The Texan

The Texan
Catherine Lanigan

HOT TEXAS NIGHTSWhen sensible Angela Morton blew out her thirtieth-birthday candles, she was secretly wishing for a man. And that's exactly what she got. A tight-lipped Texan so sexy, he left her senseless. But after the night of a lifetime, her Texas hunk just up and disappeared - without ever telling her his name… .When Angela unexpectedly arrived on his doorstep, cowboy Rafe Whitten welcomed another temporary affair. He just wasn't the settling-down kind. Until Angela said two little words: I'm pregnant . Suddenly the tables were turned - Rafe was proposing marriage, and Angela was the one who might disappear… unless Rafe turned into a suitable groom in nine months' time… .

PRAISE FOR CATHERINE LANIGAN: (#u05003e8c-b0cd-5c6f-96ad-de9479045fec)Letter to Reader (#u4035503f-47c0-5d79-a56e-1b503b05bc45)Title Page (#uf443722f-3a49-5ef9-bada-a10e006e2c9c)About the Author (#u7d9c1ebb-d3c1-56bc-9d87-fddf586ee3db)Dedication (#u984decc2-a9a4-5484-9dc0-d755d587a7b3)Prologue (#ue776b985-ae82-52b7-b87b-aff388379658)Chapter One (#u2df6b411-e575-512e-a166-4b02e3073bd0)Chapter Two (#u0d425eb8-4913-58f1-986f-b5cdf966136d)Chapter Three (#u0678c765-1a4b-58f9-be1f-c221b6c94264)Chapter Four (#u11ea1d4d-53db-59af-99ea-55908a2f3fb6)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)Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)TENDER MALICE (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

PRAISE FOR CATHERINE LANIGAN:

“Lanigan knows her genre well....”

—Publishers Weekly

“As a storyteller, Catherine Lanigan is in a class by herself.”

—Affaire de Coeur

“Catherine Lanigan’s books...represent the changing—and booming—genre of women’s fiction.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Catherine Lanigan will make you cheer and cry.”

—Romantic Times

“Catherine Lanigan is a master storyteller.”

—Rave Reviews

Catherine Lanigan is the bestselling author of the novelizations of the blockbuster movies Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile.

Dear Reader,

February, month of valentines, celebrates lovers—which is what Silhouette Desire does every month of the year. So this month, we have an extraspecial lineup of sensual and emotional page-turners. But how do you choose which exciting book to read first when all six stones are asking Be Mine?

Bestselling author Barbara Boswell delivers February’s MAN OF THE MONTH, a gorgeous doctor who insists on being a full-time father to his newly discovered child, in The Brennan Baby. Bride of the Bad Boy is the wonderful first book in Elizabeth Bevarly’s brand-new BLAME IT ON BOB trilogy. Don’t miss this fun story about a marriage of inconvenience!

Cupid slings an arrow at neighboring ranchers in Her Torrid Temporary Marriage by Sara Orwig. Next, a woman’s thirtieth-birthday wish brings her a supersexy cowboy—and an unexpected pregnancy—in The Texan, by Catherine Lanigan. Carole Buck brings red-hot chemistry to the pages of Three-Alarm Love. And Barbara McCauley’s Courtship in Granite Ridge reunites a single mother with the man she’d always loved.

Have a romantic holiday this month—and every month—with Silhouette Desire. Enjoy!

Melissa Senate

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

The Texan

Catherine Lanigan

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

CATHERINE LANIGAN

As a college freshman, Catherine Lanigan was told by her creative-writing professor that she had no talent and would never earn a living as a writer. With ten bestselling romance novels and praise from Affaire de Coeur, calling her “an unequalled and simply fabulous storyteller,” Catherine has proven him wrong in a very big way.

Catherine is also the bestselling author of the novelizations of the smash movies Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. When not writing, she enjoys entertaining her friends with innovative gourmet meals.

For Charlotte Breeze and Karen Taylor Richman.

My thanks for all your hard work and plugging away

on this project long enough for serendipity to take

the credit.

Prologue

Houston, Texas

“I won’t believe for a second that I’m finished,” Rafe Whitten growled as he catapulted his six-foot-two-inch, wide-shouldered frame out of the brown leather chair in his accountant’s office. “Defeat is not in my vocabulary, Matt. You of all people should know that.”

Matt Leads instantly hung his head and shook it in frustration “It’s this ‘die-hard’ attitude of yours that’s gotten you into this financial black hole, Rafe. Tele-Cept was your brainstorm and probably would have gone on forever. Embezzlement is not easily recoverable.”

Raking his hand through his thick dark hair, Rafe placed his booted feet wide apart, folded his arms across his expansive chest and glared at Matt. “Don’t I know it. But bankruptcy? Matt, I can’t do it. It’s not the Whitten way of doing business. My clients believe in me. I’ve made promises I must keep.”

Matt was only a year younger than his thirty-three-year-old friend, Rafe, but it was at times like these he felt as old as Methuselah and twice as wise. “If you’d listened to me—”

“The ranch is all I have left,” Rafe interrupted him. “When my parents died they intended for me to keep it for their grandchildren.”

“Considering fatherhood is one of your least favorite topics, why are you letting the ranch and a bunch of horses keep you from making good at least the majority of this debt?”

Rafe ground his jaw and shoved his hands into his pockets. “They’re not just horses to me, Matt.”

“Sorry,” Matt apologized. He knew how close Rafe was to his menagerie of horses, bulls, cats, dogs, ducks, birds and any other animal that was smart enough to recognize a sucker when it saw one. Matt knew from Rafe’s receipts at the Waller County Feed stores that he would rather spend money on animal feed and grain than on food for himself.

“I’ve had a lot of dreams about that ranch, Matt. I always believed I’d make them come true. Now you’re telling me it’s impossible.”

“I never said that. Miracles happen every day. It’s just that I’ve never seen any.” Discernment narrowed Matt’s brown eyes. “Have you?”

Rafe immediately stopped pacing. “No.”

Despite his resolve to banish his anger toward his former business associate, Paul Thomas, haunting visions of their college comradery bored deeply into Rafe’s trusting heart. Letting even more blood over the situation was the fact that his five-year relationship with Cheryl Hudson had ended the day she walked out of his life to be with Paul. She’d left Rafe a note saying she couldn’t wait forever till Rafe made his millions. She’d already wasted too much of her youth. She wanted to “live.”