Married In The Morning

She remembered a waitress who brought glass after glass of champagne.…

She couldn’t remember too much after glass number five. She most certainly did not remember how she ended up in a room she obviously shared with the person in the shower.

She combed her fingers through her long sable-colored hair at the same time that the bathroom door opened. She almost scrambled under the bed. Instead, she grabbed the hem of the sheet and yanked it up to her neck.

And just in time, too. As a nearly naked Gerrick stepped around the bathroom door, Gina’s heart almost stopped.…

Dear Reader,

We have some incredibly fun and romantic Silhouette Romance titles for you this July. But as excited as we are about them, we also want to hear from you! Drop us a note—or visit www.MillsandBoon.co.uk—and tell us which stories you enjoyed the most, and what you’d like to see from us in the future.

We know you love emotion-packed romances, so don’t miss Cara Colter’s CROWN AND GLORY cross-line series installment, Her Royal Husband. Jordan Ashbury had no idea the man who’d fathered her child was a prince—until she reported for duty at his palace! Carla Cassidy spins an enchanting yarn in More Than Meets the Eye, the first of our A TALE OF THE SEA, the must-read Silhouette Romance miniseries about four very special siblings.

The temperature’s rising not just outdoors, but also in Susan Meier’s Married in the Morning. If the ring on her finger and the Vegas hotel room were any clue, Gina Martin was now the wife of Gerrick Green! Then jump into Lilian Darcy’s tender Pregnant and Protected, about a fiery heiress who falls for her bodyguard.…

Rounding out the month, Gail Martin crafts a fun, lighthearted tale about two former high school enemies in Let’s Pretend…. And we’re especially delighted to welcome new author Betsy Eliot’s The Brain & the Beauty, about a young mother who braves a grumpy recluse in his dark tower.

Happy reading—and please keep in touch!

Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor

Married in the Morning
Susan Meier

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Books by Susan Meier

Silhouette Romance

Stand-in Mom #1022

Temporarily Hers #1109

Wife in Training #1184

Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192

*In Care of the Sheriff #1283

*Guess What? We’re Married! #1338

Husband from 9 to 5 #1354

*The Rancher and the Heiress #1374

†The Baby Bequest #1420

†Bringing up Babies #1427

†Oh, Babies! #1433

His Expectant Neighbor #1468

Hunter’s Vow #1487

Cinderella and the CEO #1498

Marrying Money #1519

The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566

Married Right Away #1579

Married in the Morning #1601

Silhouette Desire

Take the Risk #567

SUSAN MEIER

is one of eleven children, and though she has yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations, such as large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children also are always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based on experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.

She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter One

Gina Martin awakened to the sound of the shower. Cool, satiny sheets caressed her bare limbs. The room smelled of cinnamon.

Cinnamon?

Her eyes sprang open, causing a spasm of pain to ricochet around inside her head, and she snapped them closed again. But not before she saw that she wasn’t in her bedroom. From the type of furniture and shape and style of the room, she knew she was in a hotel.

She was in a hotel.

Someone was in the shower.

She was naked.

Oh…

My…

Lord.

Odd images floated around in her brain…

She and Gerrick Green, a vice president in her family’s grocery store conglomerate, Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, had met unexpectedly at a small neighborhood bar, where each was supposed to be joining a friend for dinner.…

Enough time had passed for both to realize they had been stood up. She by her friend Tammy. Gerrick by a married friend who was going to help him celebrate his new job. Until that moment Gina hadn’t known Gerrick had gotten a new job, but he had happily filled her in. He had been offered the position as CEO of an up-and-coming grocery store chain in the northeast and had already turned in his two-week notice to her father.

Though she was director of Human Resources at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and therefore the person who would have to replace him, Gina was happy for Gerrick. She remembered suggesting she celebrate with him since they were both unexpectedly free. She remembered he was reluctant. She remembered telling him this job was an enormous step on the ladder because it meant he had “made it.” And she couldn’t let a promotion so significant occur without at least some pomp and circumstance.

She remembered Gerrick finally laughing and relenting, saying this kind of job did warrant a celebration.

She remembered Gerrick taking her hand because, much to her surprise, he hadn’t wanted to stay in the small neighborhood bar where they’d met. Laughing, holding her hand, he had whisked her into a cab and to the airport for a flight to Las Vegas because he said Vegas was where the best celebrating was done.

And he was right. The city was delightfully hedonistic and decadent, and it offered celebration possibilities a person couldn’t get anywhere else. Because of the time difference from Atlanta, they arrived at about the same time they left, had dinner and saw a show before they went to separate rooms. Saturday morning they shopped for two days’ worth of clothes, returned to their rooms to change into one of their clean outfits and went sight-seeing.

But Saturday afternoon—yesterday afternoon—they hit the casino. Specifically, Gina remembered falling in love with the poker game on the slots. As she recalled, she was winning. Not just winning, but annihilating every machine she touched. They moved on to the blackjack tables and her luck held, so they never left the casino. She remembered laughing and virtually dancing for joy over her good fortune. She remembered Gerrick stealing a kiss that startled her because it was a real kiss. Not just a peck between friends, but an honest-to-goodness kiss full of passion and promise. She remembered a waitress who brought glass after glass of champagne.…

Oh, boy.

She couldn’t remember eating dinner. She couldn’t remember too much after glass number five of champagne. She most certainly did not remember how she ended up in a room that she obviously shared with the person taking a shower.

She didn’t even really know for sure who the showering person was…though she could make a darned good guess.

She combed her fingers through her long sable-colored hair at the same time that the bathroom door opened. She almost scrambled under the bed. Instead, she grabbed the hem of the sheet and yanked it up to her neck.

Just in time. Gerrick rounded the corner and Gina’s heart stopped.

Wrapped in a white hotel towel with his black hair still wet from the recent washing, he didn’t have an ounce of modesty or regret. His green eyes twinkled with happiness. Unable to hold his gaze, Gina averted hers only to find herself looking at the well-defined muscles of his arms and chest. Dark hair dusted his pectorals and rippled down his flat stomach.

Embarrassment overwhelmed her, but she didn’t get the chance to wallow in it. Gerrick walked to her side of the bed, bent down and took her by the shoulders, lifting her up for a long, wet kiss. As his mouth plundered hers, millions of sensations bounced through her. Everything from unexpected pleasure to complete shock. She smelled the soap from his shower, tasted pure passion in his kiss and her arms grew so weak they sort of fell against her sides and the sheet slid away from her.

Gerrick raised her higher, nestling her breasts against his still damp chest and Gina felt the beginnings of hyperventilation welling up in her lungs. Then he let her drift back down to the bed, but when she was settled, he held her face with his big, strong hands, and gazed into her eyes.

“Good morning.”

Gina swallowed. “Good morning,” she said, surprised not only by the sexy huskiness of her own voice, but also the warm affection in his. If she were a betting woman, and after yesterday it was plain she was, she would guess that this man didn’t just like her, he adored her.

Still smiling at her, he stepped away. “Give me your room key and after I dress I’ll go and get the clothes you bought at the hotel store to wear home. Our flight leaves in three hours, but we should be at the airport at least two hours beforehand. In fact, I thought we’d grab breakfast there after we check in.”

While he spoke, Gina continued piecing things together. Her clean clothes were in another room. He had been gentleman enough to offer to retrieve them for her, but if she went she could get time away from him. Time to think this through. Time to figure out what had happened and how she’d ended up in this room, with this man, doing who only knew what.

“How about if I just go to my room and get dressed?” she asked, struggling not to insult him or embarrass herself by sounding foolish and nervous. “This way we won’t fight over who gets the mirror in the bathroom first.”

He laughed heartily. “We’re allowed to use the bathroom at the same time now.”

“Don’t be silly.” She shifted slightly to get out of bed, but remembered she was naked. Obviously they had made love the night before, but in the light of day and cold sober she didn’t feel like prancing around in front of him. She gingerly slid back to her original position. “You’re not dressed yet, and I can throw on my clothes from yesterday, go to my room, get myself showered and dressed and meet you in the lobby in less than an hour. That way we’ll have plenty of time for breakfast at the airport.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. Absolutely,” she said, amazed at how calm, casual and even sophisticated she sounded. “You go ahead and get ready and I’ll meet you in the lobby as soon as I can.”

She said the last assuming he would return to the bathroom. God only knew why. Instead he dropped his towel and walked to the closet. Her heart stopped again, and her mouth fell open because he was gorgeous. His shoulders were broad. His butt was tight. The muscles of his legs were well defined. In short he was perfect.

However, he also wasn’t shy about being naked in front of her and he apparently didn’t expect her to be shy about being naked in front of him.

Okay. Now what?

Planning the fastest way to get dressed, Gina quickly glanced around to locate her clothes. Red sandals sat by the door. A red blouse perched over the back of a chair. A pair of taupe slacks lay in a puddle on the floor. A red bra was…oh, boy…slung across a lamp. Bright red panties hung from the pleat of a curtain. Whatever they had done the night before it had to have been…well, wild. She managed to suppress the shiver that wanted to race through her, but couldn’t stop herself from swallowing. Not only were the red bra and panties more than out of character for her, but she couldn’t remember how her underwear got caught on a curtain.

Deciding that the cool, calm, collected charade was impossible to continue, she dragged the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself before she walked to the lamp and grabbed her bra. She saw Gerrick watching her reflection in the mirror, but paid no attention as she snatched up her blouse and slacks. Unfortunately, when she walked to the window and peered up at her panties, which were really more like two scraps of lace, looped over a curtain pleat, she realized she couldn’t reach them.

A little voice told her that for the five minutes it would take her to go to her room, she could forgo the underwear. She was just about to listen to that sage advice when Gerrick ambled over to the window, reached up to retrieve the scraps of red lace and handed them to her with a smile.

The heat of embarrassment shivered through her. Mortification froze her lungs. But Gerrick dropped a quick kiss on her lips as she took the panties. Then he mercifully disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Gina heaved a sigh of relief and dressed faster than she had ever dressed in her entire life. She found a little red clutch bag, assumed it was hers and rifled through it finding both her wallet and room key. But as she rummaged a flash hit her eyes and she felt an unusual weight on the third finger of her left hand. She flipped the purse over so quickly, most of the contents spilled onto the floor, and when she saw the three-diamond wedding band on her finger she fell to the bed. Literally. Her knees buckled and her muscles grew limp. She was lucky to be standing beside something that could catch her.

She hadn’t just slept with Gerrick Green. It appeared she had married him.

Not wasting another second, Gina scooped up the contents of her purse and raced out the door. In the elevator, she tapped her foot as the car ascended to her floor. She shoved the key card into the door of her room, stripped even faster than she had dressed and jumped into the shower.

With the water noisily tumbling around her, beating off the tile walls and porcelain tub, she let herself scream.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

As Gina said her greeting, Gerrick slid his arm around her waist and pulled her to him so he could kiss her, confirming the only solid conclusion she had drawn sorting through this mess.

Gerrick was not sorry they had slept together, and he was not sorry they had married. He probably did not know she didn’t remember marrying him or making love. And she didn’t know how she was going to get out of this situation gracefully.

She didn’t know if she could get out of it gracefully.

“Let’s get a cab,” Gerrick said, taking the tote bag she had purchased to carry home her changes of clothes and new toiletries, and ushering her through the hotel casino and registration area and into the hot Las Vegas sun.

A line of taxis sat waiting and Gerrick and Gina were directed to the first one by the doorman. Gerrick pushed their two small bags onto the back seat of the cab, helped Gina in, and then tipped the doorman before sliding in beside her.

Gina smiled at him, but the hotel they had chosen was less than fifteen minutes away from the airport and she needed more time to think. So she turned her face to the window as if she was sight-seeing and began processing the facts.

She met Gerrick when she was sixteen. He was twenty-two, fresh out of college and going to work for her dad. She, of course, thought he was cute. No self-respecting sixteen-year-old could not think he was cute. He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. But he was also six years older than she was. An important six years since he was an adult and she was still a schoolgirl. And that had been the end of that.

At twenty-two she had joined her father’s company. She was immediately put on the executive fast track, because she was the daughter of the chairman of the board and majority shareholder, and therefore the person most likely to take over someday. A few of the other executives had resented her. Gerrick had welcomed her. For that she had immediately liked him. But she also knew she would someday be his boss, so she kept her distance.

So had he.

Over the past six years they had worked together, exchanged pleasantries about weekends and vacations, but never shared a long, detailed personal conversation until Friday night.

And now they were married.

Surprisingly, part of her wasn’t sorry. First, she was attracted to him. Second, he was a good person. She had known him for twelve years. In that twelve years he had proven himself to be generous, honest and hardworking.

And she liked him. She had always liked him.

Silly as it sounded, she could become a giddy bride with only the slightest push.

Gerrick took her hand, squeezed lightly and smiled at her, and Gina felt herself tumbling over the edge into giddiness.

Could she do this?

Could she be a bubbling bride with a man she didn’t really know, but with whom she was clearly infatuated?

Oh, God, she wanted to! She wanted it so much it scared her.

They arrived at the airport, checked in and immediately found a restaurant. The entire time Gerrick held her hand. She felt young and beautiful and on the verge of a brand new life with a wonderful man. For the first time since her fiancé Chad had dumped her the year before, she felt happy.…No, what she felt was hopeful. Life had meaning and purpose again. She had things to do other than be Hilton Martin’s daughter.

“Okay,” Gerrick said the very second their waitress served their breakfasts and indicated she would let them alone unless they waved her over. “I think we have some talking to do.”

“Yeah, I guess we do,” Gina said, still not sure how to handle this. Even if she decided to stay married, she knew she would have to confess that she didn’t remember getting married or making love. That was the fair, appropriate thing to do. And, once she confessed that she didn’t remember making love or getting married, Gerrick might not want to stay married to her. Which effectively took the decision out of her hands, and also saddened her. If she told him she didn’t remember marrying him or making love and he told her that he couldn’t stay married to a woman who hadn’t made a real commitment, then all this wonderful fun would be over.

Still, she had to do the right thing.

“Gerrick, I don’t know how to tell you this but…”

“The first thing we need to discuss is how we get you from Atlanta to Maine in less than two weeks.”

“Excuse me?” Though they had spoken at the same time, Gina hadn’t missed what Gerrick said. It awakened her like a glass of water splashed into the face of a sleeping person, and her eyes widened.

“Gina, you can’t stay in Atlanta if you’re married to a man who lives in Maine,” Gerrick said, with a chuckle.

Gina sat back on her seat. Okay. Here was reason number one why their being married might not work. She had spent her life being groomed to take over her family’s company. In her head, she saw herself as an executive. Now, she was an executive’s wife. She didn’t know if it was a promotion or a demotion. She didn’t know if she liked it. She didn’t even know if she could do it.

“You’re still going to Maine?” she asked.

“This job is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t turn it down.”

“Some people might think getting married is the biggest thing that ever happened to you.…”

Gerrick reached across the table, took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “They would be right.”

Oh, boy. The pit of her stomach went soft again. Tears filled her eyes. He was so darned romantic. He even looked romantic. His dark eyes were warm with affection. His beautiful mouth held just the hint of a smile. Wearing jeans and a simple polo shirt he should have looked rumpled and unkempt. Instead, he just looked cute.

How could she give him up?

“So maybe then it would be appropriate to absorb one big change before making another?”

“Don’t be silly. We’re two of the smartest people I know. We can handle this transition in our sleep.”

It bowled her over that he so easily, so casually called her smart. A lot of people believed she was only in her job because of her family status. Hearing Gerrick acknowledge her intelligence and readily accept it proved he knew more about her than the simple surface things everyone else saw or assumed.

She licked her dry lips. He seemed so sure, so happy. He seemed to know her. He seemed to love her. His love made her long for things she never thought she would have and made her eager to abandon everything for the chance to grab the life he could give her.

“But I have family responsibilities.”

He looked her right in the eye. “Do you?”

She wasn’t a hundred percent sure what he was asking, but if he was hinting at what she suspected he was hinting at, she needed time to think about that, too.

Luckily, he smiled. “You know what? I think we’ve just jumped into the ‘too much too soon’ category. So what do you say we enjoy our breakfast, enjoy our flight and then talk when we get home?”

Because that sounded very good to her, Gina nodded. She had never been so confused in her entire life, but one thing was clear. Gerrick Green knew her. He anticipated her moods. He didn’t push too hard or too far. He respected her. Somehow even tipsy—or maybe because she was in a freer, more open state of mind—she had recognized all this more quickly than in real time. And that was probably why she had married him.

They made small talk waiting for the plane, then chatted about inconsequential things during the flight, and it soon became evident to Gina that this man really did love her. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. She might not yet be able to say she “loved” him, but she knew him, respected him, liked him.

And something kept nudging her into believing that she shouldn’t throw this away. Something was telling her that this was the chance of a lifetime. That if she didn’t stay in this marriage she would miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime love.

By the time they reached Atlanta, she knew what she was going to do. Roll the dice. She wasn’t sure how or why she had become such a gambler of late, but she had. She didn’t have a clue how she would break this news to her father, but she was going to do that, too. She might be the person in line to replace him, but he was only in his late fifties. Nowhere near retirement. He was spirited enough and healthy enough to run this company for another fifteen or twenty years. By that time, she and Gerrick could have raised a family.

They disembarked and made their way to the row of taxis. This time when Gerrick kissed her, Gina kissed him back. She didn’t merely allow her lips to slacken under his to accept his kiss. She returned his kiss, and when he caressed her lips with the tip of his tongue, she opened her mouth to him. She twined her tongue with his, enjoying every exquisite sensation, almost unable to believe that this wonderful man was hers, but more than willing to accept it as yet another stroke of the good luck she had acquired in Vegas.

And Gerrick almost relaxed. Almost, but not quite. He hadn’t exactly tricked Gina into marrying him, but he hadn’t let the opportunity pass him by, either. When she proposed, he jumped on it, ushering her to the hotel chapel where they found an official who was in between services and more than happy to perform their ceremony. The waitress who had been providing their champagne and to whom Gina had given a three-hundred-dollar tip was thrilled to be her maid of honor. One of their blackjack dealers acted as Gerrick’s best man. It was the most important, most exciting moment of his life, but he wasn’t so dumb as to miss that in the light of day, Gina was having second thoughts.

He could handle that. He might have been head over heels in love with her for the past few months, but he recognized all this was new for her because until this weekend she had been at the very end of getting over her last romance. In fact, his feelings for her began with his worry over her upset about the man who had thrown her over for a co-ed with whom he was having an affair. That caused Gerrick to make time to talk to her every morning, eat lunch with her at least once a week and walk her to her office after meetings. Ultimately, concern grew into genuine affection, and before he knew it he found himself absolutely crazy about her. But he didn’t think Gina had noticed him as anything other than a co-worker at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods until Friday night. Still, once she had begun the process of seeing him as a person, a man, she seemed to catch up to his level of feelings with leaps and bounds.

And besides, she was the one who proposed to him.

Plus, he was leaving Atlanta in two weeks. Unless he married her he had no way of coercing her into moving with him, and no reason really to even keep in touch, except that they had had a fun time gambling in Vegas. That wasn’t much of a foot in the door and in his mind the marriage was a necessity.

On the flight home, the time difference worked against them, and it was already late afternoon when they arrived. They took a taxi to the bar where they had met on Friday night and each drove his or her car to her father’s mansion. She got there first, punched in the security codes that opened the big black gate and left it open. He drove through, then punched in the codes that locked the gate again. He wound his way up the long, tree-lined lane, taking his time, rehearsing in his head the speech he would give to his boss, searching for a way to describe their weekend without using the words tipsy or aroused. As he approached the house, he watched Gina pull her imported sports car behind the black sedan Gerrick recognized as belonging to Ethan McKenzie, head of the Legal Department of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and family friend of Hilton Martin.

Great. That meant they might have to wait hours before they actually told Hilton they were married.

Gerrick groaned. No, they wouldn’t. He had bought Gina a platinum band with three one-karat marquise diamonds. Nobody was going to miss that. Especially not eagle-eyed Ethan. They weren’t going to get to announce this to Hilton privately unless Gerrick did something fast.

He jumped out of his car and rushed toward the front entrance attempting to get to Gina before she walked in and flashed her ring, but he was too late. As if he had been waiting for Gina, Ethan opened the door and plowed forward before she reached for the knob. He took her by the shoulders and, if the look on his face was anything to go by, said something very serious to her.

Gerrick saw Gina gasp and crumple in Ethan’s arms, then both Gina and Ethan scrambled from the doorway to Ethan’s car.

Approaching from the other side, Gerrick was almost to the doorstep when they dashed away, ignoring him as if he wasn’t there.

He stopped.

Ethan drove up beside him, and lowered his car window. “Gerrick, I’m sorry. Hilton’s had a heart attack. He was in Pennsylvania promoting a golf tournament he’s helping to sponsor this summer. I’ve got Gina booked on the next flight out. Josh Anderson is already in Pennsylvania,” he said, referring to Hilton-Cooper-Martin Food’s PR director and Gina’s cousin. Undoubtedly, Josh had been pressed into service as next of kin, since no one had known where Gina was. “Right now, we need somebody to hold down the fort. I think that should be you.”

“Actually, Ethan,” Gerrick said, glancing at Gina who was dabbing her eyes with a white tissue. “I think I should go with Gina to the hospital.” He noticed the ring he had given her was conveniently hidden by her paper hanky and though that struck him as coincidentally lucky, he didn’t question it.

Only now realizing they had been away together for the weekend, Ethan looked from one to the other then said, “Oh.” He faced Gina again. “The second seat is booked in my name. Gerrick might not have time to get it changed and make the flight. We’re late as it is.”

“Then let’s go,” Gina said, urgency evident in her voice. “Gerrick, you’re going to have to come up on a later flight.”

“And I’ll return home and hold the fort,” Ethan said as he began to drive away.

Gerrick felt as if a truck had hit him. He had been employed by Hilton Martin his entire career. In some ways he loved Hilton like a father. That might even have been part of the reason he had been so casual about getting involved with Gina. But he also loved Gina. And he wanted to be with her. As her husband he should be the one with her. But Gina very clearly didn’t want him. Or didn’t care…

He was worried about Hilton. Fearful for Gina. Upset for himself. And insulted. But he ignored the stab of offense recognizing that Gina’s first impulse was to get rid of him, not lean on him, because being offended had no place in a situation where a man’s life hung in the balance.

Unfortunately, that still left him with intense worry, fear over Gina’s pain and his own upset about Hilton. He didn’t know which emotion to deal with first. So he got into his car and pulled out his cell phone to make reservations on the next available flight to Pittsburgh. Then he phoned Hilton’s secretary to get directions to the hospital where Hilton was being treated. As he expected, Joanna had the information he needed.

Gerrick went home, packed a small suitcase, and drove back to the airport. Though his concern for Hilton was overwhelming, he couldn’t help but remember the things he and Gina had done in this airport less than two hours ago. He saw the place where they had kissed. He saw the gate at which they had arrived laughing, full of happiness and hope. But when he walked down the tunnel to enter the plane, he also remembered that she had been having serious second thoughts during their flight home. It had taken hours to get her accustomed to the fact that they were married. And in seconds, in one announcement, they were back to square one.