Linda Goodnight - For Her Child...

“Hear me out, Kara,”

Ty insisted. “You might even like this.” His lips tilted in his sexy, teasing smile.

With a disbelieving huff, Kara tossed her head and prepared for combat. Nothing sweet-talking Ty Murdock proposed would ever get to her again.

“What if I said I’d make your son my heir?” he suggested.

In one deep gasp, Kara sucked in half the air in the room, choked by the sudden fear that Ty knew the secret of her child’s parentage.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” Ty continued. “Your son should eventually inherit this ranch. And a boy shouldn’t be without a father. So marry me, Kara, and I’ll adopt him.”

Blood pounded in Kara’s ears, and fear coiled in her belly like a rattlesnake.

Could a man adopt his own son?

Dear Reader,

What are your New Year’s resolutions? I hope one is to relax and escape life’s everyday stresses with our fantasy-filled books! Each month, Silhouette Romance presents six soul-stirring stories about falling in love. So even if you haven’t gotten around to your other resolutions (hey, spring cleaning is still months away!), curling up with these dreamy stories should be one that’s a pure pleasure to keep.

Could you imagine seducing the boss? Well, that’s what the heroine of Julianna Morris’s Last Chance for Baby, the fourth in the madly popular miniseries HAVING THE BOSS’S BABY did. And that’s what starts the fun in Susan Meier’s The Boss’s Urgent Proposal—part of our AN OLDER MAN thematic series—when the boss…finally…shows up on his secretary’s doorstep.

Looking for a modern-day fairy tale? Then you’ll adore Lilian Darcy’s Finding Her Prince, the third in her CINDERELLA CONSPIRACY series about three sisters finding true love by the stroke of midnight! And delight in DeAnna Talcott’s I-need-a-miracle tale, The Nanny & Her Scrooge.

With over one hundred books in print, Marie Ferrarella is still whipping up fun, steamy romances, this time with three adorable bambinos on board in A Triple Threat to Bachelorhood. Meanwhile, a single mom’s secret baby could lead to Texas-size trouble in Linda Goodnight’s For Her Child…, a fireworks-filled cowboy romance!

So, a thought just occurred: Is it cheating if one of your New Year’s resolutions is pure fun? Hmm…I don’t think so. So kick back, relax and enjoy. You deserve it!

Happy reading!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Sharon Sala, woman of wisdom and writer

extraordinaire. Here’s the book I promised you.

And to my daughter, Sundy, queen of the proofreaders.

Love you, punkin!

A romantic at heart, Linda Goodnight believes in the traditional values of family and home. Writing books enables her to share her certainty that, with faith and perseverance, love can last forever and happy endings really are possible.

A native of Oklahoma, Linda lives in the country with her husband, Gene, and Mugsy, an adorably obnoxious rat terrier. She and Gene have a blended family of six grown children. An elementary school teacher, she is also a licensed nurse. When time permits, Linda loves to read, watch football and rodeo, and indulge in chocolate. She also enjoys taking long, calorie-burning walks in the nearby woods. Readers can write to her at gnight@mbo.net.

Dear Reader,

My mother was a tiger about her children. She’d do most anything in her power to help me reach my goals or follow my dreams. She was my defender, my encourager and my cheerleader for as long as she lived. For some time now I’ve dreamed of writing romance novels for Silhouette Books, a goal my mother, an avid romance reader, would have championed. Though Mom’s been gone since I was a college student, I find it extremely gratifying and quite fitting that the call offering a contract on this, my first book for Silhouette, came on January 31, Mom’s birthday.

By a lovely twist of fate, this novel is the story of another mother determined to move heaven and earth For Her Child…. I loved creating feisty Kara Taylor and her gorgeous hero, Ty Murdock. Having grown up in the Southwest, I’m enamored with the Western mystique, and so it is no surprise that my first Romance novel features a ranch, a rodeo and, of course, a cowboy. Who can resist a charming, romantic cowboy with a wicked sense of humor? Not me, and certainly not my heroine. I hope you’ll feel the same.

So, it is with great joy and unbounded gratitude that I offer their story for your enjoyment. May it bring you hours of reading pleasure.

Best wishes,

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

Her father had gone and done it again.

Kara Dean Taylor strangled the wheel of her cherry-red Cavalier and splashed beneath the rusted sign proclaiming that she was indeed back home on the Tilted T Ranch.

Twice a year, every year—on the day he was married and the day his wife died—Pete Taylor got drunk and gambled away the Tilted T Ranch. Fortunately, everyone in Bootlick, Texas, knew Pete got a little crazy when he mixed drinking and poker. As soon as Pete sobered up enough to think straight, the new “owner” sold it back to him for a few extra bucks or a six-pack of beer.

But this time he’d lost the Tilted T to the one man Kara despised more than anyone who’d ever worn a pair of cowboy boots. Her father had lost the Tilted T to none other than Ty Murdock—and the sorry snake wouldn’t give it back.

The car was still rocking when Kara slammed out of it and strode toward the sprawling ranch house. A little of the fury subsided at the sight of her dad, standing in the open backdoor, a mile-wide smile on his face.

“Ah, Dad.” She fell into his embrace breathing in the familiar tobacco scent that puffed up from his shirt pocket. “Tell me I misunderstood on the telephone. Tell me you didn’t lose the ranch to Ty Murdock.”

Pete jutted a stubborn jaw. “He won it fair and square.”

“Ty Murdock doesn’t know the meaning of fair.” Even after six years, his name evoked all kinds of irrational thoughts. A vision of his laughing black eyes rose to mock her. “I can’t believe you’d give up our ranch without a fight.”

“Don’t know what else to do. He’s got the deed, signed clean and legal.” Pete shifted uneasily. “Things have changed around here some, Kara Dean. You’d know that if you lived closer.”

Her dad had been hurt when she’d left home only weeks after Mama’s death from the long battle with cancer. He hadn’t understood then, and he didn’t now. She’d let him down when they’d needed each other most, and she wasn’t about to let that happen again. This land was in his blood as well as hers, and Kara was determined to keep it for her son.

The thought of Lane, her five-year-old, brought a sense of foreboding. She was about to come face-to-face with the devil, and though he didn’t know it, Ty Murdock had the power to destroy her.

Patting her father’s back and stiffening her own, Kara headed into the house, eager for the sight of home. Leaning on the bar that divided the kitchen from the dining room, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, sucking in the scent of pine cleaner.