Doreen Roberts - A Very...Pregnant New Year's

ALL POINTS BULLETIN

All officers on call to search for the following:

Last seen New Year’s Eve on midnight ski run before avalanche hit. Perhaps have taken shelter in isolated cabin in mountains. May also have been injured.

Special note: These two are ARCH ENEMIES, so watch it—sparks may fly. Approach with extreme caution.

Dear Reader,

The year is ending, and as a special holiday gift to you, we’re starting off with a 3-in-1 volume that will have you on the edge of your seat. Special Report, by Merline Lovelace, Maggie Price and Debra Cowan, features three connected stories about a plane hijacking and the three couples who find love in such decidedly unusual circumstances. Read it—you won’t be sorry.

A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY continues with Carla Cassidy’s Strangers When We Married, a reunion romance with an irresistible baby and a couple who, I know you’ll agree, truly do belong together. Then spend 36 HOURS with Doreen Roberts and A Very…Pregnant New Year’s. This is one family feud that’s about to end…at the altar!

Virginia Kantra’s back with Mad Dog and Annie, a book that’s every bit as fascinating as its title—which just happens to be one of my all-time favorite titles. I guarantee you’ll enjoy reading about this perfect (though they don’t know it yet) pair. Linda Randall Wisdom is back with Mirror, Mirror, a good twin/bad twin story with some truly unexpected twists—and a fabulous hero. Finally, read about a woman who has Everything But a Husband in Karen Templeton’s newest—and keep the tissue box nearby, because your emotions will really be engaged.

And, of course, be sure to come back next month for six more of the most exciting romances around—right here in Silhouette Intimate Moments.

Enjoy!

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my husband, Bill. Thank you for giving me a shoulder to cry on, an arm to lean on and a heart to rely on.

I love you.

lives with her husband, who is also her manager and her biggest fan, in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. She believes that everyone should have a little adventure now and again to add interest to their lives. She believes in taking risks and has been known to embark on an adventure or two of her own. She is happiest, however, when she is creating stories about the biggest adventure of all—falling in love and learning to live happily ever after.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Epilogue

“Don’t touch me!” Anne Parker pushed long, wispy strands of hair out of her eyes and glared at the boy towering over her. She was doing her very best not to cry. After all, she was seven years old. Only babies cried. But she sure felt like crying.

She’d landed in a pile of mushy snow and her pants were wet. The other kids in the schoolyard were staring at her. They made her feel stupid. Worse than that, it was Bradley Irving she’d run into, and he made her feel even more stupid.

He looked down at her and shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jacket. “I wasn’t going to touch you. You can sit there all afternoon for all I care.”

“It’s all your fault,” she said furiously. “You pushed me down.”

Bradley scowled at her. “It was your fault. You ran into me.”

She frowned back to show him she wasn’t afraid, even though her heart banged against her ribs. Bradley had yellow hair and dark blue eyes, and looked like the fierce Viking in her history book. Quickly she looked down at her knee. It was bleeding and had bits of dirt in it. And it hurt.

Her parents had warned her to stay away from Bradley Irving. They called him a delinquent. She wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but it sounded a lot like that picture of the Viking.

When Anne asked questions about Bradley, her parents always said the same thing. He was an Irving and all the Irvings were trouble. In Anne’s mind that meant Bradley was mean and could hurt her.

Sometimes she found that hard to understand. He had a really nice face, and once she’d seen him smile at another girl. Seeing him like that had made her feel all warm and squishy inside. Still, her parents were always right and they knew best, as her mother was always telling her. After all, Bradley was ten—almost a teenager. Almost grown-up.

“You’d better get that dirt washed out of there,” Bradley said, making her jump. “If you don’t, you’ll have to get your leg cut off.”

His words scared her. Blinking hard, she looked up at him. “You go away, Bradley Irving, and leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you. You’re a…a…delinquent!”

His eyes grew darker, and he pushed his chin out, scaring her even more. “And you’re a stuck-up spoiled brat. All the Parkers are stuck-up brats.”

“I’m not a brat, so there!” Helpless to stop the tears spurting from her eyes, Anne scrambled to her feet. “I hate you, Bradley Irving. I hate you.”

“Yeah? Well, I hate you, too, Annie Parker. So that makes us even.”

He spun around and marched away from her with his yellow hair flowing in the wind behind him.

Anne watched him go, feeling really bad inside. She didn’t really hate him. And she really didn’t want him to hate her, either. Confused by feelings she didn’t understand, she pulled in her breath to yell her parting shot. “And my name’s not Annie. It’s Anne—so there!”

The memory of that day haunted Anne throughout her school years. She plagued her mother with endless questions until she’d learned all about the feud between the Irvings and the Parkers. Years ago, Annie May Wilson had left her husband-to-be, Henry Irving, at the altar and had run away to marry John Parker.

Henry Irving had been so angry he’d secretly bought up Parker land and built a spa on it, which made him a wealthy man. The Parkers claimed he’d used a crooked lawyer and had stolen their land. The two families had been fighting over the land ever since.

Anne thought the whole thing terribly romantic, but when she’d said as much to her mother she was forbidden to ever talk about it again. The mere mention of the Irving name, Carol Parker had told her daughter, was enough to give Anne’s father a stroke.

During the long, hot summer Anne prepared to attend Burke Senior High, she kept wondering if she’d bump into Brad Irving. The very first week of her freshman year, she saw Brad in the cafeteria, and her heart did a handspring, though she did her best to ignore him. For some silly reason, she kept imagining him in a Viking helmet and carrying a spear. It didn’t help matters at all when Emily, her best friend, sighed and called him “dreamy.”