The Billionaire Rancher She Married : A Modern Day Small Town Romance (Evergreen's Mail-Order Brides Book 1) Read online

  Evergreen, Texas’ most eligible bachelor Devon Montgomery does not believe in love, which is why the handsome but cold-hearted ranch owner gets himself a mail order bride who’s sure to be undemanding of his time.

  Old-fashioned and hopeless romantic Hilary “Harry” White has never been happier to leave the city and be wife to a hard-working Texan cowboy. Imagine her surprise when she instead finds herself wife to an intimidatingly powerful billionaire rancher instead.

  Swept off her feet, Harry thinks it’s happy-ever-after for her…until she realizes that Devon only sees her as a property he’s bought to do his bidding.

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  His fiancée started noticing him when he was about a dozen feet away from her. She had a very expressive face. She was doing her best to hide her anxiety from him but failed miserably at it.

  Was she not pleased to have him as a husband? The possibility should have been insulting, but it only served to intrigue Devon. When he finally stood a few inches before her, Devon watched the woman visibly take a deep breath, as if preparing herself. She opened her mouth – then closed it a second later, as if unable to find the words to speak.

  It almost made him smile. They continued to gaze at each other, his fiancée clearly overwhelmed. Taking pity on her, Devon took off the Stetson from his head and asked, “Ms. White?”

  The Southern drawl of the man’s voice was unmistakable. Harry knew it came with the territory, but silly her, she still found herself overwhelmed by how…Texan he was. Dear Lord, he was so…Texan.

  The man was tanned and fit, just like all the photos of Texan men that Google showed her. The way his shirt defined his muscular frame made Harry swallow. It spoke of a strength both quiet and deep, one honed from back-breaking work than hours spent inside a gym.

  Slowly, she made herself meet his gaze, which required Harry to look way, way up. She didn’t even reach his shoulders, and this made her feel a lot smaller.

  His eyes were a blazing shade of blue, cold and hard like sapphires. His face was intimidatingly handsome. He looked like a movie star, and it made her feel very plain.

  Was this man truly going to be her husband?

  “Are you Hilary White, ma’am?”

  The ‘ma’am’ caught Harry by surprise. Forcing herself to speak, she asked awkwardly, “A-are you D.J.M.?”

  The words made him pause for a second. Devon had forgotten that Charlotte’s agency, while disclosing to him Hilary White’s full details, had withheld most of his information from his match. He nodded at the question, saying solemnly, “I believe I am, ma’am. My full name is Devon James Montgomery.”

  He offered his hand, and again he felt the rare urge to smile as Hilary White solemnly took his hand to shake it. She was such a serious, quiet little thing, the complete opposite of the overly confident women he tended to meet.

  “I’m Hilary, but most people call me Harry.”

  Devon asked bluntly, “Why?”

  Harry felt herself flushing. It was the first time she felt self-conscious about the name she had grown up with. “Kids at the orphanage thought I was a boy at the start and after that, the name stuck.” She waited for him to ask about her years in the orphanage, but he didn’t, and so she added nervously, “You can call me anything you like though.”

  “Then I’ll call you mine.”

  Her jaw dropped.

  Devon smiled. “That was a joke, ma’am.”

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  The Billionaire Rancher She Married (Evergreen’s Mail Order Brides #1)

  By Marian Tee

  Note: Please be aware that this was previously co-written and published under Victoria May Allen with the same title.

  This edition comes with a NEW NO-CLIFFHANGER ENDING written entirely by Marian Tee.

  If you have purchased the previous edition, please contact the author today together with proof of purchase, and an eBook of the new edition will be provided by Streak Digital Publishing without charge.

  Copyright 2017 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  A rare cool wind blew towards a sprawling three-story mansion, causing the dark red curtains at the sides of the balcony doors to flutter invitingly. This had the man seated behind the table look up from the report he was reading, a thoughtful expression on his face.

  He stood up a moment later and headed out to the balcony. He was a tall, golden-haired man with cold blue eyes and a ruggedly handsome profile. Even though he was dressed in an expensive handmade suit, he exuded the kind of earthy masculinity that belied his roots. Born a rancher, always a rancher, as his great-grandfather had liked to say. And it was true, for he was, in a nutshell, the type of man who was used to wielding power, whether inside a corporate boardroom or astride a horse.

  Someone knocked on his door before opening it a second later, his visitor – a beautiful well-preserved woman in her late forties – clearly having no intention to wait. She was dressed in a floral wraparound dress, with clouds of expensively dyed hair curling around her unlined face.

  “Devon?” Mary Beth caught sight of her only son in his balcony and hurried towards him as fast as her five-inch stilettos could carry her. “Devon, tell me it’s not true.” She came to his side and pulled on his sleeve insistently.

  Turning to kiss her on the cheek, Devon said obediently, “It’s not true, Mama.”

  Mary Beth almost sighed in relief until she saw the mocking gleam in Devon’s eyes. “You wicked boy!” Her son was usually so serious it was hard to tell when he was making one of his rare jokes.

  “Contact whoever wrote this announcement and have them take it back!” She waved the rolled-up newspaper in her hand at his face, which was so like his dear Papa. Unfortunately, she thought pitifully, that was the only thing Devon had inherited from Desmond. Whereas her husband lovingly doted on her and did everything she asked, their youngest child proved to be the opposite, insisting on doing things his way, never mind if she did not approve – like now.

  The memory of what she had read from the papers made Mary Beth shudder. “This is not a laughing matter, Devon! How can you marry someone you don’t know at all?”

  “Actually, I know her far better than any of the giggling debutantes you’ve pushed my way in the past two decades.” His voice was still pleasant, but the grim look in Devon’s gaze brooked no argument. “Last night was the final straw, Mama.”

  Mary Beth colored. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered, avoiding his gaze by turning towards the magnificent views before them, which consisted of an amazing blend of orange and blue skies, huge magnolia trees, and jade green waters of the creek bordering the edge of their lands and going all the way down to San Antonio.

  Primrose was the flagship property of Montgomery Ranches, and it made Mary Beth feel faint, thinking that the mistress of Southwest Texas’ richest and most famous ranch would be some woman they didn’t know from Adam!

  “Be reasonable, Devon. You cannot just order a bride---”

  “It’s your fault I did, Mama. You went too far last night.” His lips thinned as he recalled the distasteful event. Mary Beth had invited a group of her friends – a polite term to describe fifty or so guests – to have dinner in his home. He had agreed but warned Mary Beth that he would be arriving late and heading directly to the stables upon reaching home. Ella, one of his most prized Thoroughbreds, had just given birth, and he wanted to make sure that its colt was faring well.

  Armed with the knowledge of her son’s plans, Mary Beth had arranged for all the stablehands to take their leave and for her friend’s daughter, Jill Bartwell, to wait for him inside one of the stalls – naked. The plan was for Mary Beth and her friends to come across them just as Devon chanced upon Jill and force them into a shotgun marriage.

  Considering Jill’s father was a man Devon deeply respected and one who unfortunately loved his spoiled daughter greatly, the plan might just have worked. If Jim Bartwell had learned of the two of them being found together in a compromising position, if Jill had been able to utter her lie about Devon playing her false and promising marriage if she gave her body to him – if Jim had insisted that Devon marry his daughter, Devon knew he would have eventually caved in.

  Jim had been the one to save him from bankruptcy and the ranch from being repossessed following his father’s untimely death. Devon owed him too much to cause him pain.

  But fate had thankfully intruded. Last night, Devon had been tied up with work and he had sent his vet ahead of him. It was Dr. Green who had stumbled upon the naked Jill, Dr. Green who had eagerly offered to marry the scheming socialite to protect her honor, and now it was Dr. Green engaged to the Bartwell heiress

  His mother was still bemoaning his decision.

  “Mama, enough.”

  The tone Devon used immediately silenced Mary Beth. Her son was the quintessential alpha male, never to be completely civilized and born to lovingly dominate the women in his life. When he spoke like that, Mary Beth knew there was no point protesting. He had made up his mind, and nothing would sway him from it.

  “I have done you the courtesy of informing you of my decision this morning because you are my mother. But it was not a request. I will be marrying Ms. Hilary White in a week, and I will be very, very displeased, Mama, if I learn that you are anything but welcoming to my future bride. She will be a permanent part of our family and as such is deserving of your love and loyalty.”

  When Devon said ‘displeased’, Mary Beth knew it meant curtailing her m
any pleasures, such as being able to treat her friends to lavish retreats in any one of the many ranches Devon owned across the country.

  It was a horrible enough threat for Mary Beth to assure him hastily, “Of course I will support her, Devon. You have my word.”

  “Thank you, Mama. I appreciate that.” A brief smile curved on Devon’s thin lips, temporarily transforming his face in a way that reminded Mary Beth of the once sweet and light-hearted child he had been before his father’s death. She blinked, but when she looked back at her son, the smile was gone and once again replaced by the usual austerity on his good-looking face.

  Once his mother had left, Devon went back to his office, closing the balcony doors behind him. Sitting down, he ignored the reports on his desk and pulled his drawer open to retrieve a brown envelope. He shook out its contents, and the first to fall out of the envelope was a full-length photo of a petite dark-haired woman with generous curves, which the agency had provided. The second was a handwritten letter from his mail-order bride, who also happened to be the subject of the photo.

  Devon made a call to Charlotte, who answered on the third ring. “Hello, Devon. What can I do for you?” The agency’s owner was brisk but friendly.

  “I just need to ask a few questions for confirmation.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “This woman, Hilary White, you’re a hundred percent sure she’ll suit me?”

  As Devon was one of her few childhood friends and like a brother to her late husband, Charlotte was one of the few people who knew what haunted the somber ranch owner and had caused him to choose to focus all his time on his business. She had been there when Devon suffered the indignity of seeing his Mama flirt with other men in an attempt to make her husband jealous and spend more time with her than working at the ranch. She had seen Devon struggle to conquer his dislike and disappointment as the entire town watched Desmond Montgomery sink into debt, to the point of mortgaging his prized ranch, just to indulge his Mama’s lifestyle.