Tori Carrington - Just Eight Months Old...

“Chad, meet my daughter, Bonny,” Hannah said.

He stared at the baby and the sparse-haired, drool-covered little imp stared back, chattering as if saying something directly to him, then holding out the toy she chomped on in his direction. He swallowed hard, his heart expanding, surging against the bands he’d wrapped around it so long ago. Her large eyes were open, so trusting, her cheeks flushed, her entire face animated.

Chad awkwardly moved to accept the offering, only it appeared she hadn’t meant for him to take it, merely to feel it. When he released the slobbery rubber, she gave a peal of laughter then stuck it back in her mouth.

A grin edged its way across his face and he swore he could feel one of those intangible bands in his chest snap and begin to unravel.

Now there was no doubt in his mind that Bonny was his.

Dear Reader,

As the air begins to chill outside, curl up under a warm blanket with a mug of hot chocolate and these six fabulous Special Edition novels….

First up is bestselling author Lindsay McKenna’s A Man Alone, part of her compelling and highly emotional MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: MAVERICK HEARTS series. Meet Captain Thane Hamilton, a wounded Marine who’d closed off his heart long ago, and Paige Black, a woman whose tender loving care may be just what the doctor ordered.

Two new miniseries are launching this month and you’re not going to want to miss either one! Look for The Rancher Next Door, the first of rising star Susan Mallery’s brand-new miniseries, LONE STAR CANYON. Not even a long-standing family feud can prevent love from happening! Also, veteran author Penny Richards pens a juicy and scandalous love story with Sophie’s Scandal, the first of her wonderful new trilogy—RUMOR HAS IT…that two high school sweethearts are about to recapture the love they once shared….

Next, Jennifer Mikels delivers a wonderfully heartwarming romance between a runaway heiress and a local sheriff with The Bridal Quest, the second book in the HERE COME THE BRIDES series. And Diana Whitney brings back her popular STORK EXPRESS series. Could a Baby of Convenience be just the thing to bring two unlikely people together?

And last, but not least, please welcome newcomer Tori Carrington to the line. Just Eight Months Old…and she’d stolen the hearts of two independent bounty hunters—who just might make the perfect family!

Enjoy these delightful tales, and come back next month for more emotional stories about life, love and family!

Best,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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With warm gratitude we dedicate this, our first Special Edition, to Karen Taylor Richman and her own special “addition.” We’d also like to thank Kim Nadelson and Debra Matteucci for their initiative and limitless help.

The pleasure’s all ours!

is the pseudonym of husband-and-wife writing team Lori & Tony Karayianni, who have been cowriters for nearly as long as they’ve been a couple. They describe their lives as being “better than fiction.” Despite their different backgrounds—Tony was born near Olympia, Greece, and raised in Athens, while Lori is a native of Toledo, Ohio—their shared love for romance and travel allows them to constantly redefine what follows “and they lived happily ever after.” In their books you’ll see Tony’s keen eye for plotting and hunger for adventure, and Lori’s love for vivid characters and the fundamental ties that bind us all. Along with their four cats, they call Toledo home, but also travel to Athens as often as they can.

This talented writing duo also writes for Harlequin Temptation under the Tori Carrington pseudonym. Lori and Tony love to hear from readers. Write to them at P.O. Box 12271, Toledo, OH 43612 for an autographed bookplate.

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

The dog days of summer in New York City held little appeal for Hannah McGee. Never mind the bittersweet memories they brought drifting back. The heat and humidity wreaked havoc on her pale, lightly freckled skin and turned her brick-red corkscrew curls into a Panama hat of frizz.

Standing on the sweltering asphalt, she closed the car door then wiped at a one-inch spot on her vest, a little memento her eight-month-old daughter, Bonny, had bestowed upon her that morning. Giving up, she pulled the vest closer to her torso, the weight of the stun gun she called The Equalizer and a small canister of pepper spray she had tucked into a belt just inside the waist of her gauze skirt reassuringly familiar. For the past few years she’d never needed anything more to protect herself. Which was good, because even when she was a NYC police officer, she’d never much liked carrying a revolver.

After today she wouldn’t need any of this paraphernalia at all.

Still, goodbyes were something she’d never much liked. Saying adios to rusty rental cars, meals caught on the run and chasing bail-jumpers wasn’t that big a deal. But bidding adieu to her boss, Elliott Blackstone, was going to be a little bigger. She’d worked with him for the past three years. In an indirect way, he’d made it possible for her to switch career paths to trade in her bounty hunter title for that of private investigator. After today, that’d be official. She eagerly looked forward to planting her feet firmly on that new path just as soon as she closed the gate to this one.

She pulled open the glass door to Blackstone Bail and Bonds and welcomed the swell of cold, air-conditioned air that swept over her.

Five minutes later, she wondered if the obstacle that had just plopped down in the middle of her path came any larger—and that by no means referred to Elliott’s considerable size.

“I can’t pay you, Hannah.” Elliott Blackstone hovered somewhere in his mid- to late-forties, his passionate dislike of parting with anything green that had a picture of a president on it one of his defining traits. She understood this about him. In fact, after the first few occasions, she’d come to look forward to their little tugs-of-war. But this wasn’t the usual Elliott pleading poverty even though his posh office could easily match that of a banker. No, Hannah had the piercing sensation he was serious.

“El, I’m already late picking up Bonny because you sent Jack Stokes out on the same run. Can’t we just finish up here and call it a day?”

Blackstone cleared his throat. “Where is Stokes, anyway?”

Hannah remembered the dim interior of The Bar in South Jamaica, Queens, where she had picked up bail-jumper Eddie Fowler an hour before. “Probably still handcuffed to a bar rail. Unless someone took pity on him.” She smiled. “Though that’s highly unlikely.”

Elliott tugged a handkerchief from the front pocket of his silk-blend suit and mopped his forehead.