THE PATERNITY PROMISE - Merline Lovelace
Miniseries: Billionaires and Babies
Harlequin Desire #2163
ISBN: 978-0-373-73176-3
June 2012
Series Romance

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Provence, France - Present Day

The Dalton brothers finally know which of them fathered the baby left on their doorstep months ago, but for Blake Dalton, the betrayal is infuriating.  He'd assumed that since the only woman he'd been with at that time had died, he couldn't be the father, yet an investigator found out that Anne, the baby's mother, survived the bus crash, and died shortly after giving birth.  Little Molly is his daughter, and Grace Templeton, the temporary nanny, has been lying to him.  Anne and Grace were cousins, and Grace is the one who left Molly on the doorstep before stepping into the role of nanny.

Before Anne died, she hadn't told Grace which of the Dalton brothers was her lover, just that she wanted Molly to be raised by him.  Once her secret is found out, Grace agrees to a DNA test that will prove Molly is Blake's daughter, and then steps out of their lives.  Weeks pass before she hears from Blake again, and she's spent that time missing Molly and the Daltons.  When Blake offers her marriage, holding Molly as his ace in the hole, Grace reluctantly agrees.  There's always been an attraction between them, and as they honeymoon in the south of France, Blake and Grace grow closer.  But with Grace still keeping Anne's secrets from Blake, will their marriage ever be a real one?

The mystery of Molly's paternity is solved in THE PATERNITY PROMISE.  When the baby had been abandoned on their mother's doorstep (prior to the beginning of the first book, THE PATERNITY PROPOSITION), there had been no mention of which of the brothers was the father.  Since Alex and Blake are identical twins, DNA testing wasn't very helpful, so they need to find the mother to determine which of them is the father.  With the news that Anne didn't die in the bus crash as Blake had believed, he is now sure that he is Molly's father, yet he feels betrayed by Grace, who ostensibly came to work as a nanny between teaching jobs.  There has been some chemistry between them, so learning of her lies has Blake angry at first.  It's only after she heads back to Texas that he admits that he wants her in his life.  Grace isn't happy to be leaving behind the baby she has grown so attached to and is the only link to her now deceased cousin, and she's fallen just as hard for Blake and his family.  But is a marriage-of-convenience the answer to their problems?  Pick up the engaging THE PATERNITY PROMISE to find out.

Jennifer Bishop