AROUND CHI-TOWN
April: Seems the Connelly clan is full of surprises. The Chicago “royal family” just got bigger last week, when two long-lost illegitimate sons of Grant Connelly were welcomed into the fold. Wife Emma, ever the gracious hostess, held a party at their elaborate Lake Shore manor in honor of her new twin stepsons, Chance and Doug Barnett Connelly.
Grant may not have known of the twins’ existence until weeks ago, but the newest Connelly men are upholding the family’s noble traditions: Chance is a navy SEAL and Doug a respected Chicago doctor.
Rumor has it Chance is more than a bit uncomfortable in the concrete jungles of the Windy City, but is recuperating from a wound received on his last secret mission. That injury didn’t keep him from putting the moves on Emma Connelly’s social secretary, Jennifer Anderson, at the party last week. The spotlight-shy single mom was unavailable for comment—as would be yours truly, if over six feet of muscular male had set his sights in this direction!
The Connellys have been so much in the news these last few months that one can’t help but wonder what other secrets the family could be hiding in their walk-in closets….
Dear Reader,
Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where you can spice up your April with six passionate, powerful and provocative romances!
Beloved author Diana Palmer delivers a great read with A Man of Means, the latest in her LONG, TALL TEXANS miniseries, as a saucy cook tames a hot-tempered cowboy with her biscuits. Then, enjoy reading how one woman’s orderly life is turned upside down when she is wooed by Mr. Temptation, April’s MAN OF THE MONTH and the first title in Cait London’s hot new HEARTBREAKERS miniseries.
Reader favorite Maureen Child proves a naval hero is no match for a determined single mom in The SEAL’s Surrender, the latest DYNASTIES: THE CONNELLYS title. And a reluctant widow gets a second chance at love in Her Texan Tycoon by Jan Hudson.
The drama continues in the TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE LAST BACHELOR continuity series with Tall, Dark…and Framed? by Cathleen Galitz, when an attractive defense attorney falls head over heels for her client—a devastatingly handsome tycoon with a secret. And discover what a ranch foreman, a virgin and her protective brothers have in common in One Wedding Night… by Shirley Rogers.
Celebrate the season by pampering yourself with all six of these exciting new love stories.
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
The Seal’s Surrender
Maureen Child
To Sandra Paul, Barbara Benedict, Angie Ray and Michelle Thorne: Thank you for the ambush and for my tiara. You guys are the best.
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.
MEET THE CONNELLYS
Meet the Connellys of Chicago—wealthy, powerful and rocked by scandal, betrayal…and passion!
Who’s Who in THE SEAL’S SURRENDER
Chance Barnett Connelly—If it weren’t for his twin brother, this lone-wolf navy SEAL would never have tried to find his long-lost father, Grant Connelly. Chance had no idea what it was to be part of a family, especially the powerful, influential Connellys.
Jennifer Anderson—Ever since her husband was killed, she had been both a mother and a father to her baby girl. But meeting Chance made her long to remember what it had been like to be a woman….
Grant and Emma Connelly—True love allowed them to welcome home the twins from Grant’s long-ago affair. But did their happiness blind them to a miscreant in their midst—one bent on seeking revenge on the Connellys?
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
One
He hated parties.
Give Chance Barnett a machine gun, and he was a happy man. Tell him to mingle, and you got a mean dog on a short leash.
But, Chance told himself, sometimes a man just had to bite the proverbial bullet. And this was a big one, in his humble opinion. Hell, it was damn near a mortar round.
He clutched his bottle of imported beer in a tight fist and made his way around the periphery of the party. His gaze narrowed slightly as he silently assessed his new family. A hell of a way to meet the relatives, he told himself, yet couldn’t think of a better way to handle it.
There probably wasn’t a good way to introduce him and his twin, Douglas, to the rest of the Connellys. Though to give them their due, they’d all taken the news of the twins’ existence a lot easier than they might have. After all, it wasn’t every day you met thirty-six-year-old illegitimate twin relatives, was it?
Though he had to admit that none of the Connellys had treated him and his brother as though they were somehow not good enough to be part of the family. Hell, even Miss Lily and Tobias had come home early from Palm Springs just to meet him and Douglas. Chance’s gaze shot to the older couple. Correction, he told himself silently, his grandparents. Weird. He smiled as he watched Tobias trying to slip past his much smaller wife, but Miss Lily, cane or no cane, was too fast for her husband and snatched that glass of whiskey from his hand.
Interestingly enough, the big man just gave her a smile and a peck on the cheek. What would it be like, Chance wondered, to spend your life with one person? To love that one person so much that some fifty-odd years later, the stamp of it was still clearly on your features?
Those two old people had somehow managed to raise a dynasty. Amazing really, if you stopped to think about it. Sure, the Connellys were practically American royalty. But they actually were real royalty as well.
And Chance and Douglas Barnett were a part of it.
He shook his head and moved on, drifting through the crowd like a finger of fog. A strident female voice caught his attention, and he slowed his steps, listening.
His half sister, Alexandra, a tall woman with raven-black hair, a too-important manner and sharp green eyes was center stage, where she seemed most comfortable.