His Little Secret: Double the Trouble. Maureen Child

Child, one night leads to two babies!

      When Colton King ended his impetuous marriage to Penny Oaks after just twenty-four hours, it was out of sight, out of mind. But now, more than a year later, Colton discovers Penny’s huge secret—actually two little secrets: a baby boy and a baby girl.

      Colton’s only option is to lay claim to his twins. But soon he finds himself laying claim to Penny all over again. Now they have to ask themselves: Was their whirlwind marriage meant to last a lifetime?

      MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon Desire line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told is, in a word, perfect.

      A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of excellence and a Golden Quill.

      One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

      Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assures her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

      Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.

      To Harlequin Desire readers everywhere.

      Thank you so much for embracing the Kings of California—and me. You make it possible for me to do what I most love to do. Tell stories.

       One

      Colton King never saw the fist that slammed into his jaw.

      He shook his head to clear it, then blocked the next punch before it could land. The furious man who’d stormed into Colt’s office only moments before took a step back and ground out, “You had that coming.”

      “What the hell?” Colt dropped his packed duffel bag to the floor. “Had it coming?”

      Colt did a fast mental review and came up empty. He didn’t know this man and he couldn’t think of a single other person who wanted to hit him—at the moment. His always-temporary relationships with women invariably ended amicably. Heck, even he and his twin brother, Connor, hadn’t had a good argument in weeks.

      Yeah, he’d had angry clients show up at the Laguna Beach, California, offices of King’s Extreme Adventures if they didn’t find the monster waves they’d been promised. Or if the dead man’s run on a mountain was closed due to avalanche.

      Colton and Connor arranged adventure vacations for the wealthy adrenaline junkies of the world. So, sure, there had been more than a few times when a customer was mad enough to cause a scene. But not one of them had ever punched him. Before now.

      So the question was, “Who the hell are you?”

      “I called security!” A woman announced from the doorway.

      Colt didn’t even glance at Linda, the admin he and Connor shared. “Thanks. Go get Connor.”

      “On it,” she said, then vanished.

      “Calling security won’t change anything,” the guy who had just punched him said flatly. “You’ll still be a selfish bastard.”

      “Okay,” Colt muttered. Not the first time he’d heard that, either. But a little context would be helpful. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

      “That’s what I’d like to know.” Connor stepped into the room to take a stand beside his twin.

      Colt was glad to have him there, though he could have taken the guy who’d gotten in one lucky sucker punch. But probably not good business to have a fistfight here in the office, and having Connor around would help him leash his temper. Besides, fighting wouldn’t give him the answers he wanted. “You took your best shot. Now tell me why.”

      “My name is Robert Oaks.”

      Oaks. Long-buried memories raced through Colt’s mind in a blinding rush. A ball of ice dropped into the pit of his stomach and his body went utterly still. He studied the stranger glaring at him and in those narrowed green eyes, he saw...familiarity.

      Damn it.

      The last time he’d looked into eyes like those had been nearly two years ago. At the end of a week in Vegas that should have been ordinary and instead had been...amazing. One specific memory rose up in his mind and Colt wished to hell he could wipe it away, but he’d never been able to pull that off. The morning after he and Penny Oaks had gotten married in a tacky chapel on the strip. The morning when he’d told her they’d be getting a divorce—right before thanking her for a fun week and then leaving her in the hotel room they’d shared.

      He didn’t want to think about that day. But hard to avoid that now, with the man who had to be her brother standing in front of him.

      Robert Oaks nodded slowly as he saw realization dawn on Colt’s face. “Good. At least you remember.”

      “Remember what?” Connor demanded.

      “Nothing.” He wasn’t getting into this with Connor. Not right now, anyway.

      “Oh, nothing. That’s great.” Oaks shook his head in disgust. “Just what I expected.”

      Anger stirred. Whatever was once between him and Penny was just that. Between the two of them. He wasn’t interested in what her brother thought. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

      “I want you to do the right thing,” Robert snapped. “But I doubt you will.” His fist bunched. “So I thought punching you would be enough. It wasn’t.”

      Impatience stirred and twisted in the anger still balled in Colt’s guts. He had a KingJet waiting to fly him to Sicily. He had places to go. Things to do. And damned if he’d waste one more minute with Robert Oaks.

      “Why don’t you quit dancing around and get to it. Why are you here?”

      “Because my sister’s in the hospital.”

      “Hospital?” Something inside Colt lurched unsteadily. Instantly, memories shifted, his mind filling with images of another hospital, the cold green walls, the grim gray linoleum and the stench of fear and antiseptic flavoring every breath.

      For a second or two, he felt as though there was a weight on his chest, dragging him back into a past he never wanted to visit again. Deliberately, he pushed away from the blackness at the edges of his mind and fought his way back to the present. Pushing one hand through his hair, Colt focused his gaze on Penny’s brother and waited.

      “My sister had an appendectomy yesterday,” Robert told him.

      Relief that it wasn’t something more serious was a small, slim thread winding its way through the tangled mass inside him. “Is she okay?”

      Robert snorted a derisive laugh. “Yeah, she’s fine. Except, you know, for worrying about how she’s going to pay the hospital bill. And worrying about her twins. Your twins.”

      All of the air left the room.

      Colt knew that because he couldn’t draw a breath.

      “My—” He shook his head while he tried to get a grip on what Penny’s younger brother was telling him. But how the hell did you make sense of something like that coming at you out of the