The Bride, The Trucker And The Great Escape

By Suzanne McMinn

BRIDE ON BOARD

Reluctant bride Andie Conroy refused to marry a man who loved her father's influence more than her! But with a churchfull of impatient guests, she needed a quick getaway and trucker Troy Armstrong was at the right place at the right time .

Before Troy knew it, a fugitive bride was stuffing herself and her wedding gown into his rig and ordering him to drive. Troy had never fancied himself a knight, but this damsel expected nothing less!

He had ten days with her before he delivered Andie to her new life. Just enough time for a princess and a trucker to fall in love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Jul 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781460868317

Suzanne McMinn

Suzanne McMinn is the award-winning author of more than two dozen novels, including contemporary paranormal romance, romantic suspense and romantic comedy, as well as a medieval trilogy. She lives on a farm in the mountains of West Virginia where she is plotting her next book and enjoying the simple life with her family, friends and many, many cats. Check out her upcoming books and blog.

Book preview

Chapter One

She had to escape!

Andrea Conroy hitched up the cathedral-length train of her satin wedding gown to her hips and peered out through the narrowly opened dressing room door. The hallway outside stood blessedly empty.

Ears straining, Andie caught the sound of hushed voices from the church vestibule. She had to hurry.

They’d be back—soon—to check on her again. To make sure nothing went wrong with what had been called, by at least one Washington, D.C., society columnist, the wedding of the year.

Her pulse pounding, Andie blinked back the tears that threatened. The wedding of the year was a sham. A horrible, painful sham.

But she didn’t have time to cry now. She swallowed over the thick lump in her throat and swiped at her eyes with a trembling hand.

There was no way on God’s green earth she could go through with the marriage her domineering father had maneuvered her into with Phillip Masterson, an up-and-coming, power hungry capital city lawyer. She’d end up just like her mother—nothing more than a decorative ornament at her husband’s high-powered dinner parties.

A sound from the end of the hall sent Andie ducking backward, pulling the door shut again. She leaned with her ear pressed against the wood, listening.

The click-click of high-heeled shoes came toward her. The footsteps stopped outside her door and a light tap followed.

Andrea, dear? May I come in?

Her mother’s expensive perfume filtered into the dressing room. It was only the finest for Lillian Conroy—in cosmetics, fashions, automobiles. She was chic and refined and perfect at all times, a flawless complement to her husband, the esteemed Maryland senator William Conroy IV.

It was a cruel trick of fate that unconventional Andie had been born to such parents. She straightened, and her nervous thoughts found verification in the gilt-framed mirror covering one entire wall of the plush dressing room. Her dark, defiant, curly locks were already breaking free of the restraining lace headband with its attached tulle veil. No amount of makeup could hide her pixie freckles.

The gown felt like a straitjacket, the expensive high-heeled shoes like torture devices. She’d already snagged the delicate hosiery when she’d broken one of her fingernails.

She couldn’t go through with this.

No, Mother! Andie cried. Then she realized how she must have sounded, and she hastened to repair the damage. I mean, not right now. I—I just need a few moments to myself.

Enough time to run.

Are you all right, Andrea?

I’m fine, Mother. Really. Andie said what her mother wanted to hear. Her mother liked things to go as planned. Meaning, as William Conroy planned.

Andie looked at her slim gold watch. She was to be wed in ten minutes! Please, just give me five minutes, she begged. Her voice cracked. Nerves jitterbugged in her stomach.

Why had she let things go this far?

She knew the answer to her own question. Nobody said no to William Conroy. Who knew that better than Andie? She’d been saying no to her father for twenty-five years, and he never listened. She might as well have been mute her entire life for all the attention he’d ever paid to her wants, her desires, her needs.

She’d tried to conform. She’d even tried going to law school, when teaching art to kids was all she’d ever wanted to do.

She’d tried to be the dutiful, model daughter her father wanted. She’d tried—

Andie squeezed her eyelids tight, emotion stinging them. She’d tried to make him love her.

She swallowed thickly, and her eyes flashed open. She shook her head.

She’d tried—and she was through trying. She’d been censured and scolded and pushed for the last time. This was too much. She couldn’t marry Phillip Masterson! Here, in the church, in her dress, the stark reality of what she was about to do had hit her.

Every inch of her slender five-foot-five body recoiled from this marriage. She didn’t love Phillip. Not in the least. And he didn’t love her. He loved her father’s power and position. Not her.

Are you sure, dear? Her mother sounded worried.

Andie almost broke down and started bawling. She imagined her mother sitting in the front row of the church sanctuary with hundreds of attendees behind her, waiting for her little girl to walk down the aisle—

You know how many of your father’s friends and colleagues are here, Lillian went on. These are important people. You don’t want to keep them waiting.

Andie blew out a disgusted breath. Of course. Her mother wasn’t worried about her. Her mother was concerned that she might inconvenience her father’s stuffy society connections.

I’m fine, Mother, Andie repeated. Familiar hurt swallowed her whole.

All right, dear. I’m going to sit down now. Your father will be here to get you in five minutes. Next time I see you, you’ll be Mrs. Phillip Masterson! she said, making the title sound like a privilege beyond compare. Then she clicked away in her high-heeled shoes, leaving her heavy, luxurious scent behind her.

Silence. With shaking hands, Andie ripped off the ostentatious engagement ring with which Phillip had presented her, and set it on the dressing table.

She cracked the door. The hallway was empty again. Nervous fear all but closed up her throat. She could barely breathe.

She ran a dry tongue over her lips.

Now!

Quickly, she took the first small step out of the dressing room. Reaching around, she turned the lock in the door and pulled it shut behind her. Hopefully, it would take them a few minutes to get in and figure out she’d disappeared.

She heard her father’s deep voice boom out from the vestibule. Five minutes! He was supposed to give her five minutes!

No surprise that he wasn’t going to pay attention to her request.

Andie scooped up the gown’s long train and dashed down the hall, in the opposite direction from her father’s voice. At the end of the hall was an exterior side door. She pushed through, looking over her shoulder. No one was in the hall.

No one saw her leave!

With her heart lurching and her breaths coming in quick hitches of panic, Andie ran from the huge, downtown church into the June heat. Into freedom.

Tall oaks dotted the grounds. Parked cars filled the lot to the side of the building. Unfortunately, Andie didn’t have the key to a single one. She and her parents had arrived at the majestic Washington, D.C., church by limo.

How could she possibly get away? What had she been thinking?

In another minute, they were going to discover she was missing. They’d come looking for her...and find her. Her father would be furious.

Another of Andie’s silly scrapes!

Andie’s gaze darted all around, searching for hope. The light Saturday afternoon traffic—shoppers and tourists—flew up and down the broad avenue. As she watched, a mammoth, midnight-blue tractor-trailer rig pulled over to the curb in front of several parked cars.

A man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, emerged from the cab, a black dog at his heels. The man strolled onto the manicured grass while the dog ambled over to a tree to do its business.

Andie’s gaze continued its hungry scan. Beyond the eighteen-wheeler, in the distance, she saw a taxi heading in her direction. It was like a gift from God.

She sped over the grass toward the street. Her veil flew out behind her. Her dress flapped wildly. She ignored the confused glance the man shot her.

The dog barked and started to follow her. She heard the man call him back.

The taxi approached in the middle lane. Andie sprinted through two parked cars and into the street.

Taxi! She extended her arm as she shouted, desperately willing it to pull over.

She had no idea where she was going. And she didn’t care. She just wanted to get as far away from Phillip Masterson and William Conroy as she possibly could.

The taxi zoomed past.

Andie stopped dead in her tracks, immediate, desperate tears clogging her vision. Despair washed over her.

A low-slung black sports car suddenly rose before her eyes, coming out of nowhere at a high rate of speed, in the very lane in which she stood. Andie stayed rooted to the spot, frozen, shocked, as the car bore down on her.

She screamed.

Troy Armstrong took in the woman as she shrieked in terror, the car racing too fast toward her. Adrenaline bulleted through him.

He rushed at her. Throwing his arms around her tiny waist, he swept her out of danger. She felt light, like a flower. He stumbled backward and they crashed together onto the hard pavement between two parked cars, the woman collapsing atop him.

The black sports car whizzed past.

His dog, named Dog—part Lab, part mystery—barked excitedly.

Troy lay still for a few seconds, dazed by the impact, feeling more than a little off balance. Usually, he wasn’t out driving his own trucks. His time was consumed with the day-to-day operations of the fledgling Armstrong Independent Trucking business he’d started in partnership with his brother only the year before. But with one of their drivers out because of a family crisis—and Troy’s brother’s wife near the due date for their first baby—Troy had had no choice but to take the trip himself.

He was on the first day of a tough ten-day haul, first to L.A., then down to San Diego and back to the East Coast. Not two miles into their trip, Dog had begun scratching and clawing at the door of the truck’s roomy sleeper cab, a sure sign he wanted to attend to nature’s call. Then the woman, in full bridal regalia, had appeared out of nowhere, running headlong into traffic—

The young woman scrambled off him then and knelt by his side, seemingly heedless of the fancy gown she wore. Beautiful, heavily lashed dark eyes, shocked and worried, met his.

Are you all right? she gasped. Her voice was soft, musical, lilting. Like an angel’s. Only, the thoughts she inspired weren’t exactly pious. In fact, they were just the opposite.

Troy blinked, swallowed, blinked again. Curly dark tendrils escaped the lacy headdress she wore, framing an oval-shaped face with a rosebud mouth and a pert little nose scattered with light freckles. Diamonds decorated the lobes of her small ears, and her slender neck led his eyes down to smooth skin and a tempting display of cleavage above her lace and satin bodice.

Speechless for a second, Troy realized he couldn’t be too badly hurt. The quickening in his groin told him that much.

You saved my life! The woman leaned over him. She smelled as sweet and wholesome as blueberries and cream. All he could think was how he wanted to taste her lips right there and then—

Are you hurt? she cried when he didn’t respond.

No, no, I’m fine. Just a little stunned, that’s all. Troy pulled himself together and sat up, finding everything apparently worked—except his common sense. He didn’t remember hitting his head, but he must have. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be having these irrational thoughts.

He was putting his new business first these days, not his personal life. He didn’t need any unnecessary distractions. And the woman in front of him was def-initely a distraction.

More than that, with those big eyes of hers, she could be a heartbreaker. And Troy had been down that road, all too recently.

What about you? he demanded more abruptly than he meant to. You almost got yourself run down! Why didn’t you get out of the way?

Dog kept circling and barking.

Andie stared at the man. Now he sounded as if he was about to start chastising her. That’s what her father would do.

"I wanted to get run down," she snapped sarcastically. She jerked to a stand, bristling.

The man’s eyes widened, then narrowed. He drew himself up, one hand shooting to his back. She wondered if he’d injured himself rescuing her.

Pardon me for getting in the way, Troy grumbled.

Andie immediately felt guilty for lashing out