Maureen Child: Marrying for King's Millions / The Spanish Aristocrat's Woman: Marrying for King's Millions

Marrying for King’s Millionsby Maureen Child

“Maybe you’ve been playing me all along, Julie.”

She blew out a breath, frustrated. If he was going to continue to believe that, then this year was going to be misery. “I told you, Travis, I wouldn’t do that.”

“I’d like to believe you,” he was saying, reaching out with a finger to play with one of the straps on her dress. “But I’m thinking I need some convincing.”

“I don’t know what more I can say.”

“No more talking.”

“Then what…”

He slid one of her dress straps down her shoulder and smoothed his thumb over her skin. Her gaze locked with his, Julie’s breath caught and her blood began to pump, thick and hot and urgent.

“I paid a hundred thousand dollars to marry you today,” Travis said, dipping his head to kiss her bare shoulder.

Julie sucked in a gulp of air.

“Now,” he said, straightening up as his finger slid along the line of her bodice, dipping down to caress the valley between her breasts. “How about you show me what I paid for?”

The Spanish Aristocrat’s Womanby Katherine Garbera

“Rumour has it you’re engaged,”Gui’s friend Tristan said.

“Yes,” Gui said. He would have to convince Kara that the engagement was real for now. No way would he expose her to society’s snide comments, by admitting that a moment of weakness had made him claim her as his own.

“Kara’s a good choice for you.”

“She is?” He knew nothing about the woman except that she had the softest lips he’d ever tasted. When he kissed her, he forgot that all other women existed.

Not a bad start for an affair, but marriage… Damn. Was he really considering marrying her?

As his friend’s words echoed in his mind, he realised that, yes, he was.

MAUREEN CHILD

KATHERINE GARBERA

www.millsandboon.co.uk

by

Maureen Child

MAUREEN CHILD

is a California native who loves to travel. Every chance they get, she and her husband are taking off on another research trip. An author of more than sixty books, Maureen loves a happy ending and still swears that she has the best job in the world. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two children and a golden retriever with delusions of grandeur.

You can contact Maureen via her website: www.maureenchild.com.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always loved a marriage-of-convenience story. So when I came up with the idea for the KINGS OF CALIFORNIA series, I decided I would give each of the King brothers a marriage of convenience!

You’ve already met Adam and Gina. In Marryingfor King’s Millions , it’s middle King brother Travis’s turn.

Travis needs a wife to help his business. Julie O’Hara needs a hand getting her own future started. When they agree to marry for a year, neither of them has any idea just how quickly things will get out of hand!

I love stories where old friends see each other in a new light. I enjoy the challenge of taking two characters who’ve known each other for years and showing them that there are still surprises to be revealed.

I do hope you’re all having as much fun with the King family as I am! You can keep up with my new coming releases by visiting my website at www.maureenchild.com.

Happy reading!

Maureen

To the best plot group in the known universe

– Susan Mallery, Christine Rimmer, Teresa

Southwick and Kate Carlisle. Thank you all for

sharing your friendship, your quick wit, your

brilliant ideas and your never-ending

well of patience.

One

“No way. Sorry, Travis, I just can’t marry you.” Julie O’Hara leaned against the closed door and kept her voice pitched loud enough so that it would carry to the man on the other side.

Clearly, he heard her.

“Oh, yes you can,” he said, and even through the door, his voice was all steely determination. “Now cut the dramatics and open the damn door.”

Julie’s head dropped back against the door and she rolled her eyes to look at the high, beamed ceiling. Sunlight slanted in through the windows across the room and the golden wash from the sun created shadows on the walls that looked eerily like the bars on a cell.

Coincidence?

She didn’t think so.

This was a huge mistake. She knew it down to her bones. The bad feeling that had been taking root inside her for the last month had suddenly blossomed into big, black flowers. Ooh, there was an image.

“Travis, think about this for a minute.”

“Not really the time for any more thinking, Julie,” he said. “The guests are here, the minister’s waiting and we are getting married.”

Her stomach did a slow pitch and roll and she clenched her teeth together and took a few deep breaths through her nose. Didn’t really help. How in the heck had she gotten herself into this? Julie’s eyes flew open when Travis King’s knuckles rapped on the door again and she looked around the room with a frantic gaze, futilely searching for an escape route.

But there wasn’t one and she knew it. She was trapped in this plush guest room in Travis’s castle like house on the King Vineyard. Just like the rest of the house, it was gorgeous, elegant and so far away from her ordinary world she felt like a servant girl who’d sneaked into the mistress’s room to try on her clothes. Bad, bad feeling. And it was all her own fault.

She’d walked into this stupid situation with her eyes wide open. “Idiot.”

“Open the door, Julie….”

“It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding,” she said.

“Uh-huh. Don’t think that matters so much in our case, so open up.”

Our case .

Of course their case was special. Because this wasn’t your ordinary, everyday wedding.

It had all seemed so simple a month ago, she thought and instantly remembered just how she’d gotten to this place in her life.

“I need a wife,” Travis had said. “You need a future. It’s perfect.”

Julie had looked at him, sitting across from her in a red vinyl booth at Terri’s Diner in the heart of downtown Birkfield, California. In a small town, the diner was the one place where everyone eventually showed up. Julie had practically grown up sliding across the red vinyl seats.

Her first date had brought her here. She’d nursed her first broken heart over four double-chocolate shakes. And now she was getting a marriage proposal here.

Shouldn’t there be a plaque?

“It’s not perfect,” she argued, thinking that at least one of them had to be logical here. Travis had always been more impulsive than she—well, except for that one time when she’d married a man she thought loved her, only to find out too late that he hadn’t. See where impulsiveness had gotten her?

Firmly, she said, “There’s an easier solution, Travis. Just go find another distributor for your wines.”

He shook his head, dark brown hair flopping across his forehead in a way that made her want to reach across the table and smooth it back for him. She resisted.

“Can’t. Thomas Henry is the best and you know I never settle for less than the best.”

True, he never had. Travis had grown up as a member of one of the wealthiest, most powerful families in the state. He’d long ago grown accustomed to being on top. Being number one. And there was nothing Travis cared for more than King Vineyards. Ever since taking it over from his late father, he’d put in the time and effort required to make King wines known all over California.