Billionaire Bachelor: Colton: Diamond Bridal Agency, #6

By Melissa Stevens

He needs help, she can't make it on her own, but will one tiny person give them both what they didn't know they were missing?

Colton never planned to have kids. He didn't see the draw. But one day 4 year old Riley appeared on his doorstep. The daughter he never knew existed. Her mother a fling he'd long since forgotten, had died in a car accident. It didn't take him long to love the girl, now he wants to give her everything, including a sense of security and stability. But he can't do it alone. So he contacted Diamond Bridal Agency to fill the hole in their lives.

Susan had spent years struggling and alone. Desperate, she answered a want ad. There was no way this would last forever, but the payoff was worth the time. And she'd always wanted kids, so that wasn't a problem. Or was it? 

Check out this billionaire fake wife romance today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melissa Stevens
• Release date: May 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201140106

Melissa Stevens

Melissa was born and raised in Arizona, she’s spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She’s found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city. She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she’s found that there’s little she won’t read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Dear Mr. Sanderson,

After careful consideration of your requests and needs, the Diamond Bridal Agency is pleased to inform you that a bride has been located who matches your special and specific requirements. All communications have been kept private, as is our policy. Communications from the agency will cease after this missive and we request, for the security of our other clients, that you destroy this message after reading it.

Your satisfaction is guaranteed. To comply with your request for haste and privacy, your bride will arrive on October 28th, via private jet to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. Please do not hesitate to contact me should there be any issue with your bride. Her name is Susan Wadum and she understands the stipulations of the contract as you set forth.

We are aware of the time sensitive nature of your request, therefore with your permission we can arrange for the marriage to be legal and filed this week, before Ms. Wadum arrives, we just need the included form returned by overnight mail.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Alveda Creed, Diamond Bridal Agency.

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Colton read the letter and dropped the thick, expensive paper onto the desk that had belonged to his grandfather. Glancing at the calendar on the wall across the room, he realized he only had three days before his bride would arrive. That meant he needed to get the included form sent back today. He read through the letter again then fed it into the shredder next to his desk. The last thing he needed was for Riley to find it, or worse, Mrs. Ford. He picked up the form that had been included with the letter and checked the time.

Riley was with the Pierce’s next door for another couple hours, playing with their kids. He lived outside Roscoe, if he hurried, he’d have time to go into Sweetwater, twenty minutes away, have this notarized, and overnight it back to Dallas.

Colton had a lot to do in a short time, but the timing couldn’t be better. He’d fired another nanny yesterday. The third day in a row she’d shown up late. He needed someone he could rely on to help him with Riley. Someone he could count on to take care of her while he took care of the ranch. Someone who knew more about children than he did.

He didn’t know if kids were easier if you started from the beginning, but after six months with a four-year-old, he was desperate and feeling like he was only going to screw the little girl up worse. Until Riley had landed on his doorstep, he hadn’t known it was possible to love so hard or hurt so much when you felt like you were failing someone. He barely remembered her mother, and hadn’t planned to start a family this soon, but now that his daughter was here, he was going to do his very best by her.

Picking up the paper, he headed for the truck. He had no time to kill if he was going to get this done.

Three days later, Colton had arranged another play date for Riley so she would be busy while drove to the next town over from Roscoe to pick up Miss Wadum. No. She was Mrs. Sanderson now. He wanted a chance to talk to her, without little ears picking up every word, before he introduced her to his daughter.

Mrs. Creed, from the agency had assured him they did thorough, in-depth background checks as well as personality and psychological testing, and if his new bride had answered as many questions as he had, he would agree. Still, he wanted a chance to talk to her, to get a feel for her, before he brought her into the house to care for Riley.

Colton wanted to be sure she knew what she was getting into. That she wouldn’t be taking off in a few weeks when a rambunctious kid got to be too much for her. Riley had already been through more turmoil in her short four years than many adults, the last thing he wanted was to add to it.

Sitting in his pickup, window down and his arm resting on the sill as he watched the runway for the plane to land, Colton wondered what would make a woman submit to a mail order bride service in this day and age. There weren’t many women left willing to marry someone they’d never met. Especially in the age of swipe left, swipe right and online dating. He’d considered trying it, but his options were limited in the middle of nowhere central Texas. On top of that, between running the ranch and taking care of Riley, at least as much as he could on his own, when did he have time for dating?

Never, that’s when. Hell, he’d spent weeks trying to figure out what to do. Then an acquaintance had given him a phone number and told him to call. Colton hadn’t been sure what he was getting into, but Logan had never steered him wrong, at least not yet. So he had called. Shocked didn’t begin to describe his reaction when he’d found out about the Diamond Bridal Agency. Still, he was desperate enough to try it, with only minor second thoughts until now. Until he sat at the airport awaiting a woman who was already his wife, sight unseen.

Colton rolled his shoulders then slumped down in the seat of his pickup as he watched the runway. A weight settled in his stomach, growing heavier with every passing moment. Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten here ten minutes earlier than they were scheduled to arrive. He’d gotten a polite call this morning, one where the voice on the other end had verified several details he’d given the Bridal Agency before they’d informed him of his bride’s scheduled arrival time. He’d specifically requested that they let him know what time to pick her up so he could arrange to have someone else care for Riley. Since it was his habit to be early, here he sat, waiting.

A plane came into view. A small jet. Colton suspected it was a Gulfstream, but he didn’t know enough about them to be able to identify one on sight. He’d had a cousin suggest he buy one after he’d signed the contract with the oil company, but Colton didn’t see the point. He didn’t travel enough to justify the expense, much less the upkeep. The same cousin had also told him to build a mansion, but he preferred living in the house his great-great-grandfather had built a hundred years before. Not every generation had been raised in the house, but many had. He’d moved in when is grandfather had left it to him six years before.

Colton shook his head as the plane touched the ground, dragging his mind from the past, back to the present. He rolled his shoulders again and watched it taxi back toward the hanger and parking lot where he waited.

Chapter 2

Susan sat on the plush upholstery in the nicest plane she’d ever been inside. Not that she’d been in many airplanes, only a couple when her parents had taken her to visit a distant aunt as a child. And this trip had been far quicker than