Stella Bagwell - The Tycoon's Tots

Cover Page

Excerpt You’re starting today?” Chloe asked. Wyatt answered nonchalantly. “Why not? You have horses to care for. You can’t do that and watch two babies at the same time.” “I haven’t forgotten you don’t know anything about babies. Have you?” He gave her a lazy smile, and Chloe’s heart thumped with foolish anticipation. “I haven’t been around babies before,” Wyatt agreed. “But I don’t know anything about caring for horses, either. And from where I’m standing the babies seem to be the far safer of the two jobs.” Chloe couldn’t help but laugh. “You may want to reevaluate that opinion after a couple of days.” Wyatt smiled. “How hard could the job be? Two babies and a little cooking. It’ll be a vacation compared to the hours I usually put in.” Chloe managed to keep a straight face. “Good. I’m sure a vacation like this is just what you need.”

Dear Reader Dear Reader, The month of June makes me think of June brides, Father’s Day and the first bloom of summer love. And Silhouette Romance is celebrating the start of summer with six wonderful books about love and romance. Our BUNDLE OF JOY this month is delivered by Stella Bagwell’s The Tycoon’s Tots—her thirtieth Silhouette book. As her TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP miniseries continues, we finally discover who gets to keep those adorable babies.. .and find romance in the bargain. Elizabeth August is back with her much-loved SMYTHESHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS series. In The Determined Virgin you’ll meet a woman whose marriage of convenience is proving to be very inconvenient, thanks to her intense attraction to her “in-name-only” husband. BACHELOR GULCH is a little town that needs women, and the name of Sandra Steffen’s brand-new miniseries. The fun begins in Luke’s Would-Be Bride as a local bachelor falls for his feisty receptionist—the one woman in town not looking for a husband! And there are plenty more compelling romances for you this month: A lovely lady rancher can’t wait to hightail it out of Texas—till she meets her handsome new foreman in Leanna Wilson’s Lone Star Rancher. A new husband can’t bear to tell his amnesiac bride that the baby she’s carrying isn’t his, in Her Forgotten Husband by Anne Ha. And one lucky cowboy discovers a night of passion has just made him a daddy in Teresa Southwick’s The Bachelor’s Baby. I hope you enjoy all of June’s books! Melissa Senate, Senior Editor Silhouette Romance Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Title Page The Tycoon’s Tots Stella Bagwell www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedication To Lloyd, for all those inspiring speeches you used to give me. Love always.

About the Author STELLA BAGWELL sold her first book to Silhouette in November 1985. Now thirty novels later she is still thrilled to see her books in print and can’t imagine having any other job than that of writing about two people falling in love. She lives in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma with her husband of twenty-six years. She has one son and daughter-in-law.

Dear Reader Dear Reader. It’s always a special treat for me to have the opportunity to speak to you directly and say a big thank-you for buying and reading my books—all thirty of them—down through the years! Writing romances isn’t an easy job, but it is a very fulfilling one. I like to think I’m spreading a little love to each and every one of you through my books. I’m especially proud of The Tycoon’s Tots, which features not one, but two adorable babies and two people who desperately want to be their parents. It also happens to be a continuation of my TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP miniseries. The Tycoon’s Tots, as with the other two books of the series, is all about family and what it means to a woman to be a part of a family, yet also have one of her very own. After all. we women don’t just stop at being a lover, or wife. More often than not we’re also a mother, a daughter, or a sister, and our love doesn’t just encompass a man it reaches over the entire family and makes each relationship within it a very special thing. I think you’ll see such is the case with my heroines, the Murdock sisters. It was a delight forme to write TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP and tell you how two babies not only create chaos and change in the Murdock family, but also bring lasting love to Justine. Rose and Chloe. I hope each of their stories will touch a spot in your heart as they did mine and that you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Love and God Bless,

Prologue Prologue Wyatt Sanders picked up the plain white envelope lying atop the leather duffel bag and pulled out a one-page letter. He’d read the words so many times now, he practically knew them by heart, but he still felt compelled to read it again one last time before he left Houston. Dear Wyatt, I know it’s been awhile since we last talked, so hearing from me now, like this, must be a shock for you. Believe me, I never wanted to be a burden to you. Especially after Daddy died. You have your own life to live. But there seems to be no one else I can turn to for help. It’s a long story, but I’ve gotten myself into a mess. I didn’t want you to know how things were with me— at least not until I had the chance to fix them. Just please don’t reproach me for making bad choices. I never was as strong as you, Wyatt. As of now I’m in a mental health facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. But I’m going to get better. Promise. Until then, I want you to go get my babies and take them home with you. They told me their father is dead now. I’m not sure I believe them, but if he is, I know you’ll be a good father to my twins, Wyatt. They need you now and so do I. Below his sister’s signature was the name of a family and a ranch in Hondo, New Mexico, where the babies were supposedly staying. Wyatt had never heard his sister mention the family or the place before. But he would find them. It was the only way he could help his sister now.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

Copyright

Wyatt answered nonchalantly. “Why not? You have horses to care for. You can’t do that and watch two babies at the same time.”

“I haven’t forgotten you don’t know anything about babies. Have you?”

He gave her a lazy smile, and Chloe’s heart thumped with foolish anticipation.

“I haven’t been around babies before,” Wyatt agreed. “But I don’t know anything about caring for horses, either. And from where I’m standing the babies seem to be the far safer of the two jobs.”

Chloe couldn’t help but laugh. “You may want to reevaluate that opinion after a couple of days.”

Wyatt smiled. “How hard could the job be? Two babies and a little cooking. It’ll be a vacation compared to the hours I usually put in.”

Chloe managed to keep a straight face. “Good. I’m sure a vacation like this is just what you need.”

Dear Reader,

The month of June makes me think of June brides, Father’s Day and the first bloom of summer love. And Silhouette Romance is celebrating the start of summer with six wonderful books about love and romance.

Our BUNDLE OF JOY this month is delivered by Stella Bagwell’s The Tycoon’s Tots—her thirtieth Silhouette book. As her TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP miniseries continues, we finally discover who gets to keep those adorable babies.. .and find romance in the bargain.