Reunited by a question:
Will he be her baby’s father?
Living in LA brought Sable Sutton everything she thought she could possibly want. Just not what she truly desires—a family. Then she realizes the answer could be back in her small Australian hometown with her first love, brooding bachelor Rafe Thorne. He’s the only man she’s ever felt at home with, but will he be prepared to take a leap of faith on her outrageous proposal?
When his eyes met hers, there was no ambivalence, which was a relief.
But he did not look happy to see her. He looked ready to walk. Again.
She swallowed, licked her dry lips, readying to stop him. But his gaze followed the movement. Locking onto her mouth.
She’d been sure time would have numbed any latent attraction. Instead she felt sharp. Achy. Overly bright. Like she was standing barefoot on an iceberg while looking into the sun.
Then his haze lifted, his liquid dark eyes staring into hers.
Time seemed to stop and stretch and dissolve, until she was simply Sable and he was simply Rafe.
For one brief, crisp moment she imagined just leaping right in.
Rafe, she saw herself saying. I want a baby, and I want you to be the father.
Dear Reader,
Autumn is my favorite season. Hands down.
Fair, freckled, auburn-haired, I am not built for living in the subtropics of Australia. So when that first cool change of autumn hits my part of the world—bringing with it a yearning for flannelette sheets, a rummage through the scarf box, a thirst for soups and stews and cool hands wrapped around a hot drink—I’m in my bliss.
When I knew this book would be set in a small town, my mind went straight to the Bright area of Victoria, one of the prettiest spots I’ve ever visited, especially in autumn. With its stunning fall foliage, piles of crackly leaves underfoot in glorious reds and browns and oranges, there’s something so deeply wholesome and cozy about such a place.
And so Radiance was born—a fictional town near Victorian snow country with one set of traffic lights, a yearly Pumpkin Festival, glorious flora, quaint architecture and a cast of colorful local characters who tried their darndest to take over the book.
Add a notorious heroine in hiding, a smoking-hot bad boy made good, a whole lot of warm memories and flawed decisions to sort through, and I had myself all the ingredients of a warm, hopeful, redemptive, intimate small-town love story.
I hope you warm to Radiance and its people as much as I loved creating them.
Happy reading!
Love,
Ally xxx
AllyBlake.com
Brooding Rebel to Baby Daddy
Ally Blake
Australian author Ally Blake loves reading and strong coffee, porch swings and dappled sunshine, beautiful notebooks and soft, dark pencils. Her inquisitive, rambunctious, spectacular children are her exquisite delights. And she adores writing love stories so much she’d write them even if nobody else read them. No wonder, then, having sold over four million copies of her romance novels worldwide, Ally is living her bliss. Find out more about Ally’s books at allyblake.com.
Books by Ally Blake
Harlequin Romance
The Royals of Vallemont
Rescuing the Royal Runaway Bride
Amber and the Rogue Prince
Hired by the Mysterious Millionaire
A Week with the Best Man
Crazy About Her Impossible Boss
Harlequin KISS
The Rules of Engagement
Faking It to Making It
The Dance Off
Her Hottest Summer Yet
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
To my bright, beautiful, bumptious babies and their baby daddy, for living with my distracted brain, boxes of books and weird working hours and accepting that that’s just me.
Praise for
Ally Blake
“I found Hired by the Mysterious Millionaire by Ally Blake to be a fascinating read...the story of how they get to their HEA is a page-turner. ‘Love conquers all’ and does so in a very entertaining way in this book.”
—Harlequin Junkie
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Excerpt from Unlocking the Tycoon’s Heart by Ella Hayes
CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS CHILLY in the high-country town of Radiance, Victoria, the day Sable Sutton returned. A damp, grey wash coated the countryside like a filter, but the air was as sweet and sharp as a green apple on the verge of ripening.
It was about as different as it could be from the squinty Los Angeles sunshine and bone-dry Santa Ana winds Sable had left behind.
She shivered as she stood by the wonky front gate. Vintage men’s jacket rolled at the cuffs, light silk shirt and ripped jeans doing little to keep out the icy air, as her gaze skipped over the veil of sodden autumn leaves covering the overgrown path leading to the shrouded house beyond.
The trees had grown in since she’d been away, crowding the pitched roof, the dark gables, the arched windows, making it look even more like the Gingerbread House the local kids had called it. Not only because of its fairy-tale appearance, but due to the witch they believed lived inside.
The witch being Mercy Sutton, Sable’s own mother. Drier of herbs. Maker of potions. Scowler at children. Spurner of public displays of affection. Private ones too.
Sable flinched as her left butt cheek twitched, but it was not her mother, poking her with a metaphorical stick through the bars of her cage, demanding to know why she’d come back.
It was her phone buzzing in her jeans pocket. A long message from her agent, Nancy, promising work, soon. Photography jobs on the horizon after no doubt calling in every favour owed to give her pariah of a client a way back in. Only then did she ask where on earth Sable was. Though Nancy barely acknowledged there was a world outside New York, so Sable had no clue how to explain Radiance.
The stiletto heel of Sable’s ankle boot scuffed the ground, the scrape unsettling a crow who lifted into the air with an offended Ark! and a flapping of wings. She watched it fly over the trees towards the neighbour’s place.
The Thorne place.
Rafe Thorne.
Her heart twinged, the way it always
