Marriage in Name Only? Read Online Free PDF Page B

encouragement. ‘Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have an advantage.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Why don’t you speak to Dana, check out Chloe’s references?’ A speculative gleam flicked briefly in his mate’s eyes. ‘Couldn’t hurt.’
    Frowning, Jordan studied him more closely. ‘What do—?’
    ‘What are you two looking so serious about?’ Zahira appeared as if summoned by the couple’s earlier exchange ofglances and laid a hand on Sadiq’s arm. ‘This is no time for business talk—we’ve got a home-made party cake coming up. Tamara helped bake it and she’s been looking forward to lighting the candles for weeks.’ She looked about. ‘I haven’t seen her in a while. Do you know where she is?’
    ‘I saw her heading in the direction of the cubby house with Chloe in tow,’ Jordan said. He’d been watching Chloe all afternoon; he’d known exactly where she was at any given moment. He immediately turned in that direction. ‘You two go ahead. I’ll tell her she’s been summoned.’
    The little door was open and Tamara was still for once, utterly focused. They were cross-legged on the floor, facing each other, and Chloe was telling Tamara a story.
    Jordan stilled too, equally intrigued, watching the way Chloe’s small, slender hands moved as she talked. Listening to the vitality in her voice. Her flyaway hair was too messy for his taste, her eyes incongruously big in her small pixie face. But she could spin an adventure story out of thin air and make it sound believable. She could charm any age group. She could conquer high balconies and risky ropes at a moment’s notice …
    An impossible idea was coalescing at the back of his mind. Now the flicker of expression in Sadiq’s eyes made some sort of sense. Didn’t it?
    Attraction aside, she wasn’t the usual acquiescent kind of woman he dated, just as he very much doubted he was her type of guy—if she had a type. According to her, she didn’t stay long in any one place so she’d probably never formed any close attachments. And that had to be an advantage because they could walk away at the end, no complications …
    He smiled to himself. Not such an impossible idea. Chloe Montgomery might just be the up-for-anything kind of girl he needed.

CHAPTER FOUR
    ‘… A ND THE PRINCESS—’
    ‘Princess
Chloe,
’ Tamara corrected.
    ‘Not Princess Tamara?’
    ‘It has to be Chloe ‘cos it’s your story,’ Tamara said, then took her crown off, reached across and set it on Chloe’s head. ‘And you have to wear this.’
    ‘Oh. Thank you.’
    Jordan relaxed against the cubby’s frame even as his mind raced ahead with possibilities and potential problems.
    ‘Okay, Princess
Chloe
wanted to learn to skateboard—’
    ‘A pink skateboard. With sparkles.’
    ‘Exactly.’ She nodded. ‘But her father the king wouldn’t let her.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because he didn’t understand his daughter. He thought she should be learning to do princessy things like practising her curtsey and learning how to wave. And he wanted her to be safe.
    ‘So Princess Chloe left a note—so the king and queen wouldn’t worry—and ran away from the palace. She sold her crown so she could buy food and journeyed to the far side of the kingdom with her sparkly skateboard to find someone who could teach her. She wanted people to like her because she was clever, not just because she was a princess.
    ‘She was away for a long, long time,’ Chloe continued. ‘She knew that the king and queen would worry so she sent messages with the birds about what she was doing. She told them about the man she met who could spin straw into gold—’
    ‘Like in Rumpelstiltskin?’
    ‘Yes. And that she lived in a shining crystal tower. But when she fell out of the tower and had to live in the forest again she didn’t tell them.’
    ‘She didn’t tell the troof?’
    ‘No, Tamara, she didn’t. And that was a very bad thing because one day a wicked witch came and took all the gold and