Heart Of A Texan. Charlene Sands
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“If you need anything, I’m here.
All you have to do is ask.”
Posing as personal chef to protective billionaire rancher Jared Stone is the perfect cover for Bella Reid. She must hide her identity and protect her baby at all costs. To Jared, she’s just a struggling single mother. Yet as heat sizzles in the kitchen—and the bedroom—her past catches up to her. Will Bella risk everything to tell Jared the truth?
CHARLENE SANDS is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than forty romance novels. She writes sensual contemporary romances and stories of the Old West. When not writing, Charlene enjoys sunny Pacific beaches, great coffee, reading books from her favourite authors and spending time with her family. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter, write her at PO Box 4883, West Hills, CA 91308, or sign up for her newsletter for fun blogs and ongoing contests at charlenesands.com.
Her Forbidden Cowboy
The Billionaire’s Daddy Test
One Secret Night, One Secret Baby
Twins for the Texan
Sunset Surrender
Sunset Seduction
The Secret Heir of Sunset Ranch
Redeeming the CEO Cowboy
The Texan’s Wedding Escape
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk
Heart of a Texan
Charlene Sands
ISBN: 978-1-474-07664-7
HEART OF A TEXAN
© 2018 Charlene Swink
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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.
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To my sweet daughter Nikki,
you are an amazing mother of
two precious daughters. Every day you
make us proud with your abundance
of love and kindness.
Contents
Francesca Isabella Forte was hiding out. Not from an evil stalker, an old boyfriend or even a shady loan shark. No, that would be too simple. It was her father. During their last argument, he’d been so furious with her, he’d disowned her. Out-and-out cut her off without a dime. Even worse, he’d threatened to take custody of her child. All because she didn’t want to marry a man he’d chosen for her and she didn’t want to run the Forte Foods empire.
So she’d packed up her belongings and headed straight out of San Francisco’s elite Pacific Heights’ neighborhood to Dallas. Using her middle name, shortened to Bella, and her married name of Reid, to all the world, she was just a young unemployed widow. Her best friend from college, Amelia Gray, had taken her in, no questions asked.
Now, Bella drove along the interstate in her rented Ford Focus, noting how different