Dear Reader

      Welcome to Rayne and Maeve in Lyrebird Lake at Christmas time.

      Wow. I hope you have fun with this. I was grinning all the way through. Rayne and Maeve wrote their story and I was just trying to keep up with them—two people with sooo much sexual chemistry between them, and both of them such determined people in their own right, with really tough dilemmas.

      Most of my heroes and heroines are pretty private, and they prefer it if I leave the bedroom door firmly closed—but, while still avoiding anatomical explanations, Rayne and Maeve are so aware of the physical in each other they just can’t keep their hands off and sometimes forget to shut the door. But it’s still sweet.

      So it’s not surprising that after an explosive first night, right at the beginning, Maeve falls pregnant. As Rayne says, ‘If there was one night when, no matter how many precautions were used, a determined sperm would get through that was the night.’

      Fast forward nine months and Rayne returns, unaware that Maeve is about to have his baby—and as a guy emotionally scarred by his childhood and with no male role model he can’t see how he can become the kind of father Maeve’s baby deserves.

      Maeve has to come to terms with the fact that Rayne walked away, didn’t answer her letters, and let her down in her pregnancy. But he’s here now—exactly what she so desperately wanted for Christmas—and after the first day with him back she believes in him … believes that Rayne has the potential to share the love he’s never had a chance to share. She just has to help him to see it, and hopefully he’ll become a believer before she has this baby. Thankfully she’s in Lyrebird Lake, and with all the people she needs around her this is the place to do it.

      I’d really love to hear what you think of Rayne and Maeve’s journey.

      Warmest wishes

       Fi

      PS I really loved Simon giving Tara, from the previous book, Russian dolls for Christmas!