Courtney's Baby Plan. Allison Leigh

      There was no future for Courtney with him, and she was the kind of woman who deserved futures.

      She was young and beautiful and caring and came from a strong, close family.

      He was past young, scarred up on the inside as well as the out, and the only family he knew—or who mattered to him—was the family of Hollins-Winword security agency.

      It was a fact of life that was easy enough to remember when he was usually a continent or two away from her.

      But sprawled across a bed under her roof?

      That was an entirely different matter.

      She reappeared in the doorway with a gigantic Saint Bernard at her side.

      “You didn’t get a dog.” Mason eyed the shaggy beast. “You got a damn horse.”

      She grinned, bringing a surprising impishness to her oval face and tucked her long, golden hair behind her ear.

      He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

      Dear Reader,

      This year marks the thirteenth year I’ve been blessed to be able to share the Double-C Ranch “family” with all of you. When I started out, I had no idea what a wonderful adventure it would all turn out to be—and continues to be, every single day. Though I certainly hoped that you would welcome the family into your lives, I could never have come close to understanding how wonderful it would be knowing just what a special home these people would find with you.

      Now, here we are again, with Courtney Clay, who is settling into the home and the future she wants to make. And with Mason Hyde—who has as little idea when he starts out how much he wants that home to be with him—as I did when I started out more than a decade ago.

      And so their adventure begins …

      Thank you for being there to share it!

       Allison

      About the Author

      There is a saying that you can never be too rich or too thin. ALLISON LEIGH doesn’t believe that, but she does believe that you can never have enough books! When her stories find a way into the hearts—and bookshelves—of others, Allison says she feels she’s done something right. Making her home in Arizona with her husband, she enjoys hearing from her readers at: [email protected] or PO Box 40772, Mesa, AZ 85274-0772, USA.

       Courtney’s Baby Plan

       Allison Leigh

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For my family.

       Prologue

      Iat all started with a kiss.

      A twenty-dollar kiss, to be precise.

      Courtney Clay inhaled carefully and stared up at the man standing outside her apartment door. She didn’t do this sort of thing … inviting strange men into her home during the wee hours. Or any hour, for that matter.

      But then Mason Hyde wasn’t entirely a stranger. He was a friend of her cousin’s, after all.

      And he could kiss like nobody she’d ever met.

      The statement whispered through her mind, tempting.

      She straightened her fingers, then curled them once more around the doorknob. “Do you want to come in?”

      His eyes were deep shadows despite the porch light burning brightly above her front door. “Yes.” His voice was deep. Blunt. And—as it had struck her from the first moment she’d encountered him—entrancingly melodious. That first time, when she’d heard him speaking to someone else, she’d thought how his voice didn’t seem to quite match his almost dangerous-looking appearance.

      The second time, just that afternoon when he’d stopped in front of her kissing booth at the town’s Valentine’s Day festival, plunked down a twenty for a five-dollar kiss and told her with a crooked smile that she could keep the change, she’d realized just how perfectly his voice did fit him.

      And even though there had been a narrow table between them on which that twenty-dollar bill rested, she’d felt something curl inside her when he’d spoken. And something curl even more tightly when his eyes had stared into hers.

      Her knees had felt a little shaky. Her stomach had danced a little nervously. And her voice had risen about half an octave when she’d thanked him for his generous donation on behalf of the local school that was benefiting from the funds being raised that day.

      But then his lips had tilted a little crookedly, which seemed to make the thin scar that slashed down his face from his right temple to his jaw even more apparent, and he’d leaned across the table toward her and brushed his lips gently … simply … across hers.

      And that’s where her memory stopped dead in its tracks.

      The contact of his lips on hers had simply caused every cell in her brain to short-circuit.

      Which is what had led them here.

      To this moment.

      With him standing at her door in the wee hours of the night, exactly twenty minutes after she’d gotten off her shift at the hospital. Exactly where—and when—she’d uncharacteristically invited him, in a rushed, quiet voice, lest anyone else around the kissing booth hear her, after he’d murmured that he’d really like to see her again. Somewhere. Anywhere that didn’t involve a line of ten guys—young and old—who were happy to hand over a few bucks to kiss a pretty nurse.

      Now, though, despite saying that he did want to come inside, he hadn’t moved so much as an inch. Instead, he was watching her intently with those eyes that she knew from the kissing booth were a startlingly pale green against his olive-toned skin.

      “Are you sure you want me to come in? I’m not going to want to leave anytime soon. We could go out somewhere. Have some coffee.”

      She hadn’t expected that. Her moist hand tightened around the door handle as she continued looking up at him. She was tall. But he was a whole lot taller. A whole lot broader.

      Go somewhere for coffee? Somewhere safe. Somewhere innocuous. Or invite him in?

      She didn’t have indiscriminate encounters with near strangers. She didn’t do anything in her life that wasn’t well thought-out. Well planned.

      But she didn’t want to go to the all-night coffee shop and sit across a table from him pretending that all she wanted was conversation and coffee.

      She wanted his long arms wrapped around her.

      Wanted to be held against his wide, wide chest.

      Wanted his warm lips on hers.

      She wanted. Period.

      More than ever before in her life.

      And even though her heart bumped nervously inside her chest, she moved her bare feet, stepping back as she pulled the door fully open.

      “Yes.” Her voice was soft but clear. “I’m sure.”

      His lips slowly tilted and he stepped inside.

      Without a word, he reached for her with one hand, and with the other, he pushed the door closed.

       Chapter One

      “No,”