by Helen Conrad
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Copyright © 2013 Helen Conrad
Cover Copyright © 2013 DoorKnock Publishing
Cover images from Shutterstock.com
First Edition April, 2013 published by DoorKnock Publishing
Destiny Bay Books 4 − 6
Make-believe Wife - Promoted to Wife -
Not the Marrying Kind
By Helen Conrad
Table of Contents
Make-Believe Wife
Title Page
Cast of Characters
CHAPTER ONE: Feet of Clay
CHAPTER TWO: Take Me Home Tonight
CHAPTER THREE: Cheaters Never Prosper.
CHAPTER FOUR: Up, Up and Away
CHAPTER FIVE: Into the Woods
CHAPTER SIX: Avocado Green
CHAPTER SEVEN: Buy Me the Moon
CHAPTER EIGHT: It’s a Balancing Act
CHAPTER NINE: A Time To Heal
CHAPTER TEN: Meant To Be
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Affirmation
Promoted to Wife
Title Page
Cast of Characters
CHAPTER ONE: Carry On, Jeeves
CHAPTER TWO: The Kids Are Coming!
CHAPTER THREE: A Butler’s Work Is Never Done
CHAPTER FOUR: No Matter What You Do
CHAPTER FIVE: They Don’t Promote Butlers To Wife
CHAPTER SIX: At His Command
CHAPTER SEVEN: Aunt Julia Shakes Things Up
CHAPTER EIGHT: A Force To Be Reckoned With
CHAPTER NINE: Learning Navigation
CHAPTER TEN: Koalas Need Mothers Too
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Night They Were Dancing….
Not the Marrying Kind
Title Page
Cast of Characters
CHAPTER ONE: To Catch a Thief
CHAPTER TWO: Sushi Fixes Everything
CHAPTER THREE: Casing the Joint
CHAPTER FOUR: We Meet Again
CHAPTER FIVE: The Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Mistake
CHAPTER SIX: Take My Breath Away
CHAPTER SEVEN: Hot Stuff
CHAPTER EIGHT: Men Like Michael
CHAPTER NINE: Irresistible is What You Are
CHAPTER TEN: Teaching a Lesson to the Teacher
CHAPTER ELEVEN: All Fall Down
Also Available from Doorknock Publishing
Excerpt from Husband Wanted: Will Train
Author Helen Conrad
Make-believe Wife
Make-Believe Wife
Destiny Bay Book 4
By Helen Conrad
He was her childhood crush come to life and he seemed to want her this time. Did she dare risk her famous father’s scorn—again?
Kathy’s whole life is focused on winning at swimming to redeem herself with her father. She has no time for Jason, a champion himself, who doesn’t believe she can do it. Will she let his handsome face and intoxicating lovemaking throw her off the track again? She has to make a choice—love, or winning. Either one will tear her life apart.
Destiny Bay-Forever Yours
Book 1-My Little Runaway
Book 2-Wife For a Night
Book 3-Too Scared to Breathe
Book 4-Make Believe Wife
Book 5-Promoted to Wife
Book 6-Not the Marrying Kind
Cast of Characters in the series Destiny Bay~Forever Yours
MAKE-BELIEVE WIFE
The three children of Dr. Stephen Carrington, wealthy local patriarch.
His wife is Grace Carrington, an internationally known poet.
Kathy Carrington~oldest daughter of Dr. Stephen, Kathy was expected to do great things—but what she was best at—swimming—didn’t quite fit the roadmap her father had for her, and he let her know she was a disappointment at every turn.
Jason Harper~known as Jace, he’s a former Olympic swimmer and Kathy’s idol from the days when she was winning. If he can’t believe in her talent, how can she believe in herself?
Rick Carrington~Kathy’s brother, a widower with two young children.
Shelley Carrington~the baby of the family developing a career in clinical psychology.
The three sons of Richard Carrington, wealthy attorney
and Martha Grover Carrington.
Reid Carrington~ambitious attorney determined to restore the reputation of his family after his father’s scandal almost ruined them. Now he’s married to:
Jennifer Thornton who grew up next door to the Carringtons, but left in order to save her parents from heartbreak. Now she hopes to bring her family new joy with the birth of her baby.
Matt Carrington~has been gone for years after a rift with his father sent him into undercover work in Los Angeles. He owns hotels in Destiny Bay and Hawaii and is now married to:
Janet Cardona~a lovely young woman he met while running a major con on a swindler. She almost ruined his operation but ended up changing his life instead. The baby she’s carrying will bring them even more changes.
Grant Carrington~always a rebel, Grant went against his father’s plans for him and became a race car driver whose championship career was recently in jeopardy over serious injuries—physical and emotional-- suffered in a crash.
Carrie Harlow~Mickey’s cousin, a young physical therapist who has recently returned home to Destiny Bay. Now married to Grant, she’s carrying Carrington baby number three.
A Few Others
Tag Carrington~a Carrington cousin, younger and more adrift, he lives mostly on his boat and avoids all risk of becoming a responsible adult, though he is committed to caring for :
Missy Carrington~ Missy and her brother Tag spent too many years being hauled around the countryside as children by their hippy mother and now both pay the price.
Jim Corbett~trainer and coach whose dreams depend on Kathy winning.
Maxie~Kathy’s roommate, in love with Jim, though he doesn’t know it.
Mickey Adams~owner and proprietor of Mickey’s on the Bay, a local café where the Carringtons tend to hang out. She’s hopelessly in love with the much younger Tag and torn between him and the wealthy man who could make the future so much brighter for her and her child:
Meggie Adams~Mickey’s adorable three year old
Robert Harding~wealthy financier who wants to make Mickey his own.
CHAPTER ONE:
Feet of Clay
Kathy Carrington hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for almost a year. She didn’t drink. She was a world-class swimmer, an athlete in training.
So what the heck was she doing guzzling a glass of pink champagne as though it was soda pop? She stared at the glass and the twinkling liquid, then closed her eyes and swayed as she listened to the music and talk and laughter all around her. Drawing in a deep breath, she opened her eyes and looked for some way to get rid of the drink. There was nothing, no table, no counter top. After a quick glance around the beautiful mansion grounds to see if anyone was watching, she slipped the champagne, glass and all, into a potted plant, then walked away quickly.
There. At least she’d stopped herself before she’d gone too far in completely violating all her own rules. Now to pull herself together and get to the heart of her mission. She’d come to this ex
clusive party to get donors to fork over money. To do that, you had to mingle with the right people. So why did she keep lingering in the outer area, far from the chattering masses? She had a job to do.
Sighing, she strolled toward the swimming pool. Funny how that was what always drew her. Her refuge.
The pool was a long, perfectly tiled rectangle, connected with a swim-way to another just like it that was more in the center of the party. Here, the patio was empty and the water looked cool and inviting. She’d enjoyed the solitude, but now she heard someone coming and she turned to see if she needed to retreat to some other place. A tall, strikingly handsome man with a party girl on each arm was coming her way.
“Careful girls,” he was saying to the two gigglers he was escorting. “We don’t want to end up in the water.”
“Why not?” one of them shrieked, beginning to push in that direction. “I can swim!”
“Me too!” cried the other, tugging in the same direction.
“Whoa, girls,” the man protested, half laughing, “I’ve had too much to drink tonight to fight you both off.”
Kathy made a face and turned to leave, but the threesome was directly in her path. Her gaze met the good-looking man’s dark blue eyes and held for a moment too long. He’d seen her gesture of disdain and—cocking an eyebrow-- he was letting her know it.
But that meant he wasn’t prepared when the girls with him began to get serious about pushing him closer toward the edge of the pool. It began as a tease, and got rapidly more dangerous.
“Hey,” he said as he looked back and realized how close he was. His arms began to windmill, trying to stop the inevitable tilt toward the water.
The girls were laughing helplessly and Kathy moved without thinking twice. Her life was spent around pools. She only did what she would have done for any other pathetic creature about to tumble in. She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck—well, by the collar of his jacket at any rate. And yanked him back from a certain soaking.
He made it back onto firm footing and turned to look at her, shrugging back into the jacket she’d nearly torn off him. “I don’t know whether to thank you, or run for cover,” he said mildly, looking her over.
“Neither is necessary,” she returned coolly, turning once again to try to get out of the area. But before she could escape, his hard fingers closed around her bare upper arm and he suddenly seemed to have all his strength and coordination back.
Turning to glare at him, she tried to pull away.
“You can’t go like this, darling,” he was saying smoothly, his words slightly slurred, but still controlled. “I've been waiting for you all evening I'm so glad you're finally here.”
The lights from a hundred paper lanterns sparkled above the two connecting swimming pools, set charmingly behind the low, Spanish-style side house. A small orchestra was playing “The Tennessee Waltz.” Waiters darted here and there carrying linen-draped trays of delicious things to eat and drink.
And here she was, trapped by a maniac who was suddenly pretending to know her.
She frowned her annoyance, looking from the man's dark blue eyes to those of the two vacuously smiling girls. For just a fragment of a second, when she first saw him, she'd thought there really was something familiar in his rock-hewn face. But as she looked more closely, she was pretty sure she was wrong and she tried to peal his fingers away.
She’d spent her first hour here trying to make small talk with the other guests. She’d chatted with university people who pretended to be big fans but didn’t know a thing about swimming and she’d tried to charm a handsome CEO who’d basically laughed at her, but she refused to go so far as to let herself be mauled by slightly inebriated men. That was asking too much.
Pulling at her arm and frowning, she tried to get that across to him, but that didn't quell his enthusiasm at all. Before she could come up with a properly withering response, he had surged ahead of her.
“Girls,” he announced to the two young women he had in tow, “meet my wife, Mrs. Harper.”
Kathy blinked and looked over her shoulder, not sure she'd heard him correctly. Wife? Where?
As realization dawned, she almost laughed aloud. The crazy man meant her!
“Darling,” he went on, smiling happily at her dismay, “meet the girls.”
At first glance the “girls” looked practically identical. Both were beautiful in a vacant way, both tall, both wearing dresses that revealed more than was wise, and both shining all over—hair, teeth, lipstick. She squinted as she looked at them and had to hold in check an involuntary impulse to reach for her sunglasses.
“How do you do, Mrs. Harper?” lisped the redhead.
“So nice to meet you,” chirped the blonde.
Kathy merely gazed back, too stunned to know what to say.
The man, who Kathy assumed must be Harper, unless even that was a fabrication, dropped the grin.
“You see,” he said sadly, “she's speechless.” He turned to the “girls.” “She doesn't approve of my drinking, or my . . . ahem . . . friendliness with young ladies.” He managed to look boyishly chagrined, aided by the lock of silky hair dangling attractively over his forehead. “Perhaps the two of you had better leave us alone to iron out our differences.”
The two young women wore identical looks of distress.
“Oh, do we have to go?” wailed the redhead, clutching at his arm. “You promised you'd take us back to your room to show us your . . .” She frowned, searching her empty mind. “What were they?”
“Etchings, no doubt.” Kathy's tongue, finally found, was just a touch waspish. “I'm sure he carries them with him everywhere, in case of emergencies.”
Glancing up at him questioningly, she found that the man was laughing—not out loud, but she could read the amusement glittering in his eyes. She frowned. Did he take anything seriously?
She had no idea why he'd decided to pretend she was his wife. Maybe he enjoyed putting people in impossible situations. Maybe…maybe he’d seen something in her that made him want to keep her here. There had been something when their gazes had first met. She’d felt it. Maybe he’d felt it too.
But that didn’t matter. She wanted to leave.
Again she tried to tug her arm free, but his grip tightened. He wasn't about to let go of her, though he'd pulled away from the two other women himself and seemed to really want them to be gone.
But the redhead was gazing at Kathy frankly, fascinated by what she'd said.
“Etchings. Yeah, that was it.” She wrinkled her nose prettily. “Just what are etchings, anyway?”
“Baited traps for easy game,” Kathy informed her, her eyes sending darts to the man who held her prisoner. Her long blonde hair—the one thing she refused to sacrifice for her goal, the obsession that was now her life—was twisted into a tight braid at the back of her neck, which bounced against her back as she talked. “I'd avoid them if I were you.”
“Huh?” The redhead didn't get it.
“Never mind, girls,” Harper said smoothly. “It's just my wife's little joke. Why don't the two of you go on over and talk to Professor Clanton?” He pointed out a tall, distinguished-looking man smoking a pipe. “He's the drama coach at the university, and I've heard he has Hollywood connections.”
The two women looked at each other. ““Oooh!” they squealed simultaneously and rushed off, leaving behind a cloud of heavy perfume.
“Well, they're gone.” Kathy glanced at the hand that still held her. “What about me? Do I get to go, too?”
“Don't be silly.” He gazed down at her assessingly. “Girlfriends are will-o'-the-wisps from the word go. But wives don't run out on husbands. Especially not at boring parties. That's one of the main reasons a fellow marries in the first place.”
For just a moment Kathy thought she detected a peculiar edge of bitterness to his tone. She looked up sharply, but all she saw was that same old shimmer of amusement that made her so uneasy.
“Look, mister,” she said,
attempting a firm tone. “I'm not your wife. I don't know you from Adam. I think it’s time you let me go.”
He turned so that his face was very close to her hair. “Not yet,” he said softly, his breath stirring the tendrils that flew around her face.
She drew her breath in and her pulse began to beat just a little too fast. There was something engagingly male about him. And in this case, she found herself intrigued rather than put off by his approach.
He began to stroll across the grass, forcing her to follow at his side.
Well, “force” might be too strong a term, she thought to herself as she followed him. Something about the man had captivated her curiosity. She didn't have any idea what he could want with her, but when she came right down to it, finding out would be more interesting than standing behind a ficus plant glancing at her watch to see if she could go home yet.
She wondered, fleetingly, what the others here thought. Despite his overindulging, he was obviously one of the elite in this milieu. He was dressed as though he had his own private tailor who knew how to fit him to perfection. He looked so suave, so elegant, and here she was in a skimpy, off-the-shoulder peasant dress that was right off the bargain-basement rack and looked it.
Her tall, slim figure looked good no matter what she put on it, but she knew that wasn't what counted out on the social circuit. Clothes made the man—or woman. But markdowns were all she could afford right now, living as she was from hand to mouth. Every extra penny went toward her swim program.