âI Want You To Wear My Engagement Ring.â
Shock unfurled in Kateâs toes. She didnât know what Duarte was up to. Right now he held all the cards.
âSeems to me like you have a fine sense of humor to suggest something as ridiculous as this. What do you really hope to accomplish?â
âIf my father thinks Iâm already locked into a relationshipââ he skimmed his knuckles up her arm ââhe will quit pressing me to marry one of his friendsâ daughters.â
âWhy choose me? Surely there must be plenty of women who would be quite happy to pretend to be your fiancée?â
âThere are women who want to be my fiancée, but not pretend.â
âWhat a shame youâre suffering from such ego problems.â
âI fully realize my bank balance offers a hefty enticer. With you, however, we both know where we stand.â
Dear Reader,
Welcome to book 2 in my Rich, Rugged & Royal series about the mysterious Medina family!
What would you do if you crossed paths with a man who just happened to be a prince from a deposed royal family? And what if a photograph of that immensely hunky guy could be worth millions? How far would you go to snag that picture?
Photojournalist Kate Harper faces just that dilemma when she discovers the true identity of resort mogul Duarte Medina.
Duarte Medina is a man who will do anything to protect his familyâs privacy, and Kate Harper will stop at nothing to find out everything she can about the elusive Medina heir. In fact, the life of someone very dear to her depends on Kateâs success in exposing the Medina secrets. All too soon, she finds herself unable to stop exposing her own heart to the dark and brooding royal!
Thank you for picking up Duarte and Kateâs story. And donât miss the final installment of Rich, Rugged & Royal, His Heir, Her Honor, with Dr. Carlos Medina, in March.
Cheers!
Catherine Mann
www.catherinemann.com
His Thirty-Day Fiancé
Catherine Mann
USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine Mann is living out her own fairy-tale ending on a sunny Florida beach with her Prince Charming husband and their four children. With more than thirty-five books in print in more than twenty countries, she has also celebrated wins for both a RITA>® Award and a Booksellersâ Best Award. Catherine enjoys chatting with readers onlineâthanks to the wonders of the wireless internet that allows her to network with her laptop by the water! To learn more about her work, visit her website, www.catherinemann.com, or reach her by snail mail at P.O. Box 6065, Navarre, FL 32566.
To Mollie Saunders,
a real-life princess and a magical storyteller!
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Catching a royal was tough. But catching an elusive Medina was damn near impossible.
Teeth chattering, photojournalist Kate Harper inched along the third-story ledge leading to Prince Duarte Medinaâs living quarters. The planked exterior of his Marthaâs Vineyard resort offered precious little to grab hold of as she felt her way across in the dark, but sheâd never been one to admit defeat.
Come hell or high water, she would snag her top-dollar picture. Her sisterâs future teetered even more precariously than Kateâs balance on the twelve-inch beam.
Wind whipped in off the harbor, slapping her mossy green Dolce & Gabbana knockoff around her legs. Her cold toes curled along the wooden ridge since sheâd ditched her heels on the balcony next door before climbing out. Thank God it wasnât snowing tonight.
Wrangling her way into an event at the posh Medina resort hadnât been easy. But sheâd nabbed a ticket to a Fortune 500 mogulâs rehearsal dinner for his son by promising a dimwit dilettante to run a tabloid piece on her ex in exchange for the womanâs invitation. Once in, however, Kate was on her own to dodge security, locate Prince Duarte and snap the shot. As best she could tell, this was her only hope to enter his suite. Too bad her coat and gloves had been checked at the door.
The minicameras embedded in her earrings were about to tear her darn earlobes in half. Sheâd transformed a couple old button cameras into what looked like gold- and-emerald jewelry.
The lighthouse swooped a dim beam through the cottony-thick fog, Klaxon wailing every twenty seconds and temporarily drowning out the sound of wedding-party guests mingling on the first floor. She scooched closer to the princeâs balcony.
Kate stretched her leg farther, farther still until⦠Pay dirt. Her pounding heart threatened to pop a seam on her thrift-shop satin gown. She grabbed the railing fast and swung her leg over.
A hand clamped around her wrist. A strong hand. A masculine hand.
She yelped as another hand grabbed her ankle and hauled, grip strong on her arm and calf. His fingers seared her freezing skin just over her anklet made by her sister. A good-luck charm to match the earrings. She sure hoped it helped.
A swift yank sent her tumbling over onto the balcony. Her dress twisted around her thighs and hopefully not higher. She scrambled for firm footing, her arms flailing as her gown slid back into place. She landed hard against a wall.