The Forbidden Bride-To-Be. Kathryn Taylor

      Alex obviously wanted her. Letter to Reader Title Page About the Author Dedication Prologue 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 Teaser chapter Copyright

      Alex obviously wanted her.

      He hadn’t gone out of his way to hide his desire for her. Or his distrust. A distrust he had every reason to feel. She silently cursed Damon for putting her in this position, but she was as much to blame for perpetuating the lie.

      

      She gazed into his eyes. She was free to tell him the truth and then they could move on with their relationship. Why did she hold back?

      

      She would only be here until the end of the week. Did she really want to get in any deeper? Could she stop herself? If her feelings for him were purely physical, she could deal with an affair. But her emotions were becoming involved. Alex touched her in a place no one else had been able to reach before.

      

      Her heart.

      

      And it frightened her more than she cared to admit.

      Dear Reader,

      

      Hectic life? Too much to do, too little time? Well, Silhouette Desire provides you with the perfect emotional getaway with this month’s moving stories of men and women finding love and passion. So relax, pick up a Desire novel and let yourself escape, with six wonderful, involving, totally absorbing romances.

      

      Ultratalented author Mary Lynn Baxter kicks off November with her sultry Western style in Slow Talkin’Texan, the story of a MAN OF THE MONTH whose strong desires collide with an independent lady—she’s silk to his denim, lace to his leather... and doing all she can to resist this irresistible tycoon. A smalltown lawman who rescues a “lost” beauty might just find his own Christmas bride in Jennifer Greene’s heartwarming Her Holiday Secret. Ladies, watch closely as a Thirty-Day Fiancé is transformed into a forever husband in Leanne Banks’s third book in THE RULEBREAKERS miniseries.

      

      Don’t dare miss the intensity of an innocent wife trying to seduce her honor-bound husband in The Oldest Living Married Virgin, the latest in Maureen Child’s spectacular miniseries THE BACHELOR BATTALION. And when a gorgeous exmarine shows up at his old flame’s ranch to round up the “wife who got away,” he discovers a daughter he never knew in The Re-Enlisted Groom by Amy J. Fetzer. The Forbidden Bride-to-Be may be off-limits...but isn’t that what makes the beautiful heroine in Kathryn Taylor’s scandal-filled novel all the more tempting?

      

      This November, Silhouette Desire is the place to live, love and lose yourself...to sensual romance. Enjoy!

      

      Warm regards,

      

      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

      The Forbidden Bride-To-Be

      Kathryn Taylor

      

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      KATHRYN TAYLOR

      

      has a passion for romance novels that began in her late teens and left her with an itch to discover the world. After living in places as culturally diverse as Athens, Greece, and Cairo, Egypt (where she met and married her own romantic hero), she returned to the States, and she and her husband settled in the quiet village of Warwick, New York. Kathryn says, “Although my writing allows my mind to soar in the clouds, I have an energetic eleven-year-old who keeps my feet planted on the ground.”

      For my critique partner, Karen,

      to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude

      Prologue

      A light wind rustled the black lace curtains at the door, causing the candles to flicker. Sophie Anders adjusted the shawl on her shoulders. Golden threads shimmered in the candlelight. The heavy scent of sandalwood incense tickled her nostrils and she had to stifle a sneeze.

      The carousel’s Wurlitzer organ piped out a hauntingly familiar song on the midway. She raked a handful of curls back from her face and smiled at the handsome man sitting in the folding chair across from her. “Why do you want to introduce me to your family as your fiancée? We’re not even dating.”

      Damon Winston grinned sheepishly. “The family is nagging me about getting married, so I sort of told them I had a fiancée.”

      She glanced down at her white peasant blouse and red swirling skirt. “And I’m the best you could come up with? They’ll never buy it.”

      “Actually, you’re the worst I could come up with, and I don’t want them to buy it. I want them to oppose it.”

      “Why, thank you.” She punched his shoulder in mock exasperation.

      “You know I didn’t mean that as an insult. To my family, a nonconformist is someone who wears white after Labor Day. You would be an alien being.”

      Sophie knew better than to be insulted. She had worked for Damon while in college, and their friendship had begun in part due to their mutual enjoyment of taunting each other. She credited their enduring relationship to the fact that she had never gotten romantically involved with him.

      “Why don’t you just tell them you don’t want to get married? I, for one, would vouch for your poor character—fidelity not being one of your strongest suits.”

      “Come on, Sophie. I’ve never asked you for anything.”

      “What about all those double shifts you had me pull at the restaurant?”

      Damon gave her one of those charming smiles that usually