Matthew: Secret Bride (Members From Money Book 18) Read online

  Matthew

  He never thought he could love his secret bride... He was wrong!

  A sexy romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.

  Danielle Prescott’s abusive mother sets her daughter up for an arranged marriage to billionaire Matthew Barrymore in order to regain her fortune that her dead husband squandered.

  So with very little to say in the matter, Danielle is handed off to a man she has never met!

  For her entire life she has never felt like she’s been loved.

  And although Danielle is stunningly beautiful, her upbringing has made her rife with insecurities.

  When they get married she is quick to tell Matthew that their nuptials are not the real deal.

  However, Matthew has fallen hard for Danielle since he first set eyes on her on their wedding day.

  And when he gets to know her, he realizes he wants to do all that he can to protect her from those who’d hurt her.

  But for Danielle, trust does not come easily to her.

  Can Matthew prove to her that happiness doesn’t necessarily come with a price?

  Find out in this emotional yet sexy romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club.

  Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot, you'll want to find your own billionaire to snuggle with!

  Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.

  Free: Get Jason from the Members From Money series where YOU'RE the star!!

  Hi there. As a special thank you for buying this ebook, for a limited time I want to send a copy of Jason free of charge directly to your email! It's a personalized story, meaning you'll add a few details about yourself (these won't be shared with anyone else) and you'll become the star of the story!! :D

  You'll be emailed a new chapter once a day for 7 days. You can get it by clicking the cover below or going here:

  Direct link: www.afroromancebooks.com/personalized-jason-members-from-money

  This book is so exclusive you can't even buy it. As well as sending daily emails with the story, I'll also send you updates when new books like this are available.

  Copyright © 2017 to Katie Dowe and AfroRomanceBooks.com. No part of this book can be copied or distributed without written permission from the above copyright holders.

  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

  Bonus Book – Undercover Lover

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Get Another BWWM Ebook Free

  BWWM Book Of The Week

  More Hot BWWM Books You'll Love

  Chapter 1

  “It is a done deal, darling. All sealed and signed just waiting to be delivered.” Debra Prescott said to her daughter as she crossed her long silken legs. “You get married in two months and I do not want to hear another word. You knew it was coming.”

  “But I kept hoping that somehow you would find a way out of your problem and you would not have to sacrifice me to solve it.” Danielle said bitterly as she stared at the woman sitting opposite her. Debra had married for money plain and simple and had enjoyed the benefits lavishly. Her husband, Daniel Prescott, Danielle’s father had died of a heart attack two years ago while screwing his secretary and had left them almost penniless! The house where they lived was mortgaged up to the hilt and very soon if they were not rescued they would have to leave with nothing left to their names. Debra was not used to being poor and she had no intention of ending up that way. She had tried her wiles on some of the available men but to no avail. In spite of her extreme beauty which she had passed on to her daughter, her reputation of being a bully turned men off from her, so that left her daughter whom she had sent to finishing schools in Switzerland in order that she landed herself a rich husband, rich enough to pull them out of the financial straits they found themselves in.

  “An arranged marriage where I don’t get to see the man I am marrying until the day of the wedding? What century are we living in?”

  Debra shrugged as she uncrossed her long legs and got to her feet. “They have a family tradition so there you go.” She stood in front of her coolly beautiful daughter and examined her flawless coffee and cream complexion critically. Danielle Prescott was twenty-four and untouched because her mother had seen to that by keeping tabs on her every move. Not that she had had to bother because the girl seemed to have an aversion to the opposite sex. Her mother had wondered idly if she was a lesbian but had dismissed the thought when she noticed that the girl barely spoke to women her own age. She did not seem to gravitate to people much but had a best friend who was as gay as the day was long! She had dark brown eyes which turned hazel depending on the light and shoulder length curly dark brown hair that she had streaked liberally with blonde highlights. She was tall and slender with generous breasts that personally Debra envied her for and gently swaying hips. She had been out of the public eyes because she had been away in Europe since she was a teenager and was now back in the states. She looked cool and composed with barely any emotions and Debra wondered how on earth the man she was going to marry was going to break the ice! It was really not her problem. Harry and Harriet Barrymore who owned the largest shopping malls all over the world had taken one look at her picture and had agreed that Danielle would make an excellent addition to their family and the contract had been signed. As soon as the marriage was over, Debra would get ten million dollars to do with as she pleased and her daughter would get herself a husband. She was planning to go on a long overdue cruise and sell the mausoleum that had belonged to her husband’s parents and get herself an apartment complete with a doorman and the whole works. She was only fifty five so she still had time to land herself a rich husband before she was too old. Maybe she would find herself a rich divorcee on the cruise! “Your hair needs clipping,” Danielle moved away before she could touch the wild curls raining down her shoulders.

  “If I refuse?” she asked her mother coldly.

  “You won’t,” Debra said confidently as she went to pour herself a glass of Chardonnay. It was late afternoon and she had a pedicure and manicure to do before attending a function later. “You will do as you are told or I will drag you kicking and screaming up the aisle. And you don’t kick and scream do you darling?” she asked with a smirk as she looked at the elegant woman who was wearing a white cotton dress pressed to perfection. It was the end of summer and the weather was still hot. They were out on the patio and could feel the slight breeze coming up from the trees surrounding the premises. “Your whoring father did not left us with a dime and I have no intention of suffering because of his stupidity.”

  “Don’t refer to him as that.” Danielle said her expression rigid. Whatever her father had done he had been a very good dad unlike the woman who was standing a few feet away from her.

  “Whatever,” Debra shrugged as she sipped her wine. “You have always been ‘Daddy’s little girl’ and you cannot seem to see past his gifts and the fact that he coddled you. He cheated on me with that bitch and got what he deserved.”

  “You are a monster,” Danielle whispered as the tears came unbidden to her eyes.

  “A monster who is going to set us on the road to
recovery. Cheers darling!” she lifted the glass in a toast. Without a word, Danielle turned and left her there as she went into her suit of rooms closing the door behind her!

  She paced the length of her elegant peach and cream bedroom as she brainstormed. Her mother was right. She was obedient to a fault and she was a little afraid of the woman who had borne her! When she was little, she had done everything she could to get her mother to pay attention to her and love her. She remembered going into her parents’ room and touching the many tubes of cream she had seen on the dresser. Her mother had come in and saw her touching them and had shouted at her to get out of her room. Her father had lifted her up in his arms rebuking her sharply for being so short with their daughter and had wiped the tears away from her cheeks. It was when she had turned eleven that she had realized that her mother loved no one but herself. She had pushed her husband away and had forced him to have affairs and then had bemoaned the fact that he had left them virtually penniless!

  Her phone rang and she went to answer it. “You are having a panic attack as we speak.” The mocking voice drawled into her ear.

  “I don’t have panic attacks,” she could not help but smile at the voice. Raymond Bentley was her best friend and the only one she allowed to get close to her. She had told him over and over that it was a pity that he was gay or else they could have ended up together as a couple. “Your mother would have a conniption fit darling because I am not rich enough.” He had told her with a sneer.

  “What did mommy dearest say?”

  “You know what she said. I am getting married in November and that is the day I meet the groom,” she said bitterly.

  “I hate to point it out to you darling, but this is the twenty-first century. Who is the groom?”

  “That information is being withheld from me until the day of the wedding.”

  There was silence for a moment and then Raymond exclaimed. “He could be a hundred years old and in a wheelchair!”

  “He is twenty-seven and the family is very wealthy.”

  “He could be a freaking baboon with rotted teeth and a hunch.”

  “Did you call to make me feel better or worse?” Danielle demanded.

  “I am your best friend and my job is to tell you the truth not try to pretty up the situation.” He said with a flourish. “Why are you agreeing to this madness?”

  “Because it is expected of me and because I am the only one of the two of us to take us out of the impending poverty.” She said resignedly. “It might not be so bad. I will make the rules once we are married and we get home to wherever. I am going to continue working with underprivileged children as I planned on doing all along and we share separate bedrooms.”

  “So in other words, like any normal rich people nuptials.” He said sardonically.

  “Exactly.”

  “I could sell my BMW and give you the money,” he said half-jokingly.

  “You love that car.” She said with a laugh.

  “I love you more.”

  “I will be okay Ray, I promise.”

  He sighed. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “There is. You can continue to be my best friend.”

  “That one is easy. So are you coming out with me this weekend to the party at the Blake’s place?”

  “I think so. I might as well enjoy my single life while it lasts.”

  *****

  “This is crazy!” Matthew Barrymore glowered at his parents as he heard what they had to say.

  “You knew it was coming darling,” Harriet Barrymore said smoothly not allowing her husband to speak. “Your brother Luke has been through the very same thing and it turned out well. You are getting married on November 2, the first Saturday in the month.”

  “And I have no say in the matter?” his emerald green eyes stared at both of his parents.

  “No,” Harry Barrymore answered him as he got to his feet. “It has been a tradition in our family for centuries and it has worked so far. Why should it be any different when it comes to you?”

  Matthew looked from one to another. He had just come back from his travels in Europe where he had been overseeing the opening of their newest mall in Paris and had been away for the past month. His brother had told him that it was coming to the time when they were going to require that he settled down but he had put it from his mind hoping that it would go away. He had enjoyed the intimacy of a relationship with a very passionate French woman by the name of Antoinette who had taught him some things that he had never thought possible and he had had every intention of going back to pick up the relationship. Matthew was strikingly handsome with dark brown hair and emerald green eyes he had inherited from his mother. He was tall and muscular due to the fact that he worked out religiously no matter where he was. He attracted the opposite sex like magnet to steel and enjoyed what they had to offer. His older brother was more subdued and quiet but they got along very well.

  “So I am getting married to a woman I have never seen? How is that right?”

  “The element of surprise is always the sweetest,” his mother told him mildly as a uniform maid came to take away the tea tray. She waited until the woman had left before she continued. “I remembered coming up the aisle and waiting with trepidation as your dad stood there and breathing a sigh of relief as I saw him and we have come to love each other over the years. You and your brother are products of that love and I have no regrets.”

  “Neither do I,” Harry reached for his wife’s delicate white hand and squeezed gently before looking at his son. “It is happening Matthew so deal with it.”

  *****

  “Thanks,” Matthew smiled a little as he accepted the glass of wine from his sister-in-law.

  “I will leave you two alone,” Lori said with a smile as she looked at her husband before leaving the elegant parlor where the two brothers had settled in after dinner.

  “I am not doing it.” Matthew said as soon as Lori closed the doors behind her.

  Luke settled back against the cushions and eyed his impulsive handsome brother with a slight smile. “You knew it was coming.”

  “Yes, but come on, this is not the dark ages!” he drank his wine moodily ignoring the pleasant taste of it on his tongue.

  “I did it three years ago and I have no regrets.” Luke told him.

  “You sound like the parents’” David said darkly. “Didn’t you object when they told you about it?”

  “I did and they told me that it was not a request,” he smiled a little at that. “We got this place and ten million dollars in our account and a place in the company.”

  “I already have a place in the company.”

  “Dad is stepping down and handing over the reins to both of us but he wants us settled down and married. He wants us living respectable lives.”

  “How respectable is it going to be if I am not faithful to her?” Matthew asked impatiently.

  “That is one of the stipulations dear brother. Infidelity is not an option.”

  “What if she is a cold fish who does not turn me on?”

  “Knowing you I am sure you will find ways around that.” Luke said in amusement.

  “I hate this!” Matthew got to his feet and wandered over to the window. He had told them that he had no appetite for dinner and had come straight over to his brother’s place. He looked out the window moodily, looking as a squirrel raced up the tree in the yard. His brother and wife had been given their own five bedrooms spread complete with a swimming pool, a tennis court and a basketball court. They had a housekeeper who came in everyday as well as a gardener and a pool boy. Lori Barrymore worked at the company as his brother’s assistant and Matthew wondered how on earth he could stand to have his wife with him twenty-four seven! He turned to face Luke. “I know Lori is a looker but when exactly did you fall for her?”

  “The night of the wedding when I made love to her,” Luke said softly as he sipped his wine. “I could not help myself.”

  Matthew stared at
his brother for a moment and then shrugged. “It is going to be the worst day of my life!”

  *****

  Danielle had grown up in a wealthy home with little love and had spent time in her beautiful room lonely and unhappy. Her mother had treated her father with scant regard and had only been interested in shopping and making sure her face ended up in the fashion magazines. She had not spend a lot of time being a wife and mother! They had existed in the beautiful house but had hardly been in contact with one another. When she had been sent off to boarding school, she had pleaded with her father to let her stay and he had told her very softly as he held her in his arms. “Maybe leaving this place is what you need sweetie,” he had brushed back her hair the way he usually does. “Your mother is not an easy person to live with and that is who she is. Go away and become your own person.”

  She had gone away and spent the entire time crying silently as the plane took her far away from home!

  Now she was back and nothing had changed! She forced a smile on her face as she noticed the ample woman hurrying over to her. “As I live and breathe! Danielle Prescott all grown up and incredibly beautiful!” Margaret Simpson opened her arms wide to embrace the girl who looked unsure for a moment and then endured the embrace. “What are you doing here?”

  “I want to help,” Danielle said simply.

  “You don’t belong here girl!” the African American woman told her gruffly. She had worked for the Prescott’s for several years until Danielle had gone off to school. “This is the projects and we get the worse kids here. They are going to take one look at you and resent you for who you are and for what they are not.”

  “Or they are going to see who they can be,” Danielle said in her cool well-modulated voice.

  “Why do you want to volunteer here?”

  “Because I need to give back and reach out to kids who are being neglected. I can relate.” She said pointedly.

  “What does your Mama has to say about this?”