by Joanne Rock
She was going to have their marriage annulled. That was her plan. But she hadn’t recovered her voice yet from the crying. And she couldn’t deny she was curious.
“I have not been myself for the last twenty hours—ever since I learned about the way my father betrayed my mother. Let me just start by saying that much. I know that I upset you last night, but I was too caught up in the family drama to chase down why, and I regret that. Deeply.” He moved closer. “There is no McNeill more important to me than you. Not my brothers. Not my half brothers. And yes—there will be a difference for me until I meet the McNeill doppelgängers in person and decide what I think about them.”
She heard a big group of people coming down the path near the bench and wiped her eyes on the handkerchief, not wanting to look like a basket case. But her ears were closely attuned to what Ian was saying. She was surprised he’d come after her at all.
“I swear to you, I didn’t know Vitaly Koslov was going to drop the idea of a lawsuit when I proposed to you. I may have hit that angle hard to convince you to marry me, but I genuinely believed he would sue you. Cameron is working closely with Sofia on a new ballet video game, and he’s mentioned more than once that bit about suing Mallory West so Sofia could use the proceeds for a charity that helps bring art and dance to underfunded school systems.” Ian drew a breath, pausing as the large group of tourists walked past, led by a private tour guide still giving statistics about the Gapstow Bridge’s reconstruction.
The pause gave Lydia time to process. Sofia and Cameron were making a video game? Not for the first time, she wished she could have been a part of the family. A real part.
She’d never had that, always on the outside looking in.
“Anyhow, I had every reason to think Sofia’s father would make good on that threat until Quinn told me otherwise last night.” Beside her, Ian traced a flower on the hem of her dress where the fabric lay between them on the bench. That part of the full skirt didn’t touch her body, but still...
The small action felt intimate.
Her heart ached.
“I believe you,” she blurted before she’d even planned to speak. “That is, I already regret the way I didn’t hear you out about why you were on a matchmaking website last year. I was hasty and misjudged you then, and I’m not making that same mistake again.” If only that was the extent of their problems. She shifted beside him, finally daring to turn and face him. “But, Ian, you can’t deny that you deliberately put a time limit on our relationship. That you tied up our relationship with a contract because you had no interest in a real marriage.”
“A fail-safe,” he said simply. “I fell in love in Rangiroa, Lydia. I wanted you to marry me then and bought this ring a whole year ago.” He produced the yellow diamond from his pocket. “When you said you never wanted to see me again...it crushed me. But not so much that I pawned the ring.”
Her heart tripped over itself, and then lodged somewhere in her throat. She swallowed hard, her smile wobbly with love. And hope.
“You’ve had the ring—all that time?” It didn’t compute. Even when she’d been miscarrying alone? Even when he’d found her in Miami and maneuvered her into a fake marriage?
“Yes, although I have to confess, I couldn’t look at it for months.” He held it up to the sunlight and the smaller stones ringing the yellow diamond refracted light in a dazzling pattern. “But when I went to South Beach—a job I took specifically because I knew you were working there—I brought the ring with me and thought I’d see what happened.”
“But you wanted a contract. You said it was only temporary.” She thought back to that day on the rooftop of the Setai when it felt as if she had no options but to say yes to him.
“How many times could I risk breaking my heart on one woman? Or at least, that was the logic I used then.” He took her left hand in his and stroked over the finger where the ring once rested. “But after what we shared in Costa Rica, after having you fall asleep in my arms again, I knew that my heart is yours to break, Lydia. However many times it takes.”
Emotions swelled and burst inside her. She had to clutch a hand to her chest to keep them all in. But she couldn’t hold back a shocked gasp as he handed her the ring again.
And then he got down on one knee in front of the bench in Central Park for all the tourists to see.
“Will you marry me, Lydia? For real, and forever? I love you, and if you think you can love me, too, we can say our vows again in front of our family. All of them.” His lips curved in a smile more compelling than that gorgeous, one-of-a-kind diamond. “Even the Caribbean McNeills, if you want.”
She could sense people nearby stopping and staring. It was the first time in her life she didn’t mind being a spectacle.
“Yes.” A half cry, half laugh hiccupped out of her throat. She nodded fast. “Yes, Ian. I will marry you again and again. I’m far too in love with you to do anything else.”
All around them, people clapped. Whistled. Cheered. The whole tour that had passed them before had stopped to watch the Central Park proposal.
Lydia let Ian slide the ring onto her finger, and then hauled him up onto the bench to kiss him, not caring who saw.
When he stopped, he whispered in her ear, “You think your publicist will mind we didn’t clear this with her? I’m pretty sure there were some cameras around.”
“I’m returning to matchmaking,” she whispered back, her heart swelling with happiness. “I need to show I can at least get it right for myself.”
Ian leaned away to look in her eyes and cupped her cheek in his hand. “You just made your first customer the luckiest man on earth. If you want, I can give you a testimonial.”
She couldn’t withhold a grin. She traced a finger over his mouth and watched heat flare in his blue eyes. “I’d rather have an encore.”
To his credit, he didn’t hesitate.
* * * * *
If you loved this story, pick up these sexy, emotional stories in THE MCNEILL MAGNATES series from Joanne Rock!
THE MAGNATE’S MAIL-ORDER BRIDE
and
HIS ACCIDENTAL HEIR (Available June 2017)
and then don’t miss
HIS SECRETARY’S SURPRISE FIANCÉ
SECRET BABY SCANDAL
Available now from Harlequin Desire!
and
PROMISES UNDER THE PEACH TREE
NIGHTS UNDER THE TENNESSEE STARS
DANCES UNDER THE HARVEST MOON
Available now from Harlequin Superromance!
* * *
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Keep reading for an excerpt from TYCOON COWBOY’S BABY SURPRISE by Katherine Garbera.
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Tycoon Cowboy’s Baby Surprise
by Katherine Garbera
One
“Pack your bags, kid, we’re taking the show on the road,” Jacs Veerling said as she swept into Kinley Quinten’s office. The term was a stretch for the large workroom she shared with Willa Miller, the other wedding planner who worked for Jacs.
Jacs had the smarts of Madeleine Albright, the figure of Sofia Vergara and the business savvy of Estée Lauder. She was fifty but looked forty and had made her career out of planning bespoke weddings that were talked about in the media for years, even after the couples had split up. She wore her short hair in a bob, and the color changed from season to season. As it was summer, Jacs had just changed her color to a platinum blond that made her artic-blue eyes pop.
“Who’s going on the road? Both of us? All three of us?” Kinley asked. Based in the Chimera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, they did in-house weddings, but the bulk of their business came from destination weddings all over the world. Wherever their A-list clients wanted.
“Just you, Kin,” Jacs said. “I’ve inked a deal to plan the wedding of reformed NFL bad boy Hunter Caruthers. It’s taking place in your home state of Texas, and when I mentioned your name, he said he knew you. Slam dunk for us. I think that might be why he picked our company over one in Beverly Hills.”
Caruthers.
At least it was Hunter and not his brother Nate.
“I can’t.”
Willa abruptly ended her call with a client, saying she’d call back, and turned to Jacs, who gave Kinley one of her patented she-who-must-be-obeyed stares.
“What? I’m sure I heard that wrong.”
Kinley took a deep breath and put her hands on her desk, noticing that her manicure had chipped on her middle finger. But really she couldn’t help the panic rising inside her. She had no plans to return to Texas.
Ever.
“I can’t. It’s complicated and personal, so I really don’t want to go into it, but please send Willa instead.”
Jacs walked over and propped her hip on the edge of Kinley’s desk, which was littered with bridal gown catalogs and photos of floral arrangements. “He asked for you. Personally. That’s the only personal that matters to me. Will you die if you go to Texas?”
“No. Of course not.” Kinley just didn’t want to see Nate again. She didn’t even want to see her dad again in person. She was content with their weekly Skype chats. That was enough for her and for her two-year-old daughter, Penny.
“Is it because of your baby?” Jacs asked.
She’d told Kinley when she started that even though Jacs had made the decision to never have children herself, she understood that being a mom was an important role. She was very understanding about Kinley’s needs and had a generous child-care policy for their small office.
“Sort of. She has just really settled into the day care here at the casino. Is it just a weekend trip?”
“Uh, no. I said pack your bags. You’re going to be out there for the duration. That means six months. I’m taking on two more clients in Texas—one is a Dallas Cowboy and the other plays basketball for San Antonio. I think you’ll have plenty to keep you busy.”
“Where would I stay?” Kinley asked, realizing there was no way to get out of the trip.
“I’ve rented a house in a nice subdivision...something called the Five Families. What an odd name,” Jacs said.
“Is there anything I can say that will make you change your mind?” Kinley finally asked.
“Not really,” Jacs said. “The client wants you, and you really have no reason not to go, do you?”
Yes. Nate Caruthers. The man who’d rocked her world for one passion-filled weekend, fathered her child and then interrupted her when she called later with that important news, telling her what happened in Vegas needed to stay there. He was her new client’s older brother and still lived on the family’s ranch outside Cole’s Hill. But she didn’t want to tell Jacs any of that. And she wasn’t prepared to lose her job over it.
The only thing that was vaguely reassuring was that Nate would be too busy running the Rockin’ C Ranch to be all that involved in wedding planning.
Fingers crossed.
“No reason. When do I need to start?” Kinley asked.
“Monday. I’m having Lori take care of all the details. You’ll fly out on Friday, so you have time to settle in over the weekend. I’ve even included your nanny in the travel plans. Keep me posted,” Jacs said as she turned on her heel and walked out of the office.
Kinley glanced down at the framed picture of Penny on her desk and felt her stomach tighten. After that disastrous call to Nate, she’d vowed not to allow him to let Penny down the way her own father had let her down. She just hoped that promise would be easy to keep once she was back in Cole’s Hill. All she had to do was avoid Nate. Surely she could handle that except in this town she knew it would be impossible.
* * *
Nate Caruthers was a little bit hungover as he pulled his F-150 into the five-minute parking outside the Cole’s Hill First National Bank. He reached for his sunglasses as he downed the last of his Red Bull before getting out of the cab of his truck. His younger brother was back in town, and that had called for a celebration that had lasted until the wee hours of the morning.
He tried the door on the bank, but it was locked. He leaned against the brick wall and pulled his hat down over his eyes to wait the five minutes until it opened.
“Nate? Nate Caruthers?”
The voice was straight out of his past and one of his hottest weekends ever. He pushed the Stetson he had tilted to cover his eyes back with his thumb and looked over.
Kinley Quinten.
He whistled.
She’d changed. Again. Wearing some kind of lacy-looking white dress that ended midthigh and left her arms bare, she looked sophisticated. Not like the party girl he’d spent that weekend with almost three years ago in Vegas. His gaze followed the curve of her legs, ending at a pair of impossibly high heels. She looked like she’d stepped out of one of his mom’s Neiman Marcus catalogs.
There may have been five years between them but none of that had mattered since he’d seen her in Vegas. She’d been twenty-three and he’d been twenty-eight.
“Eyes up here, buddy,” she said.
He straightened from the wall and gave her a slow grin that many women had told them would get him out of any tight spot as he walked toward her. “Sorry, ma’am. Wasn’t expecting you to look so good.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” she asked, opening her large purse and pulling out a pair of dark sunglasses, which she immediately put on.
“How could it not be? I guess the men in California must be blind if you’re not sure.”
She crossed her arms under her breasts. “I live in Las Vegas.”
“Really? Since when? I thought you were only there to celebrate graduating from college,” he said. “You should let me buy you a coffee after I’m done at the bank and we can catch up.”
“Catch up? I don’t think so. I’m in town for business, Nate,” she said. “Plus, I think we said all that needed saying two years ago.”
The door next to him opened with a gush of cold air-conditioning, and Kinley gestured for him to go first, but he shook his head. “Ladies first.”
She huffed and walked past him.
He watched her move, her hips swaying with each of her determined steps. She probably wouldn’t appreciate his attention, but he noticed that Stewart, the bank manager, was watching her, too.
Nate got in line behind her to wait for the cashier.
“I’m sorry I was such a douche on the phone. Can we please have coffee?” he asked. His mom always said, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” and he wanted Kinley. Or at least to spend a little more time flirting with her before he headed back to the ranch.
She sighed. “One coffee, and then that’s it. Okay?”
“Why will that be it?” he asked. “Maybe you’ll want to see me again.”
He grinned at her, and she shook her head. “I won’t have time. I’m here for business.”
“What business?” he asked. “Are you working at the NASA facility out on the Bar T?”
“No. I’m a wedding planner. I’m here to plan Hunter’s wedding,” she said.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Yes, you will be,” she said. An emotion passed over her face but too quickly for him to interpret it.
The cashier signaled Kinley over, and Nate stood where he was and observed her. She’d changed more than just her wardrobe, he realized. There was a core of strength that he hadn’t noticed in her when they’d spent the weekend together. Maybe that was because they’d both been focused on having fun.
She concluded her business, and Nate stepped up to do his. He talked with Maggie, the cashier who’d been working the opening shift since before Nate had been born. When he was done, he looked around and noticed that Kinley was waiting for him by the exit.
She had her smartphone in her hand and was tapping out a message to someone. She’d pushed her sunglasses up on her head and was concentrating as she typed. She looked so serious.
He wondered what had happened in her life in the last three years and then realized he really had no right to find out. He’d ended their affair because her dad worked for his family and Nate wasn’t really big on monogamy or commitment.
