Brenda Jackson - Taming the Texas Tycoon / One Night with the Wealthy Rancher - Taming the Texas Tycoon

All The News You Need To Know…And More!

Who could have imagined that confirmed Texas bachelor Lance Brody would return from a trip to Washington, DC, engaged! And to a woman he’d never met before. The successful businessman claims it’s a love match, but we certainly have our doubts. Miss Bea Cavanaugh is well connected to all the people the Brody brothers need. We smell merger rather than marriage!

But we also don’t see this “engagement” being a long one. Not that Lance is heading down the aisle soon. No, we’ve seen the looks he’s been giving his personal assistant. Especially now that the formerly nondescript Miss Thornton has suddenly blossomed into a yellow rose of Texas. With the fiancée so far away, how soon before the groom-to-be starts to play?

One Night with the Wealthy Rancher by Brenda Jackson

All The News You Need To Know…And More!

Maybe it’s just us, but a certain Millionaire’s Club member has been spending an awful lot of time at the new Helping Hands Women’s Shelter. At first, it seemed as if this mega-rich rancher was just being neighbourly and philanthropic. But we’ve caught a glimpse of the shelter’s newest advocate. There’s no way that rancher has not noticed as well. He is, after all, a red-blooded Texan!

But what about this new girl in town? She certainly couldn’t have missed that tall, dark and handsome rancher hanging around. And we all know how many women have been throwing themselves at this certain bachelor for his lovely loot. (Money and looks? Sign us up!) Has she been helping out at Helping Hands purely for compassionate reasons…or to get her hands on a millionaire?

By

By

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Available in August 2010from Mills & Boon® Desire™

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

By

Dear Reader,

Kate is a heroine who is very close to me. She’s a bit of an ugly duckling in the beginning, someone who’s very comfortable hiding who she is. She likes blending into the background and hoping that the man she loves will notice her. But when Lance Brody announces his engagement to another woman, Kate realises it’s time to take action. Kate is a woman in flux. I think most of us are. We are constantly changing and reinventing ourselves, trying to find an outer shell that matches the inner woman. For Kate this new sexier face and body she sees in the mirror is a stranger. And she has to find her confidence again.

Happy reading!

Katherine

KATHERINE GARBERAis a strong believer in happily-ever-after. She’s written more than thirty-five books and has been nominated for career achievement awards in series fantasy and series adventure from Romantic Times BOOKreviews . Her books have appeared on bestseller lists for series romance and on the USA TODAY extended bestseller list. She loves to travel and lives in Dallas, Texas, with her two children and the man of her dreams. You can visit her on the web at www.katherinegarbera. com.

This book is dedicated to my mom and dad. I don’t think I say thank you enough or let you know just how lucky I am to have you as parents. So…thank you, Mom and Dad. I love you very much.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to give a shout-out to the other authors in the MILLIONAIRE’S CLUB series – Michelle, Brenda, Charlene, Day and Jennifer. It was a lot of fun to write with you.

“Brody Oil and Gas, Kate speaking,” Kate Thornton said into the phone as she did about fifty times a day.

“Hey, Katie-girl, any fires I need to put out?” Lance Brody asked.

“Hi, Lance, how was DC?” she said while she sorted through the messages on her desk. Her boss was everything she’d ever wanted in a man and, embarrassingly for her, he never saw her as anything other than his ultra-efficient administrative assistant. Which was great—really it was. That’s what she was paid for.

She’d joined Brody Oil and Gas shortly after Lance and his brother, Mitch, had inherited the failing refineries. And over the last five years, Lance and Mitch had turned their fortunes around and were now members of the famed Texas Cattleman’s Club.

“DC was hot and the meetings were long. Messages?” Lance asked.

“You have two that aren’t urgent but that you might want to handle before you get back to the office. One is from Sebastian Huntington regarding TCC business. Do you need his number?”

“Nah, I got it. What’s the other one?”

“The other one is from Lexi Cavanaugh. I didn’t recognize her name but she asked for you to call her as soon as you landed.”

“She’s my fiancée,” Lance said.

Kate felt all the blood leave her body. She knew Lance was still talking because she could hear his voice beyond the buzzing in her ears. But all she could think was after years of secretly loving this man, he’d gone away and gotten engaged to someone she’d never even heard of.

“Katie-girl? You still there?”

“Yes,” she said. “Of course I am. That’s it on the messages. When do you think you’ll be in the office?”

“En route now. The traffic on highway 45 is heavy, though. I need one more thing from you,” he said.

Please don’t ask me to plan your engagement party , she thought.

“Double-check with the caterers for Thursday’s Fourth of July barbecue. I want to make sure this year’s party blows the top off of last year’s.”

“No problem,” she said, hearing her own voice break. She didn’t know how she was going to be able to work with Lance every day now that he was clearly another woman’s man.

“The other line is ringing,” she said, though it wasn’t. She just needed to get off the phone.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said, hanging up.

Kate hung up the phone and sat there staring at her computer screen. The wallpaper on her monitor was a photo of Lance, Mitch and her taken in February when Lance and Mitch had received word they were going to be accepted into the millionaire’s club. She’d bought a bottle of champagne and the three of them had toasted the brothers’ success.

Back then it had seemed fine that both Lance and Mitch thought of her as nothing more than an assistant. She had believed that one day Lance would see past her horn-rimmed glasses and cardigan sweaters to the woman beneath.

Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

She leaned forward, looking at the photo and realizing that part of the problem lay with her. Her thick dark hair was pulled back in a sloppy braid and her glasses were a little big for her face. She’d lost weight last year—almost eighty pounds—and hadn’t bothered to get new frames for her smaller face. In fact, all of her clothes were just the old ones. They were all faded and too big for her.

She looked like someone’s maiden aunt, she thought.