Tangled Web

Tangled Web
Cathy Gillen Thacker

Past transgressions haunted Hope Barrister, whose beauty helped her rise from a tenant farm to a Texas fortune. But her quiet loveliness concealed dark secrets she'd long kept safe, to protect her young son….Chase Barrister found Hope enigmatic and elegant–but she tasted of forbidden fruit. Years ago, Chase had fled his father's legacy, but he'd taken memories of his stepmother and his own bittersweet desire.After his father's death, Chase returned to Texas and Hope. Would he be caught in the web of familial deceit…or untangle an honest love and truly come home?

“Are you going to deny the passion you felt for my father?”

“You have no right…” Hope whispered.

“Oh, really?” Chase knew, feeling as he did about her, that he had every right. “Just what constitutes passion in your view, Hope? A touch? A kiss?” He slanted his lips over hers, all the need he held back surging to the surface. “Is this passion enough for you, Hope?” His mouth brushed hers. “What about this?” Pulling her closer, Chase trailed his lips over her jaw, tasting the flavor of her skin. “Or this?”

Hope’s legs buckled as her body went fluid. Needing something to hold on to, she reached out to Chase, seduced by the promise of his arms. “I want you,” she whispered.

Suddenly Chase closed his eyes. He’d never meant to go this far. He whispered, in a low, tortured voice, racked with guilt, “But we can’t—”

Dear Reader,

I grew up the second child, and the oldest daughter, of five children. I was lucky enough to have a close, loving family, and today they—along with my husband and three children—remain a source of love and strength for me. I don’t know what I’d ever do without them.

But what about the people who are not as lucky as I? What is it like to grow up without a family who loves you and supports you every step of the way?

And yet, people do emerge from such childhoods to become caring adults. Often it is due to the love of those around them. A teacher or a friend. It doesn’t matter who it is, as long as someone loves you enough to take you into his heart and under his wing somewhere along the way.

Families are formed where no biological ties exist, and yet these families are every bit as strong as the real thing.

Hope Barrister is one of those people who didn’t have the love she should have had as a child. But she found it in her decades-older husband…. And though the love that sustained their marriage was not the romantic sort, it was strong and enduring, and a real lifeline for Hope and the baby she bore.

Chase Barrister, on the other hand, grew up loved and adored by both his parents. He doesn’t understand—or trust—Hope, his father’s young widow. But he is determined to do right by his stepbrother, and at last find out why and how his father came to marry Hope. And in understanding, he learns much about Hope and himself. And finds his own true love, as well.

I hope you enjoy this book—it’s one of my all-time favorites.

Happy reading!

Tangled Web

Cathy Gillen Thacker

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

CATHY GILLEN THACKER

married her high school sweetheart and hasn’t had a dull moment since. Why, you ask? Well, there were three kids, various pets, any number of automobiles, several moves across the country, his and her careers and sundry other experiences she wouldn’t trade for the world (some of which were exciting and some of which weren’t). But mostly, there was love and friendship and laughter.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Chapter One

“Chase, can you hear me?” Rosemary Barrister shouted.

“Barely,” Chase shouted back, holding the field telephone up to his face. A caterpillar dropped from a nearby tree and crawled up his arm. He swatted at it irritably, then wiped at the sweat dripping down the back of his neck. He hated having his work interrupted, and knowing his mother, despite the trouble she’d had to go through to track him down, this was something trivial.

“What’s up?” he asked, trying his best to keep the terseness out of his tone.

“That trollop is ruining your father’s store, that’s what!” His mother shouted back hysterically, the static on the long-distance line covering none of her intense dislike for his father’s second wife. “I want you to come back to the States immediately!”

Chase emitted a heavy sigh and swore silently. Rosemary’s timing was the pits, as always. He was right in the middle of important medical research and getting out of the Costa Rican rain forest was no easy trick. And if this call went as usual, he’d make no headway with her at all. “Mom, I can’t do that right now—”

“Fine!” Rosemary countered, her faint voice rising stridently.

“But don’t come crying to me when Barrister’s goes bankrupt next month and we both lose our sole source of support.”

“Mom, it can’t be that bad—” Chase said in the most soothing tone he could manage. Mesmerized by the sheer beauty of it, he watched a sunbird fly from branch to branch in the canopy of trees above him where raindrops glinted like shiny pearls at the ends of pointed leaves. Damn, but he loved it here, where there were no phones, no family hassles, nothing but the work he loved….

“The hell it can’t! Barrister’s lost money last month, Chase, and the month before that! Haven’t you been reading your statements?”

Chase tore his eyes from the hanging orchids above him and concentrated on what his mother was saying. “Well, no.” He had no interest in the family department store; she knew that.