Kathryn Jensen - Mail-Order Cinderella

You don’t get to be my age without recognizing when the wool is being pulled over someone’s eyes! And I suspect my dear Tyler is holding something back from the Fortune family. Now, I know Tyler’s parents gave him a silly marriage ultimatum and I’ve never met any of his women friends before, but something tells me that he barely knows his bride-to-be. As the family matriarch, I could put an end to this marriage nonsense. But Julie Parker is the best thing to happen to Tyler.

And some well-intentioned meddling by a harmless old woman may be just what the doctor ordered. I’m going to plan their wedding, help Julie find a wedding gown and take her for a makeover…. And when I’m done, Julie, Tyler is going to be dazzled speechless!

Dear Reader,

As we celebrate Silhouette’s 20 thanniversary year as a romance publisher, we invite you to welcome in the fall season with our latest six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire!

In September’s MAN OF THE MONTH, fabulous Peggy Moreland offers a Slow Waltz Across Texas. In order to win his wife back, a rugged Texas cowboy must learn to let love into his heart. Popular author Jennifer Greene delivers a special treat for you with Rock Solid, which is part of the highly sensual Desire promotion, BODY & SOUL.

Maureen Child’s exciting miniseries, BACHELOR BATTALION, continues with The Next Santini Bride, a responsible single mom who cuts loose with a handsome Marine. The next installment of the provocative Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS is Mail-Order Cinderella by Kathryn Jensen, in which a plain-Jane librarian seeks a husband through a matchmaking service and winds up with a Fortune! Ryanne Corey returns to Desire with a Lady with a Past, whose true love woos her with a chocolate picnic. And a nurse loses her virginity to a doctor in a night of passion, only to find out the next day that her lover is her new boss, in Doctor for Keeps by Kristi Gold.

Be sure to indulge yourself this autumn by reading all six of these tantalizing titles from Silhouette Desire!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Janet Tanke, the editor I’m so sadly losing, for overseeing the

creation of this novel, lovingly and with professional dedication from

beginning to finish. And to Ann Leslie Tuttle, the editor I’m happily

gaining, who has already taken on the mantles of muse, cheerleader and

creative partner. Without such enthusiasm and loyalty, an author’s

world would be a much bleaker place. K.J.

has written many novels for young readers as well as for adults. She speed walks, works out with weights and enjoys ballroom dancing for exercise, stress reduction and pleasure. Her children are now grown. She lives in Maryland with her writing companion—Sunny, a lovable terrier-mix adopted from a shelter.

Having worked as a hospital switchboard operator, department store sales associate, bank clerk and elementary school teacher, she now splits her days between writing her own books and teaching fiction writing at two local colleges and through a correspondence course. She enjoys helping new writers get a start and speaks “at the drop of a hat” at writers’ conferences, libraries and schools across the country.

Meet the Arizona Fortunes—a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, a shocking plot against the family is revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.

TYLER FORTUNE: This sexy man-about-town knew how to drive a rivet with the best of his construction crew and kiss a woman senseless, but he didn’t think he knew anything about marriage. Until plain-Jane Julie became his bride….

JULIE PARKER: All this shy librarian had wanted was a quiet, undemanding man who’d give her a baby—instead, she got a stunningly sexy, self-possessed man whose kisses gave her an unexpected glimpse of heaven.

JASON FORTUNE: Maybe if his younger brother, Tyler, had stuck with one girlfriend for more than three months, he’d know that finding a bride wasn’t like ordering a pizza!

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Tyler Fortune hated losing a fight, and today he’d lost big time. Now he was going to pay for it, and the price was…marriage.

His sole consolation was that he’d relinquish his freedom on his own terms. He’d be damned if he let his parents corral him into marrying a snooty Tucson debutante or one of their wealthy friends’ daughters.

Impatiently, he shoved another videotape into the VCR. The custom-made entertainment center was built into one mahogany-paneled wall of his office on the fifth floor of the Fortune Building. Hitting the play button on the remote, he sat down again and leaned back in his chair to view the screen over the wide knuckles of his interlocked fingers.

A woman wearing more makeup than most cosmetic counters stocked beamed into the camera and introduced herself in an irritating falsetto. He groaned aloud. This wife-hunting business was hard, nerve-racking work, and probably a waste of time.

Tyler deeply resented lost minutes that were turning into hours. Hours he desperately needed to put into his family’s business. Why couldn’t his father, of all people, see that? Hell, by now he might have made that trip to Dallas they’d discussed, and secured another multi-million-dollar contract.

Although there was the occasional exception, Tyler rarely took time off from the work he loved. A short, intense workout at the Saguaro Springs Health Club. Dinner with a beautiful woman at Tucson’s magnificent Janos—followed by a night’s companionship, because he was, after all, a healthy male. Once in a while, his former college roommate, Dave Johnson, talked him into an extreme-sports adventure—skydiving over the Grand Canyon, white-water rafting in Montana, rock climbing in Colorado.

Dangerous sports duplicated the risk and thrill of balancing atop a steel girder three hundred feet above the merciless ground, or closing a hard-fought deal. Tyler’s life was the company. That was how he liked it. And, dammit, if he had his way…that was how it would remain!

But his parents’ persistent attempts at matchmaking had drastically increased in recent months. And Grandmother Kate had arrived from Minneapolis—the equivalent of bringing in the heavy artillery. Jasmine and Devlin’s plots to marry him off would have seemed old-fashioned and ludicrous had they not been so seriously aimed at him. Earlier that day, his father had delivered an ultimatum, “You are going to marry and settle into family life by the time you turn thirty, or you won’t inherit your share of the company. It’s for your own good, Tyler. And for the good of this family.”

Tensing again at the thought of complications a wife and family would inflict upon his well-ordered bachelor life, Tyler viciously jammed his thumb down on the eject button. Out popped the fifth videotape. He shoved in a new one, returned to his seat. Lifted rangy blue-jeaned legs to prop his boot heels on the edge of the blueprint-cluttered desk and slouched in his chair, muttering to himself. A sprinkle of dry red clay sifted over the tooled-leather desk blotter. He ignored it and tried to focus on the task at hand, protecting his position as heir to the vice presidency of Fortune Construction Company.