XxChanine
Extract
"Let me be clear about something, Mr. Cunninger" she said, her voice smooth and unhurried, the way still water is smooth before it pulls you under. "I didn't choose this arrangement. I don't want it. And I certainly don't need you to make it confortable for me."
Zackary Cunninger looked at her from across the room - this woman with her green eyes, perfect composure and ability to make a sentence feel like a door slammed in your face - and said nothing for a long moment.
"Neither did I" he finally said.
"Good." She picked up her bag. "Then we understand each other."
*
"Miss Dekart."
She stopped. Didn't turn around.
"You're hiding something," he said quietly. "I don't know what it is yet. But I will."
The silence between them stretched for exactly two seconds.
"Goodnight, Mr. Cunninger" she said.
And she walked out.
BLURB
When Lenora Dekart's father tells her she must marry Zackary Cunninger to save their crumbling empire, she does what she's never done before - she refuses. She fights. She builds an airtightt case for every possible alternative.
And then, with no options left, she agrees.
What Victor Dekar doesn't know is that his daughter's surrender isn't what it looks like.
What Zackary Cunninger doesn't know is that the woman moving into his penthouse isn't just a reluctant bride.
And what Lena hasn't accounted for - in four years of meticulous, patient planning - is the man himself.
Cold. Controlled. Impossible to read.
And far more complicated than she needed him to be.
The Rival's Bride is a story about two people who are very good at keeping secrets, a past that refuses to stay buried, and the precise moment when a plan you've built your entire life around begins to cost more than you bargained.
Some marriages are business arrangements.
Some secrets are time bombs.
And some people, no mater how carefully you prepared yourself, have a way of getting through walls you wer certain were impenetrable.