That Marriageable Man!

That Marriageable Man!
Barbara Boswell

MAN of the Month MR. JUNEThat Marriageable Man: Tall, dark and very sexy Rafe Paradise was single and satisfied - until he "inherited" four mischievous kidsHis Ultimate Dilemma: Being a devoted dad without getting hitchedThat Marriageable Woman: Next-door darling Holly Casale.She knew exactly what Rafe needed - her! Rafe was determined to be an exceptional single father. But keeping his mind strictly on fatherhood was impossible with luscious Holly offering helpful parenting hints. Besides, Rafe was more interested in what his eligible neighbor knew about making children than raising them.But taking her as his lover would mean making her his wife! And marriage was the farthest thing from his mind - wasn't it?MAN OF THE MONTH: This seductive bachelor finds love - under his very roof!

“Go Away And Leave Me Alone.” (#uc5fbc6a3-f865-5586-8c9b-246874ccc9a4)Letter to Reader (#u02017f07-c3cc-59f1-822f-27c651d5eca7)Title Page (#u5e1aeb89-835c-580e-86ad-af6c57dfce36)About the Author (#u43aef793-5902-596e-9bb6-f24eeabc4d75)Chapter One (#u333f10a9-7c0c-54ab-aa72-6e8a23668bf9)Chapter Two (#u3f5e8097-3ef3-5d21-b316-98d516668df7)Chapter Three (#uf75b043e-ef0d-5b5c-8a64-971c66e0e715)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Go Away And Leave Me Alone.”

“What if I did?” Rafe crossed the kitchen, stopping when he was directly behind Holly. “Wouldn’t you hate it if I left you alone?”

“No. It’s what I want,” she insisted.

“What about what I want?” Her mouth was moist and softly swollen, her eyes glazed and slumberous. Bedroom eyes, he thought. “I want you, Holly. I want to make love to you. I’ve been waiting for the right time, and that is now. We’ve spent every day together for nearly a month. You can’t say we don’t know each other well.”

Holly twined her arms around his neck, her fingers combing through his sleek dark hair. She didn’t want him to go away and leave her alone—ever....

Dear Reader,

This month, Silhouette Desire celebrates sensuality. All six steamy novels perfectly describe those unique pleasures that gratify our senses, like seeing the lean body of a cowboy at work, smelling his earthy scent, tasting his kiss...and hearing him say, “I love you.”

Feast your eyes on June’s MAN OF THE MONTH, the tall, dark and incredibly handsome single father of four in beloved author Barbara Boswell’s That Marriageable Man! In bestselling author Lass Small’s continuing series, THE KEEPERS OF TEXAS, a feisty lady does her best to tame a reckless cowboy and he winds up unleashing her wild side in The Hard-To-Tame Texan. And a dating service guarantees delivery of a husband-to-be in Non-Refundable Groom by ultrasexy writer Patty Salier.

Plus, Modean Moon unfolds the rags-to-riches story of an honorable lawman who fulfills a sudden socialite’s deepest secret desire in Overnight Heiress In Catherine Lanigan’s Montana Bride, a bachelor hero introduces love and passion to a beautiful virgin. And a rugged cowboy saves a jilted lady in The Cowboy Who Came in From the Cold by Pamela Macaluso.

These six passionate stories are sure to leave you tingling... and anticipating next month’s sensuous selections. Enjoy!

Regards,

Melissa Senate

Senior Editor

Silhouette Books

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

That Marriageable Man!

Barbara Boswell

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

BARBARA BOSWELL

loves writing about families. “I guess family has been a big influence on my writing,” she says. “I particularly enjoy writing about how my characters’ family relationships affect them.”

When Barbara isn’t writing and reading, she’s spending time with her own family—her husband, three daughters and three cats, who she concedes are the true bosses of their home! She has lived in Europe, but now makes her home in Pennsylvania. She collects miniatures and holiday ornaments, tries to avoid exercise and has somehow found the time to write over twenty category romances.

One

“Holly, are you sure you want to do it? You really want to go there?” Brenna Worth studied her longtime friend Holly Casale, not bothering to mask her concern. Or her disbelief.

“Not you, too!” Holly shook her head and managed a laugh. A slight one. “I’ve been defending my decision to the family for weeks, and I hoped I wouldn’t have to do it with you, Brenna. Can’t you be happy for me? It’s a great opportunity. I’ll be the only psychiatrist with the Widmark family practice, which is one of the biggest in the city, so I won’t have to go begging for referrals like a newcomer normally would. And I’ve already been asked to serve as a volunteer with the Teens At Risk Task Force and a peer counseling program at one of the high schools.”

“All that’s in addition to your job? Sounds like they plan to run you ragged with volunteering.”

“It’s an ideal way for me to get involved with the community and to work with kids. You know that’s my main field of interest, Brenna.”

“Troubled teens aren’t kids, they’re hazards—to be avoided,” stated Brenna. “I’m so disappointed you aren’t moving back here, Holly. Your mom said you had three good offers all within an hour’s drive. It would be great if we lived in the same area again! And to be perfectly honest with you, how happy can I be when your new job is in South Dakota?”

“Careful, Brenna, you’re starting to sound like my mother. When I told Mom I was moving to Sioux Falls her first words were, ‘If you want to move to a place far away with bad weather, why not Alaska? At least there is supposed to be a surplus of eligible men.’”

“And then, inevitably, one of your aunts chimed in with...?” prompted Brenna. She knew Holly’s family well.

“Aunt Hedy said, ‘With the shortage of marriageable women in Alaska, you’re bound to find a man up there, dear,’” Holly quoted with a wry smile.

Brenna sighed. “They just don’t give up, do they?”

“No. And they won’t until I’m either married or dead. I’ve already received five copies of The Rules. In hardcover.” Holly opened her closet door and brought out multiple copies of the book, which offered women advice on how to coyly lure Mr. Right to the altar.

“Mom bought me the book the day it appeared in the stores. Then Aunt Hedy and Aunt Honoria each gave me one. The copies from my cousins Hillary and Heather arrived in the mail on the same day. My sister keeps quizzing me on the contents to see if I’ve read the book yet. The whole family firmly believes I need all the help I can get when it comes to landing a husband.”

“Subtlety has never been your family’s strong suit, Holly.”

“Not where men and marriage are concerned. Feel free to keep a copy for yourself, Bren.” Holly chuckled. “After all, you’re still single, too. You might find some useful pointers if you decide you want to acquire a—”

“Don’t even joke about it!” Brenna cut in, backing away from the books as if they were radioactive. “I acquire companies, not men. My career keeps me way too busy to even think about the noxious pursuit of husband-hunting.”

“My family would consider that blasphemy. Or maybe insanity.” Holly’s smile faded a little. “You see why I can’t come back home to work, don’t you, Brenna? I love my family dearly, but my visits here over the years have already given me a taste of what it would be like if 1 lived among my relatives full-time.”

Brenna knew. “An endless succession of setups with any man deemed marriageable by your mother and your sister, and your aunts and cousins.”

“And their idea of an eligible bachelor runs a wide gamut, from the twenty-two-year-old video games fanatic to the sixty-one-year-old widower who owns his own real estate agency and has two daughters older than me.” Holly heaved a reminiscent groan.

The heart knows no age limit, Aunt Hedy had said blithely. She was the one who’d fixed Holly up with the real estate agent, already a grandfather five times over.

A young man needs the guiding hand of a loving older woman, said Aunt Honoria. The video games nut, a college student who’d looked and acted not a day over sixteen, had been her contribution to the collective Marry-Off-Holly effort.

Your aunts love you, they care about you, they know a woman isn’t happy without a husband. Helene Casale, Holly’s mother, made no apologies for her two sisters’ matchmaking attempts.

No wonder. Mom had been responsible for her own selection of dud blind dates for Holly. The pet shop owner whose sole topics of conversation were tropical fish and reptiles. The lawyer who specialized in personal injury suits and bribed ambulance drivers to beep him so he could arrive at accident scenes to pass out his cards. There had been others, though none quite as memorably horrific.

Holly’s older sister Hope and their cousins, Hillary, Heather, and Hayley—all married—had also done their share for “The Cause” over the years, producing a contingent of men whom Holly was lovingly bullied into meeting. Sometimes the men actually were nice, normal and perfectly adequate human beings. Sometimes there would be second dates and even a few more after that.