Kathleen O'Brien - The Husband Contract

Cover Page

Excerpt “You are to inherit everything, but only if you can prove within one year that you are mature enough to handle it.” “Tell me, Mr. Logan,” Melanie replied, “did my uncle have any idea how a person can prove anything as intangible as maturity?” Clay didn’t look at all disturbed. “Actually, he said that the ideal proof would be for you to marry someone the executor approved of.” “I must marry to get my inheritance?”

About the Author KATHLEEN O’BRIEN, who lives in Florida, started out as a newspaper feature writer, but after marriage and motherhood, she traded that in to work on a novel. Kathleen likes strong heroes who overcome adversity, which is probably the result of her reading all those classic novels featuring tragic heroes when she was younger. However, being a true romantic, she prefers her stories to end happily!

Title Page The Husband Contract Kathleen O’Brien www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Copyright

“You are to inherit everything, but only if you can prove within one year that you are mature enough to handle it.”

“Tell me, Mr. Logan,” Melanie replied, “did my uncle have any idea how a person can prove anything as intangible as maturity?”

Clay didn’t look at all disturbed. “Actually, he said that the ideal proof would be for you to marry someone the executor approved of.”

“I must marry to get my inheritance?”

KATHLEEN O’BRIEN, who lives in Florida, started out as a newspaper feature writer, but after marriage and motherhood, she traded that in to work on a novel. Kathleen likes strong heroes who overcome adversity, which is probably the result of her reading all those classic novels featuring tragic heroes when she was younger. However, being a true romantic, she prefers her stories to end happily!

www.millsandboon.co.uk

“HEY, watch it,” Clay Logan growled, reaching out to grab the shoulder of a four-foot-tall jester who had just barreled past, sideswiping him with a plume of cotton candy.

“Well, sorry,” the kid said defensively, frowning at the pink mess on Clay’s shirt cuff. “I didn’t even see you.”

Clay plucked at the goo and tried not to look as annoyed as he felt. It wasn’t easy. He had to be in court in an hour, and his shirt was ruined.

“That’s okay.” He summoned a smile. “Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for Melanie Browning. Do you know where she could be?”

“Our Miss Browning?” The jester shook his head. “She was being Juliet this morning in the play, but now…” He shrugged. “Sorry.”

Clay sighed heavily as he felt the beginnings of a headache. He knew where Melanie Browning should have been, damn it. She should have been in his office where they’d had a ten o’clock appointment. She had baldly stood him up—no call, no excuses. And all, apparently, for the pleasure of playing Juhet at the Wakefield Boys Academy Medieval Day Fair. He rubbed one last time at his sleeve and then gave up—the stain was just spreading. Now his shirt and his fingers were wrecked.

Silently he cursed the benevolent impulse that had brought him here to track the woman down. He must have been insane. He should have buzzed Tracy to send in the next client and merely mailed Miss Browning a whopping bill for the missed appointment.

The jester guiltily eyed the damage he’d done. “Well, maybe I can find out for you,” he offered. He turned to a pair of teens sitting on a nearby bench. “Hey—you guys know where Miss Browning is?”

One of the older boys laughed scornfully. “Why would we tell you, dork?”

Clay frowned, surprised by the gratuitous rudeness. Who were these kids? The boys, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, were among the very few here today who were not wearing medieval costumes. Too chronically cool, no doubt, Clay thought, irritated by the swaggering boredom on their adolescent faces.

“You’re not telling me. You’re telling him,” the jester said, pointing at Clay as if the presence of an adult settled the question.

The teenagers didn’t seem impressed. They held their hands awkwardly behind their backs, and Clay could see two thin threads of smoke curling just over their shoulders. Smoking, at their age on school grounds? Rude and stupid.

“Him?” One of the boys stared at Clay, his smile defiant. “Who’s he? God?”

Clay met the sneer, unimpressed himself. He knew their type. Real scary guys—except for the cowlick and the acne and an occasional unplanned octave swoop.

“Yeah, I’m God,” he answered blandly. “And I’m late for the Apocalypse. So how about an answer, and I’ll let you get back to your smokes. Do you know where Miss Browning is or not?”

“Nope,” the boy said, his shoulders jiggling as he humedly stubbed out his cigarette. “We haven’t got a clue.”

That much was obvious, Clay thought wryly.

The jester scowled. “Well, you did know, Nick. You were with her after the play.”

The cowlick stirred. “Yeah, well, that was hours ago, dork,” he said. “We’re not Melanie’s keepers, you know.”

“No—she’s your keeper!” The jester turned to Clay with a gap-toothed grin. “You see…Nick is Miss Browning’s baby brother.”

Clay’s interest suddenly sharpened, and he gave the cowlick a second study. This was Nick Browning? He took in the boy slowly, from the greasy, chin-length hair tucked behind his large ears, down to the huge jeans that let an inch of plaid boxers peek through. His gaze rested at the boy’s feet, where he wore expensive shoes that were supposed to make him fly like an NBA superstar but undoubtedly didn’t.

God, he thought, what a punk. Maybe Joshua Browning had been right to tie up the inheritance after all. Now that he’d seen Nick, Clay had to agree that no doting twenty-four-yearold big sister was likely to be up to taming this teenage terror.

Clay, on the other hand, was a thirty-one-year-old, cynical, trial-hardened lawyer who definitely did not have a soft spot for budding juvenile delinquents.

He gave the boy his courtroom glare. “I find it difficult to believe you don’t have any idea where your sister is, Nick,” he said softly. “Perhaps you’d like to think again.”

Nick seemed to consider stonewalling—but only for a split second. Then, as if instinctively, he straightened his spine and let his tone slide a shade closer to courtesy. “I think…over on the softball fields,” he mumbled. “At the human chess match.”

“Why don’t you show me?” Clay made it a polite suggestion.

As if pulled by an invisible string, Nick rose sullenly from the bench and began shuffling across the school grounds. Clay gave his helpful jester a low thumbs-up and followed the slouching teen through crowds of giggling sword swallowers, whooping javelin throwers and diminutive sceptered kings.

Nick didn’t speak, so Clay was able to concentrate on avoiding the dozens of carelessly wielded weapons. He steered a particularly wide path around all cotton-candy sticks, icecream-cone towers and hot dogs slathered with mustard.

“This is it,” Nick muttered as they reached the game fields. He tilted his head toward the chess match, which was already in progress. “Over there.”