Gorgeous Grooms: Her Stand-In Groom / Her Wish-List Bridegroom / Ordinary Girl, Society Groom. Jackie Braun

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      “That didn’t stop Derek.”

      “No, but he had time on his side. I’ve got just over a day. I’m not a believer in love at first sight.”

      “You don’t have to love her,” she said, the cold truth settling in once and for all. “Derek didn’t love me.”

      “He should have.”

      His tone was so matter-of-fact that she didn’t doubt he believed it.

      An idea began to take form, too outrageous to entertain, let alone voice, and yet she heard herself ask, “What kind of wife does the codicil state you need to have?”

      He stared at her blankly for a moment, before shrugging. “The usual kind: female.”

      “Are there any restrictions? Do you have to…stay married?”

      “No, I guess not.” His brows pulled together. “But marriage should be permanent.”

      His tone sounded almost wistful, and the words surprised her. Stephen Danbury seemed too much of a realist to be a romantic. But then her judgment of men was hardly reliable. After all, she’d believed the lies Derek had packaged up and delivered. But he’d never loved her. He’d never intended to honor or cherish her. He hadn’t even been capable of fidelity on their wedding day. And for his deceit he would have reaped huge rewards. Even having been caught he was still about to come out on top.

      It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.

      “You could marry me.” Catherine laid a hand over her jack-hammering heart after she said it.

      Stephen gaped at her, clearly as surprised as she by the suggestion. “Marry you?”

      Self-conscious laughter bubbled to the surface. “You needn’t look so horrified. It’s just an idea.”

      Stephen came forward until he stood just in front of her. “I’m not horrified, just surprised. I know what I’d get out of a marriage between us,” he said carefully, “but what about you? What would you get out of it?”

      “I’m not expecting anything financially. I do earn a salary at the shelter, and I have some money from a small inheritance my grandmother left me.”

      “I didn’t think you were after money, otherwise you would have married Derek even after finding him with the wedding planner. But why would you want to marry me?”

      Helping people. That was what she did. She often put herself on the line for the underdog, albeit never quite so personally. And then there was the way her pulse hitched whenever he looked at her in that intense way of his. But attraction alone was no reason to marry. Why was she willing to do this? She had no answer for herself, certainly none for him. So she settled on, “It’s for a good cause.”

      “The shelter?” he asked. “Is this your way to ensure you get that new roof?”

      “Will it?”

      Something flickered in his gaze, an emotion she couldn’t quite read. “Consider it done.”

      “Thank you. But this isn’t just about the shelter.” She fussed with the mother-of-pearl buttons on her sweater set and admitted, “I’m afraid I’m not as altruistic as that.”

      His lips thinned into a smile. “Let me guess: this would be your way of paying Derek back? A little bit of revenge from the woman scorned?.”

      She nodded. “I suppose that’s true. As much as I want the good guy in all of this to win, I’d also like to see the bad guy lose.”

      “Are you sure I’m the good guy, Catherine?”

      His gaze locked with hers in seeming challenge.

      “I want you to be,” she whispered.

      “Why?”

      She gave a nervous laugh. “Yin and Yang, I suppose. One to balance out the other.”

      “So you’d marry me to keep the cosmic forces in order?”

      She didn’t reply. In a way it had to do with cosmic forces, all right, but not necessarily the ones he assumed. For the first time in her life Catherine was handing herself over to fate. This was the right thing to do. She could feel it, even if she couldn’t articulate why.

      “If we do this, we’ll need to do it quickly and quietly,” Stephen said.

      “You’ll marry me, then?”

      Stephen studied Catherine’s face. There was no denying her beauty. It had long beguiled him, even when he hadn’t thought there was much else to her than physical perfection. Under other circumstances he might have been flattered by the proposal. Under other circumstances, however, he knew it would not have come. Women from Catherine’s elite social sphere might condescend to take a dip in Stephen’s gene pool, but they didn’t want to swim there forever. Years of dating had told him so, despite his fortune.

      “I’m desperate, Catherine,” he said flatly.

      He watched her wince and wondered was he so desperate he would take a wife, even if only on paper? He didn’t have the luxury of time to clearly think things out. The one thing he knew without hesitation or question was that he did not want to see Danbury’s sold. Marrying Catherine might be his only way to stop that from happening.

      “Is that a yes?”

      He nodded. “We’ll need to move fast. Danbury’s no longer has a company jet. The bottom line has been too thin in recent years to justify it. We’ll have to catch a flight out of O’Hare.”

      “A flight?”

      “Vegas.” He shrugged. “It’s quick and legal.”

      “Vegas,” she repeated, looking as if she were sucking on a sour ball.

      “You don’t have to do this.”

      She moved forward, offering her hand as she came. “I do.”

      And it was with just those two words that she sealed the bargain.

      It was nearly midnight when they arrived in Las Vegas. The city, however, seemed to have an abundance of energy and enthusiasm despite the late hour. Catherine had neither, especially since she was still working on Illinois time. She had never been to Vegas. She wasn’t one for games of chance, which of course seemed ironic given the risk she would be taking with Stephen. For a woman who didn’t believe in gambling, she’d certainly found herself in a high-stakes game.

      What did she know about this man who would soon become her husband? Not much. Not nearly enough for the commitment she had agreed to make. He was private, but it was more than that. He hid something—not something evil, like Derek, of that she was sure. But those eyes that watched everything and rarely reflected anything told her that he found it easier—safer?—to tuck his feelings deep inside. She could appreciate that, she thought. She’d done it most of her life when it came to her parents.

      “Tired?”

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