Balancing Act. Lilian Darcy

      Be sure to look up the reading group

       discussion questions at the end of the book!

      “I’ve wanted to do this since I met you,” Brady said.

      He stole another kiss from Libby’s mouth, and then another.

      “It isn’t that long ago,” she answered. Couldn’t even think, at the moment. Felt like hours…or like months. It wasn’t relevant somehow.

      “Seems longer. Seems…intense.” He kissed her hair and her temples, coaxing her to give him her mouth once more. Libby didn’t want to give it yet. She still needed the sound of his breathing, his heart.

      “It has been, Brady. In a lot of ways, we jumped in at the deep end because of the girls. Are we just feeling like this because our daughters are twins?”

      “That’s too complicated, isn’t it?” he said slowly, at last.

      It probably was. He was right.

      But nothing that was happening tonight felt complicated. It felt simple. A man and a woman, and chemistry so strong it was like a sorcerer’s spell.

      Dear Reader,

      Step into warm and wonderful July with six emotional stories from Silhouette Special Edition. This month is full of heart-thumping drama, healing love and plenty of babies!

      I’m thrilled to feature our READERS’ RING selection, Balancing Act (SE#1552), by veteran Mills & Boon and Silhouette Romance author Lilian Darcy. This talented Australian writer delights us with a complex tale of a couple marrying for the sake of their twin daughters, who were separated at birth. The twins and parents are newly reunited in this tender and thought-provoking read. Don’t miss it!

      Sherryl Woods hooks readers with this next romance from her miniseries, THE DEVANEYS. In Patrick’s Destiny (SE#1549), an embittered hero falls in love with a gentle woman who helps him heal a rift with his family. Return to the latest branch of popular miniseries, MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE KINGSLEYS, with Moon Over Montana (SE#1550) by Jackie Merritt. Here, an art teacher can’t help but moon over a rugged carpenter who renovates her apartment—and happens to be good with his hands!

      We are happy to introduce a multiple-baby-focused series, MANHATTAN MULTIPLES, launched by Marie Ferrarella with And Babies Make Four (SE#1551), which relates how a hardheaded businessman and a sweet-natured assistant, who loved each other in high school, reunite many years later and dive into parenthood. His Brother’s Baby (SE#1553) by Laurie Campbell is the dramatic tale of a woman determined to take care of herself and her baby girl, but what happens when her baby’s handsome uncle falls onto her path? In She’s Expecting (SE#1554) by Barbara McMahon, an ambitious hero is wildly attracted to his new secretary—his new pregnant secretary—but steels himself from mixing business with pleasure.

      As you can see, we have a lively batch of stories, delivering the very best in page-turning romance. Happy reading!

      Sincerely,

      Karen Taylor Richman

      Senior Editor

      Balancing Act

      Lilian Darcy

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      LILIAN DARCY

      has written over fifty books for Silhouette Romance and Harlequin Mills & Boon Medical Romance (Prescription Romance). Her first book for Silhouette appeared on the Waldenbooks Series Romance Bestsellers list, and she’s hoping readers go on responding strongly to her work. Happily married with four active children and a very patient cat, she enjoys keeping busy and could probably fill several more lifetimes with the things she likes to do—including cooking, gardening, quilting, drawing and traveling. She currently lives in Australia but travels to the United States as often as possible to visit family. Lilian loves to hear from readers. You can write to her at P.O. Box 381, Hackensack, NJ 07602 or e-mail her at [email protected].

      Dear Reader,

      This was always a special book for me, and I was so pleased when it was scheduled as my first Special Edition novel. Libby and Brady really needed a long book with a rich emotional tone to tell their story fully.

      The week after my editor phoned with the news, I flew from Australia to Denver to attend the Romance Writers of America annual conference. On the flight from San Francisco to Denver there were four darling little Korean babies going to their new adoptive homes in the U.S. and this seemed like a perfect omen for Balancing Act. One of the flight attendants and I stood at the back of the plane for half the flight, holding two of the babies. They were smiling and bright-eyed and totally adorable. We got quite teary thinking of the long journey they were making to their new life and their new parents. It was easy to believe that there was something magical and predestined about the whole thing.

      As you’ll see when you read Balancing Act, Libby and Brady embrace their destiny when they realize that the two babies they’ve independently adopted are identical twins. It’s not an easy journey for them, but when the happiness of their daughters is at stake, there’s no choice.

      I really hope you enjoy this book.

      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

      Readers’ Ring Discussion Group Questions

      Chapter One

      Brady Buchanan would be here with his little daughter in twenty minutes, maybe less. Libby McGraw hadn’t even heard of the man four days ago, but already, without yet having met him, she had the strongest intuition that he was going to be an important figure in her life.

      “If I hadn’t entered Colleen in the Bright and Beautiful baby contest,” she muttered to herself, “I might never have known…”

      A part of her regretted that contest bitterly now, although she’d been so pleased and proud and excited when Colleen had won and had been photographed for the magazine, “with proud mother Lisa-Belle McGraw, of Minnesota.”

      Libby tried to focus on something—anything—but she couldn’t. There was a nagging, crampy ache low in her stomach and she knew it was only partly physical. Circling back to the bathroom mirror for the third time, she fussed with her appearance a little more. She pulled the clips out of her hair, then combed it, twisted it up and put the clips back in.

      No, she decided. Leave it down.

      Out came the clips again. Up went the brush to put in some shine. Yes, her hair definitely looked better framing her face today. Softer. And it camouflaged the fact that she looked so stressed-out and tired.

      She reapplied her lip gloss in a brighter shade, then wondered if it, too, left her skin looking too white. She tended to lose color when she was stressed. Since Monday, she’d gone through her makeup at twice the normal rate and had slept about half the hours she needed.

      She heard a sound, listened in case it was Colleen and, creeping into her daughter’s room, found her still napping.