Nikki Benjamin: Loving Leah

John’s voice lashed like a whip across the room, halting her in midstep. He was ready for a fight. More than that, he wanted one. But why?

“John, please, I’ve come here to help—”

“I don’t want or need your charity,” he muttered. “So why don’t you grab your suitcase and just get the hell out of here,” he said with a quiet emphasis that almost had her scurrying to obey.

“I’ll get out of your study…for now. You’re obviously in the midst of a self-indulgent wallow of some sort, and I might as well leave you to it. But I’m not getting out of your house, not tonight or tomorrow or the day after that. I never knew you could be such a jerk, John Bennett,” she finished, unable to keep the hurt from her voice.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Leah,” he warned softly, turning to face her. “A lot you don’t want to know. Believe me.”

Dear Reader,

Make way for spring—as well as some room on your reading table for six new Special Edition novels! Our selection for this month’s READERS’ RING—Special Edition’s very own book club—is Playing by the Rules by Beverly Bird. In this innovative, edgy romance, a single mom who is sick and tired of the singles scene makes a deal with a handsome divorced hero—that their relationship will not lead to commitment. But both hero and heroine soon find themselves breaking all those pesky rules and falling head over heels for each other!

Gina Wilkins delights her readers with The Family Plan, in which two ambitious lawyers find unexpected love—and a newfound family—with the help of a young orphaned girl. Reader favorite Nikki Benjamin delivers a poignant reunion romance, Loving Leah, about a compassionate nanny who restores hope to an embittered single dad and his fragile young daughter.

In Call of the West, the last in Myrna Temte’s HEARTS OF WYOMING miniseries, a celebrity writer goes to Wyoming and finds the ranch—and the man—with whom she’d like to spend her life. Now she has to convince the cowboy to give up his ranch—and his heart! In her new cross-line miniseries, THE MOM SQUAD, Marie Ferrarella debuts with A Billionaire and a Baby. Here, a scoop-hungry—and pregnant—reporter goes after a reclusive corporate raider, only to go into labor just as she’s about to get the dirt! Ann Roth tickles our fancy with Reforming Cole, a sexy and emotional tale about a willful heroine who starts a “men’s etiquette” school so that the macho opposite sex can learn how best to treat a lady. Against her better judgment, the teacher falls for the gorgeous bad boy of the class!

I hope you enjoy this month’s lineup and come back for another month of moving stories about life, love and family!

Best,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

was born and raised in the Midwest, but after years in the Houston area, she considers herself a true Texan. Nikki says she’s always been an avid reader. (Her earliest literary heroines were Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Beany Malone.) Her writing experience was limited, however, until a friend started penning a novel and encouraged Nikki to do the same. One scene led to another, and soon she was hooked.

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

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

In her modest sedan, Leah Hayes could have covered the distance from her father’s spacious home to John Bennett’s house in a matter of minutes. And on almost any other occasion, she would have done so without a second thought. Despite the eight years she had been away, the tree-lined streets of the neighborhood, within easy walking distance of the University of Montana campus in Missoula, were still familiar to her. But with her reception so uncertain, Leah chose to take her time.

“Are you lost, Aunt Leah?” her six-year-old niece asked, her soft, sweet voice edged with anxiety.

“No, Gracie,” Leah assured her, smiling ruefully as she glanced in the rearview mirror. “I remember the way to your house.”

Gracie’s frown eased, though only just a bit.

The little girl looked like both her mother—Leah’s stepsister, Caro—and her father, her features a perfect blend of the two. From Caro, Gracie had gotten her heart-shaped face and silky blond curls, and from her father, John, she had inherited the grave, pale gray eyes and determined tilt of chin that Leah had tried so hard, and so unsuccessfully, to forget in the years she’d been away.

“But you’re driving really slow,” the child pointed out.

“I’m admiring all the pretty flowers.” True, but not the whole truth behind her dawdling. “Everyone seems to have worked really hard on their gardens this year.”

“Not us.” Gracie’s disappointment sounded in her voice. “All we have in our flower beds are scraggly old weeds.”

“Well, that’s something we can fix while I’m here. Pulling weeds and planting flowers won’t take us any time at all if we work together.”

“Maybe my dad could help us, too,” Gracie murmured wistfully. “Before my mom died he always used to make sure we had pretty flowers.”

“Maybe so,” Leah agreed, though she had no idea at all what John would or wouldn’t be willing to do in the weeks ahead.

“He’ll probably be too busy,” the child said with an audible sigh of resignation. “He’s always too busy to do things with me, or he’s too sad. He really misses my mom, you know. But you’re here now, Aunt Leah, and you’ll do lots of things with me, won’t you?”

“Oh, yes, Gracie. I’m here now, and we’ll do lots and lots of things together this summer. I promise,” Leah said, making yet another vow to someone she loved before she’d had a chance to consider what it might cost her.

“See all the weeds in our flower beds?” her niece said as they turned onto Cedar Street.

“Yes, I do,” Leah replied, trying to hide her dismay at how run-down and abandoned the lovely, two-story house appeared compared to the photographs Caro had so proudly sent her a couple of years ago.

With the streetlights illuminating the house, she gave it a closer look. Though not totally weed-infested, the gardens were overgrown, the lawn could have used a good mowing, and the front windows were all dark despite the onset of evening.

She had hoped her father and stepmother had been exaggerating about John’s mood and behavior. Surely he had begun to get over the worst of his grief and was now ready to move on with his life again. He had responsibilities that couldn’t be ignored, Gracie being the most important among them. And he had agreed to let her help him take care of his daughter for the summer, hadn’t he?

“Do you think my dad’s home?” Gracie asked as Leah turned into the driveway, the uncertainty in her voice adding to Leah’s own.

“That’s his SUV, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the little girl replied, then added by way of explanation, “but that doesn’t mean he’s home. He goes for long walks at night. Really, really long walks, and it’s nighttime now.”