The Doctor's Little Secret. Jacqueline Diamond

      “The problem is…”

      He stopped.

      Rachel waited for him to gather his thoughts. No hurry. Besides, she was enjoying the electricity in the air and the guy’s low-key yet unmistakable masculinity—a refreshing change from the macho specimens she knew.

      “Lauren’s mother insists that she belongs in a family,” Russ explained. “She remembers me the way I was five years ago, not remotely ready for parenting.”

      “How did you change her mind?” This ought to be interesting.

      He cleared his throat. “I told her I was engaged.”

      That was weird. “To who?”

      “Well…you.”

      Dear Reader,

      The story of Russ and Rachel launches a new series about police officers and children. It actually began as two separate ideas.

      First I pictured a woman who had survived a terrible car crash and was finally getting her life on track ten years later. She and her two closest friends volunteered at a homework center and became involved in the lives of needy children. At age thirty, they’d almost given up on love.

      The second idea concerned three police officers (originally all male) who were reassessing their lives after narrowly escaping death. Each had to tackle an issue concerning children—perhaps a child given up for adoption, or a desire to have a child—now that life had given him a second chance.

      These two ideas mingled in my mind until I realized that they belonged together. In the course of working out the stories, one of the officers became a woman—Rachel—and the man who’d given up a child for adoption became a doctor.

      Subsequent stories concern Rachel’s friend Connie and her next-door nemesis, Hale; and Marta—the accident survivor—and the department’s Romeo, Derek. I hope you enjoy them!

      Best,

      Jacqueline Diamond

      The Doctor’s Little Secret

      Jacqueline Diamond

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      A former Associated Press reporter, Jacqueline Diamond has written more than sixty novels and received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times BOOKreviews. Jackie lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons and two cats. You can e-mail her at [email protected] or visit her Web site at www.jacquelinediamond.com.

      Books by Jacqueline Diamond

      HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

      913—THE IMPROPERLY PREGNANT PRINCESS

      962—DIAGNOSIS: EXPECTING BOSS’S BABY

      971—PRESCRIPTION: MARRY HER IMMEDIATELY

      978—PROGNOSIS: A BABY? MAYBE

      1046—THE BABY’S BODYGUARD

      1075—THE BABY SCHEME

      1094—THE POLICE CHIEF’S LADY*

      1101—NINE-MONTH SURPRISE*

      1109—A FAMILY AT LAST*

      1118—DAD BY DEFAULT*

      1130—THE DOCTOR + FOUR*

      As always, for Kurt

      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

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter One

      Under other circumstances, Rachel Byers might have enjoyed being invited to a party by a couple of guys. Especially great-looking guys with guns.

      Unfortunately, her buddies at the Villazon, California, police department thought of her as one of the boys, with maybe a few minor differences.

      Take this request from Detective Hale Crandall, the beer-bash host: “Yo, Rache, how about bringing a DVD tomorrow night? A chick flick would be fine. Like the kind with mud wrestling.”

      Fine. As long as he didn’t expect her to do the mud wrestling. Speaking of wrestling, she could pin Hale as often as not, and he knew it.

      That might be, she supposed, part of her problem.

      “Bring a couple of girlfriends, too,” suggested Officer Derek Reed, a Brad Pitt clone whose womanizing reputation had earned him the nickname Sergeant Hit and Run from the nurses at the local hospital. “You know my type. Big blond hair, big—” he made a descriptive gesture with his hands “—you get the picture.”

      “If I had girlfriends like that, I wouldn’t let them anywhere near you clowns,” Rachel returned. “Excuse me. Some of us have to patrol. We can’t all work sissy desk jobs.”

      Hale snorted. Derek, who seemed less than thrilled about his recent assignment as head of community relations and public information, scowled.

      Rachel would hate flying a desk. She loved wearing a uniform and a gun, and enjoyed a little physical action now and then to set the juices flowing.

      Too bad she wasn’t getting any