Fiona Brand - Needed - One Convenient Husband

“I’ve changed my mind.”

Eva stopped in front of Kyle. Any nerves about seducing him had long since burned away. She ran a finger down his chest, igniting a trail of heat. The heady masculine scents of clean skin and sandalwood made her head spin.

His hand curled over hers. “What about?”

She boldly wound one arm around his neck, leaned in close and gently bit down on one earlobe. “The clause in our marriage agreement that prohibits sex. If anyone is going to sleep with my husband, it’s going to be me.”

When she would have drawn back, his hands closed on her waist, holding her against him. “I’ll get my lawyer to strike it out in the morning.”

“As long as we have a verbal agreement, the new condition is in effect.”

“We could shake on it,” he muttered, “but I have a better idea.” Lowering his head, he finally did what she’d been dying for him to do ever since the wedding ceremony. He kissed her.

* * *

Needed: One Convenient Husbandis part of The Pearl House series—Business and passion collide when two dynasties forge ties bound by love

Needed: One

Convenient

Husband

Fiona Brand

www.millsandboon.co.uk

FIONA BRANDlives in the sunny Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Now that both her sons are grown, she continues to love writing books and gardening. After a life-changing time in which she met Christ, she has undertaken study for a Bachelors in Theology and has become a member of The Order of St. Luke, Christ’s healing ministry.

For the Lord. Thank You.

I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

—John 8:12

Contents

Cover

Introduction “I’ve changed my mind.” Eva stopped in front of Kyle. Any nerves about seducing him had long since burned away. She ran a finger down his chest, igniting a trail of heat. The heady masculine scents of clean skin and sandalwood made her head spin. His hand curled over hers. “What about?” She boldly wound one arm around his neck, leaned in close and gently bit down on one earlobe. “The clause in our marriage agreement that prohibits sex. If anyone is going to sleep with my husband, it’s going to be me.” When she would have drawn back, his hands closed on her waist, holding her against him. “I’ll get my lawyer to strike it out in the morning.” “As long as we have a verbal agreement, the new condition is in effect.” “We could shake on it,” he muttered, “but I have a better idea.” Lowering his head, he finally did what she’d been dying for him to do ever since the wedding ceremony. He kissed her. * * * Needed: One Convenient Husband is part of The Pearl House series—Business and passion collide when two dynasties forge ties bound by love

Title Page Needed: One Convenient Husband Fiona Brand www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author FIONA BRAND lives in the sunny Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Now that both her sons are grown, she continues to love writing books and gardening. After a life-changing time in which she met Christ, she has undertaken study for a Bachelors in Theology and has become a member of The Order of St. Luke, Christ’s healing ministry.

Dedication For the Lord. Thank You. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. —John 8:12

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

One

Kyle Messena’s gaze narrowed as the bridal car pulled up outside Dolphin Bay’s windblown, hilltop church. The bride, festooned in white tulle, stepped out of the limousine. A drift of gauze obscured her face, but sunlight gleamed on tawny hair that was heart-stoppingly familiar.

Adrenaline pumped and time seemed to slow, stop, as he considered the stunning fact that, despite his efforts to prevent Eva Atraeus marrying a man whose motives were purely financial, she had utterly fooled him and the wedding he had thought he had nixed was going ahead.

Kyle had taken two long, gliding steps out of the inky shade cast by an aged oak into the blistering heat of a New Zealand summer’s day before the ocean breeze whipped the veil from the bride’s face.

It wasn’t Eva.

Relief unlocked the fierce tension that gripped him.

A tension that sliced through the indifference to relationships that had shrouded him for years, ever since the death of his wife and small son. Deaths that he should have prevented.

The unwanted, brooding intensity had grown over the months he had been entrusted with the duty of ensuring that the heiress to an Atraeus fortune married according to a draconian clause in her adoptive father’s will. Eva, in order to get control of her inheritance, had to either marry a Messena—him—or a man who genuinely wanted her and not her money.

Acting as Eva’s trustee did not sit well with Kyle. He was aware that his wily great-uncle, Mario, had named him as trustee in a last game-playing move to maneuver him into marrying the woman he had once wanted but left behind. Confronted by the mesmerizing power of an attraction that still held him in reluctant thrall and unable to accept that the one woman he had never been able to forget would marry someone else, Kyle had been unable to refuse the job.

A gust of wind whipped the bride’s veil to one side, revealing that she was a little on the plump side. Her hair was also a couple of shades lighter than the rich dark mane shot through with tawny highlights that had been a natural feature of Eva’s hair ever since he’d first set eyes on her at age sixteen.

Kyle’s jaw unlocked. Now that he had successfully circumvented Eva’s latest marriage plan, he was ready to leave, but when a zippy white sports car emblazoned with the name of Eva’s business, Perfect Weddings, pulled into a space, Kyle knew he wasn’t going anywhere.

Eva Atraeus, dressed in a pale pink button-down suit that clung in all the right places, closed the door with an expensive thunk. Cell held to one ear, she hooked a matching pale pink tote over her shoulder and started toward the church doors, her stride fluid and distractingly sexy in a pair of strappy high heels. At five feet seven, Eva was several inches too short for the runway, but with her elegant, curvy figure, mouthwatering cheekbones and exotic dark eyes, she had been a knockout success as a photographic model. Gorgeous, quirky and certifiably high maintenance, Eva had fascinated gossip columnists for years and dazzled more men than she’d had hot dinners, including him.

Every muscle in Kyle’s body tightened on a visceral hit of awareness that had become altogether too familiar.

A faint check in her step indicated that Eva had spotted him.

As the bridal party disappeared into the church, she terminated her call and changed direction. Stepping beneath the shade of the oak, she shoved the cell in her tote and glared at him. “What are you doing at my wedding?”

Kyle clamped down on his irritation at Eva’s deliberate play on the “my wedding” bit. It was true that it was supposed to have been her actual wedding day. Understandably, she was annoyed that he’d upset her plan to leverage a marriage of convenience by offering the groom a lucrative job in Dubai. The way Kyle saw it, he had simply countered one employment opportunity with another. The fact that Jeremy, an accountant, had taken the job so quickly and had even seemed relieved, more than justified his intervention. “You shouldn’t have arranged a wedding you knew couldn’t go ahead.”