A wedding dilemma:
What should a sexy, successful bachelor do if hes too busy making millions to find a wife? Or if he finds the perfect woman, and just has to strike a bridal bargain.
The perfect proposal:
The solution? For better, for worse, these grooms in a hurry have decided to sign, seal and deliver the ultimate marriage contractto buy a bride!
His Hired Bride by Susan Fox
#3848
Jessica Steele lives in a friendly Worcestershire village in England with her super husband, Peter. They are owned by a gorgeous Staffordshire bullterrier called Florence, who is boisterous and manic, but also adorable. It was Peter who first prompted Jessica to try writing and, after the first rejection, encouraged her to keep on trying. Luckily, with the exception of Uruguay, she has so far managed to research inside all the countries in which she has set her books, traveling to places as far apart as Siberia and Egypt. Her thanks go to Peter for his help and encouragement.
Jessica Steeles classic love stories will whisk you into a world of pure romantic excitement. Get ready to be swept off your feet by perfect English gentlemen!
Books by Jessica Steele
HARLEQUIN ROMANCE®
#3720A PROFESSIONAL MARRIAGE
#3741AN ACCIDENTAL ENGAGEMENT
#3763A PAPER MARRIAGE
#3787HER BOSSS MARRIAGE AGENDA
#3824A PRETEND ENGAGEMENT
Vacancy: Wife of Convenience
Jessica Steele
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER ONE
SHE had first seen him at her fathers funeral, and had not expected to see him again. But here he was standing in front of her, tall, as she remembered, dark-haired and somewhere in his middle thirties.
Colly had not had the chance then to learn who he was; her stepmother of two years, only five years older than her, had monopolised him as they stood at the crematorium after the service. Do come back to the house for some refreshment, Colly had clearly heard Nanette urge.
He had suavely declined, looked as if he might come over to Colly to offer his condolences, but she had been buttonholed by someone else and had turned away. He spoke to her now, though, apologising that Mr Blakethe man she was at the Livingstone building to seewas unfortunately incapacitated that day.
Silas Livingstone, he introduced himself. She had not known his name; he obviously knew hers. If you could hang on here for ten minutes, Ill be free to interview you in his stead.
Would you rather I made another appointment? She would prefer not to do that. She was nervous enough about this interview as it was, and was unsure if she would ever have the nerve to come back.
Not at all, he replied pleasantly. Ill see you in a short while, he added, and was already on his way to the adjoining office.
Would you like me to wait elsewhere? Colly asked the smart, somewhere in her late thirties PA, who appeared to be handling at least three tasks at one and the same time.
Better not, Ellen Rothwell replied with a kind smile. Mr Livingstone has a busy day. Now that hes found a slot for you, hell want you to be where he expects you to be.
Colly smiled in return but decided to say nothing more. She found it embarrassing enough as it was that apparently, so Ellen Rothwell had explained, Vernon Blakes present secretary had phoned around all the other applicants to cancel todays appointments. But, on phoning Collys home at the start of business that day, had been informed that she was out and that there was no way of contacting her.
She had known that her stepmother had a spiteful streak. To deliberately refuse to call her to the phone when she had been in all the time only endorsed that fact.
Colly held back a sigh and tried to direct her thoughts to the forthcoming interview. Vernon Blake was the European Director at Livingstone Developments, and was looking for a replacement multilingual senior secretary. The salary advertised was phenomenal and, since Nanette wanted her to move out, would, if Colly were lucky enough to get the job, enable her to rent somewhere to live and be independent.
That had been her thinking at the time of spotting the advert. Never again would she be dependent on anyone. She had read the advert again. Multilingual senior secretary. What was so difficult about that? She could, after all, type. And, though a little rusty with her languages, she had at one time excelled in French and Italian, and had scraped through with a pass mark in Spanish and German. So what else did a multilingual secretary need?
Watching Ellen Rothwell expertly deal with telephone calls, take notes in rapid shorthand and then calmly and charmingly sort out what seemed to be some sort of a problem, Colly realised that there was a lot else to being a secretary. And what experience of being a secretary did she have? Absolutely none!
She almost got up then, made her excuses, and bolted. Then she remembered why she wanted this job that paid so much. Very soon she would be homeless. And she, who had never had paid work in her life, desperately needed some kind of well-paid employment.
It hurt that her father had left his will the way that he had. His twenty-eight-year-old widow had inherited everything; his daughter nothing. He had a perfect right to leave his money and property to whoever he cared to, of course. But she, his only child, his housekeeper since the last one had walked out seven years ago, was now about to lose the only home she had ever known. Not that it felt like home any more.
Colly had been little short of staggered when, just over two years ago now, her dour, often grumpy parent had gone all boyish over the new receptionist at his club.
The first Colly had got to suspect that he was seeing someone was when hed suddenly started to take an interest in his appearance. Shed been glad for him. Her mother had died when Colly was eighthe had been unhappy for far too long.
Her pleasure for him had been tinged with dismay, though, when a short while later he had brought the blonde Nanette homeNanette was about forty years his junior! Ive been so longing to meet you! the blonde twenty-six-year-old had trilled. Joey has told me such a lot about you.
Joey! Her staid father, Joseph, was Joey! For his sake, Colly smiled and made her welcome and tried not to see the way Nanettes eyes swept round the room taking inventory of anything valuable.
Had Colly secretly hoped that her father would still be as happy when Nanette backed away from whatever sort of relationship they had, then she was again staggered when, far from the relationship ending, Nanette showed her the magnificent emerald ring Joseph Gillingham had bought her, and declared, Were getting married!
For the moment speechless, Colly managed to find the words to congratulate them. But when, adjusting to the idea that Nanette was to be mistress of her home, Colly mentioned that she would find a place of her own, neither her father nor Nanette would hear of it.
Id be absolutely hopeless at housekeeping, Nanette twittered. Oh, you must stay on to be housekeeper, she cooed. Mustnt she, darling?
Of course you must, Joseph Gillingham agreed, the most jovial Colly had ever seen him. Naturally Ill continue to pay you your allowance, he added, with a sly look to his intended, making it obvious to Colly that her allowancenot huge by any means and which, with increasing prices, went to supplement the housekeepinghad been discussed by them.
The whole of it left her feeling most uncomfortable. So much so that she did go so far as to make enquiries about renting accommodation somewhere. She was left reeling at the rent demanded for even the most poky of places.
So she stayed home. And her father and Nanette married. And over the next few months her fathers new kitten showedwhen her husband was not aroundthat she had some vicious claws when things were not going quite her way. But she otherwise remained sweet and adoring to her husband.
Living in the same house, Colly could not help but be aware that Nanette had a very sneaky way with her. And within a very short space of time Colly was beginning to suspect that her new stepmother was not being true to her Joey. That Nanette plainly preferred male company to female company was not a problem to Colly. What was a problem, however, was that too often she would answer the phone to have some male voice enquire, Nanette? or even, Hello, darling.
It isnt Nanette, she would answer.
Silence, then either, Ill call back, or, Wrong number.
Colly could not avoid knowing that Nanette was having an affair when some months later she answered the phone to hear an oversexed voice intimately begin, Who was the wicked creature who left me with just her earrings beneath my pillow to remind me of heaven?
Colly slammed down the phone. This was just too much. Nanette, who was presently out shopping, had, so she had said, been out consoling a grief-stricken girlfriend until late last night.
When a half-hour later Nanette returned from her shopping trip Colly was in no mind to keep that phone call to herself. The earrings you wore last night are beneath his pillow! she informed her shortly.
Oh, good, Nanette replied, not in the slightest taken aback to have been found out.
Dont you care? Colly felt angry enough to enquire.
Nanette placed her carriers down. What about?
My father
What about him?
Colly opened her mouth; Nanette beat her to it.
You wont tell him, she jibed confidently.
Why wont I?
Is he unhappy?
He wasnt. Never a very cheerful man, he seemed, since knowing and marrying this woman, to have had a personality transplant. Hes in cloud-cukoo-land! Colly replied.
Nanette picked up her clothes carriers. Tell him if you wish, she challenged, entirely uncaring. Ive alreadytearfullytold him that I dont think you like me. Guess which one of us hes going to believe?
Colly very much wanted to tell her father what was going on, but found that she could not. Not for herself and the probability that, as Nanette so confidently predicted, he would not believe her, but because he was, in essence, a much happier man.
So, awash with guilt for not telling him, but hoping that he would not blame her too much when, as he surely must, he discovered more of the true character of the woman he had married, Colly stayed quiet.
A year passed and her father still adored his wife. So clearly Nanette was playing a very clever game and he had no idea that his wife had a penchant for flitting from affair to affair.
That was untilabout six months before his sudden totally unexpected and fatal heart attackColly first saw him looking at Nanette with a little less than an utter doting look in his eyes.
He appeared only marginally less happy than he had been, though, but did during his last months spend more time in his study than he had since his marriage.
Her father had been a design engineer of some note and, though in the main largely retired, she knew from the top executives and first-class engineers who occasionally called at the house to pick his brains that he was highly thought of by others in his specialised field.
And then, completely without warning, he died. Colly, in tremendous shock, could not believe it. She questioned the doctor, and he gravely told her that her father had suffered massive heart failure and that nothing would have saved him.
She was still in shock the next day, when Nanette sought her out to show her the will she had found when sorting through Joseph Gillinghams papers. It was dated a month after his marriage, and Colly soon realised that Nanette had been more looking for his will than sorting through, especially when, triumphantly, Nanette declared, What a little pet! Hes left me everything! And, without any attempt to look sorry, Oh, poor you, she added. Hes left you nothing.
That was another shock. Not that she had expected to be left anything in particular. Naturally Nanette, as his wife, if she were still his wife by then, would be his main heir. Colly realised she must have assumed her father would go on for ever; he was only sixty-eight, after all. And while he was not enormously wealthy, his income from some wise investing many years before was quite considerable.
It was two days after her fathers death that Colly received a fresh shock when Nanette barged into her bedroom to coldly inform her, Naturally youll be finding somewhere else to live.
Somehow, and Colly hardly knew how she managed it, she hid the fresh assault of shock that hit her to proudly retort, NaturallyI wouldnt dream of staying on here.
Good! Nanette sniffed. You can stay until after the funeral, then I want you out. And, having delivered that ultimatum, she turned about and went from whence she came.
Feeling stunned, Colly couldnt think straight for quite some minutes. She had no idea what she would do, but heartily wished her uncle Henry were there to advise her.