Janice Maynard: A Contract Seduction

“You’re mine—for as long as we have.”

For the sake of a family legacy, he must strike a marriage bargain.

With six months to live, Charleston heir Jonathan Tarleton must secure his family’s business—with a contract marriage. He convinces his beautiful, dedicated assistant, Lisette Stanhope, to be his bride, telling himself the proposal has nothing to do with his raw need to make Lisette his . Then their commitment is put to the ultimate test...

USA TODAY bestselling author JANICE MAYNARDloved books and writing even as a child. After multiple rejections, she finally sold her first manuscript! Since then, she has written fifty-plus books and novellas. Janice lives in Tennessee with her husband, Charles. They love hiking, travelling and family time.

You can connect with Janice at

www.janicemaynard.com www.Twitter.com/janicemaynard www.Facebook.com/janicemaynardreaderpage www.Facebook.com/JaniceSMaynardand www.Instagram.com/TheRealJaniceMaynard.

Also by Janice Maynard

A Not-So-Innocent Seduction

Baby for Keeps

Christmas in the Billionaire’s Bed

Twins on the Way

Second Chance with the Billionaire

How to Sleep with the Boss

For Baby’s Sake

Blame It On Christmas

Hot Texas Nights

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

A Contract Seduction

Janice Maynard

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09233-3

A CONTRACT SEDUCTION

© 2019 Janice Maynard

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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For Charles, my one and only—thank you

for being my hero in every way!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

About the Publisher

One

T umor. Inoperable. Cancer.

Jonathan Tarleton gripped the steering wheel, white knuckled, and stared unseeingly through the windshield. The traffic on the 526 beltway that surrounded Charleston was light in the middle of the day. Even so, he probably shouldn’t be driving. He was undoubtedly in shock. But all he could think about was going home.

Like an injured animal seeking its den, he needed to go to ground. To hide. To come to grips with the unimaginable.

Thank God, his sister was recently married and living with her new husband, Jonathan’s best friend. If Jonathan had come face-to-face with Mazie at the big house out at the beach, his sibling would have known instantly that something was wrong. The two of them were close.

Under ordinary circumstances, neither Jonathan nor Mazie would still be living under the roof where they had grown up. But their father was all alone and getting more and more feeble day by day. Though a number of the old man’s friends had moved to communities where they had companionship and medical care close at hand, Gerald Tarleton clung to his fortress of a home on a barrier island.

Jonathan pulled into the under-house parking and rested his forehead on his hands. He felt weak and scared and angry. How the hell was this going to work? He was the sole force that directed the family shipping company. Even though his father’s name was still on the letterhead, Jonathan carried the weight of the entire enterprise.

His twin brother should have been here to help, but Hartley was nowhere to be found. After inexplicably stealing a million dollars from the company and then vanishing, Hartley had been written out of the will and out of their lives.

The betrayal had cut Jonathan to the bone. It was a secret hurt that ate at him like the disease in his body. He and his father were the only ones who knew what had happened. They hadn’t wanted to break Mazie’s heart or tarnish her image of her big brother.

With a shaking hand, Jonathan turned off the ignition. Instantly—now that the AC was unavailable—humidity began to filter into the vehicle. Jonathan was a South Carolina lowlander to the bone, but the summer heat could be brutal.

He gathered his things and headed upstairs. Because of security concerns, the Tarletons had two high-tech offices inside the house in addition to those at Tarleton Shipping headquarters. Not only did the arrangement ensure privacy when necessary, but it meant that Jonathan could keep tabs on his father. The situation sometimes cramped his style, but he had a condo in the city where he could escape on occasion.

For a man of thirty-one, almost thirty-two, his social life was a joke. He dated occasionally, but few women understood the demands he juggled. His family’s decades-old shipping empire was both his great privilege and his curse. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt close to any woman, physically or otherwise.

But he made the sacrifices willingly. He was proud of what the Tarletons had built here in Charleston. Proud, and absolutely determined to see it thrive.

He paused for a moment in the living room to stare out through the expansive plate-glass windows to the ocean glittering beneath a June sun. The view never failed to soothe him. Until today.