Bride For A Year

Bride For A Year
Kathryn Ross

First wedding anniversary… first child… Paige and Brad had a deal.If Paige played the dutiful wife, he would pay off her debts. Theirs was a marriage of convenience, pure and simple - apart from one complication - Brad didn't just want a partner, he wanted a sleeping partner! So what was there to keep them from breaking their deal altogether?Something that hadn't been part of their business arrangement, something that could turn their first anniversary from divorce into celebration… a baby!THE BIG EVENT One special occasion - that changes your life forever!

“A marriage of convenience... a business deal!” (#u0394badd-9c5e-58ee-8219-7c513b4f65f2)Letter to Reader (#u555d9565-651f-5b85-aec3-4b739522352a)Title Page (#uc622b7d8-96f7-52dd-9f52-c82068ace135)CHAPTER ONE (#u016ec4a9-5831-5f04-b760-6725e0d58af3)CHAPTER TWO (#ue7235e2d-20e8-5dff-9a2d-22f04743c82b)CHAPTER THREE (#u0c926c86-ff43-5fe8-a9b8-76817758120d)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)CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“A marriage of convenience... a business deal!”

“You get a partner to stand next to you on platforms and say the right things at civic functions,” Paige continued, “I get the vineyard back in a year?”

Brad nodded. “We’d be sleeping partners for a year.” The gleam of humor in his eyes made her hands curl into tight fists at her sides.

“You mean a marriage in name only?”

He didn’t answer her immediately. His eyes moved over her, looking at the curves of her figure, the luxuriant fall of her hair around the young face. “No, I know my limitations. You do have a fabulous body and I have a very healthy appetite. I’d want you in my bed, Paige.”

Dear Reader,

Welcome to

Everyone has special occasions in their life—times of celebration and excitement. Maybe it’s a romantic event—an engagement or a wedding—or perhaps a wonderful family occasion, such as the birth of a baby. Or even a personal milestone—a thirtieth or fortieth birthday!

These are all important times in our lives and in THE BIG EVENT! you can see how different couples react to these events. Whatever the occasion, romance and drama are guaranteed!

We’ve been featuring some terrific stories from some of your favorite authors. If you’ve enjoyed this miniseries in Harlequin Romance

, we hope you’ll continue to look out for THE BIG EVENT! in Harlequin Presents

. This month, we’re delighted to bring you Bride for a Year by Kathryn Ross. In October, we have bestselling author Penny Jordan’s Marriage Make Up—will a divorced couple be reunited at their daughter’s wedding?

Happy reading!

The Editors

Bride For A Year

Kathryn Ross

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

CHAPTER ONE

THE last rays of sunshine were slanting across the Californian vineyard as Paige stopped work for the day. She stood up and dusted down her jeans as she surveyed her handiwork.

She was a slender woman of twenty-two, with long, dark hair, her delicate, feminine appearance totally at odds with her work clothes and the heavy toolbox she had been using. She wasn’t much good at DIY, but despite this she had made a reasonable job of fixing the fence. The only problem was that it had taken her so long.

It was the same with every task she had undertaken that day. She had started work at six in the morning and hadn’t stopped, yet she still had several jobs that had been on her list of things to do today. She sighed. The light was fading fast so she would just have to leave everything until the morning. Besides, she was too tired to continue. All she could dream about now was a long, luxurious bath in scented hot water.

The thought made her start to pack her work gear away with haste. She was just finishing when she heard the sound of a horse’s hooves on the hard, dusty driveway. She turned and her heart hammered crazily as she saw her neighbour, Brad Monroe, riding up towards her.

She had been expecting him for a while now; she knew what he had come to say. Apprehension knotted inside her.

‘Good evening, Paige.’ He reined in the powerful black stallion just beside her.

‘Evening.’ It took a supreme effort to sound indifferent to him.

‘How are things going?’

The casual question made her temper simmer. As if he cared! She turned and threw the last of her work things back in the box. ‘Not bad...considering,’ she muttered as she fastened the lid on the box.

He waited until she had finished. His horse pawed at the ground as if impatient with the delay, but Brad’s voice was very relaxed as he commented, ‘If you’d asked, I’d have sent someone over to help you with that fence.’

She Sicked him a disparaging look from glimmering blue eyes. ‘I don’t need any help from you.’

‘Hell, Paige, you are one stubborn woman.’ A note of impatience crept into his voice now.

She ignored that and bent to pick up the box of tools, her long, dark hair falling silkily over her face. The box was heavy but she put a determined effort into not showing it. Her slender body protested against the weight and she was forced to use both hands.

She heard the creak of the saddle leather as he dismounted.

She looked at him as he walked towards her. The final, dying rays of red sun slanted across him like a spotlight. He was tall, well over six feet, with thick, dark hair, a square jawline and eyes that were so dark they reminded her of burnt toffee. He was thirty seven, fifteen years older than she, and he looked like a movie star even in his faded jeans and denim shirt.

Paige felt her heart thud uncomfortably. She had always found Brad extremely attractive. From first laying eyes on him when she was thirteen she had imagined herself in love with him, had secretly dreamed that one day he would look at her and feel the same way. That had never happened. Just as well, she told herself fiercely now, because Brad Monroe was not the man she had built him up to be. Just a few months ago she had found out what kind of a person he really was and all her illusions had been swept away.

He reached to take the heavy box from her and his hand closed over hers. The touch of his skin against hers made tiny darts of awareness shoot through her, and heat flooded through her body.

Their eyes met for just a moment before she pulled away, allowing him to take the box from her.

‘I suppose you have come to give me an ultimatum: pay up the money I owe you or get out.’ Her voice wasn’t entirely steady and that annoyed her. She didn’t want him to know that she wasn’t perfectly in control around him.

‘I’m not your enemy, Paige,’ he said coolly. ‘I’ve only ever wanted to help you.’

‘You’ve only ever wanted to get your hands on this land,’ she corrected him cuttingly. ‘Forgive me for being blunt, Brad, but your caring neighbour act no longer impresses me. I know what your real motives are. You’re a vulture, and finally, after all these months of circling, you are about to swoop in for the pickings. I’ve been expecting you for weeks now.’

He shook his head. ‘I know you are still in shock after your father’s death. You are not seeing things clearly yet, but—’

‘The problem is I can see things too clearly,’ she interrupted him. ‘Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve had a long, tiring day and I want to go inside my house and relax.’ While she still had a house to relax in... The words remained unspoken at the back of her mind.

Instead of leaving as she had hoped, he fell into step beside her as she walked up towards the house.

‘If it helps to blame me then go ahead,’ he said in a low tone. ‘But sooner rather than later you are going to have to face the truth. It’s two months since your father died. You can’t carry on here on your own for much longer. The vineyard is falling down around you, Paige. It is going to take a lot of money to put things right and you haven’t got it. Not only that, but you are vastly in debt.’

Paige didn’t want to hear his assessment of her problems. Her pride rebelled furiously against it, but she said nothing because deep down she knew that he was right.

‘Look, Paige, I haven’t come over here to upset you. I’ve come to offer some practical help. If you want, I’ll sit down with you, help you go through your accounts—’

She laughed at that. ‘So you can get some inside knowledge on how much you can steal my vineyard from me for? No, thanks. My accounts are my own business.’

Silence fell between them. Velvet darkness had enveloped the countryside. The air was hot and heavy with the tropical sound of cicadas. The smell of the parched earth was broken by the sweetness of the eucalyptus trees which shaded the white, colonial-style house that had been Paige’s home since she was thirteen.