Hired Husband. Rebecca Brandewyne
Nick, I think I’d like to be alone for a little while to try to come to grips with our situation, to get some perspective on it. So you go on. And when you’re ready to take that drive out to your house, why don’t you buzz my office? I’ll have my secretary clear my calendar for the remainder of the day, so I’ll be at your disposal.”
“Well, in spite of everything, I have to admit I like the sound of that,” he drawled insolently, grinning wickedly at her once more, impervious to her sudden scowl and flush of embarrassment. “Oh, hell. Lighten up, Caro. After all, it isn’t every day that a person gets engaged. Besides, it could be worse. It could be Otto the INS is attempting to deport!” Otto Mueller was his stolid, heavyset assistant in the laboratory. Then, before Caroline realized what Nick intended, he bent his head to brush her lips quickly with his own. “Sorry. I just couldn’t resist. I simply had to know whether or not you’d taste like a sweet roll!” he insisted before grabbing his attaché and heading from Kate’s office.
Caroline stood there staring after him, nonplussed, biting her tongue to hold back the question that had involuntarily sprung to it: Well, do I? Unwittingly, her hand flew to her mouth. Somehow, her lips felt warm from his kiss. At that realization, she shook her head resolutely, as though to clear it.
What was she thinking? Really, the man was impossible! Any concern and empathy she had thought he might have felt for her earlier had obviously been an attempt on his part to conceal his true self from her, in order that she would say yes to marrying him.
How could she go through with their wedding? Caroline asked herself, torn. Because how could she not go through with it? Her grandmother, father and Fortune Cosmetics were all counting on her. She couldn’t let them down, couldn’t turn her back on them and prove a disappointment to them, as her brother, Adam, had done.
No, like it or not, she had no choice but to wed Nick Valkov. She sighed heavily. This was not the marriage of her dreams, what she had envisioned since she was a little girl. She had hoped for a loving husband, children.
Her eyes strayed to the elegant marble pedestal that stood in one corner of her grandmother’s office. From the column, a small, slender alabaster arm rose. Wrapped around its wrist was a sterling-silver heir-loom baby bracelet composed of tiny beads and a delicate heart. It was quite valuable, as it was believed to have belonged to one of history’s great queens. But that was not the reason why Caroline had always loved it. It was because, to her, it somehow symbolized all that life should be, the making of the proverbial happy home and hearth, the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.
She was twenty-nine years old—and she could hear her biological clock ticking away. How much time would she lose by marrying Nick Valkov, time she might have spent looking for a true husband who loved her and would give her children? How much time had she already wasted herself, burying herself in her work and cutting herself from all men? She had been a fool, Caroline realized now. But it was too late to go back; she could not relive the past.
She must, as her father had, set aside her own dreams for the good of the family. Thus resolved, she squared her shoulders determinedly and strode from her grandmother’s office.
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