Carter Bravo's Christmas Bride

Carter Bravo's Christmas Bride
Christine Rimmer

Compatible? Check. Chemistry? Check. Love? Check…mate!When Carter Bravo decides it’s time to settle down this Christmas, the once-burned, no-strings-attached hunk chooses the one woman who isn’t looking to be swept off her feet. Not only does his business partner and best buddy, Paige Kettleman, say yes–the chemistry sizzling between them is further proof that she’s his ideal mate.Carter’s no-nonsense proposition isn’t exactly the romantic proposal Paige dreamed about under the mistletoe. After five years of building a business and sharing confidences, her dearest friend still has no idea how she really feels about him. If he did, he’d go running for the Colorado hills. Unless Paige can show Carter how to turn a test-run engagement into the real thing: a holiday wedding with all the trimmings–including love!

“No way.”

“Carter. Come on, think about it. Really think about it. What if it doesn’t work out? What if … one of us falls in love and the other doesn’t?” What if one of us is already in love? “What if it ends up destroying our friendship, our partnership, everything? Then what?”

He just wouldn’t listen. “That’s not going to happen.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Yes, I can. Nobody’s falling in love. That’s the beauty of it. We know who we are with each other. We’re going to have a great life together, Paige, a happy life. That falling-in-love crap isn’t going to happen to us.”

But it’s already happened to me.

* * *

The Bravos of Justice Creek: Where bold hearts collide under Western skies

Carter Bravo’s

Christmas Bride

Christine Rimmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at www.christinerimmer.com (http://www.christinerimmer.com).

For my dear friend Carol Sue Ell,

who loves books as much as I do

and is always ready with a kind word.

Thanks for the smiles, Carol Sue,

and for making every day just a little bit brighter.

Contents

Cover (#u976f28c4-7b4f-5e5e-83fd-8fd762dc1e94)

Introduction (#u175fc703-650c-59a1-96ca-aed0f91e2fd7)

Title Page (#u863e7161-9dd8-5bf3-a0f2-73bcd4934034)

About the Author (#u4d81940a-51b7-5420-8c0a-c380506b0f15)

Dedication (#u07602375-407e-51f6-8c1e-425c49ff12ef)

Chapter One (#u3267993e-81aa-5bae-af5b-ba4cd1a77e29)

Chapter Two (#u06ada2f1-a14e-5299-becd-8cb5d7e56c24)

Chapter Three (#ueaadab02-eb1c-5a78-a853-9bbb853e1998)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_819461c9-07cc-5e95-861a-aba8c57f7b63)

It all started three days before Thanksgiving with a silly magazine quiz.

Paige Kettleman and her best friend and business partner, Carter Bravo, sat in the plush Denver offices of Leery International Drilling. They were waiting to meet with president and CEO Deacon Leery, who had already commissioned five big-ticket custom-redesigned cars from their company, Bravo Custom Cars.

Carter was getting fidgety. He spent most of his working life in old jeans and T-shirts, with his head stuck under the hood of one of his soon-to-be beautiful custom creations. He’d never enjoyed taking meetings.

But Deacon was a major customer. And Deacon liked Carter to come to his gorgeous office and listen to him ramble on about classic cars for a while before getting around to the dream ride he wanted Carter to build for him next. As far as Deacon was concerned, Paige didn’t really even need to be there. But she ran the business end of Bravo Custom Cars. She always went along to visit Deacon for that special moment when they started talking money.

Carter had already taken off his sport coat and tossed it across the back of his chair. Now he sat forward, elbows on his spread knees. He braced his square jaw on his big fist and tapped his booted foot impatiently.

Paige watched him and tried not to grin.

He sent her a quick, challenging glance. “So what? I hate sitting around. That’s a crime?”

She stifled a chuckle. “Who said a word about crimes?”

He grunted. “Smug. You know you are. Sitting there all cool and calm in your preppy little suit, tap-tap-tapping on your tablet.”