Eileen Wilks - Michael's Temptation

The Ground Was Hard.

The Woman He Held Was Soft.

Michael didn’t hold out much hope of sleep.

But Alyssa was asleep. Soundly, peacefully asleep. That baffled him. Oh, the exertions of the past day and night had been enough to make stone feel as comfortable as a feather bed…but she’d curled into him so trustingly. That’s what didn’t make sense.

He’d made it clear he wanted her. She’d made it clear she didn’t want him. Oh, on a physical level she did. Michael wished he could take some satisfaction from that truth, but he couldn’t. Not when it was him she rejected—his actions, his choices, his career. His life.

Yet she was snuggled up as warm and cozy as if they’d slept together for years. As if she trusted him completely. What was a man supposed to make of that?

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire! We’re delighted to offer you again this month six passionate, powerful and provocative romances sure to please you.

Start with December’s fabulous MAN OF THE MONTH, A Cowboy’s Promise. This latest title in Anne McAllister’s popular CODE OF THE WEST miniseries features a rugged Native American determined to win back the woman he left three years before. Then discover The Secret Life of Connor Monahan in Elizabeth Bevarly’s tale of a vice cop who mistakenly surmises that a prim and proper restaurateur is operating a call-girl ring.

The sizzling miniseries 20 AMBER COURT concludes with Anne Marie Winston’s Risqué Business , in which a loyal employee tries to prevent a powerful CEO with revenge on his mind from taking over the company she thinks of as her family. Reader favorite Maureen Child delivers the next installment of another exciting miniseries, THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS. In Did You Say Twins?! a marine sergeant inherits twin daughters and is forced to turn for help to the woman who refused his marriage proposal ten years before.

The sexy hero of Michael’s Temptation, the last book in Eileen Wilks’s TALL, DARK & ELIGIBLE miniseries, goes to Central America to rescue a lovely lady who’s been captured by guerrillas. And sparks fly when a smooth charmer and a sassy tomboy are brought together by their shared inheritance of an Australian horse farm in Brownyn Jameson’s Addicted to Nick.

Take time out from the holiday rush and treat yourself to all six of these not-to-be-missed romances.

Enjoy,

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

is a fifth-generation Texan. Her great-great-grandmother came to Texas in a covered wagon shortly after the end of the Civil War—excuse us, the War Between the States. But she’s not a full-blooded Texan. Right after another war, her Texan father fell for a Yankee woman. This obviously mismatched pair proceeded to travel to nine cities in three countries in the first twenty years of their marriage, raising two kids and innumerable dogs and cats along the way. For the next twenty years they stayed put, back home in Texas again—and still together.

Eileen figures her professional career matches her nomadic upbringing, since she’s tried everything from drafting to a brief stint as a ranch hand—raising two children and any number of cats and dogs along the way. Not until she started writing did she “stay put,” because that’s when she knew she’d come home. Readers can write to her at P.O. Box 4612, Midland, TX 79704-4612.

This one’s for Glenda,

who wanted to read about a woman minister

who didn’t fit the stereotypes,

with special thanks to my editor, Mary-Theresa Hussey,

and

to Desire Senior Editor Joan Marlow Golan,

for making it possible.

Prologue

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

Epilogue

The sky growled. Lightning shattered the darkness, flashing an image of heavy wood and wet stone. The gargoyle flanking the door leered at him in the brief burst of light as he fitted his key to the lock.

Rain and darkness suited the old house, Michael thought as he swung the door open. Suited his mood, too.

The only light in the foyer came from a Christmas tree winking at him merrily from one corner. The wide stairwell was dark, and no light came from the hall that led to his brother’s office.

Jacob wouldn’t be in bed yet. The playroom, maybe. Michael’s boots squeaked on the marble floor, reminding him that he was dripping wet.

Ada wouldn’t thank him for tracking water all over. He stopped by a high-backed wooden chair that resembled a throne and pulled off his boots and leather jacket. Before tossing the jacket on the chair, he pulled a thick envelope from an inner pocket.

His steps were soundless now as he made his way to the back of the house. He paused in the doorway to the playroom.

The lights were off. A fire burned in the fireplace, hot and bright, tossing shadows along the walls. The windows were bare to the night, rain-washed, and the limb of one young elm tapped against the glass like fretful fingers. Jacob sat in the wing chair beside the fireplace, his legs outstretched, his face turned to the fire. He held a brandy snifter in one hand.

Michael smiled. “Snob. That expensive French stuff doesn’t taste any better than what I can get at the grocery store for 12.95 a bottle.”

If he’d startled his brother, it didn’t show. Very little did, with Jacob. The face he turned to Michael revealed neither pleasure nor surprise, but the welcome was there, in his voice. “I have a palate. You drink like a teenager, purely for the effect.”

“True.” Michael moved into the room.

It was furnished in a haphazard way at odds with the elegance of the rest of the house. Every time their father had taken a wife, the new Mrs. West had redecorated. Michael and his brothers had gotten in the habit of stashing their favorite pieces here. The playroom had become a haven for castoffs in more ways than one.

There was a library table that had once been the property of a Spanish viceroy of Mexico. It made him think of his brother Luke and countless games of poker—which Luke had usually won. Michael’s second-oldest brother might seem reckless, but he had always been good at calculating the odds. Luke was almost as at home with a deck of cards as he was on the back of a horse.

A chessboard with jade and jet pieces sat on the table now. Michael paused there to pick up the jet king and turn it over and over in the hand that wasn’t holding the thick envelope. Chess had always been Jacob’s game. The patience and planning of it had suited him when they were young, just as his careful accumulation of wealth did now.

Michael sighed and put the chess piece down. It was hard to ask, but worse not to know. “How’s Ada?”

“Mean as ever.” Jacob stood. He was a big man, Michael’s oldest brother. Big all over, and four inches taller than Michael’s six feet. His hair was short and thick, a brown so dark it almost matched Michael’s black hair; his shirt, too, was dark, with the subtle sheen of silk. “She’s doing well, Michael. The treatments are working.”

The breath he hadn’t realized he was holding came out in a dizzy rush. He cleared his throat. “Good. That’s good.”