Read Online His Black Sheep Bride by Anna DePalo - Free Book Online Page A

expect you to share my bed?”
    She kept her expression unchanged, but at her sides, her fingers curled into her palms. “I just want us to be clear.”
    He smiled lazily. “The answer is no. That is, unless you decide you’d like to be in my bed.”
    â€œHardly,” she replied tartly.
    His eyes laughed at her. “A man can dream.”
    She felt a quiver in response to his compelling magnetism. She turned away to hide her reaction, surveying her domain, and then hugging herself. What was she willing to give up to save this?
    Not too discriminating to do business with the devil.
    Sawyer’s words came back to her, and now she knew he was right.
    â€œSix months,” she said without looking at him. “That should be more than enough time—”
    â€œHowever long it takes.”
    â€œYou said it would be short-term,” she countered, her tone faintly accusatory.
    He settled his hands on her shoulders, warm and caressing. “I’m looking forward to it.”
    When he bent and nuzzled her neck, she closed her eyes. He kissed her throat, and she couldn’t help thinking he was sealing the deal.
    And then a moment later, he was gone, out the door.
    With her fingertips, she touched the still warm and tingly spot where he’d kissed her.
    What had she done by bargaining with the devil?
    Â 
    â€œI’m going to marry Sawyer Langsford.”
    Her statement was met with a joint gasp.
    Tamara looked from one to the other of her friends. Pia’s eyes had gone wide, while Belinda just looked at her in frozen silence, her coffee cup halfway to her lips.
    They were sitting in Contadini having a casual Sunday brunch, but her announcement blew the relaxed atmosphere right out of the water.
    Tamara glanced at Pia. “Any chance you can squeeze a small and hasty English wedding into your schedule for next month?”
    â€œOh, dear Lord,” Belinda breathed, rolling her eyes. “Tell me you’re not pregnant!”
    Tamara looked at her friend in alarm. “Of course not!”
    Was it her use of the word hasty that had made Belinda jump straight to pregnancy?
    Belinda set down her cup. “Well, we can rule out drunk, since it’s Sunday morning and you’re sipping orange juice, so…what is going on?”
    â€œShe looks sane to me,” Pia murmured to Belinda, who nodded in agreement.
    Belinda and Pia were both back in New York for the moment, and Tamara had decided that now, at one of their regularbrunches, was as good a time as any to spring her momentous news on them.
    â€œOf course I haven’t lost my mind,” she said.
    At least, she didn’t think she had.
    Belinda gave her a penetrating look. “Has your father strong-armed you into this? I know he saw you and Sawyer together at the wedding reception—”
    â€œOh, Tamara,” Pia jumped in, her brow puckered, “there has to be a way out!”
    â€œAnd it’s easier to find a way out before the wedding than after,” Belinda muttered.
    Tamara took a fortifying breath. “My father hasn’t pressed anything.” Sort of. If it hadn’t been for her father’s conditions on the merger of Kincaid News with Melton Media, Sawyer would never have proposed. It was a humiliating way to have received her first marriage proposal, but a humiliation that brought salvation for her business. “In fact, I’ve hardly ever given a decision this much calculated thinking.”
    â€œUh-oh,” Pia breathed. “Calculated thinking for a wedding? Oh, Tamara!”
    Tamara repressed a sigh. Of course, Pia, the eternal romantic, would be shocked and alarmed at the idea of a marriage of convenience.
    â€œBeats the opposite,” Belinda put in. “I don’t recommend the impetuous elopement.”
    Tamara raised her hand. “Hear me out.”
    â€œI’m all ears,” Belinda replied. “This I have to