Carol Grace - His Sleeping Beauty

That one kiss didn’t mean anything

Not to him, not to her, either, Max rationalized. Sarah wasn’t the type for a flirtation or a brief affair. She didn’t date, and if she did, she would take it seriously. Max knew that.

But just a glance in her direction, seeing her hair tossed by the breeze, dark wisps on her cheek, watching her bite into a ripe strawberry, her lips stained red, he was not ready to say goodbye to her for good.

Max drank from the wine bottle and tasted her lips there. It wasn’t enough. He wanted more than a taste. He needed more. Maybe it was the sun. Maybe it was the warm air. Maybe it was her. He leaned across the blanket and framed her face in his hands. Sarah’s eyes widened. Such huge blue eyes.

What was so wrong with a kiss—or two—between friends?

Dear Reader,

As the days get shorter and the approaching holidays bring a buzz to the crisp air, nothing quite equals the joy of reuniting with family and catching up on the year’s events. This month’s selections all deal with family matters, be it making one’s own family, dealing with family members or doing one’s family duty.

Desperate to save his family ranch, the hero in Elizabeth Harbison’s Taming of the Two (#1790) enters into a bargain that could turn a pretend relationship into the real deal. This is the second title in the SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE trilogy. A die-hard bachelor gets a taste of what being a family man is like when he rescues a beautiful stranger and her adorable infant from a deadly blizzard, in Susan Meier’s Snowbound Baby (#1791)—part of the author’s BRYANT BABY BONANZA continuity. Carol Grace continues her FAIRY TALE BRIDES miniseries with His Sleeping Beauty (#1792) in which a woman sheltered by her overprotective parents gains the confidence to strike out on her own after her handsome—but cynical—neighbor catches her sleepwalking in his garden! Finally, in The Marine and Me (#1793), the next installment in Cathie Linz’s MEN OF HONOR series, a soldier determined to outwit his matchmaking grandmother and avoid the marriage landmine gets bushwhacked by his supposedly dowdy neighbor.

Be sure to come back next month when Karen Rose Smith and Shirley Jump put their own spins on Shakespeare and the Dating Game, respectively!

Happy reading.

Ann Leslie Tuttle

Associate Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Silhouette Romance

Make Room for Nanny #690

A Taste of Heaven #751

Home Is Where the Heart Is #882

Mail-Order Male #955

The Lady Wore Spurs #1010

*Lonely Millionaire #1057

* Almost a Husband #1105

* Almost Married #1142

The Rancher and the Lost Bride #1153

†Granted: Big Sky Groom #1277

† Granted: Wild West Bride #1303

† Granted: A Family for Baby #1345

Married to the Sheik #1391

The Librarian’s Secret Wish #1473

Fit for a Sheik #1500

Taming the Sheik #1554

A Princess in Waiting #1588

Falling for the Sheik #1607

Pregnant by the Boss! #1666

**Beauty and the Big Bad Wolf #1767

** Cinderellie! #1775

** His Sleeping Beauty #1792

Silhouette Desire

Wife for a Night #1118

The Heiress Inherits a Cowboy #1145

Expecting… #1205

The Magnificent M.D. #1284

has always been interested in travel and living abroad. She spent her junior year of college in France and toured the world working on the hospital ship HOPE. She and her husband spent the first year and a half of their marriage in Iran, where they both taught English. She has studied Arabic and Persian languages. Then, with their toddler daughter, they lived in Algeria for two years.

Carol says that writing is another way of making her life exciting. Her office is her mountaintop home, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean and which she shares with her inventor husband, their daughter, who just graduated college, and their teenage son.

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Standing on his flagstone patio some time after midnight, Max Monroe almost missed seeing the mysterious figure dressed in white at his back fence. He stubbed out his cigar and took a few steps forward. There she was under the trees. Then she was gone. He shook his head. Real, or an illusion? He’d had wine with dinner, but not enough to bring on hallucinations. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he felt a cool breeze on his arms. Who was it? What was it?

It certainly wasn’t his neighbor Mary, a petite, silver-haired, lively older lady who lived next door was away on a Caribbean cruise. He’d been told that her niece was going to be house-sitting and by the way, if he wouldn’t mind looking in on her once or twice, Mary would be very grateful.

He owed it to Mary. She’d been more than helpful when he was moving in, letting the phone men into his house to set up his Internet connection, recommending gardeners and a cleaning crew.

According to Mary, her niece, Sarah, was too quiet, too shy and too studious. She was liable to stay indoors too much and keep to herself. Sarah needed a nudge to get out and smell the roses, which by the way, grew in abundance behind Mary’s house. Not the type of woman he’d be interested in getting to know, but still, what could he say?

Eager to make friends in the neighborhood and to repay his neighbor for her generosity, Max promised to look in on Sarah, though he doubted he could lure her out of her shell, if she was really as shy as her aunt said. When he’d seen a strange VW Bug in the driveway this afternoon, he’d phoned the house and knocked on her door, but no one answered. She had to be there so why didn’t she come to the door? Nobody’s that shy. But, what the hell, he’d tried, and he’d done his job.

Max took a sip of coffee from his mug while he watched and waited for the vision to appear again. If it really was a person. If he’d really seen anything at all. In the meantime, he surveyed his landscaped yard illuminated by the silvery moonlight, and his rock-rimmed lighted pool with pride of ownership. His new home was more than a house. It was a symbol that he’d arrived. The poverty of his childhood, the apartments he’d lived in, one after another, were finally all in the past. This place was his, all his. The next day he was having his first party there.

Aha, there it was again, the flutter of white shimmering in the moonlight. This time he was going to get to the bottom of this mystery and find out who it was. He set his coffee cup down and strode across the damp lawn until he stopped suddenly and stared.

There under the fragrant eucalyptus trees was a woman in a white gown only ten feet away from him. Her dark hair was tousled by the breeze, her sheer gown billowed, giving her an ethereal look. Under the gown he could make out the outline of her breasts and hips. His body reacted as if he’d been given a shot of adrenaline and he felt a sharp quickening of his senses. Not that he was gawking, but he was human, wasn’t he?