LITMIR.BIZ

       “To the future Duchess of Alzacar!”

      There were gasps across the crowd, the largest of which was probably mine. But Alejandro continued to hold up his flute, so everyone else did, too. He drank deeply, and a thousand guests drank, too. Toasting our engagement.

      My body trembled. All I wanted to do was turn and flee through the crowd, to disappear, never to come back. To be free of him—the man who’d once destroyed me. Who could, if he tried, so easily do it again—and more, since now our child could be used against me.

      But that child also meant, in a very real way, that I was bound to Alejandro for the rest of my life. We both loved Miguel. We both wished to raise him.

      Which meant, no matter how fiercely I wished otherwise, that no matter how I’d tried to deny it I would never be truly free of Alejandro—ever.

       Dear Reader

      For my twenty-first book for Harlequin Mills & Boon^® I wanted to try something new. I wanted my heroine, Lena Carlisle, to be able to tell her own story—in her own words.

      Writing the book, I wanted to feel the joy and anguish and passion of her story as directly as if it were happening to me. I wanted to be gripped with emotion as I went, with Lena, from being neglected and ignored—’invisible,’ as she says, ‘like a ghost in my own home’—to becoming, through the love of a wealthy, handsome Spanish duke, the strong, beloved woman she was always born to be.

      Alejandro’s thoughts are never directly revealed in the story, but I hope you can still feel his anger and grief and passion, as Lena does. And come to love him as I did.

      Lena has nothing but her baby, her courage and a pure heart; Alejandro has money, wealth and power, but is in danger of losing his soul. She is the only one who can save him. She can give him hope, and give him a future, with her love. If he’ll just let her in …

      I hope you enjoy their story.

      With love

       Jennie Lucas

      Uncovering Her Nine Month Secret

      Jennie Lucas

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      JENNIE LUCAS grew up dreaming about faraway lands. At fifteen, hungry for experience beyond the borders of her small Idaho city, she went to a Connecticut boarding school on scholarship. She took her first solo trip to Europe at sixteen, then put off college and travelled around the US, supporting herself with jobs as diverse as gas station cashier and newspaper advertising assistant.

      At twenty-two she met the man who would be her husband. After their marriage she graduated from Kent State with a degree in English. Seven years after she started writing she got the magical call from London that turned her into a published author.

      Since then life has been hectic, with a new writing career, a sexy husband and two small children, but she’s having a wonderful (albeit sleepless) time. She loves immersing herself in dramatic, glamorous, passionate stories. Maybe she can’t physically travel to Morocco or Spain right now, but for a few hours a day, while her children are sleeping, she can be there in her books.

      Jennie loves to hear from her readers. You can visit her website at www.jennielucas.com, or drop her a note at [email protected]

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      To Pete

      Contents

       Cover

       Introduction

      Dear 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

       Extract

       Endpages

       Copyright

       PROLOGUE

      HE SEDUCED ME EASILY. He broke down my defenses as if they were paper. You wouldn’t have been able to resist, either, believe me.

      After so many years of feeling like a ghost in my own home, invisible, unloved, I think I would have fallen into his arms for one dark glance—one husky word. But Alejandro gave me so much more than that. He looked at me as if I were the most beautiful woman on earth. Listened to me as if every word on my lips was poetry. He pulled me into his arms, made me burst into flame, kissed my grief and cares away. After so many years of living in a cold gray world, my life exploded into color—because of him.

      There was no reason why the Duque de Alzacar, one of the richest men in Spain, would want someone like me—plain, poor—rather than my beautiful, wealthy cousin. I thought it was a miracle.

      It was only later that I realized why Alejandro had chosen me. He hadn’t seduced me out of love—or even lust. It was many months before I realized the selfish reason that had caused him to overwhelm me with his charm, to dazzle me, to make me love him.

      But by then, it was too late.

       CHAPTER ONE

      THE GRAY, LOWERING sky was falling like a shroud across the old colonial city of San Miguel de Allende when I heard the words I’d feared in nightmares

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