Leigh Greenwood - Family Merger

“My father dates all the time. I’m talking about someone who’ll marry him. It shouldn’t be hard to find somebody. He’s good-looking and rich. Don’t you know some nice women who would like him well enough to go out with him?” Cynthia asked.

Kathryn didn’t want to tell Cynthia how easy it would be for a woman to like her father very much. Neither did Cynthia need to know Kathryn found her father so attractive she temporarily forgot that though they seemed to have a lot in common, they disagreed on most fundamental matters.

“Your father will remarry when he’s ready.”

“He needs somebody who’ll take care of him, somebody who’s not interested in his becoming the most famous businessman in the world. He needs someone like you.”

Dear Reader,

Love is in the air, but the days will certainly be sweeter if you snuggle up with this month’s Special Edition offerings—and a box of decadent chocolates. First up, award-winning author and this year’s President of Romance Writers of America ®, Shirley Hailstock is a fresh new voice for Special Edition, but fans already know what a gifted storyteller she is. With numerous novels and novellas under her belt, Shirley debuts in Special Edition with A Father’s Fortune, which tells the story of a day-care-center owner and her foster child who teach a grumpy carpenter how to face his past and open his heart to love.

Lindsay McKenna packs a punch in Her Healing Touch, a fast-paced read from beginning to end. The next in her widely acclaimed MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: DESTINY’S WOMEN series, this romance details the trials of a beautiful paramedic who teaches a handsome Special Forces officer the ways of her legendary healing. USA TODAY bestselling author Susan Mallery completely wins us over in Completely Smitten, next up in her beloved series HOMETOWN HEARTBREAKERS. Here, an adventurous preacher’s daughter seeks out a new life, but never expects to find a new love with a sexy U.S. marshal.

The fourth installment in Crystal Green’s KANE’S CROSSING miniseries, There Goes the Bride oozes excitement when a runaway bride is spirited out of town by a reclusive pilot she once loved in high school. Patricia McLinn delights her readers with Wedding of the Century. Here, a heroine returns to her hometown seven years after running out of her wedding. When she faces her jilted groom, she realizes their feelings are stronger than ever! Finally, in Leigh Greenwood’s Family Merger, sparks fly when a workaholic businessman meets a good-hearted social worker, who teaches him the meaning of love.

Don’t miss this array of novels that deliver an emotional charge and satisfying finish you’re sure to savor, no matter what the season!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

has authored twenty historical romances and debuted in Silhouette Special Edition with Just What the Doctor Ordered. The proud parent of three grown children, Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can write to Leigh Greenwood at P.O. Box 470761, Charlotte, NC 28226. An SASE would be appreciated.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Kathryn Roper suddenly found herself face-to-face with one very handsome, very angry man. Tall, neatly groomed and impeccably dressed in a custom-made suit, he looked too young to be so conservatively dressed. The gray pinstripe was something her father would wear. This man ought to be wearing a cream-colored Polo shirt and tan slacks. He had the body of an athlete, though she didn’t know any athletes who had such good taste in clothes and such bad taste in visiting hours.

“Don’t stand there staring at me,” he snapped. “I’ve flown halfway around the world to get here. I want to see Miss Roper.”

If she’d had any doubts this man was Ron Egan, she didn’t have them any longer. He had the imperious attitude of a man who thought nothing was important but himself.

“I’m Kathryn Roper,” she said, “and I don’t allow visitors after nine-thirty. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

His angry gaze narrowed its focus, bore into her like a laser. “You’re too young and pretty to have turned into a battle-ax.”

Kathryn couldn’t stop a spurt of laughter. “Who says a battle-ax has to be old and ugly?”

He appeared to be weighing her up, calculating his approach. He was just like many upper echelon types she’d run across, ready to shout at people they thought unimportant but immediately taking a different tack when they encountered someone they considered on their level.

Yet she was having a very different reaction to him than what would have been usual for her—one of a purely physical nature, one that caught her off guard. She felt attracted to this man. She had never denied the possibility of instant chemistry between two people, but this was the first time it had happened to her.

What a tragedy his outside should be so beautiful when his inside was rotten. But that’s the way it seemed to go with her and men.

In a way, she was just as impressionable as the girls who came to her for help. All too often they had been seduced by a man’s appearance. Only she was older, more experienced and had her physical desires firmly under control. She might have a gut-clenching reaction to Ron Egan, but he’d never know it.

“I want to see my daughter. Where is she?”

“She’s in bed, as are all the girls in this house. You can see her in the morning.”

“I’ve come all the way from Geneva. I got on the next flight out after your phone call and spent the last eight hours on a plane. I’m six time zones away from where I started, and I’m tired. It won’t hurt her to miss thirty minutes of sleep.”

“It’s not the sleep I’m concerned about so much as that your visit will upset her. It’s extremely important that she remain calm. She’s going through a stressful experience.”

They still stood there in the entrance hall, facing each other like gladiators, each trying to decide how to manipulate this conversation to their own advantage. At least that’s how Ron read it.

“She’s a minor,” Ron said. “I can force you to give her up.”

“It’s not a matter of my giving her up. She came here of her own free will. She wants to stay. If you care for her, you’ll let her stay.”

Ron didn’t know quite how to respond. From the moment he’d received a call from a stranger telling him his daughter was pregnant and had run away from home, he hadn’t known what to think. He hadn’t expected to find his daughter housed in an elegant old mansion in the heart of the oldest and most fashionable neighborhood in Charlotte. Kathryn Roper wasn’t at all what he’d expected, either.

His first impulse was to shout at this woman for having the effrontery to imply he didn’t care for his daughter. Who was she to make such a judgment? She didn’t know anything about him. Cynthia had every right to be upset, but he was sure if he could talk to her, they could straighten things out.