marriage. What’s more surprising is that the footloose, flirty rancher might secretly long for something more…
TERI WILSON is a novelist for Mills & Boon. She is the author of Unleashing Mr. Darcy, now a Hallmark Channel Original Movie. Teri is also a contributing writer at hellogiggles.com (http://www.hellogiggles.com), a lifestyle and entertainment website founded by Zooey Deschanel that is now part of the People magazine, Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly family. Teri loves books, travel, animals and dancing every day. Visit Teri at teriwilson.net (http://www.teriwilson.net) or on Twitter, @teriwilsonauthr (http://www.@teriwilsonauthr)
Also by Teri Wilson (#u8312f908-b8b3-5e87-808e-6078b5ce5da7)
How to Rescue a Family
The Ballerina’s Secret
How to Romance a Runaway Bride The
Bachelor’s Baby Surprise
A Daddy by Christmas
His Ballerina Bride
The Princess Problem
It Started with a Diamond
Unmasking Juliet
Unleashing Mr. Darcy
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
The Maverick’s Secret Baby
Teri Wilson
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09162-6
THE MAVERICK’S SECRET BABY
© 2019 Harlequin Books S.A.
Published in Great Britain 2019
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.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#u8312f908-b8b3-5e87-808e-6078b5ce5da7)
This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:
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This book is dedicated to my writing friends
from the Leakey, Texas, writing retreat.
From the small-town shop with the meat cleaver door
handles to the house on the river and the nighttime
campfires, it was the perfect inspiration for writing a
Montana romance with a cowboy hero. I love you all.
Contents
Cover (#u7d53d2e1-eadd-55d2-ac8c-5fa228c9f8d0)
Back Cover Text (#ua6f3d6b2-1405-5d3d-bde2-13839378f599)
About the Author (#u58c75133-2d52-5bcd-b13c-fe37139f93c5)
Booklist (#u93772643-ddcd-5f44-be77-8f6187788809)
Title Page (#u56e76e63-a446-5b0a-9e78-bd4daf8d6c9b)
Copyright (#u1b3eaa87-0b9c-5950-acd3-b3d8f950d2e6)
Note to Readers
Dedication (#ue004954c-2bcc-5406-8d83-ff08ff4afa1f)
Chapter One (#uf7c3e9f8-e20e-5129-a758-ad8ce450d2db)
Chapter Two (#u27151221-5938-598b-9197-84d5451f8b58)
Chapter Three (#u2d70407f-ccfb-5d56-875b-351ea34a3489)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u8312f908-b8b3-5e87-808e-6078b5ce5da7)
Finn Crawford was living the dream.
Granted, his father, Maximilian, had gone a little crazy. The old man was intent on paying a matchmaker to marry off all six of his sons. If that wasn’t nuts, Finn didn’t know what was.
This wasn’t the 1800s. It was modern-day Montana, and the Crawfords were…comfortable. If that sounded like something a rich man might say about his family, then it was probably because it was true. Finn’s family was indeed wealthy, and Finn himself wasn’t exactly terrible-looking. Quite the opposite, if the women who’d been ringing Viv Dalton—the matchmaker in question—were to be believed. More important, he was a decent guy. He tried, anyway.
Plus, Finn loved women. Women were typically much more open than men. Kinder and more authentic. He loved their softness and the way they committed so much to everything, whether it was caring for a stray puppy or running a business. Show him a woman who wore a deep red lipstick and her heart on her sleeve, and he was a goner. At the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Finn had already fallen in love more times than he could count.
So the very notion that he’d need any help in the marriage department would have been completely laughable, if he’d had any intention of tying the knot. Which he did not.
Why would he, when Viv Dalton was being paid to toss women in his direction? His dad had picked up the entire Crawford ranch—all six of his sons and over a thousand head of cattle—and moved them from Dallas to Rust Creek Falls, Montana, for this asinine pretend version of The Bachelor. The way Finn saw it, he’d be a fool not to enjoy the ride.
And enjoying it, he had been. A little too much, according to Viv.
“Finn, honestly. You’ve dated a different woman nearly every week for the past three months.” The wedding planner eyed him from across her desk, which was piled high with bridal magazines and puffy white tulle. Sitting inside her wedding shop was like being in the middle of a cupcake.
“And they’ve all been lovely.” Finn stretched his denim-clad legs out in front of him and crossed his cowboy boots at the ankle. “I have zero complaints.”
Beside him, Maximilian sighed. “I have a lot of complaints. Specifically, a million of them where you’re concerned, son.”
Finn let the words roll right off him. After all, paying someone a million dollars to find wives for all six Crawford brothers hadn’t been his genius idea. Maximilian had no one to blame but himself.
“Mr. Crawford, I assure you I’m doing my best to find Finn a bride.” Viv tucked a wayward strand of blond hair behind her ear and folded her hands neatly on the surface of her desk. All business. “In fact, I believe I’ve set him up with every eligible woman in Rust Creek Falls.”
“All of them?” Finn arched a brow. This town was even smaller than he’d thought it was. It would have taken him a lifetime to go through the entire dating pool back in Dallas. He should know—he’d tried.
Vivienne gave him a tight smile. “Every. Last. One.”
“Okay, then I guess we’re done here. You gave it your best shot.” Finn stood. He’d miss the girlfriend-of-the-week club, but at least his father would be forced to accept the fact that he wasn’t about to get engaged to any of the fine female residents of Rust Creek Falls.
Finn placed his Stetson on his head, set to go. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Sit back down, son.” Maximilian didn’t raise his voice, but his tone had an edge to it that Finn hadn’t heard since the time he’d “borrowed” his father’s truck to go mudding with his high school buddies back in tenth grade.
That little escapade had ended with Maximilian’s luxury F-150 stuck in a ditch and Finn mucking out stalls every weekend for the rest of the school year.
Of course Finn was an adult now, not a stupid teenager. He made his own choices, certainly when it came to his love life. But he loved his dad, and since the Crawfords were all business partners in addition to family, he didn’t want to rock the boat. Not over something as ridiculous as this.
“Sure thing, Dad.” He lowered himself back into the frilly white chair with its frilly lace cushion.
Maximilian sat a little straighter and narrowed his gaze at Viv Dalton. “Are you forgetting what’s at stake?”
She cleared her throat. “No, sir. I’m not.”
A look of warning passed from Finn’s father toward the wedding planner, and she gave him a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.
Finn’s gut churned. What the hell was that about?
Damn it.
Knowing his dad, he’d gone and upped the ante behind Finn’s back. When Maximilian ran into problems, he had a tendency to write a bigger check to make them go away.
Finn sighed. “I’m no longer sure entirely what’s going on here, but I think it might be time for this little matchmaking project to end. Half of us are already married.”
One by one, Finn’s brothers Logan, Xander and Knox had become attached. It was uncanny, really. None of them had ended up with women of Viv’s choosing, but they’d coupled up all the same. The way he saw it, his dad should be thrilled. The Crawford legacy would live on, Finn’s bachelor status notwithstanding.
