Read Not the Marrying Kind (Destiny Bay Romances - Forever Yours) Online
Authors: Helen Conrad
Not the Marrying Kind (Destiny Bay Romances - Forever Yours)
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Copyright © 2013 Helen Conrad
Cover Copyright © 2013 DoorKnock Publishing
Cover images from Shutterstock.com
First Edition April, 2013 published by DoorKnock Publishing
Not the Marrying Kind
Destiny Bay Book 6
By Helen Conrad
Will she risk her heart to catch a thief?
Shelley turns Michael in for stealing from the jewelry counter but she ends up letting the handsome conman get away with stealing her heart.
Destiny Bay-Forever Yours
Book 1-My Little Runaway
Book 2-Wife For a Night
Book 3-Too Scared to Breathe
Book 4-Make Believe Wife
Book 5-Promoted to Wife
Book 6-Not the Marrying Kind
NOT THE MARRYING KIND
The three children of
Dr
.
Stephen Carrington
, wealthy local patriarch.
His wife is
Grace Carrington
, an internationally known poet.
Kathy Carrington
~oldest daughter of Dr. Stephen, Kathy was a disappointment to her father, but she’s definitely a treasure to her husband:
Jason Harper
~known as Jace, he’s a former Olympic swimmer and Kathy’s idol from the days when she was winning.
Rick Carrington
~ a widower with two young children and finally, a mother for them in Terry.
Terry Yardley
~no longer a butler, she’s ready to play the part of wife and mother so well, she gets the job for life.
Shelley Carrington
~the baby of the family developing a career in clinical psychology.
She falls under the spell of Michael Hudson, undercover agent and all around special guy.
You’d think, as a psychologist, she’d know better!
Michael Hudson
~he lives for danger, only to come face to face with the look of love and realize there are some things even more terrifying than death and injury.
The three sons of
Richard Carrington
, wealthy attorney
and
Martha Grover Carrington.
Reid Carrington
~ambitious attorney determined to restore the reputation of his family after his father’s scandal almost ruined them.
Now he’s married to:
Jennifer Thornton
who grew up next door to the Carringtons, but left in order to save her parents from heartbreak.
Now she hopes to bring her family new joy with the twins she’s about to give birth to.
Matt Carrington
~has been gone for years after a rift with his father sent him into undercover work in Los Angeles.
He owns hotels in Destiny Bay and Hawaii and is now married to:
Janet Cardona
~a lovely young woman he met while running a major con on a swindler.
She almost ruined his operation but ended up changing his life instead.
The baby she’s carrying will bring them even more changes.
Grant Carrington
~always a rebel, Grant went against his father’s plans for him and became a race car driver whose championship career was recently in jeopardy over serious injuries—physical and emotional-- suffered in a crash.
Carrie Harlow
~Mickey’s cousin, a young physical therapist who has recently returned home to Destiny Bay.
Now married to Grant, she’s carrying Carrington baby number three.
A Few Others
Robin
~Shelley’s roommate, whose husband has taken off for South America.
Tag Carrington
~a Carrington cousin, younger and more adrift, he lives mostly on his boat and avoids all risk of becoming a responsible adult.
But he is deeply in love with Mickey—and Meggie-- and may be about to take decisive action.
Missy Carrington
~ Missy and her brother Tag spent too many years being hauled around the countryside as children by their hippy mother and now pay the price.
Mickey Adams
~owner and proprietor of Mickey’s on the Bay, a local café where the Carringtons tend to hang out.
She’s hopelessly in love with the much younger Tag and torn between him and the wealthy man who could make the future so much brighter for her and her child:
Meggie Adams
~Mickey’s adorable three year old
Robert Harding
~wealthy financier who wants to make Mickey his own but turns out to have a darker side than anyone guessed.
Sam Gladstone
~detective working with Michael.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE:
To Catch a Thief
Okay, that did it.
She couldn’t ignore this guy any longer.
Something had to be done.
Call the cops?
Or the department store manager?
Shelley Carrington stared at the handsome man in the unseasonable trench coat who had just picked up a very expensive watch and dropped it into his pocket.
Despite the tray of shiny gold chains flashing on the rack between them, she'd seen him do it. And when her dark eyes, wide with shock, met his across the long glass counter, he winked at her.
What?
She pushed back a heavy curtain of thick blond hair and glared at him, her hands clenched into fists.
She couldn't let him get away with it. He was stealing—and from her favorite department store! The store, in fact, where her cousin was manager.
She had to stop him.
Drawing breath deep into her lungs, she raised her head with pure determination and began to march toward where the man still stood eyeing the watch display.
It looked like he might pocket another if it caught his fancy.
She'd seen him earlier in other parts of the store. In fact, she'd begun to wonder if he was following her. He seemed to turn up everywhere she went.
Now here he was in the jewelry department, stealing watches.
At first glance, he certainly didn't seem like a thief. Tall and slender, he had the look of arrogance and privilege about him—just the sort of man she usually tried to avoid.
She had a quick image of him casually strolling off his yacht, or mounting his polo pony at the green.
Cultured, sophisticated, urbane—and yet just below the surface, a sense of suppressed strength and vitality, a barely leashed danger like that waiting in the shiny coils of a well-balanced bullwhip.
Wow.
She blinked at him as she came near.
She didn’t usually get such a vivid picture in her mind by just looking at someone.
What was there about this man that seemed to be so…so wickedly appealing?
She stared for a moment, then shook herself.
What was the matter with her?
He was a thief, darn it all!
She tapped him firmly on the shoulder to get his attention.
“I think you'd better put that watch back, mister,” she whispered loudly, trying to look stern.
“If you don't, I'm going to have to notify the floor manager.”
He turned and looked down at her, his eyes an electrifying blue that seemed to cut the air between them like lasers. She didn't know exactly what she'd expected. Anger? Resentment? The need to flee? In her psychology practice she'd dealt with all those very human emotions, and many more besides. But his reaction surprised her.
He chuckled. No mistake about it. She heard the low, rumbling sound distinctly. As she stood staring up into his face, her mouth agape with outrage, his hand shot out and the long fingers circled her wrist.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” he told her in a low voice laced with some strange sense of urgency. “Just give it one more minute.” He winked again, and the slight traces of a smile edged his full, well-defined lips, but his eyes were busy glancing about the store as though he were looking for someone, searching for something.
She stood frozen, not sure what to do.
Her heart was beating wildly now.
What the heck was he up to? His fingers were warm and strong and his hold on her was steel-trap unyielding. As he turned his head she caught a slight scent of aftershave mixed with a less identifiable masculine fragrance that sent shivers down her spine and made her gasp softly.
He was so awfully handsome with those blue eyes gleaming between thick black lashes, his straight, dark hair combed casually, his collar crisp and white. His silk tie was stuck with a gold tiepin. The trench coat looked as smooth as if someone had ironed it just that morning.
A wife?
No, probably a valet.
She bit her lip at the thought, knowing it was crazy.
But somehow he didn't have the look of a man who would iron it himself.
These thoughts flashed through her mind as she stood there, suspended in time.
Somehow his touch seemed to have cast a spell on her. His tanned fingers gripped her wrist tightly and she couldn’t seem to gather the strength to do anything about it.
She found herself staring at the contrast between his dark skin and her own creamier tone as though she was in a trance.
Sensing that, he pulled her in closer, almost pressing her against his body.
“Wait for it,” he murmured very close to her ear.
She shivered.
Then his eyes met hers again and something happened. She wasn't sure just what it was, but some sort of connection was made. It was as though he knew her and she knew him on some basic, nonverbal level. The moment quivered between them, and then his lip curled cynically and his attention rocketed to the other side of the floor.
“Okay—now!” he ordered firmly, letting go with a shove. “Call out 'thief’ just as loud as you can. Make a scene.”
He grinned.
“Come and get me, baby.”
She watched, stunned, as he turned and began to stride quickly toward the escalator. “Th…thief,” she whispered, then glanced around at the shoppers walking past.
“Thief!” she called more loudly. “Stop that man! He's taking a watch!”
People hesitated on all sides, looking about curiously, but no one made a move to stop him. Shelley stared at them all, astounded.
“Isn't someone going to stop him?” she cried.
The women merely gaped at her, and the nearest men began to avoid her accusing gaze.
