Bound As His Business-Deal Bride (Mills & Boon Modern)

  When KALI ANTHONY read her first romance novel at fourteen she realised two truths: that there can never be too many happy endings, and that one day she would write them herself. After marrying her own tall, dark and handsome hero, in a perfect friends-to-lovers romance, Kali took the plunge and penned her first story. Writing has been a love affair ever since. If she isn’t battling her cat for access to the keyboard, you can find Kali playing dress-up in vintage clothes, gardening, or bushwalking with her husband and three children in the rainforests of South-East Queensland.

  Also by Kali Anthony

  Revelations of His Runaway Bride

  Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

  Bound as His Business-Deal Bride

  Kali Anthony

  www.millsandboon.co.uk

  ISBN: 978-1-474-09873-1

  BOUND AS HIS BUSINESS-DEAL BRIDE

  © 2020 Kali Anthony

  Published in Great Britain 2020

  by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

  All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

  By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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  www.millsandboon.co.uk

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  To Philip.

  My own romance hero and happily-ever-after.

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Booklist

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Note to Readers

  Dedication

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  Extract

  About the Publisher

  PROLOGUE

  Then

  ‘ARE YOU HURT?’

  Eve shivered as Gage pulled his coat close around her, covering the wet clothes clinging to her body. A cold trickle of rainwater drizzled down her spine from the hair plastered to her head. She reached her hand to her temple, probing the area where a dull throb ached. ‘Only a bump, but I’m okay.’

  ‘Where?’ Gage’s voice sounded urgent. A torch flicked on. She winced as the brightness of it cut through the dark.

  ‘Here.’ She touched her head again and his gentle fingers brushed her own out of the way, tracing over her skin where it hurt the most. She shivered again, but not from the cold. This one was something warmer and suffused with pleasure.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. His soft lips touched the middle of her forehead. He bent down and placed the torch on the floor, the small halo of light like a cocoon around them. ‘Anywhere else?’

  She shook her head. ‘What about you?’ He’d been driving when they’d slid off the road in the deluge. They’d been in a rush, trying to get away quickly because she was sure her sister, Veronique, had seen her sneak out of the house to meet Gage and run.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about me.’

  She searched his face, shadowed as it was by the grim darkness that surrounded them in the abandoned building they’d found after grabbing their packs and fleeing the wrecked car. He looked okay, but he’d never tell if he wasn’t. Gage always tried to protect her from every hurt. She wished he’d let her protect him sometimes.

  ‘Did we have to leave the car?’

  ‘It wasn’t going anywhere, and we can’t drive with that damage. It’ll draw attention. At least it’s off the road and not a hazard.’

  Gage wrapped his arms round her and drew her close. She nestled into his damp chest as rain pattered on the roof above them. In places where the roof wasn’t secure water leaked through, pooling on the floor.

  ‘It’ll be okay, cher. We’ve got some money.’ He squeezed a pocket on the coat she wore. A few thousand dollars wasn’t much, but it would get them where they needed to go, she supposed. Gage promised it would, and he always kept his promises. ‘We’ll hole up here tonight and catch a bus to Montgomery first thing. It’s only a few hours away. Then we can get married and no one can stop us. Not your family, not Mom and Dad...’

  His voice trailed off as sadness tainted it. Gage loved his parents, but the Caron and the Chevalier families had loathed each other for as long as she and Gage had been alive. His mom and dad had made it clear to him they didn’t approve of their relationship, even though he’d tried to convince them that while she was only twenty and he twenty-three, they loved each other and that’s all that mattered. It hadn’t changed their minds.

  As for her family...a knot tightened in her stomach, a sickening ache that had been present for so long she barely noticed it some days. She couldn’t think about what would have happened if they’d known. Eve wrapped her arms tightly round Gage’s strong torso.

  ‘You’re sure about this?’ she asked. They might love each other, but he was still losing something by being with her—the support of his family, who were important to him.

  Gage pulled back and looked down at her. The pale yellow torchlight bled the colour from his eyes, making them appear greener than the unearthly blue that filled her waking thoughts and dreams for the future. ‘I love you. And we don’t need anyone’s consent to marry in Alabama, not like home.’

  If only she’d been twenty-one, they wouldn’t have had to run. But they couldn’t wait. She was afraid of the parades of eligible suitors her father had forced on her, and what they might mean. Now, with her enrolment in a French finishing school finalised, t
here was no escaping the truth. It was a choice between running or not seeing each other for a year, maybe longer. No contact at all. The thought was unbearable. She couldn’t. It had made the decision easier for her, at least. For Gage, she knew it had cost something more, even though he didn’t say so.

  Gage ran his hand through his wet hair, his normal blond darkened by the rain. She couldn’t miss the tightness round his eyes, that look of worry present most of the time in recent months. ‘You’re not having second thoughts, are you?’

  ‘Never.’

  He smiled, and it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. The chill dissolved as she was warmed from the inside out. The mere memory of his smile made every day better. Even the ones where even the music turned up too loud at home couldn’t drown out her mom and dad’s shouting. The days when her mom took to her room, with only her pills and gin-spiked iced tea for company.

  Gage cupped her jaw. Dropped his lips to hers. His mouth was so tender and gentle she melted into him, her hands gripping his wet Henley. She needed more than this, kisses in a grimy, falling-down building.

  Once they were married they could find a hotel, make love in a proper bed like they had a few weeks before, when they’d sneaked into the guesthouse on his parents’ property. It could have been the Waldorf the way he’d treated her like a princess on the crisp, white sheets. A flush of desire flooded through her at the memory of his bare skin slipping over hers. How he’d filled her, body and soul. She’d cried in his arms because he’d made her feel so perfect, at a time where everything had seemed broken.

  His tongue touched hers and she threaded her fingers through his hair as they deepened the kiss. She needed him close to her again, craved it in a way she could never explain. He was her everything, the only man she ever wanted. Soon no one could stop them. The thrill of that thought surged through her, the realisation that in a matter of days she’d become Mrs Gage Caron.

  He stopped, wrenched away from her and bent down, the loss immediate and shocking. Everything plunged into midnight as the torch was shut off. ‘Wha—’

  Gage pressed his finger against her lips. Behind him the ghost of a light flickered, a brief flash in another part of the building. The scrape of something. Shoes on floor? She froze, her heart pounding in her chest like drumsticks, drowning out the sound of anything else. Gage’s breath caressed her ear. ‘Someone’s here.’

  His warmth had left her. She didn’t know where he was, but he wouldn’t leave her alone. Not ever. She flinched at a rustling sound nearby. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw him hunched close, stuffing things into his pack.

  ‘Hide,’ he whispered, his voice like a mere breath over the sound of rain falling on the roof above them.

  ‘It might not be my father.’

  ‘Can’t take that chance.’

  ‘What about you?’

  She could barely make out the shake of his head. ‘You take the money, head to Montgomery and I’ll meet you. Call me when you get there. Now up.’

  She looked into the black, ominous rafters above her and hesitated.

  ‘You scared?’ Gage asked.

  Terrified. But his words lit a fire in her belly. After they’d first met as children, spying each other through an ivy-covered hole in the wall that separated the Chevalier and Caron family estates, he’d ask that whenever she hesitated. She’d never backed down from his challenges, always pretending they hadn’t bothered her a bit, even when they had.

  ‘It’s just like climbing the old magnolia. Remember?’ Gage’s face was hidden by the darkness but brittleness cracked in his voice, telling Eve just how scared he was too. Her mouth dried. She nodded, peering into the rafters again.

  ‘I remember.’

  She’d never forget sitting in those branches, looking down at the world as if one day they could bend it to their every whim. Her mom would have had a conniption to know her precious baby girl was up a tree, especially with a filthy Caron. But with Gage anything had seemed possible, no matter how bad things had been. Up there, in their world of fantasy, trying to shut out real life and touch the sky, had been the place her childhood crush had turned into full-blown love.

  Gage bundled some more belongings into his pack. He stuffed hers through a punched-out hole in the wall into the cavity space, out of sight.

  ‘Now’s the time to climb like a tiger’s on your tail, cher,’ he whispered. The sounds of the searchers drifted closer. Men’s hushed voices. Sniggers.

  ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are.’

  Like some sick game. They were hunting and she was the catch of the day. She almost lost her meagre dinner there on the floor, but swallowed down the saliva flooding her mouth. Gage closed the space between them, kissing her again. Not gently this time. His lips were hard and fast against her own, bringing her back to herself. She didn’t want to let him go. Not now, not ever.

  ‘I’ll get them away from here. Then you run.’

  He released her and bent from the waist, clasping his fingers in front of him. She put a foot into his cupped hands, just like when they’d been kids and he’d always helped her into the tree. Gage hoisted her up and she grabbed a rough beam with her bare fingers. Splinters bit into her soft flesh. She clung to the wood, huddled in the darkness as she perched in the old rafters, trying to make herself as small as possible.

  She was good at making herself small.

  Dim light from the street bled through the dirty, broken windows. Gage gave her a long, last look. Flickers of torchlight came closer. He kissed his fingers and reached them out in her direction.

  ‘Soon.’

  He hoisted his pack and crept away quietly till he was almost out of sight. Then he scuffed his trainers on the floor, deliberately making a noise. He was the decoy, like a mother duck leading hunters away from her ducklings. Eve took a deep breath, trying to steady her anxious heartbeat. She had money in her pocket. When Gage and her father’s men were gone, she’d swing down somehow and make her way to Montgomery. They’d find each other. Marry like they’d planned. It would be fine.

  Shouts.

  ‘There! He’s there!’

  The pounding of booted feet. A commotion, scuffling. A cacophony of sound she couldn’t make out.

  ‘Got him!’

  ‘Let me go!’

  Gage’s voice, like she’d never heard it. He’d always made her feel safe. Now he sounded as terrified as she felt. She gripped the beam under her so tight it cut into her fingers and she closed her eyes, trying to make out the voices over the rain falling on the roof. She hoped he was just acting, playing it up for the men who’d caught him.

  ‘Where is she?’

  Eve froze, stopped breathing, because that voice she knew. Her father. There were a few beats of silence then a thud, a grunt. A swift, sharp crack like a snapping twig. Then Gage’s voice, thick and broken.

  ‘She’s gone.’

  Had they hurt him? Eve’s breathing burst in quick pants. Her head spun as she tried to stay calm. If she fainted and dropped from her hiding place, everything would be lost.

  ‘She left you?’

  ‘You’ll never, ever find her. I’ve made sure of it.’

  She couldn’t hear her father’s response, only the murmurs of men that became louder and louder. More torchlight, now below her, flicked into the dark corners of the space. She jumped as one man kicked over some dirty crates in his search. He sneezed loudly and she flinched. The disturbed dust tickled her own nose and she held her breath. They couldn’t look up. Not up. Please.

  The rain fell heavier now, beating staccato on the roof. Another deluge on the way. She strained to hear over the sound of it, which meant the men below would have to as well.

  ‘Nothing, boss!’ one of her father’s cronies shouted, before doing a last sweep of the room with his torch. Then they left, drifting out of the space
and away.

  Eve dropped her head to the strut in front of her. Burning tears threatened behind her eyelids, stinging the back of her nose as she held them in. She wouldn’t cry, not now. Gage needed her to stay strong. There would be time to fall apart when they were together again.

  ‘Boy, your grand-daddy was a liar and your daddy’s a thief.’ Her father again, cold and cruel. The tone all too familiar. ‘Now you try to steal my daughter? If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll ruin you and your family. I will destroy everything you love.’

  That voice sent icy dread freezing through her veins. She bit her lip to hold back a gasp. The metallic, salty tang of blood flooded her mouth. Hugo Chevalier would do exactly as he’d threatened. What had she done? She shouldn’t have run. She should never have risked Gage or his family.

  Someone spat, the sound full of disdain. She huddled closer to the beam but couldn’t see anything. Her hands stung where the splinters had now worked beneath her skin.

  A low laugh. Gage’s. She trembled, wanting to scream out a warning. He didn’t understand. Her father wasn’t a man to taunt.

  ‘You can’t destroy everything I love, Chevalier, because you’ll never have Eve. She’s safe from you.’

  A crunch like a fist on flesh turned her stomach to stone. She couldn’t move, even though she was desperate to know Gage was okay. Shouts, noise. Cries of pain as he took a beating because of her. She should jump down, save him like he’d always tried to save her. He claimed she was one of the bravest people he knew, yet tonight she’d made him a liar, hiding like the coward she was.

  She buried her face in the arm of Gage’s coat, the earthy scent of the man she loved permeating the fabric. Reminding her of everything they were set to lose if things went wrong. There was no going back, not now. Eve sobbed into the damp fabric, the sound drowned out by the rain pounding on the roof above her.

  CHAPTER ONE