Victoria Chancellor - The Prince's Cowboy Double

“I have a proposition for you.”

Hank McCauley grinned. “That’s a surprise, darlin’, especially this early in the day.”

“A business proposition,” Gwendolyn clarified. “I represent the royal family of Belegovia on this trip to the United States. Unfortunately, Prince Alexi has disappeared.”

“Oh, yeah. I saw that prince on television. Looks like he could be my twin. I don’t know what I can do for you, Lady Wendy. That prince is sure not hiding out on my ranch.”

She took a deep breath. “No, but for all intents and purposes, he could be here.”

“Whoa!” Hank pulled his attention away from her quality attributes. “Don’t tell me you want me to pretend to be this prince until he shows up?”

“I need your assistance, Mr. McCauley, and I’m prepared to make it worth your while.”

“Lady Wendy, you shouldn’t ever leave an offer like that on the table to a real Texan.”

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year! January is an exciting month here at Mills & Boon American Romance. It marks the beginning of a yearlong celebration of our 20th anniversary. Come indulge with us for twelve months of supersatisfying reads by your favorite authors and exciting newcomers, too!

Throughout 2003, we’ll be bringing you some not-to-miss miniseries. This month, bestselling author Muriel Jensen inaugurates MILLIONAIRE, MONTANA, our newest in-line continuity, with Jackpot Baby. This exciting six-book series is set in a small Montana town whose residents win a forty-million-dollar lottery jackpot. But winning a fortune comes with a price and no one’s life will ever be the same again.

Next, Commander’s Little Surprise, the latest book in Mollie Molay’s GROOMS IN UNIFORM series, is a must-read secret-baby and reunion romance with a strong hero you won’t be able to resist. Victoria Chancellor premieres her new A ROYAL TWIST miniseries in which a runaway prince and his horse-wrangling look-alike switch places. Don’t miss The Prince’s Cowboy Double, the first book in this delightful duo. Finally, when a small Alaskan town desperately needs a doctor, there’s only one man who can do the job, in Under Alaskan Skies by Carol Grace.

So come join in the celebrating and start your year off right—by reading all four Mills & Boon American Romance books!

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Mills & Boon American Romance

The Prince’s Cowboy Double

Victoria Chancellor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To my literary agent, Linda Kruger, for her consistent

support in good times and bad.

Here’s to the future!

After twenty-eight years in Texas, VICTORIA CHANCELLORhas almost qualified for “naturalized Texan” status. She lives in a suburb of Dallas with her husband of thirty-one years, next door to her daughter, who is an English teacher. When not writing, she tends to her “zoo” of four cats, a ferret, five tortoises, a wide assortment of wild birds, three visiting chickens and several families of raccoons and opossums. For more information on past and future releases, please visit her Web site at www.victoriachancellor.com.

MILLS & BOON AMERICAN ROMANCE

844—THE BACHELOR PROJECT

884—THE BEST BLIND DATE IN TEXAS

955—THE PRINCE’S COWBOY DOUBLE*

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Lady Gwendolyn Reed straightened her plum wool suit jacket, squared her shoulders in the best tradition of the British nobility, and watched the so-called cowboy approach the screen door from inside the darkened house. Backlit by a window at the end of the hallway, he appeared tall and broad shouldered. Instead of hurrying, as would be proper in this situation, he sauntered with a rolling gait she’d only seen previously in Western films.

A tiny bead of perspiration traveled down her back, keeping time with the cowboy’s slow, steady pace. Who would have imagined early May would be so dashedly hot, even in Texas?

Gwendolyn resisted the urge to tap her foot on the wide wooden planks. She didn’t want to be here. Looking back briefly to the black Land Rover parked in the gravel drive, she was at least assured she wasn’t alone. A very nervous valet watched her from behind tinted glass. The driver—an Austin resident who had grown up driving on the wrong side of the motor-ways—appeared stoic and unaffected, as usual.

One must have nerves of steel to negotiate the frightening dual carriageways and twisting rural roads of Texas, where everyone drove large vehicles—from huge lorries to caravans on holiday—at an alarming rate of speed.

“Mr. Hank McCauley?” she asked as the man stopped before her.

“That’s me, darlin’,” he drawled, running a hand through his too-long hair. He opened the thin barrier of the screen door and stepped outside. Dressed in low-slung jeans, a white towel draped around his shoulders, he appeared as though he’d recently stepped out of the shower. His long bare feet told her she’d interrupted his morning—his very late morning—grooming. His stubble indicated he hadn’t shaved yet today. He ran a hand through sun-streaked, tousled brown hair.

He looked just like a James Dean-ish, Hollywood-style version of Prince Alexi Ladislas of Belegovia.

Oh, my. Gwendolyn looked up into his sleepy, hooded blue eyes, telling herself that she should be evaluating this Texan for his suitability, not comparing his masculine attributes to the prince. Still, any woman would appreciate his tall, broad-shouldered form, his smooth, tanned skin, and the intangible air about him that screamed—no, make that whispered in a bedroom voice—I am one-hundred-percent male.

Odd that Prince Alexi, who appeared the mirror image—albeit a more polished one—of Hank McCauley had never affected her this way.

She blinked away the notion of cool sheets and warm showers, clutching her combination purse and briefcase tighter until she was sure she’d left imprints in the leather. “Mr. McCauley, my name is Lady Gwendolyn Reed and I have a proposition for you.”

He grinned. “Well, that’s a real surprise, darlin’, especially this early in the day. Most of those come at night out at Schultze’s Roadhouse.”

She assumed this roadhouse was some type of pub, one this man frequented with some regularity. “A business proposition,” Gwendolyn clarified, fighting the urge to lose her composure completely on the porch of this ranch house in the Texas Hill Country. She wondered what King Wilheim would say if she pulled her hair loose, threw down her briefcase and ran screaming across the blue-and-red flower-dotted countryside.