Just A Little Bit Married

How to ruin a perfectly good divorce

The last time Rose Tucker saw her ex-husband, Lincoln Hart, he was fleeing their newly minted marriage. Now the man she fell in love with at first sight has returned to say those three little words: “we’re still married!” And while the lawyers fix the clerical glitch, the handsome millionaire offers a way to help his not-so-ex wife save her business.

The pretty interior designer can hardly wait to say “I don’t.” But in the meantime, Rose can’t afford to turn down her husband’s job offer. So she agrees to decorate Linc’s new luxury condo. While Rose draws up plans for his home, he has designs on her heart. And if he gets his way, the new towels will say His and Hers.

“Don’t expect me to forgive you,” she said.

“I don’t.” But seeing her again, remembering that they’d once been two halves of a whole, made him wish she could. “I just thought you should know about the divorce.”

“It is kind of important,” she agreed. “Chances are I would have found out the hard way pretty soon.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been dating someone and it’s getting serious.” She turned away and walked over to the couch, absently rearranging throw pillows. “Lately he’s been hinting about getting married.”

Linc had absolutely no right to the feeling, but that didn’t stop the blast of raw jealousy that roared through him. “I guess it would have been awkward to apply for a marriage license and find out you were still married.”

“You think?”

He detected the tiniest bit of defensiveness in her voice and decided to take a shot. “You never told him you’d been married before?”

“We were married for fifteen minutes.” Ten years ago her eyes took on shades of gray when she was annoyed, and they looked that way now. “It was a long time ago. I’ve been busy. It didn’t seem important.”

“The thing is, you never checked to find out about the divorce,” he reminded her.

“Neither did you.”

“Fair enough. I’ll take care of it now...”

* * *

The Bachelors of Blackwater Lake:

They won’t be single for long!

Just a Little Bit Married

Teresa Southwick

www.millsandboon.co.uk

TERESA SOUTHWICK lives with her husband in Las Vegas, the city that reinvents itself every day. An avid fan of romance novels, she is delighted to be living out her dream of writing for Mills & Boon.

To my sister-in-law, Rose Boyle.

I borrowed your name for the heroine in this book because she’s as smart and sweet as you. Thanks for marrying my brother, sole sister!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Rose, this might come as a shock, but we’re not divorced.”

Lincoln Hart looked around the room to make sure there was nothing pointed, heavy, or sharp enough to take out an eye, bash in his skull or maim a fairly important body part. Satisfied, he studied the woman he hadn’t seen in ten years and realized Rose Tucker was even more beautiful than she’d been then, when she took his breath away every time he saw her. When he was so in love that being apart from her was almost a physical ache.

Rose. Even her name was lovely. She was more polished than the young woman he’d walked away from. And more hostile, but he couldn’t blame her.

After what he’d just said she was going to hate him even more than she had a decade ago, and she’d hated him quite a lot then.

“What? Not even a hello?” The hostility in her dark blue eyes wavered to make way for surprise, then suspicion.

“I thought it best to lead with the headline, make sure you got the information before slamming the door in my face.”

“You’re telling me we’re still married? I don’t believe you. What kind of game are you playing now? What in the world would you have to gain by pretending we’re still married?”

“I’m not pretending. And I’m as thrown by this as you are.”

“I doubt that.” She put a hand to her forehead as if feeling dizzy.

Linc reached out and curved his fingers around her upper arm to steady her. “Let’s sit down.”

Apparently his touch snapped her out of it because she yanked her arm away. He half expected her to take a swing at him and wouldn’t blame her if she did. This whole mess was his fault from start to finish. If there was anything at all positive about his screwup, it was that his family knew nothing about his brief, whirlwind marriage.

His brothers, Sam and Cal, would rag on him relentlessly, which was bad enough. Katherine and Hastings Hart, his mother and her husband, and his younger sister, Ellie, would be disappointed in him for the way he’d handled the situation. But none of that mattered now. He and Rose had a problem and it was all on him.

“We should probably sit—”

“Don’t be nice to me, Linc. We both know that’s not who you are.”