The Baby Consultant. Anne Marie Winston

      She Was Made For Motherhood. Letter to Reader Title Page ANNE MARIE WINSTON Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Epilogue Teaser chapter Copyright

      She Was Made For Motherhood.

      The thought didn’t surprise Jack. But what did catch him off guard was the deep longing for this intimate family scene to be his. He watched as Frannie stood near her small fireplace with the baby in her arms. She was looking down into the tiny face, speaking in a quiet, earnest tone.

      

      She loved babies—that was certain—and she seemed to love his baby in particular.

      

      “I wish I could find someone who would care for her like you do while I’m at work.”

      

      “You can’t possibly keep taking her to work with you.”

      

      “I don’t have a choice. Unless you’ve changed your mind about keeping her?”

      

      She hesitated. “I suppose I could keep her until a space in a reputable day-care facility becomes available.”

      

      “Are you sure? I don’t want to take advantage of you.” At least, not in the baby-sitting department....

      Dear Reader,

      

      Welcome to a new year with Silhouette Desire! We begin the year in celebration—it’s the 10th Anniversary of MAN OF THE MONTH! And kicking off the festivities is the incomparable Diana Palmer, with January’s irresistible hero, Simon Hart, in Beloved.

      

      Also launching this month is Desire’s series FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE BRIDES. So many of you wrote to us that you loved Silhouette’s series FORTUNE’S CHILDREN—now here’s a whole new branch of the family! Award-winning author Jennifer Greene inaugurates this series with The Honor Bound Groom.

      

      Popular Anne Marie Winston begins BUTLER COUNTY BRIDES, a new miniseries about three small-town friends who find true love, with The Baby Consultant. Sara Orwig offers us a marriage of convenience in The Cowboy’s Seductive Proposal. Next, experience love on a ranch in Hart’s Baby by Christy Lockhart. And opposites attract in The Scandalous Heiress by Kathryn Taylor.

      

      So, indulge yourself in 1999 with Silhouette Desire—powerful, provocative and passionate love stories that speak to today’s multifaceted woman. Each month we offer you six compelling romances to meet your many moods, with heroines you’ll care about and heroes to die for. Silhouette Desire is everything you desire in a romance novel.

      

      Enjoy!

      

      Joan Marlow Golan

      Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

      Please address questions and book requests to:

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      The Baby Consultant

      Anne Marie Winston

      

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      ANNE MARIE WINSTON

      has believed in happy endings all her life. Having the opportunity to share them with her readers gives her great joy. Anne Marie enjoys figure skating and working in the gardens of her south-central Pennsylvania home.

      To Ruth Ann, my “forever friend.”

      

      We’ve shared Barbies and babies,

      Harlequins and hospital rooms, Pregnancies and “pigs.” Thanks for the wonderful memories.

      One

      He wasn’t gorgeous, as Dee had led her to believe. His nose looked as if it had been rearranged by someone even bigger than he; his eyes were an unremarkable gray. Clean shaven and well-defined, his jaw thrust forward just a shade shy of pugnacious while his light brown, almost-but-not-quite-blond hair was cut military-short along the sides, curling only at the top where it had escaped the razor’s forays.

      Still, she could see the appeal. She studied him as he spoke into the phone he held to his ear while he paced back and forth at the far end of his office. His shoulders were broad enough to set a tea service on. He was taller than any of her brothers, maybe six-one, with long, long legs and a wide, straight back that tapered to a trim waist. And his butt was to die for. She almost laughed aloud. She would never have thought of that phrase before she’d moved away from home and found a life of her own.

      Then he turned and smiled at her.

      Frannie set down her purse and briefcase and took a seat in the chair across from Jack Ferris’s desk. Actually, she had no choice. That smile virtually took her breath away, weakened her knees, made her heart pound—every stupid cliché she’d ever heard suddenly didn’t seem so stupid.

      Dee had warned her: “Women fight over him. Literally.”

      Unbelievable. One little shift of expression, one flash of white teeth and a penetrating personal moment of eye contact... she’d probably fetch his slippers and pipe if he smiled at her like that again.

      “He’ll be with you in a moment.” The receptionist with the disgustingly gorgeous figure and the perfect teeth smiled sweetly at Frannie before closing the door of the office. It figured. She would have bet good green bucks that this man would hire help that looked like something out of a sports magazine’s annual swimsuit issue. It would have been easy to hate her if she hadn’t been so nice.

      He was still talking on the telephone, one hand splayed across his hip in what looked like exasperation. “I said I’m sorry, Mona. I have a game that day or you know I’d love to take you.” His voice oozed smooth honey, but Frannie doubted that Mona would think he was so charming if she could see the way he was practically gritting his teeth. It was obvious he didn’t want to do whatever the woman at the other end was trying to rope him into.

      Deliberately