The Baby beneath the Mistletoe

The Baby beneath the Mistletoe
Marie Ferrarella

LOOK WHAT THE STORK BROUGHT…A chubby-cheeked baby whose adorable rosebud smile could melt even Tony Marino's stone-cold heart. And even if her co-worker was a pain, natural-born nurturer Michelle Rozanski couldn't just leave Tony to face instant fatherhood alone. Not when the brooding bachelor had willingly made a place in his home–and his heart–for the abandoned child. Michelle just hadn't expected to find her own home there, as well. But once the holidays ended, so would this fantasy. Unless stubborn Tony saw what else fate had left him underneath the mistletoe–a made-to-order wife!Sometimes small packages can lead to the biggest surprises!

“Somebody put up a sprig of mistletoe here.” (#ua1678cd2-43c1-5802-aa43-8cfb167148a8)Letter to Reader (#ufa9fa3b7-383c-51e1-a25f-24eaeb10dc49)Title Page (#u29270fa0-f452-5795-adae-11c586a94ae3)Dedication (#ubddf0a0a-5ab2-56fc-a8e5-83fac94ebc38)Letter to Reader (#uc33f7105-f973-5131-b62b-1d875f7c28e2)Chapter One (#ue927b0d6-6ec5-50e0-8535-e706ef714c93)Chapter Two (#uf9c1f356-c52a-5515-952d-c05d74bd4936)Chapter Three (#u0b87df2a-e825-50fa-8818-cd9d81c2b8ce)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)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Somebody put up a sprig of mistletoe here.”

Mikky raised her eyes to look at it. “You know, I hear it’s bad luck to go against tradition.”

“Guess this means I have to kiss you.”

“Guess so,” she whispered as Tony lowered his lips.

Feeling dazed, Mikky drew her mouth slowly away from his. For a man who was trying to keep his emotional distance, he’d certainly leapt over the chasm when he kissed her.

Mikky took a deep breath. “I don’t know about you, but that’s one tradition I think the world should really keep.”

“Michelle...”

“Shh.” She placed her fingertips to his lips to still them. “I’m not asking you for anything, just to enjoy the moment.”

“You really are something else, aren’t you?”

Mikky looked at him significantly. “Not better, not worse, just something else.” It was up to Tony to realize just what that actually meant to him.

Dear Reader,

The end of the century is near, and we’re all eagerly anticipating the wonders to come. But no matter what happens, I believe that everyone will continue to need and to seek the unquenchable spirit of love...of romance. And here at Silhouette Romance, we’re delighted to present another month’s worth of terrific, emotional stories.

This month, RITA Award-winning author Marie Ferrarella offers a tender BUNDLES OF JOY tale, in which The Baby Beneath the Mistletoe brings together a man who’s lost his faith and a woman who challenges him to take a chance at love...and family. In Charlotte Maclay’s charming new novel, a millionaire playboy isn’t sure what he was Expecting at Christmas, but what he gets is a very pregnant butler! Elizabeth Harbison launches her wonderful new theme-based miniseries, CINDERELLA BRIDES, with the fairy-tale romance—complete with mistaken identity!—between Emma and the Earl

In A Diamond for Kate by Moyra Tarling, discover whether a doctor makes his devoted nurse his devoted wife after learning about her past.... Patricia Thayer’s cross-line miniseries WITH THESE RINGS returns to Romance and poses the question: Can The Man, the Ring, the Wedding end a fifty-year-old curse? You’ll have to read this dramatic story to find out! And though The Millionaire’s Proposition involves making a baby in Natalie Patrick’s upbeat Romance, can a down-on-her-luck waitress also convince him to make beautiful memories...as man and wife?

Enjoy this month’s offerings, and look forward to a new century of timeless, traditional tales guaranteed to touch your heart!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

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

The Baby beneath the Mistletoe

Marie Ferrarella

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

To

Mary-Theresa Hussey,

for reuniting me with

the Marino-McClellan Clan.

Thank you.

Bundles of Joy

Dearest Reader,

One of my very favorite photographs of my daughter Jessi is when she was five months old. She’s wearing her jammies and is sitting in her infant seat, right under the Christmas tree. She looks like a Christmas present. I thought of that photograph when I began writing this book. But with one change. Because babies are really more like something you’d want to find underneath your mistletoe—one look at their cute faces and you just want to cover them with kisses (at least I do). But like Christmas presents, you unwrap them, never knowing what you’ll find.

In writing this story, I revisited the family I used in my first family saga for Silhouette Romance. The Marino-McClellan family is a little unconventional, because it features a married couple who already had one son but went on to adopt a foster brother and sister. They’re like so many families these days. No longer are families just Mom, Dad, two and a half kids and a dog. What has resulted in all this is the understanding that, essentially, to be a family, all you really need is love. Once you have that, the rest is easy. At least, that’s what my protagonists discover.

Here’s wishing you love, now and always.

Love,

Chapter One

“She’s driving me absolutely crazy,” Tony Marino said.

Shad McClellan and Angelo Marino, two-thirds of Marino, MeClellan & Conrad Construction Company, exchanged grins at their cousin’s very vocal, very intense complaint. Tony, Angelo thought, finally had a little color in his face and more than a little emotion in his voice. It was about time and in his opinion, a very good sign.

Technically, Antonio Marino was only Angelo’s cousin, at least in terms of blood. But on that long-ago day when Angelo’s parents had thrown open their door and their hearts to two motherless children, Shad and his younger sister Dottie, Angelo had embraced both Shad and Dottie as his equals and his siblings in every sense of the word but legal. There were some things that transcended legalities and rules. Like love.

Heaven knew Tony could certainly use a little love himself right now. Or maybe a lot, Angelo amended, given what Tony had been through in the last year.

“Driving you crazy, huh? I take it you don’t mean that in a good way.”

“Good way?” Tony echoed with an incredulous, dismissive snort. That’ll be the day.

Trying to curb his temper, Tony ran a restless hand through the black mop of hair that stubbornly insisted on falling into his eyes, much the way it had when he was a boy. But that boy would never have thought his heart could have been so completely and painfully ripped out of his chest as it had been a little more than a year ago.

Lines about his mouth, mirroring the ones etched into his soul, deepened as he thought of the short, opinionated architect who could make herself heard above a hurricane. She had become, in an incredibly short period of time, the total bane of his existence. Tony didn’t need to be saddled with this problem. It was all he could do to remember to put one foot in front of the other. To get through each day. Overseeing the construction project was hard enough without having to deal with her.

“Good and Michelle Rozanski do not belong in the same sentence.” Tony rolled his own words over in his head. “Same sentence? Hell, they don’t belong in the same zip code.”

Wanting to show his cousins just what he was up against, Tony began rifling through the chaotic disorder on the tiny, scarred metal desk, looking for the blueprints that they were supposed to be using to build Bedford’s newest high school.

Shad glanced at Angelo again. This was the most emotion any of the family had seen Tony display since they had first coerced him to leave Denver and stay with them in Bedford. His sister had been right. Throwing Tony headlong into a brand-new project for the company had been the right thing to do. Dottie had known that he needed to have his mind on something other than his pain.