Stranded with the Runaway Bride, page 1
“You have to admit, you weren’t the most welcoming...”
“Well, it’s not every recluse’s dream to have a mud-spattered and soaking-wet bride arrive on his doorstep.”
Georgia sighed, making Sawyer regret his choice of words.
“But,” he continued. “It hasn’t turned out too badly, right?”
“No, it hasn’t—so far.”
That twinkle in her eyes was back and he felt something lighten in his chest.
All the way along the trail, Sawyer felt as though there was an itch deep inside him. Something he couldn’t quite put a finger on. He knew it had to do with Georgia, and it wasn’t until they reached the cabin and she bent to unlace her boots that he realized what it was.
Lust. Good, honest, pure lust. He hadn’t wanted anything like he wanted her right now.
She was one hell of a woman...and he wanted to unwrap her like a gift.
Dear Reader,
I’ve always been fascinated by a runaway bride. What compels them to run? Why didn’t they just stay and have a party anyway?
In Stranded with the Runaway Bride, Georgia is forced to face her groom’s infidelity and she’s adamant that she’s not going to start her married life that way. She seeks refuge at her late grandfather’s cabin, but she doesn’t count on the cabin already being occupied.
Sawyer, an international photojournalist, was injured on his last commission and is taking time out from his harrowing career to reassess his life. The last thing he needs is a bedraggled bride turning up on his doorstep.
Can Georgia and Sawyer help one another heal from their hurts and losses? Read on to find out!
On a personal note, I just wanted to say what a privilege it’s been to write for Harlequin Desire for the past eighteen years. I’m sorry to see the line end. To be a romance writer was always my dream job and I thank you, my readers, for all your wonderful support through my time with Harlequin. Follow me on Facebook for what’s happening next: Facebook.com/yvonnelindsayauthor!
Best wishes and happy reading!
Yvonne Lindsay
Stranded with the Runaway Bride
Yvonne Lindsay
Award-winning author Yvonne Lindsay is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than forty-five titles with over five million copies sold worldwide. Always having preferred the stories in her head to the real world, Yvonne balances her days crafting the stories of her heart or planting her nose firmly in someone else’s book. You can reach Yvonne through her website, yvonnelindsay.com.
Books by Yvonne Lindsay
Harlequin Desire
Rags to Riches Reunion
Stranded with the Runaway Bride
Clashing Birthrights
Seducing the Lost Heir
Scandalizing the CEO
What Happens at Christmas...
One Night Consequence
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
You can also Yvonne Lindsay on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/HarlequinDesireAuthors!
To Soraya Lane, thank you for being one of
my biggest cheerleaders and for being such an amazing writing buddy. We have done millions
of words together so far and I look forward
to doing millions more!
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Excerpt from Paternity Payback by Sophia Singh Sasson
One
Georgia stared at the phone in her hand barely able to draw a breath.
“No,” she whimpered. “This can’t be happening.”
She plonked down on the bed in her hotel suite, the skirt of her wedding dress foaming around her in a sparkling cloud of tulle and diamantes. Downstairs, in the function room, chairs lined an aisle that was supposed to mark her last walk as a single woman in the gown that was everything she’d dreamed about ever since she was a little girl. The kind of dress that looked how being in love felt. But now those dreams were shattered, and all by something that was likely smaller than her little finger. She stared again at the phone screen, not wanting to recognize the outline of a baby in a sonogram posted on social media by a woman she’d never met before. It shouldn’t have mattered. It wouldn’t have mattered. Except the #babydaddy in this post was the man she was supposed to marry in thirty minutes.
The door to the suite opened and Georgia’s mom scurried in, all a’fluster.
“Nearly everyone is here, Georgia. Are you ready? Have you got everything you need? Been to the toilet? Oh my, I never thought we’d see this day.”
It slowly seemed to dawn on Georgia’s mom that not everything was sunshine and lollipops in the room.
“Georgia? Is everything okay?”
“No, Mom, everything is definitely not okay. There won’t be a wedding,” Georgia said solemnly.
She looked around the room. Aside from the garment bag her wedding dress had been packed in, the robe she’d worn this morning and her purse, everything else was packed in her suitcases and stowed in the back of her car, ready for her and Cliff to drive to the airport to catch a flight to the Cook Islands, where they were meant to start their new life together.
“Oh, Georgia, don’t be silly. It’s just nerves you’re feeling now. Everyone goes through that.”
“No, Mom. It’s not nerves.” She thrust her phone beneath her mom’s nose.
Angela O’Connor squinted at the screen. “What’s that? I can’t make it out.”
“It’s a baby, Mom,” Georgia said on a sigh.
“Well, that’s a fine way to tell your mother you’re pregnant. And on your wedding day? What were you thinking?”
Georgia would have laughed if she hadn’t felt so wretched. “It’s not mine, but it is Cliff’s.”
She waited for the penny to drop, watching her mother’s face change from confusion to understanding, then to confusion again. “But how?”
“The usual way, I suppose. This picture shows a three-month fetus, and—” Georgia swiped the screen to the next picture in the announcement post. A picture of the baby’s mother together with Cliff—his arms wrapped around her from behind and his hands resting on her lower belly—filled the screen. Georgia knew it was a recent photo because he was wearing a shirt she’d bought him only a few weeks ago. Things were all starting to make sense now. The broken dates, the hint of fragrance on his clothes sometimes that he’d explained away as fabric softener. Now this. The pair looked so picture-perfect it was hard to believe they weren’t the ones supposed to be getting married today. “This picture shows Cliff with the baby’s mom.”
“Maybe they’re just good friends?”
“Oh, I’d say they’re good friends, all right,” Georgia said with a pang of bitterness. “She refers to him as her baby daddy!”
“But it doesn’t mean anything, right? The wedding can still go ahead.”
“You think I should still marry Cliff?” Georgia shrieked, incredulous at her mother’s suggestion.
“Of course. Honestly, Georgia, even if it is Cliff’s baby, women are stepmoms to other people’s children all the time. He’s down there waiting for you. I know he wants to marry you. And let’s face it, it isn’t as if you’ve had a line of men standing in front of you wanting to get married.”
Georgia tried not to let her mother’s statement hurt, but it did. The same way it always did when her size-zero parent took umbrage at the fact that her child was less than what she deemed perfect. Well, more—much more—to be precise.
“I’m aware of that,” Georgia said carefully.
“Then what’s the problem?”
Georgia stared at her mom a full thirty seconds before replying.
“You realize I said this is a three-month fetus, right?”
“Yes, so?”
“And you know that Cliff and I started going out six months ago and got engaged four months ago.”
“Of course I know all that,” her mom sniffed.
“He was unfaithful to me, Mom. He cheated on me, while we were engaged. That’s a nonnegotiable for me. You should understand that, especially after what we went through with Dad. I won’t put up with wondering every time he’s late coming home from work or away on business if he’s hooked up with some other woman. I can’t trust him anymore. The wedding is off.”
With that, Georgia stood and grabbed her purse. A short poke around inside and she snatched her car keys and headed for the door, a sea of tulle and sparkles billowing in her wake.
“But...what about all the people? What will they think? And what about Cliff? Are you even going to tell him you’re leaving?”
“You’re worried about what people will think?”
“Well, no, not really,” her mom sputtered, even though it was obvious to Georgia that was very much her primary concern.
Not the fact that her daughter’s trust and love had been destroye
“I’ll call Cliff from the car. Right now, I need to put as much distance between us as possible.”
“Georgia, wait.”
Georgia stopped to look at her mom again. Waiting for words of solace, of commiseration.
“Do you think we’ll get our deposit back?”
“No, Mom, we won’t get anything back. I’ve already made the final payment, so you all may as well have a party and enjoy the drama. Either that or donate the food to the nearest shelter. I leave it in your hands.”
With that, she headed for the service elevator at the end of the corridor. Today was supposed to have been her denouement. She’d been the wedding coordinator here at the resort overlooking Puget Sound for five years now. Making people’s wedding days the highlight of their lives was her jam. She took pride in everything she did, ensuring that no matter the budget, the resort’s clients received a day so memorable that they couldn’t wait to recommend her to all their unmarried friends. And as she’d organized her own wedding—right down to the last petal on the table arrangements—she’d been certain that everything would be perfect.
Cliff had swept her off her feet and into his arms so fast her head had still been spinning when he’d proposed. Overjoyed, she’d said yes, even if it meant she’d have to give up a job she loved as much as she loved chocolate and move to a Pacific Island nation she’d hardly heard of. She hadn’t quite figured out what she’d do with herself while Cliff oversaw the construction of a new resort complex on the island of Rarotonga, but she’d been sure she’d figure something out. And now, she was stuck figuring out something else entirely. On the bright side, walking away would be easy. The lease on her apartment was canceled. Someone new had already been hired to take her job. She had nothing left here to stay for.
On the flip side, she also had nowhere to go. She made it out of the elevator and into the corridor that led to housekeeping, the laundry and the function room kitchen. There was a lot of clattering and chatter coming from behind that door as she swept past. The staff parking lot was on the other side of the double doors at the end of the corridor. Only another twenty or more steps to go. A door behind her opened and she heard footsteps on the polished concrete floor.
“Hey, excuse me, ma’am. This area is for staff only.”
“I know,” she yelled back.
“Georgia? Aren’t you supposed to be getting married about now?”
“Not anymore,” she said, her focus riveted on the door that was now only five steps away.
She reached it and pushed on the handles, bursting into the parking lot. A fine rain drifted on the air in typical Washington state fashion. She felt the product the hairdresser had coated her hair with grow sticky and heavy with the moisture. She ran-walked to her car as quickly as her voluminous princess line gown and long veil would allow and yanked open her car door.
Struggling to get into the driver’s seat with sufficient room to see the dashboard and reach her gearshift around the poofiness of her dress made it painfully apparent she should have thought this through a bit more. But right now, all she wanted was to put as much distance between herself and her philandering groom as possible.
She put the car in gear and drove away, clearing the resort grounds in a few minutes and heading out onto the main road. As she drove, her eyes burned and her heart raced with the enormity of what she’d just done. She’d become that awful cliché she’d always worked her hardest to ensure her clients never became—a runaway bride. Tears blurred her vision and she found a spot to pull over as she finally gave in to the shock and, yes, the anger that had gripped her since she’d seen the sonogram.
In her purse, she heard her phone begin to vibrate. The incoming call hooked up to her car’s Bluetooth and Cliff’s name came up on the screen of her dash. It would be so tempting to simply ignore him, but he owed her an explanation. She accepted the call, but silently swore it would be the last darn thing she accepted from him, ever.
“Georgia? Where are you? Let me explain.” Cliff’s voice filled her car, laden with concern in that beautiful deep tone that was one of the many things she’d fallen in love with when she met him.
“I think your girlfriend’s post says it all, don’t you?” she answered, fighting to keep her voice civil.
“Ex.”
“Ex what?” Georgia demanded.
“Ex-girlfriend. Shanna is my ex-girlfriend.”
“Look, I don’t care what or who she is. She’s having your baby, right? Do you always sleep with your ex-girlfriends when you’re engaged to marry someone else?”
“You’re upset.”
Georgia rolled her eyes. “You think? Yes, I’m upset. Finding out on our wedding day that you’re about to become a father? Of course I’m upset. Just when were you going to tell me about this? Don’t you think I had the right to know?”
“I couldn’t tell you, I knew you’d overreact.”
“Overreact? Seriously? You cheated on me.”
“It didn’t mean anything, honestly.”
She was incredulous. “Well, Cliff,” she bit out carefully, “it certainly means something to me. It means I cannot trust you. That’s pretty important, don’t you think?”
“Georgia. I love you. I want to marry you. Please, turn your car around and come back. We can still make this happen.”
“No, Cliff. We can’t. Our engagement is off, our wedding is off. Our future together is off. Enjoy your future with your ex, for your child’s sake if not for anyone else.”
She disconnected to the sound of his blustering voice echoing in her ears and closed her eyes. The whoop-whoop of a siren made her look up. A police cruiser had pulled up behind her, and the officer was now walking toward her car. Could today get any worse? She rolled down her window.
“Ma’am, are you aware this is a no-stopping zone?”
“Yes, I’m very sorry, Officer. I will be on my way now. I just needed to take a call.”
He looked inside at her, taking in her apparel and what were probably streaks of makeup on her face from when she’d started crying.
“License and registration, please?”
She passed them over without another word.
The officer grunted and handed them back. “Everything seems to be in order. Are you going to a wedding, ma’am?”
“No, I’m leaving one.”
“Are you okay?”
“Not right now, but I will be. Am I free to go?”
“Yes, you are. Drive safely.”
Georgia put her window back up and took care easing into traffic. The officer stood there watching her, no doubt wondering what the heck was going on. The fact that he, a complete stranger, had shown more concern for her well-being than her mom had wasn’t lost on her. Mind you, she thought, catching a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror, he probably was worried about whether she was even safe to drive in her state. She focused on the road ahead. The long, empty, lonely road.
“C’mon,” she told herself. “You’re better than this. You’ve survived disappointment before. You can do it again. Now, think. Where are you going to go?”
Grampy’s cabin.
The idea came to her as if it was a lifeline in a raging torrent. Her mother’s granddad had built a cabin near Olympic National Park back when he was a youngster. On his recent death, age one hundred, he’d left the cabin to her mom, who’d shuddered at the idea of heading out there and staying “in the wild.” But Georgia knew it wasn’t as wild as her mom made it out to be. Her great-grandparents had often taken her there during summer breaks. Yes, it only had one bedroom, but over the years Grampy had outfitted the place with every modern convenience known to man to give an off-the-grid luxury experience for anyone who stayed there.
That was what she needed. Peace, quiet and some quality alone time to reset herself and reimagine her life going forward. She steered her car to the nearest on-ramp for 99 and took the Edmonds turnoff, heading for the ferry terminal. Some of the tension that had gripped her body began to ease.
