The Corporate Marriage Campaign. Leigh Michaels

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СКАЧАТЬ did. He said he was more accustomed to dealing with mopping up the other end of a marriage.”

      “How long have you known him, anyway? Surely it doesn’t surprise you that he’s a bit jaded after all the divorces he’s handled. Maybe he just needs a little encouragement to settle down. Give him a nice gift package, a little publicity for the law practice…”

      “He also said he wasn’t dating anyone.”

      “Now, that’s malarkey. He’s always dating someone. The current girlfriend called here last night, as a matter of fact. Which reminds me—I forgot to tell him that Ginger phoned.”

      “Yes,” Trey said dryly. “I see now why you said you’re good at keeping a secret.”

      Darcy made a face at him. “The point is, if he told you he wasn’t dating anyone, he was pulling your leg.”

      “You didn’t let me finish. Actually, what he said was that he wasn’t dating anyone he would consider for an instant in connection with the word ‘bride.”’

      Darcy blinked in surprise. “Now that makes me feel a little crazy. He harped at me all the way through college about how I should never even go out for a slice of pizza with a guy I wouldn’t consider marrying. Now he’s dating someone he himself thinks is inappropriate—”

      “I thought you said you’d talked to her. She must not be so bad if you think she’s all right.”

      “Well, I’ve only been back in town for a week, so I haven’t actually met her. Now I can’t wait to see what he means.”

      He shifted restlessly against the cabinets. “If we could stay on topic, Darcy.”

      “Oh. Sure. Well, if you can’t find a bride and groom, you could always turn the whole thing into a public service campaign to promote awareness of domestic violence.” Belatedly, Darcy remembered the picture hat, the veil, the alias. “Though I guess Caroline wouldn’t want to go quite that public, right?”

      “There would also be a little matter of slander if her ex-fiancé’s name came into it.”

      “Technically, slander doesn’t apply—not if you’re telling the truth. At least, I think that’s the case, but maybe you should ask Dave about slander and libel.”

      “I don’t need to. After the trial is over, Caroline can be the poster child for battered women if she chooses—but in the meantime, I still have a problem.”

      “Well, Dave’s very resourceful. I’m sure he’ll think of something.”

      “He has thought of something. Me.”

      Darcy wondered why that particular solution hadn’t occurred to her. Not because she’d assumed someone like Trey Kent was already taken, because that possibility hadn’t even crossed her mind. There was an air of independence around him which said that no woman—other than perhaps Caroline—had a say in what he did. But it was odd how she’d known that without even stopping to think about it.

      “Well, it’s not exactly a unique solution,” Darcy mused, “but it works. Marry off the prince instead of the princess. After all, one royal wedding is pretty much like another. And for the good of the store, surely a little thing like getting married probably wouldn’t be any big deal to you at all. Problem solved. More coffee?”

      “I have no intention of getting married.”

      “Oh? What have you got against marriage?”

      “Nothing in particular. I just wasn’t planning to walk down the aisle anytime soon.”

      “So you’re just going to play the part? If that’s all it takes, then why not hire actors?”

      “You said yourself it would be much more believable if the models were real people.”

      “Well, yes, it would. But isn’t it a little shady to pretend?”

      “Who does it hurt?” Trey asked coolly. “The only difference is that on the last page, the happy couple will ride off into the sunset separately instead of together.”

      “You’ll keep up the fiction all the way?”

      “Right up to the end of the campaign—and then cut, stop the action. It won’t matter to the customer who’s looked at the ads. She’s already had her thrills along the way.”

      “I don’t know,” Darcy said doubtfully. “Customers can be funny that way.”

      “Look, it’s no different than if Caroline and Corbin had made it all the way through the ad series and then he hit her the night before the wedding.”

      “Except that you’re planning the exit before the engagement ever gets off the ground. Of course, if you’re going to be convincing to all your customers, you’ll have to play it very close to your chest right up till the moment when you don’t go through with the wedding. And that could be a problem.”

      “Interesting that you think so. Tell me why.”

      “Because if you’re acting as if you’re serious in public, the woman you choose as your supposed bride might get the idea that you really are. Serious, I mean—no matter what you tell her in private.”

      Trey nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. In fact, Dave pointed out that it could end up in something like a breach-of-promise case.”

      “He would say that. Skittish guys all think alike.”

      He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Skittish guys? You saw the problem just as quickly as Dave or I did.”

      He’d caught her on that one. Darcy shrugged. “So I guess that makes me a skittish girl.”

      “And that’s why…” He raised his cup and sipped. The silence drew out.

      Darcy felt her breath catch and wondered why she was feeling so anxious. All this had nothing to do with her. Or did it?

      “That’s why,” Trey said very softly, “Dave suggested that my supposed bride be…you.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      TREY hadn’t spent a lot of time in his life contemplating proposals—how the question should be phrased, what the best occasion to ask it would be, or even who he might want to address it to. He figured there would be plenty of time to consider all that, because he was thirty-two and not in the least anxious to settle down.

      But there was one thing he would never have expected—that when the day came and he actually suggested to a woman that the two of them might become engaged, she would choke on her coffee and turn purple at the very idea of becoming Mrs. Andrew Patrick Kent the Third.

      Stunned and a bit dizzy, maybe—he could understand that sort of reaction. Shedding tears of joy, perhaps. Completely unable to speak and having to indicate agreement by gesturing, even.

      But asphyxiating in shock?

      Of course the notion of СКАЧАТЬ