Long, Tall Temporary Husband

“Let me get this straight,” Taylor said. “You want me—your wife—to pretend to be your wife?” Letter to Reader Title Page Dedication About the Author Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Epilogue Copyright

“Let me get this straight,” Taylor said. “You want me—your wife—to pretend to be your wife?”

“Yes. Pretend to be my loving, affectionate, definitely-not-estranged wife.”

“I’m a waitress, Jake. Not an actress.”

“I know it will be a challenge, but I’ll make it worth your while. All I need you to do is come back to Montana with me. You’ll have a free place to stay and all the food you can eat for a week.”

“Free room and board, Jake? For your wife? How generous.”

“Taylor...”

“Getting back together is not a smart idea.”

“It’s only for a week. We can tolerate each other that long, can’t we?”

Unfortunately, Taylor realized, it wasn’t just an issue of tolerating each other. They also had to keep their hands to themselves.

And with the chemistry between them still as strong as ever, it was going to be a challenge.

A big challenge.

Dear Reader,

Unforgettable Bride, by bestselling author Annette Broadrick, is May’s VIRGIN BRIDES selection, and the much-requested spin-off to her DAUGHTERS OF TEXAS series. Rough, gruff rodeo star Bobby Metcalf agreed to a quickie marriage—sans honeymoon!—with virginal Casey Carmichael. But four years later, he’s still a married man—one intent on being a husband to Casey in every sense....

Fabulous author Arlene James offers the month’s FABULOUS FATHERS title, Falling for a Father of Four. Orren Ellis was a single dad to a brood of four, so hiring sweet Mattie Kincaid seemed the perfect solution. Until he found himself falling for this woman he could never have.... Stella Bagwell introduces the next generation of her bestselling TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP series. In The Rancher’s Blessed Event, an ornery bronc rider must open his heart both to the woman who’d betrayed him...and her child yet to be born.

Who can resist a sexy, stubborn cowboy—particularly when he’s your husband? Well, Taylor Cassidy tries in Anne Ha’s Long, Tall Temporary Husband. But will she succeed? And Sharon De Vita’s irresistible trio, LULLABIES AND LOVE, continues with Baby with a Badge, where a bachelor cop finds a baby in his patrol car...and himself in desperate need of a woman’s touch! Finally, new author C.J. Hill makes her commanding debut with a title that sums it up best: Baby Dreams and Wedding Schemes.

Romance has everything you need from new beginnings to tried-and-true favorites. Enjoy each and every novel this month, and every month!

Warm Regards!

Joan Marlow Golan Senior Editor, Silhouette Romance

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

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Long, Tall Temporary Husband

Anne Ha

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To both of our families with much love

ANNE HA is really the award-winning husband/wife writing team of Anne Ha and Joe Thoron. The couple met at Amherst College, where they both majored in English and Women’s Studies—a great preparation for writing romance novels.

Anne and Joe have always loved books and particularly enjoy reading aloud to each other. They also love to garden on warm summer days, to travel and to meet all different kinds of people. They can’t imagine a world without “The X-Files,” ice cream and naughty cats. You can write to them at P.O. Box 225, Amherst, MA 01004-0225.

Prologue

Taylor tossed her leather suitcase onto the bed, yanked open the zippers and threw back the top. “I hate you, Jake! And I hate this godforsaken ranch!”

She stalked to the dresser and pulled out a drawer. She carried it to the bed and upended it over the suitcase. Nightgowns and lingerie tumbled out.

Dropping the empty drawer onto the bedspread, she stormed back over to the dresser for another drawer. Socks, leggings, cotton tank tops. It all went into the suitcase. The drawer joined the other on the bed.

Jake stood behind her, tension filling his body, a look of disgust on his face. “You’re a spoiled brat, Taylor.”

T-shirts, jeans, blouses, slacks. “Go to hell!”

“And a wimp. Go ahead, run home to your parents. I’m sure they’ll make everything all right. No reason they should stop babying you just because you’re an adult.”

She threw open the closet door. Grabbing a few dresses, she crammed them into the suitcase, hangers and all.

The suitcase was a disaster. Sleeves and hems stuck out over the edge. Everything lay in a crumpled mess, but Taylor didn’t care.

She darted into the bathroom, grabbed her toiletry kit from a drawer in the vanity and jammed handfuls of cosmetics into it. Her eye pencil snapped going into the kit. She hurled the pieces into the trash can.

Jake loomed in the doorway. “One month, Taylor. You lasted one month.” His voice dripped scorn. “Even my mother lasted longer than that.”

She snatched up the toiletry kit and barreled past him into the bedroom. “It wasn’t one month,” she muttered. “It was five weeks. Five of the most horrible weeks of my—”

“Privileged; coddled, self-absorbed life.”

She dropped the toiletry kit onto the pile of rumpled clothes and pounded on the pile with her fists until it was compact enough to get the top closed. The zipper stuck halfway, blocked by a T-shirt. Giving a fluent curse, she ripped the offending item out of the way, tossed it to the ground and finished with the zipper.

She whirled to face him. “You know, if you’d ever stopped working long enough to have a conversation with me, we might have had a chance.”

“We talked plenty.”

“Yeah, right. You talked. Taylor, I need you. Taylor. Oh, God, Taylor. I can’t resist you, Taylor...” She glared at him. “It was always when we were—when we were—”

“Having sex? Well, what do you expect? Our whole relationship is based on physical attraction. Aside from that we have nothing in common.” He laughed bitterly. “I should have known you were off limits the moment I saw you in that three-hundred-dollar swimsuit. How could a rich city slicker like you ever be happy in Montana?”

Taylor slung her purse over her shoulder, grabbed the heavy suitcase and marched out the door. She dragged it to the top of the stairs and tossed it down. It fell end over end, landing with a thud on the floorboards below.

She descended the steps, picked it up and heaved it onto the porch.

Jake’s pickup was parked outside, the keys on the dash as usual. She lurched over to it, dumped her suitcase in the back and got in. “Go muck out some stalls, Jake.”

Anger radiated from him, but he didn’t move to stop her. “Something you’ve never done.”

“I married you, Jake, not your ranch.”

“And you thought I’d do nothing but pamper you? You’re a fool.”

Taylor fired up the truck. Through the open window she said, “Find another wife, Jake. Some empty-headed country girl who’s never been to the big bad city. She’ll be happy here. You can shovel horse manure together.”

“Don’t come back, Taylor. You don’t belong here.”

She fixed him with her most withering glare. “Believe me, Jake. Nothing could ever convince me to set foot on this ranch again.”

Taylor threw the truck into gear and peeled out in a cloud of dust.

She got fifty yards away before she jammed on the brakes, made a reckless three-point turn and sped back to the house. She pulled up in front of Jake, ripped the wedding set from her finger and threw both rings into the dirt at his feet. Then, without a word, she stomped on the gas and roared down the drive.

Back at the house, Jake stared after her. He watched his truck disappear around the bend. Slowly the dust settled until all traces of his wife’s flight had vanished.

She was gone.

Gone. As if she’d never been here. As if the past five weeks were nothing but a childish fantasy, a naive dream. She was gone, and good riddance.

He bent down and lifted her rings off the ground. He blew the dirt off them, rubbed them clean. They were still warm with the heat of her body, and as he slipped them into his pocket an ache settled deep in his chest.

Good riddance? Who was he trying to kid? Depression closed over him. He’d thought they had a future together. He’d lost his heart to her and she’d behaved exactly as he’d feared, abandoning him along with her discarded rings.

With a last look at the empty drive, he turned and headed for the barn. He would lose himself in work, and eventually he would forget her.

Chapter One

Five months later

“Excuse me, Miss, but this toast is burned. And I clearly asked for real half-and-half with my coffee, not this nondairy junk.”

Taylor stared down at the annoying customer seated at table fifteen, wishing he would just disappear. Every Saturday morning he came to the Pancake Hut for breakfast, and every Saturday morning he found something wrong with his food—which meant she had to take it back to the kitchen.

The cook—her boss—hated it when she took an order back. He usually got mad and purposely messed up her next several orders.

That had the same result every time. Lower tips.

Taylor needed those tips. Desperately. She lived from paycheck to paycheck, barely managing to keep a roof over her head and make payments on the debts she’d racked up several months ago. So instead of telling Mr. Annoying where he could put his toast—which was what she would have done a few months ago—she gritted her teeth and counted to ten.

He waved to his side order plate. “What are you gonna do about my toast? I’m hungry and I don’t got all day.”

She reached for the toast. The slices were a light golden brown, not burned at all. It figured. “I’m very sorry, sir. I’ll replace this as quickly as I can.” If she timed it right, she could do it herself while the cook was busy at the grill. If he didn’t see her she’d be all right.

The customer huffed, then gave her a grudging nod. “What about my cream?”

“We don’t have any, but I could bring some milk. Would that do?”

“Well, be quick about it.”

Fighting the urge to bop the man on the head, Taylor turned away from the table.

That was when she saw him. Jake. Standing at the entrance to the coffee shop, gorgeous and rugged in faded jeans and a thick shearling coat.

In the space of an instant, Taylor’s world shifted sideways. She felt as if her stomach had plummeted to the ground. Her whole body tingled with shock.

Five months, she thought. It had been five long, challenging months since she’d seen him, yet it might have been only yesterday. He was so much the same, so familiar with that long, lean rancher’s body and thick dark hair.

How many times this fall had she imagined being with him again? Imagined what it would feel like to be in his arms again, warm and comforted instead of alone in a cold, impersonal city?

Everything about him had haunted her. His seductive brown eyes, the masculine grace of his movements, the warm scent of his skin. She remembered the first day they’d met, on vacation last summer. The sensations came back to her: hot sun on her skin, powder-soft sand underfoot. The scent of suntan lotion. And Jake, sitting there on the beach in Mexico, propped up on his elbows, watching her walk by. She’d felt an intense attraction the moment her gaze had locked onto his chiseled features and dark, windtousled hair. And when their eyes had met, she’d felt the most heady response.

It had been a magical week, full of champagne and music and moonlit dancing. They’d eloped before the trip was over, each of them absolutely confident they’d found their life partner.

But then he’d brought her home to the Cassidy Ranch—and everything had fallen apart. Within days she’d felt the change in him. The subtle withdrawal. She’d married him for his passion, for his joy in life, but once on the ranch he’d settled into a pattern of nonstop twelve-hour days and left her to her own devices. Their physical attraction had been strong, but not strong enough to bridge the growing gulf between them.

She’d tried to ignore it. But the feeling of abandonment she’d experienced was all too familiar. Her mother and father had always valued their work and their social lives more than her. She’d thought Jake would be different, that he would value her more, but he didn’t.

Their marriage was an impulsive mistake. Though it had started in a passionate whirlwind, it crashed and burned in barely a month.

She watched Jake now as he scanned the busy restaurant, looking for her, she knew. Nothing else would have brought him to Boston, to this dingy little dive in a bad part of town.

And the only reason he’d be looking for her was to initiate their divorce. A sick feeling settled in her stomach. She’d known this day would come, had tried to tell herself it was what she wanted. To be free of him. But that didn’t explain her reaction, her sudden flash of despair.

Finally Jake’s deep brown eyes locked onto hers, steady, assessing. Feeling like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, she stared back at him, frozen and vulnerable. Even her mind seemed frozen, stuck on that one awful thought. Divorce.

Jake crossed the room in a few easy strides, his gaze never leaving hers, his expression unreadable.

“Hello, Taylor.”

That voice. Low, rough, whiskey-soft. Seductive even now, when he’d only tracked her down to say their marriage was over.

She wasn’t ready for this confrontation. Wasn’t ready to hear that Jake had found someone else, someone who was selfless and caring, mature and responsible. All the things Taylor hadn’t been.

But she forced herself to stand firm. “Hello, Jake,” she said. Her voice was cool, remote, as if she felt nothing, no anxiety, no pain.

His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. Taylor waited for him to say something, but he seemed content to stand there taking in her pink polyester blouse and skirt and frilly white Pancake Hut apron.

Mr. Annoying on fifteen broke the moment. “Hey, Miss! Are you going to get my toast or not?”

She’d forgotten she still held the plate. She gave him her best waitressing smile. “Just a minute,” she said as cheerfully as she could. Then she addressed Jake. “Whatever you’re here for, I don’t have time.”

“We need to talk.”

“Not right now, we don’t.” She wondered whether he’d brought the divorce papers with him. Would he whip them out and demand she sign on the dotted line? Would he offer her money? Or would they have to go through a long legal battle she couldn’t afford to fight?

“It’s important.”

Like it or not, her marriage had blown up in her face; the only graceful thing to do was to accept it like a lady. But she didn’t feel graceful, and she didn’t feel like a lady. She felt like a tired waitress without enough money and way too much loneliness. “Look,” she said, “you’ve already lost me my tip from this guy, and I’m not in the mood.”

“I’ll pay you the difference.”

“Forget it, Jake.” She didn’t want a dime of his money. She was going to support herself, and prove to herself, her parents and Jake that she wasn’t a total loser.

Her mind flashed back over the past five months. When she’d first returned to Boston her need to forget Jake had made her wild and reckless. She’d spent money like crazy, blowing through her father’s generous allowance in only six days. Her father had given her more, on the condition she shape up, become an adult, start taking life more seriously. She hadn’t. Instead she’d dealt with the pain of her failed marriage the only way she knew how: by buying everything in sight.

Her mother had given her more money, but had said that was it until she got her life together. Taylor hadn’t believed her. Her parents had always thrown money at her instead of love; why would anything be different this time?

But it was. Her parents had cut her off. They’d offered her a place to stay and food to eat but only on the condition that she take a paper-pushing, closely supervised job in the personnel department at her father’s company.

Chafing at their control like a petulant child, Taylor had thrown it back in their faces. She’d moved in with a friend that afternoon. But her credit cards were tapped out, and none of the stylish jobs she applied for worked out. In the end, she couldn’t keep up with her friends’ glamorous life-styles, and they blew her off.

She’d had no money, no job, no friends, no place to live. She’d thrown it all away. She’d been a fool, and pride prevented her from accepting her parents’ new tough-love brand of assistance.

Finally she’d tried in earnest to get a job, and ended up a week later at the Pancake Hut. She’d done more growing up in that one week, and in the months of backbreaking restaurant work that followed, than she had in her entire life. With newfound grit and determination, she’d started to get her life back together.

And she’d keep doing it—alone.

Taylor pointed into the kitchen where her boss, Sleazy Steve, glared at her over the grill. “Do you see that man back there? If I’m more than thirty seconds late to pick up a plate he bums my next two orders. So I don’t really care what you have to talk to me about. It’s not more important than my job.”

Jake fixed his gaze on her, unblinking. “You don’t know that.” His tone was even, calm. Not argumentative, but still it raised Taylor’s hackles.

Like herself, Jake could be an incredibly stubborn person. “You might not believe it, Jake, but nothing is more important than my job. Nothing.”

Not even you. Not even my husband. The words remained unspoken, but she knew they both heard them echo through the restaurant.

Five months and one week ago she never would have even thought those words. Five months and one week ago her husband had been the most important thing in her life. But she hadn’t been the most important thing in his. Not by a long shot.

“I’m not going to leave,” Jake said.

“Fine,” Taylor returned. “You can wait all day for me if you want. Just don’t do it in the aisle.”

That brought a hint of a smile to his lips. “Where’s your section?”

“Over there.” She pointed. “But don’t you dare...” She trailed off as Jake sauntered over to the only vacant booth in her section. He slipped out of his shearling coat and sat down.

Taylor took a deep breath and counted to ten. By seven she’d calmed down, and when she hit ten she knew how she’d handle the situation. The moment Jake had sat down he’d become a customer. Nothing more, nothing less.

And she’d learned how to deal with customers.

She ducked into the kitchen to make fresh toast for the man on fifteen, then took a menu to Jake. She slid it onto the table. “Coffee?”

He met her eyes. “Taylor...”

A lot of her customers liked to call her by her first name. It was written on a little plastic tag pinned to her blouse. But no one said it in that rough, sexy way, like a lion trying to growl but ending up purring. “Cream or sugar?” she asked brightly.

She knew how he took his coffee. Black and strong.

“Neither.”

Turning on her heel, Taylor checked on her other customers, then took Jake his coffee.

He hadn’t touched the menu, but she pulled out her order pad anyway. “What do you want?”

Jake took a sip of his coffee. “I need fifteen minutes of your time. Maybe half an hour.”

Enough time to sign the papers, she guessed. “What do you want that’s on the menu? I recommend the pancakes.” After all, this was the Pancake Hut.

“Hear me out, Taylor.”

“Okay, pancakes it is. Short or tall?”

“Tall. Come on. For old times’ sake.”

“Real or fake?”

“Excuse me?”

“Syrup. Real or fake?”

“Real.”

She gave him a bright smile. “Hash browns, bacon and toast with that?”

“You’re just going to ignore me, aren’t you?”

“Orange juice?”

He sighed. “Sure, Taylor. Bring me whatever you want. But I’m not going away until we talk.”

Another smile. “I’ll be right back with your juice.”

She fled for the kitchen.

One of the other waitresses stood at the service counter refilling the coffeemaker. Candy was a bleach-blonde in her late thirties who chewed gum incessantly. She pointed at Jake with her chin. “Who’s the dish?”

i This wasn’t what she needed. Taylor filled a glass of orange juice and tried for an offhand tone. “Him? Just someone I used to know.”

“He’s cute.” Candy craned her head to see across the room. “Is the O.J. for him? I’ll take it over.”

Candy plucked the glass from her startled fingers and swished away, hips swinging.

“Order up,” Sleazy Steve growled.

Taylor put her mind back on her waitressing, but the next time Candy crossed her path Taylor said, “He’s married.” She wasn’t trying to be possessive—even if she had felt a strange spark of jealousy—just warning her co-worker away from disappointment.

“The dish? I didn’t see a ring.”

“Trust me. He’s married.”

Candy snapped her gum, her expression changing to a mix of anger and pity. All traces of her interest in Jake were gone. “So it’s like that, huh? Probably told you he was leaving her, but never did. And he expects you to pine away for him and jump back into his bed whenever he gets in the mood. The skunk. Want me to go pour hot coffee in his lap?”

Taylor almost laughed. “It’s not like that.”

“Uh-huh. Right.”

“He’s married to me, Candy.”

Candy’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

“We’re married.”

Candy snapped her gum again. “Then why in the world are you living alone and working in this dump? Take him back, girl!”

“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s too late for that.”

Sleazy Steve dropped two plates on the service shelf. “Order up, Candy,” he barked.

Candy ignored him. “It’s never too late, hon.”

“We don’t like each other.”

“Yeah,” Candy said. “Which is why he’s staring at you like he wants to have you for breakfast.”

He was? Taylor’s heart rate sped up at the news but she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. Jake wasn’t here to try to get her back, and she had to remember that.

The cook banged his spatula on the stainless steel counter. “Order up!”

Candy slowly turned and fixed Sleazy Steve with a scorching glare. She popped her gum. “Go suck an egg, Stevie. This is important.”

Taylor wanted to burst out laughing, but she knew she’d get fired if she did. Only Candy, for some incomprehensible reason, could get away with such behavior. “Jake doesn’t like me, Candy.”

“Huh! What’s not to like? You’re a total sweet-heart.”

“Thanks, but Jake—”

“Jake’s gonna get an earful,” Candy declared.

“Don’t,” Taylor said, but Candy wasn’t listening. She took the plates of food from the service shelf and sashayed off.

Taylor stood glued to the floor as Candy dropped her two plates in front of a couple of customers and approached Jake’s booth. She couldn’t hear what Candy said, but from the way the woman stood with her hands on her hips, she guessed it wasn’t friendly.