His Taken Bride: The Knight Bride Series, #1

By Chloe Kent

All Everleigh wants to do is go on a seven-day cruise with her girlfriends for nothing but fun, sun, and sea. But then her father makes one uncharacteristic mistake and suddenly she's forced to marry Parker Knight the day before she's meant to board The Black Opal for her cruise.

What's a girl to do? Go on her cruise, of course!

As far as she's concerned the marriage is one of convenience and in name only, so they could easily go their separate ways.

But she soon realizes that no one disobeys Parker Knight without suffering the consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chloe Kent
• Release date: Jan 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224682591

Book preview

Join my newsletter, get a free ebook and keep up to date with all my book news!

Dear Reader

I’m so excited for you to meet the Knight Brothers. His Taken Bride which is the prequel to The Knight Bride Series and was originally featured in the free anthology Kisses and Kink which is now no longer available.

I decided His Taken Bride needed a much more extensive ending and so that’s what I did. I added on roughly about 20 more pages to the original story. I hope you enjoy it!

Hugs and happy reading.

Chloe

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

His Unwanted Bride: Book 2

Newsletter Sign Up

About the Author

Author Links

Chapter One

Parker Knight was a pompous billionaire and an arrogant jerk, and he could kiss her ass for all she cared.

No, scratch that, Everleigh Rose thought angrily. Parker Knight would not be coming anywhere near enough to kiss anything of hers, let alone her ass, even if the man had just made himself her husband.

Her freaking husband.

How did this even happen?

She was never supposed to meet him in real life. That wasn’t supposed to happen in this lifetime of hers. Parker Knight had been designated fantasy fodder from the first moment she had seen him and that was all. She daydreamed about him in a romantic setting. Okay, a very hot romantic setting.

Which girl wouldn’t?

He was in two words male magnificence.

When she had feasted her eyes on him for the first time, she had no idea about his possible affiliation with the mafia. While he portrayed an upright, honorable billionaire on the surface, with his hotels and casinos and resorts and islands, he apparently took care of his own dirty business behind the scenes.

There had been enough rumors and speculations, which had made it to the media about his involvement in the mafia, or that he was the mafia himself, of all things. Nothing could be proven though, which made him undeniably powerful and untouchable.

Sadly, even after digging up everything she could about him on the Internet, and becoming aware of who he might be, she still couldn’t erase him from her mind.

Or her body.

Telling herself those few articles about him were all just click bait, so she didn’t feel as if she had thrown her morals out of the window when she brought him, an alleged crime lord, into her bedroom night after night to star in her fantasies.

But it hadn’t mattered to her at all.

He didn’t know she existed, which was exactly how she preferred it. He didn’t need to know a twenty-three-year-old baker, with not a single glamorous bone in her body, without any sophistication or temptress traits, thought about him as much as Everleigh had.

She was, in a word, ordinary, tepid in the looks department, her fashion sense dependent on her bank balance but she had some good friends to enjoy life with. She was doing the best she could with what she was given.

And she was okay.

She didn’t belong in Parker Knight’s world whether he was a legitimate billionaire, or a mafia billionaire and he didn’t belong in her unspectacular world either.

That was up until her father had made one crazy mistake that changed her world forever.

She couldn’t believe how her life had taken such an epically wrong turn.

How could she possibly be Parker Knight’s wife?

Yet she had signed the marriage license, hadn’t she? That couldn’t be a dream, right?

She’d been warned by everyone in her family to follow his instructions without any deviations. Her two uncles, stunned by the turn of events, wholeheartedly believed her new husband’s nefarious reputation, so in the interest of her health and her longevity, they had begged her to follow his instructions.

Well, no. She had no plans to do that at all.

She didn’t care that he was considered a dangerous man.

He didn’t scare her, so no, she wasn’t going to be waiting patiently for him to send a car to her tiny apartment to collect her and then deposit her in his palatial home... as his wife.

He had graciously allowed her, through his lawyer as the messenger of course, twenty-four hours to pack up whatever she needed to bring with her and tie up any loose ends.

How kind of him. This after they had gotten married, and during which he had been entirely absent for the signing of the licenses.

He had sent over one of his henchmen... okay, his lawyer again, as a proxy.

So, it seemed fair that she did not show up for their marriage as well. In fact, the arrangement couldn’t suit her better. Besides, he only wanted the same thing as, at least, twenty other men before him had tried to get out of her.

Except he had succeeded because he was brutal and devious.

Why else would he want to marry her if not for that? She didn’t fit in his world any more than he fitted in hers.

But the ink had dried, and she was legally and binding Mrs. Parker Knight and unless she had as much money as he did, there was no way she could fight her way out of this marriage that was barely five minutes old. He had covered his bases and Everleigh was trapped.

But they both could give up all pretenses that this marriage was anything more than a farce and leave each other alone. He had it in writing. That was all he needed.

She angrily zipped up a suitcase, then started to tackle her toiletries, which she furiously stuffed into a small vanity case.

When her lips started to quiver, she sucked them in and shook her head. She wasn’t going to start crying over the fact that her father, who had been a social gambler at best, all his life, had gotten sucked in so badly one night, that he anted up his whole livelihood.

He had gambled in the wrong house, made the wrong enemy, and she was now the one to pay his debt.

Never in a million years would she have imagined that on waking up yesterday morning, her whole life as she knew it would be derailed. All because of Parker Knight.

A frantic call from her dad, one where he emphasized his life was over, had her scurrying out the door, her pajamas concealed by her coat, as she rushed to see her father.

She found him weeping silently in a disheveled suit, clearly from the night before, and looking as haggard as he had five years ago when her mother had passed away.

When she finally got him to tell her everything, she had been stunned. She also didn’t have the heart to ask her father what he had been thinking. He felt bad enough as it was.

He'd had a little too much to drink, then in a moment of delusional confidence, had gambled away not only the house Everleigh had grown up in but also the bakery she currently managed. The house and the bakery were two of her mother’s most treasured possessions besides of course her daughter and her husband.

The thought of her father having to give up the charming brick manor and the beloved, small bakery to a stranger devastated her as deeply as she had been when her mother had died. It would be like removing every physical trace of her existence.

The bakery was Everleigh’s whole life. It made just enough profit to ensure she got to open the doors the next day. Which was fine. She was happy.

She had inherited her mother’s talent for creating everything from elaborate wedding cakes to the perfect macaron. It was the only link she had left with her mother. She had grown up in the bakery, hanging onto her mother’s skirts as she baked and served faithful regular customers. The scent of vanilla and cinnamon and orange zest was synonymous with her childhood and awakened every memory she had about her mother. The bakery remained a priceless, irreplaceable connection for her. Just like the house served for her father and his connection to his wife.

By the time Everleigh’s uncle and aunt had arrived to try and help them, not that they could help cover the exorbitant amount required to clear the debt, her father had delivered the final blow:

Give me your daughter, and I’ll wipe out your debt.

The very words which Parker Knight had uttered to her father and what he had repeated verbatim when she had questioned