Double the Trouble. Maureen Child

      

       “What exactly do you want, Colt?”

      “That’s easy,” he said. “I want what’s mine.”

      What was his? She knew he didn’t mean that he wanted her, so he was talking about her kids. Her babies.

      Fear coiled around her heart and made breathing almost impossible. But where she might try to run and hide to protect herself—to safeguard her children she was willing to walk into hell itself.

      She watched him through the car window, and when he opened her door to help her out, she looked into his eyes and said, “You can’t have them.”

      * * *

      Double the Trouble is part of the No.1 bestselling series from Mills & Boon^® Desire™— Billionaires & Babies: Powerful men … wrapped around their babies’ little fingers.

      Double

      the Trouble

      Maureen Child

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon^® Desire™ line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told is, in a word, perfect.

      A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA^® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill.

      One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

      Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assures her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

      Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.

      MILLS & BOON

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      To Mills and Boon Desire readers everywhere.

      Thank you so much for embracing the Kings of California—and me. You make it possible for me to do what I most love to do. Tell stories.

      Contents

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Excerpt

      One

      Colton King never saw the fist that slammed into his jaw.

      He shook his head to clear it, then blocked the next punch before it could land. The furious man who’d stormed into Colt’s office only moments before took a step back and ground out, “You had that coming.”

      “What the hell?” Colt dropped his packed duffel bag to the floor. “Had it coming?”

      Colt did a fast mental review and came up empty. He didn’t know this man and he couldn’t think of a single other person who wanted to hit him—at the moment. His always-temporary relationships with women invariably ended amicably. Heck, even he and his twin brother, Connor, hadn’t had a good argument in weeks.

      Yeah, he’d had angry clients show up at the Laguna Beach, California, offices of King’s Extreme Adventures if they didn’t find the monster waves they’d been promised. Or if the dead man’s run on a mountain was closed due to avalanche.

      Colton and Connor arranged adventure vacations for the wealthy adrenaline junkies of the world. So, sure, there had been more than a few times when a customer was mad enough to cause a scene. But not one of them had ever punched him. Before now.

      So the question was, “Who the hell are you?”

      “I called security!” A woman announced from the doorway.

      Colt didn’t even glance at Linda, the admin he and Connor shared. “Thanks. Go get Connor.”

      “On it,” she said, then vanished.

      “Calling security won’t change anything,” the guy who had just punched him said flatly. “You’ll still be a selfish bastard.”

      “Okay,” Colt muttered. Not the first time he’d heard that, either. But a little context would be helpful. “You want to tell me what’s going on here?”

      “That’s what I’d like to know.” Connor stepped into the room to take a stand beside his twin.

      Colt was glad to have him there, though he could have taken the guy who’d gotten in one lucky sucker punch. But probably not good business to have a fistfight here in the office, and having Connor around would help him leash his temper. Besides, fighting wouldn’t give him the answers he wanted. “You took your best shot. Now tell me why.”

      “My name is Robert Oaks.”

      Oaks. Long-buried memories raced through Colt’s mind in a blinding rush. A ball of ice dropped into the pit of his stomach and his body went utterly still. He studied the stranger glaring at him and in those narrowed green eyes, he saw...familiarity.

      Damn it.

      The last time he’d looked into eyes like those had been nearly two years ago. At the end of a week in Vegas that should have been ordinary and instead had been...amazing. One specific memory rose up in his mind and Colt wished to hell he could wipe it away, but he’d