Allison Leigh - Mother In A Moment - Mother In A Moment / Millionaire's Instant Baby

“With a hero learning how to love and heroine coming into her own, Allison Leigh has penned a top-notch, emotionally charged love story.”

—RT Book Reviews on Mother in a Moment

“It is not often that a category romance captures [the] imagination and delivers both romance and suspense in such a heightened manner.”

—The Romance Reader on A Weaver Wedding

“Allison Leigh’s honest, beautifully rendered story… [is] a joy to read.”

—RT Book Reviews on All He Ever Wanted

“With intriguing characters and a strong plot, this story engages.”

—RT Book Reviews on The Billionaire’s Baby Plan

started early by writing a Halloween play that her grade school class performed. Since then, though her tastes have changed, her love for reading has not. And her writing appetite simply grows more voracious by the day.

She has been a finalist for a RITA® Award and a Holt Medallion. But her best rewards as a writer come when she receives word from a reader that they laughed, cried or lost a night of sleep while reading one of her books.

Born in Southern California, Allison has lived in several different cities in four different states. She has been, at one time or another, a cosmetologist, a computer programmer and a secretary. She has recently begun writing full-time after spending nearly a decade as an administrative assistant for a busy neighborhood church. She currently makes her home in Arizona with her family and loves to hear from her readers, who can write to her at P.O. Box 40772, Mesa, AZ 85274-0772.

USA TODAY Bestselling Author

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my editor, Ann Leslie Tuttle,

who always manages to make me dig deeper,

and never, ever loses her patience.

MOTHER IN A MOMENT

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Epilogue

MILLIONAIRE’S INSTANT BABY

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

“You want me to…what?”

Darby White chewed on the inside of her lip, involuntarily taking a step back from the appalled reaction of the tall man standing in front of her. She couldn’t blame him, under the circumstances.

Circumstances. She swallowed the knot that had been in her throat for the past few hours and looked away while the social worker again explained to Garrett Cullum what they were doing on his doorstep on what should have been a lovely Minnesota summer evening.

“Accident…fatal…children…Social Services.”

Darby looked down the quiet street as the social worker spoke. Most of the houses had two stories and were on modestly sized grassy lots. A few of the yards had picket fences, a few were brightened with flowerbeds.

But no matter how hard she tried focusing on this normal, average neighborhood, attempting to block out the news they’d come to deliver, there was no blocking out the memory of the car accident. She’d heard it and had run out onto the street and seen the mangled vehicles.

Her eyes burned and she turned back to the man in the doorway, who looked shell-shocked. And his gaze, as if he sensed her eyes on him, turned toward her even though Laura Malone was still explaining the course of events that had brought them to his door.

Dark green, they were. Surrounded by smoky, smudgy lashes, which on a face less masculine would have seemed feminine. And Darby felt a twinge of guilt for noticing such a thing at a time like this—he’d just learned that his sister and brother-in-law had been killed in an automobile accident earlier that day, and she was cataloging his features.

“You were there?” His voice, husky and low-pitched, rolled from where he stood in his open doorway, down the three steps to where Darby stood with the social worker. “At the accident?”

She nodded, but it was her companion who spoke. “Ms. White was first on the scene, Mr. Cullum. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to discuss this inside?”

He shook his head, just as he’d done when they’d arrived. He still watched Darby, and her throat went even tighter. “And Elise…my sister spoke to you. Said she wanted me to take care of her kids. She said that. Before she—”

Again, Darby nodded. She felt chilled, even though the night was warm. She cleared her throat. “Her only thoughts were of her children.”

“Who were safely inside the child-care center where you work.”

“Yes. Marc and Elise were—” She hesitated, scrambling for composure. “Were on their way to pick them up. And the accident happened, um, on the corner… outside our building. I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “The children—”

“An associate from my office is with the children right now,” Laura cut in. “We thought it best until we’d had a chance to speak with you.” She had at least twenty years on Darby’s twenty-six, but even she looked a little red-eyed. “If you’re unable to take your nieces and nephews, they’ll be placed in a temporary foster home until we’re able to reach their grandfather. We understand he left on a business trip earlier today. His plane is probably just now arriving in Florida, and we’ve got someone waiting at the airport there to tell him what has happened. We have very good foster homes in Fisher Falls, but it is something that we would all like to avoid, if possible. Family members are almost always preferred.”

His square jaw tightened. “How did you know I was here? I’ve only been in Fisher Falls for two weeks.”

“Your business card was in Elise’s purse,” Darby said. “Your address here was written on the back of it.”

“I’m surprised she kept it,” he murmured. Then blinked and raked one long-fingered hand through his thick black hair, leaving it standing in rumpled spikes. His shoulders rose and fell heavily as he looked back, into the modest-size house. “I’m not exactly set up for kids here. This place is just a rental.”

Darby wasn’t sure if he was speaking to them or to himself. He turned around again and focused those mossy-green eyes on her. “The kids you want me to take in. How old are they?”

Darby blinked, and abruptly gathered herself. Just because he was their uncle didn’t mean he had to know their exact ages, she reasoned. He was new to town, as he’d admitted. Perhaps he hadn’t seen them in a while.

“Regan is four, Reid is three. The triplets are nine months.” She thought she heard him mutter an oath, but decided she’d imagined it. “They’re wonderful children, really.” Oh, why was she telling this man that? She cared for the Northrop children periodically at the Smiling Faces Child-Care Center; he was their blood. The children had been entrusted to him by their mother’s last words; surely he knew how sweet his own nieces and nephews were.