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      She had a monster headache and her ears were ringing from the explosion.

      Lindsey sat on the examining table, her bare legs dangling beneath the short hem of the hospital gown. Dan stood beside her, where he’d been almost the entire time since she’d arrived. It had been a near miracle that neither she nor anyone else was seriously injured.

      Finally the doctors allowed Dan to drive her home. Reluctantly listening to his orders and taking her medicine, she said, “There. Are you happy?”

      He gently lifted a hand to the bandage on her forehead. “How can you even ask me that when you look like this?”

      A wave of warmth flooded through her, making her knees weak. It was hard to be sensible and levelheaded when he said things like that. When he looked at her that way.

      Then he abruptly stepped back. “Now, get into bed. You need to rest.”

      “Fine.” She surrendered with a yawn. Lindsey just wished she knew exactly what lay behind Dan’s tender solicitations. Friendship—or more?

      Dear Reader,

      Silhouette Books publishes many stars in romance fiction, but now we want to make you a star! Tell us in 500 words or less how Silhouette makes love come alive for you. Look inside for details of our “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest—you could win a luxurious weekend in New York!

      Reader favorite Gina Wilkins’s love comes alive year after year with over sixty Harlequin and Silhouette romances to her credit. Though her first two manuscripts were rejected, she pursued her goal of becoming a writer. And she has this advice to offer to aspiring authors: “First, read everything you can, not just from the romance genre. Study pacing and characterization,” Gina says. “Then, forget everything you’ve read and create something that is your own. Never imitate.” Gina’s Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? is available this month. When a small-town reporter is guilty of loving the police chief from afar and then tries to make a quick getaway, will the busy chief be too busy with the law to notice love?

      And don’t miss these great romances from Special Edition. In Sherryl Woods’s Courting the Enemy, a widow who refused to sell her ranch to a longtime archrival has a different plan when it comes to her heart. Tall, Dark and Difficult is the only way to describe the handsome former test pilot hero of Patricia Coughlin’s latest novel. When Marsh Bravo is reunited with his love and discovers the child he never knew, The Marriage Agreement by Christine Rimmer is the only solution! Her Hand-Picked Family by Jennifer Mikels is what the heroine discovers when her search for her long-lost sister leads to a few lessons in love. And sparks fly when her mysterious new lover turns out to be her new boss in Jean Brashear’s Millionaire in Disguise!

      Enjoy this month’s lineup. And don’t forget to look inside for exciting details of the “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest.

      Best,

      Karen Taylor Richman,

      Senior Editor

      Bachelor Cop Finally Caught?

      Gina Wilkins

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For Sally, still crazy after all these years.

      GINA WILKINS

      is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than fifty books for Harlequin and Silhouette. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

      A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA Today bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times Magazine.

      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 Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter One

      Twenty-six candles blazed on the birthday cake in front of Lindsey. A roomful of people crowded around the table at her friend Serena’s to watch her blow them out. All too aware of the one person who wasn’t there—Dan Meadows—she drew in a deep breath and efficiently extinguished all the tiny flames. Her audience applauded enthusiastically.

      “Happy birthday, Lindsey.” Serena Schaffer North, the party’s hostess, gave her friend a quick hug as she spoke.

      Lindsey responded warmly. “Thank you. It’s a great party, Serena.”

      “It is, isn’t it?” Visibly satisfied, Serena cast a quick glance around the roomful of chattering, laughing guests. “I’m so glad everyone could make it.”

      Not everyone, Lindsey couldn’t help thinking.

      As if she’d developed a sudden, disconcerting talent for mind reading, Serena said, “I wish Dan was here. He said he would try.”

      “He’s probably out beating the bushes for clues about the firebug.”

      “Probably.” With a frown, Serena shook her head. “I hope he catches the guy soon. Dan’s starting to look so stressed lately. Frankly, I think he needs a vacation.”

      “So do I.” Lindsey remembered the lines that were slowly carving themselves around Dan’s eyes and mouth. Dan needed more in his life than his work. He needed a reason to go home at night.

      So did she.

      Serena’s husband of almost three months, Cameron North—Lindsey’s boss and editor at the newspaper—joined them just then, sliding his arm around his wife’s waist. “Aren’t you going to have any of your own birthday cake, Lindsey? You’d better hurry or those vultures will eat it all up before you get any.”

      “Someone will save me a slice.” Not particularly concerned about the cake, Lindsey studied the quiet contentment on the faces of the couple in front of her.

      Serena and Cameron had met under extraordinary circumstances—she’d found him lying on the side of a road, beaten half to death, with no memory of who he was or how he’d gotten there. Just about five months later they were married. Cameron had recovered most of his memories of his past, but he had told Lindsey without embarrassment that, as far as he was concerned, his life hadn’t really begun until he’d awoken in a hospital room to find Serena leaning over him.

      Though she’d teased him about being a sentimental softie, Lindsey had actually been touched by Cameron’s confession. She’d also been aware of a ripple of envy. Serena and Cam had known so quickly that they were right for each other. How could it have been that easy?

      Okay, so she knew it hadn’t been that easy. She had seen the way Serena suffered during the weeks that Cameron had gone back to Texas to rediscover his past, before he’d come to the realization that this was where he wanted to spend his future. But it certainly hadn’t taken him twenty years to learn to appreciate what had been right in front of him.

      Determined not to waste any more of her birthday moping over Dan, she pasted on a

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