Daddy and Daughters

Daddy and Daughters
Barbara McMahon

Double trouble!Jared Hunter came back from an overseas trip to discover that he had not one, but two adorable two-year-old daughters he'd known nothing about! Desperate, he begged help from the one employee in his office who knew how to look after children–Cassandra Bowles.It wasn't long before Cassie fell in love with the twins and Jared, but when he asked her to marry him she was furious! She couldn't deny the attraction between them, but how could she make him see that marriage had more to do with love than with baby-sitting skills?DADDY BOOMWho says bachelors and babies don't mix?

“Will you marry me?” (#ub81036e1-da23-589c-a19e-0a75c0047e7e)Welcome to DADDY BOOM! (#u6d1f5e6a-6c0f-5702-b19e-0de94cb83a6e)Title Page (#udbf50856-527e-510f-a403-4090fad48f13)CHAPTER ONE (#u855e2697-e0e4-5abc-b60a-e5413084e012)CHAPTER TWO (#u96986edc-7e23-5b7d-803a-a795498c2b8d)CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)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)

“Will you marry me?”

Pulling free, Cassandra turned and walked briskly back along the path they’d just taken.

“Cassie, wait a minute.” Jared grasped her arm and halted her. “At least discuss it,” he said.

“What’s to discuss? I won’t be a baby-sitter for the rest of my life. All you want is a mother for the girls. A woman doesn’t want to be married unless she’s loved and cherished.”

“Don’t say no tonight, Cassie. Think about it.”

“I don’t need to think about it, I—” Before Cassandra could finish her sentence, Jared covered her mouth with his. It was as if she had been waiting especially for his touch. He forgot the burden of becoming a father, forgot about the demands of the office. The only reality was the petite woman in his arms and the fire her kisses fed.

At last he pulled back and gazed down at her bemused expression. He’d coax her, cajole her and bribe her, if need be. But he wanted her for the mother of his daughters and he’d make sure he got her.

Welcome to DADDY BOOM!

Just look who’s holding the baby now! Following on from our highly popular BABY BOOM series, Harlequin Romance

is proud to introduce a brand-new series, DADDY BOOM, full of babies, bachelors and happy-ever-afters. Meet irresistible heroes who are about to discover that there’s a first time for everything—even fatherhood!

Second in our series is Daddy and Daughters by

Barbara McMahon. We’ll be bringing you one deliciously

cute DADDY BOOM title every other month.

Look out in June for Falling for Jack, by Trisha David.

Who says bachelors and babies don’t mix?

Daddy and Daughters

Barbara McMahon

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

CHAPTER ONE

JARED HUNTER took a deep breath as the elevator doors slid open. Stepping into the large open office filled with workstations and desks, he looked straight ahead, toward his private office in the far corner. For a moment he wished he had postponed this. His briefcase gripped in one hand, he began the long walk, ignoring the heads that turned his way.

“Sorry about Mrs. Hunter,” Jeb called from his station.

Julie Myers stood as he passed her desk, her features serious and sad. “I’m so sorry, Jared,” she said softly.

He nodded grimly and kept walking. Still dazed by the turn of events, he longed for the sanctity of his office. It was hard to believe MaryEllen was dead. He didn’t realize people died from pneumonia these days. With all the fancy medicines in the world, they couldn’t have stopped the devastation of such an old disease?

“Jared, are you all right?” Helen Walter, his secretary, rose from her desk outside his door and moved toward him. Her eyes brimmed with sympathy.

Jared nodded. “It was a bitch of a trip, but at least I’m home now. How are things here?” He clenched his jaw, feeling the strain. It wouldn’t get easier.

“Morale is down. But with the rapid expansion over the last three years, only the old-timers actually knew MaryEllen. Still, many of the employees have talked to her on the phone, and everyone knew she was the other partner.”

Noticing she’d avoided the obvious, that MaryEllen had also been his wife, Jared wearily pushed open the door and entered his office. Mail was stacked in neat piles on the right side of his desk. A small mound of folders sat on the far left side. Pink phone messages were centered with a long cream-colored envelope across them.

He rounded the desk and dropped his briefcase on the credenza behind his chair. The view of San Francisco Bay sparkling in the afternoon sunshine went unnoticed as he surveyed the work waiting. God, he was tired!

“You just get in?” Helen asked, hovering in the doorway.

“Flight finally landed about an hour ago. I came straight here.”

“Are you really okay? I know you and MaryEllen lived three thousand miles apart these last three years, but she was your wife.”

He glanced at her. “Helen. you know that was a legal technicality.” He paused. “Is the gossip mill humming?”

“No more than usual. Those of us who have been here since the beginning made sure the others knew you and MaryEllen had been married purely to facilitate the start-up of Hunter Associates. I think some of the new employees didn’t realize she was your wife. They never met her. She stayed in New York, you know.”

He nodded. He skimmed the top message, then flicked the envelope. “What’s this?” The rest of his mail had been opened and lay in one of his folders.

“I separated those messages. They’ve been calling every day for the last two weeks. Yesterday we received the registered letter. I tried to explain why we couldn’t reach you in Bangkok. Obviously they weren’t monitoring the news or they would have heard about the typhoon.”

Jared shrugged. He slipped out of his suit jacket, draped it across the back of his chair and slowly sat. “Anyone from here attend the funeral?” he asked.

“No. But most of the New York office went. Bob Mason sent a report. I put it in the folder with the rest of your mail. Don’t blame yourself for not being there, Jared. You would have been there had it been possible. MaryEllen would have understood.”

“Why are these lawyers calling?” Jared didn’t want to discuss the reasons he had not been able to get to New York in time. He’d tried his best, but fate had decreed otherwise. It was over and done with, time to move on. His anger at fate had abated, and a philosophical calm replaced it. If anyone had understood business , problems, it had been MaryEllen. She had thrived on them.

“They didn’t tell me, just insisted they had to reach you. I gave them the Bangkok telephone number, so they could see for themselves why we couldn’t get through. You know lawyers—not very trusting. Why they’d think we were trying to hinder communications, I don’t know.”

“Thanks, Helen.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Right”

She eased the door almost shut as Jared picked up the envelope. He was dead tired. Flying through more than half a dozen time zones did that—especially after two weeks of hell. If he were a superstitious man, he’d be convinced the deal he was working on was jinxed.

The trip had started off wrong, with mechanical difficulties on the outbound airliner forcing an emergency stop on Wake Island. Then there had been the wildly bumpy flight into Bangkok, followed by a customs mixup. Bad weather plagued him from the moment he left the airport. The hotel where he had reservations had burned the night before his arrival, and he’d had to locate new lodgings before the predicted typhoon hit. He’d barely informed his office of the change in location before the high winds and torrential rains of Typhoon Initi let loose.

Severe storms did major damage in the United States, but recovery time was usually rapid. In Bangkok, it seemed interminable. He’d received word of MaryEllen’s death only hours before the full force of the typhoon hit Airplanes had been grounded, communications and electricity cut off. The streets flooded. Accidents abounded. It had been days before a semblance of normal activities could be resumed. Days before he could contact his office to notify them he would return on the first available flight.

Jared tapped the edge of the envelope on the desk, wishing he could quantify his feelings about MaryEllen’s death. He shook his head, feeling vaguely impatient. They had been married for more than six years. Even though their marriage had been primarily a business arrangement she’d been a friend and one-time lover. Maybe fatigue numbed his reactions, dulled his emotions. Shock had been replaced with disbelief. She had been twenty-nine—too young to die. Especially with all she had wanted to accomplish so close to being achieved.

He hadn’t seen her in over a year—and that had been when they’d met in Washington, D.C., with the congressmen from California for the discussion of Pacific Rim trade regulations. But they talked on the phone frequently, kept in touch by e-mail and fax.