The Billionaire's Bride

The Billionaire's Bride
Jackie Braun

Marnie LaRue has come to the balmy beaches of Mexico for some rest and relaxation, but it's the man in the neighboring hacienda–handsome, intelligent, mysterious JT–who makes her laugh and want and feel more than she has in a long time….Little does JT know that Marnie's actually a widow and mother of a little boy. Nor does she have any clue that he's a high-powered billionaire businessman. This amazing holiday romance was a delicious escape from reality–but can a relationship founded on secrets survive in the real world…? JT is determined it will–with Marnie as his bride…

Forget the sexy, wind-tossed blond hair, stubble of sandy beard and well-muscled arms. What really had her mouth watering was what he held in his hand.

“Is that coffee?”

He drank deeply before replying, apparently having noted the reverence in her tone. “Yes, it is.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have more of it?”

“An entire pot. Just made it before I came out for my morning walk.” He sipped it again. “Ground the beans myself.”

She couldn’t help it. A soft moan escaped her lips. He raised his eyebrows when he heard it, but he made no comment.

“I don’t suppose you’re feeling neighborly?”

He smiled, and Marnie told herself it was only the promise of caffeine that had her pulse shooting off like a bottle rocket.

Certainly, it wasn’t the more than six feet of gorgeous man standing five yards in front of her.

Jackie Braun began making up stories even before she could write them down, but she followed her dad’s advice and earned a college degree so she could get a “day job.” She worked as a journalist for seventeen years, eleven of those years as an editorial writer at a daily newspaper, before finally quitting to make fiction her full-time career. She is a former RITA® Award and National Readers’ Choice finalist, and past winner of the Rising Star Award in traditional romance. She lives with her husband, Mark, and their son, Daniel, in Flushing, Michigan.

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The Billionaire’s Bride

Jackie Braun

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

For my sisters Donna, Patty and Loraine

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE (#ud7874cdb-3035-59cb-bfff-5ada485919dd)

CHAPTER ONE (#ud3b9f222-6eef-5b44-a1ce-07bcdaa9980f)

CHAPTER TWO (#uf73c587c-29d9-5701-8a4f-0ec21d154798)

CHAPTER THREE (#u5dee5481-5389-5008-b7a3-12a36c9aa556)

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)

PROLOGUE

MARNIE STRIKER LARUE covered the mouthpiece of the telephone with one hand and hollered, “Do not put Dorothy in the fridge again, Noah.”

She couldn’t see into the kitchen, but she’d developed a sixth sense where her four-year-old son was concerned and he’d been awfully preoccupied with that goldfish lately.

Sure enough, he hollered back, “Aw, Mom.”

When Marnie saw him dash in the direction of his bedroom, she settled back onto the couch beside the mountain of unfolded laundry and, securing the receiver between her ear and shoulder, said, “So, what were you about to say, Mother?”

“I just wanted to mention that Dad saw an interesting article in the Phoenix Sun the other day about how the number of female-owned businesses is on the rise.”

Apparently her parents, who had retired to Arizona several years before, still had a sixth sense when it came to their youngest child.

This was another not so subtle reminder that Marnie’s plan to start her own business had languished for three years now. With her late husband’s enthusiastic backing, she’d plotted out a strategy for a mail-order business, a frillier version of Land’s End and L.L. Bean. At first, she’d planned to offer clothing and accessories for women like her who lived far from shopping centers and strip malls, but who still wanted to be fashionable. Later, she’d hoped to branch out into men’s and children’s clothing and then finally to include home decor.

It was to be called Marnie’s Closet, a name that had come courtesy of her sister-in-law, Rose, who still borrowed things to wear on occasion, although not as often now since Marnie hadn’t added so much as a new belt to her wardrobe in a few seasons.

The entire typed-out plan was still somewhere in Marnie’s house, gathering dust. It had been hatched PHD—Pre-Hal’s Death. That’s how Marnie thought of everything now, as if her world had been bisected neatly in two by the events of one horrific afternoon three years earlier.

“Your husband is dead.”

Those were the only words she’d heard that day. The remainder of what the kind-faced Michigan State Police officer had said had been lost to the roaring in her ears as she’d sat on the couch in her tidy little home holding tightly to her infant son while the rest of her world had slipped beyond her grasp and shattered into unsalvageable pieces.

Even now it seemed inconceivable. Dead? Not Hal. Not her careful, methodical, safety-conscious husband. It was a mistake. Had to be. Someone else’s husband had died trying to save two inebriated downstate snowmobilers who had ignored thin ice warnings and tumbled sled and all into the unforgiving waters of Lake Superior.

But then as now the truth could not be ignored. Hal was dead. The boy she had loved, the young man she had married, had become the spouse she mourned.

Since his death, she’d forgotten all about the business venture that had so excited her. She’d forgotten about everything but maintaining her tenuous financial footing and seeing to her son’s needs. Every morning for the past three years she’d gotten up tired and every night she had gone to bed bone weary, the monotony of her predictable schedule broken only by the bittersweet joy of watching her son learn to walk and talk and then run and reason.

“You know, they have a lot of programs to help women entrepreneurs succeed,” her mother said.