Second Chance with the CEO

by Anna DePalo

  “You’re marrying a construction guy.”

  “Are you proposing?”

  He twined his fingers with hers and raised her hand to his lips. “Damn right.”

  “I’m ratting you out, Cole, and this time I don’t care who finds out.” Her voice grew husky with emotion. “I’m telling everyone that you confessed your undying love for me. That you proposed!”

  He kissed her. “You forgot he can’t keep his hands off me, he talks dirty to me, and he gets hard just thinking about me.”

  “That’s right.”

  “I’m in love with you.”

  “Good to know. I love you, too.”

  She sighed, and he kissed her again.

  Epilogue

  If they pulled this off, it would be Cole’s biggest prank ever.

  Leave it to her soon-to-be husband to involve her in the ultimate practical joke. Around her, guests mingled while waitstaff circulated with hors d’oeuvres. Everyone was unaware of what was to come next.

  Marisa rubbed nervous palms on her column dress and then brushed aside the curls of hair that caressed her naked shoulders. As she did so, the diamond ring on her finger caught and reflected the light of the chandelier in the main ballroom of the Welsdale Golf & Tennis Club.

  At the dais, Cole cleared his throat and called for attention, wineglass in hand. When everyone quieted, he said, “Thank you for joining us tonight. Marisa and I wanted to throw a big party to celebrate our engagement, so there are over two hundred of you here. Big love, big party—”

  There was a smattering of laughter and applause.

  Cole straightened his tie. “As some of you know, Marisa and I have had more excitement on the way to the altar than most people witness in an NHL game.”

  Their guests grinned and laughed.

  “I had a crush on her in high school.” He paused. “And I know what you all are thinking. Pershing’s super jock and practical joker thought he had a chance with the beautiful, smart girl who sat in front of him in economics class? She had a mind and a body that turned him into brainless teenage mush.”

  Marisa swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat.

  Cole shrugged. “So I did the only logical thing. I hid how I felt and told no one. Flash forward fifteen years. I got lucky when my fantasy woman skated onto my rink again. This time I knew I wasn’t going to let her get away. I asked her to marry me.”

  Marisa blinked rapidly. Everything Cole had said was true, and yet, he’d cast it in a light that she’d never seen before.

  Cole extended his arm. “Marisa, I love you.”

  A path opened for Marisa as people stepped aside. On shaky legs, she walked toward Cole, who gazed at her with love in his eyes. She placed her hand in his, and raising the skirt of her dress with the other she stepped up onto the dais.

  Their friends and family hooted and clapped.

  “That was quite a speech,” she murmured for Cole’s ears only. “I nearly ruined my makeup.”

  He grinned. “You would have looked gorgeous for the photos anyway.”

  “You’re blinded by love.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way, sweet pea.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips before turning back to their audience, keeping his hand linked with hers.

  “Save the PDA for the honeymoon,” Jordan called from the side of the room, to much laughter.

  “Thanks for the great lead-in,” Cole answered. “Because Marisa and I are getting married. Tonight. Right now.”

  There were audible gasps, and people looked at each other.

  The officiant she and Cole had chosen stepped forward from the side of the room.

  “Surprise,” Cole announced, and then he pulled Marisa into his embrace for another kiss.

  When Cole had first suggested the idea of a surprise wedding, Marisa had thought he was kidding, but she couldn’t have asked for anything more. She felt like a bride in every sense. She’d paired an embroidered lace-and-ivory gown with high-heeled gold sandals. And of course, she’d marry Cole anytime, anywhere.

  There was a flurry of activity as their guests allowed themselves to be shepherded out of the ballroom and into one that had been secretly set up for a wedding ceremony. A photographer would be documenting the festivities, and a florist waited nearby to hand Marisa a tightly packed bouquet of white roses.

  Marisa felt her heart swell, and then caught Cole’s grin. Suddenly struck with an idea, she bit back a mischievous smile.

  “Oh, Cole, this has been so overwhelming. I think... I think...” She closed her eyes and pretended to swoon melodramatically.

  Cole wrapped strong arms around her. “Marisa?”

  She opened her eyes and said teasingly, “I’ll be falling into your embrace for the rest of our lives.”

  Cole grinned. “I’ll always be here to catch you.”

  And they sealed their bargain with a kiss.

  * * * * *

  If you liked this novel, pick up these other sexy reads from Anna DePalo

  HAVING THE TYCOON’S BABY

  UNDER THE TYCOON’S PROTECTION

  TYCOON TAKES REVENGE

  CAPTIVATED BY THE TYCOON

  AN IMPROPER AFFAIR

  CEO’S MARRIAGE SEDUCTION

  HIS BLACK SHEEP BRIDE

  ONE NIGHT WITH PRINCE CHARMING

  IMPROPERLY WED

  All available now from Harlequin Desire!

  ***

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE RANCHER’S ONE-WEEK WIFE by Kathie DeNosky.

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  The Rancher’s One-Week Wife

  by Kathie DeNosky

  One

  Blake Hartwell shook his head in disgust when he heard the low-slung sports car bottom out in first one, then another of the many potholes pitting the dirt lane leading up to the foreman’s cottage. As he brushed the sorrel gelding he’d tied to the side of the corral, he decided right then and there that whoever was behind the steering wheel of that little red toy couldn’t be from the area. Folks in rural Wyoming had better sense than to drive a vehicle that sat that low on unpaved mountain roads. It was a surefire way to knock a hole in the oil pan or tear up the exhaust system on a car.

  “Whoever he is, he’d better be prepared to hitch a ride on the back of an antelope if he breaks do
wn because I’m not driving his fool hide back to town,” Blake muttered as he glanced at the afternoon sun sinking toward the taller peaks to the west.

  The car stopped at the side of the foreman’s cottage next to Blake’s truck. When the driver’s door opened, a leggy blonde stepped out, causing his heart to stall and the breath to lodge in his lungs.

  Blake clenched the grooming brush he’d been using on Boomer so tightly he wouldn’t have been surprised if he left his fingerprints in the wood. He swallowed hard as he watched her walk toward the corral as fast as her spiked heels would allow on the uneven ground.

  Slender and sleek in her formfitting black dress, her delicate body moved much like a jungle panther on the prowl. Blake’s lower body tightened and he wasn’t sure if it was in response to the sight of her now, or the memory of how those long legs felt wrapped around him when they made love.

  “Aw, hell,” he cursed under his breath. “What does she want?”

  Boomer stamped one of his front hooves, then looked over his shoulder as if to ask if Blake knew her.

  Reminding himself to exhale, Blake released the breath he’d been holding and went back to brushing the gelding’s rust-colored hide. He knew her all right. Back in December, he’d met Karly Ewing in Las Vegas. She’d been on vacation from her job—whatever that was—and he’d been in town to compete in the national bull-riding finals. He’d accidently bumped into her in the lobby at Caesar’s Palace and barely managed to catch her before she fell. As a way of apologizing for his carelessness, he’d convinced her to let him buy her a drink. They’d ended up talking for hours and the chemistry between them had been explosive. By the end of the day they’d been lovers. By the end of the week they’d been husband and wife. And one week after that, they’d been filing for a divorce.

  When she stopped a few feet from the horse, she looked a little uncertain, as if she wasn’t sure what kind of reception she’d get from him. “H-hello, Blake.”

  Her voice flowed over him like a fine piece of silk and reminded him of the way it had sounded when she’d said his name as he pleasured her. Blake gritted his teeth against the heat building in his lower belly and continued to brush Boomer.

  He wasn’t about to let her get to him. Not again. It had taken months after that fateful phone call on New Year’s Eve, when she told him she wanted a divorce, for him to get a decent night’s sleep. If possible, he’d just as soon avoid repeating that.

  She’d made the choice to end things between them and although he hadn’t agreed with her, he had accepted it. The way he saw it, there wasn’t anything they hadn’t already covered and there was no sense in rehashing it now.

  “What brings you to the Wolf Creek Ranch, Karly?” Without waiting for an answer, he added, “Eight months ago you weren’t even willing to come here to see it. In fact, you said you weren’t the least bit interested in learning anything about the backside of no-man’s-land.”

  As long as he lived, he would never forget the sting of her rejection, or her scorn for the land he loved. The ranch had been in his family for the past hundred and fifty years and he’d spent the majority of his adult life trying to get it back from his gold-digging stepmother after his father’s death. He’d finally accomplished that goal almost two years ago and once he’d made Karly his wife, he’d been looking forward to showing her the place that he was proud to call home. But she hadn’t cared enough about him or it to even see the place before she refused to live there with him.

  Meeting her startled gaze head-on, he did his best to ignore the effect she had on him whenever he looked into her incredible blue eyes. “Why the sudden interest in a place you had no desire to learn anything about?”

  Color rose on her cheeks and it seemed as if she might be slightly embarrassed. “I, um, I’m sorry if I left you with the wrong impression, Blake. It’s not that I didn’t think the ranch would be beautiful...”

  When her voice trailed off as she looked around, Blake stopped grooming the gelding and rested his forearms on the gentle animal’s broad back to give her an expectant look. “Then what was it?”

  As he stared at her, awaiting an answer, a slight breeze fluttered her long, honey-colored hair and reminded him how the silky strands had felt when he’d threaded his fingers through them as he kissed her. His body came to full arousal and he was damn glad the horse stood between them. At least she wouldn’t be able to see the evidence of how he still burned for her.

  Turning back to face him, her eyes couldn’t quite meet his. “I’ve always lived in the city and I was...” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “What are you doing here, Karly?” Seeing her again was heaven and hell rolled into one neat little bundle, and the sooner she laid her cards on the table and went back to Seattle, the sooner he could get back to the business of trying to forget her.

  When she took a deep breath, he did his best to ignore the rise and fall of her perfect breasts. “We need to talk, Blake.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know what you think we need to discuss now. We pretty much covered everything that needed to be said eight months ago. I wanted you to give us a chance to make our marriage work. You didn’t want that. End of story.”

  “Please, Blake.” She took a step back when Boomer blew out a gentle breath through his nose and turned his head to gaze at her. Looking a little apprehensive, she continued. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. Could we please go somewhere we can sit down and talk? I promise I won’t take up too much of your time.”

  Blake sighed heavily. It was clear she wasn’t going anywhere until she’d said her piece. And truth to tell, he did need to talk to her. He hadn’t yet received a copy of their divorce papers and he needed them for his records.

  “The door’s open,” he finally said, motioning toward the foreman’s cottage. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be in as soon as I put Boomer in his stall for the night.”

  She opened her mouth as if she intended to say something more, then with a short nod she turned on her black spiked heels and slowly walked toward the back porch. Watching the gentle sway of her slender hips as she navigated the hard-packed, uneven ground in those ridiculous shoes, Blake shifted his weight from one foot to the other in an effort to relieve the pressure in his now too-tight jeans. He’d spent the past eight months trying to forget how her soft curves had felt beneath his hands and how her kisses were the sweetest this side of heaven. Seeing her here—where he’d wanted her—was bringing back all the memories he thought he’d left behind.

  Shaking his head, he untied the gelding’s lead rope from the top fence rail. He had no idea what she thought they needed to discuss, but if it had brought her from Seattle all the way to his remote ranch in Wyoming, it had to be pretty damn important.

  Leading Boomer into the barn, he decided to get this meeting over with as soon as possible. Then, after he watched Karly drive off his land and away from him for good, he had every intention of getting his brother, Sean, to come over from his ranch on the other side of the mountain and go with him to the Silver Dollar Bar in the tiny community of Antelope Junction. Sean could be the designated driver, while Blake finally finished the job of forgetting he’d ever met the petite blonde who’d turned his world upside down from the moment he’d laid eyes on her.

  * * *

  Karly opened the back door to Blake’s home and walked into the kitchen on shaky legs. It had taken every ounce of courage she possessed to face him again, and although she had thought she’d put their brief relationship in perspective and moved on, his effect on her had been no less devastating today than it had been eight months ago, when she’d agreed to become his wife.

  Blake was every bit as handsome, every bit as masculine and even sexier than she’d remembered. With wide shoulders, narrow hips and long muscular legs, he had a physique women drooled over and men spent endless hours in a gym trying to attain. But the steely muscles covering his tall frame had been honed from years of ranch work and
competing in rodeos, not from lifting weights or working out on fitness machines. He was the real deal—the epitome of every woman’s cowboy fantasy, and then some.

  That was something she hadn’t even realized she possessed until they ran into each other in Las Vegas. But when he caught her to him to keep her from falling, all it had taken was one look at the cowboy holding her to his wide chest and she’d come close to melting into a puddle at his big-booted feet.

  A delicious little shiver slid up her spine when she remembered how it had felt to be held in his strong arms, to taste the passion of his masterful kiss and experience the power of his desire as he made love to her. Her breathing grew shallow and her heart sped up. She forced herself to ignore it.

  The hardest thing she’d ever done had been making the call to tell Blake she thought it would be in both of their best interest to call off their brief marriage. But when she had returned home, she’d thought about how little they knew about each other and she couldn’t think of a single thing they had in common besides not being able to keep their hands off of each other. Her breath caught and she had to swallow hard against the sudden wave of emotion threatening to overtake her.

  “Get a grip,” she admonished herself. “Nothing has changed. He lives here and you live in Seattle. It would have never worked.”

  To distract herself, she glanced around Blake’s neatly kept home. Even though the appliances were ultramodern, the rest of the kitchen appeared to be as rugged and masculine as the man who lived there.

  A wooden butcher-block island sat in the middle of the kitchen with a variety of copper bottom skillets, pots and pans hanging above it from a wrought-iron rack. The cabinets were a warm oak with hammered black hinges and door pulls; the countertop was polished blue marble. A wagon wheel suspended from the ceiling with old-fashioned-looking chimney lamps served as a chandelier over the round oak dining table, while the windows on the wall behind the dining area framed a panoramic view of the Laramie Mountains, which surrounded the ranch.