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Make-Believe Husband
Linda Varner
Three Weddings and a FamilyOn the road to happily-ever-after, a long-lost family is found!MAKE BELIEVE MATRIMONY…They were married…and still almost complete strangers. Gabriel Dillard and Jessica Landers had struck a dry-eyed deal to wed in name only, for Gabe needed a wife to be eligible for a lucrative job and Jessica needed a daddy for her adorable little girl.OF LIFETIME OF HONEYMOON BLISS?But sharing such tiny quarters with all six feet of georgeous Gabe was making Jessica feel that their marriage would be anything but platonic. Especially when Gabe's friendly pecks turned into heart-stopping kisses, and Jessica could no longer deny the feelings he stirred in her…. Linda Varner has arrived! Here's her 20th Silhouette Romance for your enjoyment. Savor every romantic moment! 20th BOOK SILHOUETTE ROMANCE
Gabe tried to imagine life without Jessi, and couldn’t. She was that much a part of him now. (#ua3dd2964-fc3d-584c-9d75-b133cd931a79)Letter to Reader (#u862f651c-07f3-5435-88fa-0616dec3de1c)Title Page (#u69114350-10dc-5947-9610-72e97c1c364a)Dedication (#uba3cb792-0712-5908-b3ad-750c8fa033f4)LINDA VARNER (#u1e860422-f3a0-571c-8a93-25a38409da0c)Chapter One (#u5379d3d1-7071-5546-b92f-4c9732246861)Chapter Two (#u0baea706-67f8-563e-96f9-b5f0a6e3d5a2)Chapter Three (#uc5122c88-963a-5de9-9bd6-b85e79d51083)Chapter Four (#ueb9c1b04-2c26-58f7-83c8-40a1c85f4c8f)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Gabe tried to imagine life without Jessi, and couldn’t. She was that much a part of him now.
“Ever thought about living in Washington?” Gabe’s question just asked itself, leaving him as startled as Jessi appeared to be when she glanced over her shoulder at him.
“You mean make our marriage legal?” Jessi sounded shocked.
“Surely the thought has crossed your mind.”
“Maybe,” Jessi murmured, confessing nothing.
“Admit it, Jessi,” Gabe said. “You’ve thought about what it would be like to be married to me, probably more than once.”
“And if I have?”
“What did you decide?”
“You’re a good man, Gabe. You appreciate the worth of family. I think you’d make a great husband.”
“Your husband?” Gabe couldn’t resist asking....
Dear Reader,
July brings you the fifth title of Silhouette Romance’s VIRGIN BRIDES promotion. This series is devoted to the beautiful metaphor of the traditional white wedding and the fairy-tale magic of innocence awakened to passionate love on the wedding night. In perennial favorite Sandra Steffen’s offering. The Bounty Hunter’s Bride, a rugged loner finds himself propositioned by the innocent beauty who’d nursed him to health in a remote mountain cabin. He resists her precious gift...but winds up her shotgun groom when her father and four brothers discover their hideaway!
Diana Whitney returns to the Romance lineup with One Man’s Promise, a wonderfully warmhearted story about a struggling FABULOUS FATHER and an adventurous single gal who are brought together by their love for his little girl and a shaggy mutt named Rags. And THE BRUBAKER BRIDES are back! In Cinderella’s Secret Baby, the third book of Carolyn Zane’s charming series, tycoon Mac Brubaker tracks down the poor but proud bride who’d left him the day after their whirlwind wedding, only to discover she’s about to give birth to the newest Brubaker heir....
Wanted: A Family Forever is confirmed bachelor Zach Robinson’s secret wish in this intensely emotional story by Anne Peters. But will marriage-jaded Monica Griffith and her little girl trust him with their hearts? Linda Vamer’s twentieth book for Silhouette is book two of THREE WEDDINGS AND A FAMILY When two go-getters learn they must marry to achieve their dreams, a wedding of convenience results in a Make-Believe Husband...and many sleepless nights! Finally, a loyal assistant agrees to be her boss’s Nine-to-Five Bride in Robin Wells’s sparkling new story, but of course this wife wants her new husband to be a permanent acquisition!
Enjoy each and every Silhouette Romance!
Regards,
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor Silhouette Books
Please address questions and book requests to:
Silhouette Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
Make-Believe Husband
Linda Varner
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This book is dedicated to
Dr. Annette Meador and her wonderful nurses.
Thanks for keeping me writing!
LINDA VARNER
confesses she is a hopeless romantic. Nothing is more thrilling, she believes, than the battle of wits between a man and a woman who are meant for each other but just don’t know it yet! Linda enjoys writing romance and considers herself very lucky to have been both a RITA finalist and a third-place winner in the National Readers’ Choice Awards in 1993.
A full-time federal employee, Linda lives in Arkansas with her husband and their two children. She loves to hear from readers. Write to her at 813 Oak St., Suite 10A-277, Conway, AR 72032.
Chapter One
“Jessica Landers, do you take Gabriel Dillard to be your husband?”
“I do,” Jessi said, her gaze locked with that of her blue-eyed, brown-haired groom, a disconcertingly handsome male she’d met for the first time mere hours ago. Dressed in his suede jacket, denim jeans, and boots, he looked like one gorgeous hunk of mountain man. Jessi tried to picture herself cooking up some vittles for him over an open flame.
She couldn’t. Was that an omen?
“And do you, Gabriel, take Jessica to be your wife?”
“I do.”
His gaze swept Jessi from top to bottom and back up again, not missing a curve. Flustered by the appraisal, Jessi glanced away and instantly spied, of all things, the door.
Could she still escape?
Should she?
Unsure, she looked back at Dillard, who now stared at the octogenarian preacher who’d so graciously agreed to perform their Saturday-night wedding.
Desperate to affirm that she wasn’t making the biggest mistake in her thirty—almost thirty-one—years, Jessi stole the moment to study Dillard’s profile. Surely there were hints of character there, she thought, at once noting the telltale dimple in his cheek. Companion to the wicked twinkle in his eye, it promised a crooked sense of humor even as the set of his nose and chin promised bullheaded stubbornness.
“Are there rings?”
“Oh, um, yes,” Jessi replied, tugging from her thumb the ring she’d purchased for Dillard that afternoon. She wondered if her rugged groom had remembered to buy one, a worry proved needless when he immediately dug into an inside pocket of his jacket. Jessica guessed he’d bought a plain gold band like the one she’d purchased for him. Not knowing his personal tastes really had narrowed her choices.
“Exchange the rings, please.”
With hands that trembled as badly as the old reverend’s, Jessi slipped the circle of gold onto Dillard’s third finger, left hand. He then did the same to her, his large hands steady, his touch electric. Jessi didn’t give the marriage token so much as a glance, so rattled was she by that brief but disconcerting contact.
His good looks and blatant masculinity could prove damned distracting during their marriage of convenience, she realized with some dismay—just one of many reasons to get the hell out of Sacramento before it was too late.
Or was he really the problem? she then asked herself. In truth, weren’t three years’ worth of celibacy more to blame for tonight’s sweaty palms and hammering heart?
But of course, she reassured herself. These lonely days, even Frankenstein had sex appeal....
At that moment, the preacher murmured approval of their cooperation thus far, a sound that barely penetrated Jessi’s daze of indecision. “Now face one another and, in unison, repeat after me—with this ring I promise to be your partner....”
Jessi automatically echoed the words she’d agreed to mere hours ago, noting with much embarrassment how breathless she sounded now compared to Dillard’s resonant bass. No doubt the witnesses to tonight’s ceremony—Elaina Rivera of Rivera Employment Agency, and the preacher’s wife, name forgotten—could hear the tremor.
“I will respect, trust and care for you...”
“‘I will respect, trust and care for you...”’
“From this day, forever.”
Forever? Jessi’s heart stopped. The word was forth. She’d written it herself. Was the old man ad-libbing or just too blind to read? Confused, Jessi darted a glance at Dillard, who, for the first time that night, looked a little bemused himself.
“From this day forever....” the bespectacled reverend patiently prompted, obviously used to nervous brides and grooms who forgot their lines.
Jessi swallowed convulsively. Short of making a scene that might alert this man of God to their unusual circumstances—namely, the fact that there was no chance of a forever between them—she had no choice but to repeat the line. Clearly Dillard came to the same conclusion at the same instant, for in unison they made a vow that neither intended to keep.
“‘From this day forever....”’
The preacher smiled. “By the powers invested in me by the state of California this fifteenth day of October, I pronounce you man and wife.” As though this was his favorite part of the ceremony, he took off his glasses and beamed at Dillard. “You may kiss the bride.”
So here it was...the intimacy she’d dreaded ever since she’d first laid eyes on him that morning. The butterflies in Jessi’s stomach fluttered wildly, the culmination of a week’s worth of prevarication, no doubt. Determined not to embarrass herself and Dillard by recoiling, she squared her shoulders and stood her ground as her husband stepped forward. Instead of kissing her, however, he reached out, grabbed her right hand and pumped it vigorously up and down.
“This is great...perfect. Thanks a million.” The next instant, Dillard released her to shake hands with the startled man who’d just married them.
Immediately, Elaina rushed forward to offer congratulations and, no doubt, distract the preacher and his frowning wife. Jessi, feeling shockingly cheated by the unexpected handshake, barely noticed. There followed a lecture on filing the license at the courthouse on Monday to make everything legal, after which Dillard paid the preacher for services rendered. He then scooped up his cowboy hat from a pew and hustled Jessi and Elaina out of the tiny chapel, a picturesque structure in the heart of the busy city.
On a rush of night air came a momentary lift of spirits that was mostly due to relief. It was over. Done. She was well and truly married...at least for now. The bad of it was that she had a husband who made her damned nervous. The good was that a few weeks’ worth of high adventure in the form of a treasure hunt lay ahead, not to mention a hefty salary.
Since the good far outweighed the bad—the man had furnished ten references, after all—there was definitely a rainbow stretched across yesterday’s bleak horizon. And in the pot at the end of it waited more than enough money to pay back her student loans and put a down payment on a house.
Then she’d find a good location and start her own catering business or maybe open a neighbourhood café or something.
“Dinner is my treat,” Elaina announced when they paused under the overhang of the porch roof, adding, “That is, if you two don’t have other plans...?”
“Actually, I wasn’t sure how long all this would take, so I told my sitter I’d be late,” Jessi replied. Anna Kate, her four-year-old daughter, was home in their Highlands, California, apartment with the teenaged girl who kept her when Jessi worked nights—too often this past year. Since those two always had a ball together, neither would mind if Jessi and her new husband...Oh God...dined with the woman whose ingenuity had brought them together.
“Gabe?” Elaina, an innovative employment contractor of national reputation, had turned to the groom.
“No plans,” he said, finger combing his shaggy brown hair and then settling his hat just so on his head.
“Good. The two of you have a nine o’clock reservation at Chateau en Espagne right up the street, there.”
“You mean you’re not going, too?” Jessi blurted in a panic.
“No, dear,” Elaina said, giving her shoulder a reassuring pat. “You and Gabe may have memorized one another’s résumés and vital statistics, but you still need time alone to get better acquainted. Much is at stake here for all of us. I want everything to go off without a hitch when you meet August Taylor on Monday afternoon.”
“Actually,” Dillard drawled, “‘a hitch’ is exactly why we’re here tonight, isn’t it?”
“So it is,” Elaina agreed. Laughing, she reached for the marriage certificate he held and tucked it into her purse. “I’ll just take this, if you don’t mind. Promised I’d fax a copy to our employer tonight. I’ll give it back so you can make everything legal before you leave town Monday morning.”
Gabe shook his head slowly from side to side as though vastly amused by the whole situation. Jessi wished she could feel as lighthearted about everything. Unfortunately, reality had dawned and her rainbow dimmed correspondingly.
What on earth have I done?
“Now the restaurant is just a block south...see those twinkling lights there? They’re expecting you.” Elaina hugged Dillard hard, then stepped up to Jessi and did the same. “Relax, honey,” she whispered before releasing her. “This is only for three weeks, four tops. Think of the money and remember I personally checked for a criminal record. This man is so clean I was half tempted to marry him, myself. Unfortunately I can’t cook.”
Jessi nodded numbly. In seconds, she and Dillard stood alone.
“Shall we?” he asked, offering her his hand and a smile.
Swallowing hard, Jessi accepted both, and with fingers lightly laced, they headed down the path to the sidewalk. She felt awkward and uncomfortable, as though she’d worn shoes that didn’t match and was trying to keep everyone from noticing.
Undoubtedly this resulted from the fact that he was so easy on the eyes—something for which she’d not been prepared. It didn’t help that her companion didn’t appear the least bit perturbed about anything. And when he began to whistle the “Wedding March” under his breath, she stopped short and glared at him.
“Oh, Mr. Dillard, must you?” The sacrilege appalled her.
“Second thoughts?”
Jessi, who wanted to know the answer to that question herself, gave it serious consideration before replying. “Actually, I’m way past seconds and almost through thirds.”
“But I assumed you were okay with this.”
“I am...was...am.” She sighed. “I guess I just don’t know how to act around you.”
“If you promise to call me Gabe,” he said, “I’ll share my plan of action.”
So he wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with this, either. Oddly enough, that made Jessi feel a little better.
“Okay...Gabe.”
He glanced back the way they’d come, and, with a grunt of confirmation, turned to lead her to a stone bench on the narrow lawn of the chapel. It lay in shadow, protected from the glow of the streetlight by an oak tree. Gabe motioned for her to sit, then did the same without releasing her hand.
“All you have to do is pretend that you and I have just landed the leads in the biggest, best adventure movie of the year. August Taylor is the producer, the director, the cameraman and the crew. Whenever he’s around, we’re a married couple in charge of an expedition trying to find lost treasure. I’m the hero, also known as the trusty guide. You’re the heroine, also known as the beautiful cook.”
Beautiful?
“The rest of the time, we can be ourselves—a search and rescue guide with big dreams and a...?” Obviously he waited for her to fill in the blank.
“Financially overextended chef with a dependent child.”
“Exactly. We’re co-workers who recognize that opportunities to earn this kind of money don’t come along except once in a lifetime and so we don’t mind signing an inconsequential partnership agreement—”
“The marriage license...?”
Gabe nodded. “—if that’s what it takes to make this happen. Now are you feeling better about the whole thing now?”
