His Woman, His Child. BEVERLY BARTON

      “You’re Pregnant With My Child. I Think That Means There’s Something Going On Between Us.” Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Epilogue Copyright

      “You’re Pregnant With My Child. I Think That Means There’s Something Going On Between Us.”

      Hank cupped Susan’s face between his two big hands. “I’ve tried to deny the attraction. But trying to ignore it isn’t going to make it go away.”

      

      “Please.” Tears gathered in her eyes. “Please don’t do this.”

      

      He kissed her forehead. “Do you think I want to feel this way?” He kissed one of her cheeks and then the other. She trembled from head to toe. “Do you think it’s easy for me to admit that I want my best friend’s widow?”

      

      Susan opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a choked gasp. Tears spilled from her eyes, ran down her face and onto his hands.

      

      “You want me, too, don’t you, honey?” He urged her face upward until she met his gaze. “You’re as hungry for me as I am for you.”

      Dear Reader,

      

      April brings showers, and this month Silhouette Desire wants to shower you with six new, passionate love stories!

      

      Cait London’s popular Blaylock family returns in our April MAN OF THE MONTH title, Blaylock’s Bride. Honorable Roman Blaylock grapples with a secret that puts him in a conflict between confiding in the woman he loves and fulfilling a last wish.

      

      The provocative series FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE BRIDES continues with Leanne Banks’s The Secretary and the Millionaire, when a wealthy CEO turns to his assistant for help in caring for his little girl.

      

      Beverly Barton’s next tale in her 3 BABIES FOR 3 BROTHERS miniseries, His Woman, His Child shows a rugged heartbreaker transformed by the heroine’s pregnancy. Powerful sheikhs abound in Sheikh’s Ransom, the Desire debut title of Alexandra Sellers’s dramatic new series, SONS OF THE DESERT. A marine gets a second chance at love in Colonel Daddy, continuing

      

      Maureen Child’s popular series BACHELOR BATTALION. And in Christy Lockhart’s Let’s Have a Baby!, our BACHELORS AND BABIES selection, the hero must dissuade the heroine from going to a sperm bank and convince her to let him father her child—the old-fashioned way!

      

      Allow Silhouette Desire to give you the ultimate indulgence—all six of these fabulous April romance books!

      

      Enjoy!

      

      Joan Marlow Golan

      Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

      Please address questions and book requests to:

      Silhouette Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

      His Woman, His Child

      Beverly Barton

      

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      BEVERLY BARTON

       has been in love with romance since her grandfather gave her an illustrated copy of Beauty and the Beast. An avid reader since childhood, she began writing at the age of nine and wrote short stories, poetry, plays and novels throughout high school and college. After marriage to her own “hero” and the births of her daughter and son, she chose to be a full-time homemaker, a.k.a. wife, mother, friend and volunteer.

      When she returned to writing, she joined Romance Writers of America and helped found the Heart of Dixie chapter in Alabama. Since the release of her first Silhouette book in 1990, she has won the GRW Maggie Award and the National Readers’ Choice Award and has been a RITA Award finalist. Beverly considers writing romance books a real labor of love. Her stories come straight from the heart, and she hopes that all the strong and varied emotions she invests in her books will be felt by everyone who reads them.

      In loving memory of Christine Byrd Hardin,

      who had a passion for books. And to precious little Hannah Christine Files, named in honor of her great-grandmother.

      One

      I’m pregnant.

      Hank could hear Susan’s voice inside his head, telling him the one thing he hadn’t wanted to hear. He’d been so sure the first try hadn’t been successful, that fate wouldn’t be so cruel.

      When he’d arrived at the funeral home last night and gone straight to her—his best friend’s widow—she had taken his hand and squeezed it firmly.

      “Thank you for coming, Hank,” she had said, her voice quivering. “Lowell loved you like a brother.”

      Pain had sliced through him as if he’d been stabbed with a dull blade. But he hadn’t flinched. Holding Susan’s hand securely in his, he’d wished he could think of something—anything—to say that would lessen her sorrow. But there were no words to soothe the agony of a woman who had just lost her husband.

      “Lowell was the finest man I’ve ever known,” he had told her. “I’d have done anything for him.”

      “Yes, I know.”

      Their gazes locked and held, the unspoken message a secret each held within their hearts. They had both loved Lowell. They had both wanted to give him the one thing he’d longed for and couldn’t have.

      With her hand still in his, Susan had led Hank aside, leaned close and whispered in his ear, “I’m pregnant. We just found out two days ago. Lowell tried several times to call you.”

      Hank had felt his muscles freeze, his heartbeat accelerate. His mind had screamed, No. A thousand times no. Not now. Not when Lowell wouldn’t be around to take care of Susan and the child.

      “I was away on an assignment,” he’d told her.

      Before