b-5d09-b64e-c11502d78f42">
Her heart began to pound as her breath caught in her throat. Her skin had come alive at his touch, tingling and yearning for more.
He’s going to kiss me!
And she realised she wanted him to. Wanted it more than anything else in the whole wide world! She sat up slightly and met him halfway, wrapping her hand behind his neck, embedding her fingers in his tousled hair and pulling his face towards hers, meeting his lips with hers, indulging in a wonderful, tentative, exploring first kiss. Fireworks were going off throughout her body. She felt tense and relaxed and excited all at once. Her hands itched for his touch, to be holding him. Their mouths opened as the kiss deepened and his tongue took hers, and then she was breathing him, kissing him, holding him, in a way she’d never felt with a man before. His bristles scorched her face and it was a sweet agony as passion took them both by surprise and hunger for each other burned them to their very core.
This is Lucas!
Of course it was! He’d been there in front of her all this time, the man for her, and she’d let him be just a friend for all that time—not knowing, never allowing herself to think about it. Why hadn’t she thought about it?
Perhaps I did. In fact I know I did!
She’d once let the thought of what it would be like to sleep with Lucas occupy her mind for many a night. But she’d not wanted to risk their friendship. She’d always dismissed it. I need to breathe. She couldn’t remember how. Instead she continued to kiss him, to feel his soft hair in her fingers, his chest against hers, the yearning for more … For so long she’d wondered what it would be like. This moment. This kiss. Yet she knew she had to stop it. Knew she had to let him go. Because this wasn’t meant to happen! ‘We shouldn’t do that.’ She sounded breathless. ‘We can’t risk it … there’s a baby now.’ Hello, and welcome to my very first Mills and Boon® Medical Romance™! I wanted to kick off my medical writing career exploring an issue that has always fascinated me, and so I knew I had to do a surrogacy story. I’m nowhere near brave enough to be a surrogate myself, but I am eternally fascinated and proud of those women who do volunteer to have a baby for someone else. In this story that woman is Callie Taylor—a midwife, a fascinating woman who loves babies but has never wanted one for herself. Or so she thinks … It led me to thinking: just what happens when the surrogate has doubts about what she’s doing? When I heard about women who’d ended up keeping the baby I knew I had to explore this with my characters, Callie and Lucas. They both deserve love and I hope you will enjoy their journey as much as I enjoyed writing about it. I would love to hear from readers. If you want to contact me you can do so at Twitter, on @louisaheaton, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor, or on my website: www.louisaheaton.com Warmest wishes
Louisa
LOUISA HEATON first started writing romance at secondary school, and would take her stories in to show her friends, scrawled on lined A4 paper in a big red binder, with plenty of crossing out. She dreamt of romance herself, and after knowing her husband-to-be for only three weeks shocked her parents by accepting his marriage proposal and heading off to Surrey to live with him. Once there, she began writing romance again and discovered the wonderful world of Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™. After four children—including a set of twins—and fifteen years of trying to get published, she finally received ‘The Call’! Now she lives on Hayling Island, and when she’s not busy as a First Responder she creates her stories wandering along the wonderful Hampshire coastline with her two dogs, muttering to herself and scaring the locals. Visit Louisa on Twitter, @louisaheaton, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/Louisaheatonauthor, and on her website: www.louisaheaton.com
THE BABY THAT CHANGED HER LIFE
is Louisa Heaton’s debut title
for Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™!
The Baby That Changed Her Life Louisa Heaton For Nicholas, James, Rebecca, Jared and Jack xxx Table of Contents Dear Reader PROLOGUE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CALLIE TAYLOR STARED at the pregnancy test kit. She felt the weight of it in her hands. There was no point in reading the instructions—she already knew what they said. Knew the simplicity of its words: ‘One line indicates a negative result. Two pink lines indicate a positive result’. Simple words but such a momentous implication. Life-changing. Well, just for nine months, maybe—because, as a surrogate, she’d be giving the baby away after it was born. But even then … being best friends with the father of the baby meant the baby would always be in her life … Callie opened the
