Damien Trent's time for revenge was athand. The Australian businessman hadbided his time, waiting for Gabrielle Kaneto return. She'd dared to leave his bedyears ago without a word…but now sheneeded him if she was to save herfamily's company. And Damien wouldlend his help…but his price wasGabrielle's hand in marriage. With five years of waiting behind him,Damien had no plans on making thisa marriage in name only.

He must marry or lose control of his empire. But no ordinary wife would do for Australian tycoon Alex Valente. Emotional entanglements were to be avoided; physical attraction was essential. Struggling designer Olivia Cannington certainly fit both of his requirements… most especially the latter. And she was in such desperate need of his funds, perhaps the beauty would even agree to the second part of his marriage ultimatum: give Valente an heir…within a year.

Tate Chandler had never wanted a woman as much as he'd wanted Gemma Watkins—until the day she'd betrayed him. Yet when he learned they had a son, he demanded Gemma marry him, or he'd fight for custody. Tate was a man of honor—he'd create a family for his heir, even if it meant marrying a woman he couldn't trust. Their marriage was about duty, nothing more. But Gemma's beauty tempted him to make her his wife in every way. Could he lure her back into his bed without letting her back into his heart?

"Terrible Sanity is wondrous sanity. Pickering's essays are acetaminophen for hippish days. "Life doesn't have a neat beginning and a tidy end," Roger, a character in V. S. Naipaul's Half a Life, says. "Life is always going on." In this collection, Pickering depicts the joy and sadness of life's going on. He observes that great knowledge often brings small pleasure while the small knowledge that all people experience brings great pleasure. A dental hygienist tells him that every day patients greet her on the street and in stores. "Their faces are always unfamiliar, and I never recognize them," she says, "but if they opened their mouths wide, I'd know them immediately." For the record she also volunteers that in twenty years of tooth-scrubbing, she had only been bitten once"--

He'd done his late brother the ultimate favor and now Dominic Roth was paying the ultimate price. The tycoon could not declare Cassandra Roth's child his own—society could know the baby only as his niece. So when the opportunity arose for Dominic to lay claim to both mother and child, he played his cards. Yet even as Dominic finally had the woman he'd secretly coveted, he knew he could not reveal their daughter's true parentage. For the billionaire daddy dared not risk destroying his tenuous hold on true happiness.

The job title was housekeeper, not fiancée! But billionaire cattleman Kirk Deverill couldn't throw the lovely single mom off his ranch. Especially when he knew the job would help her keep her son. Of course, the eligible bachelor hadn't expected her to tell everyone she was also Kirk's bride-to-be! He agreed to Vanessa's ruse for her adorable son's sake. And for the opportunity to claim some "husbandly" pleasures. Of course, making their fake engagement a real union was never going to happen. The Outback loner had his reasons…and even the most desirable of women wouldn't get him to change his mind.

For Matthew Valente, paternity trumped everything. Never mind that his ex-employee Lana had kept his baby a secret for nearly a year. Never mind that he considered her a liar and a thief. Their child would bear the Valente name…and so would she. As tension mounted in the House of Valente, Matthew fought to resist the memories of their past indiscretion. His bewitching bride insisted things were not as they seemed. But as restraint turned to passion, would the corporate king fall victim to the very worst form of takeover—his heart?

What would compel millionaire playboy Nick Valente to marry a woman he hadn't seen in years? Blackmail, of course. To keep his family home, Nick must marry the woman of his father's choosing: Sasha Blake, a long-ago flame. Sasha had been barely out of her teens, but there had been nothing immature about her then—or his desire for her. Now she would be his wife, and Nick would be free to make love to her as often and any way he liked. But there was one nagging question in his mind… He knew his reasons for agreeing to this marriage…what were hers?

No one quit on Blake Jarrod! So when his devoted assistant suddenly turned in her resignation, the hotelier wanted answers. Though, Samantha Thompson wasn't talking. Turning her two-weeks' notice into four, Blake gave himself one month to seduce the truth from her. And despite his rule about business and pleasure never mixing, Blake intended to make the most of his endeavor….