The Truth About Elyssa

The Truth About Elyssa
Lorna Michaels

Brett Cameron was a successful, sexy doctor with an impeccable bedside manner, and he wanted her. Her. Elyssa knew she could never deny the brooding doctor her body, but when it came to her heart, her trust…even if she dared to offer those, would she get the chance?As soon as Elyssa started trying to remember the "accident" that had changed her life, someone started trying to help her forget…permanently. Brett knew the troubled beauty needed to remember her past in order to face her future, and he wasn't about to let her face either one without him by her side.

He wanted to keep her safe.

If he had the right, he would lock her up inside the house and not let her out until she came to her senses and quit this dangerous crusade of hers. Or until whoever was after her was safely behind bars. That made sense.

What didn’t make sense was this absurd longing for her. And where had that insidious thought come from? That crazy idea that he might be falling in…

Absolutely not!

This was an affair. A casual affair. Okay,

it was more than casual, but it wasn’t love.

Couldn’t be, he thought uneasily.

Shouldn’t be.

Dear Reader,

Happy (almost) New Year! The year is indeed ending, but here at Intimate Moments it’s going out with just the kind of bang you’d expect from a line where excitement is the order of the day. Maggie Shayne continues her newest miniseries, THE OKLAHOMA ALL-GIRL BRANDS, with Brand-New Heartache. This is prodigal daughter Edie’s story. She’s home from L.A. with a stalker on her trail, and only local one-time bad boy Wade Armstrong can keep her safe. Except for her heart, which is definitely at risk in his presence.

Our wonderful FIRSTBORN SONS continuity concludes with Born Royal. This is a sheik story from Alexandra Sellers, who’s made quite a name for herself writing about desert heroes, and this book will show you why. It’s a terrific marriage-of-convenience story, and it’s also a springboard for our twelve-book ROMANCING THE CROWN continuity, which starts next month. Kylie Brant’s Hard To Resist is the next in her CHARMED AND DANGEROUS miniseries, and this steamy writer never disappoints with her tales of irresistible attraction. Honky-Tonk Cinderella is the second in Karen Templeton’s HOW TO MARRY A MONARCH miniseries, and it’s enough to make any woman want to run away and be a waitress, seeing as this waitress gets to serve a real live prince. Finish the month with Mary McBride’s newest, Baby, Baby, Baby, a “No way am I letting my ex-wife go to a sperm bank” book, and reader favorite Lorna Michaels’s first Intimate Moments novel, The Truth About Elyssa.

See you again next year!

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Senior Editor

The Truth About Elyssa

Lorna Michaels

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

LORNA MICHAELS

When she was four years old, Lorna Michaels decided she would become a writer. But it wasn’t until she read her first romance that she found her niche. Since then she’s been a winner of numerous writing contests, was a double Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist and a nominee for the Romantic Times Magazine Love and Laughter Award. A self-confessed romantic, she loves to spend her evenings writing happily-everafter stories. During the day she’s a speech pathologist with a busy private practice. Though she leads a double life, both her careers focus on communication. As a speech pathologist, she works with children who have communication disorders. She writes about men and women who overcome barriers to communication as they forge lasting relationships.

Besides working and writing, Lorna enjoys reading everything from cereal boxes to Greek tragedy, interacting with the two cats who own her, watching basketball games and traveling with her husband. This winter she’ll realize her dream of visiting Antarctica. Nothing thrills her more than hearing from readers. You can e-mail her at lmichaels@zyzy.com.

To Linda Hayes

with my thanks

And a note of appreciation to my friend Barbara Rosenberg, who brightens lives through her clowning and who patiently answered my questions

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

Prologue