The Rented Bride (Highland Billionaires Book 1)

by KyAnn Waters

  Richard Anderson slipped Ms. Monahan’s hand into the crook of his arm and led her toward the steps. Toward Ben. She glanced left, and the press snapped photos and thrust microphones toward her. Then she spotted him. Her brow furrowed. Understanding hardened her expression and Ben read in her eyes a mirror image of his thoughts: What the hell are you doing here? He’d bet a thousand bucks someone forgot to call him to cancel. Damn good thing, too, because he’d have come no matter what.

  They reached him.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Elizabeth hissed under her breath.

  She had that right. Was that a hint of nipple peeking over the bodice of her dress? The damn thing was scandalous, even for these over-the-top designers.

  “You knew Adam was going to be here, Liz,” Richard said in a low voice. “You hired him.”

  Adam Billings. His alias.

  She flashed a dazzling smile that caught Ben off guard before he caught sight of a reporter pointing a camera at them. The camera flashed and her smile didn’t falter when she said under her breath to Anderson, “You know good-and-well I forgot he was going to be here, and you conveniently forgot to remind me.”

  She darted a glance over her shoulder, clearly worried her whispered words might have been overheard by a reporter who had edged closer. Not much chance of that happening amid the babble of other reporters.

  She really couldn't ask him to leave, but he had to play the part of a pliant employee. Ben angled his head away from the reporters in case any of the vultures could read lips. “I can leave, if you prefer, ma’am.”

  “Liz, half of Texas is watching us,” Anderson said. “Make a scene now, and it’ll be all over the state before the evening is over. We need him.”

  Something Ben couldn’t quite define flickered in her gaze, then she shot Anderson a look to kill. “I sleep with the CEO, Richard. You’re fired.”

  Ben bit back a laugh.

  Anderson nodded. “Sure thing, Liz. As soon as the party’s over, I’ll pack up my desk.” He transferred her hand to Ben’s arm. “She’s all yours. Good luck.”

  The determination to get to know her better had formed two days ago, during a photo shoot with him and Tanya after the Thompson Agency sent him in to replace the model originally hired to escort Tanya.

  Ben glanced at her legs, then reminded himself not to combine business with pleasure. So what if he hadn't expected to see her tonight dressed in an outfit that heated his blood? He had to get inside the Remmey’s mansion. Business now. Pleasure later.

  Liz gripped his arm and he had the feeling she was considering a quick getaway. Ben covered her hand with his—if nothing else to keep her from bolting. Liz Monahan was his ticket through the door.

  He led her up the stairs and a man dressed like a British soldier opened the door at their approach. They entered the foyer and the door closed behind them, cutting off the voices. Ben squinted against a glow of chandelier light bouncing off the white marble floor. A sweeping staircase to their right led to a gallery that encircled the foyer. Directly ahead, three arched doorways opened to the rear of the estate. An escape route if anything went wrong. But Liz Monahan as his date might ensure nothing went wrong. Slipping away from her would be easier than ditching Tanya. If Liz was all business as she had been during their shoot two days ago, she wouldn’t miss him.

  He steered her left, toward the music wafting through an arched doorway. They reached the room and he turned Liz right in the direction of a dancefloor near a twelve-piece orchestra.

  Ben waited until they’d passed a man and woman talking in low tones before whispering to her, “Is that true?”

  She looked up. “What?”

  He leaned closer. “Do you really sleep with the CEO?”

  Frustration flickered across her features. “No, but I’d give him a go if he really would fire Richard.”

  Ben laughed. He just bet she would. “He’s right, you know. You are the one who hired me.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You I can fire—and don’t think your good looks will stop me.”

  So she had noticed. During the photo shoot she’d appraised him like a prize horse.

  Ben shrugged. “I’m an independent contractor, if you recall. I don’t have to work for Nina Bruno Designs again.”

  “Nina Bruno Designs is the best designer this side of the Mississippi. You’d be a fool not to want to work for us again.”

  She actually sounded offended.

  “Maybe that means I should sleep with you,” he said.

  She shot him one of the looks she’d given Anderson. “I don’t rob the cradle.”

  “Then I guess we have a deal.”

  She opened her mouth for a retort but, instead, smiled at a large group they skirted a large group

  “Not that I’m disappointed,” he said, “but where is Tanya, by the way?”

  She slowed and her smile wavered. “Over there.”

  He looked across the sea of bodies in the direction she stared. Tanya stood surrounded by a group of men. The man on her left shifted so that his face came into view and Ben’s heart jumped to a hard hammer.

  Carlos Sanchez.

  The human traffics dealer wasn’t supposed to be in Texas.

  Also by KyAnn Waters

  Betrayed Vows

  Everything in Gretchen Booker’s life was as she wanted it. A husband on her terms. Companionship without physical contact. That’s why she married a lifer. Who would’ve thought it would all come to an end after only ten years?

  Life on the outside is not as Landon Booker expected. But how can he make a future for himself beyond prison walls when the woman who is supposed to love him wants to see him sent back to the penitentiary.

  Crystal Evans isn’t a home wrecker. Landon needs a friend…someone who can help protect him from his conspiring wife. Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan.

  Yet vows betrayed leave all three with something to lose—Crystal her heart, Landon his freedom, and Gretchen the life she had before.

  To Serve and Protect

  McKenna Porter is suspected of killing her wealthy father. Her plan is to keep the dangerously sexy detective assigned to the case close...very close until she can uncover the truth.

  She's guilty. Why else would she lie about her alibi and compromise the case? Yet Detective Dustin Pearce trusts his instincts. And right now those instincts have his interrogation tactics happening between the sheets.

  Connect with KyAnn

  www.kyannwaters.com

  https://www.facebook.com/KyAnnWaters

  https://twitter.com/KyAnnWaters

  Also by Tarah Scott

  Claimed

  Sometimes, the hero must be the villain...

  Fourteen months ago, Lady Rhoslyn lost her husband and infant son to a fever. Now, by order of King Edward I, she is yanked from the healing tranquility of a convent to marry the king’s favored bastard knight. Rhoslyn has no intention of returning to the home where her husband and child died. Neither does she intend to hand over her fortune to the ‘Dragon’—no matter his sweet promises and warm kisses.

  Talbot St. Claire tires of war. Seventeen years is enough. King Edward will never release him from service, but the king promises Talbot will find some peace in front of his own hearth. Talbot expects to find a horse-faced, hostile woman in the Scottish heiress Edward commands him to marry. Instead, he discovers a fiery Highland beauty worthy of a man’s respect...and love. Talbot determines to do anything to win his new bride’s acceptance. Anything except the one thing she demands: betray his king and embrace his Scottish heritage.

  My Highland Love

  Voted Indie Romance Convention Readers Choice Award's best historical romance of 2013

  How does a woman tell her betrothed that she murdered her first husband?

  Shipwrecked in the Scottish Highlands, American heiress Elise Kingston quietly plans revenge for the deaths of her daughter and the brother who sacrificed his life to save her.

 
When Marcus MacGregor, Marquess of Ashlund, returns to his Highland home to discover a stunning American woman has been taken in by his clan, his attraction is instant and he resolves to make her his—no matter what secret she's keeping.

  Elise is shocked by her need for Marcus and, too late, discovers that her feelings make him a target of her enemy—a man powerful enough to destroy even a Scottish nobleman.

  My Highland Lord

  London Heiress kidnapped by the Marquess of Ashlund, read the headlines. Yet no one tried to save her.

  Phoebe Wallington was seven years old when a mass assassination attempt rocked Regency England. Her father was the only accused traitor to elude capture. Seventeen years later, the one man who could prove her father's innocence is dead. Now as a grown woman and a British spy, she's no closer to learning what really happened that day.

  Phoebe's quest for the truth takes a sudden turn when she's kidnapped by a suspected traitor. But Kiernan MacGregor, the Marquess of Ashlund, may not live long enough to stand trial. Someone wants him dead…and Phoebe stands in the killer's way. The only way to save her reputation and protect Kiernan is to marry him.

  A Knight of Passion

  Lady Riana Ellis will risk the fires of Hell for those she loves.

  Can she let a man do the same for her?

  As whore for the Duchess of Arundel, Lady Riana Ellis keeps her sister safe from the duke’s lascivious desires. Now the duchess demands that Riana murder the man already sent to her bed.

  Sir Bryant Cullen determines to have the duchess’ whore. Her land is a prize, but it’s her secrets he wants. Once he knows what she knows, he will control one of the most powerful houses in Scotland. And she will be his.

  This is erotic romance

  The Pendulum: Legacy of the Celtic Brooch

  Two Men.

  Two murderers.

  Two demands for the promised payment of marriage.

  Murder, deceit, and fraud pull Lady Arin Keith between these men.

  Which one will bed her, claim her...own her?

  Seduced

  It’s a Mississippi Deputy Sheriff’s duty to bring a serial killer to justice…even when he’s a three hundred year old Scottish lord. It’s an SAS agent’s duty to save her.

  With each passing day, Lord Colin Morrison grows more furious...and more desperate. In three hundred years, not one of the women who shared his bed broke the spell that imprisoned him in Castle Morrison. Margot Saulnier is different. She can save him. All she has to do is give in to her desire for him. Then die.

  Deputy Sheriff Margot Saulnier knows her best friend murdered her husband—Margot’s cousin—but she can’t prove it. Now, four years later, out of the blue, Cat calls Margot from Scotland and invites her to visit. Margot turns in her badge and leaves Mississippi. This time, she’ll do whatever it takes to prove Cat murdered Donny. Margot didn’t plan on falling in love with an SAS Agent—or a three-hundred-year-old Scottish lord. Now she must choose.

  SAS Agent Charles McNeil is going to keep Margot Saulnier out of trouble—whether she likes it or not. He understands her need for justice, but with no proof and no authority, she’s headed for serious trouble. So is he. Charles didn’t plan on falling in love with Margot. Neither did he plan on saving her from a serial killer.

  The Highlander’s Improper Wife

  A proper young lady should never attend a Masque...Aphrodite is no lady.

  Betrothal to the callous Lord Blackhall painted a future devoid of love. Upon his death, Lady Caroline Wilmont is promised to the younger brother. Caroline refuses to allow her first taste of desire to be at the hands of a man who would rather have any woman but her. This, her last night of freedom, is to be a memory of lust that she can take with her throughout her loveless marriage. As Aphrodite, Caroline attends a masque determined to find a man to initiate her into the intimacies of erotic love.

  Taran Robertson, Viscount of Blackhall, makes no secret that he despises his obligation to marry the Sassenach heiress chosen for him by his father. As a last foray before his wedding, he attends a masque. However, the spirited vixen he meets and seduces has secrets...secrets that just may reveal he’s to have an improper wife.

  Double Bang!

  Sara Martin has a problem. And it’s not the attraction she has for her co-worker Devon Curran…or the lust she feels for her sexy neighbor, Rigg. Yes, those are problems. But she has bigger issues. There’s been a security breach in the impenetrable computer system at work. Suddenly Devon doesn’t look happy. And that is a gun in his pocket!

  Devon is working undercover…and Sara is about to blow his case. He’d rather she blow him. She’s as smart as she is beautiful. But he’s lied to protect her. What will she do when she discovers he works with a partner? Tonight, they are going to keep her close…very close…in their protective custody.

  Born Into Fire

  Ryalda - the Element heroes of old - leak from the dark void of nothingness, Ghen, and bring with them beauty, desire... and destruction.

  Air Element, Erion aches to feel the heat of Kenna's emerging fire. However, merging his wind with the woman on the cusp of transformation comes with great risk. A risk he's unwilling to take. But with a male Fire Element intent on enslaving Kenna, Erion reconsiders his vow. To protect her, they must merge, but he will not bond his wind with her fire.

  Aspiring glassblower, Kenna Lang finally has a showing that could launch her career - with Drakaura, blown glass replicas of the dragons of her dreams. A chance meeting with Erion ignites an attraction hotter than the furnace used to blow glass. Drawn into an erotic joining, Kenna is born into fire. Now her world is going up in flames.

  Merged as Air and Fire, their power is unimaginable. However, both are unprepared for the emotions awakened by their joining and the timeless battle waged against them. Only together can they defeat their enemies, both Element and Dragon, and escape the darkness of Ghen.

  Connect with Tarah

  Twitter: @TarahScott

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/TarahScott/

  www.tarahscott.com