From Temptation to Twins Read online

  From enemy to lover to...father of her children? Only from New York Times bestselling author Barbara Dunlop!

  Juliet Parker must save her grandfather’s restaurant from ruin. Unfortunately, her main obstacle, wealthy restaurateur Caleb Watford, not only has a competing business, but he also sets her pulse racing! What better way to negotiate than with red-hot seduction?

  Soon, Juliet’s bedroom truce ends in pregnancy—with twins! The stakes have never been higher, and Caleb is used to winning—in business and in pleasure...

  From Temptation to Twins is part of the Whiskey Bay Brides series.

  “Do you want me to kiss you?”

  His voice was husky to his own ears.

  “Yes.” Then she seemed to realize what she’d revealed.

  Their kiss was better than he remembered, even better than his imagination. Her lips were tender and hot. She tasted sweet. And when he probed with his tongue, she answered in kind, tipping her head and leaning against him.

  Her body was soft and warm, her curves smooth against his angles. He wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her while the kiss went on. Arousal throbbed deep and hard within him, and his mind galloped ahead to an image of a large bed, with her naked body wrapped around his.

  Why couldn’t it always be like this? Why did they have to fight? She was smart and sassy, and probably the most interesting woman he’d ever met. She was certainly the most exciting.

  And then reality slammed into him.

  They did have to fight. And no amount of wishing would change that.

  His interests were diametrically opposed to hers. He absolutely couldn’t sleep with her—not with the secret he was keeping right now.

  * * *

  From Temptation to Twins is part of the Whiskey Bay Brides series:

  Three sisters find love on the shores of Whiskey Bay.

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the first book in the Whiskey Bay Brides series! Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve always loved the soaring cliffs, the salt tang of the ocean and the roar of spectacular storms that crash against the rocky shores. So, Whiskey Bay seemed like a perfect place to set a tempestuous wedding series.

  In From Temptation to Twins, newly credentialed chef Jules Parker returns to Washington State against her family’s wishes to revive her grandfather’s quirky seafood restaurant. There she runs afoul of her family’s archenemy, millionaire restaurateur Caleb Watford. His planned five-star restaurant will annihilate her dream, while her little eatery has the power to stop his project in its tracks.

  If Jules leaves, then Caleb wins. But he also loses everything. Because his enemy has become the love of his life, and she’s carrying his twins.

  Barbara

  Barbara Dunlop

  From Temptation to Twins

  New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Barbara Dunlop has written more than forty novels for Harlequin, including the acclaimed Chicago Sons series for Harlequin Desire. Her sexy, lighthearted stories regularly hit bestseller lists. Barbara is a three-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® Award.

  Books by Barbara Dunlop

  Harlequin Desire

  One Baby, Two Secrets

  Colorado Cattle Barons

  A Cowboy Comes Home

  A Cowboy in Manhattan

  An Intimate Bargain

  Millionaire in a Stetson

  A Cowboy’s Temptation

  The Last Cowboy Standing

  Chicago Sons

  Sex, Lies and the CEO

  Seduced by the CEO

  A Bargain with the Boss

  His Stolen Bride

  Whiskey Bay Brides

  From Temptation to Twins

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or barbaradunlop.com, for more titles.

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  For Mom

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Excerpt from The Tycoon’s Fiancée Deal by Katherine Garbera

  One

  Here Comes Trouble

  The man all but filled the open doorway of the dilapidated Whiskey Bay Crab Shack. His feet were planted apart, his broad shoulders squared and his no-nonsense chin was tipped up in a challenge.

  “Is this supposed to be a joke?” he asked, his deep voice booming through the old brick building.

  Jules Parker recognized him right away. She’d expected their paths would cross, but she hadn’t expected open hostility—interesting. She hopped down from where she was kneeling on the dusty old bar and stripped off her leather work gloves.

  “I don’t know, Caleb,” she answered as she sauntered toward him, tucking the gloves into the back pocket of her faded jeans. “Is there something funny about dismantling shelves?”

  He squinted at her. “You’re Juliet Parker?”

  “You don’t recognize me?”

  He held out a level hand, moving it up and down, judging the distance to the ground. “Last time I saw you, you were—”

  “Fifteen years old.”

  “Shorter. And you had freckles.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at that. “Okay.”

  That was nine years ago. Did he think she wouldn’t have changed?

  His gray eyes hardened. “What are you doing?”

  She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. “Like I said, dismantling the bar shelves.”

  “I mean, what are you doing here?”

  “In Whiskey Bay?” She and her younger sister, Melissa, had arrived yesterday, having planned their return for over a year.

  “In the Crab Shack.”

  “I own the Crab Shack.” At least, she owned half of the Crab Shack. Melissa was her partner.

  He pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket, brandishing it in his fist. “You extended the business license.”

  “Uh-huh.” The fact clearly upset him, though she wasn’t sure why.

  “And you extended the noncompete clause.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said again. The noncompete was part of the original license. Everything had been extended.

  He took a step forward, all but looming over her, and she was reminded of why she’d had a schoolgirl crush on him. He was all male then, and he was all male now—hot, sexy and incredibly good-looking.

  “What is it you want?” he asked in that low, gravelly voice.

  She didn’t understand the question, but she wasn’t about to back down. She squared her shoulders. “How do you mean?”

  “Are you playing stupid?”

  “I’m not playing at anything. What’s your game, Caleb? Because I’ve got work to do here.”

  He glared at her for a couple of beats. “Do you want money? Is that it? Are you looking for a payout?”

  She took a stab at answering. “The Crab Shack’s not for sale. We’re reopening.”

 
The Whiskey Bay Crab Shack was her grandfather’s legacy. It was hers and Melissa’s dream, and also her deathbed promise to the grandpa she adored. Her father hated the idea of the family returning to Whiskey Bay, but Jules wasn’t thinking about that today.

  Caleb’s gaze covered the room, seeming to dismiss it. “We both know that’s not happening.”

  “We do?”

  “You’re starting to annoy me, Juliet.”

  “It’s Jules. And you’re starting to annoy me, too.” His voice rose in obvious frustration. “Are you telling me it’s not about this?”

  She looked to where he was pointing out the window.

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “This.” He headed out the door.

  Curious, she followed and saw the Whiskey Bay Marina. It looked much as it always had, although the caliber of vessel berthed there had gone up. The pier was lined with sleek, modern yachts. Beyond the marina, in what had always been raw land, there were two semitrailers with a front-end loader and a bulldozer, plus a couple of pickup trucks.

  Whatever was being built there likely wouldn’t be as attractive as the natural shoreline, but it was far enough away that it shouldn’t bother their patrons after they reopened. To the south of the Crab Shack, it was all natural vistas. The signature, soaring cliffs of Whiskey Bay were covered in west coast cedars and wax-leafed salal shrubs. Nobody could build on the south side. It was all cliffs and boulders.

  Jules made a mental note to focus the views on the south side.

  “I don’t think that’s going to bother us too much,” she said.

  Caleb’s stunned expression was interrupted by Melissa’s arrival in their mini pickup truck.

  “Hello,” Melissa sang out as she exited from the driver’s side, a couple of hardware store bags in her arms and a bright smile on her face.

  “Do you remember Caleb Watford?” Jules asked.

  “Not really.” Melissa set the bags down on the deck and held out her hand. “I remember the Parkers hate the Watfords.”

  Jules knew she shouldn’t smile at her sister’s blunt statement. But the revelation couldn’t come as any surprise to Caleb. The feud between their grandfathers and fathers was well-known. It was the likely reason Caleb was being so obnoxious. He didn’t want the Parkers back in Whiskey Bay. Well, that was too bad.

  Caleb accepted Melissa’s hand. “Either you two are the best actors in the world...”

  Melissa gave Jules a confused glance.

  “Don’t look at me,” Jules said. “I haven’t the slightest idea what he’s talking about. But he’s ticked off about something.”

  “You see that?” Caleb pointed again.

  Melissa shaded her eyes. “Looks like a bulldozer.”

  “It’s my bulldozer.”

  “Congratulations...?” Melissa offered hesitantly, her confusion obvious.

  “Do you two have any idea what I do?” he asked.

  “No,” Jules answered.

  She knew the Watfords were rich. They owned one of three mansions set along the cliffs of Whiskey Bay. Besides the mansion, the only other house on the bay was the Parkers’. It was just a regular little old house. Her grandfather had lived there for nearly seventy years before he’d passed away.

  “Do you drive a bulldozer?” Melissa asked.

  “Seriously?” Jules asked her sister, finding it impossible to imagine Caleb as a heavy equipment operator. “The Watfords are mega wealthy.”

  “He could still drive a bulldozer,” Melissa said. “Maybe he likes driving a bulldozer.”

  “Rich guys don’t drive bulldozers.”

  Jules pictured Caleb behind a big desk in an opulent office. No, that wasn’t quite right. Presiding over a construction site, maybe? He could be an architect.

  “Have you ever seen Construction Vacation?” Melissa asked.

  “The TV show?”

  “Yeah. All kinds of guys, rich, poor, whatever. They come on the show and play with heavy equipment. They like it. It’s a thing.”

  “Well, maybe on a lark—”

  “Stop!” Caleb all but shouted.

  Melissa drew back, clearly shocked.

  “He’s been like this ever since he showed up,” Jules said.

  “Like a bear with a hangnail,” Melissa muttered.

  “I don’t think that’s a metaphor,” Jules said. “Bears have claws.”

  Caleb was glancing back and forth between them. His skin tone seemed to have gone a little darker. Jules decided it might be good to let him speak.

  “I own and manage the Neo chain of seafood restaurants. That—” he stabbed his finger in the direction of the bulldozer “—will be the newest location.”

  Both women looked along the shore, and Jules realized why Caleb was so annoyed.

  “Oh,” Melissa said, pausing for a short beat. “Except you can’t build it now because of the noncompete clause in our business license.”

  “It was supposed to expire on Wednesday,” he said.

  “I saw that when we renewed.”

  “Now I get it,” Jules said to him. “I can see why you’d be disappointed.”

  * * *

  “Disappointed?” Caleb caught the beer Matt Emerson tossed him from the wet bar at opposite side of the marina’s sundeck. “I’m a million dollars into the project, and she thinks I’m disappointed?”

  “You’re not?” TJ Bauer asked evenly as he popped the top of his own beer.

  The three men were on the deck that sat atop the Whiskey Bay Marina office building. A quarter moon rose in the starlit sky, while the lights of the pier reflected off the foamy water eddying between the white yachts.

  Caleb shot TJ a glower.

  “Do you think this is about your dad?” Matt asked.

  “Or your grandfather,” TJ added, bracing his butt against the rail. “This could be your chickens coming home to roost.”

  “They’re not my chickens,” Caleb said.

  “Does she know that?” Matt asked.

  Caleb couldn’t believe Jules was capable of executing such a nefarious revenge plan.

  “Are you suggesting she figured out that I was planning to build a Neo location at Whiskey Bay, waited until the last possible moment, the fortieth anniversary of their grandfather’s business license, to extend the noncompete clause and shut down my project so I’d lose a fortune, in retaliation for the actions of my father and grandfather?”

  “It would earn her a significant score on the evil-genius meter,” TJ said.

  “Your ancestors were pretty evil to her ancestors,” Matt said.

  Caleb didn’t disagree with that. His grandfather had stolen away the woman Felix Parker loved, while his father had ruined Roland Parker’s best chance at a college education.

  There wasn’t a lot about either man that made Caleb proud. “I didn’t do a thing to the Parkers.”

  “Did you mention that to Jules?” Matt asked.

  “She’s sticking to her story—that she had no idea I wanted to build a restaurant of my own.”

  “Maybe she didn’t,” TJ said. “You know, this wouldn’t be the worst time in the world to take on investors.”

  “This would absolutely be the worst time in the world to take on investors.” Caleb had heard the pitch from TJ before.

  “One phone call to my clients, Caleb. And seventeen Neo locations across the US could become forty Neo locations around the world. A million-dollar loss here would be insignificant.”

  “Read my lips,” Caleb said. “I’m not interested.”

  TJ shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  “Then call her bluff,” Matt said, crossing the deck and dropping into one of the padded chairs surrounding a gas fire pit.
>
  “She’s not bluffing,” Caleb pointed out. “She already extended the noncompete clause.”

  “I mean pretend you believe her. That she’s only after her own business interests, and this isn’t some warped revenge against your family. See if she’ll be reasonable about coexisting.”

  TJ moved to another of the chairs. “I see where he’s going. Explain to her how Neo and the Crab Shack can both succeed. If she’s not out to harm you, then she should be willing to discuss it.”

  “They serve different market niches.” Caleb sat down, thinking there might be merit to the strategy. “And where they overlap, one could be a draw for the other.”

  “Cross-promotion,” TJ said.

  “I’d be willing to push some customers her way.”

  “Maybe don’t make yourself sound so arrogant,” Matt said. “I don’t think women like that.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the big expert on women?” TJ asked Caleb.

  “Jules isn’t a woman,” Caleb said. But even as he spoke, he envisioned her sparkling blue eyes, her billowy wheat-blond hair and her full red lips. Jules was all woman, and that just made things more complicated.

  “I mean,” he continued. “She’s not a woman in the way you’re thinking about women. Not that she’s not good-looking, she is. Anybody would tell you that. But that’s irrelevant. It’s irrelevant to the situation. I’m not trying to date her. I’m trying to do business with her.”

  “Uh-oh,” Matt said to TJ.

  “That’s trouble,” TJ said to Matt.

  “It’s not like that,” Caleb said. “The last time I saw her she was fifteen.”

  TJ grinned. “And that was a logical comeback to what?”

  “She was a kid. She was my neighbor. And now she’s a thorn in my side. This has nothing to do with, you know, our recent discussions about the two of you getting back into the dating pool. How’s that going, by the way?”

  Both men grinned at him. “You think we’re going to let you change the subject that easily?”

  “Either of you dating?” Caleb asked. “Are you? Because I had a date last weekend.”

  Matt had just made it through a bitter divorce, and TJ had just passed the two-year anniversary of his wife’s death. Both had committed to living Caleb’s bachelor lifestyle for the next year. And Caleb had committed to helping them achieve it.