Barbara Dunlop - Christmas Secrets

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author BARBARA DUNLOPhas written more than fifty novels for Mills & Boon, including the acclaimed WHISKEY BAY BRIDES series for Mills & Boon Desire. Her sexy, light-hearted stories regularly hit bestsellers lists. Barbara is a four time finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA award.

TERESA SOUTHWICKlives with her husband in Las Vegas, the city that reinvents itself every day. An avid fan of romance novels, she is delighted to be living out her dream of writing for Mills & Boon.

BRENDA HARLENis a multi-award winning author for Mills & Boon True Love who has written over twenty-five books for the company.

Christmas Secrets

The Missing Heir

Barbara Dunlop

The Maverick’s Christmas Homecoming

Teresa Southwick

A Very Special Delivery

Brenda Harlen

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90104-2

CHRISTMAS SECRETS

The Missing Heir © 2014 Barbara Dunlop The Maverick’s Christmas Homecoming © 2012 Harlequin books S.A. A Very Special Delivery © 2013 Brenda Harlen

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Cover

About the Authors

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

The Missing Heir

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

The Maverick’s Christmas Homecoming

Dedication

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

A Very Special Delivery

Dedication

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

Epilogue

About the Publisher

Barbara Dunlop

For Mom

Cole Henderson propped himself against a workbench in Aviation 58’s hangar at the Juneau, Alaska, airport and gazed at the front page of the Daily Bureau. He realized news of the Atlanta plane crash deaths should make him feel something. After all, Samuel Henderson had been his biological father. But he had no idea what he was supposed to feel.

A nearby door in the big building opened, letting in a swirl of frigid air and blowing snow. At ten o’clock in the morning, it was still dark outside this far north.

His business partner, Luca Dodd, strode in, crossing the concrete floor alongside the sixty-passenger Komodor airplane that was down for maintenance.

“You looking at it?” Luca asked.

“I’m looking at it,” said Cole.

Luca tugged off his leather gloves and removed his wool hat. “What do you think?”

“I don’t think anything.” Cole folded the paper and tossed it on the bench behind him. “What’s to think? The guy’s dead.”

A drill buzzed on the far side of the hangar, and the air compressor started up, clattering in the background as two maintenance engineers worked on the engine of the Komodor.

“He was your father,” Luca pointed out.

“I never met him. And he never even knew I existed.”

“Still…”

Cole shrugged. His mother Lauren’s marriage to billionaire Samuel Henderson, whose family owned Atlanta-based Coast Eagle Airlines, had been short-lived and heartbreaking for her. She’d never hidden Cole’s heritage from him, but she’d certainly warned him about the Henderson family.

“Eight dead,” said Luca, spinning the paper so the headline was right side up.

“Sounds like it all went to hell in the final seconds.” As a pilot, Cole empathized with in-air emergencies. He knew the pilots would have been fighting to safely land the airplane until the very end.

“Early speculation is a combination of icing and wind shear. That’s freakishly rare for Atlanta.”

“We all know how bad that can go.”

“An Alaskan pilot might have helped,” said Luca.

Cole didn’t argue that point. Pilots in Alaska had more experience than most in icy conditions.