Maureen Child - Claiming King's Baby / Wyoming Wedding - Claiming King's Baby

Claiming King’s Baby by Maureen Child

“So who were you with, Maggie?” he asked, his voice a low and dark hum of sound. “Why didn’t he want his kid?”

“I was with you , you big jerk,” she said tightly. “I didn’t tell you about the baby before because I assumed from everything you’d said that you wouldn’t want to know.”

“What’s changed then?” he asked.

“I’m here, Justice. I came here to help you. And I decided that no matter what, you had the right to know about Jonas.”

If it were possible, Maggie would have said that Justice’s features went even harder. But what was harder than stone?

Yes, she knew he’d said he didn’t want children, but she’d been so sure that the moment he saw his son, he’d feel differently. In her little dream world, Justice would take one look at his son, then beg Maggie’s forgiveness and ask her to stay, to let them be a family. She should have known better. “Idiot.”

“I’m not an idiot,” he told her.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” she countered.

Wyoming Wedding by Sara Orwig

“You know common sense tells me to say no to you,” Brianna replied.

“I don’t see that. You stand to gain a lot and lose very little unless you can’t stand to be with me.”

“You know full well there’s no danger of any woman not being able to stand you,” she said.

“Until this moment I was beginning to wonder. This is the coolest reception I’ve ever got.”

He placed his hand on the car door, blocking her from opening it. Leaning closer, he lowered his voice. “I’ve asked you to be my wife tonight and we’ve never even kissed. That’s a giant unknown when there’s a marriage proposal between us.”

Her pulse had raced all night, but now her heart thudded and she looked at his mouth. “I can remedy that one,” she said, tingling at the thought of kissing him.

She moved in closer, stood on tiptoe and placed her lips on his.

His kiss might be her undoing.

Claiming King’s Baby by Maureen Child & Wyoming Wedding by Sara Orwig

Taming the Texas Tycoon by Katherine Garbera & One Night with the Wealthy Rancher by Brenda Jackson

One Night, Two Babies by Kathie DeNosky & Valente’s Baby by Maxine Sullivan

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

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MAUREEN CHILDis a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur. Visit Maureen’s website at www.maureenchild.com.

To the Estrada Family:

Steve, Rose, Alicia, Lettie, Patti and Amanda.

Good friends. Great neighbours.

We love you guys.

Dear Reader,

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy writing about the King family! And I’m delighted that so many of you are enjoying them as much as I do.

Writing about this extended family is always an adventure, because no matter what, the King men always manage to surprise me.

Take Justice King for example: a typical rancher on the surface, but underneath, Justice is a man haunted by the past and tormented by the fact that he allowed the woman he loved to walk out on him.

Maggie Ryan King is the perfect match for Justice. She’s loyal and stubborn and determined to make her soon-to-be-ex-husband pay for letting what they’d had together slip away.

As a physical therapist, Maggie’s temporarily back at King Ranch, helping Justice recover from a riding accident. But while his body heals, his heart is being steamrolled. By the one woman he can never forget.

These two have a lot of things to work through – and secrets to reveal – and I really hope you enjoy their story!

Happy reading,

Maureen

Justice King opened the front door and faced his past.

She stood there staring at him out of pale blue eyes he’d tried desperately to forget. Her long, light red hair whipped around her head in a cold, fierce wind, and her delectable mouth curved into a cynical half smile.

“Hello, Justice,” said a voice that haunted his dreams. “Been a while.”

Eight months and twenty-five days, he thought but didn’t say. His gaze moved over her in a quick but thorough inspection. She was tall, with the same stubborn tilt to her chin that he remembered and the same pale sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Her full breasts rose and fell quickly with each of her rapid breaths, and that more than anything else told him she was nervous.

Well, then, she shouldn’t have come.

His gaze locked back on hers. “What’re you doing here, Maggie?”

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Nope,” he said flatly. One thing he didn’t need was to have her close enough to touch again.

“Is that any way to talk to your wife?” she asked and walked past him into the ranch house.

His wife.

Automatically, his left thumb moved to play with the gold wedding band he’d stopped wearing the day he had allowed her to walk away. Memories crashed into his mind, and he closed his eyes against the onslaught.

But nothing could stop the images crowding his brain. Maggie, naked, stretched out on his bed, welcoming him. Maggie, shouting at him through her tears. Maggie, leaving without a backward glance. And last, Justice saw himself, closing the door behind her and just as firmly shuttering away his heart.

Nothing had changed.

They were still the same people they’d been when they married and when they split.

So he pulled himself together, and closed the front door behind them. Then he turned to face her.

Watery winter sunlight poured from the skylight onto the gleaming wood floors and glanced off the mirror hanging on the closest wall. A pedestal table held an empty cobalt vase—there’d been no flowers in this hall since Maggie left—and the silence in the house slammed down on top of them both.

Seconds ticked past, marked only by the tapping of Maggie’s shoe against the floor. Justice waited her out, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to be quiet for long. She never had been comfortable with silence. Maggie was the most talkative woman he’d ever known. Damned if he hadn’t missed that.

Three feet of empty space separated them and still, Justice felt the pull of her. His body was heavy and aching and everything in him clawed at him to reach out for her. To ease the pain of doing without her for far too long.

Yet he called on his own reserves of strength to keep from taking what he’d missed so badly.

“Where’s Mrs. Carey?” Maggie asked suddenly, her voice shattering the quiet.

“She’s on vacation.” Justice cursed inwardly, wishing to hell his housekeeper had picked some other time to take a cruise to Jamaica.

“Good for her,” Maggie said, then tipped her head to one side. “Glad to see me?”

Glad wasn’t the word he’d use. Stunned would be about right. When Maggie had left, she’d sworn that he would never see her again. And he hadn’t, not counting the nights she appeared in his dreams just to torment him.