A Knight in Central Park (34 page)

Susan pushed her way to the front of the crowd and now stood next to Garrett. Clearly she was not happy with him. Her frowning could very well scare a herd of wild boars.

Rebecca, always and forever at her sister’s side, made a slicing motion at her throat as if to tell him to quit while he was behind. They loved their sister, and he appreciated their concern, but he hadn’t come back to watch Alexandra marry another man. Nobody was marrying Alexandra but him.

The entire village could come at him with pitchforks but it wouldn’t stop him.

The priest slammed his book shut, giving Joe a start. “And your just cause is?”

“Alexandra Dunn isn’t exactly a virgin bride,” Joe blurted, now deathly afraid to glance Alexandra’s way. “She told me she loved me.”

“And do you love her?”

“More than anything in this world. More than hot showers, television, and taxicabs. You name it, anything in the world, and I can tell you I love Alexandra more.”

The priest scratched his head. “Do you mean to tell me you have stopped this wedding to confess your undying love for the bridesmaid?”

The crowd’s murmurs and whispers sounded like the drones of myriad honeybees. Joe shifted his weight. “What do you mean exactly when you say bridesmaid?”

Garrett snorted. “Mary is the one marrying, not Alexandra, you fool-born base-court—”

“Beef-witted moron,” Joe finished to Garrett’s satisfaction after the boy’s words sank in. Joe looked to the altar. Two redheads: one bride, one bridesmaid. Mary being the one in white, next to...Sir Richard. Mary was the one marrying Sir Richard. Alexandra had been upset that she had missed the marriage ceremony; she probably insisted they marry again before family.

Alexandra, he noticed, had been standing next to her sister all along. Only she wasn’t standing there anymore. She was halfway down the makeshift aisle now, her hair appearing on fire about her shoulders as she focused her expressive green, unwavering eyes on his.

Joe didn’t have to be told what to do. He needed no coaxing this time. He just dropped down on bended knee, then fumbled around for the ring. Shelly had said he needed a ring, and she had provided him with one. He looked up at Alexandra. For the first time in his life he felt utterly vulnerable. His throat felt parched. “I’ve been a fool from the start. I love you. I realized it before I left you a month ago. I didn’t want to leave you. I’m an idiot.”

His gaze lowered to her stomach where he saw a small bump that was not there the last time he saw her. His eyes watered as he reached a trembling hand to touch her there. “Are you...”

“Aye,” she said. “I tried to tell you.”

“Can you ever forgive me for leaving?”

“I forgave you before you ever left,” she said.

“You are an incredible woman. One of a kind.”

“Did you not just mistake me for my sister?” she teased.

He grimaced. “I knew it was her all along.”

They exchanged knowing smiles before he placed the ring on her finger. She looked at the ring.

“It’s a moonstone,” he said.

She smiled down at him.

“Will you marry me?” he asked.

“The ring is but already on my finger. Do I have any choice in the matter?”

“No.”

“Then aye. I will marry you. No regrets?”

“None. Never. Not one. I love you. I love your siblings, too.”

“’Tis nice to hear.”

“Yes, it is,” he said, “so?”

She cocked her head.

“Don’t you have something you want to say to me?”

She gestured toward the makeshift altar. “I do believe my sister would like to carry on if we are finished.”

He came to his feet, standing tall. Then he leaned forward and kissed her because there was no way he could wait another moment to do so. He didn’t have the patience of a saint. Something he’d have to work on. Holding her felt better than he remembered. She was everything he’d ever wanted, ever dreamed of. They parted at the sound of the priest clearing his throat.

Garrett rolled his eyes at Joe before he and the boy exchanged smiles, both understanding one another, both knowing it wasn’t going to be easy, but maybe someday soon they could be friends.

“And afterwards you’ll tell me?” he asked Alexandra as they both headed toward the altar, since he wasn’t ready to let her go.

“Every day for the rest of your life, Sir Joe.”

He smiled at her, his heart full. “Just call me Joe.”

Twin sisters are born in Medieval England. One of the infants is dying and is taken to the Witch of Devonshire, who uses supernatural powers to transport the ailing babe to the future. It is the year 1986 when Cathy Hayes, a woman who has lost her child and husband in a car accident, finds the baby at her doorstep, gets her the medical attention she needs, and raises the baby as her own. Morgan grows up in the twentieth century with a mysterious attraction to a hollow suit of armor that stands in the window of her mother’s antique store.

Morgan is twenty-four-years old when she becomes entangled within the armor’s metal plates and is whisked back in time where she is mistaken for Amanda Forrester, a twin sister she knows nothing about. In Amanda’s place, Morgan is forced to marry King Henry’s favored knight, Derek Vanguard, Lord of Braddock Hall. Abandoned by his mother and having failed as a child to gain his father’s love, Derek’s heart is as cold as the stone walls of his castle.

Max Dutton, a starting NFL linebacker for the Los Angeles Condors, is certain he’s going to die young since his father and grandfather both passed away at an early age. Believing his life will be cut short, Max tries to live every moment to its fullest. For this reason, Max shies away from forming close relationships. What would be the point of falling in love and starting a family only to leave them as his father left him and his sisters? When Max discovers he has a thirteen-year old daughter though, it throws all his years of planning and preparation for an early death into a tailspin.

Nutrition expert, Kari Murphy, used to think Max Dutton, aka Mad Max, was to die for, but she’s older and wiser now. The last time Kari reacted with her heart instead of her brain, she conceived the thing she loves most in life...her daughter, Molly. As much as she dislikes Max Dutton for taking her declaration of love and throwing it in her face fourteen years earlier, she knows that if it wasn’t for him her life would be meaningless. And that really ticks her off, especially when she’s hired by the NFL franchise to follow Max around for a couple of weeks and give him healthy-eating advice, foolproof facts about carbohydrates and tasteful tips on cooking and shopping smart.

Kari doesn’t want to be anywhere near the man, but what choice does she have? Her career is on the line.

During a vacation in the Caribbean, fifteen-year old Kate Huntley’s father, a prominent U.S. scientist, is murdered before her eyes. For the next ten years, Kate grows up alone in Haiti, one of the most dangerous and poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t think of her father. Kate pushes herself to become stronger, mentally and physically. Every day is a struggle for survival. And yet she lives for only one reason...revenge.

FBI Agent Jack Coffey has eidetic memory, the ability to recall images with great accuracy. While looking for a drug lord via satellite in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, Jack spots Kate Huntley. Jack is sent by the agency to find Ms. Huntley and bring her back to the States. They have many unanswered questions about her father’s death. A professional and responsible man, Jack is confused by Kate’s lack of cooperation. He wants to help her return to the States where he believes she’ll be safe, but she treats him like the enemy and refuses to go. Everything about Kate Huntley is a contradiction. She looks fragile and innocent, but every time he turns around she’s putting another thug in his place. In the beginning Jack wonders if Kate’s distrust of his superiors is warranted or just simple paranoia. In the end, Jack realizes nothing is as it seems.

Elizabeth Gardner (Lizzy) is seventeen when she tells her parents she’s going out with her girlfriends. Instead, she meets with Jared Shayne, her boyfriend of two years. As she walks home beneath an inky black sky, her perfect night becomes her worst nightmare.

Twelve years later, Lizzy is a licensed PI known as the "one who got away." When she’s not searching for runaway teenagers, working on insurance scams, or talking to her therapist, she’s at the local high school teaching young girls to defend themselves. But her world is turned upside down for the second time after she receives a call from Jared Shayne. He’s an FBI special agent now and he needs her help. Lizzy has no plans to get involved. Not until Jared tells her that the kidnapper left her a personalized note.

I’m delighted to introduce an unusual romantic novel from another award-winning author, Cate Rowan. If you enjoyed the pairing of the modern world and medieval times in
A Knight in Central Park
, take a look at
The Source of Magic
, a fantasy romance set on a medieval world:

When a gorgeous man clasps Jilian Stewart to his chest and yanks her from Scotland into a magical battle, she thinks it must be another of her bizarre dreams. Plagued by unnerving visions of this man, she’s sure they’re brought on by the stress of her mother’s deadly paralysis. Instead, Jilian finds herself ensnared in a world of fantasy, treachery, and family secrets, opposing the one man who can make everything right.

Prince Alvarr, her sexy abductor, offers a cure for her dying mother, but won’t send Jilian home with it until she helps him destroy the evil mage threatening his people—with mystical powers she never knew she had.

“Rowan is definitely an author to watch!” —Alyssa Day, NYT bestselling author

The Source of Magic is an 83,000-word novel and has won sixteen awards. The ebook version contains a bonus excerpt from another Rowan novel, Kismet’s Kiss, which has been called “a magical, exhilarating, sensual delight” (Smexy Books) and “a must-read for all fantasy romance lovers” (The Romance Reviews).

Intrigued? Visit your preferred online retailer to sample or purchase Cate Rowan’s The Source of Magic!