The Temporary Mrs King. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ island had a mystique with people. The hotel was old-school deluxe, but it was small and couldn’t support many guests. Since the island was privately held, anyone wanting to do business on Tesoro had to go through Walter Stanford. And he was a man who liked his privacy.

      Which would be perfect for the exclusive resort the Kings were planning. The mega-wealthy would come here to play on the beach and enjoy the high life away from throngs of tourists and, most especially, paparazzi.

      It was all perfect.

      Except for the whole marriage thing.

      “And,” she said, dragging his attention back to her.

      “There’s more?” he asked with a short laugh. “What else is there? Got a dungeon you want to shut me up in? Or maybe you want me living on bread and water for a couple months?”

      “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.

      “Oh, I’m being ridiculous.” He shook his head and gave her an almost admiring glance. “You want us to be married. Living together. Putting on a ‘colorful truth’ for your grandfather—but none of the fun stuff.”

      She shifted uncomfortably in her chair and he knew for a fact that she was feeling what he was. So just how long would she last with this little celibacy rule? As that thought wandered through his mind, Sean smiled to himself. This, he thought, could get very interesting.

      “This isn’t about fun—”

      “Clearly,” he agreed.

      Her lips thinned and her mouth worked as if words were trying to get out, but she refused to let them. Finally, though, she took a breath and said patiently, “It’s a small island, Sean. So you won’t be able to sleep with anyone else, either. My grandfather would find out and this whole thing would be over before it began.”

      Sean stiffened at the insinuation. Sitting up straight, he laid both hands on the tabletop and leaned in toward her. Even riding that quick whip of anger, he kept his voice down. His gaze bored into hers as he said, “I. Don’t. Cheat. When I give my word, I keep it.”

      Their gazes locked for several long seconds before she finally nodded. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to be clear about everything.”

      He leaned back in his chair, gritting his teeth against the bubble of frustration inside him. “Fine. We’re clear.”

      “And we still have a deal?”

      He looked into those blue eyes of hers again and told himself this was surely a mistake. He felt it right down to his bones. But damned if Sean could see another way for him to get what he wanted.

      “Yeah,” he said. “We have a deal.”

      He couldn’t believe he was going to do this. Couldn’t believe he was going to get married. Again. And this one wouldn’t be any more real than the first one.

      At least this time though, he’d know going in that the marriage would mean nothing.

      Three

      Walter Stanford was somewhere in his seventies, but his sharp blue eyes didn’t miss much. He was tall, with snowy white hair, a hard jaw and the bearing of a much younger man. He stood behind the wide desk in his library and looked at Sean with a cool, dispassionate eye.

      Sean met the older man stare for stare, never blinking. He knew how to run a negotiation and knew all too well that the first man who spoke, lost power. So he kept quiet and waited for the older man to say something.

      Walter Stanford’s suite took up half of the entire top floor of the hotel, with Melinda’s private quarters in the other half. It was old-world elegant, again with just a touch of shabbiness. As if the place had seen better times. Sean had to wonder if the old man was as wealthy as rumor suggested.

      He had noticed a couple of telltale water marks on the ceiling, proof of a leaky roof that hadn’t been fixed in time. And there were other things too. Nothing over the top, he thought, just tiny warning flags. Scars on the wood floors, chipped molding, window casements where the plaster had crumbled.

      Of course, none of that proved anything. All it might mean was that Walter Stanford was simply too busy or too uninterested to make the dozens of minor repairs buildings always required. Or, he thought, it could mean that the old man needed this hotel deal far more than he wanted the Kings to know.

      Sean smiled to himself, but kept his expression carefully neutral.

      “You’ve met my granddaughter,” Walter said, taking a seat in the bloodred desk chair.

      “Yes. She seems … nice,” he offered, enjoying using her own word.

      The three of them had spent the last twenty minutes chatting and talking about the island. Melinda had left the room just a moment ago and, Sean thought, Walter wasn’t wasting any time.

      “Let me be frank,” the older man said, setting his elbows on the desktop and steepling his fingers. “You want to build a hotel on my island. I want my granddaughter happy.”

      Sean took a seat in the chair opposite the desk and set one foot atop the other knee and prepared to play dumb. “What’s one have to do with the other?”

      Walter gave him a smile and a wink. “You’re single. Wealthy. Reasonably good-looking.”

      Wryly, Sean said, “Thank you.”

      Tucking his fingertips beneath his chin, Walter continued. “I believe in laying my cards out on the table, how about you?”

      “Always best to know what the other man’s holding.”

      “Excellent. Then let’s get down to business. I want you to marry my granddaughter. Once you’ve done that, the land is yours.”

      If Melinda hadn’t prepared him for this yesterday, Sean thought, he would have fallen out of his chair. Even prepared, even with a deal already in place, he was a little surprised. Amazing to think that in the twenty-first century, women were still being bartered.

      Of course, this woman had done the bartering herself and damned if she hadn’t negotiated a hell of a deal.

      Walter was waiting for an answer and Sean let him wait. His brain raced with the implications of what he was about to agree to. Getting married, even temporarily, was a huge step. He didn’t want to, but he had spent the better part of last night lying awake trying to come up with a different way to get what he wanted—and he’d come up empty.

      Just as, no doubt, Melinda had known he would.

      The Stanfords, both of them, were stubborn enough to be Kings.

      Tapping his fingers against his knee, Sean asked, “How does Melinda feel about this?”

      Walter frowned briefly. “She understands. It’s good for her. Good for the family. Good for the island.”

      Unexpectedly, a ripple of anger washed through Sean. If Melinda hadn’t stepped up to chart her own course and make her own deal with Sean, she would have been no more than a bound sacrifice, stretched out across СКАЧАТЬ