Suzanne Carey - The Bride Price

Cover Page

Excerpt “When am I going to see you again?” David asked. “I’m not sure,” Kyra answered. It was her final word on the subject, David realized with an empty feeling in his gut. Were the vows they’d spoken and the rapture they’d shared simply to evanesce like a puff of smoke? Or could they cross the fragile bridge of belief and trust to a life together? With effort, he remembered his grandfather’s counsel. To win Kyra back and keep her for a lifetime, he’d have to be patient. According to his great-grandfather, if her love matched his, she’d remember what had taken place and come back to him. Instead of existing as a memory lost in time, their marriage would unfold in the present moment. And if she can’t? he wondered. Will I be condemned to walk through life alone, missing the biggest piece of my heart?

Dear Reader Dear Reader , This month, Silhouette Romance has six irresistible, emotional and heartwarming love stories for you, starting with our FABULOUS FATHERS title, Wanted: One Son by Laurie Paige. Deputy sheriff Nick Dorelli had watched the woman he loved marry another and have that man’s child. But now, mother and child need Nick. Next is The Bride Price by bestselling author Suzanne Carey. Kyra Martin has fuzzy memories of having just married her Navajo ex-fiancé in a traditional wedding ceremony. And when she discovers she’s expecting his child, she knows her dream was not only real…but had mysteriously come true! We also have two not-to-be missed new miniseries starting this month, beginning with Miss Prim’s Untamable Cowboy, book 1 of THE BRUBAKER BRIDES by Carolyn Zane. A prim image consultant tries to tame a very masculine working-class wrangler into the true Texas millionaire tycoon he really is. Good luck, Miss Prim! In Only Bachelors Need Apply by Charlotte Maclay, a manshy woman’s handsome new neighbor has some secrets that will make her the happiest woman in the world, and in The Tycoon and the Townie by Elizabeth Lane, a struggling waitress from the wrong side of the tracks is romanced by a handsome, wealthy bachelor. Finally, our other new miniseries, ROYAL WEDDINGS by Lisa Kaye Laurel. The lovely caretaker of a royal castle finds herself a prince’s bride-to-be during a ball…with high hopes for happily ever after in The Prince’s Bride. I hope you enjoy all six of Silhouette Romance’s terrific novels this month…and every month. Regards, Melissa Senate, 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 The Bride Price Suzanne Carey www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author SUZANNE CAREY is a former reporter and magazine editor who prefers to write romance novels because they add to the sum total of love in the world.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Copyright

David asked.

“I’m not sure,” Kyra answered.

It was her final word on the subject, David realized with an empty feeling in his gut. Were the vows they’d spoken and the rapture they’d shared simply to evanesce like a puff of smoke? Or could they cross the fragile bridge of belief and trust to a life together?

With effort, he remembered his grandfather’s counsel. To win Kyra back and keep her for a lifetime, he’d have to be patient. According to his great-grandfather, if her love matched his, she’d remember what had taken place and come back to him. Instead of existing as a memory lost in time, their marriage would unfold in the present moment.

And if she can’t? he wondered. Will I be condemned to walk through life alone, missing the biggest piece of my heart?

Dear Reader,

This month, Silhouette Romance has six irresistible, emotional and heartwarming love stories for you, starting with our FABULOUS FATHERS title, Wanted: One Son by Laurie Paige. Deputy sheriff Nick Dorelli had watched the woman he loved marry another and have that man’s child. But now, mother and child need Nick. Next is The Bride Price by bestselling author Suzanne Carey. Kyra Martin has fuzzy memories of having just married her Navajo ex-fiancé in a traditional wedding ceremony. And when she discovers she’s expecting his child, she knows her dream was not only real…but had mysteriously come true! We also have two not-to-be missed new miniseries starting this month, beginning with Miss Prim’s Untamable Cowboy, book 1 of THE BRUBAKER BRIDES by Carolyn Zane. A prim image consultant tries to tame a very masculine working-class wrangler into the true Texas millionaire tycoon he really is. Good luck, Miss Prim!

In Only Bachelors Need Apply by Charlotte Maclay, a manshy woman’s handsome new neighbor has some secrets that will make her the happiest woman in the world, and in The Tycoon and the Townie by Elizabeth Lane, a struggling waitress from the wrong side of the tracks is romanced by a handsome, wealthy bachelor. Finally, our other new miniseries, ROYAL WEDDINGS by Lisa Kaye Laurel. The lovely caretaker of a royal castle finds herself a prince’s bride-to-be during a ball…with high hopes for happily ever after in The Prince’s Bride.

I hope you enjoy all six of Silhouette Romance’s terrific novels this month…and every month.

Regards,

Melissa Senate,

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

SUZANNE CAREY

is a former reporter and magazine editor who prefers to write romance novels because they add to the sum total of love in the world.

It was 6:22 a.m. on what promised to be a glorious September day. In the bedroom of her Kansas City, Missouri, apartment, Kyra Martin was still deeply asleep as she twisted and turned beneath her down coverlet. Divorced, childless, the twenty-seven-year-old, hardworking assistant federal prosecutor for the Western District of Kansas was immersed in a recurring dream, which had transported her back in time by almost five years to an erotic encounter she’d experienced beneath the graceful torrent of Havasu Falls with David Yazzie, her part-Navajo, would-be lover.

Though in her dream the water was like ice as it plunged about their shoulders, Kyra didn’t pay it any heed. Moaning with pleasure and a mounting sense of urgency, she felt her resistance melt as David’s mouth crushed hers. The expert way he was teasing her nipples through the fabric of her red bikini top was pushing her past the limits she’d set for herself. If they didn’t call a halt, and soon, she’d violate the promise she’d made to herself to remain a virgin until her wedding day.

“David…maybe we’d better stop,” she protested when he drew back to gaze at her with lust and longing in his beautiful eyes.

Moving around to her back with the calm audacity that so disarmed and captivated her, his strong, exquisitely shaped fingers tested the clasp on her bra preparatory to unhooking it. “Why should we,” he demanded reasonably, “when we both want it so much?”