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“I need your help. You can provide me with a legitimate cover for my investigation.”
“How can I do that?” she protested. “I’m totally inexperienced, and it will take time for me to make any changes at the company. You would stick out like a sore thumb if I tried right off to put you in any kind of position at Horizon Pharmaceuticals.”
“I know. That’s why we’d have to arrange something different. I’ll need a cover that will give me intimate access to the workings of the company.”
The steadiness of his gaze told Carolyn that he had already decided what that cover should be. She felt a strange quiver in her stomach.
“When you arrive at Horizon for the first time, Carolyn, I need to be there with you—as your husband.”
She choked on her intake of breath. “My husband?”
“In name only,” he hastened to reassure her. “Don’t you see? It’s the perfect cover.”
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
This month Harlequin Intrigue has an enthralling array of breathtaking romantic suspense to make the most of those last lingering days of summer.
The wait is finally over! The next crop of undercover agents who belong to the newest branch of the top secret Confidential organization are about to embark on an unbelievable adventure. Award-winning reader favorite Gayle Wilson will rivet you with the launch book of this brand-new ten-story continuity series. COLORADO CONFIDENTIAL will begin in Harlequin Intrigue, break out into a special release anthology and finish in Harlequin Historicals. In Rocky Mountain Maverick, an undeniably sexy undercover agent infiltrates a powerful senator’s ranch and falls under the influence of an intoxicating impostor. Be there from the very beginning!
The adrenaline rush continues in The Butler’s Daughter by Joyce Sullivan, with the first book in her new miniseries, THE COLLINGWOOD HEIRS. A beautiful guardian has been entrusted with the care of a toddler-sized heir, but now they are running for their lives and she must place their safety in an enigmatic protector’s tantalizing hands! Ann Voss Peterson heats things up with Incriminating Passion when a targeted “witness” to a murder manages to inflame the heart of a by-the-book assistant D.A.
Finally rounding out the month is Semiautomatic Marriage by veteran author Leona Karr. Will the race to track down a killer culminate in a real trip down the aisle for an undercover husband and wife?
So pick up all four of these pulse-pounding stories and end the summer with a bang!
Sincerely,
Denise O’Sullivan
Harlequin Intrigue, Senior Editor
Semiautomatic Marriage
Leona Karr
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A native of Colorado, Leona (Lee) Karr is the author of nearly forty books. Her favorite genres are romantic suspense and inspirational romance. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a B.A. and the University of Northern Colorado with an M.A., she taught as a reading specialist until her first book was published in 1980. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestseller list and nominated by Romantic Times for Best Romantic Saga and Best Gothic Author. She has been honored as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year, and received Colorado’s Romance Writer of the Year award. Her books have been reprinted in more than a dozen foreign countries. She is a presenter at numerous writing conferences and has taught college courses in creative writing.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Carolyn Leigh—A visit to a lawyer’s office makes her an heiress and a partner in a dangerous charade.
Adam Lawrence—A man on a mission, who will use his status as a “pretend husband” to carry out his plan.
Jasper Stanford—A newly found relative who has little interest in being an uncle or friend.
Della Denison—An executive who seems willing to preserve her position at all costs. Her daughter, Lisa, is a spoiled young woman who lives a pampered life. Her son, Buddy, shows little interest in anything but pursuing his idle hobbies.
Cliff Connors—An assistant laboratory assistant who has an unsavory past that threatens to endanger the present.
Nick Calhoun—A man with a gambling habit.
Susan Kimble—A woman dedicated to her job and searching for happiness.
Nellie Ryan—A woman in love with a man who only brings trouble into her life.
Love and thanks to my sons, Leonard and Clark,
for their valuable help with this book,
and to Cindy Karr for her supportive interest
and encouragement.
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 One
Carolyn Leigh’s eyes rounded as she looked at the two men seated across the table from her in the lawyer’s office. “I thought this meeting was about my unknown benefactor, who’s helped me financially through medical school, using your firm as a conduit.”
“Well, in a way it is,” the gray-haired lawyer, Mr. Bancroft, assured her as he pushed his glasses farther up his nose.
“Am I expected to pay it back?” she asked evenly, trying to keep the apprehension out of her voice. What she didn’t need was more indebtedness. After having just graduated a month ago, she was trying to find a full-time medical position as soon as possible to alleviate her other debts.
“No, the grant was yours, free and clear,” the lawyer assured her. “The news we have for you is good.”
Carolyn tensed. Good news? Growing up as a sickly foster child, her life had been filled with people telling her they had good news for her, when the truth was she was just being shifted from one unsatisfactory foster placement to another. Even though she was an adult now, and had managed to get herself through medical school by sheer grit, and working a job for nearly six years, a remembered anxiety suddenly tightened her stomach. She still had nightmares about being helpless as a foster child, thrown into one traumatic experience after another. She’d felt like a pawn in some diabolical game. Here we go again, she thought, trying to steel herself for whatever was about to crash into her well-laid plans.
From the first moment Carolyn walked into the office, she’d sensed a certain hesitancy, as if the two men weren’t exactly sure how to proceed. She’d only met William Bancroft, the elderly lawyer, once before, and had never met the good-looking, younger one, Adam Lawrence—Bancroft introduced him only by name, without identifying who