Ryanne Corey - The Secret Millionaire

Zack had heard all kinds of propositions throughout the course of his career. Not a one had the nuclear-bomb effect of this particular one.

“You want to take me home?” he asked stupidly. Then, a bit louder, “And pretend I love you? Is that what you said?”

“Well, don’t look so shocked,” Anna said. “You won’t be in any mortal danger or anything. The key to the whole thing is pretend. For heaven’s sake, you’re a cop. I thought you were used to unusual situations.” Then, after a short pause, “You’ve never been this quiet for this long. Are you still breathing?”

Zack realized he wasn’t, and immediately rectified the matter. “I’m not shocked,” he gasped, pulling oxygen into his paralyzed lungs. “I’ve been around, you know. It takes a lot to shock me. It’s just…it’s just…”

“It’s just what?”

I’ve never had a dream come true before.

Dear Reader,

What could be more satisfying than the sinful yet guilt-free pleasure of enjoying six new passionate, powerful and provocative Silhouette Desire romances this month?

Get started with In Blackhawk’s Bed, July’s MAN OF THE MONTH and the latest title in the SECRETS! miniseries by Barbara McCauley. The Royal & the Runaway Bride by Kathryn Jensen—in which the heroine masquerades as a horse trainer and becomes a princess—is the seventh exciting installment in DYNASTIES: THE CONNELLYS, about an American family that discovers its royal roots.

A single mom melts the steely defenses of a brooding ranch hand in Cowboy’s Special Woman by Sara Orwig, while a detective with a secret falls for an innocent beauty in The Secret Millionaire by Ryanne Corey. A CEO persuades a mail-room employee to be his temporary wife in the debut novel Cinderella & the Playboy by Laura Wright, praised by New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber as “a wonderful new voice in Silhouette Desire.” And in Zane: The Wild One by Bronwyn Jameson, the mayor’s daughter turns up the heat on the small town’s bad boy made good.

So pamper the romantic in you by reading all six of these great new love stories from Silhouette Desire!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

is the award-winning author of over twenty romance novels. She is also the recipient of the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award. She finds the peace and beauty of the mountains very conducive to writing, and currently lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Utah. She has long believed in the healing power of love and laughter, and enjoys nothing more than bringing a smile to a reader’s face.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Zack Daniels was an alpha male, from his gleaming ebony hair to the blue-and-white toes of his well-broken-in Reeboks.

He knew this because he watched the Animal Planet channel and was well-informed when it came to the characteristics of a dominant wolf, dog, cheetah, etc. Animal or human, the alpha males were easy to spot. They were driven by their powerful wills, more likely to survive harsh circumstances and always ready for a fight to maintain order in the pack.

True to form, Zack didn’t mind the occasional tussle. In fact, at the moment he was absolutely itching for a fight. He needed to vent.

He knew with total certainty that he was the most frustrated human being in the state of California. And when he drove his platinum silver 2001 Lotus Esprit across the California border into Oregon, he became the most frustrated human being in Oregon, as well. And why?

Because he was on vacation.

Zack could understand why maybe an accountant or an attorney or a loan officer at a bank would look forward to two weeks of vacation. Those poor guys were stuck in their routines day after day, often glued to a desk and forced to deal with tedious things like billing hours, credit reports and balance sheets. And what did they have to show for their labors at the end of the day? Could they look in a secure jail cell and wave to a dangerous criminal they had personally tracked down and apprehended? They could not. And how many distraught damsels in distress did the poor fellows come across in their line of work? Zack would venture to guess: none. Of course they loved their vacations. They looked forward to having a break from the relentless monotony of their lives.

Zack, on the other hand, had a different situation entirely. He was one of the fortunate few who was lucky enough to have a dream job. He was a cop, and he cheerfully danced with danger and unpredictability for the chance to make a difference in the world. And not just a tame waltz, either; he danced a wild tango with his whole heart and soul. He had never believed in doing anything halfway. Granted, he frequently faced risky situations, but on the whole he relished the satisfaction of being a duly sworn-in representative of justice in a world full of bad guys. He hated to sleep, simply because he might miss a chance to protect, serve, defend, nab evildoers and administer justice. He hated to spend an evening at a high-class restaurant, feeling he was somehow failing to do his job if he turned his pager off for two entire hours. But more than anything, Zack hated taking a meaningless vacation from a life that suited him to a T. And right now he was facing an indefinite period of teeth-grinding, nail-biting, migraine-headache boredom.

He had successfully avoided taking a vacation for the past four years. Unfortunately, a short while ago, he and his partner had been ambushed during a drug bust gone bad. “Pappy” Merkley was a powerful black man who looked more like a football player than a cop. Zack had always considered his friend and mentor impervious to harm, but this time Pappy had taken two bullets in the chest. It was nip and tuck for a couple of days, but the fifty-year-old veteran was a fighter. It was a good thing, too, because Zack would have called the Almighty on the carpet had an idealistic, gentle giant like Pappy lost his life because of a slimeball drug dealer. Once Pappy was moved out of the ICU, Zack was eager to administer what he termed “legal payback.”

Zack had many friends who knew him well. Not one of them wanted to be in the same state when he perceived an injustice and lost his temper. His precinct captain, Benjamin Todd, knew very well that it was only a matter of time until his fiercely loyal wunderkind tracked down the shooter and more than likely got himself in hot water. Todd had sentenced him to an open-ended vacation “anywhere out of California” until further notice.

Alpha males occasionally had difficulty relinquishing power to authority figures, and Zack was no exception. He absolutely, positively hated to be frustrated when it came to doing his job…almost as much as he hated taking vacations.