Secret Baby Santos

Secret Baby Santos
Barbara McCauley

THE BACHELOR'S SURPRISELong, lean and devastatingly handsome, Nick Santos had been shy Maggie Smith's fantasy man. So when she had the chance to take Nick as her very first lover, virginal Maggie became the ultimate seductress. And she was left with a most precious gift… .Now, reunited with the man of her dreams, Maggie knew she could no longer keep her secret. Nick claimed to be mesmerized by Maggie's beauty, captivated by her passionate soul and totally charmed by her young son. But would it mean the end of this love they held so dear if Santos discovered her child was also his?A hidden passion, a hidden child, a hidden fortune. Revel in the unveiling of these powerful, passionate… SECRETS!

The Image Of Her Son Placing His Small Hand In Nick’s Would Be Burned In Her Memory Forever. (#uc95cb87e-e769-5e48-b72f-355cffa3591f)Letter to Reader (#u0b1d2ccc-ce40-52b1-b8df-23cc19d39329)Title Page (#u65386d98-3d70-5219-9c34-2a5c0dd5b022)About the Author (#u8efc679d-4812-531f-9454-663a6f5f6aaf)Dedication (#u31d05e39-ee67-5d09-924c-b5d0014a7891)Chapter One (#u376862ce-6553-5e6a-9181-f1831779c7f1)Chapter Two (#u0e0614e3-478a-5e8e-9158-5da4204e912d)Chapter Three (#u55530b0b-ae33-5111-8875-9150dddb41c2)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)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

The Image Of Her Son Placing His Small Hand In Nick’s Would Be Burned In Her Memory Forever.

At that moment, Maggie felt as if time had stopped, as if the world had stopped and nothing else existed but the two of them. The two men in her life who had changed her the most, both of them unintentionally altering her life forever. And neither one of them had a clue how important they were to her.

She found a calm in that moment. There’d been no reason for her to be so afraid of them meeting.

In a hundred years, Nick Santos would have no reason to believe that Drew was his son.

How could he, when Nick himself didn’t even realize that he’d made love to her?

Dear Reader,

Silhouette Desire matches August’s steamy heat with six new powerful, passionate and provocative romances.

Popular Elizabeth Bevarly offers That Boss of Mine as August’s MAN OF THE MONTH. In this irresistible romantic comedy, a CEO falls for his less-than-perfect secretary.

And Silhouette Desire proudly presents a compelling new series, TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB. The members of this exclusive club are some of the Lone Star State’s sexiest, most powerful men, who go on a mission to rescue a princess and find true love! Bestselling author Dixie Browning launches the series with Texas Millionaire, in which a fresh-faced country beauty is wooed by an older man.

Cait London’s miniseries THE BLAYLOCKS continues with Rio: Man of Destiny, in which the hero’s love leads the heroine to the truth of her family secrets. The BACHELOR BATTALION miniseries by Maureen Child marches on with Mom in Waiting. An amnesiac woman must rediscover her husband in Lost and Found Bride by Modean Moon. And Barbara McCauley’s SECRETS! miniseries offers another scandalous tale with Secret Baby Santos.

August also marks the debut of Silhouette’s original continuity THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS with Maggie Shayne’s Million Dollar Marriage, available now at your local retail outlet.

So indulge yourself this month with some poolside reading—the first of THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS, and all six Silhouette Desire titles!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor

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

Secret Baby Santos

Barbara McCauley

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

BARBARA McCAULEY was born and raised in California and has spent a good portion of her life exploring the mountains, beaches and deserts so abundant there. The youngest of five children, she grew up in a small house, and her only chance for a moment alone was to sneak into the backyard with a book and quietly hide away.

With two children of her own now and a busy household, she still finds herself slipping away to enjoy a good novel. A daydreamer and incurable romantic, she says writing has fulfilled her most incredible dream of all—breathing life into the people in her mind and making them real. She has one loud and demanding Amazon parrot named Fred and a German shepherd named Max. When she can manage the time, she loves to sink her hands into fresh-turned soil and make things grow.

To Barbara Ankrum,

whom I alternately curse and bless for

making me work so hard.

Thanks, Babs.

One

Nick Santos was the boy whom mothers in Wolf River, Texas, warned their daughters about His smile alone could charm fire from the devil, but his eyes, Lord Almighty, those eyes. Dark, mysterious eyes that all but consumed. Stay away from the likes of that boy, mothers would say with a shake of a finger. Nick Santos was trouble with a capital T.

He was fast, he was bad, and after twelve long, lucrative years on the motorcycle racing circuit, he was back.

No one was more surprised than Nick at his return. He thought he’d only come back to Wolf River to see his best friend, Lucas Blackhawk, get married. There certainly hadn’t been any plans to stick around. Nick Santos never stuck around. Never called any place home.

But now Nick realized that even before he’d returned to Wolf River to be Lucas’s best man, something had been quietly prodding him back here. Nothing he could name, just some invisible nudge, some unexplainable force that wouldn’t let him be. He’d figured that once he came back, the feeling would pass faster than a Ferrari around a ten-wheeler on the open highway.

That was six months ago. He’d not only stuck around, but at the ripe old age of thirty-three, he’d quit the racing circuit and opened up his own business: Santos Custom Cycles. Not for money—he had more of that than he knew what to do with. He didn’t give two whits about the bottom line on his earnings statement. He simply enjoyed making things work, taking them apart, putting them back together again better than before. Machines fascinated him, and his ability to master them gave him a rush that racing once had before he’d burned out.

He might not race anymore, but he still had a way with motorcycles that bordered on the supernatural. There was nothing that Nick couldn’t make a bike do. He had “the touch,” as the old-timers would say with reverence.

Of course, women said that about Nick, too.

With reverence.

He’d had little time for female companionship these past six months. His business had taken off the minute word had gotten out to the motorcycle community that four-time National Championship winner Nick Santos had opened up his own shop. Customers were lining up from all across the country to have Nick customize a bike for them. He barely had time to ride himself, let alone free time for...extracurricular activities.

Standing in front of the frozen food section at Bud and Joe’s Market, Nick sighed at the pathetic state of his romantic life. He considered the invitation for dinner that Sue Ann Finley had extended a few hours ago: red wine, juicy steak, Texas-size baked potato. And dessert, she’d murmured with a throaty whisper, was a surprise. As if he couldn’t guess. He thought about the attractive brunette’s lush body, her big brown eyes. On a whimper, he opened the freezer door and let the blast of cold slither through his jeans and flannel shirt.

But tempting as Sue Ann’s offer was, he had a carburetor to rebuild and four cylinders to bore by nine o’clock tonight if he didn’t want to deal with a screaming customer tomorrow. He hadn’t been able to face one more takeout hamburger or pizza, so he’d decided that a frozen dinner was as close to a home-cooked meal as he was going to get.

And what choices he had. He frowned at the freezer case. Manly Man’s Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes. Gideon’s Gourmet Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie. Chef Richard’s Macho Macaroni and Cheese. Frozen was quick and easy, and within his limited realm of cooking abilities, but it was also a far cry from that juicy steak and big steaming baked potato he’d been fantasizing about.

And speaking of fantasies...

He only caught a glimpse of hair the color of fall leaves as she turned the corner, but it was enough to tempt him away from the freezer aisle for a quick peek. He snatched a bag of chocolate chip cookies from the end display, then sauntered casually around the corner.

He’d been right about the hair. Deep red, it glittered with browns and golds and tumbled loosely around the shoulders of her cream silk blouse. Her waist would fit a man’s hands perfectly, but then, so would her slender hips and rounded bottom. The snug coffee-brown slacks she wore more than suggested long, curvy legs.

She stood no more than four feet away, in front of a six-foot-tall, circular display of canned green beans, a bright blue hand basket in the crook of her arm, her back to him as she studied a list in her hands.

Who was she? he wondered, moving closer as he feigned interest in a shelf of dried fruit. She couldn’t live in Wolf River, he definitely would have spotted this woman before if she did.

He grabbed a bag of dried noodles from the end of the shelf so he could move closer, and that’s when he caught her scent. Feminine. Seductive. Incredibly enticing. He reached for a bag of elbow macaroni and inched closer still.