The Tycoon's Son

The Tycoon's Son
Shawna Delacorte

HER FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD SECRET Years melted away the moment Vicki Bingham gazed into piercing blue eyes and took in the very gorgeous - very grown-up - version of the boy she's once loved. The rich boy who had deserted her after a magical night of exploring caresses and explosive kisses.The millionaire who was father to her teenage son… and hadn't a clue. Or did he? Because Wyatt Edwards had taken an uncanny interest in young Richie, and an even more unsettling interest in Vicki herself, the moment he'd returned to town. He seemed to want answers - and it was clear he wanted Vicki. But all that would surely change once this tycoon discovered the truth… .

“Here’s To What Has Been And What Is Yet To Be.” (#u654a4927-3b78-58a1-9d41-ddbba47d35d2)Letter to Reader (#u7200ccd4-3791-5c65-8c28-4915b3a2d926)Title Page (#u841b4491-6b56-5703-a784-ae7e282d6d2d)SHAWNA DELACORTE (#u4f496f6c-8779-5fbe-9cf5-c7f372923a6b)Chapter One (#uae81c10b-84ad-5010-9c3c-eddb62af9c18)Chapter Two (#u30fa2b32-3fef-5214-9f84-69d28a4c1e20)Chapter Three (#u3d541d27-ab26-5c65-a1ad-86d9a1cb9ffa)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)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Here’s To What Has Been And What Is Yet To Be.”

His words settled over her like a soft caress. He wrapped her in his embrace and snuggled back into the corner of the couch, pulling her with him.

“It’s been a long time, Vicki. I’ve often wondered what happened to you, what you were doing... whether or not you were happy.”

It was not what she had been expecting and she was not sure how to respond. “I was wondering the same thing about you.”

Any further thoughts were put on hold when he claimed her mouth with all the passion he had been carrying inside him for the past fifteen years.

A soft moan escaped her lips. Things had gone too far. She could not stop what was happening even if she wanted to. If it was to be that they had only this one night together, then she wanted it to be enough to last her a lifetime.

Dear Reader,

Silhouette Desire is proud to launch three brand-new, emotional and romantic miniseries this month! We’ve got twin sisters switching places, sexy men who rise above their pasts and a ranching family marrying off their Texas daughters.

Along with our spectacular new miniseries, we’re bringing you Anne McAllister’s latest novel in her bestselling CODE OF THE WEST series, July’s MAN OF THE MONTH selection, The Cowboy Crashes a Wedding. Next, a shy, no-frills librarian leads a fairy tale life when she masquerades as her twin sister in Barbara McMahon’s Cinderella Twin, book one of her IDENTICAL TWINS! duet. In Seducing the Proper Miss Miller by Anne Marie Winston, the town’s black sheep and the minister’s daughter cause a scandal with their sudden wedding.

Sexy Western author Peggy Moreland invites readers to get to know the McCloud sisters and the irresistible men who court them—don’t miss the first TEXAS BRIDES book, The Rancher’s Spittin‘ Image. And a millionaire bachelor discovers his secret heir in The Tycoon ’s Son by talented author Shawna Delacorte. A gorgeous loner is keeping quiet about His Most Scandalous Secret in the first book in Susan Crosby’s THE LONE WOLVES miniseries.

So get to know the friends and families in Silhouette Desire’s hottest new miniseries—and watch for more of their love stories in months to come!

Regards,

Melissa Senate

Senior Editor

Silhouette Books

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 Tycoon’s Son

Shawna Delacorte

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

SHAWNA DELACORTE

has delayed her move to Washington State, staying in the Midwest in order to spend some additional time with family. She still travels as often as time permits and is looking forward to visiting several new places during the upcoming year while continuing to devote herself to writing full-time.

One

Vicki Bingham stood on the porch of the country store. The shiver of trepidation started as a little twinge, then spread throughout her body. After fifteen years, Wyatt Edwards was about to step back into her life.

Hunching her shoulders against the cold tremor that engulfed her, she stared up at the empty house standing in stately grandeur on top of the hill. It seemed to look across the valley and out to the ocean like a dark, brooding monarch surveying his kingdom. No one from the Edwards family had lived in the house since the death of Henry Edwards ten years ago. And now it was about to be occupied again by Wyatt, Henry’s only child.

Her ever increasing anxiety forced her to look away. Nothing good could come from this, but she did not know what to do about it.

“Victoria Dalton Bingham!”

Vicki stiffened at the sound of her name. She recognized the voice immediately. It had the same quality as chalk squeaking on a blackboard and affected her the same way. Alice Thackery, a prim woman in her early sixties, was the town busybody and selfappointed guardian of everyone’s morals. Vicki forced a smile and turned around to face the unavoidable.

“Yes, Mrs. Thackery, what can I do for you?” She could tell by the woman’s pinched expression and tightly pursed lips that she was about io be involved in yet another unpleasant confrontation.

“I realize, Victoria, that you had to make certain adjustments when you returned to Sea Cliff to run the store after your father died, but you’ve been here for two months now and I feel that’s long enough. I’ve mentioned this to you on numerous occasions in an attempt to be a good neighbor, but you seem determined to ignore all my attempts to be gracious in this matter.” Mrs. Thackery shifted her shopping basket from one arm to the other as she waited for a response.

Vicki allowed a sigh of resignation. “What seems to be the problem this time, Mrs. Thackery?”

“It’s that boy of yours. You’re allowing that teenage hooligan to run wild around the streets and I won’t have it!”

Vicki stretched herself to her full five-foot-seveninch height and glared down at the shorter woman. She took a calming breath, determined to control her temper. “I will thank you to stop referring to my son as a ‘teenage hooligan.’ Richie is no such thing. He’s a healthy, normal boy who needs his exercise. He’s not a troublemaker and does not run wild around the streets.”

“Not an hour ago, Victoria, he came speeding around the corner on that two-wheeled contraption of his and nearly ran into me. He was with that Forsythe boy and everyone in town knows that little hooligan is just a breath away from reform school.”

“That ‘two-wheeled contraption’ is a bicycle—a dirt bike—not some high-powered motorcycle.”

Mrs. Thackery turned to leave, but not before delivering a parting shot. “Nonetheless, I expect him to control the way he charges around the streets. Humph! It’s getting so a decent person isn’t safe walking along the sidewalk.”

Vicki went inside the store, a combination market and post office. She slammed the screen door harder than she intended.

“What’s the matter, Mom?”

Her son’s voice caught her by surprise. She whirled around and spotted him coming out of the back office with a handful of cookies. “Richie...how long have you been here?” She knew the upheaval in his life had been very difficult for her son. When her husband, Robert Bingham, had died five years ago it had been devastating for Richie. Then, two months ago, he had been uprooted once again when they moved from Dallas, Texas, to the small rural community of Sea Cliff on the northern California coast. She was thankful school had started so that at least he could make some new friends.

He popped one of the cookies into his mouth, practically inhaling it rather than eating it. “I don’t know... five minutes, I guess.” He shoved another cookie into his mouth. “Me and Tim—”

“Tim and I.” She brushed the hair back from his forehead.

“Cut it out, Mom.” A spark of irritation showed as he backed away from her motherly fussing. “Tim and I were riding on this great trail he knows back in the hills.” He took a soft drink from the refrigerator.

“You were also zipping around the sidewalks.” She started to tell him to put back the soft drink and not eat any more cookies because he would spoil his dinner, but they would have been wasted words. At fourteen-and-a-half, he had the voracious appetite of a garbage-disposal unit. He was growing so fast that he could consume what seemed like huge amounts of food and immediately burn it up. He was already as tall as she was and seemed to be all legs. He would eventually top six feet, easily.

He shot her a look of disgust. “Yeah... I saw old lady Thackery leavin’. It wasn’t like she said.”

“That’s Mrs. Thackery. And what she said was that you nearly ran her down with your bike.”