A Child in Need

A Child in Need
Marion Lennox

What can the small Australian town of Bay Beach offer an ambitious city lawyer like Nick Daniels? Well, first there's Shanni McDonald - a gorgeous, vivacious woman Nick is instantly attracted to. Second, there's tiny, vulnerable Harry - a three-year-old child from the orphanage, desperately in need of love.Nick is wary of commitment, but Shanni and Harry have decided that Nick is the man for them. All they have to do is persuade him!

“Were you beaten as a child?” Shanni asked—and waited.

“Yes,” Nick said harshly.

“Nick—”

“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me. If I’m not over it now I never will be.”

“I don’t think you can ever be over something like that. Kids can bounce back from a hard time—but if they don’t think they’re loved….”

“Harry will be okay.”

She hadn’t been talking about Harry—but now she turned to look down at the sleeping little boy.

“I guess.” She smiled and turned back to Nick. “If you stay on his side….”

“Hey, I’m committing myself to nothing here.”

“You’re already committed.”

Families in the Making!

In the orphanage of a small Australian seaside town called Bay Beach are little children desperately in need of love. Some of them have no parents, some are simply unwanted—but each child dreams about having their own family someday….

The answer to their dreams can also be found in Bay Beach! Couples who are destined for each other—even if they don’t know it yet—are brought together by love for these tiny children. Can they find true love themselves—and finally become a real family?

Look out for the next PARENTS WANTED story:

Their Baby Bargain

by Marion Lennox

#3662

A Child in Need

Marion Lennox

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PROLOGUE

‘MY PERFECT woman…’

‘Yeah, Nick. You must have someone pictured in that cool, calculating head of yours. If you were ever to consider marriage…’

‘Ha!’

‘No, but say your career depended on it. Say you really needed a wife. Who would it be?’ Nick’s fellow lawyers were clustered around the bar late on Friday night, and they weren’t letting him off the hook.

So Nick thought about it—but just to humour them. There was no way this could ever be serious.

‘Okay. Wife requirements coming up.’ He frowned. ‘Anyone I married would have to be independent. I don’t need a wife so she couldn’t need a husband.’

There was a hoot of derisive laughter and the questioning intensified. ‘We guessed that much. Independent. Okay. What else?’

‘Beats me.’ Nick gave a mental shrug. This was stupid. Marriage wasn’t on his cards at all. But if it was…

‘She’d have to be really something,’ he said slowly, thinking it through. ‘Tall and gorgeous. Of course.’

‘Oh, of course,’ his friends agreed, rolling their eyes. ‘Cat-walk gorgeous.’

‘Trophy-wife gorgeous,’ Nick agreed. ‘After all, that’s the only reason I’d be marrying.’

‘And smart?’

‘Absolutely. Professional something. A lawyer or a doctor, maybe. So she’d have her own life.’

‘Rich?

‘Yep. There’s no chance I’m supporting any woman!’