The CEO's Accidental Bride
“You want me to sleep with him?”
Zach was every woman’s fantasy. He was rich, great-looking, smart and funny. He’d had women fawning over him since he was a teenager. He’d likely seen and done it all. It was laughable to think Kaitlin could hold her own in bed with Zach.
“He is your husband,” Lindsay pointed out.
“He’s not that kind of a husband.”
“Okay. Forget that,” said Lindsay. “But look at it this way. If we don’t go to the island, he’ll try something else. If we go, he thinks he’s winning. But we’re onto him, and we’ll be waiting for his next move.”
Kaitlin had to admit, Lindsay’s logic had some merit. Trouble was, the thought of Zach’s next move triggered a flare of desire that curled her toes.
They flew to Serenity Island in one of Dylan’s Astral Air helicopters. It was the first time Kaitlin had flown anywhere. Vacations weren’t part of her foster care upbringing, and airplane tickets were not something she considered one of the necessities of life.
Their first stop after landing on the island was Dylan’s parents’ house. It was adjacent to the private helipad. The Gilby garage was home to a small fleet of golf carts that Kaitlin and Lindsay were informed were the only motor vehicles on the island.
David and Darcie Gilby were away in Chicago on business, but their various housekeepers and caretakers were in residence, along with Dylan’s aunt Ginny, who greeted the four of them in the foyer in a bright red, 1950s swing dress with a multistrand pearl necklace and clip-on earrings.
“Young people,” she cried, taking both of Dylan’s hands in her own. “So nice of you to bring company.”
Ginny was a very attractive woman for what must have been her age. Her face was wrinkled, but her short white hair was perfectly styled with flip curls at the ends, and her makeup was flawless. Two little white puff-ball dogs trotted across the floor, nails clicking on the hardwood until they stopped beside her.
“Hello, Auntie,” said Dylan, giving the woman a kiss on her powdered cheek. “How are you?”
“And which one of these lovely young ladies is yours?” asked Ginny, sizing up both Kaitlin and Lindsay, taking in their faces, hair and clothing as if they were in a pageant and she was the judge.
“We’re just friends,” said Dylan.
One of the dogs gave a sharp bark.
“Nonsense.” Ginny winked at Kaitlin. “This young man’s a catch.” She moved closer, voice lowering as if she was confiding a secret. “He has money, you know.”
Kaitlin couldn’t help but grin.
“Now this one—” Ginny made a half turn and shook a wrinkled finger in Zach’s direction “—he’s always been a hoodlum.”
“Hello, Aunt Ginny,” said Zach, with what was obvious patience.
“Caught him in the linen closet with Patty Kostalnik.”
“Ginny,” Zach protested.
“Did you now?” Kaitlin asked the older woman, her inflection making her interest obvious.
“Or was it that Pansy girl?” Ginny screwed up her wrinkled face. “Never liked that one. She used to steal my crème de menthe. It was May, because the apple trees were blooming.”
Kaitlin slid a glance to Zach, enjoying his embarrassment.
He shook his head as if to deny the accusation.
“Kaitlin and Lindsay are staying at Zach’s for a few days,” Dylan told his aunt Ginny.
“Nonsense,” Ginny retorted. “You need a wife, young man.” She moved between Kaitlin and Lindsay and took each of them by an arm. “They need to stay here so you can woo them. Which one do you want?”
“They’re staying with Zach,” Dylan repeated.
Ginny clicked her tongue in admonishment. “You’ve got to learn to stand up for yourself. Don’t let Zachary take them both.” She looked to Kaitlin. “You want him?”
Kaitlin felt herself blush. “I’m afraid I’m already—”
She turned to Lindsay, her voice a bark of demand. “What about you?”
“Sure,” said Lindsay with a mischievous grin. “Like you say, Dylan’s a good catch.”
Ginny beamed, while Zach chuckled, and a look of horror came over Dylan’s face.
Ginny drew Lindsay off to one side. “Right this way to the kitchen, young lady. You can help me with the pie.”
Dylan watched as they left the foyer and proceeded down a long hallway.
“You’re not going with them?” asked Zach, still obviously controlling his laughter.
“She got herself into it,” said Dylan with a fatalistic shake of his head. “The woman’s on her own.”
“That Pansy girl?” Kaitlin asked Zach, not ready to let him off the hook for that one.
“I was fifteen, and she was two years older.”
“Uh-huh?” Kaitlin waited for more details.
“She taught me how to kiss,” Zach admitted.
“And…?”
“And nothing. You jealous?”
Kaitlin frowned, sensing he was about to turn the tables. “Not me.”
“Right this way,” Dylan interrupted, pointing through an archway and ushering them from the foyer farther into house.
Kaitlin was happy to leave the conversation behind, and she was more than impressed by the house.
Only a few years old, the large and luxurious Gilby home was perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean and the distant coast of Connecticut. The west wall of the great room was two stories high and made completely of glass. Hardwood floors gleamed beneath open-beam ceilings, and a sweeping staircase curled toward a second-story overtop of the kitchen area where Lindsay had disappeared.
After Kaitlin had a chance to look around, they moved out onto a huge deck dotted with tables and comfortable furniture groupings. Large potted plants were placed around the perimeter, and a retractable roof was halfway shut, providing shade on half the deck and sunshine on the other.
“You must entertain a lot,” Kaitlin said to Dylan, taking in the wet bar and two huge gas barbecues.
He nodded in answer to her question. “There’s a great big party room downstairs. Plenty of extra bedrooms. And do you see those green roofs below the ridge?”
Kaitlin moved to the rail, leaning out to gaze along the steep side of a mountain. “I see them.”
“Those are guest cottages. There’s a service road that loops around the back. My mom loves to have guests here.”
Kaitlin glanced straight down to see a kidney-shaped swimming pool with a couple of hot tubs beside it on a terra-cotta patio. The swimming area was surrounded by an emerald lawn. And, beyond the Gilbys’ place, farther toward what looked like a sandy beach, and in the opposite direction of the cottages, she spied a stone spire and a jagged roofline that stuck up above the trees.
She pointed. “What’s that down there?”
“That’s Zach’s place,” Dylan replied.
Kaitlin glanced back at Zach in surprise. “You live in a castle?”
“It’s made of stone,” he replied, walking closer to the rail to join her. “And it’s drafty and cavernous. I guess you could call it a castle. You know, if you wanted to sound pompous and have people laugh at you.”
“It’s a castle,” she cooed, delighted at the thought of exploring it. “When was it built?”
“It’s been around for a few generations,” Zach offered without elaboration.
“Early 1700s,” said Dylan. “The Harpers believe in honoring their roots.”
Kaitlin’s delight was replaced by an unexpected pang of jealousy deep in her chest. How many generations was that? Was there nothing not perfect about Zach’s charmed life?
“I can’t wait to see it,” she said in what came out as a small voice.
Zach glanced sharply at her expression.
“The Harpers restore and preserve,” Dylan explained. “The Gilbys prefer to bulldoze and start fresh.”
“Philistines,” Lindsay proclaimed as she breezed out onto the deck. In blue jeans and a green blouse, she somehow looked completely relaxed and at home.
Kaitlin, on the other hand, was now feeling awkward and jumpy. “How’s the pie coming?” she asked, turning away from Zach’s scrutiny.
Though she couldn’t control her reflexive reactions, she had long since learned not to wallow in self-pity about her upbringing. It was what it was. She couldn’t change it. She could only make the best of here and now. Well, maybe not exactly here and now. She only wanted to make it through the weekend.
“We’re all invited, or should I say ‘commanded’ to stay for dinner,” said Lindsay.
“That’s Auntie,” said Dylan, with a stern look for Lindsay. “You know she’ll be fitting you for a wedding dress over dessert.”
Lindsay fought with her unruly blond hair in the swirling wind, making a show of glancing around the deck and into the great room. “No problem,” she informed him. “I could easily live here.”
Dylan rolled his eyes at her irreverence.
“I’ve got nothing against living off the avails of pirating,” she added with a jaunty waggle of her head. Then she tugged at the gold chain around her neck and pulled a gold medallion from below her blouse, swinging it in front of Dylan.