GINA WILKINS - The Stranger in Room 205

§ Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. Loving and Giving #879

Babies on Board #913

Silhouette Special Edition

‡ Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. A Man for Mom #955

‡ Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. A Match for Celia #967

‡ Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. A Home for Adam #980

‡ Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. Cody’s Fiancée #1006

Silhouette Books

Mother’s Day Collection 1995

Three Mothers and a Cradle “Beginnings”

is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than fifty books for Harlequin and Silhouette Books. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA Today bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times Magazine.

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

Epilogue

“S ir? Are you awake? Can you hear me?”

The woman’s voice was nice, but muffled, and there was a funny buzzing noise underlying it. Like static, he thought without opening his eyes. The darkness was intense, cocooning him like a warm, heavy comforter. He wanted to wrap it more tightly around himself and drift back into oblivion, but the voice intruded again.

“I know you’re in pain, but you really should try to open your eyes,” the woman advised him. “You need to let us know you’re awake.”

He wanted to tell her to leave him alone. He was tired. He would appreciate it if she went away and let him rest. He opened his mouth to tell her so, but only a hoarse croak emerged from his dry throat.

“Oh, good, you are waking up. Can you tell me your name?”

It seemed there would be no rest for him until he acknowledged her. Maybe if he opened his eyes—just for a moment—she’d go away. He forced his lids apart, then groaned when light assaulted his pupils, causing an eruption of pain inside his head.

He glared at the woman leaning into his face. This was her fault. She’d nagged him out of the tranquil darkness and brought this pounding to his temples. All in all, he thought it would be better if he went back to sleep.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said. “Wake up and tell me your name. I want to know you’re all right before I leave you here.”

Leave him where? Suddenly he realized that he hadn’t the faintest idea where he was. He opened his eyes again and tried to ask, but the results of his attempt at speech were pathetic. Sounded like a bullfrog had mistaken his tongue for a lily pad. The woman touched his face. Her hand was cool. Soft. Felt good. Too bad about her face, though. It kept …changing. Four eyes, then three, then four again. They were rather pretty eyes. Blue. Or maybe green. However many of them she had.

He allowed his own to close again, welcoming the relief of the darkness. The light was too painful to deal with for now.

“Sir? Before you go to sleep again, isn’t there someone you’d like me to call? Your family, perhaps?”

His family? Did he have a family? Funny—at the moment, he couldn’t remember. Probably because the pain drowned out everything else. It seemed so much easier to slip away from it. He allowed himself to do just that.

“He’s out again.” Serena sighed and sat back in the straight chair beside the wounded man’s bed. She was alone in the small hospital room with him, and she glanced at her watch, thinking of the hour that had passed since he’d been brought to the hospital by ambulance, with her following in her own car. The stranger had drifted in and out of consciousness several times, but never fully enough to really consider him awake.

She’d missed her morning meeting, of course. She simply hadn’t been able to abandon this poor guy until she was reassured that there was someone who knew or cared where and how he was. He’d had the misfortune to be brought in at almost the same time a bus full of teenagers returning from a church-sponsored field trip had run off the road and into a ditch on the way home. None of the passengers was critically injured—broken bones and abrasions the most severe consequences of the accident—but the little hospital was in chaos with hysterical adolescents and parents crowding the hallways. Her stranger, as she’d taken to calling him until she had a better name for him, had been examined, pronounced in fair condition except for a concussion and left in this room until one of the overwhelmed small staff had time to deal with him more fully.