Grace was in turmoil. Couldn’t begin to think straight, but one message was coming over loud and clear. That while Josh was prepared to assist Phoebe to get pregnant, he’d flown half way around the world in an attempt to stop her from having his baby.
“It’s okay, Josh. No need to labour it,’ she snapped. “I get the picture. Phoebe could have your baby, but I wasn’t good enough.’
“No! That’s not right. How could you not be good enough?’
“Then why?’
“Phoebe was just Phoebe. Michael’s wife. You”¦’ She’d never seen Josh struggle for words like this.
“What?’ she demanded. “How bad can it be?’
“Not bad. Far from bad, but we were lovers, Grace.’
“Lovers?’ She’d never thought of them as lovers. “Were we lovers?’
“I was the first man who knew you.’
First, last”¦ She didn’t want to think about how pathetic that was. “I still don’t understand what your problem was.’
“Don’t you?’ He looked at Posie for a moment, then back at her. “My problem was that when Michael told me you were going to have a baby for Phoebe, not his, but my baby, it made me feel the way I did when I left you sleeping after the night we’d spend together, flying away like a thief in the night. I felt as if I was stealing your virginity all over again.’
“You didn’t steal my virginity, Josh, I gave it to you with a whole heart, but we were never lovers.’
It struck her now so clearly. All those years she’d clung to something that had been unreal, nothing.
“To be lovers is more than sex. For lovers the whole person is engaged. Not just the body, but the head and heart. My head was missing that night and so was your heart. I don’t believe you know how to love.’
She might as well have slapped him. Yesterday she’d wanted to, now”¦
Now she had to deal with the fact that it was Josh, not Michael who was the father of her baby. That it wasn’t simple biology, a surrogacy without emotional involvement or ties, but that, ten years too late, her darkest dream had come true.
Secret Baby, Surprise Parents
Harlequin Romance
April 2009
And here are some early reviews…
Romantic Times
Multi-layered characterizations, a potent conflict and some very special twists on reader favorite plot elements make this story a joy from beginning to end.
Romantic Times, 4.5 stars
Merrimon
I like Liz Fielding’s lighter romances but wow, the intense emotional ones she has written are wonderful— and seeing the full scope of her ability to paint an emotional landscape with words— well, I just think I have a lot more respect for her writing as a whole to be able to see the depth of these emotional romances too in addition to the dynamic briskness of her lighter ones.
eHarlequin reader
Proceed with caution! Incredibly well written, intense, emotional read. This is one of the best books I have read so far this year. Fielding is one of those authors that delivers every time”¦
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