Prince Charming's Child

Prince Charming's Child
Jennifer Greene

MEN of the YEAR MAN of the MONTH"I am a man of honor. If she's carrying my child, she will be my wife! - Mitch Landers, the Prince Charming no woman could forget It wasn't the flu. Nicole was pregnant. And darned if she could remember sleeping with a man in the past four years. Not unless she and co-worker Mitch had actually… ?Well, they had, and now her very own Sir Galahad was before her on bended knee. His proposal was duty-bound, although real passion sparked in Mitch's glance… and touch. Could a marriage forged for baby's sake end in a legend-worthy love for Sleeping Beauty and her dream prince?Some men are made for lovin' - and you'll love our MAN OF THE MONTH!

Like Sleeping Beauty, he’d wakened her from a sound sleep the night their child was conceived. (#u02758f6c-3385-529c-8b3f-2d15051ee769)Letter to Reader (#ub4ea2610-fb06-579b-afc4-4e346603e362)Title Page (#u66660f2e-5c79-504a-b173-c8c7b1bf00ec)About the Author (#uc9f299d7-73c8-5108-99e5-d0360005720a)Dedication (#uf15465ad-ba36-5f55-83ed-dab60d2b485d)Chapter One (#u288b46e9-62a1-5b97-872c-d19e920bc051)Chapter Two (#u954edc6c-9f02-597c-902f-9f6e01854357)Chapter Three (#u02f727db-c2d6-53cc-90e8-4a8ff9485582)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)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Like Sleeping Beauty, he’d wakened her from a sound sleep the night their child was conceived.

Only, instead of a happily-ever-after, he’d aroused her awareness of all the things in her life that were missing.

Nicole was terribly afraid that she’d fallen in love with him. He wasn’t the man she’d worked with all these months. He was someone else. He was a mysterious, compelling lover who invoked incredibly strange and powerful feelings when he kissed her. He made her feel safe and frightened at the same time. Somehow he’d gotten her talking as if they were going to be parenting the baby together. Somehow it didn’t seem that hard to imagine herself married to Mitch, waking up to him every morning, sharing their baby’s life, sharing their own life when the lights went off every night.

That’s how the damn man made her feel. Like those things were possible....

HAPPILY EVER AFTER:

Your favorite fairy tales freshly told, with

all the passion you’ve ever craved.

Dear Reader.

The joys of summer are upon us—along with some July fireworks from Silhouette Desire!

The always wonderful Jennifer Greene presents our July MAN OF THE MONTH in Prince Charming’s Child. A contemporary romance version of Sleeping Beauty this title also launches the author’s new miniseries, HAPPILY EVER AFTER, inspired by those magical fairy tales we loved in childhood. And ever-talented Anne Marie Winston is back with a highly emotional reunion romance in Lovers’ Reunion. The popular miniseries TEXAS BRIDES by Peggy Moreland continues with the provocative story of That McCloud Woman. Sheiks abound in Judith McWilliams’s The Sheik’s Secret, while a plain Jane is wooed by a millionaire in Jan Hudson’s Plain Jane’s Texan. And Barbara McCauley’s new dramatic miniseries, SECRETS!, debuts this month with Blackhawk’s Sweet Revenge.

We’ve got more excitement for you next month—watch for the premiere of the compelling new Desire miniseries THE TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB. Some of the sexiest, most powerful men in the Lone Star State are members of this prestigious club, and they all find love when they least expect it! You’ll learn more about THE TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB in our August Dear Reader letter, along with an update on Silhouette’s new continuity, THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS, debuting next month.

And this month, join in the celebrations by treating yourself to all six passionate Silhouette Desire titles.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

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

Jennifer Greene

Prince Charming’s Child

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

JENNIFER GREENE

sold her first book in 1980, and has written more than fifty category romances. She has worked as a teacher, counselor and personnel manager, and has a degree from Michigan State in English and psychology. She lives near Lake Michigan with her husband, two children and their two-hundred-pound Newfound-land Moose.

Known for her warm, sensitive characters, Jennifer has won numerous awards, including the RWA Silver Medallion in 1984 and Lifetime and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Tunes Magazine. In 1998 she entered the RWA Hall of Fame after winning her third RITA.

To my readers,

As a girl, I inhaled every fairy tale I could get my hands on, but I became exasperated with them when I grew up. The romantic nature of the stories is wonderful, but the woman was always sitting back, counting on the guy to rescue her, rarely lifting a finger to help herself—nothing I can imagine today’s woman would tolerate.

This story is the start of the HAPPILY EVER AFTER trilogy for Silhouette Desire...but each romance has a “today’s woman” twist on the old fairy-tale fantasies. Sleeping Beauty was always one of my favorites, but in this tale, when my hero wakes up Sleeping Beauty, is he ever sorry. My prince opens a Pandora’s box of trouble, for her and him both. If he thought he was going to win a happily-ever-after that easily, my heroine’s about to teach him otherwise.

I hope you enjoy Prince Charming’s Child, and the next two to come!

One

Since Nicole hadn’t been near a man’s bed in four years, she chuckled when she heard the results of the pregnancy test.

“I’m sure someone’ll be happy to hear that, but it can’t be me. Trust me—you’re either looking at another patient’s file or the test results are wrong.”

Conceivably the nurse practitioner had heard words of denial from her patients before, because her prompt answer sounded prepared. “There’s always a margin for error with the tests, but that’s why we back them up with a physical. You’re about two and a half months along, Ms. Stewart, and I can see that you obviously weren’t expecting this pregnancy. If you need to talk to someone about your options—”

Nicole’s smile disappeared faster than smoke when she realized the nurse was serious. “I’m thirty-two, not some irresponsible sixteen-year-old. I know what my options are—and my responsibilities. You don’t understand. This isn’t a matter of being surprised by an unexpected pregnancy. It’s that I can’t be pregnant at all. I haven’t been with anyone.”

“Well, miracles do happen, but I’ve never heard of one on this subject The last I knew, it always takes two to tango.”

Nicole understood the woman’s wry teasing was an effort to help her relax, but this was no humorous matter. Not to her. “I realize you think I’m joking, but I swear I’m not. I haven’t tangoed with anyone! The tests simply have to be wrong. I only came in because I thought I had the flu, for Pete’s sake.”

The nurse practitioner patiently spent another fifteen minutes with her. It didn’t help. Nicole left the women’s clinic feeling shell-shocked, carrying prescriptions for vitamins and morning sickness, her mind buzzing with information on the symptoms she could expect for the next six and a half months.

Pregnant. The word kept reeling through her mind as she pushed open the door. Outside, a blustery damp wind tore straight through her ivory silk blouse and clawed at her auburn hair. She should have known better than to leave her suit jacket at the office. Two hours before, the day had been balmy warm, but weather on the Oregon coast was typically capricious—if not downright mean—in early March.

Hurrying to her white Taurus, she climbed inside, but her fingers were so shaky she could hardly fit in the ignition key, much less punch the buttons for the heater. This was just so crazy! If she were almost three months pregnant right now, that meant the baby had to be conceived around the Christmas holidays.

And that was impossible. Not a little impossible. 100% impossible.

She swung onto the coastal highway and leveled her foot on the accelerator. Work By Design, her business, was only a ten-minute drive from the women’s clinic, ample time for the last few years to flash in front of her eyes.

Long ago she’d discovered a talent for design, but there was a crowded abundance of competition in the interior decorating field. The psychology of work environments was new then. Employers were just catching on that an ergonomic, efficient office space could provably increase worker productivity and job satisfaction. She’d seen the niche. More relevant for her personally, she’d needed to do something that made a positive difference in others’ lives. She did the artsy stuff from the start, but it took finding the right engineer and architect to really make Work By Design come together. After four years—and her specifically devoting sixteen-hour days—the business was not only cooking, but bubbling over with potential growth now.

Through these years, though, there had never been a spare second to think of babies or a private life. If the right man had popped into her life, who knew, maybe she’d have rethought having a baby. But that was precisely the point. There’d been no right men, no wrong men, no any men.

Nicole had never exactly planned to turn into a celibate saint, but there were darn good reasons why she’d chosen the life-style of a workaholic hermit.

Her stomach suddenly clenched with nerves. Old nerves. Old, scary, ghost-nerves that hadn’t peeked out of her emotional closet in years. She’d grown up taking every wrong road there was to take. She’d known trouble from the inside out. Cripes, she’d been trouble from the inside out. But a cop named Sam had helped her around seventeen years ago. She’d started a new life in a new place and done her best not to look back.

She was ashamed of where she’d been—but, finally, proud of the woman she was becoming. There’d been no irresponsible, impulsive mistakes. None. Not even little ones. She’d turned herself into a completely different kind of woman than the hellion teenager she’d been growing up as.

Or so she’d believed. Until the pregnancy test this afternoon had turned out positive.