The M.D. She Had To Marry

Christine Rimmer

MARRY IN CONVENIENCE…All her adult life Lacey Bravo had loved Logan Severance, but the good doctor–always hell-bent on doing the right thing–had never even made an improper advance toward her. Well, maybe one, about nine months ago. So the about-to-be single mom knew Logan would come after her, demanding marriage. It was just a question of when….LOVE IN LEISURE?Logan knew, the minute Lacey answered the door, stomach-first, that she had to marry him. But first things first–there was a baby to be born! There'd be time enough afterward to convince her that what began out of necessity could turn into love. And to convince himself, as well…

“This baby changes everything, Lace.”

Lacey wanted to touch him. The slight brushing of their fingers a moment before had whetted her appetite for the feel of him. Oh, to simply reach out and run her fingers through that shining dark hair, to trace his brows, to learn again the shape of his mouth.

Tenderness welled in her. He had traveled such a long way, and he wasn’t going to get what he came for—what he would say he wanted.

He said it then, as if he had plucked the words right out of her mind. “We have to do the right thing now.”

She clasped her hands beneath the hard swell of her belly. “Your idea of the right thing and mine are not the same, Logan.”

The M.D. She Had to Marry

Christine Rimmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Auralee Smith,

my mom, who’s already had

one or two dedicated to her.

But such a terrific mom should get

grateful dedications on a regular basis.

I love you, Mom.

Here’s to you…again.

CHRISTINE RIMMER

came to her profession the long way around. Before settling down to write about the magic of romance, she’d been an actress, a sales clerk, a janitor, a model, a phone sales representative, a teacher, a waitress, a playwright and an office manager. Now that she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly, she insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Those who know her best withhold comment when she makes such claims; they are grateful that she’s at last found steady work. Christine is grateful, too—not only for the joy she finds in writing, but for what waits when the day’s work is through: a man she loves who loves her right back and the privilege of watching their children grow and change day to day. She lives with her family in Oklahoma.

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

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter One

On a sunny afternoon at the end of June, Lacey Bravo returned to the old homesteader’s cabin behind the horse pasture at the Rising Sun Ranch to find Dr. Logan Severance waiting for her.

She had known he would come. Still, the sight of him, there in the shade of the rough-shingled overhang that served as the cabin’s front porch, sent her pulse racing. Her palms on the steering wheel went clammy with sweat. She felt pulled in two directions at once. Her foolish heart urged her to rush into his arms. And something else, some contrary creature inside her, wanted only to spin her new SUV around and speed away, leaving nothing but a high trail of Wyoming dust in her wake.

Neither action was really an option. Throwing herself into his arms would only embarrass them both. And as for running, well, Lacey had done plenty of that before she was even out of her teens. Eventually, she’d given it up. It never solved anything.

With a weary sigh, Lacey pushed the door open and maneuvered herself out from behind the wheel and down to the ground. She shut the door. Then, with as much dignity as she could muster, given that lately she tended to waddle like a duck, she plodded to the rear of the vehicle to get the two bags of groceries she had picked up in town.

She barely got the back