Her collateral bride a l.., p.1
Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance, page 1
Her Collateral Bride
Lesbian Age Gap Romance
(Arranged to Love, Book 1)
Alexa Woods
© 2022 Alexa Woods
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may
not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without
the express permission of the publisher except for the use of
brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to
persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely
coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s
imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the
age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
Kindle Edition
Follow Alexa’s FB page, for sneak peaks, giveaways, and oversharing.
Get notified of new releases and special offers by signing
up to Alexa’s Email List
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Also by Alexa Woods
About Alexa Woods
About the Book:
Claire Finley always knew revenge was a dish best
served cold. But when she takes her worst enemy’s
gorgeous daughter as collateral to secure a business loan,
she must wonder: Has she bitten off more than she can
chew?
Claire
Her own restaurant, shared with her best friend Robert, a
bright future – Claire had it all. Until Robert took what was
hers, all in the name of greed. Now, eleven years later, Claire
is finally in a position of the one naming the terms. Her chance
at revenge is here.
On the brink of ruin, Robert begs Claire to help save his
business. Without her, he’ll lose everything. While Claire
would be happy to witness his final agony, she doesn’t mind
playing with her enemy either. She will give him a loan, sure,
but this time she will secure it well. She’ll be taking collateral
— Robert’s beautiful and innocent daughter.
It’s a perfect plan - until Claire realizes she might have
risked something unexpected in the arrangement: Her heart.
Haley
Being used as collateral for a loan and forced to live with
her dad’s vengeful enemy wasn’t how Haley had planned to
spend her summer.
But here she is, a prisoner to the woman her father
wronged long ago and who now controls almost every aspect
of their lives. Strong and spirited, Haley braces herself for the
worst, but when she gets to know Claire, she realizes there is
one thing she hadn’t anticipated:
Losing her heart to her captor.
As Claire and Hailey fall for one another, they must
decide: Will they give love a chance – or will the hunger for
revenge consume their chance at happiness?
Claire’s and Haley’s story is the first book in the “Fake
Relationships” hot and alluring romance series.
Each book in the series is a standalone with a guaranteed
happily ever after for the couple, though it is
recommended to read them in order for maximum
enjoyment.
Chapter 1
Claire
“You’re a witch, Claire. A spiteful, vengeful, hag. I wish I
had never met you.”
Claire rolled her eyes in the face of the insults. It was hard
to believe that this defeated, angry man with the salt-and-
pepper hair and the purple smudges under his eyes, the
dishevelled clothes and the few days’ worth of patchy beard
growth had once been someone she held close to her heart in
few ways she ever let anyone in.
Robert Watt was a classic example of why it paid to never
let anyone get close.
Her righthand woman—Claire still privately found it
amusing to call Jenny that in her head—snarled from the
corner of Claire’s office. Half personal secretary, half
bodyguard, Jenny defined the phrase good things come in
small packages. Also, mean things. Highly trained in the arts
of defense and fighting, as well as brilliant, Jenny was one of
the very few people Claire did still believe in trusting. The
woman was probably ex-military, but if she was, she’d
managed to keep her past hidden like a blank slate, and after
seeing her capabilities at the job interview, Claire hadn’t dug
any further.
“You’re hardly in a spot to be hurling stones,” Claire shot
back. Her voice was perfectly neutral, and she let none of the
disgust she felt for Robert show. “And I’m sure that’s not true.
If you’d never met me, you wouldn’t be where you are now.
Or were. Because you were on top of the world, but now
you’re here. You just asked me to save you from the mess of
your own making. You’re here. Grovelling. And then you
insult me in the next breath?” She shook her head. “Manners,
Robert. Where are your manners?”
Robert threw a hand up to the back of his neck and
squeezed hard, like he could will himself back into control.
That was part of Robert’s problem. He had a terrible temper
and it showed itself, snapping and snarling like a two-headed
beast, so often that every single person in New York, Los
Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, and Milan knew about it. And
probably quite a few places in between. Those were just the
spots where Robert had his restaurants. Had, being the key
word.
Claire leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in her
lap. Her black pencil skirt and black blouse were flawless,
without crease or wrinkle. Her massive desk hid the six-inch
designer heels that encased her feet, custom made of course,
because when you were richer than God, you could afford
exactly the right fit.
“You brought me here, Claire. You tell me what you want,”
Robert snarled.
Claire could practically taste his rage, and adrenaline rolled
through her veins. From the corner of the room, where Jenny
made herself practically invisible, a wave of noxious loathing
rolled off the woman. One wrong move and she would surge
forward, grab Robert’s arm in a smooth move, twist it behind
his back, and snap it. Jenny’s emerald green eyes blazed fire,
but Claire turned to the side and shook her head ever so
slightly. Jenny didn’t relax. Claire didn’t relax either. With a
mad dog in her office, it wouldn’t do to let her guard down for
a moment.
She’d done that once. Trusted Robert. She’d paid for years
and years and years.
“I don’t need to remind you of the past,” Claire said evenly,
pegging Robert with a hard glare. He actually squirmed in the
upholstered seat in front of her desk. She loved having
conversations in her office. Those chairs were so damn
uncomfortable for a reason. If she wanted a nice conversation,
she never conducted them here. “You broke my heart, Robert.
Not in the sense that a heart can be broken by love. It was
never that. But you were my best friend. We went to school
together. Came up together. We worked together. Opened our
first restaurant as a team. Then you got greedy. You tried to
take everything from me, including all my trade secrets. You
forced me out of something that I myself had created and
financed with my family’s money. You didn’t have a penny to
your name, and you took what was ours and you stole that
from me. You went on to create an empire. But that’s the thing
about empires—they always topple in the end. You went for
chains, and you borrowed and borrowed and you spread
yourself thin. Your places were slipping and shoddy long
before the health inspectors started to shut you down for
violation after violation.”
Robert exploded out of his chair, red faced, waving a finger
at Claire. “It was you, you foul bitch. You called them in. You
&nb
operation. You took a multi-million-dollar name and you made
it dirt. You did it because you wanted payback.”
Claire shook her head. “No. But if I had, I would have
learned from the best. The seafood, Robert, really? You didn’t
think I wouldn’t figure it out after you humiliated me, ruined
me, and bought me out because I felt guilty over what
happened? No. Your demise was entirely your own. The shit
reviews. The slippery slope. You expanded too far, too fast.
The US wasn’t enough for you. You had to go to Europe, and
that was your real mistake. They’re even less forgiving there.
When people pay two hundred dollars a dish, they expect
perfection. You served up turds.”
Robert’s face drained of color, and it was oh, so satisfying.
“Turds!” His rage was a live thing, twisting and snapping in
the room, gone from red hot to white. “How dare you call my
—”
“Not my words,” Claire clarified gleefully, but she kept any
emotion from her tone. “I’m borrowing here. You know
exactly what I’m talking about. Anyway, no point rehashing
the reviews. Let’s get to the point. I know you’re on the verge
of declaring bankruptcy. After you pushed me out of my own
restaurant and destroyed my life, I decided I’d never get ahead
by cooking. I’d honestly lost the joy of it. You crushed that out
of me, I’ll admit. I had something to fall back on, though. My
family wasn’t ashamed of me. When you wrong a Sinclair,
you wrong all the entire family. And we had money. You were
right about that. We always did. You got the restaurant, my
dreams, and my broken trust. You got your start off my back. I
got a hard lesson in life, and I learned from that. I built myself
back up. Stopped cooking and went into management and
finance like my family always wanted. Made more sensible
choices. I had a lot of help, I’ll admit, but that’s what families
do. They stick together. I didn’t want a chain of restaurants. I
wanted it all. I wanted to be the one at the top, lending money.
Owning buildings and the people in them. In short, I do.
You’re up to your neck in shit and I’m that duck in the water,
always calm on top, churning underneath. Always working,
working, working.”
“You always did have your angle.” Robert said that like it
was a bad thing. The poor man. he still didn’t get it. “What do
you want in exchange?”
Claire wasn’t quite ready to let Robert off the hook. She
wanted to watch him squirm like the worm he was for just a
few more minutes. It brought her so much pleasure that she
didn’t even try to lie to herself that she wasn’t feeling an
immense amount of satisfaction at what she was doing. After
eleven years, her time had finally come.
“You’re thirty-eight, Robert. Three years older than I am.
So, so young to have your whole life ruined by a few mistakes.
I’m willing to give you another chance. I know no one is going
to lend you money. I’ve already asked around.”
Robert had lowered himself back into the chair after his first
outburst, but now he looked like he wanted to explode out of it
a second time. Jenny vibrated with distrust from the corner. It
would be a lovely, fine day for her if she was allowed to break
the bastard’s arm, but Claire had other plans for Robert. She
didn’t just want his arm. She wanted all of him.
“You made it so they wouldn’t lend to me,” he snapped,
spittle forming at the corners of his mouth. Years of drinking
and hard living had turned his complexion a florid shade.
Right now, he was scarlet with anger, but the flush never quite
left his cheeks. In another lifetime, Claire had once thought
Robert was handsome, in the impassive sort of way that she
looked at men she wasn’t interested in, because she’d never
been interested in men that way.
“I did nothing of the sort. I don’t care that much for your
enterprise that I would go out of my way to ruin your life.
You’re so capable of doing it all on your own, and letting you
know that this is entirely on you, that no one else is to blame
for it, is the sweetest part of all.” Claire savoured her victory.
She loved the way Robert’s eyes nearly bugged out of his
head. She was just getting to the good part and already he
looked like he was going to drop dead of a heart attack on the
spot.
“What do you want?” he ground out. The insults were flung,
and he was, at last, capitulating in the face of his own betrayal
and stupidity.
The reviewer who had called his food shit and said that the
owner had a turd-like quality was so accurate. Claire had
really enjoyed reading that piece. So much so that she had a
copy of it stashed away in her desk for safe keeping. She
should have it framed and put on her wall.
“I’ll lend you the money you need to do more than keep the
doors open. I’ll give you a loan that no one else would be
willing to because your restaurants are a losing gamble. I do
have conditions. You’ll sign over fifty-one percent ownership
of the entire business to me. That is non-negotiable. Left to
your own devices, you’ll only drive it into the ground again.
You can continue cooking, should inspiration strike you to do
so, but I’ll be in charge of the menus, the pricing, the staffing,
the way the places look, location, finances, marketing, and
pretty much everything else. That is also non-negotiable.”
Robert settled into a brooding silence. He should have
counted on this much. He’d agreed to the proposed meeting
between them out of sheer desperation. Claire knew she was
his last option, and the fact that he was willing to come to her
at all proved just how desperate he was.
“You can keep your house and your cars,” Claire said, in a
gesture of magnanimity. “With your restaurants saved, you’ll
be able to afford the payments on your pricey lifestyle. There
is something else I want. One final, non-negotiable term.”
Claire’s heart was beating so fast that the adrenaline turned
into an almost sick sort of dread that made her stomach lurch.
She didn’t just want to hit Robert where it hurt financially. She
didn’t just want to take from him the very thing he’d once
taken from her. No, it was so much more than that. He hadn’t
just taken the tangible from her. He’d once been like a brother.
The person she trusted more than anyone. He’d broken that.
Broken her heart. She wanted to break his.
With a string of women who could never be called
girlfriends, and very few close friends because Robert was, at
best, a self-centered pig, Claire had few options on how to get
to his heart. Lucky for her, Robert had something he valued
above anything else. Something he’d give his life to protect.
There had been one woman in a string of never-ending women
who meant nothing. She probably meant nothing too, but what
she’d given Robert meant something. What she’d given him
was his whole world. That woman had done Claire an
immense favor.
Robert had a daughter. He’d had her young, when he was
seventeen. His parents, who were actually good people, had
stepped up and raised her while he finished high school and
went to cooking school. Claire hadn’t even known about
Haley until they’d opened the restaurant together and Robert’s
parents had brought her in, a sweet little thing, tiny for her age.
Since Robert’s parents were mostly responsible for her care
until she was much older, Haley had turned out even sweeter
over the years. By all accounts, she was polite and kind. It was
