- -
- 100%
- +
This Christmas, we’ve got some fabulous treats to give away! ENTER NOW for a chance to win £5000 by clicking the link below.
www.millsandboon.co.uk/ebookxmas
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
Before you start reading, why not sign up?
Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!
SIGN ME UP!
Or simply visit
signup.millsandboon.co.uk
Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.
Dear Reader,
I hope you are enjoying the stories in the THE GARRISONS series. I enjoyed working closely with the other five authors to bring you a scintillating tale of a family’s hidden secrets, skyrocketing passion and endless love.
In my story, Brandon Washington was a man with a plan … or so he thought. Until he meets the heroine, Cassie Sinclair-Garrison. Then he finds out the hard way that no matter what your intentions are, when emotions get in the way even the best-laid plans can get kicked to the curb.
I love writing romance stories in which the hero and heroine are pitted against each other, but in the end, true love prevails.
I hope you enjoy Brandon and Cassie’s story and their journey to finding everlasting love.
Best,
Brenda Jackson
About the Author
BRENDA JACKSON is a die ‘heart’ romantic who married her childhood sweetheart and still proudly wears the going steady ring he gave her when she was fifteen. Because she’s always believed in the power of love, Brenda’s stories always have happy endings. In her real-life love story, Brenda and her husband live in Jacksonville, Florida, and have two sons.
A bestselling author, Brenda divides her time between family, writing and working in management at a major insurance company. You may write Brenda at PO Box 28267, Jacksonville, FL 32226, USA, by e-mail at WriterBJackson@aol.com or visit her website at www.brendajackson.net.
To Gerald Jackson, Sr.
Thank you for thirty-five years of love and romance.
To my Heavenly Father for giving me the gift to write.
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. —Song of Solomon 2:16 II
One
October
Cassie Sinclair-Garrison released an uneven breath when she rounded the corner in the lobby of her hotel. She stopped, totally mesmerized by the man standing at the counter to check in to the Garrison Grand-Bahamas. It had been a long time since any man had captured her attention like this one. He was simply gorgeous.
He stood tall at a height of not less than six-three with an athletic build that indicated he was a sportsman or someone who made it his business to stay in great physical shape. He was an American, she knew at once, studying his coffee-brown skin, his dark brown eyes and closely shaved head. And he wasn’t here on business, she thought, noting the way he was immaculately dressed in a pair of dark brown trousers and a tan shirt that brought out the beautiful coloring of his skin.
She didn’t know what, but there was something about him that demanded attention and from the way other women in the lobby were also staring, it was attention he was definitely getting.
Deciding she had more to do with her time than to practically drool over a man, Cassie pushed the button to the elevator that would take her to her office on the executive floor. It was an office that once belonged to her father.
Five years ago, when she was twenty-two, her father had made her manager and there hadn’t been a time when he hadn’t been pleased with the way she had handled things. That’s why she wasn’t surprised that upon his death he had left full ownership of the hotel to her. In doing so he had only confirmed what some of her employees had probably suspected all along—that she was John Garrison’s illegitimate child.
A flutter of pain touched her heart as she thought of her parents. She stepped inside the elevator, glad it was vacant because whenever she encountered these types of moments, she preferred being alone. Although she had tried putting on a good front over the past five months, it had been hard to first lose her mother in an auto accident and, little over a month later, lose her father when he’d died of a heart attack … although it was probably more of a broken heart.
She had wondered how he would be able to go on after her mother’s death. The last time she had seen her father—just days before he passed when he had come to visit her—Cassie had seen the depths of pain in his eyes and she had wondered how he would get over the loss. He had said more than once that losing his Ava was like losing a part of him.
Even though he was a married man that hadn’t stopped him from falling in love with her mother, the beautiful and vivacious Ava Sinclair. And she had been John Garrison’s true love for more than twenty-eight years.
According to her mother, she had met the wealthy and very handsome American in the States when he had been a judge and she a contestant in the Miss Universe beauty pageant as Miss Bahamas. Their paths had crossed a few years later, when he had visited the Bahamas to purchase land for this grand hotel he intended to build.
Although he had a family in Florida consisting of five kids, he was an unhappy man, a man who was no longer in love with his wife, but too dedicated to his children to walk away from his marriage.
Cassie hadn’t understood their relationship until she was older, but it was beyond clear her parents had shared something special, something unique and something few people had. It was a love of a lifetime. Ava never made any demands on John, yet he had freely lavished her with anything and everything, and provided her and the child they had created with complete financial support.
Cassie knew that others who’d seen her parents together over the years had formed opinions on what the relationship was about. He was a married American and Ava was his Bahamian mistress. But Cassie knew their relationship was so much more than that. In her heart she believed they had been soul mates in the truest form. She had loved her parents deeply and they had loved her, a product of their love, and there hadn’t been a day they hadn’t let her feel or know it.
She had resented those times when her father would leave them to return to his family in Miami, a family she’d only found out about when she became a teenager. The truth had hurt, but then her mother and father had smoothed away the pain with the intensity of their love and had let her know that no matter what the situation was, the one thing that would never change or diminish was their love for her, as well as their love for each other. From that day forward, whether others did or not, Cassie understood and accepted her parents’ unorthodox love affair.
She stepped off the elevator and walked into her office, stopping to smile at her secretary while picking up her messages off the woman’s desk. “Good morning, Trudy.”
“Good morning, Ms. Garrison.”
Cassie liked the sound of that. She had begun using her father’s last name within a week of his death. With both of her parents deceased, there were no secrets to protect and she had no reason to continue to deny herself the use of his name.
“Any additional messages?” she asked the older woman whom she had hired a few months ago.
“Yes. Mr. Parker Garrison just called and would like you to return his call.”
Cassie forced the smile to stay on her face while thinking that no matter what Parker liked, he wouldn’t be getting things his way since she wouldn’t be returning his call. She could not forget the phone conversation they had shared nearly four months ago. He’d called within a week of the reading of John Garrison’s will and he’d kept calling. Eventually, she had taken his call.
At the time she had been very aware that he, his siblings and mother had been shocked to discover at the reading of the will that John Garrison had an outside child. Of the five Garrison offspring, Parker had been the most livid because the terms of their father’s will gave her and Parker equal controlling interest in Garrison Inc., an umbrella corporation that oversaw the stocks and financial growth of all the Garrison-owned properties. He wasn’t happy about it.
Their telephone conversation hadn’t gone well. He had been arrogant, condescending and had even tried being intimidating. When he’d seen Cassie would not accept his offer to buy her out, he had done the unthinkable by saying she had to prove she was a Garrison, and had threatened her with a DNA test as well as the possibility of him contesting the will. Parker’s threats had ticked her off and she was still angry.
“Ms. Garrison?”
Her secretary’s voice recaptured her attention. The forced smile widened. “Thank you for delivering the message.”
Cassie entered her office. She would think Parker would have more to do with his time these days. It didn’t take long for news to travel over the hotel grapevine that the handsome and elusive playboy had gotten married. And not that she cared, but she’d also heard that another Garrison bachelor, Stephen, had gotten hitched, as well.
She had no intention of ever meeting any of her “siblings.” She didn’t know them and they didn’t know her and she preferred things stayed that way. They had never been a part of her life and she had never been a part of theirs. She had a life here in the Bahamas and saw no need to change that.
As she sat behind her desk her thoughts shifted back to the guy she’d seen in the lobby. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was married or single, straight or gay. She shrugged her shoulders knowing that it really didn’t matter. The last thing she needed was to become interested in a man. Her man was the beautiful thirty-story building that was erected along the pristine shoreline of the Caribbean. And “her man” was a beautiful sight that took her breath away each time she entered his lobby. And she would take care of him, continue to make him prosper the way her father would want her to do. Now that her parents were gone, this hotel was the only thing she could depend on for happiness.
Brandon Washington glanced around the room he had been given, truly impressed. He had spent plenty of time at the Garrison Grand but there was something about this particular franchise that left him astonished. It was definitely a tropical paradise.
The first thing he’d noticed when he had pulled into the parking lot was that the structure was different from the sister hotel in South Miami Beach, mainly because it was designed to take advantage of the tropical island beach it sat on. And it was nested intimately among a haven of palm trees and a multitude of magnificent gardens that were stocked with flowering plants.
The second was the warmth of the staff that had greeted him the moment he had walked into the beautiful atrium. They had immediately made him feel welcome and important.
And then it was his hotel room, a beautiful suite with a French balcony that looked out at the ocean. It had to be the most stunning waterscape view he’d ever seen.
Brandon was more than pleased with his accommodations. And since he planned to stay for a while, his comfort was of the utmost importance. He had to remind himself that this was not a vacation, but he’d come here with a job to do. He needed to uncover any secrets Cassie Sinclair-Garrison might have that could be used to persuade her to give up her controlling interest in Garrison, Inc., his most influential client. Not to mention that members of the family were close friends of his.
His father had been John Garrison’s college friend and later his personal attorney for over forty years and Brandon had been a partner in his father’s law firm. When his father was killed in a car accident three years ago, instead of transferring the Garrison business to a more experienced and older attorney, John had retained Brandon’s firm, showing his loyalty to the Washington family and his faith in Brandon’s abilities.
Brandon had known John Garrison all of his thirty-two years and he was a man Brandon had respected. And he considered Adam Garrison, one of John’s sons, his very best friend. Now Brandon was here at the request of Parker and Stephen Garrison. It seemed John’s illegitimate daughter refused to deal with the corporation in any way and had refused to discuss any type of a buyout offer with Parker.
Before resorting to a full-blown court battle, the two eldest brothers had suggested that Brandon travel to the Bahamas, assume a false identity to see if he could get close to Ms. Garrison and dig up any information on her present or her past, which would give them ammunition to later force her hand if she continued to refuse to sell her shares of Garrison, Inc. Another smart thing John had done was retain exclusive control of this particular hotel, the one Cassie had managed and now owned. No doubt it had been a brainy strategic move to keep his secrets well-hidden.
Brandon pulled his cell phone from his coat jacket when it rang. “Yes?”
A smile touched his lips. “Yes, Parker, I just checked in and just so you’ll know, I’m registered under the name of Brandon Jarrett.”
He chuckled. “That’s right. I’m using my first and middle name since I want to keep my real identity hidden.” A few moments later he ended his phone call with Parker.
Brandon began unpacking. He had brought an assortment of casual clothes since it was his intent to pose as a businessman who’d come to the island for a short but very needed vacation. That shouldn’t be hard to do, because since John Garrison’s death and his secrets had been revealed, Brandon had been working long hours with the Garrison family to resolve all the unwanted issues.
Contesting the will had been out of the question. No one wanted to air the family’s dirty laundry. Doing so would definitely send John’s widow, Bonita, over the edge. There were a number of people who would not sympathize with the woman, saying it was her drinking problem that had sent John into the arms of another woman in the first place and that he had stayed married to her longer than most men would have.
Then there would be others who would think that John’s extramarital affair is what had driven the woman to drink. As far as Brandon was concerned, there was no way Bonita hadn’t known about John’s affair, given the amount of time he spent away from home. But from the look on her face during the reading of the will, she had not known a child had been involved. Now she knew, and according to Adam, his mother was hitting the bottle more than ever.
Brandon rubbed his chin, feeling the need of a shave. As he continued to unpack he knew that sometime within the next couple of days he would eventually cross paths with Cassie Sinclair-Garrison. He would make sure of it.
Cassie stood on one of the many terraces on the east side of the hotel, which faced Tahita Bay. It was late afternoon yet the sky was still a dazzling blue and seemed to match the waters beneath it. There were a number of yachts in the bay and several human bodies were sunbathing on the beach.
She smiled and waved her hand when a couple she’d met yesterday when they’d checked in recognized her and gave her a greeting as they glided by on a sailboat. At least she had met the woman yesterday; the man she already knew from the numerous times when his family’s corporation—Elliott Publishing Holdings; one of the largest magazine conglomerates in the world—had utilized the hotel to host their annual business conference. Their main office was located in New York and the Garrison Grand-Bahamas was the ideal place to hold a seminar during the winter months.
Teagan Elliott was here vacationing with his wife of eight months, a beautiful African-American by the name of Renee. An interracial couple, the two looked very good together and reminded Cassie of what she thought every time she would see her parents together. And just like her parents, it was easy to see their love was genuine.
Thinking of her parents sent a feeling of forlornness through her. Now that the business of the day had been handled, she decided to stay at the hotel for the night instead of taking the thirty-minute drive to her home, which was located on the other side of the island. Maybe later she’d take a leisurely stroll along the shoreline in an area that wasn’t so crowded.
She thought of the Diamond Keys, an exclusive section of the hotel that had beachfront suites with parlors and French doors that opened directly to the water, providing a commanding view of endless beach and ocean. The rooms, which were extremely expensive but definitely worth it, were nestled in the hotel’s most intimate settings.
Cassie headed back inside, making her way to her bedroom to change out of her business suit and slip into a pair of silk lounging pants and matching camisole with a print design. It had been a long time since she’d carved out some time for herself. Over the past months she had spent the majority of her time wallowing in work and mourning the loss of her parents, as she tried to move on through life, one day at a time.
She had been at her mother’s funeral, standing beside her father, who’d remained in shock over their unexpected loss. What hurt so much even now was that she hadn’t attended her father’s funeral. By the time she had received word of his death, the funeral had already taken place. All she had was the memory of the last time they had spent together, a few days before his death.
He had shown up on the island unexpectedly, not at the hotel but at her condo, waiting for her when she had arrived home from work that day. The handsome and charismatic man she’d always known and loved had held sadness in his eyes and pain in his features.
That night he had taken her out to dinner and before he had returned to Miami, he had placed in her hand the deed to the beautiful ten-acre estate in the exclusive Lyford Cay community that he had purchased for her mother fifteen years ago. It was the home she now occupied and called her own.
Cassie took a glance around as she stepped out onto the sandy shores. Daylight had faded and dusk had set in. But that didn’t bother her. In fact she much preferred it. She always thought the beach at night was breathtakingly beautiful. In the background she heard the band from the lounge as it mixed with the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. She leaned down and took off her sandals, wanting to feel the sand beneath her feet. Being on the beach always made her feel better. It helped her momentarily forget her pain, and made her feel carefree, energized and invigorated.
She bit back a smile and glanced around again, just to make sure she was alone, before pretending to play hopscotch on the sand. She laughed out loud when she almost slipped as she continued to hop around on one foot from one pretend square block to another. What a wonderful way to work off the day’s stress, she thought, and today had definitely been a busy one. The hotel’s capacity was at an all-time high, with requests for extended stays becoming the norm. They even had a waiting list for weeks not considered as prime time. The man she had chosen to succeed her as a manager, Simon Tillman, was doing an excellent job, and now she was able to concentrate on doing other things, such as expanding her business in various ways.
She had received a call from her accountant that profits for the hotel were surging. Once it had become official that she was the owner of the Garrison Grand-Bahamas, she had begun implementing the changes she had submitted to her father in a proposal just a month before his death. Over the last dinner they had shared together, he had given his blessing to move ahead with her plans. Today after meeting with her staff, she had a lot to be happy about, for the first time in months.
“May I play?”
Cassie lowered her leg as she swung around at the sound of the deep, masculine voice, angry at the intrusion. She narrowed her eyes, at first not seeing anyone, but then she watched as a man seemed to materialize out of the darkness.
She recognized him immediately. He was the man she had seen earlier today when he had checked into the hotel. He was the man every woman in the hotel had been watching, and a man who even now was taking her breath away.
Two
Brandon stared at the woman standing a few feet from him. He had been watching her, barely seeing her features in the shadows, and now with her standing so close, he thought she had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He immediately wanted to know everything about her.
He glanced at her left hand, didn’t see a ring and inwardly let out a relieved breath. But that didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t have a significant other, even perhaps a boyfriend. What were the chances of her spending time at this hotel, one known for rest, relaxation and romance, alone?
But still, that didn’t stop his hormones from going into overdrive when he stared into her face, seeing the cocoa color of her complexion, the dark curly brown hair that fell to her shoulders, the darkness of her brown eyes and the shape of her curves in the outfit she was wearing.
Disgusted, he was reminded of why he was there, which was not to concentrate on a woman whose looks were so striking they could almost blind him, but to get close to a woman who was causing problems to his biggest client—a woman he had yet to meet, although he’d hung around the hotel the majority of the day hoping that he would. When he had discreetly asked about her, he’d been told that Cassie Sinclair-Garrison had been in meetings all day and chances were she had already left for her home, which was on the other side of the island.
In that case, since it wasn’t likely he would be running into Ms. Garrison anytime tonight, why not spend time with this beauty … if she was free and available.
He watched how she tilted up her chin and narrowed her eyes at him. “You intrude on my privacy.”
Her Bahamian accent was rich, just as rich as the curly brown hair that flowed around her shoulders, he thought. With the lifting of her chin he zeroed in on more of her features. In addition to her creamy brown skin, she had high cheekbones, a cute dimple in her chin, a straight nose and lips so full and generous they were downright sexy. There was something so feminine about her it actually made him ache.
“And I apologize,” he said quietly, accepting what she felt was her need to take him to task. “I was out for a walk and couldn’t help but notice the game you were playing.”
“You could have said something to let me know you were there,” she said directly, eyeing him.
“And you’re right, but again, I got so caught up in watching you that I didn’t want to interrupt, at least not for a while. If I upset you, I’m sorry.”