The Tycoon's Red Hot Marriage Merger by Christine Glover Read Free Book Online Page A

people should know that boatloads of money can’t buy everything. Especially not friends. I spent a lot of nights hiding from the other kids because they teased me whenever my brother wasn’t around to protect me.” How many days had she endured their taunts on the playground and in her prep school? She was a math whiz, but even she had lost count of the insults and jibes. Only her brother’s presence had prevented her tormentors from bullying her. But the words cut just as deep, bruised just as hard, and wounded just as violently.
    Marco curved his arm around her waist, drawing her into his warmth. “You might have offered me a raw deal back in Key West when you proposed,” he said. “How can you give me entry into the society you claim made you feel lonely, unwanted?”
    Though he questioned her deal’s validity, understanding warmed his tone. By giving him a measure of the truth, Cassandra had finally found a way to connect with Marco beyond the physical.
    She could see the fine dark hairs on his bronzed forearm, and inhaled his sensual aroma of musk and man. For the first time in years, a sense of security bathed her battered soul. “I was alone in a crowd of people who didn’t want to know me,” she said. “People who wanted to use me for my connections.” Like her ex-fiancé. And, in truth, like Marco, too.
    But unlike her ex and her father, she had entered into this arrangement with Marco with her eyes wide open. She had made sure she secured the Chief Operating Officer position even if she gave up on a chance for love. And that concession from Marco guaranteed her ownership of the catamaran she had designed.
    The wind lifted and tugged a few strands of her hair from the elastic band. They whipped across her cheeks. Gray clouds gathered in the horizon while the sun’s rays faded across the black expanse of the ocean’s choppy white caps.
    They passed by an open door of a traditional Argentinian beef restaurant. Smells of chorizo and other Argentinian beef dishes melded with the salt, and sea, and tang of the Atlantic Ocean.
    “Your family name opens many doors. Doors closed to me for years,” Marco said. “No one would dare shun a Nelson.”
    Noise, laughter, loud conversations in many languages punctuated their slow walk down the boulevard. Here a person could be free, alive, part of a larger community. Unlike the regatta racing society Marco wanted to reenter.
    “True.” She had given him a get-back-into-society pass, but he could never know why she’d offered the deal. “But they could cause plenty of damage when given the opportunity.”
    They continued strolling along the promenade. Ahead she could see an older boy holding his little sister’s hand. Her eyes burned, but she refused to cave into the emotions threatening to overwhelm her. Her older brother had done his best to protect her from the worst of the teasing, but even he couldn’t prevent the sneakier bullies in her grade from taunting her for being different.
    A geek.
    A loser.
    And to her father—a useless girl.
    Now her double X chromosomes were more than useful. Cassandra pushed her glasses up her nose and switched the topic of conversation away from her personal life. “So now you know a little about me,” she said. “Tell me about you. Were you raised here?”
    “Yes and no. My father and I trained here for the regattas.” His jaw worked and he raked his free hand through his coffee-colored hair. “Sailing was the one way we connected.”
    Another sliver of remorse sliced through her chest. She had inadvertently taken that tenuous bond away. But going back wasn’t an option. She’d save the family company, redeem Marco’s reputation, and try to carve a little future happiness for herself.
    “And when you weren’t training? Where did you live?” Cassandra asked, wanting to take Marco’s mind, and hers, away from the crash four years ago. A day that had led her to this marriage of convenience.
    He tightened his