Doctor And The Debutante. Pat Warren

      “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. I’m sorry I woke you.”

      Laura shivered.

      Sean caught that and said slowly, “Why don’t you snuggle down and get some rest? I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”

      Laura marveled at how easily he’d read her mind, that she dreaded being alone after a nightmare. Scooting down inside the covers, she let him arrange her pillows more comfortably. “Thank you,” she whispered, and closed her eyes.

      Sean lay gazing at her in the dim glow of the night-light. She was every bit as lovely as he’d said she was. And she was going through a bad time. She needed someone to help her through it. And as he settled in with his arms around her, he thought that maybe he was that someone.

      There was that protective urge again. He hadn’t felt that way in a very long time.

      Maybe it was a good sign.

      Dear Reader,

      During the warm days of July, what better way to kick back and enjoy the best of summer reading than with six stellar stories from Special Edition as we continue to celebrate Silhouette’s 20th Anniversary all year long!

      With The Pint-Sized Secret, Sherryl Woods continues to delight her readers with another winning installment of her popular miniseries AND BABY MAKES THREE: THE DELACOURTS OF TEXAS. Reader favorite Lindsay McKenna starts her new miniseries, MORGAN’S MERCENARIES: MAVERICK HEARTS, with Man of Passion, her fiftieth book. A stolen identity leads to true love in Patricia Thayer’s compelling Whose Baby Is This? And a marriage of convenience proves to be anything but in rising star Allison Leigh’s Married to a Stranger in her MEN OF THE DOUBLE-C RANCH miniseries. Rounding off the month is celebrated author Pat Warren’s Doctor and the Debutante, where the healthy dose of romance is just what the physician ordered, while for the heroine in Beth Henderson’s Maternal Instincts, a baby-sitting assignment turns into a practice run for motherhood—and marriage.

      Hope you enjoy this book and the other unforgettable stories Special Edition is happy to bring you this month!

      All the best,

      Karen Taylor Richman,

      Senior Editor

      Doctor and the Debutante

      Pat Warren

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      This book is dedicated to Brooks Rector, a dear friend of my husband’s for years, and now mine, too.

      Happy reading!

      Books by Pat Warren

      Silhouette Special Edition

      With This Ring #375

      Final Verdict #410

      Look Homeward, Love #442

      Summer Shadows #458

      The Evolution of Adam #480

      Build Me a Dream #514

      The Long Road Home #548

      The Lyon and the Lamb #582

      My First Love, My Last #610

      Winter Wishes #632

      Till I Loved You #659

      An Uncommon Love #678

      Under Sunny Skies #731

      That Hathaway Woman #758

      Simply Unforgettable #797

      This I Ask of You #815

      On Her Own #841

      A Bride for Hunter #893

      Nobody’s Child #974

      *A Home for Hannah #1048

      *Keeping Kate #1060

      Daddy’s Home #1157

      Stranded on the Ranch #1199

      Daddy by Surprise #1301

      Doctor and the Debutante #1337

      Silhouette Romance

      Season of the Heart #553

      Silhouette Intimate Moments

      Perfect Strangers #288

      Only the Lonely #605

      *Michael’s House #737

      Stand-In Father #855

      Silhouette Books

      Montana Mavericks

      Outlaw Lovers #6

      PAT WARREN,

      mother of four, lives in Arizona with her travel agent husband and a lazy white cat. She’s a former newspaper columnist whose lifetime dream was to become a novelist. A strong romantic streak, a sense of humor and a keen interest in developing relationships led her to try romance novels, with which she feels very much at home.

      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 One

      The snow had been coming down for at least three hours, lightly at first, then more heavily. Hands in the back pockets of his corduroy slacks, Sean Reagan stood looking out the front window of his cabin in the Gray Mountains of Arizona, a frown on his face as he watched the wind hurl a mound of snow onto the porch. The temperature had undoubtedly dropped since he’d taken a walk several hours ago. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly the weather could change in winter this far north.

      Then again, what difference did the weather make? Sean thought as he crossed the big open room and bent to throw another log into the fireplace. He was inside, warm and safe. And alone, at least for this second week in February, a ritual he’d begun four years ago. Fortunately Dr. Jonah Evans, his partner in their busy OB-GYN medical practice, understood Sean’s need to get away at this particular time and covered for him.

      It wasn’t a vacation, not really. The thing was Sean hadn’t much use for people who constantly felt sorry