The Matchmaker Bride (The Bride Series)

by Richards, Shadonna

  His fingers reached down into the water into her folds and stroked her in such a way she never thought possible. This was mind-blowing. She craved him and returned the favour in caressing his body as they both lay soaking in lather in the honeymoon suite tub.

  Before long, after their slippery, wet foreplay, they had moved from the tub to the large silky spread of the king sized bed overlooking the Falls.

  Carlos reached over to where his suit lay on the ground and pulled out a condom. He went over by the bed and continued to make passionate love to her. Her breasts surged at the intimacy of his touch. His gentle touch all over her body sent currents of desire through her. She was in ecstasy. She enjoyed him moaning in pleasure as they pleasured each other. He moved inside her hard and fast, pleasuring her every inch. She exploded in a wave of orgasm before he did. He enjoyed watching her move and his excitement came soon after.

  Moments later, they laid on the bed in an afterglow of love. She’d never known what it was to have toe-curling scream out loud love-making. In fact, she’d only done it once before—with her ex.

  Every part of that evening with Carlos was magical. Sophie knew it was going to be hard to say good-bye to him after their agreement. But for now she had to enjoy what she had with him.

  17

  The following morning, Sophie woke up with a smile on her face.

  “Good morning, baby. Did you sleep well,” Carlos said gazing at her with admiration as he leaned up in the bed.

  “Yes, of course. Did you?”

  “Never felt better,” he said as he stroked her with his finger so gently she giggled with delight.

  “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

  “Really?”

  “Why does that surprise you?”

  “I mean, look at you. You’re gorgeous and I’m sure you must have had…”

  “Lots of women?”

  She flushed. “Well, you know what I mean.”

  “Well,” he grinned. “You wanted to know about my past love life so there it is. Yes, I’ve had many women but none came as close to you as my feelings have. When I’m with you, I feel as if I’m with my other half. My better half. I can be sure around you. I can feel your caring heart and genuine nature. I love that about you. It’s weird but I felt elated about you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  “Um, Carlos, you laid eyes on me when I spied on you.”

  He grinned. “Yes, and you did it so lousy and innocently that it looked well…cute. I could tell being sneaky and inconspicuous was not really your thing.” He smiled as he got off the bed. “Which by the way is a good thing.”

  She admired his sexy physique and could not believe his body was so perfect but more than that, last night he felt perfect. She felt perfect with him.

  After having a delicious room-service breakfast they showered and got dressed getting ready for their nuptials at noon. Because they’d both agreed prior to coming to Niagara Falls that it would be strictly a business arrangement, they decided to forgo any wedding tradition such as the groom not seeing the bride right before the wedding. As they left the room and entered the lobby, Sophie saw her world crumble before her.

  It was Lady Dextworth’s daughter, Sandy with her jaw wide open and her arms folded across her chest.

  “Hey! You’re with my match date!” She cried. All eyes turned to Sophie and before she knew it a photographer out of nowhere snapped the picture of the three of them near the front desk.

  How was she going to get out of this one…alive?

  18

  Before Sophie could move an inch Carlos stood protecting her and asked the man taking the photo to leave. His voice commanded respect. Though the photographer got his picture—whoever he was, Lady Sandy stood brewing in front of her.

  “Thanks, Carlos. Listen this is about me and Sandy.”

  “I need to say something.”

  “No, really, Carlos. Please let me handle this.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yes.”

  Reluctantly, Carlos went over to the front desk to inquire about a service.

  “Ha! Well isn’t that something,” Sandy smirked. “You were suppose to be hooking me up with this guy and you’re checking out of a hotel with him. My mother is going to have a huge fit when she finds out. Is this how your agency works?”

  “No, it isn’t and I’m sorry but….we need to talk somewhere more private. “

  Sandy Dextworth wasn’t anything what she would expect of a daughter of an aristocrat. In fact, she looked a little dishevelled as if she didn’t sleep last night .

  With narrowed eyes Sandy followed Sophie over to the seating area of the lobby away from onlookers and out of earshot of anyone else.

  “Sandy, I’m so sorry that—“

  “Hey, baby! Been looking for ya!” A young tattooed guy appeared in the lobby with a couple of coffees in his hands. He placed them down and gave Sandy a kiss on the lips not caring that someone else was present. He wreaked of alcohol but so early in the morning? Judging by his appearance with leather and tight pants, he looked like he’s plays in a rock band of some sort. Cute but not what Sophie would have expected.

  Sandy’s face turned a pale shade of white. Her eyes dolled open wide. She then unfroze from her position and looked over helplessly at Sophie.

  “Hey everything okay, babe? You didn’t happen to see my phone did you? Did we leave it in the room?” The young man continued.

  Sandy pinched her lips and took her coffee and told the young man to leave her for a moment because she had something to discuss.

  Sophie’s jaw fell open this time. She didn’t know what to say now.

  “Listen,” Sandy closed her eyes as if she seemed to regret the whole encounter. “This had better not get out. My mom….she’d have a fit. She wanted me to hook up with some stiff suit society dude but…”

  “Let me guess, stiff suits aren’t exactly your type right?”

  She grinned sheepishly. Sophie felt sorry for her all of a sudden. Imagine being forced into a marriage because your parents or your late father didn’t approve of the “class” of dates you had. Who had any right to tell people who they could and could not fall in love with? Different strokes for different folks. Tattooed guy probably was a really cool dude who clicked well with Sandy. Why couldn’t her folks see that? Argh! It seemed as if Carlos and Sophie being together was the best thing that could have happened to Sandy who admitted that Carlos was cute but she didn’t know much about him outside of the profile that she saw. She had told her mother she liked Carlos’s profile and they got excited and started to proceed with the matchmaking. This was before her father passed away. Her mother made her promise that she’d find a suitable husband by the time she was 30 years old. How awful to be put under that kind of pressure. Sandy barely looked out of her teens. Maybe she’d had a rough time growing up prim and proper and just wanted to be “normal” for a change and choose her own friends and suitors.

  The two had a heart to heart conversation that by the time Carlos came back he looked stunned to see the two hugging afterwards. It was just…a weird set up in Sophie’s eyes. In fact, she was secretly glad they had a chance to meet and get it all out in the open. Sophie was torn with guilt before their encounter about the whole matchmaking thing being interrupted by her.

  19

  The events of the morning in no way overshadowed the glorious ceremony overlooking Niagara Falls in the bright cloudless day. It was noon hour and Sophie’s belly felt like a thousand tiny butterflies were moving inside her. Her heart felt tinges of despair that it would end in annulment but right now she was thinking about doing it for Bria’s sake. Carlos would be the best guardian for Bria and maybe she could continue to see her professionally. That was all she could hope at the time. Carlos hadn’t said anything else except thanking her for doing this for Bria. After last night’s passionate love-making she had hoped it would be more.

  The minister stood with his
back facing the window as they stood in front of him, the bright sun shining through and into the tiny chapel on the 23rd floor of the hotel giving the most spectacular view. Who ever thought of this idea was clever, she thought to herself.

  “You may now kiss the bride,” the minister said with a smile on his face.

  Carlos kissed Sophie so passionately that she thought she would lose her breath. Yet again. It all seemed so real. So permanent. How could they annul their marriage? How could they even think about it? Her heart longed for this permanent arrangement and she also wondered if it was her imagination or did Carlos say “I do” with such an intent that it seemed real. She knew she meant her vows, but did he feel the same way?

  “Thank you again, Sophie,” he whispered in her ear as he hugged her from behind later as they stood back in their suite staring out at the view in the window.

  “You’re welcome,” she said with sadness.

  “I mean thank you for making me a happy man.”

  She turned to face him now.

  “Your eyes look sad for a woman who just got married,” he tried to tease her to make light of the situation.

  “Carlos, we both know it’s so that you can win the custody battle.” When the words slid off her tongue she almost wished she hadn’t said them. The look on his face was deadly as if she’d slapped him hard across the face.

  He removed his arms from her waist and shoved his hands in his pockets pinching his lips together as if in thought.

  “Carlos, I…”

  He silenced her with his hand and told her that he had to leave for a minute.

  Great going, Sophie, you just turned him away after insulting him. She’d realized that he’d offered her funds to make this go through but she really didn’t want to talk money until much later. She just felt it was wrong to do so in the beginning.

  20

  More than an hour had passed and Sophie wondered what happened to Carlos. Had he gone? Did he decide to leave her there in Niagara Falls on her own? Anger seethed inside her now. Okay, so she said it the wrong way but could Mr. high flying executive really been that hurt or thin skinned? Carlos was anything but thin skinned she recalculated.

  She took her swipe card and left the hotel suite and went down to the lobby. Over by the indoor garden of tall trees she saw Carlos outside near a corner as if hiding. She decided to go outside and go up to him. She was walking towards him from behind and then realized that he was on his cell phone.

  “I want to pay her off and get rid of her. Period. Understand.” Carlos words tore a hole in her heart as panic choked her. She quickly ran off and back into the hotel.

  Her heart pounding a thousand beats per minute hammering away in her chest. She fumbled as she stuffed her clothes into her tiny suitcase. Just then Carlos opened the door.

  “What are you doing?”

  She stopped and turned around dramatically. “I’m leaving. You can keep your money and annul the damn marriage as soon as possible. I don’t want any part of this.”

  “Whoa, slow down there lady. What’s gotten into you?”

  “You called me an amateur sleuth once, well, I may not be that much of an amateur. I overheard what you said about me.”

  “Oh, that!” He said without emotion.

  “So you don’t deny it?”

  “No. I love you and I want to remarry you. Make it real. No other woman has gotten into my heart and mind the way you do, Sophie. I can’t stop thinking about you when you’re not with me. It drives me crazy but I need you. I want you in my life. Not just now but for as long as we both shall live. Isn’t that the vows we took this morning?”

  Sophie had a confused look on her face. “But…I overheard you saying that you want me out of the picture and you’ll pay me off, Carlos. I was outside while you were talking on your cell phone.” Tearfully she turned away.

  She could not believe Carlos burst out laughing, a deep hearty laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, exactly. What exactly did you hear?”

  When Sophie told him, Carlos shook his head and grinned. “My dear Sophie I was referring to Tessa, my stepmother. After the time we’ had together and my feelings that were intensifying for you, I decided that I love both you and Bria too much to drag you through this legal battle. It’s money Tessa wanted so I gave her the equivalent of the inheritance as long as I can continue custody of Bria and she’d have visitation rights whenever she wanted.”

  “What? And…and she actually agreed to this?”

  “Yep, she did.”

  “Oh, my God. I feel…speechless…foolish. Carlos, I’m so sorry I…”

  He leaned closer to her and silenced her with a passionate kiss on her lips. He then took his finger and traced her jaw and kissed her again.

  “Matchmaker Sophie will you honor me with your hand in marriage for the most perfect match this side of heaven?”

  Sophie felt her heart flutter wildly in her chest. Tears came to her eyes. She’d never thought she’d end up being matched with her perfect soul mate.

  “Yes, I do. I love you, Carlos.”

  He presented her with a gorgeous diamond ring.

  “Who said you were an amateur matchmaker anyway,” he grinned. “You’ve just made me the most happiest man in the world. That’s something that can’t be matched anywhere.”

  Epilogue

  One year later, Sophie and Carlos Bradley returned to Niagara Falls on their first wedding anniversary to renew their vows. Little Bria was the flower girl and Trina her maid of honour while Julian, Carlos’s long-time friend and business partner played the best man. The intimate wedding couldn’t have been more beautiful. When Sophie signed up with the Stone Matchmaking Services never in her wildest imagination did she think that the match she was coordinating would be her own. Carlos’s sexy lips curved into an adorable grin as he leaned closer to his wife and gently rubbed his hand on her growing belly. “I thought I saw the baby move. I’m guessing Carlos Junior doesn’t want to miss out on the celebration.”

  Sophie blushed at her little miracle. She never thought she would be a mommy one day and here she was happily married and happily expecting.

  Yes, this was the perfect match this side of heaven.

  THE END

  * * *

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  THE BRIDE SERIES (Novels 1-4)

  An Unexpected Bride – Book 1

  Emma Wiggins is about to marry her heart-stopping gorgeous boss, CEO Evan Fletcher, in seven days—too bad he doesn’t know it yet! Desperate to fulfill her ailing grandfather’s last wish to see her settle down, she tells him a little white lie on his deathbed about being engaged to her secret crush—commitment-phobic Evan. Can love blossom in the most unlikely situation?

  The Jilted Bride – Book 2

  Jody Anders’ adoptive grandparents surprised her with a short one-day visit from New York and they can’t wait to meet Gregory, her wonderful new husband with whom she eloped. Trouble is, she forgot to mention that he jilted her at the altar and is no longer in the picture. Will her gorgeous neighbour, Jake help her out?

  The Matchmaker Bride – Book 3

  What happens when a lonely matchmaker unexpectedly falls in love with a forbidden client— a gorgeous, high-flying CEO with a secret past? Read the story of Sophie Wilson and Carlos Bradley III.

  His Island Bride – Book 4

  Jessica Mills wasn’t looking for love, but love found her...while vacationing on the sunny island of Jamaica. Undercover billionaire, James Carrington thought he was through with serious relationships…that was until he met darling Jessica.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
; Bestselling author Shadonna Richards has a B.A. Degree in Psychology and a Diploma in Nursing. She enjoys reading and writing about the magic of romance and the power of love. She is the author of the non-fiction books, A Gift of Hope and Think & Be Happy: 365 Empowering Thoughts to Lift Your Spirit (an Amazon Kindle #1 Bestseller in Meditation). Winner of Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write 2010 Day Two Challenge, she is a member of the Romance Writers of America. An Unexpected Bride became a #1 Kindle Bestseller in Humor and is her first novel. It has sold over 40,000 copies in its first seven months on Kindle. She’s a proud mommy and wife and lives in Canada with her husband and son. You can visit her at www.shadonnarichards.blogspot.com and join her mailing list for updates, giveaways and news on upcoming releases.