Tessa Radley - Staking His Claim

“I’m the mother. The legal birth mother. I get to make the decisions.”

The eyes he’d been admiring only minutes earlier gleamed in a way that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise.

“So I have the final say in who will adopt the baby,” she continued, “and it won’t be an arrogant, unmarried Russian millionaire!”

“Billionaire,” he corrected gently, and watched her smolder even as his own anger bubbled.

“The amount of money you have doesn’t change a darn thing. She’s going to a couple—a family who wants her, who will love her. That’s what I intended when I agreed to be a surrogate for Keira, and that’s what I still want for her. End of story.”

A challenge had been issued. And he fully intended to meet it.

Ruthlessly suppressing his own hot rage, he murmured, “Well then, it seems I’ll just have to get married.”

It had been worth the temporary flare of temper. Yevgeny watched with supreme satisfaction as Ella’s mouth dropped open.

War, Yevgeny suspected, had been declared.

Dear Reader,

When the year is drawing to a close, but the new year has not yet arrived, Christmas should be the time to spend with family and friends.

But it doesn’t always happen that way. And that’s the case for Ella, the heroine of Staking His Claim, who looks all set to spend the holiday all by herself—yet she hasn’t even considered that she will be alone. She’s been too busy working to think much about her own happiness.

Then a baby and a tall, dark hero called Yevgeny change everything. And poor Ella faces the hardest choices she’s ever had to make.

For Ella and Yevgeny, the holiday becomes a time of hope, new beginnings—and a new life together.

I hope you enjoy Ella and Yevgeny’s story as much as I enjoyed piecing it all together.

With love,

Tessa Radley

www.tessaradley.com

PS Don’t forget to friend me on Facebook!

TESSA RADLEYloves traveling, reading and watching the world around her. As a teen, Tessa wanted to be an intrepid foreign correspondent. But after completing a bachelor of arts degree and marrying her sweetheart, she became fascinated by law and ended up studying further and practicing as an attorney in a city firm.

A six-month break spent traveling through Australia with her family rewoke the yen to write. And life as a writer suits her perfectly—traveling and reading count as research, and as for analyzing the world… well, she can think “what if?” all day long. When she’s not reading, traveling or thinking about writing, she’s spending time with her husband, her two sons or her zany and wonderful friends. You can contact Tessa through her website, www.tessaradley.com.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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“You’ve decided to do what? ”

It was Friday afternoon, the end of a grueling workweek, and Ella McLeod desperately wanted to put up her swollen feet… and relax.

Instead, from the depths of the sofa in her town house living room, Ella bit back the rest of the explosive reaction that threatened to erupt. She hoped wildly that her sister’s next words would settle her world back on its axis so that the nasty jolt of shock reverberating through her system might just evaporate.

As if the sight of Ella’s swollen belly prodded her conscience, Keira’s gaze skittered away and she had the good grace to look discomforted. “Dmitri and I have decided to go to Africa for a year.”

Ella shifted to ease the nagging ache in her lower back that had started earlier at the law chambers. Keeping her attention fixed on her sister fidgeting on the opposite end of the sofa, she said, “Yes, I understood that part—you and Dmitri plan to work for an international aid charity.”

Her younger sister’s gaze crept back, already glimmering with relief. “Oh, Ella, I knew you’d understand! You always do.”

Not this time. Clearly Keira thought this was a done deal. It was rapidly becoming clear why Keira had dropped in this evening. And Ella had thought her sister’s anticipation about the baby’s imminent arrival had driven the surprise visit….

How wrong she’d been!

Gathering herself, Ella said slowly, “I don’t quite understand the rest. What about the baby?”

The baby.

The baby in her belly that Keira had been so desperate for. Keira’s baby. A baby girl. Keira and Dmitri had been present at the twenty-week ultrasound when the baby’s sex had been revealed. Afterward the pair had gone shopping to finish buying furnishings for a nursery suitable for a baby girl.

Yet now that very same baby girl suddenly appeared to have ceased to be the focus of her sister’s universe.

“Well—” Keira wet her lips “—obviously the baby can’t come with.”

It wasn’t obvious at all.

“Why not?” Ella wasn’t letting Keira wriggle out of her responsibilities so easily. Not this time. This wasn’t the course of expensive French lessons Keira had grown tired of… or the fledgling florist business that Ella had sunk money into so that Keira would have a satisfying career when the one she’d chosen had become impossible. This was the baby Keira had always dreamed of one day having.

When Keira bit her lip and tears welled up in her eyes, a familiar guilt consumed Ella. Before she could relent—as she always did—she said, “Keira, there’s no reason why the baby can’t go with you. I’m sure you’ll find people in Africa will have babies.”

The tears swelled into big, shiny drops. “What if the baby becomes ill? Or dies? Ella, it’s not as if this is a five-star beach resort. This is aid work in a poverty-stricken part of Africa.”

Refusing to be drawn into her sister’s dramatics, Ella leaned forward and tore a tissue from the box on the glass coffee table in front of the sofa, then passed it to Keira.

“Do you even know what kind of infrastructure exists? You could ask whether a baby would be safe.” But Ella suspected she was fighting a losing battle when Keira failed to answer. She tried again. “If it’s so unsafe, then what about your own health? Your safety? Have you and Dmitri thought this through? Do you really want to be living in a war zone?”

“It’s not a war zone,” Keira denied hotly. The tears had miraculously evaporated without a dab from the tissue that drifted to the carpet. “Credit me with some sense. It’s Malawi. The country is stable—the people are friendly. It’s poverty and illiteracy that we will be fighting.”

So much for Keira’s claim that it would be impossible to take a child there. But Ella knew she’d lost the battle; Keira had already made up her mind—the baby was not going with her.