Page 1 of Not His Bride

Chapter 1

Gallagher

Ispot her across the ballroom. It’s hard not to. She’s so tall that most of the women here disappear beside her. She’s standing near the bar with one hand wrapped around the stem of a champagne glass, talking to a man I vaguely recognize from some finance publication. He’s leaning toward her. Debbie isn’t leaning back though, and that’s all that matters.

She looks fucking incredible. Her blonde hair falls over her shoulders in smooth waves, catching the light every time she turns her head. The dress is red and fitted before falling along those ridiculously long legs of hers. They’d look amazing wrapped around my hips.

I take a drink of bourbon and keep watching her over the rim of the glass. I’ve wanted her for a while. The merger is the prize, and getting Debbie with it is a pretty damn good bonus.

Phillip’s made it clear he won’t combine companies unless the families are tied together, too. There’s too much money and ways for one side to screw the other later.

Debbie turns, and her gaze travels across the room, landing on me. The polite curve she’s been giving the man beside her sharpens at one corner.

I raise my glass to her. Debbie’s eyes drop to it before turning her back to me.

Brat.

Her attention goes right back to the man beside her.

She can play with me after I speak to her father.

I finally drag my attention away from her and spot her father, Phillip Jovi, standing beside the dance floor. He’s in a black tie. Broad shoulders, no slouch, even with a drink in hand. He’s watching the room.

Tammy Jovi—Debbie’s mother and Phillip’s wife—stands beside him with a single glass of champagne. She wears her hair up and her smile fixed. There’s something ironic about proposing a marriage deal at someone else’s wedding, especially when this one knocked half the city’s business rankings out of order.

I head toward them. There’s no point in pretending this is social, not when I’m about to ask Phillip Jovi to merge two billion-dollar companies and give me permission to put a ring on the daughter I’ve spent the last five minutes imagining taking home.

The Jovis sell a lifestyle: clothes, home, accessories, collaborations, and anything else they can slap their name on and convince people they need. I own hotels, resorts, residences, and retail spaces. Put the two together, and we stop paying other people to get in front of the same customers.

“Phillip. Tammy. Glad you made it out for this.”

“Gallagher,” my future father-in-law says.

“Beautiful wedding,” I say. “Shame that Arturo Kenning now holds the most lucrative portfolio in the city, thanks to this merger.” I gesture to the reception.

Phillip frowns. “Arturo shouldn’t even be in the top ten. He’s got shit for brains, and his board of directors wouldn’t know a good deal if it bit them on their asses.”

“Yeah, well, thanks to his new bride, he propelled himself up the charts.”

“She’s not even nearly as pretty as our Debbie,” Tammy pipes in.

“No,” I say. “She isn’t.”

I glance toward the reception again. “Which is part of why I think now is the time to move.”

Phillip looks at me.

“I want to merge our companies.”

Tammy’s attention shifts fully to me.

“No one else has this combination,” I continue. “Portfolio and culture, numbers and narrative. We could post record gains in the first quarter if we close fast. Your brands in my hotels; Jovi stores on my properties. Branded residences, launches, exclusive lines. We already sell to the same people, so we might as well make the money together.”

I roll my cuff, slow enough to appear casual. The shirt is custom, but not ostentatious. I keep the bourbon in my other hand and wonder if Phillip is enjoying this, being courted in someone else’s ballroom.

He sets his glass on the ledge. “You’re confident.”

“Never pays to be anything else.”