The Delacourt Scandal

Tyler had nothing more to hide. “You can ask me anything you want to, as long as I can reserve the right not to answer.”

“Deal.” Maddie held out her hand to shake on it.

Tyler ignored it and leaned closer to press a kiss to her lips. He fought the temptation to linger and savor the sensations the simplest touch stirred in him.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“Our deal was too important for anything less than a kiss to seal it.”

“Kisses have a way of getting us in trouble,” she reminded him.

He grinned. “Then we’ll just have to practice until they’re no longer any danger.”

Maddie responded with a low chuckle. “I don’t see that happening, Tyler.”

“What? The practicing?”

“No, making them less dangerous.”

He regarded her evenly. “You may be right about that, darlin’. You definitely may be right about that.”

Dear Reader,

The most wonderful time of the year just got better! These six captivating romances from Special Edition are sure to brighten your holidays.

Reader favorite Sherryl Woods is back by popular demand with the latest addition to her series AND BABY MAKES THREE: THE DELACOURTS OF TEXAS. In
The Delacourt Scandal,
a curious reporter seeking revenge unexpectedly finds love.

And just in time for the holidays, Lisa Jackson kicks off her exciting new miniseries THE M
C
CAFFERTYS with
The McCaffertys: Thorne,
where a hero’s investigation takes an interesting turn when he finds himself face-to-face with his ex-lover. Unwrap the next book in A RANCHING FAMILY, a special gift this month from Victoria Pade. In
The Cowboy’s Gift-Wrapped Bride,
a Wyoming rancher is startled not only by his undeniable attraction to an amnesiac beauty he found in a blizzard, but also by the tantalizing secrets she reveals as she regains her memory.

And in RUMOR HAS IT…, a couple separated by tragedy in the past finally has a chance for love in Penny Richards’s compelling romance,
Lara’s Lover.
The holiday cheer continues with Allison Leigh’s emotional tale of a runaway American heiress who becomes a
Mother in a Moment
after she agrees to be nanny to a passel of tots.

And silver wedding bells are ringing as Nikki Benjamin wraps up the HERE COME THE BRIDES series with the heartwarming story of a hometown hero who convinces his childhood sweetheart to become his
Expectant Bride-To-Be.

I hope all of these breathtaking romances warm your hearts and add joy to your holiday season.

Best,

Karen Taylor Richman

Senior Editor

Dear Reader,

For someone who once measured her writing in column inches for newspapers, the mere idea of writing an entire book was daunting. To have written fifty books for Silhouette staggers me.

I am so fortunate to be able to tell the kind of strong, family-oriented stories I love for a publisher who understands and appreciates the empowering value of romance in a woman’s life.

And best of all, I have had the chance to touch the lives of so many readers. Thank you for spending your time with my books and for sharing your thoughts with me. I hope we’ll be together another fifty books from now.

With all good wishes,

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

“B
ryce Delacourt is the most powerful, sanctimonious man in all of Texas, so, yes, if you can find a way to bring him down, by all means do it,” Griffin Carpenter said, his wrinkled face an inscrutable mask. Only the tell-tale blaze of excitement in his black eyes indicated to Maddie Kent the intensity of his passion for this particular story.

No one knew why Carpenter had it in for the power brokers of Texas, but he’d made it his life’s work to expose their foibles. In his late fifties now, he’d been described alternately as an ambitious crusader or a vengeful, mean-spirited man. Maddie didn’t care which he was or what his reasons were. Those were the words she had been waiting most of her life to hear, the chance she’d worked her butt off to get.

The Delacourts had ruined her family, and now
they were finally going to pay. If there was so much as a hint of a scandal in their past, so much as a whiff of illegalities in their business dealings at Delacourt Oil, she would find it. And she would expose them for the heartless, rotten human beings they were behind their facade of generosity and family loyalty and perfection.

Her own passion for the hunt had been a long time building. She had been ten when her father had come home one day to announce that he’d been fired, cast aside because of a simple mistake that anyone could have made. As he told it, it had been nothing more than an accounting error that should have meant nothing to someone with the Delacourt wealth.

But Bryce Delacourt was a hard man, and so Frank Kent found himself out of work without a reference. He would never work as an accountant again, at least not for a company of any size or respectability. Delacourt had seen to that.

The humiliation of it had broken the man Maddie had adored. For five years, his self-esteem in tatters, he had moved from one dead-end job to another, never earning more than minimum wage. His family had suffered far more due to his increasing depression than because of the lack of income. The warm, generous man who’d been involved in every aspect of his children’s lives was gone, lost in lonely, self-imposed isolation and bitterness.

When Maddie was fifteen, her father committed suicide. He’d almost botched the attempt and had lain in a coma for two horrendous weeks before finally getting his wish and dying.

That final act of a sad and desperate man had all
but destroyed the family, financially and emotionally. Maddie’s mother had retreated into her own private hell, aided by alcohol. Her brothers had turned into street thugs to get what they wanted. Only Maddie had used that defining moment to strengthen her resolve to succeed. She had vowed at her father’s grave that one day she would be in a position to make the Delacourts feel that same kind of pain.

Now, thanks to Griffin Carpenter, she had her chance. She didn’t care why Carpenter hated Bryce Delacourt or any of the others who fell victim to his paper’s venom. It was enough that the publisher’s agenda matched her own. Most newspapers in the state were in awe of the Delacourt wealth and power, but Carpenter had his own resources and a pit bull’s tenacity when it came to digging up dirt on the entrenched power brokers of the state.

Carpenter’s Dallas-based tabloid,
Hard Truths,
was a wealthy Texan’s worst nightmare. His reporters turned over rocks and crept through back alleys in search of scandal. More often than not, they found it, then took delight in sharing it with the public in the most colorful terms possible.

It was not the sort of journalism Maddie had trained for or respected. She’d attended one of the nation’s best journalism schools, taken her fair share of courses in media ethics and responsibility. And she intended to follow all of those rules with absolute diligence—once she had written this one exposé….

For now, though, she was happy to be Carpenter’s newest recruit, and she intended to be his best. In no time at all the Delacourts would be making headlines, and for once it wouldn’t be on the society or business
pages. She planned to make them the talk of Texas, until they understood humiliation as intimately as her father had.

She gazed across the wide mahogany expanse of Griffin Carpenter’s desk, straight into eyes glinting with anticipation.

“I won’t let you down,” she vowed to her boss.

Then she mentally whispered the same words to the father she had lost so long ago.