Molly O'Keefe - Unexpected Family

His wildest ride yet!

Jeremiah Stone: rodeo superstar. Good time guy. Father of three? That’s one pair of boots Jeremiah never expected to fill. Then his three nephews are orphaned, and his entire life changes. Not only is he now playing parent, he’s also running the family ranch. It’s almost too much for this cowboy.

Until he encounters Lucy Alatore.

He recognizes that look in her eye and knows a steamy fling could make him feel more like himself. But the intense heat between him and Lucy is distracting him from three little boys who need his undivided attention. He’s forced to choose one over the other…unless he can convince Lucy this family isn’t complete without her!

Jeremiah leaned closer

Not a lot. Just enough that the equation between them changed and Lucy’s better sense was drowned out by the sudden clamoring demands of her body.

“I might be wrong, but I’m sensing that perhaps you’re interested in breaking a certain rule you’ve given us.”

“It wasn’t just me,” she whispered, looking at his lips, the lushness of them. Gorgeous. “You agreed that anything between us would be a mistake.”

“Well...” He sighed. “Maybe we need different rules.”

His finger brushed against her hand. He tilted his head as if to get a better look at her.

She touched his hand, the roughness of his skin. Her imagination roared as she pictured his body. The perfect sculpture of it. The flex of muscle.

“Lucy.”

She looked into those endless blue eyes filled with fire. His lips fell across hers. Light and warm and sweet, and she melted into the moment, into him. He breathed out and the earth stopped rotating.

“Hey, Uncle J.” Aaron, the oldest boy, charged onto the deck, wrenching them apart.

She couldn’t figure out whether to thank Aaron or curse him for his bad timing. She turned away.

“Lucy?” Jeremiah’s voice stopped her. “We’re not done.”

They weren’t done. Not by a long shot.

Dear Reader,

My family had the most incredible opportunity to tour around New Zealand this fall. It was seven weeks of amazing. Rugby—go, the All Blacks!—hiking natural wonders of every variety, beautiful, welcoming people often offering us beautiful, delicious food. There were some lowlights. Seven weeks in a camper van with a two- and a five-year-old—things were bound to get ugly. But from the moment we arrived until the moment we left, the trip surpassed every fantasy I had going in.

Part of what made everything so memorable was being at the New Zealand RWA conference. The first night of the conference Harlequin editors took the published authors out for dinner. It was a great time and, as you can imagine with a group of like-minded women, things got personal very quickly. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sandra Hyatt, who was one of the most gracious and enthusiastic women I’ve ever met. She invited our entire family to visit her and she offered the use of all her kids’ travel things. I was blown away by her kindness and generosity. Tragically, that night Sandra took ill suddenly and died. She was young. She had a husband, two kids and a wealth of writer friends who were left shocked and grieving (with a conference in full swing).

I urge you all to pick up any of Sandra’s Harlequin Desire books. Her last novel, Lessons In Seduction, is amazing!

I hope you enjoy my latest Harlequin Superromance, Unexpected Family, and find everyone’s happy ending as satisfying as I did. Please drop me a line at molly@molly-okeefe.com to let me know what you think!

Happy reading!

Molly O’Keefe

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Molly O’Keefe grew up in a small town outside Chicago, and while she and her husband and two kids now live in Toronto, Canada, there is something about Rochelle, Illinois, that will always be home. However, every time she brings up moving there her husband reminds her of the lack of sushi restaurants and she quickly changes her mind.

For the attendees of the 2011 New Zealand RWA conference, in particular those in my Conflict and Character workshop.

Thank you for such an inspiring weekend and for getting me out of the mess I had written myself into.

Contents

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

NO ONE WAS GOING to stop the train wreck at the end of the bar. Lucy Alatore stopped listening to her sister describe the house she and her husband were going to build and looked around for Joey, the bartender, who was supposed to stop train wrecks like the one the drunk cowboy at the bar was courting as he searched for his car keys.

“You’re not listening to me, are you?” Mia asked.

“Sorry.” Lucy stood, only to find Joey flirting with the margarita girls at the end of the bar. “I’m trying to—”

“Find someone to take that cowboy’s keys, I know.” Mia stood and shrugged into her denim jacket. “It’s just as well, Jack’s going to be waiting up.”

As she spoke, Mia—usually as reserved and quiet as a nun when it came to sex—couldn’t keep the womanly smile from curling the corners of her lips.

Lucy refrained from doing anything as childish as pretending to gag. But if her sister didn’t stop flaunting her sex life all over the place, Lucy was going to have to resort to name-calling just to vent her envy.

Lucy hugged her sister, holding her closer for a moment, longer than what might seem necessary even between two sisters who dearly loved each other.

“I’ve been sitting here for two hours waiting for you to tell me what’s bothering you,” Mia whispered.

“Bothering me?” Lucy leaned back, making sure her smile was bright. “Nothing bothers me. It’s a rule of the universe.”

But Mia’s amber eyes drilled right into Lucy’s head and it took every weapon in her arsenal to keep her smile in place. Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” ringtone blasted from deep in the purse on the chair beside her for the tenth time that night.

“You going to answer that?” Mia asked.

“Nope.”

Mia sighed, defeated. “You’re okay to drive?”

“Good as you.” They both glanced down at the plate of nachos and light beers on the table. Both beers were half-full. Growing up around an alcoholic had ingrained a certain caution around booze.

Mia squeezed Lucy’s shoulder and left, winding through the tables and out the door of the Sunset Bar and Grill. Lucy took a deep breath and turned toward the bar, pulling down the jersey Armani shirt she had bought at a resale shop. She wanted to give the girls a chance to do the convincing for her as she stopped a drunk train from leaving this particular station.

“Hey there, cowboy,” she said, stepping up to the man digging through his pockets for his keys while fighting to stay upright.

He yanked his keys free of the beat-up denim coat. “Found ’em.” He sighed, as if he’d been satisfied on some deep soul level by the appearance of those keys. He turned and she shifted into his way.

“Where you headed?”

“Home.” He glanced up and did a drunken man’s double take. Slow and sloppy. “Unless you want to have a drink with me?” His smile was charming despite the booze behind it and she smiled back.