The Seal's Surrender

AROUND CHI-TOWN

April: Seems the Connelly clan is full of surprises. The Chicago “royal family” just got bigger last week, when two long-lost illegitimate sons of Grant Connelly were welcomed into the fold. Wife Emma, ever the gracious hostess, held a party at their elaborate Lake Shore manor in honor of her new twin stepsons, Chance and Doug Barnett Connelly.

Grant may not have known of the twins’ existence until weeks ago, but the newest Connelly men are upholding the family’s noble traditions: Chance is a navy SEAL and Doug a respected Chicago doctor.

Rumor has it Chance is more than a bit uncomfortable in the concrete jungles of the Windy City, but is recuperating from a wound received on his last secret mission. That injury didn’t keep him from putting the moves on Emma Connelly’s social secretary, Jennifer Anderson, at the party last week. The spotlight-shy single mom was unavailable for comment—as would be yours truly, if over six feet of muscular male had set his sights in this direction!

The Connellys have been so much in the news these last few months that one can’t help but wonder what other secrets the family could be hiding in their walk-in closets….

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Silhouette Desire, where you can spice up your April with six passionate, powerful and provocative romances!

Beloved author Diana Palmer delivers a great read with A Man of Means, the latest in her LONG, TALL TEXANS miniseries, as a saucy cook tames a hot-tempered cowboy with her biscuits. Then, enjoy reading how one woman’s orderly life is turned upside down when she is wooed by Mr. Temptation, April’s MAN OF THE MONTH and the first title in Cait London’s hot new HEARTBREAKERS miniseries.

Reader favorite Maureen Child proves a naval hero is no match for a determined single mom in The SEAL’s Surrender, the latest DYNASTIES: THE CONNELLYS title. And a reluctant widow gets a second chance at love in Her Texan Tycoon by Jan Hudson.

The drama continues in the TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE LAST BACHELOR continuity series with Tall, Dark…and Framed? by Cathleen Galitz, when an attractive defense attorney falls head over heels for her client—a devastatingly handsome tycoon with a secret. And discover what a ranch foreman, a virgin and her protective brothers have in common in One Wedding Night… by Shirley Rogers.

Celebrate the season by pampering yourself with all six of these exciting new love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

The Seal’s Surrender

Maureen Child

To Sandra Paul, Barbara Benedict, Angie Ray and Michelle Thorne: Thank you for the ambush and for my tiara. You guys are the best.

MAUREEN CHILD

was born and raised in Southern California and is the only person she knows who longs for an occasional change of season. She is delighted to be writing for Silhouette Books and is especially excited to be a part of the Desire line.

An avid reader, Maureen looks forward to those rare rainy California days when she can curl up and sink into a good book. Or two. When she isn’t busy writing, she and her husband of twenty-five years like to travel, leaving their two grown children in charge of the neurotic golden retriever who is the real head of the household. Maureen is also an award-winning historical writer under the names of Kathleen Kane and Ann Carberry.

MEET THE CONNELLYS

Meet the Connellys of Chicago—wealthy, powerful and rocked by scandal, betrayal…and passion!

Who’s Who in THE SEAL’S SURRENDER

Chance Barnett Connelly—If it weren’t for his twin brother, this lone-wolf navy SEAL would never have tried to find his long-lost father, Grant Connelly. Chance had no idea what it was to be part of a family, especially the powerful, influential Connellys.

Jennifer Anderson—Ever since her husband was killed, she had been both a mother and a father to her baby girl. But meeting Chance made her long to remember what it had been like to be a woman….

Grant and Emma Connelly—True love allowed them to welcome home the twins from Grant’s long-ago affair. But did their happiness blind them to a miscreant in their midst—one bent on seeking revenge on the Connellys?

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

One

He hated parties.

Give Chance Barnett a machine gun, and he was a happy man. Tell him to mingle, and you got a mean dog on a short leash.

But, Chance told himself, sometimes a man just had to bite the proverbial bullet. And this was a big one, in his humble opinion. Hell, it was damn near a mortar round.

He clutched his bottle of imported beer in a tight fist and made his way around the periphery of the party. His gaze narrowed slightly as he silently assessed his new family. A hell of a way to meet the relatives, he told himself, yet couldn’t think of a better way to handle it.

There probably wasn’t a good way to introduce him and his twin, Douglas, to the rest of the Connellys. Though to give them their due, they’d all taken the news of the twins’ existence a lot easier than they might have. After all, it wasn’t every day you met thirty-six-year-old illegitimate twin relatives, was it?

Though he had to admit that none of the Connellys had treated him and his brother as though they were somehow not good enough to be part of the family. Hell, even Miss Lily and Tobias had come home early from Palm Springs just to meet him and Douglas. Chance’s gaze shot to the older couple. Correction, he told himself silently, his grandparents. Weird. He smiled as he watched Tobias trying to slip past his much smaller wife, but Miss Lily, cane or no cane, was too fast for her husband and snatched that glass of whiskey from his hand.

Interestingly enough, the big man just gave her a smile and a peck on the cheek. What would it be like, Chance wondered, to spend your life with one person? To love that one person so much that some fifty-odd years later, the stamp of it was still clearly on your features?

Those two old people had somehow managed to raise a dynasty. Amazing really, if you stopped to think about it. Sure, the Connellys were practically American royalty. But they actually were real royalty as well.

And Chance and Douglas Barnett were a part of it.

He shook his head and moved on, drifting through the crowd like a finger of fog. A strident female voice caught his attention, and he slowed his steps, listening.

His half sister, Alexandra, a tall woman with raven-black hair, a too-important manner and sharp green eyes was center stage, where she seemed most comfortable. “I’m so sorry you won’t have a chance to meet my fiancé,” she was saying, “but Robert was called away on business.”

Everyone in her audience nodded sagely, but all Chance could think was, Lucky guy. At least the missing Robert had gotten out of attending this party. He moved on, turning a bit too fast and feeling the pull of the stitches in his side.

A reminder of the reason he was able to be here at this party. If he hadn’t been wounded on his last mission, he’d have been happily out trooping through a jungle somewhere. And as soon as he was healed enough, that was just what he’d be doing. Hell, he kept his duffel bag packed and ready to go.

Man, was he ready to go. He needed to get back to his SEAL team. Needed to get back where he belonged. He scowled to himself. He caught a glimpse of Doug, chatting it up with a few of their new relatives, and almost wished that he was half as at ease with people as his brother. Hell, he’d even heard his twin talking to one of their new cousins about his ex-wife and how the reason they’d broken up was because she hadn’t wanted the children Doug wanted so badly. Yeah. Chance’s brother was sliding right into this and didn’t seem to have any trouble at all stringing the name Connelly behind the Barnett they’d grown up with. But then, Doug always had been the reasonable twin. Which was probably why Chance had grown up to be a fighting man and Doug had become a doctor.

Okay, he thought, way too philosophical.

“Excuse me, sir.” A low-pitched voice came from right behind him and Chance spun around to face a tuxedo-clad waiter. “May I get you something from the bar?”

Chance held his beer aloft. “No thanks,” he said, shaking his head at the realization that these people probably dealt with in-house waiters and butlers all the time. “I’m covered.”

Maybe it was the military training and maybe it was just his own innate need to be in control at all times, but Chance rarely had more than one beer at a party. Even one like this, where he felt more out of place than a pauper in a palace.

The waiter moved off soundlessly into the milling crowd and Chance shook his head again. How had he wound up here? he wondered. And just how soon could he make a polite exit? He moved off into a corner of the room, kept his back to the wall and let his gaze slide across the people filling the cavernous room.

A SEAL in a Lake Shore mansion? He chuckled inwardly at the absurdity of it. Hell, nobody would buy that. He stood out from the elegantly dressed crowd. His U.S. Navy whites were startling in a sea of bright colors and black tuxedos. But for the first time in his life, he was also in a room filled with people he was actually related to.

He and Douglas had grown up alone, raised by a single mom who’d done her best. But she hadn’t been able to provide enough of her own presence to satisfy her boys—let alone provide relatives. So here he stood, a thirty-six-year-old man suddenly meeting cousins and half brothers and sisters for the first time.

Weird.

He took a sip of beer, swallowed it and silently admitted that family wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was just going to take some getting used to. From across the room, Douglas caught his eye and gave him a “Do you believe this?” look and a half smile. Instantly, Chance felt more at ease. He and his twin had pulled each other through plenty of scrapes over the years. And as long as they could count on each other, then tacking the name Connelly on after the Barnett wouldn’t change much.

Still, he could do with some air.

Instinctively, he moved toward the sliding glass doors that led onto a balcony. The muted noise of conversation and softly-played piano music followed him as he skirted the crowd. But as he neared the glass partition, his plan for solitude fell apart.

A woman stood on the balcony in the late-afternoon sun, her short, light-blond hair tousled by the wind. He knew her. Jennifer Anderson, Emma Connelly’s social secretary. They’d met a couple of times in the last few days. She wasn’t very tall, but every inch of her looked to be packed to perfection. She wore a deep-green dress with a flippy sort of hem that stopped just short of her knees, displaying to their best advantage what looked to be excellent legs. Her breasts were high and full and her waist was narrow enough that he figured given a chance, he could span that distance with both hands. Her back was straight as she stared out at Lake Michigan, but he frowned as he noticed she kept one hand clapped across her mouth and couldn’t quite hide the droop in her shoulders.

Instantly, something inside him stirred to life. The protective instinct was strong and he felt it push him outside. He slid the glass door open, and the wind off the lake tried to shove him back into the party. But SEALs didn’t give up that easily. Chance ducked his head, stepped quietly onto the stone balcony and soundlessly closed the door behind him.

“Get a grip, Jen,” the woman muttered to herself before he had a chance to announce his presence. “Crying’s not going to help. It’s only going to make you look like hell.”

Well, he couldn’t resist responding to that.

“Lady,” he said softly, “all the tears in the world would have a hard time pulling that one off.”

She turned quickly, her body language letting him know that she wasn’t pleased at having been found giving in to tears. But she recognized him right away and the Keep Out sign in her eyes blinked off.

“You surprised me,” she said, lifting one hand to swipe away the telltale track of tears on her cheeks.

“Sorry,” he said, though he really wasn’t. “Old habits. I’m used to moving quietly.”

One blond eyebrow lifted into an arch. “This isn’t exactly the jungle, Commander,” she said. “Around here, most people knock.”

“Ah,” he said, walking closer, “but you knock when you want to come in. I was coming out.”

“Great,” she muttered thickly, turning her face back into the wind. “Semantics.”

Jennifer stared out at the horizon, deliberately ignoring him in the hopes that he’d go away. She couldn’t very well order him off. Not one of the long-lost sons for whom this party had been arranged. So either he left of his own accord, or she’d be forced to go back to the party and pretend everything was all right.

Please God, let him leave.

Apparently though, God wasn’t listening.

Chance Barnett Connelly moved up right beside her and curled his hands over the wrought-iron balcony railing. She glanced down at those strong, tanned hands and noticed that his knuckles whitened with his grip. Obviously, he felt as tense as she did. But their reasons, at least, were very different.

“So,” he said, keeping his gaze locked on the wall of clouds hanging just at the horizon, “what seems to be the problem?”

“Problem?” She straightened up. The last thing she wanted or needed was sympathy. Especially from a man she didn’t even know. Besides, he was a Connelly. If she told him, then soon everyone would know and she’d like to put that off for as long as she could. At least until she’d had a chance to talk to Emma Connelly first.

Along with being her boss, Emma was as close to a mother figure as Jennifer could claim. Her own parents had died years ago, and but for her daughter, Sarah, Jennifer was alone in the world. Which had never really bothered her. Until yesterday.

“Yeah,” Chance said, shifting her a glance, “when I see a beautiful woman alone and crying on a balcony while there’s a party going on not five feet from her…well, I naturally figure there’s a problem.”

She inhaled sharply, taking the cold wind inside her, needing the bracing strength of it. Then, she forced a cheer she didn’t feel into her voice. “Thanks for asking, but I’m fine. Really.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I mean it.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “But you don’t believe me.”

“Nope.”

“Well,” she said, pushing away from the balcony railing, “that’s not my problem, is it?”

He reached out and grabbed her forearm. “Don’t go.”

His touch felt warm and strong and seemed to wrap itself not only around her arm, but around her bruised heart, too. Jennifer stopped short and lifted her gaze to look into amber eyes the exact color of fine, aged brandy. Her heartbeat stuttered slightly. His jaw looked as though it had been carved of granite. His nose had obviously been broken at least once sometime in the past. His brown hair was military-short, but even at that, there was a slight wave to it that made a woman want to stroke her fingers through it.

And good Lord, he was tall. With shoulders broad enough to balance the world. Today she could surely use a pair of shoulders broad enough to lean on. But Jennifer was too used to standing on her own two feet to take advantage of a near stranger in a weak moment.

As if he could read her mind though, he said, “I didn’t mean to intrude, but now that I’m here, why not let me help if I can?”

Tempting, she thought. Oh, so tempting. But no. She shook her head. “I appreciate it, but—”

“I’m a stranger.”

“Well,” she said, “yes.”

“Sometimes that’s better.” He kept his grip on her forearm as if he expected her to scurry for the door. Which she would have done, given half a chance. Then he smiled and her stomach flipped over. “Telling your troubles to a stranger is like talking to yourself. Only you don’t have to answer your own questions and run the risk of being locked in a padded room.”

A return smile tickled the corners of her mouth and she had to fight to keep it from blossoming. Which was a good thing actually, since she hadn’t had a thing to smile about since talking to her daughter’s doctors yesterday. And that stray thought was enough to wipe the beginnings of humor from her face.

A cold, empty well opened up inside her and she felt her heart slide into it.

“Hey,” he said, letting his hand slide from her forearm up to her shoulder, where his fingers squeezed gently. “Come on. Talk to me. Maybe I can help.” He dipped his head a bit and gave her another half smile. “I’m a SEAL. Trained to be a hero. So let me ride to the rescue here, okay?”

Jennifer glanced over her shoulder at the party just beyond the glass doors, then turned back to look at him again. What the heck, she thought. She could use a shoulder at the moment. And his were certainly broad enough to hold up under her assault.

“It’s my daughter,” she blurted before she could change her mind.

His gaze darkened slightly. “You have a daughter?”

“Yes.” Just the thought of Sarah brought up her image in Jennifer’s mind and she smiled to herself. Big brown eyes in a round little face that was usually smudged with dirt. Pigtails that were really no more than tiny wisps of light-brown hair caught up in barrettes at either side of her head. Small, pudgy hands and short, sturdy legs. Butterfly kisses and sticky-fingered hugs. Tickle bugs and belly laughs.

Doctors in white coats, long, dangerous-looking needles and Sarah’s tears.

“Oh, God,” Jennifer half moaned and clapped her hand to her mouth again, not sure if she was going to be sick or start screaming.

It was all just so damned unfair.

“Come here,” Chance said, turning her as he spoke, shifting to hold her, wrap his arms around her.

And because she needed a hug so badly, she went.

Nestled against that wide chest, she hung on for a long moment, wrapping her arms around his waist and drawing on the strength he so casually offered. She felt him awkwardly patting her back and for some silly reason, it helped. Though she knew it didn’t actually change anything, the physical act of being comforted soothed the frayed edges of her soul, and just for an instant, the world didn’t seem as terrifying as it had only minutes ago.

“Tell me,” he said, his voice a gruff whisper coming from somewhere above her head. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Sarah,” she said, saying the words aloud for the first time since the doctor had so clinically outlined the trouble the day before, “my baby. She needs an operation. On her heart. There’s a small hole in it.”

“Aah…” A comforting sound, more of a deep breath released, maybe, but it too helped. She felt his sympathy in the gentle tightening of his grip on her. “How old is she?”

“Eighteen months,” she whispered, looking past him to the lake, but really looking at her mind’s eye picture of Sarah. “She’s so small. So tiny. This shouldn’t be happening.”

“No, it shouldn’t,” he said softly. “It sucks.”

Jennifer nodded. “Yes,” she said, grateful to hear someone else say what she’d been thinking, “it does.”

Two

Chance wasn’t a family kind of man by any means. But he felt Jennifer’s fear as if it were his own. It rattled through her small body with the force of a freight train and shook him to his bones.

His every instinct told him to rush in and defend. Protect. But none of his training would do a damn sight of good here. And that realization was a bitter pill to choke down.

Hell, he couldn’t even think of something helpful to say. It sucks? Real eloquent, Chance.

He continued to hold her though, hoping his silent support helped in some way. Strange, a few days ago, he hadn’t known or cared that any of these people existed. Now he was standing on the balcony of a mansion, for Pete’s sake, holding a weeping woman.

“What am I doing?” Jennifer muttered as she pulled back out of his arms and took another step away from him just for good measure. “I’m going to rain mascara all over your white uniform.”

No she wouldn’t, he thought, looking into those forest-green eyes of hers. They were big and wet and sad, but there was no smudge of dark makeup around them. Just the remnants of tears she was fighting to control. Damned if he didn’t admire her for that, too.

She could be wallowing in the fear that was close to strangling her, but she wasn’t. Instead, she was holding herself together through the force of her will. Hell, she didn’t even want sympathy. So what exactly was it he could do for her?

“Do you want to go back inside?” he asked.

“God no,” she said, shaking her head and moving back to the railing. Keeping her face averted from both him and the sliding glass doors behind them, she said, “I don’t want them to know I’ve been crying. I just couldn’t take the questions right now.”

Privacy. Something else he could understand. Well, if he couldn’t escort her through the maze of party-goers, he could at least make her eventual trip inside a little easier. “Okay. Just wait here, then. I’ll be back.”

Before she could say anything, he opened the sliding glass doors and stepped back into the party. Noise assaulted him and he instantly missed the relative peace and quiet of the balcony.

Focused, Chance paid no attention to the people around him. He moved through the crowd as if he were on a mission. He kept his goal in mind and went about accomplishing it as quickly as he could. Which wasn’t as easy as he’d expected. There were just too many people.

He cast one quick, nearly wistful glance at the front door, then forgot about leaving and went on with his quest.

When he walked into the kitchen, the folks in there looked as surprised as they would have if lightning had struck the butcher-block work island in the center of the massive room.

“Can I help you, Mr. Chance?”

Grateful, he looked to the woman on his right. Mentally, he scrambled for her name and came up with it an instant later.

“Ruby, right?” he asked.

“That’s me,” the housekeeper said, giving him a nod sharp enough to shake loose a graying red curl from her topknot to lie askew in the middle of her forehead.

In the few days he’d been in town, Chance had seen this woman running the Connelly household—and family, for that matter—with an iron fist. Grant and Emma might think they were in charge, but the truth was, Ruby was the brass around here.

The short, slightly rounded woman with kind blue eyes had the ability to get things done, and Chance appreciated that. Even while keeping under radar, staying unnoticed himself. He’d seen how his half brothers and sisters scampered when Ruby gave an order. Hell, even his father, Grant, didn’t argue when she laid down the law.