Prescription for Romance Read online

  ††The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion

  §§The Sons of Lily Moreau

  °°The Wilder Family

  ~Kate’s Boys

  ~Kate’s Boys

  ~Kate’s Boys

  ††The Fortunes of Texas: Reunion

  ~Kate’s Boys

  §The Alaskans

  ~Kate’s Boys

  The Baby Chase

  ‡The Cameo

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  ~~Capturing the Crown

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  **Mission: Impassioned

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  ‡‡Most Likely To…

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  †The Doctors Pulaski

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  ~~Capturing the Crown

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  *Cavanaugh Justice

  ‡The Cameo

  ‡The Cameo

  §The Alaskans

  °Talk of the Neighborhood

  §§The Sons of Lily Moreau

  §§The Sons of Lily Moreau

  He wasn’t prepared for what he saw.

  She was sitting at her desk—a slender blonde whose every movement promised curves that would melt a man’s knees even as it brought him down to them.

  The source of his sister’s ire looked up at him with the clearest bluest eyes he’d ever seen. The word beautiful pushed its way through the sudden cobwebs that had taken Paul’s brain hostage. It took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t breathing.

  He stopped to breathe.

  She did not look like someone who was hired to do battle with mudslingers. She looked more like a fairy-tale princess who had sprung from someone’s smitten fantasy.

  Dear Reader,

  I love babies. I always have, always will. Unlike a lot of my friends, I had absolutely no trouble getting pregnant. I also know, much to the embarrassment of my children, exactly when each of them was conceived.

  Since holding my newborns in my arms and being a mom is something I cannot imagine not being part of my life, I can completely understand how the Armstrong Fertility Institute could be perceived as a beacon of hope to childless couples. This is the first book in a six-book series about the institute and the people who are a part of helping to make the miracle of birth happen for couples desperate to have a baby. But along with the miracles come secrets and intrigue…. I hope that this book and the books that follow will entertain you.

  Thank you for reading, and as ever, I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

  Wishing you all the best,

  Marie Ferrarella

  PRESCRIPTION FOR ROMANCE

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  Special thanks and acknowledgment to Marie Ferrarella for her contribution to THE BABY CHASE miniseries.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Silhouette Special Edition

  ††Her Good Fortune #1665

  ‡Because a Husband Is Forever #1671

  ‡‡The Measure of a Man #1706

  ‡She’s Having a Baby #1713

  ‡Her Special Charm #1726

  Husbands and Other Strangers #1736

  §The Prodigal M.D. Returns #1775

  °Mother in Training #1785

  Romancing the Teacher #1826

  §§Remodeling the Bachelor #1845

  §§Taming the Playboy #1856

  §§Capturing the Millionaire #1863

  °°Falling for the M.D. #1873

  ~Diamond in the Rough #1910

  ~The Bride with No Name #1917

  ~Mistletoe and Miracles #1941

  ††Plain Jane and the Playboy #1946

  ~Travis’s Appeal #1958

  §Loving the Right Brother #1977

  The 39-Year-Old Virgin #1983

  ~A Lawman for Christmas #2006

  Prescription for Romance #2017

  Silhouette Romantic Suspense

  *In Broad Daylight #1315

  *Alone in the Dark #1327

  *Dangerous Disguise #1339

  ~~The Heart of a Ruler #1412

  *The Woman Who Wasn’t There #1415

  *Cavanaugh Watch #1431

  †Her Lawman on Call #1451

  †Diagnosis: Danger #1460

  **My Spy #1472

  †Her Sworn Protector #1491

  *Cavanaugh Heat #1499

  †A Doctor’s Secret #1503

  †Secret Agent Affair #1511

  *Protecting His Witness #1515

  ~~Colton’s Secret Service #1528

  The Heiress’s 2-Week Affair #1556

  *Cavanaugh Pride #1571

  *Becoming a Cavanaugh #1575

  *The Cavanaugh Code #1587

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author has written almost two hundred novels for Silhouette Books, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.

  To

  Jessica and Nicholas

  with all my love forever,

  Mom

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter One

  Dr. Paul Armstrong was deeply concerned.

  His sister Olivia Armstrong Mallory could have never, by any stretch of the imagination, been described as robust or even glowingly healthy, but she sat in his office today, turning to him not just as her older brother, but as the chief of staff of the Armstrong Fertility Institute. He knew talking about this wasn’t easy for his sister. She’d addressed half her story to the crumpled tissue she held in a death grip between her fingers in her lap.

  How many times since he’d begun to work here had he heard this same story before? Too many times, and yet, not enough to become insensitive to it.

  Olivia wanted to become pregnant and all her attempts, she had confided quietly, had thus far failed.

  Even as he listened to her haltingly pour out her heart, Paul began to suspect that there was more to all this than she was telling him. Something beyond the hunger to have a child.

  “Olivia,” he pointed out gently, “you’re being too hard on yourself. You’re just twenty-nine—”

  Eyes full of misery and unshed tears looked up at him. “And I’ve been trying to get pregnant for five years, Paul. Five very long, disappointing years.”

  This, too, he’d seen over and over again. The anguished faces of frustrated women, pleading for help, asking him to make the most natural of dreams come true for them. He’d never imagined he’d see this look on the face of one of his sisters.

  “Olivia, there are other avenues. You could adopt a child,” he tactfully suggested.

  But he could see, even as he said it, that for Olivia, this wasn’t the solution. She pressed a small, fisted hand beneath her breast, pushing against her incredibly flat belly. “I want to feel life growing inside me, Paul.”

  Though his heart went out to her, Paul felt bound to tell her what he told every woman or couple who came in to see him with this same dilemma. “It isn’t all roses, Livy. There’s a very real downsid
e to being pregnant.” Assuming, he added silently, that he could even get her there.

  Olivia shook her head, her sleek black hair shadowing the adamant movement. “Don’t you understand I don’t care?” Reaching across the desk that separated them, his sister took his hands in hers in supplication. “I really want to be pregnant. Help me, Paul. Whatever it takes, help me.”

  The force of her words had him wondering again. He had to ask. “Olivia, is everything all right?”

  Releasing his hands, his sister drew herself up in her chair as she squared her shoulders. “Everything’s fine, Paul.”

  Her words only reinforced his concern. “You said that much too fast.”

  Olivia inclined her head. “All right, I’ll say it slower. Every-thing’s-fine.” She deliberately drew out the sentence, saying it in slow motion and awarding it a host of syllables.

  He would have laughed if he wasn’t so concerned. “Livy, I’m your brother. You can talk to me.”

  “I am talking to you,” she insisted. “I’m telling you that I want to have a baby. As the chief of staff you should be able to understand that.” Blowing out a breath and clearly struggling not to cry, Olivia asked, “Now, can you help me?”

  Though he had a tendency to be oblivious to the obvious at times, the irony of the situation did not escape Paul. The daughter of the famous fertility expert Dr. Gerald Armstrong was infertile. Somewhere, the gods were chuckling.

  If he ever helped anyone at all, Paul thought, he should be able to help his sister.

  “Yes,” he answered gently, “I think there’s a good chance that I can.” Of late, there had been a number of allegations of wrongdoing, rumored to be made by a former disgruntled employee, of eggs and sperm being switched, research that was held suspect and too many multiple births, all of which had caused a cloud of suspicion to be cast over the institute and the work they’d done over the years. Paul had been going out of his way to try to right all of this. He began by luring the world-famous Bonner-Demetrios research team away from a prominent San Francisco teaching hospital and getting them to head up the institute’s research operations here.

  Just in time, he thought, looking at his sister.

  “We’ve just scored a coup and managed to get two top-flight physicians to join our staff here. Both of them have been on the cutting edge of fertility research for some time now. I’m going to refer you to one of them.”

  Olivia nodded, desperately trying to draw hope from her brother’s words. “What’s his name?”

  “Dr. Chance Demetrios. If there’s any way possible for you to wind up getting morning sickness, he’ll find it,” Paul promised with a quick smile. Paul wrote a few words on a pad, then tore the page off and held it out to her. “I know he doesn’t have patients today until later. Are you willing to go now?”

  Olivia looked down at the slip of paper her brother had given her, unable to read a single word. She sincerely hoped that another doctor would have no trouble deciphering the hieroglyphics. “Are you sure he can see me?”

  Paul smiled the shy, boyish smile she remembered so well from their childhood, the smile she recalled gracing the lips of her protector. Derek, their other brother, was always the one in the foreground, gregarious, loud and charming. But it was Paul she always felt she could count on. Paul was the dependable one who spoke little, but meant every word he said.

  “Yes,” he assured her. “I’m his boss. Chance’ll see you.” Rising, he came around the desk and squeezed his sister’s hand. “Sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me?”

  Olivia stood up and did her best to smile. “I’m sure.”

  That wasn’t good enough for him. Paul tried again. “Maybe there’s something you don’t want to tell me, but should?”

  “Only that I love you.” Olivia rose on her toes and brushed a quick kiss to his cheek. Backing away, she held up the note he’d just given her. “Thank you.”

  Paul sincerely hoped that Chance was the magician the man claimed to be. “Anytime,” he replied.

  His sister left his office, closing the door behind her. Paul went back around to his chair.

  He’d just managed to sit down when the door flew open again, this time without a perfunctory knock or even the pretense of formality. His other sister, Lisa—the head administrator at the institute—burst in with just a tiny bit less noise than a detonating cherry bomb. Ordinarily, she vacillated between looking harried and looking pleased because another happy couple had left the institute, pregnant and satisfied. Now she looked as if she was about to bite someone’s head off.

  “Do you know what he did?” she demanded angrily, slamming the door closed with a bang.

  Paul had always found it was best to remain calm in the face of anyone’s tirade. If he remained calm, he could assess the problem more accurately. “Who?” he asked mildly.

  Lisa looked at him as if he’d suddenly turned simple on her. “Derek, of course.”

  “Of course,” Paul echoed. Taking a breath, he patiently pointed something out—and not for the first time. “Lisa, contrary to legend and a handful of fair-to-bad movies, just because Derek and I are twins does not mean that I automatically know what he’s thinking, so, no, I don’t know what he did.” And then he smiled indulgently at her. “But I’m sure you’re going to enlighten me.”

  Lisa let out a loud huff and Paul would have been hard-pressed to say who she was angrier at right now, Derek or him. “He’s gone off on his own, that’s what he’s done.”

  He was going to need more of a hint than that. “As in…he left?” He sincerely doubted that Derek would just run off at such a difficult time and leave his siblings to deal with the entire mess. But he had to admit that he and Derek often marched to completely different drummers and there were times when his brother’s actions and motivation completely mystified him. Not only that, but of late, he seemed to be preoccupied.

  “No, as in going off and hiring someone to—Now wait a sec—” Lisa held her hand up in case Paul was going to interrupt her “—I want to get this straight. ‘Someone to help us repair our image.’” Then Lisa fisted her hands on her hips. “I’m head administrator here and Derek’s gone and hired a PR manager without so much as saying boo to me.”

  Paul sighed. He lived and breathed his work to the exclusion of almost everything else, except for his family. Very seldom did he come up for air, much less to mingle in the everyday dealings of running the institute.

  Paul asked his fuming sister, “What do you mean?”

  “Public relations, Paul,” she said, even more annoyed. “Derek went and hired a damn spin doctor.”

  “So what’s the issue?” he asked, confused.

  Lisa threw up her hands in desperation. “For such an intelligent man, you can be so dense sometimes. The point is, Derek is the chief financial officer—he isn’t supposed to hire anyone without consulting us. Major positions are supposed to be filled by the three of us evaluating the candidate for the job, remember?” She didn’t wait for him to respond before she went on. “If you ask me, I think Derek’s beginning to envision himself as Caesar.”

  Lisa was the youngest and as such, she was given to exaggeration. “Dial it down a notch, Lisa. I don’t like Derek doing something like this without consulting us, either, but I think it’s a stretch equating him with Julius Caesar.”

  “I’m not equating him with Caesar,” she protested. “I think Derek sees himself as Caesar. The bottom line is,” she said with a toss of her short black hair, “we don’t need a PR manager.”

  Paul nodded. “At least we’re in agreement about that.”

  It never occurred to her that Paul would see it any differently than she did. “Good, then fix it,” she demanded. When he raised an inquisitive eyebrow, Lisa pressed, “Unhire her.”

  Even though terminating this unwanted new employee was his first inclination, Paul did want to be fair. That would mean talking to Derek and finding out just what his brother was thinking when he hired th
is person. “Where’s Derek now?”

  Lisa sighed. “I have no idea. You know how he is, social butterflying all over. But I do know where the new girl is,” she said triumphantly. “She’s in Connie Winston’s old office,” she said, referring to a recently retired officer of their board of directors. Lisa was clearly not finished with the topic. “You know, Derek’s got no right to constantly usurp us like that.”

  Paul had always been ready to go the extra mile, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. “Derek probably doesn’t even realize that’s what he’s doing. You know he gets impatient when things don’t go as fast as he thinks they should.” Paul shrugged philosophically. “He doesn’t have the patience of a scientist.”

  Lisa pounced on her brother’s words. “Good thing you do. Now get rid of this woman and give Derek a piece of your mind when you find him.”