Catherine Mann – The Twin Birthright (страница 1)
They said goodbye months ago.
So why can’t he walk away from her...or her twin babies?
Delivering his ex-fiancée’s twins in a snowstorm is a brave new world for innovator Royce Miller. Despite the pain in their past, he’s driven to protect Naomi Steele and her babies. That means facing the mistakes they both made—and resisting the heat they still can’t deny. Will forgiveness lead to forever this time?
An Alaskan Oil Barons Novel
USA TODAY bestselling author CATHERINE MANN has won numerous awards for her novels, including both a prestigious RITA® Award and an RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award. After years of moving around the country bringing up four children, Catherine has settled in her home state of South Carolina, where she’s active in animal rescue. For more information, visit her website, www.catherinemann.com.
One Good Cowboy
Pursued by the Rich Rancher
Pregnant by the Cowboy CEO
The Baby Claim
The Double Deal
The Love Child
The Twin Birthright
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
The Twin Birthright
Catherine Mann
ISBN: 978-1-474-07645-6
THE TWIN BIRTHRIGHT
© 2018 Catherine Mann
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
“A daughter may outgrow your lap,
but she will never outgrow your heart.”
—Anonymous
To my daughters, Haley and Maggie.
It’s been a joy and honor having watched
you both grow into miraculous women.
I love you!
Contents
Some women dreamed of giving birth in a hospital, husband holding her hand.
Some visualized delivering at home, man of her dreams breathing alongside.
No one fantasized about bringing a new life into the world in an SUV, in a snowstorm, with her ex-fiancé playing “catch the baby.” Or in Naomi Steele’s case,
“Push! Push, Naomi, push,” Royce Miller’s soft, deep voice radiated confidence in the confines of his Suburban, heater blasting inside, snow pelting the vehicle outside.
“I am pushing, damn it. I’ve been pushing.” Because there wasn’t any need to wait. No help was on the way. Cell phone reception was almost nil on a deserted highway north of Anchorage, Alaska. Sporadic bursts of connectivity offered only minimal reassurance that anyone had heard their pleas for rescue when she’d gone into labor a month early.
Even if help could make it to them through this Alaska blizzard.