Christine Flynn - Forbidden Love

Nick Culhane was nothing at all like she remembered him.

He seemed far more imposing now, and infinitely more disturbing, hard and honed, a mountain of muscled masculinity in worn denim and work boots. Maturity had carved character into a face that had already been impossibly handsome.

She didn’t remember him being so big. Or his eyes so blue as his guarded gaze moved slowly over her f ace and slipped down her slender frame.

Never in her life had she met a man who knotted her nerves or stole the breath from her lungs simply by glancing at her.

And Nick Culhane—the man she’d once secretly worshipped, the man who had broken her sister’s heart—was the last man on earth who should elicit such heated reactions….

Dear Reader,

What if…? These two little words serve as the springboard for each romance novel that bestselling author Joan Elliott Pickart writes. “I always go back to that age-old question. My ideas come straight from imagination,” she says. And with more than thirty Silhouette novels to her credit, the depth of Joan’s imagination seems bottomless! Joan started by taking a class to learn how to write a romance and “felt that this was where I belonged,” she recalls. This month Joan delivers Her Little Secret, the next from THE BABY BET, where you’ll discover what if…a sheriff and a lovely nursery owner decide to foil town matchmakers and “act” like lovers….

And don’t miss the other compelling “what ifs” in this month’s Silhouette Special Edition lineup. What if a U.S. Marshal knee-deep in his father’s murder investigation discovers his former love is expecting his child? Read Seven Months and Counting… by Myrna Temte, the next installment in the STOCKWELLS OF TEXAS series. What if an army ranger, who believes dangerous missions are no place for a woman, learns the only person who can help rescue his sister is a female? Lindsay McKenna brings you this exciting story in Man with a Mission, the next book in her MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: MAVERICK HEARTS series. What happens if a dutiful daughter falls in love with the one man her family forbids? Look for Christine Flynn’s Forbidden Love. What if a single dad falls for a pampered beauty who is not at all accustomed to small-town happily-ever-after? Find out in Nora Roberts’s Considering Kate, the next in THE STANISLASKIS. And what if the girl-next-door transforms herself to get a man’s attention—but is noticed by someone else? Make sure to pick up Barbara McMahon’s Starting with a Kiss.

What if… Two words with endless possibilities. If you’ve got your own “what if” scenario, start writing. Silhouette Special Edition would love to read about it.

Happy reading!

Karen Taylor Richman,

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

admits to being interested in just about everything, which is why she considers herself fortunate to have turned her interest in writing into a career. She feels that a writer gets to explore it all and, to her, exploring relationships—especially the intense, bittersweet or even lighthearted relationships between men and women—is fascinating.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you this restless, Amy. Are you sure everything is all right?”

Amy Chapman ran her fingers through her short dark hair, the motion as agitated as her pacing. With a quick, distracted smile, she focused on the list in her hand. “I’m positive, Grandma. There’s just a lot to do before I can get you out of here. Now, I’ve called these contractors—”

“It’s not like you to pace.”

“Honest. I’m fine.”

“Well, you don’t seem fine,” the elderly woman insisted. “I’ve never seen you fidget as much as you have since you’ve been home. You’ve always had energy, but this is different. You’re acting…unsettled.”

“I’m not ‘unsettled,’” Amy replied, still pacing. “I just want to get this taken care of.”

“You’re tense, then.” Her grandmother’s thin, rose-red lips pinched. “Do you know what I think you need?”

“What’s that?”

“A man.”

Amy came to a dead stop at the foot of the raised nursing-home bed. Her grandmother sat propped against a crisp white pillow, her long white hair hanging in an enviably thick braid over the shoulder of her fuchsia bed jacket and her hazel eyes sharp behind her silver-rimmed bifocals.

“Well, you do,” Bea Gardner pronounced, casually eyeing the uninspired cream camp shirt her youngest granddaughter had tucked into a pair of equally understated khaki slacks. “You’re almost twenty-eight years old, and you haven’t had a serious boyfriend since you stopped seeing Scott last year. I’m sure there are plenty of nice, eligible men over there in Eau Claire. Why aren’t you going out with any of them?”

“Because no one has asked.”

“I don’t believe that for an instant. You’re a beautiful girl, Amy. You’re kind. You’re smart.”

“You’re prejudiced.”

“You’re right. But I don’t buy your reasoning. If it’s true no one has asked you out, then why don’t you find someone interesting and ask him? It’s not like when I was young, and a girl had to wait around for the man to call her. From what I hear, men nowadays like it when a woman takes the initiative. It takes the pressure off them.”

Amy’s mouth curved in a smile that looked like affection but felt more like defeat. It was truly pathetic when a woman’s eighty-two-year-old grandmother was gutsier than she was. She couldn’t begin to imagine making the first move on a guy.

“You say ‘find someone interesting’ as if all I’d have to do is put my hand in a hat and pull out the man of my dreams. It’s not that easy out there. The good men are all gone.” She gave a casual shrug. “The hat’s empty.”

“That’s nonsense. There are plenty of good men out there. It’s just a matter of giving them a chance to prove themselves.” The frown on Bea’s gracefully aged face added another row of wrinkles to her forehead. “You’re just never going to find the one who’s right for you if you keep turning down the interesting ones and turning the rest into buddies.”

“Grandma,” Amy said patiently, “I’m here to get you back into your house. Not discuss my nonexistent love life.” Prepared to move on to something more productive, she held up the list, only to lower it as her brow pinched.

“Who did I turn down that was interesting? You don’t mean Scott, do you?”

“My heavens, no,” came the gently chiding reply. “I know your parents thought he was perfect for you. And he would have fit right in at your father’s accounting firm. But frankly, dear,” she said, dropping her tone in deference to her room’s open door, “whenever I saw you together, I never had the feeling there was any passion there. A woman needs passion in her life,” she informed her, much as she might speak of the need for a good mechanic.