Destiny Bay Boxed Set vol. 2 (Books 4 - 6) (Destiny Bay Romances)

by Helen Conrad

  “What?”

  ''Sure.” He looked so innocent. “You practically attacked me in front of the whole world. I had to draft you into playing my wife to save you from embarrassment.”

  That earned him a pillow to the head, but it didn't stop the flow of his reminiscences. “But I still fought it. I thought maybe we could have a fling and then I'd move on, like I've always done in the past. I soon learned my mistake. When you tried to tell me to get lost, I knew there was no way I could ever leave you behind.” He bent down and kissed her, and she smiled and snuggled as close against him as she dared.

  Her dark eyes misted over. She raised her hand and touched his cheek. “I love you, undercover man,” she said with husky sincerity. “I've loved you forever, and I'll go on loving you forevermore.”

  He kissed the end of her nose, then couldn't resist her lips. “You wouldn't con me, would you, woman?” he whispered, kissing her again.

  She didn't have to answer. Not with words. Brimming eyes, and the immediate response of her body, were all the reply he needed.

  Also in the Destiny Bay series

  Destiny Bay-Forever Yours

  Book 1-My Little Runaway

  Book 2-Wife For a Night

  Book 3-Too Scared to Breathe

  Book 4-Make Believe Wife

  Book 5-Promoted to Wife

  Book 6-Not the Marrying Kind

  Destiny Bay Box Set: Books 1 − 3

  My Little Runaway, Wife for a Night, Too Scared to Breathe

  Destiny Bay-Baby Dreams

  Book 1-Husband Wanted:Will Train

  Book 2-The Baby Invasion

  Book 3-Waiting for Someone Like You

  Book 4-Tick Tock Baby Clock

  Book 5-Jilted

  Book 6- Waiting for Baby Kate

  Destiny Bay~Baby Dreams Box Set: Books 1-3

  Husband Wanted:Will Train, Baby Invasion, Waiting for Someone Like You

  Destiny Bay~Baby Dreams Box Set: Books 4-6

  Tick Tock Baby Clock, Jilted, Waiting for Baby Kate

  Available on Kindle

  Coming Soon…

  Destiny Bay~Valley Days

  Native Silver

  Sweet Desperado

  Destiny Ranch

  From

  DoorKnock Publishing

  *** *** ***

  The Carrington Saga Continues in:

  Husband Wanted: Will Train

  Destiny Bay~Baby Dreams~Book 1

  by Helen Conrad

  Chapter One:

  Hiring a Husband

  “I... I need a man.”

  Ross Carrington’s eyebrows rose. The woman on the other end of the line sounded strangely furtive. But considering her request, maybe that was to be expected. He gritted his teeth, wishing he hadn’t taken the call.

  He’d come into his sister Marlena’s modern, colorfully decorated office only minutes before. She was out. Her secretary had gone to lunch. So he’d thrown himself down behind the desk to wait. And when the telephone had chimed, he’d answered automatically.

  “Could you speak a little louder?” he asked, leaning back in the swivel chair and propping his soft Italian-leather shoes up on the desk. “I’m not sure I understand what you want.”

  “This is the Destiny Bay Temporary Employment Agency, isn’t it?” Her voice was stronger now, as though by stating her needs so boldly she’d gotten over the worst part.

  Ross glanced at the letterhead on the stationery of Marlena’s company piled up alongside the computer keyboard, just checking. “Yes, you’ve reached the right number.”

  The woman on the line sighed.

  “This is so embarrassing. You probably think I’m crazy. But I really do need a man for a very special, very delicate job. Do you have any available?”

  Ross hesitated. The long, slender fingers of one hand curled around the receiver while those of the other combed through his thick, jet-black hair. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he didn’t think Destiny Bay Employment was in the business of hiring out men for lonely women, but something in her voice stopped him.

  Low and husky, it had an oddly appealing quality—and a lilt of humor. She sounded like a woman who knew how to laugh at herself. Maybe this was really a joke. If so, he might as well string along for the punch line.

  “What type of man did you have in mind?” he asked instead of putting her off.

  “Good question.”

  She laughed shortly.

  “I wish I knew. I’ve never had much luck judging men.”

  She thought for a few seconds.

  “He should be tall, I guess, since I’m not exactly the china-doll type. Good looks would be nice.” She laughed again, and then her voice softened as she went on.

  “But you know what? I think intelligence is more important. Yes, definitely, intelligent eyes. That’s what I want. Do you have anyone like that?”

  “Uh…maybe.”

  Ross gazed, bemused, into the mirror on the other side of the office. His own sea-blue eyes were filled with amusement, and a reluctant grin played on his wide mouth. He stopped that quickly enough, frowning instead.

  Why was he leading her on this way? The woman was an obvious head case. He should refer her to the psycho ward at Destiny Bay Hospital. He hesitated, but for some reason he went on with the charade instead.

  “About what age are you looking for?”

  “Well, I’m thirty. What do you think? Anything over that up to about forty. Or anything, really, that seems compatible.”

  She sounded so damn reasonable.

  “I’ve never hired a husband before.” She sighed. “I know this isn’t your usual request. I did think of calling an escort service, but that seemed so sleazy.”

  She cleared her throat, steadying herself.

  “Okay, I’ll try to list the essential qualities.” She paused, then began to tick them off. “Good-looking, charming, good manners. That about covers it. Oh, and he’s got to look successful. You know what I mean? Someone an older woman would put a lot of faith in.”

  She was reasonable but confusing. Ross’s forehead furled with puzzlement.

  “An older woman?”

  “Yes, you see, my Aunt Doris...” She sighed again. “But you don’t want to hear about that. Let’s just say I need someone who’s obvious husband material. I’ll pay the going rate. How soon can you send him over?”

  This was obviously no joke. The woman was serious. Ross sighed, glancing at the clock on the wall. An appealing voice could take him only so far. He had other things to do with his life, and it was time to cut this short.

  “You know,” he said smoothly, “it’s really a shame, but we’ve had a run on our male temps lately. I’m afraid we’re fresh out.”

  “Really?” Her disappointment almost made him feel sorry for her. “You don’t have anyone at all?”

  “No one at all.”

  “Not even a younger man... ?”

  “No. And not even an older man.”

  She sighed. “Can you take my name and number and call me if you have a cancellation?”

  There was no point to it. Cancellations on make-believe husbands were few and far between. But still, Ross hesitated, then grabbed a pen up off the blotter.

  “Sure,” he said shortly, ready to be rid of her but not ready to cut her off like he might have with someone else. “Your name?”

  “If someone was available even just part-time—“

  “Your name?” he repeated impatiently.

  “Ames.”

  He wrote the letters down in a careless scrawl, then stared at them. Something was ringing a bell in the back of his memory. “Ames. A-M-E-S?” he asked, still staring.

  “Yes.”

  He frowned. “First name?”

  “Charity.”

  His eyes widened. His fingers gripped the receiver more tightly as he jotted the name down.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  “And what is your occupation, Miss Ames?” he
asked evenly, his gaze fixed, every muscle tense.

  She seemed to be startled by the question. “What do you need that for?”

  He shifted the receiver from one ear to the other. “Rules, Miss Ames. Forms must be filled out.”

  “Oh,” she said doubtfully. “Well, there’s no harm in telling you, I suppose. I run a restaurant. La Mer on Dos Pueblos Port Pier.”

  Ross leaned back in the chair. His face relaxed and very slowly his lips formed the silent word. Bingo!

  “Hello?”

  “Yes,” he said hurriedly, straightening again. “Just a moment, Miss Ames.” His mind worked furiously, one idea after another flying through. What an incredible coincidence. He ought to pinch himself, see if he were actually dreaming. What an opportunity! Now if only he could grasp it....

  “It seems you’re in luck. I’ve just realized one of our best men is available after all.”

  “Oh, wonderful.”

  If Ross had been a more compassionate man, he might have felt a twinge of guilt for the relief in her voice. But no. Unfortunately, he was feeling like a man who’d just won the lottery and he didn’t have much room for compassion at the moment. Maybe later.

  “How soon can you get him over here?”

  Ross glanced back at the clock. “Three this afternoon.”

  “Perfect. Aunt Doris isn’t actually arriving for several days, but I want to get our stories straight and get things set up before she gets here.” Her voice now brimmed with excitement. “What’s his name?”

  “His name?” Ross thought fast. He’d never actually had any face-to-face dealings with the lady, but others had on his behalf. She might recognize the name, if not from business, then from the general local notoriety of the rest of his family.

  “Ross...Ross Bennington.” He supplied himself with his mother’s maiden name.

  “Great name.” She sounded eager to get to work. “What does he look like?”

  “Oh...” Ross stared into the mirror again, suddenly feeling an uncharacteristic flicker of embarrassment. “Average, I guess,” he said gruffly. “Six-four. Dark hair. Blue eyes. Intelligent eyes,” he added quickly.

  Charity Ames was nothing if not enthusiastic. “I love him already!”

  He blinked, struck by a hint of unease. “What exactly did you have in mind for Mr. Bennington to do?” he asked suspiciously.

  “I told you. I need a husband for about four or five days. That’s all. He’ll have to stay here with me, of course, to make it look good. And when Aunt Doris goes back to New York—“

  “A quickie divorce.”

  She laughed. “Something like that.”

  Ross nodded in satisfaction. The setup was perfect. A couple of days to soften her up, a few more to convince her.

  “Let me have your address,” he said quickly. “And we’ll send your hired husband right over.”

  He stared at the telephone for a long moment after they’d hung up. It couldn’t be this easy. After all those months of trying to pin Charity Ames down, of trying to get a private meeting to present his offer, of getting the brush-off at every turn, he’d suddenly been given a free ticket right into her living room. There had to be a catch.

  “Hello, darling.” Marlena, his lovely, black-haired sister, breezed into the office. A cloud of sultry perfume seemed to settle about her as she came to a halt and leaned down to kiss her musing brother. Not a hair was out of place. Her makeup was pearly and exact. The suit hugging her slender body was cut to fit only her. She moved with the confidence of a woman who had gone to the best schools, had been the belle of her debutante ball and had name recognition at all the most expensive shops in town.

  “I hope you haven’t been waiting for too long,” she told her brother. “I had to check with the printers on some ads we’re running.”

  Ross looked up with narrowed eyes. “What do you think of when I mention Charity Ames of the La Mer?” he asked softly.

  Marlena shrugged. “Isn’t that the one holdout from implementing your grand plan for the Dos Pueblos Port Pier development?” she asked. “I know all the other restaurants and shops out there joined your Commercial Growth Organization, and you were so furious that the Ames woman wouldn’t even consider your offers.”

  “Exactly.”

  Marlena sank onto the corner of her desk, her pretty face puckered with worry. “Oh, Ross, what does it matter if one restaurant holds out? Just ignore the crazy woman. Remember how everything turned out with the Ojai project? It’s a masterpiece. All the business and architectural magazines have written it up. Dos Pueblos will be the same. Once your plan gets rolling, she’ll be begging to be involved.”

  “Maybe,” he said slowly, but he wasn’t really listening. He was thinking over his list of options as though he were flipping through the cards in a Rolodex.

  He knew he could go forward with the Dos Pueblos project without Charity Ames, but he was a man who didn’t like to lose. La Mer would always be a flaw in his scheme if she didn’t come around. He wanted her in, and he was ready to do what he had to do to make sure she joined.

  For a moment Marlena watched the process she knew so well, and then she leaned forward and waved a hand in front of his face. “Hello, anyone home?” she called.

  He looked up in surprise. “What?”

  “Remember me? I thought I was the one you came to see.”

  His frown told her he didn’t appreciate having his thoughts interrupted, which was just what she’d expected. Slipping off the desk, she took the face of her younger brother between her two hands and smiled sadly down into it.

  “When was the last time you spent an entire day without thinking about business?” she asked. “Ross Carrington, you’re almost forty and you might as well be eighty-two. You never have any fun. You never do anything silly just for the hell of it. You take life much too seriously, darling, and you’re not even listening to me now, are you?”

  Ross stared at her blankly, his mind miles away.

  Her laugh was rueful as she rumpled his hair. “Oh, well, come on, let’s go to lunch. I can talk. You can ignore me. We’ll have a marvelous time.”

  Ross seemed to see her at last.

  “Oh. Sorry, Marlena. I can’t have lunch today. I don’t have time.” He rose, patted her absently and started for the door. “Charity Ames has asked me to be her husband,” he called back, shrugging, his face still furrowed in thought. “And I guess I’m going to do it. I’m on my way over there now.”

  Marlena made a strangled, gurgling sound, but no real words came out.

  He left the office, whistling as he went down the hall to the elevator. He’d never been a husband before and he wasn’t sure just what was involved, but he was ready to try. The Ames holdout had been a thorn in his side for too long. He had a growing conviction that if he played this one just right, he was about to pluck it out.

  “Well, I don’t know.”

  Mason Ames shook his elegantly shaggy head of hair doubtfully as he gazed about the room from his vantage point on the long sectional couch. Sunlight was streaming in through the high windows, but there was still an air of gloom and doom to the place.

  “Maybe if you took a blowtorch to your entire apartment you could convince Aunt Doris you’d had a fire and were now in the midst of repairs. I don’t see any other hope for it.”

  Charity Ames threw herself down on the other end of the couch and glared at her brother. “Don’t make fun of my decorating,” she said. “It looked great when I first did it.”

  Mason laughed and rolled off the couch to sit cross-legged on the floor. “I don’t mean to be snide, Char, but that must have been a long, long time ago.”

  Charity looked around the room at the elongated paintings and the tall, contorted sculpture of a strange human form in the corner. The couch was low and formless, and huge pillows served as chairs on the other side of the slab of deep azure marble that formed her coffee table.

  “I was in the middle of my blue period then,”
she said with dreamy remembrance. “I was searching for meaning, searching for goals. That’s why everything’s done up in long lines and indigo.” She sighed. “Looks kind of bleak now, doesn’t it?”

  “Kind of,” he said with emphasis. “Am I to take it that you’re over that lost, melancholy stuff?”

  “Oh, yes.” Charity smiled at her sibling, and when she smiled, her dark eyes could light up a room. “I’ve got the restaurant now. It’s filled my life. And I know what I want now, where I’m going.” She laughed softly. “I guess you could call this my in-the-pink phase.”

  Mason groaned, closing his eyes and grimacing. “Just don’t let it show in any new color schemes you might be dreaming up,” he advised. “Happiness is one thing. Frothy pink walls is another.”

  “No pink,” she promised. “But what exactly am I going to do? I don’t really have time for an overhaul before Aunt Doris gets here.”

  Mason shrugged, leaning against the couch. He had an inborn facility for relaxing that reminded Charity of a cat. Mason could fall asleep anywhere, and if she didn’t watch out, he’d do it now.

  “Come on,” she urged, nudging him with her foot. “After all, you’re the one who got me into this predicament.”

  He raised both hands in the air, palms open. “Mea culpa,” he acknowledged. “I did make up that story about you being happily married. But I never dreamed the dear old girl would make a run out here to see for herself.”

  “Neither did I, or I would have told her the truth from the start.” Charity sighed. “But once you’d told her, it seemed so harmless to just let the story stick....”

  “You should have contradicted me right away,” Mason said with innocent aplomb that made Charity want to hit him with a pillow. “Everybody knows what a flake I am. She wouldn’t have thought twice.” His grin was wicked. “But once you’d acquiesced, the tale might as well have been written in stone.”