Cathleen Galitz - Wyoming Cinderella

“A lady usually doesn’t like to hear a man say he’s sorry for kissing her,” Ella replied, stepping away from the stove.

Hawk had expected her to give a sigh of relief. Instead, she faced him down with a spatula and the most refreshing sincerity he’d encountered in years.

“What do you suggest we do, then? Would silverware at ten paces be fitting?”

“I prefer steak knives myself.”

“Perhaps if you’d be willing to call a truce, I’d offer to set the table.” Hawk reached around her to open the silverware drawer.

The lightest touch of his arm against her body was enough to set her imagination sailing for erotic destinations. The thought of those arms wrapped around her waist… Of his big, masculine hands caressing her… Of stepping back and cuddling her body against his in a fit as perfect as the two spoons he lifted out of the silverware drawer…

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the world of Silhouette Desire, where you can indulge yourself every month with romances that can only be described as passionate, powerful and provocative!

Fabulous BJ James brings you June’s MAN OF THE MONTH with A Lady for Lincoln Cade. In promising to take care of an ex-flame—and the widow of his estranged friend— Lincoln Cade discovers she has a child. Bestselling author Leanne Banks offers another title in her MILLION DOLLAR MEN miniseries with The Millionaire’s Secret Wish. When a former childhood sweetheart gets amnesia, a wealthy executive sees his chance to woo her back.

Desire is thrilled to present another exciting miniseries about the scandalous Fortune family with FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS. Anne Marie Winston launches the series with A Most Desirable M.D., in which a doctor and nurse share a night of passion that leads to marriage! Dixie Browning offers a compelling story about a sophisticated businessman who falls in love with a plain, plump woman while stranded on a small island in More to Love. Cathleen Galitz’s Wyoming Cinderella features a young woman whose life is transformed when she becomes nanny to the children of her brooding, rich neighbor. And Kathie DeNosky offers her hero a surprise when he discovers a one-night stand leads to pregnancy and true love in His Baby Surprise.

Indulge yourself with all six Desire titles—and see details inside about our exciting new contest, “Silhouette Makes You a Star.”

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

To my personal fairy godmother, my agent, Denise Marcil, who has dedicated her life to making others’ dreams come true.

a Wyoming native, teaches English to seventh to twelfth graders in a rural school that houses kindergartners and seniors in the same building. She lives in a small Wyoming town with her husband and two children. When she’s not busy writing, teaching or working with her Cub Scout den, she can most often be found hiking or snowmobiling in the Wind River Mountains.

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

“What kind of a father are you?”

Bleary-eyed, Hawk looked up from his computer screen to discover what appeared to be a crazy woman standing before him. Surveying her from head to toe, he was struck first with male appreciation of her lush, young figure. Next he noticed that hair the color of flaming autumn leaves had escaped its once tight bun and was now hanging to the side like a hat askew. A tear in her nylons ran up the front of one shapely leg, disappearing beneath a faded skirt that he found too short to suit his own professional standards. On a personal basis, however, he found it quite pleasurable to consider. The angry sparks shooting out of those astonishing green eyes made him glad the stranger didn’t appear to be armed.

It had never occurred to him that he might need a guard in such isolated Wyoming backcountry.

The question the woman posed resonated in Hawk’s mind like a sonic boom echoing off canyon walls. It was the same question he’d been asking himself ever since his wife had died, turning his life upside down and leaving him to assume full parental obligations without a clue as to how difficult that was going to be. It had come as quite a shock to this well-respected corporate executive to discover that it was far harder keeping track of two headstrong children than overseeing a company of fawning employees tripping all over themselves to do his bidding.

And speaking of independent children, one didn’t need particularly impressive powers of deduction to figure out who had let this intruder into his house. Flanking her on either side, the culprits, his children—five-year-old Billy and his four-year-old sister, Sarah—each held one of the interloper’s hands.

Not the kind of man used to having his parenting ability questioned, Hawk didn’t take well to such impolite interruptions—even on those rare days when everything was going right. Today was not such a day. He had burned breakfast, fought with Sarah over the necessity of combing her hair, stubbed his toe on a toy truck parked in the middle of the kitchen and spilled orange juice on an important contract. All the while trying to juggle a multi-million-dollar deal in cyberspace. One more power outage like the last one and Hawk vowed to throw his state-of-the-art computer right out the window and purchase one-way tickets back to New York for the whole family.

“I beg your pardon,” he said in a chilling voice that he usually reserved for imbeciles and unwanted salesmen.

“As well you should,” the crazy lady responded, waving a broken high heel at him. Clearly the businesslike demeanor that set many a corporate executive trembling in his expensive Italian shoes didn’t affect her in the least. “I have half a mind to report you to Social Services!”

“Half a mind?” Hawk mumbled in feigned confusion, making the threat sound like an indictment of the woman’s mental state.

As if laboring under the impression that he suffered from a dull mind, she formed her words carefully and delivered them slowly.

“I am your neighbor, Ella McBride, and at the risk of offending you, I’ll repeat myself. I want to know exactly what kind of a father lets his children wander willy-nilly about the countryside without any regard to what might happen to them. Do you have any idea how dangerous that can be? Need I mention snakes, bears and ne’er-do-wells?”

Shaking his head in confusion, Hawk turned his full attention upon his children who quickly ducked behind their unlikely protector. Dawning comprehension registered in his rugged countenance. Terror leapt in his eyes. His stomach churned at the thought of what could have happened to his children all the while he assumed they were safely tuned in to their favorite cartoon in the den.

“Do you mean to tell me that you two left this house without my permission?”

A roar would have been less frightening than that softly put question.

Ella felt a twin tremor run through the children cowering behind her.

The children felt her quiver as well.

Never in all her life had a voice affected her so. Like whiskey, it had the power to make her feel loose-limbed and giddy. Making an improvised comb of his fingers, the man ran them through a thick shock of hair the color of molasses. His sideburns were tinged with silver. Very distinguished looking, Ella decided, tucking a stray tendril of her own unruly hair behind her ear. Instantly she regretted the self-conscious gesture.