Sgt. Billy's Bride. Bonnie Gardner

      “Sergeant Hays, you may kiss your bride.”

      Darcy’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t bargained for this. This was only supposed to be a pretend wedding. But the handsome military man leaning in to kiss her was all too real.

      Billy’s lips touched her mouth, landing feather soft, like a butterfly lighting on a flower.

      She should have let him lift off and be done, and that would have been that.

      But Darcy kissed him back.

      Then Billy pulled her closer, pressing her against his hard, strong chest. And Darcy felt almost…loved.

      Heavens, she couldn’t help wondering, what would it be like if they weren’t pretending?

      Dear Reader,

      Mills & Boon American Romance has rounded up the best romantic reading to help you celebrate Valentine’s Day. Start off with the final installment in the MAITLAND MATERNITY: TRIPLETS, QUADS & QUINTS series. The McCallum Quintuplets is a special three-in-one volume featuring New York Times bestselling author Kasey Michaels, Mindy Neff and Mary Anne Wilson.

      BILLION-DOLLAR BRADDOCKS, Karen Toller Whittenburg’s new family-connected miniseries, premiers this month with The C.E.O.’s Unplanned Proposal. In this Cinderella story, a small-town waitress is swept into the Braddock world of wealth and power and puts eldest brother Adam Braddock’s bachelor status to the test. Next, in Bonnie Gardner’s Sgt. Billy’s Bride, an air force controller is in desperate need of a fiancée to appease his beloved, ailing mother, so he asks a beautiful stranger to become his wife. Can love bloom and turn their pretend engagement into wedded bliss? Finally, we welcome another new author to the Mills & Boon American family. Sharon Swan makes her irresistible debut with Cowboys and Cradles.

      Enjoy this month’s offerings, and be sure to return next month when Mills & Boon American Romance launches a new cross-line continuity, THE CARRADIGNES: AMERICAN ROYALTY, with The Improperly Pregnant Princess by Jacqueline Diamond.

      Wishing you happy reading,

      Melissa Jeglinski

      Associate Senior Editor

      Mills & Boon American Romance

      Sgt. Billy’s Bride

      Bonnie Gardner

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      To Mud, as always.

      To Sue, who reminds me that I am woman and can roar, and Kathie and Kathy and Brenda. You know why.

      To all the combat controllers and their families I have known through the years and even those I haven’t. You all have tough jobs and manage to do them well.

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      BONNIE GARDNER has finally figured out what she wants to do when she grows up. After a varied career that included such jobs as switchboard operator, draftsman and exercise instructor, she went back to college and became an English teacher. As a teacher, she took a course on how to teach writing to high school students and caught the bug herself.

      She lives in northern Alabama with her husband of over thirty years, her own military hero. After following him around from air force base to air force base, she has finally gotten to settle down. They have two grown sons, one of which is now serving in the air force. She loves to read, cook, garden and, of course, write.

      She would love to hear from her readers. You can write to her at P.O. Box 442, Meridianville, AL 35759.

      Books by Bonnie Gardner

      MILLS & BOON AMERICAN ROMANCE

      876—UNCLE SARGE

      911—SGT. BILLY’S BRIDE

      Contents

       Prologue

       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

       Author Note

      Prologue

      Darcy Stanton sat in the bride’s room in the chapel at Hurlburt Air Force Base and clenched her hands in her lap with a grip of death. She couldn’t believe she was really going through with it.

      She wasn’t ready to be a bride. She didn’t know what she was doing in this room getting ready to marry First Lieutenant Richard Harris III, a man she’d known all her life but wasn’t sure she knew at all. At this moment, she wasn’t sure she liked Dick, much less loved him.

      She didn’t want to be Mrs. Dick Harris, the daughter of General and Mrs. Harrington Stanton. She didn’t want to play the role of the prim and proper niece of Colonel John Harbeson, the commander of the Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt. She wanted to be just plain Darcy. Not Tracy D’Arcy Harbeson Stanton, the namesake of four decorated generals.

      She wanted to know how it would feel to work for a living, not to have to worry about protocol and which fork to use and what the other officers’ wives were wearing and what they would think of her. She’d planned to put her degree from Duke University in North Carolina to good use after graduation, but Dick would hear none of it.

      Darcy drew in a deep, shuddering breath and tried to still her racing heart. She was a registered nurse as of last Tuesday, and she knew the signs. She was in severe stress, verging on a full-fledged panic attack.

      “Mom,” Darcy whispered, her voice coming out in short, breathy gasps. “I’m not sure I can do this.” There, she’d finally said it, she’d voiced the doubts she’d been harboring for weeks, months—almost