Stand-In Bride - Barbara Boswell

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      Kate Fortune’s Journal Entry

      My faithful friend Sterling has informed me that someone is secretly buying up large blocks of shares of Fortune stock. It seems as if the stage is being set for a hostile takeover. I’m desperately afraid that we’re going to lose everything!

      But at least we’ll always be a family, money or not. My only wish is that each of my children and grandchildren finds love and happiness. Something my grandson Michael has finally discovered. He’d always been mistrustful of women and love. I left him the ruby ring my dearly departed husband, Ben, gave to me as a symbol of true love. And now he’s given the heirloom to his new fiancée. I couldn’t be more pleased.

      Though I worry about the hastiness of this engagement. I do hope he knows what he’s doing….

      A LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

      Dear Reader,

      I found the FORTUNE’S CHILDREN series intriguing because it contained many elements that interest me. I love stories about families whose members are quite different from each other, who may or may not like and trust each other all the time but will rally together when threatened by outsiders.

      A series with several generations and different branches of the family interacting with each other makes for an even more interesting read. I was happy to be given the opportunity to write such a story. There are lots of books about parent/child and sister/brother relationships, but in the FORTUNE’S CHILDREN series there are also aunts and uncles and cousins. Writing about those relationships added an extra dimension for me because I’ve seldom written about an entire extended family. It was territory I enjoyed exploring!

      This series has the feel of a soap opera, with the many characters and situations interconnecting with each other. This was great fun for me, as I am an avid “soap” fan. I started watching the lineup of fifteen-minute shows with my grandmother way back when, and have been hooked ever since. I love the concept of continuing characters, with different ones taking turns on the “front burner” while the others make appearances or are referred to. I also enjoyed fitting Michael and Julia, my characters in Stand-in Bride, into the ongoing story while creating a specific one just for them.

      I hope you will enjoy reading the FORTUNE’S CHILDREN series as much as I enjoyed my participation in it.

      Stand-in Bride

      Barbara Boswell

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      BARBARA BOSWELL

      loves writing about families. “I guess family has been a big influence on my writing,” she says. “I particularly enjoy writing about how my characters’ family relationships affect them.”

      When Barbara isn’t writing and reading, she’s spending time with her own family—her husband, three daughters and three cats, whom she concedes are the true bosses of their home! She has lived in Europe, but now makes her home in Pennsylvania. She collects miniatures and holiday ornaments, tries to avoid exercise and has somehow found the time to write over 20 category romances.

      Meet the Fortunes—three generations of a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they unite to face an unknown enemy, shocking family secrets are revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.

      MICHAEL FORTUNE: The Fortune Company executive doesn’t want to settle down, but he needs help warding off his female admirers. So he proposes a no-strings-attached engagement to his faithful assistant….

      JULIA CHANDLER: She can’t believe it when her boss asks her to be his pretend fiancée! But what starts as a charade produces an unexpected Fortune heir….

      MONICA MALONE: The glamorous movie star has ties to the Fortune clan that go way back. She’s a woman scorned who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

      KATE FORTUNE: She has to find out who is out to sabotage her company…and destroy her family.

      RACHEL “ROCKY” FORTUNE: Identical twin to beautiful Allie, Rocky is a tomboy whose adventurous spirit and inheritance from her grandmother will lead her to the wilderness of Wyoming….

      LIZ JONES— CELEBRITY GOSSIP

      Michael Fortune, named one of the “Ten Most Eligible Bachelors in the U.S.A.” by Fame magazine, is engaged!

      But I have my doubts about this pair. Who is Julia Chandler, anyway? She’s not from any well-known society family that I ever heard of. She’s just a plain-Jane mousy assistant who’s probably a gold digger. But what I can’t figure out is how she hoodwinked the savvy Michael Fortune.

      My good friend Faith Carlisle from Channel 3 News interviewed the hastily engaged couple and told me that Michael was quite protective of his soon-to-be bride. She also claimed there was a strong attraction between the two.

      But is this really a love match? Perhaps the conniving secretary is pregnant from an illicit after-hours encounter and is blackmailing him? Again, how could a woman like that ever hook the biggest catch in the U.S.?

      My prediction: this marriage won’t last long—if it ever really takes place.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Epilogue

      One

      It wasn’t unusual for Kristina Fortune to make an impromptu visit to her half brother Michael’s office, and Julia Chandler, Michael’s executive assistant, greeted her with a warm smile. Julia occupied the smaller office adjoining Michael’s luxurious corner suite.

      “Julia, look at this!” Kristina stopped directly in front of Julia’s desk and dropped a copy of Fame onto her desktop.

      Julia glanced at the magazine cover. Bold block letters promised IN THIS ISSUE: THE TOP TEN MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELORS IN THE U.S.A.

      “This is an advance copy. The issues don’t officially hit the stands until tomorrow. Turn to page 15, Julia,” Kristina ordered with an eager glee that immediately put Julia on guard. Kristina, a rising star in the advertising department, sometimes displayed enthusiasm for concepts and notions that caused headaches here in the product-development department.

      “The predictable choices, I see,” Julia remarked as she scanned the top-ten list, which began on page 15. She was somewhat relieved; predictability seldom caused departmental headaches. The bachelors included a former president’s son, a millionaire talk-show host, a billionaire music-business mogul, a recently divorced United States senator, an actor who last year had been dubbed “the sexiest man alive” by the same magazine, a bestselling writer of legal thrillers,

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