Pretending with the Playboy

by Cathleen Galitz

  This month, in

  PRETENDING WITH THE PLAYBOY

  by Cathleen Galitz,

  Meet Alexander Kent—irredeemable playboy, ladies’ man and husband? His undercover sting operation required a wife, and prim librarian Stephanie Firth was perfect for the part…until he started involving his heart for real!

  SILHOUETTE DESIRE

  IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE

  Six wealthy Texas bachelors—all members of the state’s most exclusive club—must unravel the mystery surrounding one tiny baby…and discover true love in the process!

  And don’t miss

  FIT FOR A SHEIKH

  by Kristi Gold;

  The sixth installment of the

  Texas Cattleman’s Club: The Stolen Baby series.

  Available next month in Silhouette Desire!

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks so much for choosing Silhouette Desire—the destination for powerful, passionate and provocative love stories. Things start heating up this month with Katherine Garbera’s Sin City Wedding, the next installment of our DYNASTIES: THE DANFORTHS series. An affair, a secret child, a quickie Las Vegas wedding…and that’s just the beginning of this romantic tale.

  Also this month we have the marvelous Dixie Browning with her steamy Driven to Distraction. Cathleen Galitz brings us another book in the TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE STOLEN BABY series with Pretending with the Playboy. Susan Crosby’s BEHIND CLOSED DOORS miniseries continues with the superhot Private Indiscretions. And Bronwyn Jameson takes us to Australia in A Tempting Engagement.

  Finally, welcome the fabulous Roxanne St. Claire to the Silhouette Desire family. We’re positive you’ll enjoy Like a Hurricane and will be wanting the other McGrath brothers’ stories. We’ll be bringing them to you in the months to come as well as stories from Beverly Barton, Ann Major and New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson. So keep coming back for more from Silhouette Desire.

  More passion to you!

  Melissa Jeglinski

  Senior Editor

  Silhouette Desire

  Pretending with the Playboy

  CATHLEEN GALITZ

  To Shawn and Curt. Writing this book reminded me

  all over again what a precious gift my children are.

  Books by Cathleen Galitz

  Silhouette Desire

  The Cowboy Takes a Bride #1271

  Wyoming Cinderella #1373

  Her Boss’s Baby #1396

  Tall, Dark…and Framed? #1433

  Warrior in Her Bed #1506

  Pretending with the Playboy #1569

  Silhouette Romance

  The Cowboy Who Broke the Mold #1257

  100% Pure Cowboy #1279

  Wyoming Born & Bred #1381

  CATHLEEN GALITZ,

  a Wyoming native, teaches English to students in grades six to twelve in a rural school that houses kindergartners and seniors in the same building. She feels blessed to have married a man who is both supportive and patient. When she’s not busy writing, teaching or chauffeuring her sons to and from various activities, she can most likely be found indulging in her favorite pastime—reading.

  * * *

  “What’s Happening in Royal?”

  NEWS FLASH, March—The most eligible bachelor and stalwart playboy in Royal—tamed? Yes, ladies, break out your handkerchiefs and sob your hearts out—it looks as though Alexander Kent is getting his studly self hitched! Even more shocking is that the lovely wife-to-be is none other than the town’s prim librarian, Stephanie Firth. How did a playboy like Alex fall for a gal as steady and proper as Stephanie? Guess the old saying really does apply: Opposites attract…

  In other news, we can thank our lucky stars that Dr. Nathan Beldon, aka Birkenfeld, is now firmly behind bars and Carrie Whelan is safely in the embrace of Ry Evans! It’s a good thing Ry and Carrie finally came to their senses! But all’s not happily ever after just yet; even though Birkenfeld may be in jail, there’s a rumor that the black-market adoption ring is still dangerously active….

  Come to think of it, Texas Cattleman’s Club has been having an awful lot of covert meetings lately. What could those sexy gents be planning? Whatever it is, Alex and Stephanie seem to be in the thick of it….

  * * *

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  “Sorry, guys, no can do,” Alexander Kent informed his fellow members of the prestigious Texas Cattleman’s Club.

  His voice lacked any genuine remorse at having to decline the “honor” thrust upon him. Protests arose from every corner of the ultramanly cigar lounge that served as the day’s meeting room. Clint Andover, the most recently married among their ranks, succinctly phrased the question on everyone’s mind in a warm drawl that belied the steely intent behind the inquiry.

  “And just why the hell not?”

  Alex studied the fine bone china cup that held his Irish coffee. The club emblem embossed in delicate gold strokes upon the porcelain stood for far more than any outsider could be expected to understand. The facade of their good old boys club was in fact a front for an organization of ex-military men dedicated to saving innocent lives and bringing the guilty to justice. And while their generosity to charities was renowned, it was their covert operations that truly testified to their members’ integrity and to the success of their missions.

  Alex took his sweet time answering. His gaze swept the room, taking in the exotic animal mounts decorating the walls. He felt a sudden stirring of empathy for the mountain lion trapped for posterity upon a narrow rock jutting out from the opposite wall. Swatting at an imaginary foe, the poor creature’s snarl challenged the terrified look in its glassy eyes.

  Alex imagined the unfortunate beast had just learned his friends had proposed marrying him off as part of some elaborate plan they had concocted on his behalf.

  Overhead a Tiffany chandelier cast a rainbow of prisms upon the club motto hanging from a plaque above the door. The words were carved upon Alex’s heart as surely as they were burned into that hallowed piece of wood.

  Leadership, Justice and Peace.

  It wasn’t lack of courage keeping Alex from freely offering himself up as a pawn in the Club’s latest mission. They intended to break apart a ring of white-collar criminals engaged in a reprehensible adoption scam. The scam had started coming to light on the fateful day when Natalie Perez stumbled into this proverbial fortress with Travis Whelan’s baby—and absolutely no memory whatsoever. Piecing together her recollections had not been easy, or altogether safe, for those who had reached out to help her. And foiling a scheme worth half a million dollars to the perpetrators had proven more perilous than any of them could have imagined at the time.

  The fact that Natalie, Travis and their baby were presently out of harm’s way, not to mention happily joined together as a bona fide family, wasn’t the end of the Cattleman’s involvement in this complicated case. Motivated by their pledge to see justice done, the members had seen fit to elect someone to go undercover and conduct a sting operation designed to put an end to the illegal ring for good. Because of his former FBI experience, Alex was the obvious choice for the assignment. Independently wealthy, this single thirty-five-year-old lifetime bachelor had no family or job obligations to prevent him from accepting.

  “We’re waiting for your answer with bated br
eath,” said Ryan Evans laconically.

  Alex gave the former rodeo star a reluctant smile.

  “As honored as I am by your faith in me, there’s one problem you all seem to have overlooked.”

  He hesitated. The temptation to crack a joke and charm his way out of this predicament was super-ceded by his need to be forthright. Alexander Kent could no more lie to the reflection in his own mirror than to the band of brothers who filled this room with the integrity of their own personal character. Taking a deep breath, he removed the invisible mask of indifference that he donned for the rest of the world to see, and prepared himself to be razzed unmercifully.

  A rare glimpse of weariness showed itself in his deep green eyes as he made his disclosure.

  “In order to play the doting husband in this little scheme of yours, I’m going to need a suitable wife, and the truth is, I’m fresh out of feminine companions who would be willing to act the part—even for as good a cause as this one.”

  Disbelief and laughter filled the room at the thought of the state’s most notorious playboy being unable to cajole any number of women into playing house with him.

  “What happened to Glorious Gloria?” someone asked from the back of the room.

  “Not speaking to me at the moment,” Alex explained in reference to the supermodel who had recently severed ties when he refused to so much as discuss the subject of marriage. “As, I’m afraid, is every other woman in my infamous little black book.”

  The one that doesn’t exist, he silently amended.

  His friends’ good-natured kidding didn’t do anything to ease the loneliness that he secretly dealt with every day as part of his inheritance from a wealthy father who had been taken by any number of rapacious stepmothers. Very early on, those women had taught young Alex how to appreciate the value of bachelorhood. Gloria Vuu was the latest in the long line of women frustrated in an attempt to get him to commit to something beyond what she called his “swinging singles’ mind-set.” Her dramatic departure had included the breaking of a priceless vase against a wall of his penthouse. Never one to quibble over the price of splitting up, Alex was just grateful she hadn’t been a better aim.

  “That one wouldn’t have worked for our purposes anyway,” interjected another friendly voice. “Nobody in their right mind would believe somebody like Gloria was desperate to saddle herself to a pile of dirty diapers.”

  With his usual aplomb, Ryan Evans quieted the room simply by clearing his throat. “Is that all that’s keeping you from accepting this assignment?” he asked, spearing Alex with a searching look.

  As if that wasn’t enough!

  Alex nodded. Just because his bachelor friends were dropping like flies into the honeyed web of matrimony, he hardly thought it fair that they suddenly considered themselves experts on who would make him a suitable wife.

  “If that’s the case, I’m one step ahead of you, partner,” Ryan said with typical brashness.

  The Cheshire grin his friend wore worried Alex.

  As if afraid of being interrupted, Ryan continued in a rush. “Since it’s a given that none of the ladies you usually hang out with would provide you with a believable cover, I took the liberty of asking Carrie if she could think of someone who might fit the part. It just so happens that she has a friend who would be perfect marriage material for you.”

  Alex was just about to ask exactly what he meant by that, when Travis interrupted his soon-to-be-brother-in-law and longtime buddy. “If my little sister gives the lady the thumbs-up, that’s good enough for me.”

  The set of his chiseled jaw dared anyone to question his judgment on the matter. Since Carrie had at one time been romantically involved with the doctor suspected of heading up this nefarious ring and who later turned on her with diabolical vengeance, there was no need to brief her on the need for utmost secrecy in regard to their plan. With both Travis and Ryan giving the mystery woman Carrie had picked out for him their seal of approval, no one else saw any reason to argue. Alex was morbidly curious to see just who Ry thought was the firecracker of a fiancée that would make him the perfect mate. If she was even half as pretty as Carrie, he knew he’d have a heck of a time staying focused on the business at hand.

  The thought perked him up considerably.

  “And just who might that be?” he wanted to know, mentally running through a list of available single women in town and crossing each and every one off as he came to them.

  The name Ryan supplied had him picking his jaw up off the floor.

  “The school librarian?” Alex asked in disbelief.

  “One and the same. Before you object, you need to know that the lady not only has all the right understated qualities needed to actually pull this off, she’s also got some acting experience under her belt.”

  Her chastity belt you mean, Alex was tempted to add.

  Quite frankly he was offended that Carrie would pick such a dowdy old maid as his “perfect” match. Not that Alex was one to fault a woman for living virtuously. If his own mother had shown more restraint than an alley cat before up and leaving her husband and five-year-old son high and dry, maybe he wouldn’t be as emotionally screwed up as Gloria and an entire string of scorned women claimed he was.

  On second thought, there were certain advantages to having such a plain Jane cast as his make-believe wife for this mission. Such a woman wasn’t likely to come on board this project with any preconceived notions about becoming romantically attached to him, which would make it a whole lot easier for him to keep his focus. When dealing with dangerous criminals, the less distractions the better. As much as he would like to consider this assignment a lark, Alex understood just how perilous the game was they were playing. A man who would stoop to stealing babies from vulnerable single mothers wasn’t likely to balk at murder.

  Alex couldn’t imagine the mild-mannered woman he had met at local school fund–raisers as being up to such a challenge. He doubted whether the demure Stephanie Firth would be willing to risk her precious reputation for a good cause, let alone actually risk her neck by placing herself in the kind of compromising situations demanded by the plan Alex’s friends had concocted.

  Whatever threat such a plan posed to him personally, Alex would not turn his back on everything he held dear. The pledge he had taken as a Texas Cattleman precluded his ever saying no to the friends who’d placed their trust in him. The thought of decent women like Natalie grieving for the babies they believed to be dead at birth demanded nothing less than laying his own life on the line if necessary.

  Looking around the room at all the expectant faces turned toward him, Alex threw up his hands in surrender and put the onus on Miss Prim herself.

  “All right, guys, if you think there’s a chance in hell of convincing the little lady to go along with this, you’re welcome to count me in.”

  One

  “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” asked a blond Juliet with an impatient hand planted upon her hip.

  “Probably in the wings making out with my nurse,” she added under her breath before crying out in a shrill voice, “Miss Firth, won’t you do something about the way Junior keeps missing his cues?”

  Stephanie bit the inside of her cheek to keep the expletive ricocheting inside her brain from exploding out her mouth. Shakespeare would flip over in his grave and pack his ears with dirt to keep from hearing the Royal, Texas, version of his greatest love story. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that the cast comprised high-school students and, as such, could not be expected to put on a Broadway production. Nevertheless, Stephanie had little desire to be publicly humiliated by a performance straight out of Dog Patch. Indeed, one could almost hear “y’all” dripping off the end of every single line spoken during today’s rehearsal.

  In responding to Juliet’s petulance, the voice Stephanie employed to get her message across was that of a disciplined school employee used to working with hormonally charged adolescents.

  “Launa Beth, how many time
s must I remind you to stay in character, and let me worry about the other cast members? Now, I want you to really focus on softening your accent in this scene.”

  Unhappy at being chastised when Junior Weaver was the one so sorely in need of upbraiding, Launa squinted into the darkened theater. She was distracted from her prima-donna bout of peevishness by Romeo’s belated entrance. An athletic young man sauntered on stage looking more like a lost football player than a love-struck leading man.

  Furious, Juliet hurled at him the insult most fashionable among her peers. “Junior, you suck!”

  Turning an irresistible smile upon her, Romeo corrected her in true Elizabethan fashion. “Don’t you mean sucketh, milady?”

  “Cut!”

  Stephanie’s voice echoed throughout the theater, drowning out the stifled laughter of an unannounced visitor sitting in the back. Unbeknownst to her, this particular patron of the arts was not there to watch the production but rather to scope out the harried director herself. Had Stephanie realized that she was auditioning for the role of a lifetime, she likely would have felt more self-conscious as she marched up onstage and proceeded to instruct her students in the finer art of acting.

  Absorbed in the scene unfolding before him, Alexander Kent leaned forward in his seat. He recognized the librarian who was picked to become his make-believe wife by the plain clothes and no-frills hairstyle she favored, but he was surprised by the passion with which she directed her misbegotten cast of characters. The transformation was nothing short of astonishing.

  “You have to put your personal feelings aside and truly become your character,” Stephanie told the assembled cast as she emerged from the darkness and strode into the limelight herself. “Need I remind you that when you step onto this stage, you are stepping back into time, not only into your character’s shoes but rather into the very skin of those who risked everything they had for the sake of love? I’m asking you to find the courage to forget yourself for a brief couple of hours and don the mantle of a real actor.”