LITMIR.BIZ

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met hers and he stared at her a moment before his face broke into a smile that literally stole the breath from her lungs. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. She was going to have to be careful around this guy, she told herself as she composed her features and faced the celebrant.

      The service was simple. She’d have liked to have said it was honest but she was here under false pretenses. It gave her a moment’s pause when she considered that what she planned to do would not only affect the man she was marrying, but also the little girl, who looked up at him with trust and adoration. Well, she just wouldn’t let anyone, herself included, become too attached; that was all there was to it. And when her in-depth article exposing Alice Horvath for the manipulative and cruel woman she truly was hit the newsstands, no one would be hurt but the woman who’d destroyed Peyton’s father and, in turn, her entire family. Even the baby she’d been forced to give away.

      Peyton blinked back the sudden burn in her eyes. Show no weakness. That had been her mantra then and it remained her mantra now.

      “Congratulations!” the celebrant announced with warmth and enthusiasm—as if this was a real wedding and as if they were planning a real future together. “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

       Oh, no.

      Peyton froze as Galen took both her hands in his and leaned toward her. A sense of inevitability seeped through to her bones as she instinctively closed the final gap between them and allowed his lips to brush hers. Except it was more than a brush—it was an enticement. The gentle press of his mouth against hers sent her pulse thudding out of control, and when she parted her lips—to protest, she would tell herself later—he took advantage and tasted her with a practiced sweep of his tongue. She should have pulled back, she should have ended it, but she didn’t. Instead, like some sappy lovestruck teenager, she leaned even closer and kissed him back as if this was a real marriage and they’d been anticipating this moment for months.

      When he withdrew she felt oddly bereft, even shaken. She looked up at him and saw the same kind of expression reflected back at her and instantly knew keeping Galen Horvath—her husband—at arm’s length was going to prove a great deal more challenging than she’d hoped.

      “Yay, we’re a family!” Ellie said excitedly as she wrapped her skinny little arms around them both and gave them a big squeeze. “Nothing bad can happen now.”

      “Nothing ba—” Peyton started.

      “I’ll explain more later. Right now we have some celebrating to do.”

      And they did. They took photos with their guests, including a few of her friends from college she’d kept in touch with. The Horvaths had been suitably sympathetic when she’d explained that her mother had died when she was a child and her father was unable to make it for the wedding.

      After they were done with the formal photos, they toasted and ate and danced and toasted some more. And with every step perfectly in tune with her new partner, Peyton kept a smile on her face and acted as if this was exactly what she’d wanted all her life.

      When the lights dimmed in the reception room and the music slowed to a dreamy romantic number, Galen took her back into his arms and led her out onto the dance floor.

      “Don’t you ever get tired?” Peyton teased. “You haven’t been allowed to sit down yet.”

      He flashed a brief grin at her before his expression grew more serious. “I wanted to let you know what was behind Ellie’s statement earlier.”

      “Do tell,” she encouraged when Galen fell silent.

      If she wasn’t mistaken, a shimmer of moisture appeared in his eyes. He tilted his head back slightly and blinked hard before meeting her gaze again. Then he drew a deep breath and his words came in a rush.

      “Ellie’s my ward. Her parents died in a car crash at the beginning of the year. They were my best friends.”

      Galen’s voice cracked and Peyton was instantly flooded with compassion. She knew what it felt like to have your world ripped apart unexpectedly. But to lose both parents at the same time? That was almost too awful to contemplate. She waited, not wanting to fill the new silence between them with platitudes.

      After a couple of minutes he continued. “I think she’s done really well coping with her loss. Often, she’s coped better than me. She’s had grief counseling and we haven’t made any changes to her lifestyle that she wasn’t ready to make. In fact, it was her idea I buy a house in her old neighborhood for us both to live in. She said being at her old family home made her too sad.”

      “So you did that?”

      “Well, it’s a work in progress. For now we’re staying here in my apartment at the hotel. I hope you can help us choose our home together.”

      “Our home together. Right. That’s a big thing to ask when we’ve only just met, don’t you think?”

      He nodded. “True, but if we’re going to make our marriage work properly, we need to be living under the same roof, right?” When she didn’t answer, he continued. “Anyway, I thought Ellie and I were doing okay but she blindsided me one day. I found her crying in her room and when I managed to get to the root of the problem it floored me. It wasn’t something I could just throw money at, or tease a smile out of, or distract away.”

      “What was it?” she prompted.

      “She told me she was terrified about what would happen if I died like her mom and dad. If one day she was completely alone.” He drew in a deep breath and looked around the room at the revelers. His voice was low and intense when he spoke again. “I knew then that I needed to get married, to find a wife who wanted to share Ellie’s life with me. To help her feel secure and loved and needed, the way her parents did. I want to be totally honest with you, Peyton. This marriage didn’t start out in a traditional sense, but I’d like to think we can work together to achieve that eventually. We’ve both come to Match Made in Marriage with the same goal. Finding a life partner. I’m being clear and up-front about my reasons for needing to find a wife. Right now Ellie is the most important person in my world, and I will do whatever I can to make her happy. I need to know you’ll commit to that, too.”

       Two

      Peyton didn’t know where to look or what to think. She was consumed by guilt. Suddenly, this assignment was skewing out of her control. Not only did she feel like she was constantly fighting with her instincts to just let go and enjoy being with the man who held her so capably in his arms as they did another turn around the dance floor. This also wasn’t what she’d signed up for. She’d expected an uncomplicated union, a chance to dig for more dirt on Alice Horvath and eventually the opportunity to extract from her the apology her father and her late mother had been due for far too long.

      And now what? Now she was married; that was what. It wasn’t the wedding she’d dreamed of as a child, where her father would proudly walk her down the aisle, but one engineered by a stranger so she could marry a stranger. She had been confident she could handle it. How hard could it be?

      But now she was a stepmom, too. And not just a stepmom, but to a child who already knew far too much about loss and how the whole world could be upended in the blink of an eye. Already Peyton felt a pull toward the girl—how could she not? Ellie was bright and engaging and demonstrative. Everything she herself had been at that age. Except when Peyton’s world had turned upside down she’d retreated into herself. She’d been nothing like Ellie. Did she dare risk crushing Ellie’s spirit? Could Peyton enter into this debacle of a marriage and then exit it without causing harm? It was doubtful. And she was in, whether she liked it or not, for at least the next three months under the terms of the agreement she’d signed only a few weeks ago. Signed, secure in the belief that this would be a simple matter of going through the experience, writing her story and leaving without looking back.

      Galen watched her, obviously expecting

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