Ceo's Contract Bride

"Six weeks until the tender closes, mate." Declan Knight leaned back his office chair and grimaced at his youngest brother's words as they echoed down the telephone line. He shot an irritated glance at his Rolex--yeah, six weeks. He could count off the seconds he had left to find the finance he needed to pull this project off. "Don't remind me," he growled. "Hey, it isn't my fault Mum put that stipulation in her will for our trust funds. Besides, who'd have thought you'd still be one of New Zealand's most wanted bachelors?" Declan remained silent. He sensed Connor's instant discomfort over the crackling line. "Dec? I'm sorry, mate." "Yeah, I know." Declan interrupted swiftly before his brother could say another word. "I gotta move on." Move on from the reality that he hadn't been able to save Renata, his fiancÉe, when she'd needed him most. For a minute he allowed her face to swirl through his memory before fading away to where he kept the past locked down--locked down with his guilt. "So, you want to go out tonight? Have a drink maybe? Show theAuckland nightspots how to have a really good time?" Connor's voice brought him back instantly. "Sorry, previous engagement." Declan scowled into the mouthpiece. "Well, don't sound so excited about it. What's the occasion?" "Steve Crenshaw's prewedding party." "You're kidding, right? Watch-the-paint-dry Steve?" "I wish I were kidding." The pencil Declan had been twiddling through his fingers snapped--the two pieces falling unheeded to the floor. His staid and Übercautious finance manager was marrying the one woman in the world who was a constant reminder of his failure, and his deepest betrayal--Renata's oldest and dearest friend, Gwen Jones. "Maybe you should ask him for some tips on how to find a wife." Declan's lips tweaked into a reluctant smile as he heard the suppressed laughter in his brother's voice. "I don't think so," he answered. "You're probably right. Okay then. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Ciao, bro'." Declan slowly replaced the receiver. It wasn't that he was short of women, in fact the opposite was true, but he sure as hell didn't want to marry any of them. There wasn't a single one who wouldn't expect declarations of undying devotion--devotion he was incapable of giving. He'd been there, done that. He would bear the scars forever. Losing Renata had been the hardest thing in his life. He was never going down that road again. And he wasn't going to make promises he knew he couldn't hold to. It just wasn't his style, not now, not ever. If he hadn't had his business to pour his energies into when Renata had died he may as well have buried himself with her. In some ways he probably had, but it was a choice he'd made, and one he stuck to. He spun out of his chair and headed for the shower in the old bathroom of the converted Art Deco building, thankful--not for the first time--that he'd kept a fully functional bathroom in the office building. It gave him no end of pride to base the administrative side of his work here--his first completed project--the one his father had said would never succeed. The house had been in a sorry state of repair, stuck in the middle of what had once been a residential area and which had slowly been absorbed by the nearby light-industrial zone. It had been just the sort of project he'd needed to get his hands on, literally, and had given him the opportunity to showcase his talents to restore and convert historical buildings for practical as well as aesthetic means. Cavaliere Developments had come a long way from the fledgling business he'd created eight years ago--and had a long way further to go if he had any say in the matter. As he peeled off his work clothes, bunching them into a large crumpled ball in his fists, he wondered for the hundredth time if maybe he hadn't bitLindsay, Yvonne is the author of 'Ceo's Contract Bride ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373767762 and ISBN 0373767765.