“Congratulations, Annie, It’s A Girl!”
She looked at John, and he held her baby up like a prize won at a county fair.
“She’s gorgeous,” he said. “Just like her mother.”
“A girl,” Annie crooned. She’d given birth, and now she’d never be alone again. She had a family. A daughter.
It all felt so wonderful. So…right. Yesterday she hadn’t even known this man existed. And now…oh, she couldn’t imagine not knowing him.
“You’re amazing,” he said, and she saw admiration and wonder in his eyes. “She’s amazing.”
Annie reached up and caught his hand with hers and said quietly, “Thank you.” She wanted to tell him so much. To let him know what it had meant to her that he was there. “Thank you.”
He shook his head, bent down, kissed her forehead, then kissed the baby. Smiling at Annie, he said, “Annie, I wouldn’t have missed this for anything. Thank you for letting me witness a miracle.”
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the world of Silhouette Desire, where you can indulge yourself every month with romances that can only be described as passionate, powerful and provocative!
The always fabulous Elizabeth Bevarly offers you May’s MAN OF THE MONTH, so get ready for The Temptation of Rory Monahan. Enjoy reading about a gorgeous professor who falls for a librarian busy reading up on how to catch a man!
The tantalizing Desire miniseries TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: LONE STAR JEWELS concludes with Tycoon Warrior by Sheri WhiteFeather. A Native American ex-military man reunites with his estranged wife on a secret mission that renews their love.
Popular Peggy Moreland returns to Desire with a romance about a plain-Jane secretary who is in love with her Millionaire Boss. The hero-focused miniseries BACHELOR BATTALION by Maureen Child continues with Prince Charming in Dress Blues, who’s snowbound in a cabin with an unmarried woman about to give birth! Baby at His Door by Katherine Garbera features a small-town sheriff, a beautiful stranger and the bundle of love who unites them. And Sara Orwig writes a lovely tale about a couple entering a marriage of convenience in Cowboy’s Secret Child.
This month, Silhouette is proud to announce we’ve joined the national campaign “Get Caught Reading” in order to promote reading in the United States. So set a good example, and get caught reading all six of these exhilarating Desire titles!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
Prince Charming in Dress Blues
Maureen Child
MAUREEN CHILD
was born and raised in Southern California and is the only person she knows who longs for an occasional change of season. She is delighted to be writing for Silhouette Books and is especially excited to be a part of the Desire line.
An avid reader, Maureen looks forward to those rare rainy California days when she can curl up and sink into a good book. Or two. When she isn’t busy writing, she and her husband of twenty-five years like to travel, leaving their two grown children in charge of the neurotic golden retriever who is the real head of the household. Maureen is also an award-winning historical writer under the names of Kathleen Kane and Ann Carberry.
To My Own Prince Charming, my husband Mark.
Thanks for nearly thirty wonderful years.
I love you more today than I did in ’71.
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
Epilogue
One
“Okay,” Annie Foster said aloud, “maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.”
The wind snatched her words and threw them off into the surrounding forest. Snow flurries fluttered in that same wind and pelted her face with icy fingers. She blinked and tipped her head back to look at the sky. But there were no stars. Just a wide canvas of black from which more and more snow was falling.
A curl of anxiety unwound in the pit of her stomach and, as if in reaction, the baby in her womb gave her a hard kick.
“Hey,” she said, stopping long enough to pat her tummy. “I’m on your side, remember?”
A gust of frigid air shot past her, shoving her toward the cabin, and Annie stumbled along with it, trying to keep her footing. All she’d need would be to fall in the snow. With her center of gravity so far off, she’d lie there like an overturned turtle, unable to right herself. Come springtime, some unsuspecting hiker would find her frozen body and she’d make headlines. Hugely Pregnant Woman Fell and Couldn’t Get Up.
She laughed shortly at the thought, then continued on toward the cabin. All she could think about now was the warmth inside. Escape from the cold wind and the snow flurries that had been getting steadily thicker for the past hour. Who would have guessed that it would snow so hard in southern California? Well, all right, the mountains of southern California. But still. Who worries about snowstorms in a state where a sweatshirt is considered a winter coat?
At the foot of the steps leading to the porch she stopped and cocked her head, listening. A steady, rhythmic pounding carried just under the howl of the wind. Like the heartbeat of some giant snow monster, it seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere. It surrounded her, and Annie turned in a slow circle, letting her gaze sweep the edge of the treeline, searching. But there was nothing. Just the swirling snow and the shadowy forest beyond.
She shivered and hunched deeper into her down jacket as she grabbed hold of the banister with one hand and her suitcase with the other. A twinge of discomfort rippled along her back as she climbed the steps slowly, and she hardly winced. After all, she’d been pregnant for eight months now. She was an old hand at this. Used to the occasional spasm or stitch in her side. The infrequent jolt of pain that shot down from her hips all the way to the soles of her feet.
“Pregnancy’s not for sissies,” she muttered.
Plus, the baby seemed so much bigger in the last few days. Her belly had taken on a life of its own. Heck, it felt as if she was lugging around a small planet. Annie paused halfway up the stairs to take a breath and arch her back, stretching out whatever muscle was kinking. Then, before she could chicken out and just set up camp on the steps, she plodded on, unconsciously keeping time with the eerie pounding still reverberating in the air.
She crossed the porch, opened the door and stepped into a welcoming warmth that almost had her weeping with pleasure.
“Thanks, Lisa,” she said in a whispered prayer of gratitude to the friend who had loaned her the cabin for the weekend. Lisa must have called someone and had them turn on the heat so the place would be warm for Annie’s arrival. “A true friend,” she said as she trudged across the room, still carrying her suitcase.
She