Charlotte Douglas - Licensed To Marry

“You mentioned terms. What did you have in mind?”

Laura lifted her chin and gave Kyle a shy smile. “I need an administrator.”

Kyle shook his head. “Undercover means inconspicuous. If I come in as head honcho, every person at the institute will scrutinize the daylights out of me.”

Laura sank down, shoulders slumped. “It seemed like the solution to both our problems.”

Kyle settled beside her, longing to pull her into his arms and comfort her. He kept his distance. His reassuring hug might turn into something deeper. Wilder. “Just hire me as a simple researcher and let me start right away.”

Laura turned to face him again, her expression calm and resolute. “There’s one way to both get what we want.”

Kyle smiled at her earnestness. “If you’ve thought of a solution, you’re a miracle worker.”

“It will work, all right.” Her solemn eyes sought and held his gaze. “You’ll have to marry me.”

Dear Reader,

This holiday season, deck the halls with some of the most exciting names in romantic suspense: Anne Stuart and Gayle Wilson. These two award-winning authors have returned together to Harlequin Intrigue to reprise their much loved miniseries—CATSPAW and MEN OF MYSTERY—in a special 2-in-1 collection. Night and Day is a guaranteed keeper and the best stocking stuffer around!

Find out what happens when a single-dad secret agent has to protect a beautiful scientist as our MONTANA CONFIDENTIAL series continues with Licensed To Marry by Charlotte Douglas.

The stork is coming down the chimney this year, as Joanna Wayne begins a brand-new series of books set in the sultry South. Look for Another Woman’s Baby this month and more HIDDEN PASSIONS books to come in the near future.

Also available from Harlequin Intrigue is the second title in Susan Kearney’s HIDE AND SEEK trilogy. The search goes on in Hidden Hearts.

Happy holidays from all of us at Harlequin Intrigue.

Sincerely,

Denise O’Sullivan

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin Intrigue

P.S.—Next month you can find another special holiday title—A Woman with a Mystery by B.J. Daniels

Licensed To Marry

Charlotte Douglas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Charlotte Douglas has loved a good story since learning to read at the age of three. After years of teaching that love of books to her students, she now enjoys creating stories of her own. Often her books are set in one of her three favorite places: Montana, where she and her husband spent their honeymoon; the mountains of North Carolina, where they’re building a summer home; and Florida, near the Gulf of Mexico on Florida’s West Coast, where she’s lived most of her life.

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

380—DREAM MAKER

434—BEN’S WIFE

482—FIRST-CLASS FATHER

515—A WOMAN OF MYSTERY

536—UNDERCOVER DAD

611—STRANGER IN HIS ARMS*

638—LICENSED TO MARRY

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

591—IT’S ABOUT TIME

623—BRINGING UP BABY

868—MONTANA MAIL-ORDER WIFE*

Laura Quinlan—She’s determined to expose the terrorists who have threatened her father’s work, but is she willing to risk her heart as well as her life?

Kyle Foster—As a bomb demolition expert, he’ll do whatever it takes to stop the Black Order from killing others, even if it means marrying a woman he has no intention of loving.

Molly Foster—Kyle’s adorable three-year-old daughter.

Josiah Quinlan—Laura’s father has developed the Quinlan Research Institute for the purpose of finding vaccines and antidotes against biological weapons.

Montana Confidential Covert Operations Group—Headed by Daniel Austin. Frank Connolly and Court Brady work with Kyle from their headquarters at the Lonesome Pony Ranch in their fight against the Black Order terrorists.

The Quinlan Research Institute Staff—When biological weapons end up in the hands of the Black Order, doctors Lawrence Tyson, Melinda Kwan and Robert Potter are all suspects, along with lab assistants Wayne Pritchard and Gary Bowen. Only Dr. C. J. Connolly, Frank’s wife, is in the clear.

U.S. Senator Ross Weston—A presidential candidate running on an antiterrorism platform, he becomes a chief target of the Black Order.

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

On a bright September morning, Kyle Foster raced toward his worst nightmare.

Kicking gravel in his wake, he crossed the driveway, Stetson clutched to his head with one hand, in his other his toolkit banged against his thigh. With natural fluid grace and impressive strength from tough physical conditioning, he sprinted toward the waiting helicopter in the pasture. Determination glinted in his jade-green eyes and hardened the set of his square jaw.

He ducked beneath the spinning rotors and grasped the strong hand of Daniel Austin, who pulled him aboard just as the craft lifted into the air. Kyle removed his hat, stowed his kit beneath his seat, settled his headset over his ears and looked down at the Lonesome Pony Ranch, shrinking below him as the chopper gained altitude.

Molly, his three-year-old daughter, waved to him from the arms of Dale McMurty, the ranch’s cook and Molly’s surrogate grandmother. His gut cramped with fear when he thought of Molly with her mischievous eyes, green like his own, and masses of white-blond curls, whose plump face dimpled when she laughed, making even the toughest ranch hand smile. Deserted by her mother, she depended on Kyle for everything. There was no way he could botch this job and not come home to her.

Home.

Their snug cabin at the Lonesome Pony Ranch was home now. He and Molly had left the rush and turmoil of Los Angeles for the peace and quiet of Montana Yellowstone country, but the Lonesome Pony was not as serene as it appeared on the surface. The helicopter banked toward the western mountain range and Helena, and Kyle gazed at the deceptive landscape beneath him. Still resembling its former incarnation as a dude resort, the main house overlooked the pasture they had taken off from.

Beyond the pasture ran Crooked Creek, teeming with life, a fly fisherman’s paradise. On the other side of the ranch house glistened the turquoise blue of the swimming pool, ringed with cabins, including the one where he and Molly lived. Farther from the house sat the massive barn and corrals, and behind them, archery and shooting ranges and a rodeo corral.

A casual, even a close-at-hand observer could not discern the secret operations room, deep beneath the main house. Ostensibly a retirement and breeding ranch for horses, the ranch served as a cover and headquarters for the covert agents of Montana Confidential, founded by Daniel Austin.