Karen Sandler - Her Baby's Hero

“Of course you are. To San Jose with me. How else can I take charge of you and the baby?”

Ashley took a breath. “I don’t need you taking charge. I can handle this on my own.”

Jason stared at her. “I seem to recall that I was in that bed with you.”

A startling heat suffused her at the memory. She looked his way and saw he was remembering, too.

She suppressed erotic images. “I’m prepared to take care of everything.”

“This is my baby as much as yours,” Jason countered. “You expect me to turn my back on it?”

“No, I just…”

Somehow his hand was on her arm, his fingers curling around, his thumb stroking. His focus had returned to her mouth, and if she didn’t break that visual contact, she was certain he’d kiss her….

Dear Reader,

This beautiful month of April we have six very special reads for you, starting with Falling for the Boss by Elizabeth Harbison, this month’s installment in our FAMILY BUSINESS continuity. Watch what happens when two star-crossed high school sweethearts get a second chance—only this time they’re on opposite sides of the boardroom table! Next, bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne pays us a wonderful and emotional visit in Special Edition with her new miniseries, THE COWBOYS OF COLD CREEK. In Light the Stars, the first book in the series, a frazzled single father is shocked to hear that his mother (not to mention babysitter) eloped—with a supposed scam artist. So what is he to do when said scam artist’s lovely daughter turns up on his doorstep? Find out (and don’t miss next month’s book in this series, Dancing in the Moonlight). In Patricia McLinn’s What Are Friends For?, the first in her SEASONS IN A SMALL TOWN duet, a female police officer is reunited—with the guy who got away. Maybe she’ll be able to detain him this time….

Jessica Bird concludes her MOOREHOUSE LEGACY series with From the First, in which Alex Moorehouse finally might get the woman he could never stop wanting. Only problem is, she’s a recent widow—and her late husband was Alex’s best friend. In Karen Sandler’s Her Baby’s Hero, a couple looks for that happy ending even though the second time they meet, she’s six months’ pregnant with his twins! And in The Last Cowboy by Crystal Green, a woman desperate for motherhood learns that “the last cowboy will make you a mother.” But real cowboys don’t exist anymore…or do they?

So enjoy, and don’t forget to come back next month. Everything will be in bloom….

Have fun.

Gail Chasan

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

first caught the writing bug at age nine when, as a horse-crazy fourth grader, she wrote a poem about a pony named Tony. Many years of hard work later, she sold her first book (and she got that pony—although his name is Ben). She enjoys writing novels, short stories and screenplays and has produced two short films. She lives in Northern California with her husband of twenty-three years and two sons who are busy eating her out of house and home. You can reach Karen at karen@karensandler.net.

To all the kids who are different, who can’t sit still in

class, whose ideas would never fit inside a box.

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

What had she done?

Clutching the covers to her naked body, Ashley Rand stared at Jason Kerrigan’s stony profile and tried to reason through what had just happened. Five minutes ago she was moaning with passion, now she wanted to shrink inside herself as the awkwardness washed over her.

His eyes fixed on the ceiling, he wouldn’t even look at her. Just as well; she wasn’t sure she could meet his gaze herself. They’d come to his apartment to drown their sorrows with a pizza and a couple beers, not jump into bed. Somehow a soothing neck rub had turned into torrid sex with a man she wasn’t even sure she liked half the time.

What now? Did she get up and get dressed, see if the pizza was still edible? Talk to him, make a joke about what they’d just done together?

She shut her eyes, wishing she could vanish and reappear in the ramshackle house she shared with three other women near the UC Berkeley campus. No chance she’d be able to creep into her bedroom unnoticed by her roommates, even at 2:00 a.m. They’d want all the gory details. But she didn’t understand the insanity of this interlude with Jason herself, never mind being able to muster an explanation for the avid audience of her housemates.

She glanced over at Jason again. She still couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was doing in bed with him.

Her friendship with the prickly, straitlaced twenty-eight-year-old grad student had arisen more through happenstance than common interest. They both tutored at-risk kids at a local high school. When Ashley’s finicky VW had broken down, Jason had offered her a ride. He’d all but refused to let her drive herself after that, his stubbornness so exasperating that it was easier just to go along with him.

Without a glance in her direction, he turned on his side, presenting her with his broad back. Her stomach roiled as he shut her out even further.

It had seemed so innocent a couple of hours ago. She’d been hit hard by the news that one of their students, a promising young man they’d been sure was college-bound, had been arrested for drug trafficking. Jason hadn’t betrayed the least emotion when she’d called him at midnight, but he’d been the one to suggest she come over for pizza and beer.

She couldn’t stand the silence anymore; she had to say something. The mortification was killing her.

She tightened her grip on the covers. “Jason—”

He pushed away from her and slid from the bed. In the glow of the small bedside lamp, she got one heart-stopping glance at his gorgeous backside before he yanked the bathroom door open and disappeared inside.

Anger bubbled within her at his brush-off. She wanted to march in there after him and give him a shake.

Or she could just leave. This might be her only chance to escape without confronting Jason at all. It didn’t seem right to simply ignore what had happened between them, but for once, she was perfectly content to take the coward’s way out.

Jumping from the bed, she scrambled through the room, gathering up her skirt and blouse. She found her pantyhose in the kitchen and her sandals in the living room. Within a few minutes, she was dressed and out the door.

As she drove through streets wet with spring rain, she contemplated her next move. Avoid Jason completely the last few months of school? Make light of their lovemaking, as if it hadn’t been the most mind-blowing pleasure she’d ever experienced? Or pretend it had never happened?

She’d decide tomorrow, when she saw him again. Let him take the lead. Stone-hearted Jason would likely go with option three. Fine. She could deal with that.

Even if it hurt.

She wanted to see him.

Jason Kerrigan tightened his grip on the wheel of his silver Mercedes as he headed up Interstate 80 toward Reno. Six months with no contact, then out of the blue a letter from Ashley Rand.

Not a letter. Little more than a note: “I need to talk to you,” neatly penned, followed by her name, address and phone number.