First Comes Love

First Comes Love
Elizabeth Bevarly

The news of her "pregnancy" hit Tess Monahan like a ton of wet diapers. Her denials were lost in a gust of gossip, and she wasn't about to announce to all of Marigold, Indiana, "I'm a twenty-six-year-old virgin!" Besides, her "bun in the oven" had awakened the protective instincts of Will Darrow…the man she'd been trying to get to notice her for as long as she could remember. Will's impulse was chivalrous–but slipped into passion. And Tess would never halt his smoldering kisses. In fact, she was hoping their wild loving would put Will in the mind to marry and make some babies of his own–with her!

How To Impregnate A “Pregnant” Virgin:

1. Swallow the utterly scandalous rumor that your best friend’s straitlaced younger sister is suddenly with child, even though she blushes at the mere suggestion of how babies are made!

2. Even though it’s definitely not your baby-on-the-way, offer to paint the little darling’s room (pregnant women should not sniff paint fumes or climb ladders), escort her to the doctor (or drive during rush hour) and satisfy her late-night cravings (especially if what she craves is you).

3. When your kisses explode into an undeniable need to consume and possess, sweep this woman into your steely arms…then into the bedroom.

4. Brace yourself against the shock that the “pregnant” woman you just made love to was, until moments ago, a virgin!

5. Apologize profusely for believing rampant rumors about her impending motherhood.

6. Prepare to propose when you realize that you may have just turned the rumors of her pregnancy…to truth!

Dear Reader,

Thanks to all who have shared, in letters and at our Web site, eHarlequin.com, how much you love Silhouette Desire! One Web visitor told us, “When I was nineteen, this man broke my heart. So I picked up a Silhouette Desire and…lost myself in other people’s happiness, sorrow, desire…. Guys came and went and the books kept entertaining me.” It is so gratifying to know how our books have touched and even changed your lives—especially with Silhouette celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2000.

The incomparable Joan Hohl dreamed up October’s MAN OF THE MONTH. The Dakota Man is used to getting his way until he meets his match in a feisty jilted bride. And Anne Marie Winston offers you a Rancher’s Proposition, which is part of the highly sensual Desire promotion BODY & SOUL.

First Comes Love is another sexy love story by Elizabeth Bevarly. A virgin finds an unexpected champion when she is rumored to be pregnant. The latest installment of the sensational Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS is Fortune’s Secret Child by Shawna Delacorte. Maureen Child’s popular BACHELOR BATTALION continues with Marooned with a Marine. And Joan Elliott Pickart returns to Desire with Baby: MacAllister-Made, part of her wonderful miniseries THE BABY BET.

So take your own emotional journey through our six new powerful, passionate, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire—and keep sending us those letters and e-mails, sharing your enthusiasm for our books!

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

First Comes Love

Elizabeth Bevarly

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

For Lori Foster and Jackie Floyd and all the other members of Ohio Valley Romance Writers who got me “pregnant” at their conference.

And for Teresa Hill, who made me write about it.

ELIZABETH BEVARLY

is an honors graduate of the University of Louisville and achieved her dream of writing full-time before she even turned thirty! At heart, she is also an avid voyager who once helped navigate a friend’s thirty-five-foot sailboat across the Bermuda Triangle. Her dream is to one day have her own sailboat, a beautifully renovated older model forty-two-footer, and to enjoy the freedom and tranquillity seafaring can bring. Elizabeth likes to think she has a lot in common with the characters she creates, people who know love and life go hand in hand. And she’s getting some firsthand experience with motherhood, as well—she and her husband have a six-year-old son, Eli.

Contents

Chapter One (#u9a0ef9bc-da5b-5e5b-a376-d69c5c8d9197)

Chapter Two (#uf27c861c-1f20-529a-aa2a-23d907518c78)

Chapter Three (#uf031567f-8f29-530e-951f-6c5e83a70c6d)

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)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

One

Tess Monahan never got sick. Never.

She had documented evidence of that in the attic of the house where she’d grown up in Marigold, Indiana—the house where she continued to live alone, now that her five older brothers were on their own and her parents had retired and moved to Florida. In her attic there were boxes and boxes full of school memorabilia, one of which contained thirteen certificates for perfect attendance, from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

She just never got sick. Never.

Even during the five years she had spent at Indiana University earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, she’d never missed a day of classes due to illness or anything else. Never. Even having taught first grade at Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School for the last four years, she hadn’t contracted so much as a sniffle to slow her down. Every single child in her class could come to school with some heinous virus, and Tess would remain hale and hearty. She just never got sick. Never.

Through every epidemic, big or small, that had hit her tiny hometown since her birth, she had remained perfectly healthy. She’d never had the chicken pox, never had the measles, never had the mumps, never had her tonsils out. She’d never run a fever. She’d never had allergies. She’d never coughed unless there was something stuck in her throat. She simply did not get sick. Ever.

Until today.

And today it was as if every single germ she had fought off in the past twenty-six years had come home to roost. With their entire bacterial families. But good.

She had awoken in the middle of the night feeling nauseated and it had only gotten worse as the wee hours of the morning wore on. She’d spent the last three hours hugging the commode, and now, as dawn crept over the horizon, she was certain she was going to die. And quite frankly, at this point—as far as Tess was concerned?—death would be a welcome diversion.

Unfortunately, death would have to wait. Because in a few short hours Tess was expected at the annual Our Lady of Lourdes teachers’ appreciation brunch. She hadn’t missed a single year, and this year would be no exception. Not just because she was adamant in meeting her obligations as an educator, but also because she would be receiving this year’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. It was an honor she was proud to receive, and she wasn’t about to disappoint her students, or her students’ parents, or the rest of the Lourdes staff, by missing the presentation.

She would be there. She would accept the award graciously, with her heartfelt thanks. It was the least she could do to show her appreciation for her students’ appreciation. Even if she did feel—and no doubt looked—like death warmed over as she extended those heartfelt thanks.

Tess groaned as she pushed herself up from the commode, then sighed as she leaned back to feel the cool tile wall through the white cotton tank she wore with her pajama bottoms. It must have been something she ate, she decided. After all, it was the middle of May, and the cold and flu season had long ago concluded. As she cupped her palm over her forehead and shoved her sweaty blond bangs out of her eyes, she realized she was burning up with fever. Whatever was assaulting her system, her body had called out every weapon it possessed to fight it. Maybe, with any luck at all, she’d feel better in a few hours.

Somehow she garnered the strength to turn on the shower, strip off her clothes and crawl under the tepid spray of water. Surely a shower, a dose of Alka-Seltzer and a few saltines would make a huge difference, she told herself. Surely the worst of her illness was over. Surely by the time she arrived at school, she’d be feeling good as new again. Surely she would live.