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Chapter Fifteen
Red Garnier
What’s one impulsive night between old friends?
Tied together by tragedy, business tycoon Garrett Gage has always vowed to protect Kate Devaney—at all costs. What he doesn’t expect is that she’d someday need protection from him. When did Kate blossom from an orphaned little girl into a breathtaking woman? And what possessed him to forsake a deathbed vow and take vulnerable Kate into his arms, into his bed?
Now that they’d been intimate, things have changed—more than Garrett could possibly know. Kate is carrying his child. And along with that, a secret that could change everything….
RED GARNIER is a fan of books, chocolate and happilyever-afters. What better way to spend the day than combining all three? Traveling frequently between the United States and Mexico, Red likes to call Texas home. She’d love to hear from her readers at [email protected]. For more on upcoming books and current contests, please visit her website, www.redgarnier.com.
As always, with my deepest thanks to everyone at Harlequin Desire—who make the best team of editors I’ve ever come across! Thank you for making this book shine.
This book is once again dedicated to my flesh-and-blood hero and our two little ones, who, it turns out, are not so little anymore.
He was the sexiest best man the maid of honor had ever seen, and he wouldn’t stop looking at her.
Stomach clenched tight with longing, she stared into his gorgeous obsidian eyes and wondered how she was going to have the courage to tell him that their one incredible night together, that night that should have never happened but did, had resulted in a little surprise on the way.
That the stork would be paying them a visit in eight months or so.
The thought alone made her legs tremble. Clutching her white orchid bouquet with trembling hands, Kate Devaney forced herself to focus on her sister, Molly, and how stunning she looked up on the altar in her snow-white wedding gown next to the drop-dead-gorgeous groom.
The fresh noon sun lit her lovely pink-cheeked face, its warm rays illuminating the couple as they stood before the priest. They were surrounded by an explosion of white casablancas, orchids, tulips and roses. The train of the bride’s wedding gown reached almost to the end of the red velvet carpet, where the guests sat in rapt attention on rows and rows of elegant white benches. Molly’s voice trembled with emotion as she spoke her vows to Julian, her best friend for forever, and the man she’d always loved.
“I, Molly, take you, Julian John, to be my husband...”
Kate’s heart constricted with emotion for her little sister, but no matter how much she fought the impulse, her eyes kept straying to the right side of the groom...to where the best man stood towering and silent.
Garrett Gage.
Her tummy quivered when their eyes met again. His eyes were hot and tumultuous, his jaw set tight and square as a cutting board.
He’d been looking at her for every second of the ceremony, his palpable gaze boring pinprick holes through the top of her head.
What a pity that his fiancée wasn’t at the wedding, so that he could go and stare at that blonde and leave Kate alone, she thought angrily.
But no, he haunted her. This man. Day and night she thought of him, wanted him, ached for him, while every second of the day, she tried futilely to forget him.
For the past month, it had been a struggle to ignore the enticing memories of the things he’d said to her, a struggle not to remember the way he’d held her in
