by Sarah Morgan
Her heart swelled with wonder and the knowledge that his words of love weren’t just words, but that he wanted her, in spite of her imperfections, just as much as she wanted him.
‘I’ve missed you so much,’ he said, his breath and his voice ragged and edgy. ‘Make love with me, Jade. Make love with me tonight.’
‘I want to,’ she replied, thinking back to an earlier night that now seemed so very long ago before dropping her lashes to her cheek. ‘But I’m not protected.’
He swung her up into his arms, the gleam in his eye telling her he remembered her coyness at that first meeting, and that this time too would be a first meeting of sorts—a first meeting of two souls who were destined for each other and who could finally acknowledge the inevitability of it.
‘It’s not a problem,’ he said. ‘I’m planning on being all the protection you’ll ever need.’
‘That’s fine by me,’ she said, as his lips drew closer once more. ‘Because, like I told you, when I play, I play for keeps.’
His lips pressed warm and insistent upon hers, filling her with the essence of him and with his promise to cherish her for ever. Then he drew back just a fraction.
‘And that’s just the way I want it.’
ISBN 978-1-5525-4977-3
Copyright © 2007 Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
Sale or Return Bride
Copyright © 2005 by Sarah Morgan
Taken by the Highest Bidder
Copyright © 2005 by Jane Porter
For Revenge…Or Pleasure?
Copyright © 2005 by Trish Morey
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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About the Authors
Sarah Morgan
Sarah was born in Wiltshire and started writing at the age of eight when she produced an autobiography of her hamster.
At the age of 18 she travelled to London to train as a nurse in one of London's top teaching hospitals, and she describes what happened in those years as extremely happy and definitely censored!
She worked in a number of areas after she qualified, but her favourite was A&E where she found the work stimulating and fun. Nowhere else in the hospital environment did she encounter such good teamwork between doctors and nurses.
By now her interests had moved on from hamsters to men, and she started writing romance fiction.
Her first completed manuscript, written after the birth of her first child, was rejected by Mills & Boon, but the comments were encouraging, so she tried again, and on the third attempt her manuscript Worth the Risk was accepted unchanged. She describes receiving the acceptance letter as one of the best moments of her life, after meeting her husband and having her two children.
Sarah still works part-time in a health-related industry and spends the rest of the time with her family trying to squeeze in writing whenever she can. She is an enthusiastic skier and walker and loves outdoor life.
Jane Porter
Born in Visalia, California, Jane Porter is a small-town girl at heart. She loves central California's golden foothills, oak trees and the miles of farmland, rich with the sweet and heady fragrance of orange blossoms.
As a little girl Jane spent
Trish Morey
Trish Morey wrote her first book at age 11 for a children's book-week competition. Entitled Island Dreamer, it tells the story of an orphaned girl and her life on Hindmarsh Island—a small island at the mouth of the Murray River—and was totally self-published. She wrote, illustrated and stitched the pages together herself (her earliest and least successful experience with body piercing!). Island Dreamer was also to be her first rejection—her entry was disqualified unread because she'd transposed the copyright and title pages. This rejection had a devastating effect on the young writer's psyche. Shattered and broken, she turned to a life where she could combine her love of fiction with her need for creativity. You guessed it—Trish became a chartered accountant.
Life wasn't all dull, though, as she embarked on a skydiving course, completing three jumps before deciding that she'd given her fear of heights a run for its money and it was time to retire her parachute and hang around on terra firma for a while.
Prepared to set the financial world alight, Trish moved from her native Adelaide to Canberra, where she promptly fell in love with a handsome guy who cut computer code. Marriage followed a few years later, along with a stint in Wellington, New Zealand, where Trish worked for the NZ Treasury. There she penned her second book—A Guide to Departmental Budgeting. It didn't have a huge print run and the royalties were nonexistent, but she'd learned something—the pages were at least stapled. Unfortunately, she never got to complete the surefire sequel and New York Times bestseller, Asset Management, as her hormones intervened with a healthy dose of motherhood.
Two years later and back home in Canberra after the birth of their second daughter, Trish spied an article announcing that Mills & Boon was actively seeking new authors. It was one of those "Eureka!" moments. Her whole life clicked into place and immediately she embarked on a professional writing course. She sent off a couple of partials, earned a couple of rejections, had a couple more daughters and even had a couple of feature articles published in the newspapers. Just so she wouldn't get bored, the family moved countries a couple more times. Their third daughter was born in Hemel Hempstead, England, by sheer coincidence, the same town Trish's aunt had been born some 70 years prior, before the family had emigrated to Australia.
Living in the UK offered more than just the chance to check out the NHS system, though, and the young family took the opportunity to explore farther afield, visiting France, Italy and even Crete, as well as many magical sites in the UK. Tintagel in Cornwall and Hadrian's Wall stand out as two of the highlights.
Back in Australia and now with four daughters, Trish knew it was time to get serious with her writing. She started entering the contests offered by Romance Writers of Australia, achieving third place in her first competition. More successes followed, along with closer involvement in RWA Australia. Trish managed three contests for RWA before serving on the RWA Executive in 2002-3 as conference coordinator, organizing the 2003 Gold Coast "Passion in Paradise" conference. Trish is currently vice president of RWA Australia.
In 2002 Trish entered the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart contest for the first time and was amazed and delighted to final in the short contemporary section. The same manuscript was already under consideration in London, and in June 2003 (actually June 18th at 6:32 p.m.) the magical phone call came. Mills & Boon wanted to buy her book!
According to Trish, selling a book is a major life achievement that ranks up there with jumping out of an airplane and motherhood. All three take commitment, determination and sheer guts, but the effort is so very, very worthwhile.
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