The Million-Dollar Catch

Three rich, powerful men and the ultimate wedding wager!

The Million- Dollar Catch

Three terrific, passionate novels from

favourite author Susan Mallery

SUSAN MALLERY is the bestselling and award-winning author of over fifty books. She makes her home in Los Angeles with her handsome prince of a husband and her two adorable-but-not-bright cats.

The Million- Dollar Catch

The Substitute Millionaire

The Unexpected Millionaire

The Ultimate Millionaire

Susan Mallery

MILLS & BOON

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The Substitute Millionaire

Susan Mallery

Dear Reader,

One of my favourite things to write about is finding family. It’s a constant theme for me and this series is no exception. While my three heroines, Julie, Willow and Marina, already have a great family, they’ve recently discovered a long-lost grandmother who very much wants to be a part of their lives.

Grandma Ruth isn’t exactly the cookie-baking type. Instead she’s elegant, sophisticated and rich. She also has a nephew-by-marriage she adores. She decides everything would be perfect if only one of her granddaughters would marry her favourite nephew-by-marriage. To entice the girls, she offers them each a million dollars if one of them will say, “I do”.

Our heroines are both shocked and intrigued. It kind of is a lot of money. But marriage? To a perfect stranger? Well, maybe if he were perfect …

Welcome to The Million-Dollar Catch, where nothing is what it seems and falling in love is a whole lot more complicated than anyone ever imagined.

Susan Mallery

One

Julie Nelson’s first blind date had gone so badly, she’d sworn off them for the next ten years.

The guy in question had flirted with every female but her at the all-you-can-eat buffet, double-dipped in their shared bowl of salad dressing and then skipped out on the bill, leaving her to pay and get herself home. She’d been sixteen and if she hadn’t ended up in the emergency room with a horrible case of food poisoning, she might have been able to put the night behind her.

But throwing up all over the only cute intern had been the last straw. She’d vowed never again, for any reason imaginable in this lifetime or any to follow, to ever go on another blind date.

Until tonight.

“This is going to be a disaster,” she muttered to herself as she handed her car keys to the valet and made her way to the front of a trendy west side restaurant. “I’m smarter than this. What on earth am I doing here?”

Dumb question, when she already knew the answer. She and her two sisters had been faced with a choice of who got the first shot at dating the infamous Todd Aston III. Their time-honored tradition of making all of life’s truly important decisions with a rousing round of Rock, Paper, Scissors had left Julie the loser, and therefore the date. She was a sucker for the scissors and her sisters knew it.

She pulled open the sleek glass door and stepped into the crowded foyer. Apparently tables at this place were as hard to come by as free parking. She wove through the well-dressed crowd until she faced a very young, very thin, very pale hostess.

“I’m meeting Todd Aston,” Julie said as she fought against the need to tell the girl that a sandwich wouldn’t kill her.

The young woman glanced down at her reservation book. “Mr. Aston is already here. I’ll show you to his table.”

Julie followed the waif to the rear of the restaurant, trying not to compare her own size-normal hips to the nonexistent ones in front of her. Although feeling inadequate was actually more fun than sweating a meeting with Todd Aston III. How did anyone live with a number after his name? It made her think of Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island, a late-night favorite when she’d been growing up.

She instantly pictured a younger version of Mr. Howell, complete with striped slacks and a white blazer and was fighting the need to laugh when the hostess stopped in front of a table tucked in the corner and pointed to someone who very definitely did not look like an aging, pretentious millionaire.

Todd Aston stood and smiled. “Hello. You must be Julie.”

Losing Rock, Paper, Scissors had never looked so good, she thought as she took in the fact that he towered over her despite the dangerously high heels she wore. Todd was handsome with dark eyes and a smile that reminded her just a little of the one Big Bad Wolf must have given Red Riding Hood.

He didn’t look nerdy, desperate or inbred—and she had a feeling he wouldn’t be sticking her with the bill.

“Hi, Todd,” she said. “Good to meet you.”

He held out her chair, which was a nice and unexpected touch, then moved back to his seat. The hostess left them alone.

She studied him, taking in the dark hair, the hint of a dimple on his left cheek and the subtle power tie that had probably cost as much as her last student-loan payment.

“So, this is awkward,” she said cheerfully, deciding there was no point in ignoring the obvious.

His left eyebrow rose. “No social niceties where we ask about the weather and how the traffic was on the drive over?”

“Sure, if you’d prefer. The weather is beautiful, but hey, it’s Southern California and we expect that. As for the traffic, it was fine. And your day?”

He smiled again. “You’re not what I expected.”

She could only imagine what that would have been. “I’m not too young, too plastic and too desperate?”

He winced. “Again the lack of social niceties. Whatever would your mother say?”

Julie considered the question. “Only have one glass of wine, make sure that he’s nice and if you like him, give him your number.”

He laughed. The sound was low and rich and masculine. So far she’d been existing on nerves and sheer bravado, but when his smile turned into a grin, she felt the tiniest quiver somewhere behind her belly button.

Interesting. Maybe she should have given this blind-date thing a second chance a whole lot sooner.

“That’s good advice,” he said. “I think I like your mother.”

“She’s worth liking.”

The waiter appeared and handed them menus, then asked for their drink orders. Todd chose an eighteen-year-old Scotch while Julie ordered a vodka tonic.

“Not following Mom’s advice?” he asked when the waiter had left.

“It’s been a long day.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m a second-year associate at an international law firm.”

“A lawyer. Pass the bar yet?”

“Of course.”

He chuckled. “You sound confident.”

“Confidence comes easily after the fact.”

“And before?”

“Eighteen-hour workdays and studying. It made for a full life.”

“What kind of international law? Human rights, that sort of thing?”

“Corporate international law,” she told him. “I specialize in contracts and associations with China.”

“Interesting specialty.”

She loved being underestimated, especially by a man. “It was a natural fit for me. I speak Mandarin.”

He was good. He only looked a little shocked and then quickly recovered. “Impressive.”

“Thank you.”

His gaze sharpened slighted as he studied her. “Okay, I think we should start over.”

She laughed. “Why? Things are going so well.”

“Sure. For you. Look, I was told by my aunt Ruth that there was a ‘young lady’ she wanted me to meet. I was given a time and a place and I’m here. I was expecting someone … different. You’re a nice surprise.”

She let her gaze linger on his broad shoulders. Either he worked out or he came from a very fine gene pool. Actually, she could accept either.

“Do you always do what Aunt Ruth says?”

“Most of the time.” He shrugged. “She’s really my great-great-aunt or something. But she’s good to me and I care about her. She doesn’t ask me much so if it’s important to her, I try to say yes. This was important.”

Either he was telling the truth, or he was really, really good with his lines. Right then, she wanted him to be sincere.

“You’re a good surprise, too,” she admitted, deciding to trust him for now. “When I walked in, I was picturing Mr. Howell.”

“From Gilligan’s Island? Thanks.”

Laughing, she asked, “Would you rather be Gilligan?”

“I’d rather be James Bond.”

“You’re not British.”

“I can work on the accent.”

She leaned toward him. “So is it the gadgets or the women that make James Bond so appealing?”

“Both.”

“You’re being honest.”

“You sound surprised.”

She was. “I can adjust,” she said. “Okay, James-slash-Todd, all I know about you is you dress like a businessman and you adore your aunt Ruth. Well, and the whole number-after-your-name thing, but we probably shouldn’t get into that.”

“What’s wrong with the number after my name?”

“Nothing. It’s lovely. I always have to skip over that box when I’m registering on Internet sites, but you get to stop and put in a big three.”

“The three isn’t actually that big. It’s the same size as all the other numbers. It wants to be big, of course, but unfulfilled fantasies are a reality of life. Three has to get used to that.”

Charming, she thought happily. The man was completely charming.

The waiter appeared with their drinks. When he’d left, Todd held up his glass.

“To the unexpected pleasure of a smart, funny, beautiful woman,” he said.

Okay, that was a line, but she was having enough fun that she would accept it in the spirit she hoped he meant it.

“Thank you.” She touched her glass to his.

Somehow she misjudged and their fingers brushed. It was nothing—a brief, meaningless bit of contact. But she was oddly aware of it. Her sister Willow would tell her it was the universe giving her a message and that she should listen to it. Her sister Marina would want to know if Todd was “the one.”

“So what do you do?” she asked.

He set down his glass. “I skywrite. You know, those horrible messages people are always leaving each other in the clouds. Barney Loves Cathy. John, Bring Home Milk.”

She took another sip of her drink and waited.

He sighed. “I’m a partner in a venture capital firm. We buy into small businesses, shower them with money and expertise until they’re big companies, then sell them to someone else and make an obscene amount of profit. It’s disgusting. I should be ashamed.”

She laughed. “I would have thought you’d be running the family foundation.”

“There’s a professional board that takes care of that. I’d rather build than give away.”

“Sounds ruthless,” she teased.

“I can be. Very. People tend to underestimate me because of the number after my name. They assume I’m useless. I’m not.”

She believed him. Funny, powerful and very easy to look at. Especially now, when he stared at her so intently. She sensed she had his full attention—which was both thrilling and a little scary.

“But then they underestimate you, too,” he added.

“You know this how?”

“Because I did. I assumed human-rights law when you said you were working internationally.”

“It’s a guy thing,” she said. “The assumption that women will go for emotion rather than business.”

“You get that a lot.” He wasn’t asking a question.

“Yes, but I don’t mind. I use it. My career is very important to me. The first few years in a big law firm can be tough. I want to get ahead, but I was raised to do the right thing. So I’ll take the advantage of being underestimated and run with it.”

“Ruthless?” he asked.

“I flirt with ruthless, but we’ve never actually been a couple.”

Their gazes locked. Until that moment, Julie had been enjoying her drink and the company, but suddenly tension crackled around them. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. She’d thought Todd would be prissy and he’d thought she would be an idiot. Instead she found herself rethinking her plan of no involvements until after her second year at the law firm ended. While she didn’t have a lot of spare time, with the right incentive, she could make an exception.

She liked that he was smart and cynical and still paid attention to what his aunt Ruth had to say. She liked his smile and the interest flickering in his dark eyes.

For the first time in a really long time, she felt a warmth between her thighs. Good to know that part of her wasn’t completely dead.

“Tell me about the women in your life,” she said.

He’d been drinking and nearly choked. “I didn’t bring pictures.”

“That’s all right. A brief overview is plenty. I’ll pass on the résumés this time.”

“You’re so generous.” He set down his glass. “There were the twins …”

She smiled. “You don’t do twins and I don’t scare that easily.”

“All right. No one serious at the moment.” He frowned. “Make that no one at the moment. A difficult breakup last year. No ex-wives, no ex-fiancées. You?”

“One ex-fiancé from my last year of law school. No one now.”

“What happened to the fool?”

Julie might not be on the dating circuit, but she knew when to sidestep a topic. There was no point in getting into her sad little story. “Things didn’t work out.”

The waiter appeared and asked if they had any questions about the menu.

“As that would have required us to look at them,” Todd said as he grinned at her, “not yet. But we’ll work on it.”

Julie waited until they were alone and said, “Why bother with a menu? You’re going to order steak, close to rare, and a salad. Not because you want one, but because if you don’t eat a vegetable, people will think you weren’t raised right.”

He raised his left eyebrow. “You’ll want the steak, but there’s the whole ‘women don’t eat on dates’ thing, so you’ll get fish, which you don’t really like.” He picked up his glass. “I take that back. You do like fish—but only in a beer batter, deep fried, with fries on the side.”

“I like tuna,” she said primly.

“Something from a can doesn’t count.”

She laughed. “All right, you win. I’ll get the steak and even eat it, but you can’t tell.”

“Fair enough. And I’ll order the damn salad.” He leaned toward her. His dark gaze locked on hers. “I expected to be bored.”

“Me, too. I also thought I’d feel morally and intellectually superior.”

He grinned. “I’m comfortable with the moral superiority.”

“But I can’t be smarter?”

“I’m a pretty smart guy.”

She shifted in her seat as the temperature in the room seemed to climb about sixteen degrees.

She reached for her drink, but before she could pick it up, he captured her hand in his. His fingers were warm and strong as he rubbed her knuckles. Jolts of awareness moved up her arm and from there zipped to all sorts of interesting places in her body. She felt languid and wholly feminine—an unusual combination for her. Normally she went for in charge and intimidating.

“I have a technical question,” he said as he shifted his hand so his thumb could rub against the center of her palm. “It’s about my aunt Ruth.”

“Which is?”

“She’s your grandmother.”

“That’s the rumor,” Julie said, trying to keep her mind on the conversation rather than getting lost in the need stealing through her. She told herself her reaction to Todd was more about the fact that she hadn’t been on a date in over eighteen months than anything he was doing. The problem was, she couldn’t seem to convince herself.

“If she’s my great-aunt and your grandmother,” he said. “That makes us …”

Ah, okay. She understood his concern. “Unrelated. She was your great-uncle’s second wife. They didn’t have any children together. She made it a point to explain all that. She didn’t tell you?”

He withdrew his hand and sat up. “No. She didn’t.”

“Now you know.” Speaking of Grandmother Ruth, Julie was going to have to send her a big thank-you when she got home.

“Now, I do.” He stood and held out his hand to her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Inviting you to dance.”

Dance? As in … dance? She hadn’t done that since high school, and even then she hadn’t been very good.

“They don’t have dancing here,” she said, staying firmly in her seat.

“Of course they do. And now that I know we’re not cousins, let’s dance.”

She was torn between the fear of making a fool out of herself and the thrill of pressing her body against his. Because now that she’d bothered to notice, she could hear soft, slow music in the background. It sounded nice, but it wasn’t nearly as tempting as the man standing in front of her.

“Are you going to make me beg?” he asked.

“Would you?”

One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “Maybe.”

She rose and put her hand in his. He led her to the rear of the restaurant, where a three-piece combo played and several couples clung to each other on the small dance floor.

Before she could get her bearings, Todd pulled her against him and put his free hand on her waist. She found herself resting her fingers on his shoulder.

He was all hard, lean muscle, she thought as her thighs brushed against his. They weren’t close enough for her breasts to brush against his chest, but she had a sudden wild and inappropriate desire to lean in and rub … like a lonely cat.

Too long without a man, she told herself. And wasn’t this a really inconvenient time to figure that out?

“You smell good,” he murmured in her ear.

“Copier toner,” she whispered back. “Do you like it? I had to change the cartridge today.”

He groaned. “Can’t you take the compliment?”

“All right. Thank you.”

“Better.” He smiled at her. “You’re not easy.”

“Now that’s a compliment I can get behind.”

“You like being difficult?”

“Sometimes. Don’t you?”

He moved his hand from her waist to the small of her back. “Sometimes,” he said, echoing her answer.

She looked into his eyes. “You don’t like people making assumptions about you.”

“You made them.”

“You made them as well. We’re even.”

“More than even, Julie. We’re good.”

With that, he lowered his head and lightly brushed her mouth with his. The kiss was unexpected but delicious. Her stomach clenched and her breasts began to ache. He moved back and forth, but didn’t deepen the kiss.

Public place, she told herself. He didn’t want to embarrass her. She should appreciate that. And she would … in time.

He straightened, then cleared his throat. “We should probably go back and order dinner. You know, be responsible.”

For a heartbeat, she almost asked about the alternative. What would happen if they kept dancing and touching and kissing? Except she kind of had a feeling she knew the answer to the question.

Too much, too soon, she told herself as they stepped apart. She hadn’t been doing the dating thing for a long time—taking it slow made a lot of sense. But the man did tempt her.

He kept her hand in his as they walked back to their table.

“You never told me why you’re here,” he said when they were seated. “I told you Aunt Ruth asked me to come. What’s your excuse?”

He didn’t know? Seriously? Oh, my. This could be good.

“My mother and her mother have been estranged for years. Ruth popped back into our lives a couple of months ago. My sisters and I had never met her before. Mom hadn’t even mentioned her. Last week, at dinner, Ruth said she had a great nephew and suggested one of us go out with you.”

“Interesting.”

“More than interesting. She offered us … it’s not important.”

“Of course it is.”

“You’ll be insulted.”

“I can handle the truth,” he teased. “What did she offer?”

“Money.”

He stared at her. “She’s paying you to date me?”

“Oh, no. The dates are free. Now if I marry you, I get cash. A million dollars. Each. For me, my sisters and my mom. Pretty cool, huh.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched, but otherwise, he didn’t show any emotion. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he was thinking.

“We were all surprised,” Julie said. “We couldn’t figure out what could possibly be so wrong with you that your aunt had to offer that kind of money to get someone to marry you.”

“Wrong? With me?”

“Sure.”

She was enjoying herself, but trying really hard to keep him from knowing.

“We decided that one of us would go on a date and figure out how truly awful you were,” she continued. “We played Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine the most likely candidate.”

He actually flinched at that. “Rock, Paper …” He cleared his throat. “So you won.”

She allowed herself to smile. “Oh, no, Todd. I lost.”

Two

The waiter arrived to take their order. Julie placed hers, then waited while Todd did the same. He barely glanced at the menu, instead keeping his gaze fixed on her.

“You lost?” he asked, his voice slightly strangled. “As in, you didn’t win?”

She allowed herself a small smile. “Uh-huh. You know how it goes. The loser has to do the icky thing. That would be this date with you. Total ick.”

“You lost?”

He seemed unable to comprehend the fact that the three of them hadn’t been dying to be his lady for the night. Ah, the foolishness of men.

“If it makes you feel any better,” she said before taking a sip of her drink. “I’m glad I lost.”

“I can’t tell you how that confession moves me.”

“You shouldn’t take it so hard. Look at the situation from our perspective. Your own great-aunt, who has known you all your life, is willing to pay a woman to marry you. We figured at the very least you had a hump on your back and maybe some odd disease that left you twisted and bumpy. Like the Elephant Man.”

He nearly choked on his drink. “You thought I was the Elephant Man?”

“It was a consideration. And yet I showed up anyway.”

“You lost and I’m a mercy date. Great. I can’t believe Ruth offered you a million dollars.”

She thought that was odd, too, but hey, everyone had strange relatives. “Not for the date. Remember? The date is free. I have a really simple solution to the problem—don’t propose.”

He grinned. “Oh, sure. Easy for you to say, but now I don’t have any entertainment for the dessert course.”

As she laughed, she admitted to herself that he was nothing like she’d imagined. Anyone with a number after his name had to be stuffy and he wasn’t. She liked him—a lot.

“You should have gotten something for the date,” he told her. “Fifty thousand, at least.”