Adversaries and Lovers (24 page)

PERILOUS PLEASURES  
HE LOOKED MORE LIKE AN EXOTIC BRITISH LORD THAN A ROVING GYPSY LION TAMER... Loving a man who faces death every day of his life can be wearing, Joanna Livingston learns, soon after Stefan Janacek joins the show with his big cat act. Lions on their own are formidable. The fact that someone wants Stefan dead, and is harassing his cats to get them to turn on him, leads to serious ramifications that make Joanna question if she can live with that fear. Before Porter Brother's took Stefan on, Joanna was star of a major circus with her flying trapeze act. Then a man with the charm of a British lord and the body of a gladiator joined the show and stole the limelight, along with Joanna's heart. But working with big cats is all Stefan knows, which means being under contract with a  major show, so when Joanna suspects she's pregnant, the decision she's ultimately forced to make is one she'd never considered before falling in love with a lion tamer. 72,650 words

TWO-BOOK ANTHOLOGIES

GYPSY MOON

TWO FULL-LENGTH HISTORICAL ROMANCES UNDER ONE COVER - 144,914 words

HER MASTER'S TOUCH - She's the mystery debutante of the season, who arrived on the London scene as if from out of nowhere. But Lord Damon Ravencroft knows her dark secret. Two years before, when she was roaming with Gypsies and living by her wits in India, he hired her as a housemaid, and she stole from him a rare and valuable opal once belonging to the Empress Josephine. Damon intends to be compensated for its loss, which set him back years in his quest to prove his innocence in a crime he's accused of committing. The sizable dowry that comes with Lady Elizabeth Sheffield's hand in marriage is a start. It's also his price to keep her secret from all of London. But there's more to the marriage of convenience that Damon proposes than Elizabeth anticipated, but by the time she learns what it is, she's trapped into a marriage to a man who both stirs her passions and fuels her resentment for the man she was forced to wed.

PERILOUS PLEASURES - Loving a man who faces death every day of his life can be wearing, Joanna Livingston learns, soon after Stefan Janacek joins the show with his big cat act. Lions on their own are formidable. The fact that someone wants Stefan dead, and is harassing his cats to get them to turn on him, leads to serious ramifications that make Joanna question if she can live with that fear. Before Porter Brother's took Stefan on, Joanna was star of a major circus with her flying trapeze act. Then a man with the charm of a British lord and the body of a gladiator joined the show and stole the limelight, along with Joanna's heart. But working with big cats is all Stefan knows, which means being under contract with a  major show, so when Joanna suspects she's pregnant, the decision she's ultimately forced to make is one she'd never considered before falling in love with a lion tamer.

COMING TO TERMS  

TWO FULL-LENGTH CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES UNDER ONE COVER - 119,234 words

JUSTIFIED DECEPTION: Ruth Crawford's on a quest to find and reclaim her daughter, who was kidnapped four years before. Ruth's private investigator is all but certain that ranch owner, Matt Kincaid's, adopted daughter Annie is Ruth's own little Beth. But Matt's the maverick in a powerful family of lawyers and politicians, so even though she manages to land the job as nanny to Matt's willful, six-year-old daughter, Ruth must tread carefully. She can't predict what Matt or his family might do if the adoption is challenged. However, Ruth's carefully laid plans go awry when she finds herself falling in love with the man who might have stolen her child.

ADVERSARIES AND LOVERS: When Kate O’Connor learns that the new corporate office for Stassen Sports will replace a block of charming old buildings that include the Corner Cafe, where a neighborhood of elderly people that include her Grandma have been lunching for half a century, she vows to stop it, taking her case directly to the CEO. But that's not the way Ben Stassen sees it. He built Stassen Sports from the ground up and he refuses to let a woman on a mission stand in his way. But, Kate has advertising skills he can use, so ignoring her crusade, he invites her to submit ideas for his ad campaign. And Kate accepts—a strategic move to use against the man. But working with Ben stirs feelings Kate hadn't anticipated, and when she at last finds the chink in Ben's armor, the key to stopping his business venture, she also finds a troubled man who refuses to be touched by love, and she’s determined to know why.

WICKED PLEASURES  

TWO FULL-LENGTH HISTORICAL ROMANCES UNDER ONE COVER - 146,649 words

WICKED TEMPTATIONS: Priscilla Phipps will not be deterred from her goal, even if it means facing up to the powerful Wyoming Stock Grower's Association and cattle barons like Adam Whittington, who want the homesteaders--the very people who are supporting the newspaper Priscilla is trying to establish--driven out of Wyoming. But Adam has his own means of handling the troublesome spinster who's alienating every cattleman in the area, raising havoc with his libido, and putting a damper on his run for mayor of Cheyenne. And Priscilla, a maiden lady who's never been touched by a man, suddenly finds herself lusting after forbidden desires.

PERILOUS PLEASURES: Loving a man who faces death every day of his life can be wearing, Joanna Livingston learns, soon after Stefan Janacek joins the show with his big cat act. Lions on their own are formidable. The fact that someone wants Stefan dead, and is harassing his cats to get them to turn on him, leads to serious ramifications that make Joanna question if she can live with that fear. Before Porter Brother's took Stefan on, Joanna was star of a major circus with her flying trapeze act. Then a man with the charm of a British lord and the body of a gladiator joined the show and stole the limelight, along with Joanna's heart. But working with big cats is all Stefan knows, which means being under contract with a  major show, so when Joanna suspects she's pregnant, the decision she's ultimately forced to make is one she'd never considered before falling in love with a lion tamer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Patricia Watters gave up the glamour and pageantry of the city, and now writes novels from a hand-built log house nestled in the evergreen forests of Oregon. An author with Harlequin and Avon-Harper Collins in the past, Patricia specializes in romance, and she invites you to visit her website and drop her a line. She tries to respond to all notes, but please allow a couple of weeks for her to do so:

www.patriciawattersromances.com