Leah Vale - The Rich Man's Baby

He completely filled the room with his broad shoulders and tall frame. And he practically pulsated with an animal magnetism that made her break out in a very feminine sweat.

His white designer shirt and olive-colored pants looked out of place next to the kitchen’s dingy linoleum and gold-speckled Formica. Only the strained look on his handsome face and finger-mussed, dark gold hair kept him from looking like he’d just stepped out of his country club.

Then he turned toward her and caught her gaze. As terrified as she was by what he might say or do, she couldn’t tear her gaze from his. Why did she feel so connected to him? So in tune that she swore she could feel his heartbeat throbbing through her from three feet away? Didn’t her body know how dangerous he was to her? With a snap of his fingers he could take away her reason for living—her baby boy.

Not to mention what he could do to her heart…

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Mills & Boon American Romance, where our goal is to give you hours of unbeatable reading pleasure.

Kick starting the month is another enthralling installment of THE CARRADIGNES: AMERICAN ROYALTY continuity series. In Michele Dunaway’s The Simply Scandalous Princess, rumors of a tryst between Princess Lucia Carradigne and a sexy older man leads to the king issuing a royal marriage decree! Follow the series next month in Mills & Boon Intrigue.

Another terrific romance from Pamela Browning is in store for you with Rancher’s Double Dilemma. When single dad Garth Colquitt took one look at his new nanny’s adorable baby girl, he knew there had to be some kind of crazy mixup, because his daughter and her daughter were twins! Was a marriage of convenience the solution? Next, don’t miss Help Wanted: Husband? by Darlene Scarlera. When a single mother-to-be hires a handsome ranch hand, she only has business on her mind. Yet, before long, she wonders if he was just the man she needed—to heal her heart. And rounding out the month is Leah Vale’s irresistible debut novel The Rich Man’s Baby, in which a dashing tycoon discovers he has a son, but the proud mother of his child refuses to let him claim them for his own…unless love enters the equation.

This month, and every month, come home to Mills & Boon American Romance—and enjoy!

Best,

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Mills & Boon American Romance

The Rich Man’s Baby

Leah Vale

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Ross, Jake and Luke, for giving me the wings to fly.

For Maureen Child, Amy Fetzer and Tina Bilton-Smith, for shoving me from the nest.

And for Terri Reed, Melissa Manley, Delilah Ahrent and Kim Nadelson, for making sure I didn’t splat.

Having never met an unhappy ending she couldn’t mentally “fix,” LEAH VALEbelieves writing romance novels is the perfect job for her. A Pacific Northwest native with a B.A. in communications from the University of Washington, she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her wonderful husband, two adorable sons and a golden retriever puppy. She is an avid skier, scuba diver and “do-over” golfer. While having the chance to share her “happy endings from scratch” with the world is a dream come true, dinner generally has to come premade from the store. Leah would love to hear from her readers and can be reached at P.O. Box 91337, Portland, OR 97291, or at http://www.leahvale.com.

MILLS & BOON AMERICAN ROMANCE

924—THE RICH MAN’S BABY

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

Juliet Jones pulled in a soothing breath of warm, early-June air and leaned back in the lone wooden chair on the balcony above her family’s store. After another long, boring day spent waiting behind the cash register for the rare customer to wander in, she ached clear to her bones. With a weary sigh, she slipped off her worn Keds and propped her bare feet on the peeling white railing.

She settled the cold beer bottle on the front of her frayed jeans shorts, closed her eyes and wished for the millionth time she hadn’t promised Grandpa before he died that she would keep his store going. But she’d promised, so here she was watching her life slip away like the waters of Oregon’s McKenzie River running steady and silent on the other side of the two-lane highway their little store hugged.

She was just twenty-one, but she felt as old as dirt.

If only Richard Gere would drive up in his Lamborghini looking just for her.

The deep growl of a motorcycle shifting down interrupted her snort at the ridiculous thought, and the sound of gravel crunching under wheels brought her eyes open. One look at the man leaning low over the green racing motorcycle as he pulled up to the store’s rusting gas pump and she was a goner.

He could have a face like a butt under that black helmet and she wouldn’t have cared. He looked like some mysterious warrior to her starved imagination—his black leather bomber jacket, faded blue Levi’s, and trashed black cowboy boots his armor.

Juliet couldn’t tell if he was looking up at her or not, so she kept staring when she would have normally looked away. She watched him settle both feet flat on the ground, turn the engine off, then reach up and flip his tinted visor up. She nearly jumped out of her skin. He was looking straight at her with beautiful, soulful eyes beneath full, dark-blond brows.

His gaze was as powerful as one of Shakespeare’s love sonnets to her lonely heart.

He pulled the helmet from his head.

Juliet gaped and yanked her feet from the rail, starting a paint-chip blizzard. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. A dream come true, in fact. His straight nose and square jaw, roughened by dark-blond whiskers, held such masculine beauty she was too stunned-stupid to quit staring at him. What was a man like him doing in her world?

His gaze still on her, he hung his helmet on one of the handlebars and ran a hand through his thick, wavy, golden hair that brushed the top of his collar in the back. “Does this pump work?” he called up in a deep voice that hit her like gravel wrapped in velvet and turned her bones to liquid.

With a weak shake of her head, she croaked, “No.” Clearing her throat, she needlessly added, “Though there’s probably enough gas still down there to one day blow us all to kingdom come.”

His smile was lopsided and unmercifully sexy. “Then you better hop on and let me take you far away from here,” he offered, patting the back of his bike.

She laughed in an idiotic, high-pitched way. Man, she’d never made that noise before. Her face heated, and she wished she could disappear. So much for this fantasy coming true. The Adonis on the bike sure as heck wouldn’t want to mess with a bubblehead on a balcony.

But instead of slapping on his helmet and roaring away, he lowered the kickstand with the heel of his boot and swung a long, thickly muscled leg over the bike and got off. “Well, if I can’t top off my tank and you won’t let me whisk you to safety, can I buy myself a beer inside and join you up there? I’m sure the view is something I wouldn’t want to miss.”