Temporary Bride
Arabella Sheen
Max Jordan is one of America’s most powerful, leading corporate lawyers. He is also the major stockholder and head of the billion-dollar corporation - Jordan Diamond Empire.
Max must marry soon to keep the business safe and the company secure from a takeover.
Returning to England in search of the only woman he knows and trusts to help him in his moment of need - he tracks Amy down and asks her to marry him.
Amy Denver wants nothing to do with Max Jordan…and she certainly wants nothing to do with his marriage proposal. Five painful years have passed since Max disappeared from her life and a lot has happened to her in between. Amy has a secret she’d rather he didn’t discover…her secret is Jake…their son. Once again Amy finds herself surrendering to Max and his demands as he whisks her and Jake off to Waterfront, his private, secluded home in the Hamptons.
EXCERPT 6 continued...
It all happened five years ago when Amy had been training as a law student at the university. Her parents had died in a head-on collision with another car and, although the accident had been no one’s fault, Amy had been left devastated by their deaths.
Fellow students had become her family. They had supported and pulled her through the rough times. And then Max had come into her life.
They met one afternoon in the law office where she’d been working as a work placement student. Max was a practising lawyer in America at the time, but he had come to England to gain experience in International Commercial Law before returning to his practice in New York.
The ever-so organised Max had his career mapped out before him. Working in England in a specialist field was an opportunity that was supposed to be going to make or break his career.
Nothing and no one was going to stop him on his pathway to success. He was focussed and career-minded, and then along came Amy.
Amy had never been quite sure about Max’s family life or what he did when he was in America, but his family history hadn’t mattered and she’d never really pushed for details.
But perhaps she should have.
She’d been in love with him. Totally. And who he was or where he came from seemed unimportant to her then.
Max used to say his nomadic career style and moving from country to country was an invaluable life experience. What she hadn’t realised was that she too was part of that nomadic learning curve.
It seemed their relationship had been temporary and Max, for whatever reason, had eventually chosen to move on with his life.
They’d had one brief, glorious, hot summer together and then she’d had nothing. He had utterly seduced her and she had been willingly his for the taking. And Max had taken all that she’d offered, leaving her with only the memories.
For six red-hot, steamy, passionate months they had lived together in her compact, one-bedroom apartment not far from the university.
Together they would come home from a long, hard day’s work at the office and it would be an even longer, harder night in bed until the early hours of the morning,
At night they would fall asleep, sweaty and exhausted in each other’s arms until she was woken in the dawn’s early light by his urgent need of her. They couldn’t get enough of one another and their bodies craved fulfilment from one another, like a drug.
He had used her but not unkindly. And when she looked back on their time together she realised she had only herself to blame.
She had been full of innocence and she had been trusting. Her naivety hadn’t been his fault . . . only hers.
When Max’s time in England was at an end he had asked her to go back with him to America, but she couldn’t. The time wasn’t right. She had a law degree to finish.
Amy had been studying for nearly five years and they both thought it would be stupid to throw it all away for the sake of a few months.
He’d said she could always join him later - after her exams were over - but it hadn’t worked out that way.
She had been so sure of his love that as soon as she had finished her exams, she caught the first available flight to America and had flown there with the intention of living with him.
It was to have been a surprise, but the only person who had been surprised was Amy.
Flying into New York International Airport at two in the morning she had been jet-lagged, tired and wanting nothing more than the open arms of Max. Only she couldn’t fall into his waiting arm. He wasn’t there and no one seemed to know where he was.
The night watchman in the apartment complex where he was staying let her in, but only as far as the lobby. She had never been in such a place before. There was marble from floor to ceiling and everything that was chrome or crystal gleamed.
“I’m here to see Max Jordan,” she explained to the night watchman.
“Mr Jordan? Is he expecting you Miss?” he asked politely.
“No, he isn’t. I’m afraid I’ve only just landed,” Amy explained.
The security guard looked questioningly at the flight bag she was carrying and the off-the-peg jeans she was wearing. Her luggage and clothing weren’t designer labelled and it was obvious to her that anyone entering these portals would usually have ‘chic’ written all over them. She didn’t. She was wearing her comfortable travelling gear.
“If you could buzz him, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind seeing me,” she said bravely and pointed to the elaborate intercom system.
“Buzz him? I’m sorry Miss. There would be no point in buzzing Mr Jordan. The gentleman’s not here,” he explained apologetically.
“Could you say when he’s likely to be home?” she asked.
“Don’t know Miss. It could be tomorrow . . . could be in a couple of months. Last week he packed a bag and the limo took him to the airport. He didn’t say when he’d be back Miss. If you’d like to leave a note I can see that it gets left with his mail. But I can’t say when or even if he’ll get it, Miss. The Jordans have closed the New York apartment until further notice.”
Amy was feeling totally alienated and out of her depth. To make it worse, when she made enquiries at the place where Max was supposed to be working, she was told there had been a family emergency and that he couldn’t be contacted.
That was probably the reason he hadn’t been answering his mobile phone.
She was faced with the fact Max wasn’t here and no one was prepared to say when, or even if, he was coming back to New York.
Without a green card, she couldn’t get work and although she had sat her law exams, the exam results weren’t out and she had no proof of her qualifications.
Any money she had with her would soon run out and she couldn’t rely on Max returning in the near future.
With no qualifications, no work and nowhere to stay, she had no other option than to return to England.
Reluctantly she caught the next flight home intending to wait for Max to contact her.
He didn’t.
He never wrote, he never phoned, and for several weeks there was only silence.
Amy eventually stopped waiting. She had to get on with her life. She had to start living again.
She had to make plans and build a future for herself…and her unborn baby.
Disclaimer, Copyrights and Publishing
Any names or characters have no existence outside the imagination of the
author or are used fictitiously and actual events are purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, copied,
stored in a retrieval system known or hereinafter invented, without
written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2013 by – Arabella Sheen
Published by priceplacebooks
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-0-9575698-0-5
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