“A marriage of convenience... a business deal!” Letter to Reader Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN Copyright

“A marriage of convenience... a business deal!”

“You get a partner to stand next to you on platforms and say the right things at civic functions,” Paige continued, “I get the vineyard back in a year?”

Brad nodded. “We’d be sleeping partners for a year.” The gleam of humor in his eyes made her hands curl into tight fists at her sides.

“You mean a marriage in name only?”

He didn’t answer her immediately. His eyes moved over her, looking at the curves of her figure, the luxuriant fall of her hair around the young face. “No, I know my limitations. You do have a fabulous body and I have a very healthy appetite. I’d want you in my bed, Paige.”

Dear Reader,

Welcome to

Everyone has special occasions in their life—times of celebration and excitement. Maybe it’s a romantic event—an engagement or a wedding—or perhaps a wonderful family occasion, such as the birth of a baby. Or even a personal milestone—a thirtieth or fortieth birthday!

These are all important times in our lives and in THE BIG EVENT! you can see how different couples react to these events. Whatever the occasion, romance and drama are guaranteed!

We’ve been featuring some terrific stories from some of your favorite authors. If you’ve enjoyed this miniseries in Harlequin Romance®, we hope you’ll continue to look out for THE BIG EVENT! in Harlequin Presents®. This month, we’re delighted to bring you Bride for a Year by Kathryn Ross. In October, we have bestselling author Penny Jordan’s Marriage Make Up—will a divorced couple be reunited at their daughter’s wedding?

Happy reading!

The Editors

Bride For A Year

Kathryn Ross

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

THE last rays of sunshine were slanting across the Californian vineyard as Paige stopped work for the day. She stood up and dusted down her jeans as she surveyed her handiwork.

She was a slender woman of twenty-two, with long, dark hair, her delicate, feminine appearance totally at odds with her work clothes and the heavy toolbox she had been using. She wasn’t much good at DIY, but despite this she had made a reasonable job of fixing the fence. The only problem was that it had taken her so long.

It was the same with every task she had undertaken that day. She had started work at six in the morning and hadn’t stopped, yet she still had several jobs that had been on her list of things to do today. She sighed. The light was fading fast so she would just have to leave everything until the morning. Besides, she was too tired to continue. All she could dream about now was a long, luxurious bath in scented hot water.

The thought made her start to pack her work gear away with haste. She was just finishing when she heard the sound of a horse’s hooves on the hard, dusty driveway. She turned and her heart hammered crazily as she saw her neighbour, Brad Monroe, riding up towards her.

She had been expecting him for a while now; she knew what he had come to say. Apprehension knotted inside her.

‘Good evening, Paige.’ He reined in the powerful black stallion just beside her.

‘Evening.’ It took a supreme effort to sound indifferent to him.

‘How are things going?’

The casual question made her temper simmer. As if he cared! She turned and threw the last of her work things back in the box. ‘Not bad...considering,’ she muttered as she fastened the lid on the box.

He waited until she had finished. His horse pawed at the ground as if impatient with the delay, but Brad’s voice was very relaxed as he commented, ‘If you’d asked, I’d have sent someone over to help you with that fence.’

She Sicked him a disparaging look from glimmering blue eyes. ‘I don’t need any help from you.’

‘Hell, Paige, you are one stubborn woman.’ A note of impatience crept into his voice now.

She ignored that and bent to pick up the box of tools, her long, dark hair falling silkily over her face. The box was heavy but she put a determined effort into not showing it. Her slender body protested against the weight and she was forced to use both hands.

She heard the creak of the saddle leather as he dismounted.

She looked at him as he walked towards her. The final, dying rays of red sun slanted across him like a spotlight. He was tall, well over six feet, with thick, dark hair, a square jawline and eyes that were so dark they reminded her of burnt toffee. He was thirty seven, fifteen years older than she, and he looked like a movie star even in his faded jeans and denim shirt.

Paige felt her heart thud uncomfortably. She had always found Brad extremely attractive. From first laying eyes on him when she was thirteen she had imagined herself in love with him, had secretly dreamed that one day he would look at her and feel the same way. That had never happened. Just as well, she told herself fiercely now, because Brad Monroe was not the man she had built him up to be. Just a few months ago she had found out what kind of a person he really was and all her illusions had been swept away.

He reached to take the heavy box from her and his hand closed over hers. The touch of his skin against hers made tiny darts of awareness shoot through her, and heat flooded through her body.

Their eyes met for just a moment before she pulled away, allowing him to take the box from her.

‘I suppose you have come to give me an ultimatum: pay up the money I owe you or get out.’ Her voice wasn’t entirely steady and that annoyed her. She didn’t want him to know that she wasn’t perfectly in control around him.

‘I’m not your enemy, Paige,’ he said coolly. ‘I’ve only ever wanted to help you.’

‘You’ve only ever wanted to get your hands on this land,’ she corrected him cuttingly. ‘Forgive me for being blunt, Brad, but your caring neighbour act no longer impresses me. I know what your real motives are. You’re a vulture, and finally, after all these months of circling, you are about to swoop in for the pickings. I’ve been expecting you for weeks now.’

He shook his head. ‘I know you are still in shock after your father’s death. You are not seeing things clearly yet, but—’

‘The problem is I can see things too clearly,’ she interrupted him. ‘Now, if you will excuse me, I’ve had a long, tiring day and I want to go inside my house and relax.’ While she still had a house to relax in... The words remained unspoken at the back of her mind.

Instead of leaving as she had hoped, he fell into step beside her as she walked up towards the house.

‘If it helps to blame me then go ahead,’ he said in a low tone. ‘But sooner rather than later you are going to have to face the truth. It’s two months since your father died. You can’t carry on here on your own for much longer. The vineyard is falling down around you, Paige. It is going to take a lot of money to put things right and you haven’t got it. Not only that, but you are vastly in debt.’

Paige didn’t want to hear his assessment of her problems. Her pride rebelled furiously against it, but she said nothing because deep down she knew that he was right.

‘Look, Paige, I haven’t come over here to upset you. I’ve come to offer some practical help. If you want, I’ll sit down with you, help you go through your accounts—’

She laughed at that. ‘So you can get some inside knowledge on how much you can steal my vineyard from me for? No, thanks. My accounts are my own business.’

Silence fell between them. Velvet darkness had enveloped the countryside. The air was hot and heavy with the tropical sound of cicadas. The smell of the parched earth was broken by the sweetness of the eucalyptus trees which shaded the white, colonial-style house that had been Paige’s home since she was thirteen.

She took a long, deep breath. She loved this place, with all its familiar sights and scents. She loved everything about it. But she knew that she had lost it...knew that her dream of holding onto it, of working on her own to save it, had been illogical in the extreme.

Brad put her box down on the porch that encircled the house. ‘Whatever you might think, I am concerned about you.’

‘You’re concerned because you’ve had to wait longer than you had envisioned to get your hands on this estate. All you can think about is extending your vineyard and your profits.’

He caught hold of her arm as she made to swing away from him. ‘I did not cause your father’s financial problems.’

‘Maybe not,’ she muttered tightly. ‘But you sure as hell speeded up his downfall.’

‘By lending him money when he most needed it?’ Brad’s voice was droll.

‘By demanding it back in an impossibly short time. You may not have started my father’s problems, but you certainly finished him.’ Paige’s eyes blazed into his. ‘You come here telling me that you are not the enemy, but in my eyes you are...and you always will be. You could have afforded to give my father longer to pay you back but you didn’t. You contributed to his death and I hate you for it.’

‘That’s vastly unreasonable, Paige.’ His voice was low with fury, but none-the-less very cutting. ‘Yes, all right, I could have afforded to let the loan ride longer, but I didn’t see the point. Your father was a fool who...’ He hesitated and she finished the words for him.

‘Who wasn’t as ruthless in business as he should have been?’ Her eyes shone with vivid, intense light at that. ‘At least he was honourable.’

‘And you think I’m not?’

‘I know what you are. I’ve seen the real you in action these last few months.’ She looked down at the hand he had on her arm her manner very cold. ‘Now let go of me.’

‘Paige, we need to talk and sort this out,’ he said harshly.

‘There’s nothing to discuss.’

‘Like hell there is.’ He pulled her closer to his body and the contact made her temperature rise dramatically. ‘We’ve been friends and neighbours for years. I won’t have you turning our familys’ friendship into some kind of dramatic vendetta... which is all in your mind. You were away at college when your father’s...financial problems got out of hand and he came to me for an extension of the time limit on his loan. You don’t know the real facts.’

‘I know what my father told me,’ she blazed furiously. ‘I know when I came home and went across to your house and asked you again, for my father, would you extend the time limit you more or less laughed in my face. Or are you going to try and tell me I imagined that as well?’

‘I gave you my reasons for not extending the time limit on the loan,’ he said calmly.

‘Yes, you did... Now, what did you say?’ She rolled her eyes disdainfully. ‘Oh, yes, it was for his own good.’ Her voice grated sarcastically. ‘Very helpful of you, I must say.’

‘Matt was in way over his head, Paige. You don’t fully understand the problem.’

‘Don’t patronise me, Brad.’ Her tone was brittle.

‘That wasn’t my intention. What I meant was that you were away at college, you didn’t see what was happening here—’

‘Now you are trying to tell me it was all my fault, because I haven’t been living at home for a few years.’ She shook her head. ‘You must be really desperate for this place. What’s the matter, Brad? Is your sojourn into the world of politics costing you more money than you’d thought? Are you seeking to extend your profit margins by stealing my land?’

‘The fact that I’m running for mayor has nothing to do with this. Except for the fact that I’d rather not have the hassle of you going around bad mouthing me.’

‘Frightened people might not vote for you if they knew how you’d treated my father?’ Her voice grated. ‘I’m not surprised you’re worried. The truth isn’t exactly good for the image you like to project, is it? That caring “I’m only doing this for the community” spiel rings very hollow next to the way you’ve treated your neighbour.’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe how you are twisting the facts.’

‘It’s the truth, Brad, and you know it.’

‘The truth as you see it. Blinkered and inaccurate.’

She shook her head. ‘I know the only reason you lent my father that money in the first place was the hope that he wouldn’t be able to pay you back, that it enabled you to get your hooks into this property. I’m sure when I put the place on the market you will be the one picking it up for next to nothing.’

‘Are you considering selling?’

‘Careful, Brad, your thirst for blood is showing.’ Her lips twisted, the fire inside her starting to die. ‘And, yes, of course I’m going to sell. I do know when I’m beaten. I shall put the estate on the open market next week. I’ve been advised that an auction is my best bet; then I can disappear into the wide blue yonder and start a new life.’

He frowned.

‘Oh, don’t worry. I’ll settle my debts with you out of the proceeds of the sale before I leave California,’ she assured him.

‘Where will you go?’ She felt his surprise, almost palpable in the air between them.

‘Depends how much money you deign to leave me with. I know that whoever buys it will get it at a knockdown price. It’s not in the best of conditions any longer.’

‘My fault again, I presume?’ he muttered dryly.

‘Your words, not mine.’ Her glance slanted away from him to where his horse was standing, idly munching at the greenery over the white picket fence that separated the garden from the vineyard. ‘And your horse certainly isn’t helping matters.’

‘It’s a conspiracy, no doubt,’ Brad said as he moved to catch hold of the animal’s bridle. ‘I’m out to ruin your life and I’ve told Buck to work his way through your garden.’ There was a gleam of humour in Brad’s dark eyes as he looked at her.

For just a second she wanted to smile with him. The memory of how relaxed she used to feel around him, of how he had always been able to make her laugh, was there very strongly in her heart.

‘We used to be friends, Paige,’ he said quietly as she continued just to stare at him.

Her heart thumped very unevenly. ‘Did we?’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t remember that.’

Then she turned away from him and hurried up the steps towards the front door, allowing the fly screen and the door to bang noisily behind her as she closed it.

She didn’t turn on the lights in the hallway immediately. Instead, she stood in the darkness, her back against the door, her breathing uneven.

‘We used to be friends...’ Brad’s words drummed through her and with them memories flicked like photographs through her mind.

From being a young girl she had looked up to Brad, respected him... loved him. At least he had never guessed at her true feelings for him; that would be too humiliating. To Brad she was just the girl next door, that was where his thoughts of friendship started and finished.

She remembered how, as a teenager, he had teased her mercilessly and yet always made her laugh...always melted her with one look from those incredible eyes of his.

She had yearned to be old enough to go out with him. had felt quite jealous of the succession of glamorous women in his life.

His mother had guessed the truth, though. Thinking about Elizabeth brought a lump to her throat.

Paige couldn’t remember her own mother, but Elizabeth was everything she would have wished her to be. Kind, amusing, open. Paige had felt able to talk to her...had enjoyed her company.

It had been Brad’s mother who had taught her to ride; she had talked to her about the land, about the grapevines; it had been she rather than her own father who had instilled a love of the land into her.

It was eighteen months since Elizabeth had died and Paige still missed her. Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides. Lord alone knew what she would make of this situation now.

Briskly she started to walk across the dark hallway. She didn’t want to think about the past; she was too tired, too tearful. She would go upstairs, have her bath and forget everything. Her thoughts broke off as she hit her foot quite violently against a solid, sharp object. She cried out instinctively as pain shot through her, then sank down on the floor to rub her injury, tears of anger and frustration in her eyes.

‘Damn, damn, damn,’ she muttered under her breath. She had forgotten that earlier today she had dragged some tea chests down from the attic and left them in the centre of the hall.

‘Paige, are you OK?’

Brad’s voice from outside the front door was very unwelcome.

‘Yes. Go away,’ she called out, wanting to be left alone.

He ignored her completely and she heard the door open. The next moment the overhead light flicked on.

He came quickly across to her, an expression of concern on the handsome features. ‘What the heck have you done?’

‘I was playing football and a tea chest fell on me,’ she muttered sarcastically.

‘You always were a bit of a tomboy,’ he grinned as he bent down and pushed up her jeans to have a look at her foot.

She winced with pain as his fingers touched her flesh. ‘You’ll live... You’ve just bruised yourself.’ He straightened and for a moment she thought he was just going to leave. Instead, he walked away in the direction of the kitchen. ‘I’ll get you some ice to put on it.’

‘There’s no need. I’ll manage on my own.’ She stood up and found her foot still throbbed too much to put her full weight on it, so she leaned against the chest.

He came back with a tea towel filled with ice cubes and knelt down beside her to put it against her foot.

For some reason his gentleness filled her with a feeling of acute sadness. She looked down at the darkness of his hair and for a moment was overcome by an irrational desire to touch him, to reach out a hand and stroke it through the soft thickness of that hair.

‘Feel any better?’ He looked up at her and she nodded.

‘Thank you.’ Her voice was husky.

He straightened and looked at her.

Paige could feel her anger against him evaporating in a wave of stronger emotion, a feeling that this was the man she had always loved...always looked up to. Sorrow filled her blue eyes, darkening them to the shade of deepest violet. If only her father hadn’t turned to Brad for financial help, she thought miserably. She didn’t want to think badly of Brad; she wanted to push all those thoughts away and turn to him as she had always felt able to turn to him in the past, trust him as she had always trusted him.

His eyes lingered gently on her face. ‘I hate to see you so sad, Paige; it tears me apart.’

She swallowed hard. She wouldn’t cry, she told herself staunchly. ‘You... you should have thought of that when my father asked you to extend your time limit.’ Her words held none of the accusing tones of before; now her voice was just filled with regret. ‘All we needed was a couple more months—’

He shook his head. His eyes moved around the hallway, taking in the large tea chests cluttering the area. ‘I never wanted it to come to this,’ he muttered grimly. ‘I certainly had no idea that you were already starting to pack things up. I had thought it would be a while yet before you came to that.’ He raked a distracted hand through his hair. ‘It will be a mammoth task packing everything from this house.’

She nodded. ‘Three generations of my family have lived here. It will take me some time to sort everything out.’

‘What will you do? Put it in storage?’

She shrugged. ‘The real-estate people have advised me to sell everything. But there are a number of things that are of great sentimental value so I’ll sort through and take what I can.’ She tried to sound practical, tried not to let him know that this was breaking her heart.

‘You love this place so much, don’t you?’ he asked softly.

She took a deep breath. ‘It’s my home...’

His eyes met hers. ‘No matter what you might think, this isn’t what I wanted,’ he said softly. ‘Just for the record, it was my mother who first lent your father the money he needed, not me,’ he said calmly. ‘And she did it out of a desire to help. She was very fond of you, Paige.’

The words stilled her. ‘I was fond of her, too.’ For a moment tears shimmered in the bright blue of her eyes. ‘And it was very kind of her,’ she admitted huskily.

‘Don’t cry, Paige.’

‘I’m not crying,’ she denied angrily, brushing away a tear as it dared to trickle over the smooth pallor of her skin.

He moved closer and folded her into the warmth of his arms. For a moment she leaned against him, breathing in the comfort of being held. Then she looked up at him and subtly the feelings of grief changed to an awareness of him and the way he was holding her.

He breathed her name in a whisper-soft way that made her skin prickle with consciousness. She wanted him to kiss her; the desire that flared inside her was so strong it was overwhelming.

Then his head lowered and she felt his lips against the cool salt of her tears, caressing warmth back to her body, stirring feelings of desire and need alive with vivid intensity.

For years she had secretly dreamed that one day he would kiss her. She had imagined that it would be passionate, but she hadn’t been prepared for the storm of desire it unleashed.

When he moved back from her she was breathless. She stared wordlessly up into the darkness of his eyes.

Then reality crashed around her. She thought about her father, thought about the broken words he had murmured to her, the words of hate against Brad Monroe. ‘Cold, hard, ruthless’, he had called him. The words drummed through her mind like a reproach and she felt heavy with guilt, her passion for Brad somehow seeming a vast disloyalty to her father’s memory.

She pushed him away from her. ‘I don’t know why that happened, but it was a big mistake.’

One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘I thought it was quite enjoyable myself,’ he murmured flippantly.

‘I don’t suppose your girlfriend would be quite so amused,’ Paige said tersely.

‘I don’t have a girlfriend,’ Brad retorted. ‘So it’s nobody’s business but my own.’

Paige frowned. She knew for a fact that Brad was dating Carolyn Murphy. He had been seeing her for the last six months and most people were expecting the sound of wedding bells. ‘So what about Carolyn?’ she enquired.

‘Carolyn and I have split up.’

‘But I thought... Everyone thought that you two were, well, going to get married.’

His eyebrows rose even further at that. ‘Everyone takes a lot for granted around here,’ he muttered dryly. ‘But no, it’s all over between Carolyn and me.’

‘Oh!’ She stared at him, really startled by this news. ‘Are you upset?’

Brad’s lips twisted. ‘Why, do you want to comfort me?’ he drawled sardonically. ‘A few more kisses like that one and I might start to feel a heck of a lot better.’

‘Don’t be absurd.’ Her heart missed several beats. It didn’t matter whom he was involved with, how free he might be, she told herself fiercely. She wasn’t interested. And yet a small part of her was remembering that kiss...remembering how good it had felt to be in his arms.

She turned away from him. ‘I think you should go now.’

‘If that’s what you want.’ Silence fell between them. ‘I hope you’ll believe me, Paige, when I tell you that I never intended to ruin your father.’

She didn’t say anything to that...didn’t know what to think any more. She was bewildered and scared and had never felt more alone in her life.

‘If it will help, I want you to know that I can wait for the money you owe me. It doesn’t matter when you pay it back.’

She spun around at that. ‘I can’t believe you!’ she said with a stunned shake of her head. ‘Just a few months ago I begged you to extend our time limit. You refused point-blank. Now my father is dead and you have the audacity to calmly tell me it doesn’t matter when I pay you back.’

‘I want to help you.’

‘Well, it’s too late.’ Her voice was anguished now. ‘And you know damned well it is.’

‘I can’t stand by and watch you go to the wall,’ he muttered.

‘At the risk of repeating myself, you were willing to stand by and do just that a few months ago.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Either you’ve got a massively guilty conscience or you’re a damn good actor.’

‘I don’t have a guilty conscience,’ he told her swiftly. ‘I had my reasons for refusing your father. They were good reasons.’

‘So good that I can’t understand them,’ she snapped. ‘Well, I’m not so unintelligent that I don’t see behind this charade of an offer now.’ She put one hand on her hip. ‘You are bothered about what people will think if I blab about the details of my father’s financial problems. A man who is running for mayor wouldn’t want this kind of blot on his copybook. So you come over here with the grand, charitable gesture of letting me off the hook a while longer.’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t need or want your charity, Brad.’

‘I’m not offering you charity,’ he rasped dryly. ‘I’m extending the hand of a concerned neighbour—’

‘Oh, please!’ She cut across him with laughing disdain. ‘As you are well aware, Brad, it’s too little, too late. That’s the problem when you’re heading towards bankruptcy, you see...’ Her voice shook with derision. ‘It’s like a domino effect. You get behind with one debt then others pile up... Then someone demands their money immediately and one by one things start to collapse.’ She glared at him. ‘I’m the last domino standing in place and all I can do is sell up fast before I fall flat on my face. You offering, oh, so benevolently, to prop me up for a little while longer won’t make a scrap of difference now. I needed your support several months ago... It’s no damn good to me at all now.’

‘Things are that bad, then?’ he asked quietly.

She slanted him a dry look. ‘You were the one telling me how bad things were as we walked in from the vineyard.’

‘I didn’t realise that things had moved quite so quickly.’ He shook his head. ‘Have you spoken with the bank?’

She nodded and bent to lift the icepack from her foot. It had stopped throbbing now, maybe overshadowed by the greater pain inside. ‘They strongly urge me to go ahead with the auction...and not to waste a moment.’

‘Can’t you just sell off pieces of the property, without losing your house?’ he asked. ‘I’d be interested in acquiring some of your land.’

‘I’m sure you would.’ She flashed him a knowing look. ‘I knew that’s what you were angling for—’

‘That’s not what I want,’ he cut in tersely.

‘So which piece of land are you thinking of?’ she carried on swiftly, as if he hadn’t spoken.

He shrugged. ‘How about the slice that runs along the far back of my property?’

‘You mean the piece that contains the only water I have?’ Her voice trembled with fury. ‘This place won’t fetch very much on the open market, not in this rundown state, but without that water it will be virtually worthless.’

‘You can modernise. Install a new irrigation system in—’

‘Do you have any idea how much money you are talking about?’ she demanded fiercely.

‘Of course,’ he replied coolly.

‘Then you’ll know that even if I did sell you that land there wouldn’t be enough left over from paying back my debt to you and the others to install a bore hole, never mind anything else.’ She raked a hand through her hair. ‘No, I’ll have to sell the whole place... There’s no alternative.’

She swung away from him and walked over towards the kitchen to put the rapidly melting ice in the sink. For a moment her eyes moved over the rustic charm of the place. The dresser, the pine scrubbed table and the dried flowers on the farmhouse rack... Her home. Her heart twisted painfully.

‘So where will you go?’

Brad’s voice in the doorway behind her made her turn and look at him.

She shrugged. Tve got friends that I made when I was away at college. I’ve had letters of condolence and an offer that I can share a friend’s flat while I look around for a job.’

‘A male friend?’ Brad asked, a caustic note in his voice.

She frowned. The offer had been from a girlfriend, but she wasn’t about to enlighten him. ‘That’s none of your damned business,’ she grated with annoyance. ‘The fact remains that I have very little option but to move away from this area altogether. I need to get myself a job, start again.’

‘There are always other options.’

‘Such as?’

‘We could become partners,’ he said quietly.

She was so surprised she could hardly say anything for a moment ‘You mean you would write off my loan and straighten out all my other debts if I made you a sleeping partner in the vineyard?’

‘In a roundabout way... yes.’

She was incredulous now. ‘You do want the vineyard, then?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m more in need of the partner than I am of the vineyard.’

When she continued to stare at him, perplexed, he smiled. ‘I need a wife.’

‘A wife?’ She looked at him blankly. ‘I’m sorry, Brad, I don’t understand.’

‘I’m asking you to marry me,’ he said quietly.

She stared at him. This had to be some kind of a joke! Her lips curved and she found herself laughing. She couldn’t help herself. It was the nerve-tingling absurdity of the suggestion. ‘You can’t possibly be serious!’

‘I’m not talking about a lifelong commitment. I’m talking about twelve months.’

‘It sounds like a jail sentence.’ Paige was rewarded by a momentary expression of anger on his face. It gave her a certain amount of pleasure to strike through that cool, smug exterior of his. What on earth was he playing at? she wondered grimly. She had no illusions about his feelings for her... They might have been friends in the past, but he had never given her any indication that he wanted that friendship to deepen, no matter how much she had secretly yearned for it.

‘You want me for twelve months... What do I get?’ she asked derisively. ‘A purple heart for living with the enemy?’

‘You get this place. I’ll build it up for you, stick it back together and write off your loans.’ His voice was tight.

‘That’s a pretty expensive package.’ Her heart thundered against her breast. ‘And you’d be willing to do that to have me as your wife for twelve months?’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand this at all. Why a year? What’s in it for you?’

His lips curved in a mirthless smile. ‘I want a dutiful wife... Someone who will look up at me adoringly.’

Suddenly it clicked with her. ‘This is all because you are running for mayor here, isn’t it? You want the right image? The loving husband, a family man—’

‘Hold on there.’ He cut across her swiftly. ‘I’m not looking to start a family with you... Children are not part of the equation.’

Heat licked through her at the insulting undertone of that statement, but before she could coherently formulate a cutting reply he continued, ‘But yes, it has been suggested that I will find it easier to get elected if I’m married.’

‘And when we part... How would that look to your precious image?’

He laughed. ‘I’ll tell everyone you married me for my money... It won’t be so far from the truth, will it? I’ll probably be voted in again out of sympathy.’

She shook her head. ‘So why me?’

‘Why not you? You’re attractive. You know the score up front. We can draw up a business agreement and know where we stand.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m not really the marrying kind. I like my freedom. However, twelve months doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.’

It was such a preposterous idea that she just stared at him. ‘A marriage of convenience...a business deal,’ she muttered finally. ‘You get a partner to stand next to you on platforms and say the right things at civic functions, I get the vineyard back in a year?’

He nodded. ‘We’d be sleeping partners for a year.’ The gleam of humour in his eyes made her hands curl into tight fists at her sides.

‘You mean a marriage in name only?’

He didn’t answer her immediately. His eyes moved over her, looking at the curves of her figure, the luxuriant fall of her hair around the young face.

‘No, I know my limitations. You do have a fabulous body and I have a very healthy appetite. I’d want you in my bed, Paige.’

For just a moment she was so shocked that she couldn’t speak.

‘It’s not such a repulsive idea...is it, Paige?’ he enquired genuinely. ‘I know you are a good deal younger than I, but when we kissed a few moments ago it was very pleasurable; you can’t deny that. In fact I’m sure I tasted desire on your lips. It made me wonder why I had never kissed you before.’

Her skin burned with furious fires of humiliation and anger. The fact that he was right just served to infuriate her further. Her pride would never admit to the fact that she found him attractive...never. She shook her head. ‘That’s in your imagination. You tasted surprise, shock, nothing else.’

One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Are you sure? There was a time when I wondered if you might have a crush on me.’

The arrogance of that remark really stung. ‘How far back are you going?’ She kept her equilibrium with difficulty. ‘You’re not going to remind me of the time I invited you to be my date for my high-school prom, are you?’ She forced herself to laugh. She knew very well that this was one of the few times she had braved showing her feelings to Brad, had allowed herself to flirt. ‘Heavens! If I remember rightly you laughed, told me that people would accuse you of robbing the cradle, and you were right, it was absurd.’ She added flippantly, ‘I must just have been into older men at the time.’

He shrugged. ‘You were very young.’

‘The same fifteen years are still between us,’ she said, quietly now.

‘I haven’t forgotten.’ His voice was heavy, very serious for a moment. Then his eyes moved over the slender lines of her figure. ‘But you are twenty-two now and it’s different.’

For just a second Paige gained the impression that he was trying to convince himself of this fact more than her.

‘I’m fair game to be exploited for a year, you mean?’ she snapped, her nerves stretching beyond endurance. ‘I’d rather sell my soul to the devil.’ Her voice trembled.

‘I wouldn’t call being pulled from the brink of bankruptcy exploitation.’ He laughed at that. ‘And I think you will agree to my proposal... because it will be the most profitable move of your life.’ He turned and walked towards the door. ‘Think it over.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘I CAN’T believe that you are faced with the prospect of selling this place,’ Rosie said with heartfelt sympathy in her voice.

‘It’s just unfortunate.’ Paige tried to play down her emotion on the subject as she poured her friend another cup of coffee.

They were in Paige’s kitchen at the vineyard. It was getting up towards midday and Paige had a million jobs waiting to be done. She had shelved them all very gratefully when Rosie arrived, glad of a chance to talk and relax for a while.

‘But what will you do? Where will you go?’

Paige shrugged. At the back of her mind Brad’s offer lay...too scary to think deeply about, too intriguing to forget. ‘I might go to Seattle. One of my friends has got a flat up there and apparently some contacts if I want to start looking for a job.’

‘Seattle!’ Rosie sounded shocked. ‘That’s a hell of a long way away... Who lives up there? Not that guy you were friendly with...Josh Summers?’

Paige smiled. ‘No, not Josh. He was just a friend, you know, Rosie... There was nothing romantic between us.’

‘No, but he would have liked there to be. I saw the way he looked at you when he came up here for that long weekend.’

‘He was just a fellow student. I had a card of sympathy from him when he heard about my father’s death...but I certainly have no plans to move in with him, I can assure you.’ She leaned back against the windowsill and sighed. ‘Strange, but Brad jumped to exactly the same conclusion when I told him I might share a flat with a friend. He asked if it was a male friend.’

‘Did he, now?’ Rosie looked extremely interested in this. ‘When did you see Brad?’

‘He came over here last night.’ For a moment there was silence as Paige grappled with her conscience over whether or not to tell Rosie about Brad’s outrageous proposal.

Paige had been friends with Rosie Jefferson for years. They used to sit together in school, and had shared many secrets and dreams over the years. Even though they had been separated while Paige was away at college, and Rosie got married, they were still as close as ever.

But now, for the first time, Paige found she didn’t want to confide in her friend. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Rosie, it was more that she didn’t want to voice the extremely personal nature of Brad’s proposal—the fact that he had suggested a relationship based purely on business reasons hurt in some strange way. She tried to tell herself that it was her pride that was hurting, but deep down she wasn’t too sure.

‘Have you forgiven him over the money?’ Rosie asked, her eyes moving over the pallor of Paige’s skin.

She shrugged. ‘I suppose if, I’m honest, I can’t really blame him totally... What is it they say? Never a lender or a borrower be?’

‘I’m sure if he could have afforded to let your father’s loan ride he would have,’ Rosie said with a nod. ‘He’s a decent guy.’

‘Yes...’ Deep down Paige wanted to believe that. But the fact that Brad had openly told her he could afford to let the loan ride and had chosen not to did still grate rawly. Her father had been so broken up just before he had died... The memory was pitiful and it tore at Paige.

‘I’m glad that you two are friends again,’ Rosie continued briskly. ‘Brad must be pretty upset at the moment, anyway. I believe he and Carolyn Murphy have split up.’

‘He mentioned something,’ Paige said noncommittally.

‘Apparently she has ditched him for Robert Hicks.’

‘Really?’ There was complete amazement in Paige’s voice now. Strangely she hadn’t for one moment considered the fact that Carolyn might have been the one to finish with Brad.

Rosie grinned. ‘I knew that would surprise you. You’ve always had a soft spot for Brad, haven’t you?’

‘That’s in the past.’ Paige tried to sound firmly convinced and ignore the little whispering voice inside her that wanted to argue with that.

‘Sure.’ Rosie wasn’t at all taken in by Paige’s reply. ‘But you’re right, Carolyn must have been crazy to finish with Brad; he is gorgeous. If I weren’t a married woman, and didn’t adore my Mike, I’d be interested myself.’

‘How do you know that Carolyn finished with him? Did Brad tell you that?’

‘No, of course not. Mike sees a lot of Brad these days as he’s going to be managing Brad’s campaign for mayor. But I don’t think they discuss things like that... Well, if they do, my husband certainly hasn’t repeated it to me. No, I met Carolyn in town a while ago and she told me herself.’ Rose wrinkled her nose. ‘She’s extremely confident, you know, and I must say she looked fabulous. Made me wish I’d stuck to my diet last year.’

‘You don’t need to diet, Rosie,’ Paige said quickly. Rosie Jefferson was an extremely attractive blonde. She wasn’t fat, she just had a curvaceous figure.

Rosie shrugged as if she didn’t agree but wasn’t going to argue about it today.

‘So what did Carolyn say?’ Paige reached to pick up her coffee from the table.

‘Get this.’ Rosie’s eyes twinkled with good humour. ‘She said, and I quote, “I’ve finished with Brad. He was getting rather tiresome. Robert has asked me to marry him and I’ve accepted.”’

‘Marry him!’ Paige’s eyes widened. ‘She’s marrying Robert Hicks!’

‘Just goes to show you can’t take anything for granted.’ Rosie nodded. ‘I think we were all convinced that Carolyn would marry Brad. They seemed like the perfect couple, didn’t they?’

‘Yes, they did,’ Paige agreed quietly.

‘Of course, Robert comes from an extremely wealthy family. They own a lot of property in San Francisco. Carolyn was telling me that they are going to live there after the wedding.’

Paige wondered if deep down Brad was heartsore about the whole thing.

‘Anyway, the coast is now clear. As far as I can make out Brad isn’t seeing anyone at the moment...not a girlfriend on the playing field.’

‘I’m sure that won’t be the situation for very long.’ Paige sipped her coffee then met the gleam in her friend’s eye. ‘Don’t look at me like that. I’m not in the slightest bit interested any more,’ she said staunchly.

Yet despite the strong words, despite everything that had happened to turn her against Brad, she knew very well that she was far more interested than she should be. She wondered if the fact that Carolyn had finished with Brad had triggered his decision to propose to her. Perhaps he had been counting on Carolyn to be by his side during the elections and now that the love of his life was going to marry someone else he had decided just to cut his losses and make a marriage purely for business reasons. ‘Anyway, once this place is sold I shall be moving away. So it’s irrelevant who Brad is seeing or isn’t seeing,’ she said firmly, trying very hard not to care.

Rosie frowned. ‘You aren’t really serious about leaving the valley, Paige? Surely you could find a job around here? You’ve only just graduated from college; you’ve got bags of qualifications.’

Paige shook her head. ‘I’m going to make a fresh start,’ she said with gentle determination. ‘I couldn’t bear to stay around here and see this vineyard being run by someone else. It would just break my heart.’

‘I don’t want you to leave, Paige...’ Rosie looked over at her, a sudden serious light in her eyes. ‘Especially now.’

‘Believe me, I don’t want to go—’ Paige broke off and frowned at her friend. ‘Why especially now?’

‘I was going to ask you to be godmother to our baby.’ Rosie smiled, happiness radiating through her every word.

‘Rosie! You’re not!’ Paige put her cup down and squealed with delight.

‘I am.’ Rosie nodded. ‘Four weeks pregnant.’

Paige moved to throw her arms around her friend.

‘It just seems that everything is going right at last,’ Rosie said, her eyes misting with sudden tears.

‘Oh, Rosie, it’s wonderful news. I’m so happy for you both.’ Paige squeezed her friend warmly before drawing back.

‘So you can’t go away...not now,’ Rosie said earnestly. ‘I want you to stay. I want you to settle down here and be as happy as Mike and I are.’

‘I don’t think that’s possible,’ Paige said with a tremor in her voice.

‘Anything is possible,’ Rosie said with strong conviction.

The sound of a car driving up outside made Rosie break off. Paige went to glance out of the window. A bright red Porsche had pulled in alongside Rosie’s old car and her Jeep.

‘It’s Brad,’ Paige murmured, her body filling with sudden apprehension.

‘Anybody home?’ His voice, strong and decisive, filtered through from the front hallway a moment later.

‘He acts as if he owns the place already,’ Paige said with annoyance. ‘Just barges on in when it suits him.’

Rosie smiled. ‘We are in the kitchen. Brad,’ she called out cheerfully.

A few seconds later he appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking tanned and powerfully attractive in his jeans and a navy blue polo shirt. ‘It seems I’ve arrived just in time,’ he grinned, eyeing the coffee pot on the table.

‘You certainly have.’ Rosie was the one who got out another cup and poured the drink for him. ‘Good to see you, Brad.’

‘It’s good to see you too...and looking so well.’ He smiled and kissed the side of Rosie’s cheek as he passed her. ‘I’ve just come from your house. Mike was telling me the good news. Congratulations.’

Rosie’s cheeks flared a bright pink. ‘Thanks.’

Brad glanced over at Paige and for a moment his dark eyes lingered contemplatively on her face.

She felt heat licking through her veins as she remembered their last meeting, the way he’d kissed her...his proposal.

She looked hurriedly away from him, but she was still acutely aware of the way he was watching her, the way his eyes had travelled away from her face and down over the slender lines of her figure in the pale blue sundress.

Rosie handed him his coffee. ‘Actually, I was just leaving,’ she said, looking from him towards Paige.

‘You don’t have to dash off on my account,’ Brad said sipping his drink.

‘No, no, I was going anyway.’ Rosie finished her coffee. ‘Perhaps you can talk some sense into Paige. She’s talking about going to live in Seattle, you know.’

‘Seattle?’ Brad looked at Paige with a frown.

Silence hung heavily in the air for a moment before Rosie said with a gleam of mischief in her eyes. ‘She won’t admit it, but I’m sure it’s that guy she met at college trying to talk her into going up there. Probably hoping she’ll agree to live with him.’

‘Rosie!’ Paige’s eyes widened at such a blatant untruth.

‘It isn’t good to make such a radical decision while you are still in mourning for your father, Paige... You’re not thinking clearly,’ Rosie continued totally unabashed by the look of disapproval on her friend’s face. She reached to pick up her handbag. ‘Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone. As I said, perhaps you can talk some sense into her Brad...?’

‘Thank you, but I don’t need anyone to talk sense into me,’ Paige murmured uncomfortably. ‘I am quite capable of managing my own life.’

Rosie shook her head. ‘I’ll phone you later, Paige. Let’s have lunch one day next week?’

Paige nodded and made to walk to the car with her friend, but Rosie waved her hand. ‘I can find my own way.’

The silence in the kitchen was loaded with tension once the back door closed behind her.

‘Seattle?’ Brad said again, and shook his head. ‘You know it does nothing but rain up there, don’t you?’

‘It will make a refreshing change, then, won’t it?’ Paige said briskly. She finished her coffee and put the cup down on the pine kitchen table, her eyes moving to the perfect blue sky outside.

‘Is there some man waiting in the wings for you up there?’ Brad persisted.

‘I’ve told you once, that’s none of your business,’ Paige replied staunchly. She had too much pride to admit that it wasn’t the truth. Let him think there was someone else who wanted her... and not for the cold-blooded business reasons he had propounded.

‘Rosie is right in a way, you know; you shouldn’t make such radical decisions at the moment. You’re still in shock from your father’s death.’

She glanced over at him. ‘Is that your way of telling me that you have changed your mind about us getting married?’

‘No, my...offer still stands.’ His voice was low, velvety and seductive.

Paige couldn’t find her voice to say anything for just a moment. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had come over here to tell her the whole idea was a mistake; that he hadn’t been serious about his proposal. She shook her head, trying to dismiss the notion that she was relieved he hadn’t changed his mind, trying to clear the madness of this whole thing from her heart. ‘How come you think it would be a folly for me to rush up to Seattle while I’m, as you and Rosie like to put it, “not thinking clearly”, but it would be OK for me to rush into a marriage with you?’ Her voice was dry.

‘I’d rather you made a mistake with me than with somebody else.’ There was a gleam of humour in his dark eyes, a lopsided tug of a grin on the firm line of his lips. Something about it made her heart twist painfully. Brad’s droll sense of humour had always struck a chord inside her; she loved that wry glint, the effortless ease with which he could make her smile back at him. She fought the impulse now; this was too serious a discussion to laugh away lightly.

‘At least you honestly admit it would be a mistake,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘I can’t believe you aren’t joking. So you honestly think my options are to stay here and have you take advantage of me, or go to Seattle and have someone else exploit me?’

‘I’m not about to take advantage of you, Paige,’ he said slowly. His eyes were perfectly serious now. ‘But I can’t vouch for the other guy—can you? Who is it, anyway? Not that guy you brought back here in the summer holidays last year?’

‘I’m not about to discuss my boyfriends with you.’

‘Spoilsport.’ He leaned back against the counter top. His eyes lingered on the softness of her lips. ‘I suppose what you’ve got to ask yourself is, do you want to keep your family home or is the guy in Seattle worth giving everything up for?’ he drawled lazily.

‘Oh, this is ridiculous.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m not listening to another word. We can’t get married; it’s preposterous.’

‘I think it would be a good deal for the both of us.’

‘A good deal!’ She was outraged. ‘How can you talk about marriage in those terms?’

‘If I talked in other terms...talked about love... would you be interested?’ he asked calmly, a hint of mocking sarcasm in his voice.

‘I’m not interested in any terms.’ Her heart slammed against her chest.

‘So you are going to run away to Seattle.’

‘I’m not running away.’ She denied that firmly. ‘I’m starting over again.’

‘You can start again here,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘I know how much this place means to you. You can have it all back in twelve months.’

Her skin flared with heat.

‘You’ll feel a lot better and clearer in twelve months.’

‘Or a lot worse.’

‘It’s a calculated risk. At least you’ll have your home back. You can’t lose.’

Paige doubted those words very much. ‘On the contrary, I think I could lose a great deal. My freedom...my sanity.’

One dark eyebrow lifted at that. ‘I don’t think living with me will be that bad!’ he said dryly.

‘That’s a matter of opinion.’ She glared at him.

‘Well, if that’s how you feel I’ll just ask someone else.’

The audacity of his words made her heart thump wildly. ‘Yes, you do that. What about Carolyn?’ She flung the words at him, wanting to see his reaction, wanting to know how he felt about Carolyn finishing with him.

‘I told you. Carolyn no longer figures in my life at all.’

His words were firm, the darkness of his eyes showing no hint of indecision or emotion on that point.

She pushed a hand through the length of her hair. ‘Are you by any chance on the rebound, Brad?’

He looked surprised by the question, then he laughed. ‘Certainly not. Carolyn wanted more from me than I was prepared to give.’

Paige thought about that for a moment before she said softly, ‘But she finished with you...didn’t she?’

‘Does it matter who finished with whom?’ he countered. He glanced at his watch. ‘Look, I haven’t come over here to discuss my past affairs. I was wondering if you would have lunch with me? I think it would help if we could sit down and discuss things in a mature manner.’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t honestly believe that you think we have anything to discuss. You know how I feel about you.’

‘You and I have always got on extremely well.’

‘Until I found out what you are really like.’

He shrugged. ‘I’ve always thought very highly of you, Paige. I like your sparky manner...’ His eyes slipped down to her figure. ‘Among other things.’

‘Don’t try to flatter me, Brad,’ she told him shakily. ‘I mean it. I’m not going along with this business deal of yours. I’m a romantic. When I many, it will be for love, not business.’

‘I can send roses,’ he said casually.

‘It would take more than roses to win me around now,’ she said bluntly. ‘After the way you treated my father.’

‘Let’s not go through that again. Your father’s problems were of his own making,’ he said derisively.

‘I’m sure you would like nothing better than for what you did to be forgotten,’ she said abrasively. ‘But that isn’t going to happen. I’ll never forget nor forgive how you stabbed my father in the back. He died a broken and bitter man and you contributed to that... I hate you for it—’

‘For hell’s sake, Paige, grow up.’ He cut across her words with contempt. ‘Your father was a foolish man; he ruined himself...’ He leaned across the table, meeting the fierce glitter of her eyes. ‘Shall I tell you why his finances were in such a bad state? Shall I tell you the truth?’

She frowned, her heart thudding overtime. ‘What do you mean? I know everything there is to know.’

For the briefest second she saw indecision in his dark eyes. Then he shrugged. ‘Your father was weak, Paige, and the sooner you face up to that the better.’

‘He didn’t have very many good words to say about you either,’ she said succinctly. ‘He said you were hard and ruthless. And, judging by the offer you are making me, I’d say he was right.’

His eyebrows rose. ‘If offering to write off the money still owing to me, offering to rebuild and invest in this vineyard then hand it back to you in twelve months is your opinion of cold and ruthless, then there is no point in us talking any further.’ He put his coffee cup down on the table.

‘Just tell me this, Brad.’ She stopped him as he made to move towards the door. ‘How come you can afford to write off my father’s loan now and yet when we begged you for some extra time to pay you back you refused flat?’

He stopped and looked at her. ‘I had very good reasons for doing what I did, Paige. I’m asking you to take my word for it.’

There was something about his tone that rang with sincerity. She felt confused suddenly.

He saw the shadows in her eyes, the grief, and he moved towards her.

‘Don’t, Brad.’ She moved back from him. ‘Don’t touch me. I mean it when I say I hate you.’

‘No, you don’t.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re scared of the future and you are desperately grieving for your father, but you don’t hate me.’

‘I’m not scared of anything,’ she told him staunchly.

His eyes moved gently over her pale skin, the soft, vulnerable curve of her lips. ‘I’ve known you since you were thirteen years of age, Paige Jackson, and I know every expression that flits across that beautiful face almost better than I know my own reflection in the mirror. I know you are hurting now...and I want you to believe that I want to make things better for you.’ He touched her face, raising it so she was forced to look up at him. ‘I want to kiss those trembling lips and hold you and tell you that you are never going to have to worry about anything again.’

She bit down on her lip. The strange thing was that despite everything she had been telling him she wanted him to kiss her, to hold her. She was so bewildered by the range of emotions inside her that she didn’t know what to think any more.

His thumb brushed the softness of her skin. ‘I’m sorry I said the things I did about your father, about him being weak. I shouldn’t have said anything.’

‘No, you shouldn’t have.’ Her eyes ached suddenly with the effort not to cry.

‘I want you to believe me when I say I always liked your father, Paige. I certainly wasn’t out to ruin him.’

Paige didn’t answer; her heart was beating so fiercely against her chest that she felt sure he would be able to hear it. His closeness was making all sorts of strange emotions surface with an intensity she couldn’t stem.

‘We won’t talk about the past again, all right?’ He lowered his voice to a gentle, persuasive tone. ‘The future is all that matters now. Let’s go out for lunch and discuss it together in a positive manner.’

Paige frowned. What was her future? Leaving everything and everyone she had ever known and loved, and that included Brad Monroe, starting again in a strange town? But if she stayed and married Brad, how would she feel in a year’s time when the marriage was over? She would have her home back, but would she really be able to pick up the pieces of her life, forget that she had shared a year with Brad, forget that she had shared his bed and act as if nothing had happened? She didn’t think she was capable of that, but then going away seemed an equally harsh solution.

‘Say you’ll marry me, Paige, and I’ll look after you.’

‘I don’t need looking after,’ she said fiercely. ‘I can look after myself.’

‘OK. say yes and we’ll work out the details later.’ He grinned at her. Then he leaned down and kissed her.

The sweetness of his lips against hers sent a shock of pleasure spinning deep inside her. She made no attempt to pull away from him; instead, some deeper, stronger instinct seemed to take over and she found herself reaching out, resting her hands against the warmth of his chest. He smelled wonderful—of expensive soap. She could feel the heat of him emanating through her, warming the coldness that had gripped her since her father’s death. She closed her eyes and found that she wanted to lean against him weakly, that she wanted just to give in and say, Let’s give it a go.

When he pulled back from her she looked up at him, feeling totally dazed. ‘Can you hear ringing?’ she murmured, feeling disorientated.

He smiled. ‘I think you’ll find it’s your phone.’

‘Oh!’ She stepped back from him. He sounded so...together, unaffected, and she felt so totally opposite to that, it was embarrassing. With difficulty she gathered herself together and crossed to pick up the phone.

‘Paige? It’s Ron Harrison here, Brad’s estate manager. Sorry to disturb you, but is he there?’

‘Yes...yes, he is.’ Paige held out the phone to Brad. ‘It’s for you.’

The slightest touch of his fingers against hers made her pulses start to quicken again.

‘Yes?’ His voice was brisk. Then he glanced at his watch. ‘OK; no, it doesn’t matter. I’ll come back and deal with it right away.’ His tone was businesslike.

He put the receiver down and turned to look at her. ‘I’m sorry, Paige, I’ll have to skip lunch. Problems at the vineyard.’

‘That’s OK.’ Paige shrugged and felt compelled to try to restore her protective barriers against him. ‘I wasn’t going to have lunch with you anyway.’

He smiled as if he didn’t believe that for a moment, as if he knew dam well he had got under her skin with that kiss. ‘We’ll have dinner instead,’ he asserted. ‘I’ll pick you up tomorrow night, seven-thirty.’

‘I don’t think so, Brad.’ She sounded as emotionally torn as she felt.

He grinned. ‘I won’t be late, so make sure you are ready on time.’ Then he swung out of the house. Paige watched him strolling towards the car, confident, very self-assured.

Her heart was thumping as if she had been running a race. She was still in love with Brad Monroe; the truth was very stark, very obvious in that moment and she hated herself for it.

This was the man who had betrayed her father, she told herself, but hidden behind the feelings of guilt and disloyalty to her father’s memory there was a longing so deep, so intense, she couldn’t suppress it.

CHAPTER THREE

THE scent of roses met Paige as she pushed open her front door. They were in a glass vase on the hall table, the tight buds of that morning now unfurled to heavy, nodding flowers in full glory. She leaned closer and breathed in their perfume, wondering how Brad had found a florist that stocked old-fashioned flowers that still had a scent.

She kicked off her shoes and sighed. She had spent a dreadful afternoon walking around her property with the real-estate people, cataloguing everything from the huge vats in the warehouses to the riding tackle in the now empty stables.

Everything was listed ready for the brochure and a date was set for the auction. She wrote the date in her diary on the hall table now in an attempt to trivialise it along with a few coffee mornings she already had planned with Rosie for that week. But it didn’t feel unimportant. It felt as if she was writing down the date for the end of her world.

The knowledge that she didn’t need to go through with the sale was reinforced by the scent of the roses that Brad had sent her this morning. There had been a card with them, reminding her that he was picking her up for dinner tonight. As if she could have forgotten! Even so, she had kidded herself all day that she wasn’t going to go, that she wasn’t going to consider his proposal—hence the real-estate people and the practical way she had been dealing with things.

Her eyes moved from the roses to the grandfather clock.

It was six o’ clock. If she was going to have dinner with Brad, then she should go straight upstairs and start to get ready.

She thought about it for just a second then headed for the stairs. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to listen to what Brad had to say, she told herself fiercely.

She showered and styled her hair in record time, then spent ages trying to decide what to wear. She didn’t want to look as if she had taken any extra trouble with her appearance, but on the other hand she wanted to look good.

She settled on a white trouser suit and a blue silk blouse. Then surveyed her appearance critically. The outfit complemented her dark colouring, the slender curves of her figure. She would do, she decided. It didn’t really matter what she looked like.

The sound of Brad’s car pulling up outside made her calm resolve start to falter.

She watched him walking up to the front door from her bedroom window. He looked extremely sophisticated in a classically cut, dark suit. The clothes emphasised the breadth of his shoulders, the darkness of his hair.

She heard the ring of the doorbell, but waited a few minutes. She wasn’t going to hurry to let him in... She didn’t want to appear too keen.

She took her time going down to the front door, but as soon as she opened it and he smiled warmly at her all her cool thoughts were forgotten.

‘You look wonderful,’ he said, his eyes moving in a leisurely perusal of her appearance.

‘Thank you. And thanks for the roses,’ she added.

‘My pleasure.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Shall we go? I’ve booked a table at Henry’s for eight.’

She tried not to feel impressed by the fact that he was taking her to one of the best restaurants in the area. She nodded. ‘I’ll just get my bag.’

Surprisingly, Paige felt very relaxed with Brad throughout the meal. The food and the service were excellent and Brad was attentive and amusing. Not once during the main meal did the conversation touch too heavily on personal ground.

‘Would you like a dessert and coffee?’ Brad asked as he leaned across to refill her wineglass.

‘Just a coffee, thanks.’ Paige turned from her contemplation of the restaurant to find he was regarding her steadily. The intentness of his gaze flustered her.

‘I’m glad you changed your mind about having dinner with me tonight,’ he said softly.

‘I’ve enjoyed it,’ Paige said truthfully. Then, in case he got the wrong idea, she added hastily, ‘This is one of my favourite restaurants but it’s ages since I’ve been here. You have to reserve a table so far in advance that it tends to be a place just for special occasions.’

‘I hope this is a special occasion,’ Brad said, his eyes lingering on the soft curve of her lips.

There was something so blatantly sensual about the way he was looking at her that she could feel heat rising in waves inside her. ‘How did you manage to get a reservation at such short notice?’ She tried very hard to keep the conversation on an impersonal level.

He smiled as if he knew exactly what she was doing. ‘I can be persuasive when I want something badly enough.’

She looked away from him. ‘You mean you bribed them... just like you are trying to bribe me into marriage?’

His eyebrows rose at that. ‘I’ve never bribed anyone in my life. Hell, Paige, I suggested marriage to you because I believe it will be to our mutual benefit. Do you really have such a low opinion of me?’

Their eyes met across the table and her heart thudded unsteadily. ‘I don’t know what to think any more,’ she admitted, regretting her outburst. Brad had been so charming throughout dinner. ‘I’m sorry; perhaps the word “bribe” was a bit strong.’

He leaned back in his chair, looking relaxed again. ‘Yes—especially for a prospective mayor.’ Humour danced in the darkness of his eyes.

Her eyes moved contemplatively over his features. He looked strong and uncompromising, but the impression of strength was one of positive integrity and honour. If it wasn’t for the way Brad had behaved towards her father in the last months of his life, she would have had no compunction about believing he was the type of guy you could trust.

‘You must be very eager to become mayor if you are prepared to get married in order to secure more votes.’

‘It has become very important to me.’ He nodded. ‘I think I can make a difference around here, make life better.’

‘Then what... Washington?’ she asked lightly, a smile in her voice.

He laughed. ‘Give me a chance. I haven’t been elected here yet.’ He reached across and poured the last of the wine into her glass.

She shrugged. ‘You’re ambitious. If things go well for you, I shouldn’t think you’ll want to stay in such a small pool.’

‘This town is my home. Like you, I’ve been brought up with a healthy respect for the land, for my heritage. I wouldn’t give that up lightly.’

Paige thought of his mother. ‘No... Elizabeth wouldn’t have wanted that.’ For a moment her eyes clouded. She still missed Elizabeth.

Brad’s eyes met hers. ‘She would have approved of my proposing to you, though,’ he said with a wry twist of his lips.

Paige smiled. ‘Isn’t that enough to make you do the opposite? She always said you were your own man, a free thinker, stubborn as the day is long.’

Brad grinned. ‘Funny, she said very similar things about you.’

For a moment they looked at each other and Paige could feel the poignancy of those memories very strongly between them.

‘Elizabeth was a lovely person. You must still miss her terribly.’

He inclined his head. ‘But life goes on,’ he said slowly. ‘My mother taught me that lesson when I was very young, and my father had just died. She was very brave and strong and she worked very hard at keeping the vineyard going from success to success.’

Paige nodded. ‘She was an extraordinary woman.’

‘She used to say, Paige, that the secret of life was not to be afraid of it, but to embrace it firmly.’

Paige’s eyes misted with sudden tears.

He reached across and took hold of her hand. ‘Marry me, Paige... I need you. I want you.’

She swallowed hard. ‘You don’t need anyone. You’ll walk this election whether you are married or single.’

He smiled. ‘It’s nice of you to have such faith in me. But I think my chances will be greater with you by my side. What is it they say? Behind every successful man there is a woman?’

‘A surprised mother-in-law, I believe, is the other ending to that particular line.’ Paige laughed.

‘As I never knew your mother I don’t know whether she would be surprised or not. But I know my mother would feel nothing but joy, especially if you were my partner.’

‘You’re not being fair, Brad. You shouldn’t bring Elizabeth into this. You know how much I thought of her.’

His lips slanted in a half-smile. ‘Listen, I’m so desperate I’d bring a priest in at this moment if I thought it would make a difference to the way you think about me.’

She half laughed at the humorous tone, the sparkle in his eyes. ‘This is crazy,’ she murmured. ‘A marriage of convenience...’ She shook her head.

‘I think it makes perfect sense.’

‘You would.’ She bit down on her lip.

‘People have been making marriages of convenience since the beginning of time. A lot have been tremendously successful.’

to take your word for it. I can’t think of any myself.’

‘It’s a year out of your life.’ He shrugged. ‘Then you get your vineyard back... No need to run away—’

‘I’m not running away.’

‘Whatever.’ He waved a hand dismissively, then sat back. ‘So, what do you say?’

She didn’t answer immediately and he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and brought out a small box. He opened it and a large solitaire diamond ring sparkled invitingly inside.

‘You’ve already bought the ring?’ Her eyes flew from the box to his face.

‘I feel very confident that this is the right thing to do.’

‘I’m sorry, Brad, but I can’t say I share that confidence.’

He picked up the ring from the box, holding it between finger and thumb so that it caught the candlelight on the table and reflected a myriad of rainbow colours. ‘Tell you what: if it fits the third finger of your left hand perfectly, we’ll call it an omen and go ahead... And if it doesn’t we’ll forget the whole thing.’

Paige frowned. ‘That’s a bit flip for such an important decision, don’t you think?’

He smiled. ‘I’m a great believer in fate.’ He picked up her hand and slipped the ring in place.

It fitted perfectly. ‘Just like Cinderella and the glass slipper,’ he said with a twinkle in his eyes as she looked up at him.

‘Brad, this is—’

Whatever she had been going to say was cut off by the way he leaned across and kissed her on the lips.

It was just a brief kiss, but it was warm and inviting and it made her forget exactly just what she had been going to say.

She stared at him wordlessly as he sat back in his chair. ‘Shall I order some champagne?’

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