LITMIR.BIZ

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Claiming King’s Baby

      by

      MAUREEN CHILD is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. The author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur. Visit Maureen’s website at www.maureenchild.com.

      To the Estrada Family:

      Steve, Rose, Alicia, Lettie, Patti and Amanda.

      Good friends. Great neighbours.

      We love you guys.

      Dear Reader,

      I can’t tell you how much I enjoy writing about the King family! And I’m delighted that so many of you are enjoying them as much as I do.

      Writing about this extended family is always an adventure, because no matter what, the King men always manage to surprise me.

      Take Justice King for example: a typical rancher on the surface, but underneath, Justice is a man haunted by the past and tormented by the fact that he allowed the woman he loved to walk out on him.

      Maggie Ryan King is the perfect match for Justice. She’s loyal and stubborn and determined to make her soon-to-be-ex-husband pay for letting what they’d had together slip away.

      As a physical therapist, Maggie’s temporarily back at King Ranch, helping Justice recover from a riding accident. But while his body heals, his heart is being steamrolled. By the one woman he can never forget.

      These two have a lot of things to work through – and secrets to reveal – and I really hope you enjoy their story!

      Happy reading,

       Maureen

      Chapter One

      Justice King opened the front door and faced his past.

      She stood there staring at him out of pale blue eyes he’d tried desperately to forget. Her long, light red hair whipped around her head in a cold, fierce wind, and her delectable mouth curved into a cynical half smile.

      “Hello, Justice,” said a voice that haunted his dreams. “Been a while.”

      Eight months and twenty-five days, he thought but didn’t say. His gaze moved over her in a quick but thorough inspection. She was tall, with the same stubborn tilt to her chin that he remembered and the same pale sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Her full breasts rose and fell quickly with each of her rapid breaths, and that more than anything else told him she was nervous.

      Well, then, she shouldn’t have come.

      His gaze locked back on hers. “What’re you doing here, Maggie?”

      “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

      “Nope,” he said flatly. One thing he didn’t need was to have her close enough to touch again.

      “Is that any way to talk to your wife?” she asked and walked past him into the ranch house.

      His wife.

      Automatically, his left thumb moved to play with the gold wedding band he’d stopped wearing the day he had allowed her to walk away. Memories crashed into his mind, and he closed his eyes against the onslaught.

      But nothing could stop the images crowding his brain. Maggie, naked, stretched out on his bed, welcoming him. Maggie, shouting at him through her tears. Maggie, leaving without a backward glance. And last, Justice saw himself, closing the door behind her and just as firmly shuttering away his heart.

      Nothing had changed.

      They were still the same people they’d been when they married and when they split.

      So he pulled himself together, and closed the front door behind them. Then he turned to face her.

      Watery winter sunlight poured from the skylight onto the gleaming wood floors and glanced off the mirror hanging on the closest wall. A pedestal table held an empty cobalt vase—there’d been no flowers in this hall since Maggie left—and the silence in the house slammed down on top of them both.

      Seconds

Скачать книгу