The CEO's Accidental Bride / Paper Marriage Proposition: The CEO's Accidental Bride / Paper Marriage Proposition
The CEO’s Accidental Bride There was no way multi-millionaire Zach Harper would split his inheritance with a stranger. Even if she was his wife. What had supposedly been a prank Vegas wedding to Kaitlin Saville was very real. The CEO believed he could buy off his bride. However, Kaitlin didn’t want money. So he offered her a job, vowing never to consummate their marriage. But some vows were meant to be broken… Paper Marriage Proposition Desperate to regain custody of her child, Bethany Lewis sought out the only man who could help. A man with his own desire to destroy her ex-husband. Marriage seemed the perfect method to make war on their mutual enemy. And though Landon knew their union was meant to be in-name-only, he was soon impatient to make love to his new “wife. ”
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The CEO’s Accidental Bride
Barbara Dunlop
“It only took us five minutes to get married, no reason why the divorce should take any longer.”
“Glad you see it that way.” He gave a sharp nod, and his hand went to the inside pocket of his suit. “Of course, I’ll want to cover any inconvenience.” He extracted a gold pen and a brown leather check book, flipping open the cover and glancing at her. “A million?”
Kaitlin blinked in confusion. “A million what?”
He breathed a sigh of obvious impatience. “Dollars,” he stated. “Don’t play coy, Kaitlin. You and I both know this is going to cost me.”
Was he that desperate?
Wait a minute. Was he desperate?
Dear Reader,
I have a passion for historic buildings—big or small, opulent or plain. From the passageways of the Tower of London to the faded boards of a broken-down shed on a lonely prairie highway, I love to imagine who built a house, who walked its halls, who lived, who loved, and who might have died there all those years ago.
Billionaire Zach Harper is descended from pirates. His family castle, built on an island off the coast of New York, is a living museum and the centerpiece of his heritage. But when he accidentally marries architect Kaitlin Saville at a wild Vegas office party, everything is at risk.
I hope you enjoy Zach and Kaitlin’s story. I modeled the Harper family castle after the real life Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, British Columbia. If you’re interested, there’s a link to the castle on my website.
Happy reading!
Barbara
www.barbaradunlop.com
About the Author
BARBARA DUNLOP writes romantic stories while curled up in a log cabin in Canada’s far north, where bears outnumber people and it snows six months of the year. Fortunately she has a brawny husband and two teenage children to haul firewood and clear the driveway while she sips cocoa and muses about her upcoming chapters. Barbara loves to hear from readers. You can contact her through her website at www.barbaradunlop.com.
For my fabulous editor, Kathryn Lye
One
Zach Harper was the last person Kaitlin Saville expected to see standing in the hallway outside her apartment door. The tall, dark-haired, steel-eyed man was the reason she was packing her belongings, the reason she was giving up her rent-controlled apartment, the person who was forcing her to leave New York City.
Facing him, she folded her arms across her dusty blue Mets T-shirt, hoping her red eyes had faded from her earlier crying jag and that no tear streaks remained on her cheeks.
“We have a problem,” Zach stated, his voice crisp, and his expression detached. His left hand was clasped around a black leather briefcase.
He wore a Grant Hicks suit and a pressed, white shirt. His red tie was made of fine silk, and his cuff links were solid gold. As usual, his hair was freshly cut, face freshly shaved, and his shoes were polished to within an inch of their lives.
“We don’t have anything,” she told him, curling her toes into the cushy socks that covered her feet below the frayed hem of her faded jeans.
She was casual, not frumpy, she told herself. A woman had a right to be casual in her own home. Where Zach Harper had no right to be in her home at all. She started to close the door on him. But his hand shot out to brace it.
His hand was broad and tanned, with a strong wrist and tapered fingers. No rings, but a platinum Cartier watch with a diamond face. “I’m not joking, Kaitlin.”
“And I’m not laughing.” She couldn’t give one whit about any problem the high-and-mighty Zach Harper might encounter during his charmed life. The man not only got her fired, but he also had her blackballed from every architectural firm in New York City.
He glanced past her shoulder. “Can I come in?”
She pretended to think about it for a moment. “No.”
He might be master of his domain at Harper Transportation and at every major business function in Manhattan, but he did not have the right to see her messy place, especially the collection of lacy lingerie sitting under the window.
He clenched his jaw.
She set her own, standing her ground.
“It’s personal,” he persisted, hand shifting on the briefcase handle.
“We’re not friends,” she pointed out.
They were, in fact, enemies. Because that was what happened when one person ruined another person’s life. It didn’t matter that the first person was attractive, successful, intelligent and one heck of a good dancer. He’d lost all rights to … well, anything.
Zach squared his shoulders, then glanced both ways down the narrow corridor of the fifty-year-old building. The light was dim, the patterned carpets worn. Ten doors opened into this particular section of the fifth floor. Kaitlin’s apartment was at the end, next to a steel exit door and a fire alarm protected by a glass cover.
“Fine,” he told her. “We’ll do it out here.”
Oh, no, they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t do anything anywhere, ever again. She started to step back into the safety of her apartment.
“You remember that night in Vegas?” he asked.
