Who's The Father Of Jenny's Baby?

Who's The Father Of Jenny's Baby?
Donna Clayton

JUNE BRIDESMother & ChildJoin award-winning author Donna Clayton as she explores the loving ties that bond a mother to her child–and the perfect man who helps them all become a family!"Whose child am I carrying?"Jenny Prentice woke without her memory…only to be told she was pregnant. And two men were claiming to be her baby's father!Luke said he was her loving husband. Though Jenny felt passion for this quiet, attentive man, she sensed that their marriage had been far from perfect. For Luke's own brother stated Jenny's baby was his….The truth lay hidden in Jenny's lost memory…and in the tender touch of one special man….Celebrate a month of joyful marriages with Silhouette Romance!

She had amnesia. And the doctor was saying she was pregnant. (#u409caa0c-87fc-576b-a39c-53de7fddfaef)Letter to Reader (#u62f143a2-eade-5aef-b16e-0b35e92a7642)Title Page (#u015f8e53-01ea-5b0d-9963-2628cce81906)Dedication (#uee3949ec-4948-5c5c-9e4d-52962be05752)About the Author (#u1df89ac1-398c-56e6-8b41-6b40abb53570)Chapter One (#u5b66628b-f19a-5c7e-a5d7-11e8f11564f5)Chapter Two (#uf4688ccc-47fd-517d-a623-c8e31e2272f4)Chapter Three (#uf81dbd4e-1b44-50e3-b473-75ef34f638d8)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)

She had amnesia. And the doctor was saying she was pregnant.

Her name was Jenny Prentice. She repeated it silently, slowly. A man named Luke claimed she was his wife. And she had a baby growing inside her. The weight of all this staggering news had her reeling.

Baby. Instinctively, she smoothed a protective hand over her abdomen.

“Jenny,” Luke said, disbelief in his eyes, “why didn’t you tell me?”

All she could do was look at him helplessly. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of woman would keep such wonderful news from her husband.

“I might be able to shed some light on this situation.”

All eyes turned to Luke’s brother, Chad, as they waited for him to explain himself.

“I’m sorry you have to find out like this, Luke,” Chad continued. “But I think Jenny didn’t tell anyone about the baby because...well, to put it bluntly, I think I may be the baby’s father.”

Dear Reader,

Traditionally June is the month for weddings, so Silhouette Romance cordially invites you to enjoy our promotion JUNE BRIDES, starting with Suzanne Carey’s Sweet Bride of Revenge. In this sensuously powerful VIRGIN BRIDES tale, a man forces the daughter of his nemesis to many him, never counting on falling in love with the enemy....

Up-and-comer Robin Nicholas delivers a touching BUNDLES OF JOY titled Man, Wife and Little Wonder. Can a denim-clad, Harley-riding bad boy turn doting dad and dedicated husband? Find out in this classic marriage-of-convenience romance! Next, Donna Clayton’s delightful duo MOTHER & CHILD continues with the evocative title Who’s the Father of Jenny’s Baby? A woman awakens in the hospital to discover she has amnesia—and she’s pregnant! Problem is, two men claim to be the baby’s father—her estranged husband...and her husband’s brother!

Granted: Wild West Bride is the next installment in Carol Grace’s BEST-KEPT WISHES series. This richly Western romance pairs a toughened, taut-muscled cowboy and a sophisticated city gal who welcomes his kisses, but will she accept his ring? For a fresh spin on the bridal theme, try Alice Sharpe’s Wife on His Doorstep. An about-to-be bride stops her wedding to the wrong man, only to land on the doorstep of the strong, silent ship captain who was to perform the ill-fated nuptials.... And in Leanna Wilson’s latest Romance, His Tomboy Bride, Nick Latham was supposed to “give away” childhood friend and bride-to-be Billie Rae—not claim the transformed beauty as his own!

We hope you enjoy the month’s wedding fun, and return each and every month for more classic, emotional, heartwarming novels from Silhouette Romance.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor Silhouette Romance

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

Who’s The Father Of Jenny’s Baby?

Donna Clayton

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

For Dorothy B. Montgomery My Aunt Dot With Love

DONNA CLAYTON

is proud to be a recipient of the Holt Medallion, an award honoring outstanding literary talent. And seeing her work appear on the Waldenbooks Series bestsellers list has given her a great deal of joy and satisfaction.

Reading is one of Donna’s favorite ways to while away a rainy afternoon. She loves to hike, too. Another hobby added to her list of fun things to do is traveling. She fell in love with Europe during her first trip abroad recently and plans to return often. Oh, and Donna still collects cookbooks, but as her writing career grows, she finds herself using them less and less.

Chapter One

She came awake slowly, as if she’d been ensnared for an eternity in the deepest of sleeps. The warm fuzziness threatened to pull her back into the protective depths of slumber; however, the flurry of activity she sensed taking place around her was too disturbing, too confusing, and she was forced to shrug off the dreamy hands tugging at her, enticing her back into oblivion.

With great effort, she raised her eyelids and was immediately blinded by the powerful light shining down from directly overhead. A small unbidden moan passed her lips. Turning her head away from the bright light, she immediately regretted the movement as a giant wave of nausea washed over her. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to move.

“She’s coming to. Get the doctor in here. Now.”

The man’s voice sounded unfamiliar to her, but the intense, barely suppressed emotion lacing the rich resonance of his words sent a shiver coursing down her spine. She couldn’t help but wonder who he was.

The query, innocently whispered through the foggy haze in her brain, seemed to pry open a floodgate through which other questions tumbled and churned, one on top of the other.

Where was she? What was happening? What had brought her to this place? Why was every muscle in her body throbbing like an abscessed tooth? And why didn’t someone turn off that glaring light?

“Jenny? Come on, now, wake up.”

A different voice, her mind deciphered. Male, also. But softer than the first. Less angry. However, this one, too, was tinged with emotion. The edginess pervading the second man’s words nearly made her skin crawl, and for the first time since awakening, she felt fear.

It was purely her survival instinct that had her forcing her eyes open once again. If danger was coming, she wanted to see its approach.

What a strange idea to enter her head, she thought, lifting her hand to shield her gaze from the bright light. The dark sensation that she was somehow in jeopardy dissolved, like valley mist burned off by the rising sun, as she focused all her energy on making out the gray shapes moving beyond the light.

“Can’t you see she’s being blinded?”

She knew it was the first man, the angry one, who batted the overhead light fixture aside so it no longer shone directly into her face. Her senses were momentarily overloaded as she tried to take in everything at once.

White. Everything was white. The walls, the bed linens, the uniformed-clad nurses...

A hospital. She was in the—

“Hospital.”

The murmured word, rusty and trembling, came from her lips, but the sound of it was so strange. As if she was hearing it for the very first time. This was bizarre. Why wouldn’t she recognize the sound of her own voice?

Seeds of panic and confusion sprouted in her chest, her heart pounding against her ribs in unison with the pain pounding in her head. She pressed her fingertips to her lips. In an effort to curb the rush of anxiety flooding through her, she forced her eyes to focus on the first object on which they landed.

A face.

The man stood at the foot of the bed, directly in front of her. He was dark, tawny, a man who most assuredly worked outside in the sun. He was handsome, in spite of the tension tightening his hawklike features. The artificial light glistened on his raven hair, and his coal-black eyes were etched with intensity—an intensity that told her, in no uncertain terms, that this was the owner of the first voice she’d heard upon awakening.