The Marine's E-Mail Order Bride (Heroes of Chance Creek Book 3) by Cora Seton Read Free Book Online Page A

beginning to feel like she’d entered an alternate universe. “Kenna isn’t here, actually. She’s decided to take another trip, instead.”
    “But… why are you there then?”
    She closed her eyes. “Because I’m taking her place.”
    Cheyenne’s reaction was just as shrill and outraged as Storm had expected and it was some minutes before she could get her to calm down. “Listen, it’s not as bad as you think.”
    “How can it not be?”
    “Zane only wants a temporary wife.” She squashed the pang of regret that coursed through her. No one had ever made her feel the way Zane did. No one had coaxed her to the edge of ecstasty three times in a single afternoon. He had to be the sexiest man she’d ever met. The most intriguing, too. She couldn’t believe she’d tossed caution to the wind and made love to him—again and again and again. “It doesn’t matter who he marries.”
    “So he knows you’re not Kenna?”
    Storm didn’t answer.
    “Oh, Storm—you’re making a huge mistake,” Cheyenne said.
    “Kenna’s paying me thirty grand.” She waited a beat. Just like she’d thought, the sum silenced her mother.
    “For pretending to be her for six weeks?”
    “That’s right. She’ll get her inheritance, Zane will get his. They’ll divorce in April with no one the wiser.”
    She could almost see the cogs turn in her mother’s brain. “I guess if no one is being hurt by the deception…”
    “No one’s going to get hurt.” Even as she said it she knew it for the lie it was. She was going to get hurt—bad. When the time came to split from Zane, she didn’t know what she’d do.
    “Well… do what you think is best.”
    Storm rolled her eyes at her mother’s attempt to remove herself from any blame. “I will.” She couldn’t keep the edge from her voice. She was doing this to save Cheyenne’s house, after all. Her mother could have sold it at any time and they’d all be far better off than they were right now. Zane wouldn’t think she was Kenna, for one thing.
    Of course she’d never have met him, either.
    “Keep me posted. And Storm—”
    “Yes?”
    “Don’t fall for this man, whoever he is. Remember it’s a fake, and remember you don’t belong in Montana. We need you back home with us when this is all over.”
    “Got it, Mom. ‘Bye.” She hung up, unable to stay on the line any longer. She didn’t want to think about leaving Chance Creek. In six short weeks this would all be over and she’d take a plane back to California, leaving Zane behind forever. Of course Cheyenne wanted her to come home. She was a built in baby-sitter, wage-earner and housekeeper all in one. What about what she wanted, though? When would she ever stop being Cheyenne’s daughter or Kenna’s assistant and start her life as an independent woman? A woman free to marry a man like Zane?
    She thought of the balance remaining on the cottage’s mortgage.
    Maybe in another twenty years.

Chapter Four
    ‡
    “R eady to meet my family?” Zane asked when Storm answered the door the following morning at ten sharp. His time in the military had made him punctual among other things. Storm seemed to appreciate punctuality, too. She was dressed in a pretty, flowery skirt, a soft blouse and sandals, with a jacket over her arm and her handbag slung over her shoulder. He leaned down to steal his first kiss of the day, but frowned when Storm pulled back almost immediately. He took in the shadows under her eyes and his heart sank. Had she tossed and turned, waiting for sleep to come like he had? She looked almost—haunted. “Something wrong?”
    “I… I don’t think I can do this.”
    A wave of disappointment washed over him that had nothing to do with earning his inheritance and everything to do with wanting to be with Storm. She’d been the center of all his dreams last night—his waking as well as his sleeping fantasies. He’d counted the minutes until he could see her again. How could she think about calling