The Virgin Bride Said, 'Wow!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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      “I’m talking about a marriage of convenience here, a business arrangement.”

      Brady gave her a hard look that challenged her veracity as he settled back against the headboard.

      “We’re partners,” Kelsey continued stubbornly.

      “And man and wife,” he muttered in a low tone that carried no farther than their bed, “who—thanks to your impulsiveness—are now sharing a bed for the night.”

      “What choice did we have?” Still holding on to the covers, she clamped her arms in front of her and stared straight ahead. “I am not giving up this ranch.”

      “Well, there we agree, anyway,” Brady said, lying down and stretching out beside her.

      Was it her imagination, Kelsey wondered, or was this bedroom getting smaller and more intimate by the minute? Beside her, Brady shifted around and sighed loudly. Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Now what’s wrong?”

      “This bed is awfully small….”

      Dear Reader,

      Spring is the perfect time to celebrate the joy of romance. So get set to fall in love as Harlequin American Romance brings you four new spectacular books.

      First, we’re happy to welcome New York Times bestselling author Kasey Michaels to the Harlequin American Romance family. She inaugurates TEXAS SHEIKHS, our newest in-line continuity, with His Innocent Temptress. This four-book series focuses on a Texas family with royal Arabian blood who must fight to reunite their family and reclaim their rightful throne.

      Also, available this month, The Virgin Bride Said, “Wow!” by Cathy Gillen Thacker, a delightful marriage-of-convenience story and the latest installment in THE LOCKHARTS OF TEXAS miniseries. Kara Lennox provides fireworks as a beautiful young woman who’s looking for Mr. Right sets out to Tame an Older Man following the advice of 2001 WAYS TO WED, a book guaranteed to provide satisfaction! And Have Baby, Need Beau says it all in Rita Herron’s continuation of her wonderful THE HARTWELL HOPE CHESTS series.

      Enjoy April’s selections and come back next month for more love stories filled with heart, home and happiness from Harlequin American Romance.

      Wishing you happy reading,

      Melissa Jeglinski

      Associate Senior Editor

      Harlequin American Romance

      The Virgin Bride Said, “Wow!”

      Cathy Gillen Thacker

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Cathy Gillen Thacker is a full-time wife/mother/author who began typing stories for her own amusement during “nap time” when her children were toddlers. Twenty years and more than fifty published novels later, Cathy is almost as well-known for her witty romantic comedies and warm family stories as she is for her ability to get grass stains and red clay out of almost anything, her triple-layer brownies and her knack for knowing what her three grown and nearly grown children are up to almost before they do! Her books have made numerous appearances on bestseller lists and are now published in seventeen languages and thirty-five countries around the world.

      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

      “They turned us down again, didn’t they?” Brady Anderson guessed, as Kelsey Lockhart strode across the sunny pasture toward him, her cheeks pink with temper, her tousled hair glowing as cinnamon-red as the leaves in the maple trees around them.

      Kelsey’s long slender legs continued eating up the ground until she reached his side. Tipping her flat-brimmed hat back off her forehead, she met his searching gaze and reported unhappily, “Yep, they sure did. That’s the fifteenth bank that’s said no to us because we didn’t have enough collateral.”

      Brady grinned, trying, as always, when he was this close to her, not to notice how very pretty Kelsey was in an outdoorsy, lady rancher sort of way. Personally, he’d never been much for redheads. They were a bit too temperamental for his taste. And Kelsey Lockhart, the youngest of the four delectable Lockhart sisters of Laramie, Texas, was that, for sure. But there was something about the pale gold freckles dotting her smooth golden skin, the lusciousness of her full lips that had his gaze returning to her face again and again. Chuckling, he looked into her dark green eyes, which were now flashing with both frustration and impatience, as he commiserated humorously, “You’d think we’d get the hint, wouldn’t you?”

      Kelsey leaned against the part of the aging wooden fence he hadn’t yet treated with wood preservative. Unlike him, she refused to take this latest rejection in stride. She folded her arms in front of her contentiously and glared at him, wanting answers. Now. This instant. “What are we going to do?” Her expressive red brows slammed down over her long-lashed eyes. “We can’t buy the rest of the horses and cattle unless we get a loan. And since no bank will give it to us, and we haven’t had the resources to make a killing in the stock market again…” Kelsey’s voice trailed off in discouragement.

      Brady shared Kelsey’s frustration about that, since it was a talent for investing that had drawn them together initially and enabled them both to come up with the cash for the down payment on their ranch the previous summer. If they had another six months and enough seed money to get started, maybe they could do it again. Maybe. But they didn’t have either the time or the seed money. Which left them fewer options. Brady put down his brush and wiped his hands with the cloth he had looped into his belt. The rest of the painting would have to wait. “Then we look for a venture capitalist to underwrite the rest of our setup expenses,” Brady said, having already anticipated just such a move being necessary. He put the lid back on the bucket of wood preservative, picked up his brush and gave Kelsey a confidence-inspiring look. “And I know just the one.”

      An hour later, Kelsey and Brady were sitting in Wade McCabe’s office on the Golden Slipper ranch that he shared with his wife, Josie.

      A stellar businessman himself, Wade listened patiently to their plans for expanding Kelsey’s horse-riding stables and Brady’s cattle operation, and reviewed their business plans, which Brady knew full well were solid as a rock. And then Wade zeroed in on the same thing all the bankers had. “Unfortunately, the two of you aren’t married,” Wade said, with a disapproving frown.

      “So?” Kelsey said, spoiling for a fight about that—one of many they’d had with literally everyone who had learned how they’d impulsively pooled their resources so they could make their individual dreams of owning their own ranch come true, sooner rather than later.

      “That’s true,” Brady interrupted coolly, putting up a hand before Kelsey could go all contentious and argumentative on them. He looked Wade straight in the eye. “But we did buy back the ranch that belonged to her folks. We’ve been in partnership for four months now. That ought to count for something.” Especially since most people in Laramie hadn’t thought he and Kelsey would last more than a few weeks together, at most.

      Wade sighed and handed back their business plan. “Look, Brady, I know you’re a good man and a talented cowboy—otherwise