Seducing The Proper Miss Miller

Seducing The Proper Miss Miller
Anne Marie Winston

MARRYING THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTERThad Shippen had no business being anywhere near hallowed ground, and certainly not lusting after chaste Miss Chloe Miller. The virginal do-gooder deserved far better than the town's black sheep for a husband.She deserved a white picket fence, 2.2 kids and a straightlaced man who knew what hearth, home and family were all about. Thad could only make her grist for the gossip mill. But marry her, he did… .When Chloe vowed to love and honor her husband, she truly meant the words. She believed in Thad with all her heart and would defend him till the end. Because this man whom everyone thought was so bad for her was oh, so good… .

Thad Wanted To Get A Ring On Chloe’s Finger Before Anyone Talked Her Out Of Marrying Him. (#u06da64ba-01aa-5aa3-b816-08179d10545c)Letter to Reader (#ub1847712-4fc1-5d5d-9218-e05104650803)Title Page (#u343852d5-45c4-5381-ad17-a7be121e12c5)ANNE MARIE WINSTON (#u33701e77-2592-5f4d-8f03-5d99c746cc3d)Dedication (#u40a2ccac-a250-5b6c-aed2-e4e59d8d73fb)Chapter One (#ubccd2ecf-e51f-5a87-b04b-435cf20eb5b1)Chapter Two (#ud4ac03ec-6ed7-5e2b-b466-efd5bb34a7b6)Chapter Three (#u539ae29c-14a2-5e20-9bff-fefaf3fae677)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)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Thad Wanted To Get A Ring On Chloe’s Finger Before Anyone Talked Her Out Of Marrying Him.

If they waited very long, he was sure she’d have second thoughts.

The idea of living without her had become an impossibility. He loved her funny little notions of propriety in public and her astonishing ability to turn into a wild woman in private—and that was as far as he’d better take that line of thought, if he didn’t want her father to come after him with a gun.

Besides, his reasons for liking Chloe were much more than physical. He liked the way she defended him, and, even more, he had gotten used to the way she defended him, totally and without question. She enhanced his life in more ways than he could count, and there was no chance he was going to let her get away....

Dear Reader,

Silhouette Desire is proud to launch three brand-new, emotional and romantic miniseries this month! We’ve got twin sisters switching places, sexy men who rise above their pasts and a ranching family marrying off their Texas daughters.

Along with our spectacular new miniseries, we’re bringing you Anne McAllister’s latest novel in her bestselling CODE OF THE WEST series, July’s MAN OF THE MONTH selection, The Cowboy Crashes a Wedding. Next, a shy, no-frills librarian leads a fairy-tale life when she masquerades as her twin sister in Barbara McMahon’s Cinderella Twin, book one of her IDENTICAL TWINS! duet In Seducing the Proper Miss Miller by Anne Marie Winston, the town’s black sheep and the minister’s daughter cause a scandal with their sudden wedding.

Sexy Western author Peggy Moreland invites readers to get to know the McCloud sisters and the irresistible men who court them—don’t miss the first TEXAS BRIDES book,

The Rancher’s Spittin’ Image. And a millionaire bachelor discovers his secret heir in The Tycoon’s Son by talented author Shawna Delacorte. A gorgeous loner is keeping quiet about His Most Scandalous Secret in the first book in Susan Crosby’s THE LONE WOLVES miniseries.

So get to know the friends and families in Silhouette Desire’s hottest new miniseries—and watch for more of their love stories in months to come!

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

Anne Marie Winston

Seducing The Proper Miss Miller

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

ANNE MARIE WINSTON

A native Pennsylvanian and former educator, Anne Marie is a book lover, an animal lover and always a teacher at heart. She and her husband have two daughters and a menagerie of four-footed family members. When she’s not parenting, writing or reading, she devotes her time to a variety of educational efforts in her community. Readers can write to Anne Marie at P.O. Box 302, Zullinger, PA 17272.

For Larry

If there are volunteers in Heaven,

you must be one busy guy.

Here’s to trailers!

One

WOW!

Chloe Miller froze, her gaze fixed on the window of her office in the Pennsylvania church where she was employed as administrative assistant. She’d glanced out at the April sky, hoping to see sunshine instead of showers. But the landscape was blocked by a man’s body, framed in the window from hips to neck as he worked with his arms above his head on a ladder.

Her hands stilled on the keyboard, and her breath caught in a soundless “Oh-h-h,” as taut pectorals stretched and flexed.

The naked male torso was lean, bronzed and packed with muscle. Droplets of sweat were caught in the curly golden T that bisected the chest and disappeared from sight beneath the waistband of a truly disreputable pair of jeans, a pair of jeans that embraced the heavy bulge below the zipper in a manner that left Chloe dry-mouthed and shaking her head.

So this was the carving-restoration expert the church elders had hired to repair the aging facade of the church. He looked as if somebody had carved him.

“That should be illegal,” she muttered, tearing her gaze from the window.

The fact that she hadn’t seen his face didn’t matter. It wasn’t often that she got the chance to fantasize about a man... in fact, she couldn’t remember ever scrutinizing a male body so thoroughly before.

“You are sadly repressed,” she told herself, thinking of how limited her experiences with men were compared to most other twenty-six-year-olds she knew. “Well, not just repressed,” she amended. “Also too doggone busy to think about men.”

Her gaze drifted back to the window and she absently appraised the torso still in full view, while her mind drifted. Did this man do carpentry work, as well? Perhaps when she got the preschool project off the ground, he could put up some sturdy shelves and cupboards that the children couldn’t accidentally pull over onto themselves. There were so many safety precautions to take when considering working with young children....

In her head Chloe could see the interior of the unused rooms in the church basement, cleaned and decorated with tiny tables and chairs, the walls hung with early learning materials and shelves full of toys for little hands to explore.

There would be a rug for story time, she thought as her gaze traced the crisp line of curls that arrowed from the woodworker’s chest down into his jeans. She followed the curls back up his chest, and over a roughhewn, stubbled jaw that was nearly all she could see of his face beneath the battered cap—

Oh, glory, he was watching her!

Chloe tore her gaze from the window and attacked the typewriter keys. She could feel a blazing heat suffusing her face. Serves you right, she told herself sternly, ogling the poor man. He’s probably as embarrassed as you are.

After a minute she risked another glance toward the window.

The workman had climbed down a rung or two. An unruly mess of golden-streaked curls over which he had jammed a baseball cap hid his face from full view but he was looking straight at her, and before Chloe could react again, he raised a hand and gave her a cocky salute, white teeth flashing as he laughed aloud. The sound penetrated the glass, reaching her burning ears as she ignored the wave and applied herself to the keyboard with unnecessary vigor.

She would not look at him again, she promised herself.

But she couldn’t prevent her mind from replaying, in vivid color, the sight of him framed in her window. She didn’t know his name, at least not his first name, but she assumed he was the “Shippen” of Shippen Carving and Restoration on the contract he’d submitted.

He was rumored to be wild and undisciplined, the local bad boy. Though she couldn’t recall hearing anything specific, the look on the parishioners’ faces when they’d learned who had been hired to do the exterior repairs had said a lot. Miss Euphorbia Bates, who helped fold bulletins for the Sunday services, had frowned darkly when she’d heard. “A devil, that one. I bet there wasn’t a girl he ever wanted who said no to him.”

Chloe took notes once a month for the congregation’s meeting of the elders. Her father, the pastor, had looked apoplectic when Mr. Shippen’s name was proposed. “He’s a defiler of young women,” he’d pronounced in ominous tones.