Elizabeth Bevarly - Father On The Brink

Cover Page

Excerpt An Idea Exploded In Katie’s Brain…An Idea She Tried To Squash. Really, she did. Because the idea was unthinkable. Reprehensible. Immoral. What she had in mind was no way to repay all the kindness and patience Cooper had shown to her and her son. He might very well have saved both their lives last night. She looked again at the line where the birth certificate application asked for the name of Andrew’s father. As if they had a mind of their own, Katie’s fingers gripped more tightly the pen in her hand, and she watched with an almost detached fascination as they wrote out, in big, block letters… C-O-O-P-E-R D-U-G-A-N.

Dear Reader Dear Reader, Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where you can discover the answers to all your romantic questions. Such as… Q. What would you think if you discovered the man you love has a secret identity—as a movie star? A. That’s what happens to the heroine of August’s MAN OF THE MONTH, Don’t Fence Me In by award-winning writer Kathleen Korbel. Q. What would you do if you were pregnant, in labor and snowbound with a sexy—but panicked—stranger? A. Discover the answer in Father on the Brink, the conclusion to Elizabeth Bevarly’s FROM HERE TO PATERNITY series. Q. Suppose you had to have a marriage of convenience? A. Maybe you’d behave like the heroine in Barbara McMahon’s Bride of a Thousand Days. Q. How could you talk a man into fathering your child…no strings attached? A. Learn how in Susan Crosby’s Baby Fever! Q. Would you ever marry a stranger? A. You might, if he was the hero of Sara Orwig’s The Bride’s Choice. Q. What does it take to lasso a sexy cowboy? A. Find out in Shawna Delacorte’s Cowboy Dreaming. Silhouette Desire…where all your questions are answered and your romantic dreams can come true. Until next month, happy reading! Senior Editor Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Title Page Father On The Brink Elizabeth Bevarly www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author ELIZABETH BEVARLY is an honors graduate of the University of Louisville and achieved her dream of writing full-time before she even turned thirty! At heart she is also an avid voyager who once helped navigate a friend’s thirty-five-foot sailboat across the Bermuda Triangle. “I really love to travel,” says this self-avowed beach bum. “To me, it’s the best education a person can give to herself.” Her dream is to one day have her own sailboat, a beautifully renovated older model forty-two footer, and to enjoy the freedom and tranquillity seafaring can bring. Elizabeth likes to think she has a lot in common with the characters she creates, people who know love and life go hand in hand. And she’s getting some firsthand experience with maternity, as well—she and her husband recently welcomed their firstborn baby, a son.

Dedication For Teresa Hill/Sally Tyler Hayes and Barbara Samuel/Ruth Wind Thanks for being there when I needed you. And with thanks to my New Jersey and Pennsylvania connections: Gin. April and Hannah and Judy and Sharyn. Much obliged, you guys.

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Epilogue

Copyright

Really, she did. Because the idea was unthinkable. Reprehensible. Immoral. What she had in mind was no way to repay all the kindness and patience Cooper had shown to her and her son. He might very well have saved both their lives last night.

She looked again at the line where the birth certificate application asked for the name of Andrew’s father.

As if they had a mind of their own, Katie’s fingers gripped more tightly the pen in her hand, and she watched with an almost detached fascination as they wrote out, in big, block letters…

C-O-O-P-E-R D-U-G-A-N.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where you can discover the answers to all your romantic questions. Such as…

Q. What would you think if you discovered the man you love has a secret identity—as a movie star?

A. That’s what happens to the heroine of August’s MAN OF THE MONTH, Don’t Fence Me In by award-winning writer Kathleen Korbel.

Q. What would you do if you were pregnant, in labor and snowbound with a sexy—but panicked—stranger?

A. Discover the answer in Father on the Brink, the conclusion to Elizabeth Bevarly’s FROM HERE TO PATERNITY series.

Q. Suppose you had to have a marriage of convenience?

A. Maybe you’d behave like the heroine in Barbara McMahon’s Bride of a Thousand Days.

Q. How could you talk a man into fathering your child…no strings attached?

A. Learn how in Susan Crosby’s Baby Fever!

Q. Would you ever marry a stranger?

A. You might, if he was the hero of Sara Orwig’s The Bride’s Choice.

Q. What does it take to lasso a sexy cowboy?

A. Find out in Shawna Delacorte’s Cowboy Dreaming.

Silhouette Desire…where all your questions are answered and your romantic dreams can come true.

Until next month, happy reading!

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

www.millsandboon.co.uk

is an honors graduate of the University of Louisville and achieved her dream of writing full-time before she even turned thirty! At heart she is also an avid voyager who once helped navigate a friend’s thirty-five-foot sailboat across the Bermuda Triangle. “I really love to travel,” says this self-avowed beach bum. “To me, it’s the best education a person can give to herself.” Her dream is to one day have her own sailboat, a beautifully renovated older model forty-two footer, and to enjoy the freedom and tranquillity seafaring can bring. Elizabeth likes to think she has a lot in common with the characters she creates, people who know love and life go hand in hand. And she’s getting some firsthand experience with maternity, as well—she and her husband recently welcomed their firstborn baby, a son.

For Teresa Hill/Sally Tyler Hayes

and

Barbara Samuel/Ruth Wind

Thanks for being there when I needed you.

And with thanks to my

New Jersey and Pennsylvania connections:

Gin. April and Hannah

and

Judy and Sharyn.

Much obliged, you guys.

It was a blizzard of unprecedented proportions, even by northeastern standards. Cooper Dugan tried his damnedest to squint through the splashes of white that pelted his windshield, pressed his foot against the clutch and down-shifted into first. The cold March wind whipped easily through the plastic doors and windows of the four-wheel drive Jeep, chilling even more thoroughly his already frozen nose, seeping through his leather gloves to numb his fingers to the bone.

He fumbled for the thermos of coffee he’d been clutching between his knees for most of the ride and unscrewed the lid, then sipped carefully from the lip without bothering with the plastic cup. The liquid was hotter than he’d expected it to be, and he burned his tongue, dribbling a good portion of the dark brown brew down his chin and throat, under his wool muffler and into the neck of the sweatshirt he wore beneath his leather college baseball jacket. Uttering a vicious and colorful oath, he scrubbed a hand over the bottom half of his face and growled low.