Daniel's Bride by Joanne Hill Page A

became acquainted with
that track record.
    If it was the reverse, she’d run. Call her a hypocrite but
it was true.
    She glanced up to see Daniel watching her closely. She
cleared her throat. “Couldn’t we just…” She shrugged. “You know. Just get
engaged?”
    Daniel shook his head. “This needs to be a marriage. A legal
marriage.”
    “But who would know? Who would check?”
    “The media if they get wind of this. I also suspect my
grandfather will want to see a legal certificate. He’s developed a tendency to
want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’d rather leave
nothing to chance. And I would rather not lie to him.”
    The incredulity of what he’d just said stunned her. This
whole thing was a lie. Even if only a handful of people knew it.
    His blue-gray eyes never left her, but there was an added
intensity now. As if he was trying to read her mind.
    It wouldn’t surprise her if he could. Daniel Christie was
unlike any man she’d ever met. He was a man you looked twice at, even
entertained a fantasy or two about, but that was as far as it went. He was too
male to get close to, and it was nothing to do with what he was, an impossibly
wealthy and respected businessman. He could be the foreman on the ranch and
he’d still exude it .
    “I’m sorry. But the answer has to be no.”
    He watched her intently for a minute, then pursed his lips.
“There is one other option.”
    “Really?”
    “Hugh and I were discussing this yesterday. And it appears
there is the possible option that the marriage can be.” He coughed. “Annulled.”
    Mel froze. “Annulled?”
    “It’s effectively wiped from the books so no one need ever
know.”
    She grabbed the idea like a life line. “What would the
criteria be?”
    “There are several considerations. If the marriage isn’t
consummated, for example. For our purposes the marriage does not have to be.”
    Mel’s eyebrows shot up followed by a rapid rise of heat in
her body. Look natural, she ordered herself, and she reached for her glass of
water. She’d never even considered the sex aspect of it, this whole time. That’s
how out of touch with reality this whole charade was becoming.
    Daniel leaned closer. His voice softened an edge. “I can see
you’re worried about the divorce and I understand that. The alternative of the
annulment means that the record goes. No one will ever know Mel Green and
Daniel Christie were once husband and wife.”
    “I didn’t know you could get an annulment in this day and
age. It sounds very Jane Austen.”
    “It’s very rare. Apparently.”
    “What are the other grounds besides the, you know – consummation
ground.” Good grief. She barely knew the man and she was discussing sex with
him. Even people who had sex with strangers probably never talked about it.
They just went ahead and did it. “Are there others?”
    “If I married you under false pretences that would qualify.
For example, if I tricked you, made out I was something I wasn’t.”
    She grabbed this titbit like a cat hanging out for a piece
of fish. “That would work.”
    He sighed, and said dispassionately, “No, it wouldn’t.
Because we are signing an agreement, albeit a private one, we both know what
will be expected from this marriage. That would hardly qualify as a false
pretence, Melinda, so a declaration of nullity won’t fly.”
    She ran her hands across her face, her mind suddenly heavy
with exhaustion. The whole discussion about annulment was pointless anyway. Not
only had she been jilted, but she was now incapable of having sex with her own
husband – or even worse, incapable of making him want sex with her. Her face
suddenly burnt with the heat of it.
    “This can be kept quiet,” Daniel told her. “No one needs to
know, if that’s what concerns you. And I think it is.”
    She breathed in deep. “It is. I’d be very worried about my
mother.” She looked into his eyes, and was startled to feel herself being drawn
in. What