Thornton Read online

  Thornton

  Marian Tee

  Contents

  Blurb

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  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

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  SLADE: Secret Tycoons of Wyoming #1

  The Billionaire Rancher She Married

  The Billionaire Rancher's Temporary Wife

  The Billionaire Rancher's Unwanted Wife

  Bought by The Billionaire Rancher

  Blurb

  Blake Golding. That was the name of the assistant the mayor's secretary had personally vouched for - and whom secret billionaire and former soldier Thornton Blackwood had decided to hire on the spot, thinking Blake was a man.

  But he wasn't.

  Blake turned out to be a young woman who, unlike most people, didn't appear to find him intimidating or terrifying at all. Instead, she seemed to have...well...fallen in love at him at first sight.

  Author's Note: Reading has always been a form of escape for me, and so this has always been #1 on my mind when writing as well. And with the Secret Tycoons of Wyoming series, I honestly went all out with my fantasies: a charming small town filled with secret billionaires who fell in love with ordinary girls like you and me.

  So, yes, just to be really clear: this is 100% over-the-top insta-love with just the right mix of steamy, funny, and sweet, and most important of all, a touch of tear-jerking heartbreak to make happy-ever-afters (read: no cliffhangers) all the more meaningful.

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  After dinner, Thornton insisted on doing the dishes and had to remind Blake for the nth time that it was all part of their bargain, ever since she practically begged to take over cooking.

  "But are you really sure?" Blake asked worriedly. "Because if you're already tired or anything, I could totally---"

  "Blake."

  Oops. It was his John Wick voice, and since he only ever used it as a polite way of shutting her up, Blake reluctantly took a step back and said with a sigh, "You're the boss."

  He was indeed, Thornton thought in self-mocking irony ten minutes later, having seen Blake tiptoe out of her room in a fluffy little robe that barely hid anything. He was her boss, which meant he had absolutely no fucking business sporting a hard-on the moment he caught a glimpse of the tantalizing V of her cleavage and the shapely curves of her naked legs.

  He really should have her unit extended, give Blake her own en-suite. The sooner, the better, too, Thornton thought grimly. Seeing her half-naked every damn evening was just pure fucking torture for his cock, with only cold showers to look forward to and not a single hope for sexual---

  Shit.

  Blake had suddenly looked his way, and their gazes collided as she caught him staring hungrily at her.

  SHIT.

  He abruptly turned away, but hearing Blake gasp told him it was already too late.

  SHIT.

  She had seen his erection, and life was going to be hell from here on, now that the damn girl knew her desire for him wasn't one-sided.

  Secret Tycoons

  of Wyoming #2: Thornton

  By Marian Tee

  Copyright 2019 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Dear Constituents of Hartland, Wyoming:

  A Hollywood studio has requested permission to shoot a movie here for three months. After making some inquiries, I've learned that the director attached to the film is rather infamous for making a lot of noise when things don't go his way.

  That said, the temperamental SOB is highly likely to feel offended and suspicious if we turn the studio's request down.

  In light of this, I propose we simply bite the bullet and see how things turn out. We've always known we'd have to deal with something like this sooner or later. We can use this as a learning exercise and make adjustments as we see fit.

  Please contact my secretary if you would like to have her provide you suitable candidates to temporarily take over management of your respective establishments. Let others work in your stead whenever filming is scheduled in your area.

  Your cooperation on this matter will be deeply appreciated.

  Sincerely,

  Oliver Winterbourne II

  Mayor of Hartland, Wyoming

  * * *

  The bookstore was a plain stone building with a well-aged look to it, and hanging on top of its porch was an equally plain white signage board. Painted on it was the shop's name - HARTLAND BOOKS - in no-nonsense Times New Roman. The overall effect could've been excessively stark, but having colorful book spines pressed against its cut-up windows gave its simplicity a rather whimsical charm of its own.

  All in all, Frankie could see why her bookish friend was so enamored with her weeks-old workplace, but...

  "Oh my God, Blake. Will you please stop that?" Frankie complained in a groan.

  "Stop what?" Blake pocketed her keys as she pushed the store door open and stepped aside to let her friend in.

  "That." Frankie made a vague, irritable gesture towards her friend's face. Blake's eyes were shining too brightly, and the idiotic grin hadn't left her friend's face ever since Frankie had accidentally let it slip about Thornton Blackwood being single for years.

  "I really don't get what you see in him," Frankie grumbled. So, sure, Thornton and his twin Aidan were dead ringers for Keanu Reeves, but with the former it was having a more distinct likeness to John Wick.

  He was just had this terrifying way of looking at a person, Frankie thought uncomfortably, like being dropped dead in the middle of a sniper rifle's crosshairs.

  Inside the shop were bookshelves standing a dozen feet tall and reaching all the way to the ceiling. Ladders on rollers were on every side, and in one corner was a reading area with mismatched chairs paired with wooden tables edged in black steel.

  After placing her tote bag under the counter, Blake joined her friend at the table, where Frankie already had their homemade salad bowls out of her eco-bag and was already pouring coffee from a flask.

  "Mmm." Blake took an appreciative whiff of the salad, which was Frankie's specialty. "I smell truffle."

  "All thanks to you," Frankie answered.

  "Me?" The answer bewildered Blake, and the ambivalent look on her friend's face was an even greater puzzle.

  "I got my recruitment bonus last Friday." It had been twice the usual amount, too, and rightly so, considering how their local John Wick had rejected over twenty job candidates in just one week.

  No. Next. She won't do. He had Frankie climbing walls in frustration, with the way he wouldn't even deign to explain what his darn criteria was. By the time Thornton threw Candidate #31's resume into the rubbish bin, she had been ready to quit and was about to tell Mayor Winterbourne to find someone else for the job when her phone started to ring.

  It had been Blake, whose mood at that time had erratically swung from tearful to panicky as she relayed her dilemma to Frankie in a choppy jumble of words. Apparently,
Blake's grandmother had suffered a mild stroke, and it had left Amanda partially paralyzed. The quickest and surest way for Amanda to regain full control of her limbs was to undergo therapy at a nursing home and enjoy round-the-clock medical supervision.

  This, however, would cost a lot of money, and the only way they could afford it was to sell Amanda's home. But her grandmother refused to even consider the idea, worried as she was about what would happen to Blake.

  'Do you know of any job that comes with lodging, Frankie? The job I have doesn't pay much, and I'm hoping instead of paying rent I could use the extra money for Granny's needs.'

  And that when Frankie had her lightbulb moment. After promising Blake to call her back with hopefully good news, she had walked back into her office and heard herself say, 'I have one last candidate for you to meet. Blake's someone I can personally recommend---'

  'He's hired. Have him come up to my shop tonight.'

  Frankie had almost wept in relief at that. If she had gone right ahead and quit as planned, Thornton would have been her first failure - the one and only time that she would've failed completing a task that Mayor Winterbourne had given her.

  But all's well that ends well, she had congratulated herself then, and it was only when Frankie had already collected the e-signatures of both parties and the address of Thornton's bookshop sent via text to Blake that she realized one gross oversight.

  Did...Thornton Blackwood...just refer...to Blake...as...him?

  Blake noticed the way Frankie seemed lost in thought as her friend mechanically shoved forkfuls of salad into her mouth while her expression grew increasingly peevish. "I know that look."

  Frankie glanced up, startled by the words. "Huh?"

  "We have truffle in our salad, and you don't look like you're enjoying it one bit. That only means one thing," Blake concluded smugly. "You, my friend, were once again thinking about my beloved---"

  Frankie started gagging, and Blake burst into laughter.

  "Bleeeeeeh." Frankie was genuinely revolted at the mere idea of Blake and Thornton dating, much less becoming a couple that called each other 'beloved'. "And I wasn't thinking about him. It was more like recalling a traumatic memory about him---"

  "You know he's not that bad," Blake protested.

  "He is," Frankie retorted. "Everyone knows he is! You're the only one who doesn't see it."

  "Frankie!" But Blake's tone was one of laughing admonishment. "You do remember that you're the one who told me about this job, right? I mean, you should never have told me to apply in the first place---"

  "I wasn't thinking straight at that time," Frankie defended herself, "And---" Her voice lowered into a mutter. "I didn't really think he'd hire you."

  "Thanks for the vote of confidence," Blake said dryly, but the dig just went over her friend's head.

  "How did you get him to hire you anyway?" Frank couldn't help prying. "You never really told me."

  Blake gave her friend a coy smile. "A lady never tells---"

  It was as if her friend was suggesting that she had seduced---

  No. Yuck. Ugh. Just no.

  Blake grinned when Frankie started gagging again. She knew what her friend was thinking, but actually...

  Chapter Two

  Seven weeks ago

  Blake felt like pinching herself the moment she saw what could be her future workplace. Although moonlight wasn't enough to give Hartland Books justice, what she saw was more than enough to make her heart skip a beat.

  The enchantingly quaint signage and the old-school bricks, and then there was the bulletin corkboard behind a glass panel: stepping close to it, Blake saw that the Instax sheets pinned to them were Instagram photos featuring famous literary quotes.

  Whoever owned this place clearly loved books as much as she did, and the knowledge buoyed her spirits. It was like finding a rose in the midst of winter, and Blake's anxiety over Amanda faded just a little bit more once she entered the shop. More marvelously beautiful sights greeted her: the ceiling-high bookshelves, the gorgeous first-edition tomes displayed in one corner, and the reading nook in another.

  It was like being transported to a bookish slice of heaven, and all she could do was stare and stare and stare---

  "We're closed."

  The words startled Blake, and as soon as her head jerked up, her gaze automatically clashed with a pair of onyx black eyes.

  Oh my gosh.

  A man stood behind the counter, tall, dark, and with a lean, hard build that his denim buttoned-up shirt and jeans only served to accentuate. He had the longish, raven locks of a Regency rake, the piercing eyes of a pirate, and the cruelly sensual lips of a poet.

  Growing up, she had heard, seen, or read people saying that 'love at first sight' wasn't real, and because there were so many of them, it was the one thing Blake, despite being a hopeless romantic, had never allowed herself to believe in. True love was real. Second-chance love was possible. But love at first sight?

  Never.

  Until---

  "Miss?"

  ---this moment, in which her dream man come to life was staring at her like she was a couple of bricks shy of a load.

  Oops.

  Blake quickly moved forward, eager to rectify his less-than-stellar first impression on her. "Mr. Blackwood?"

  Instead of answering, Dream Guy asked mildly, "Who are you?"

  "I'm Blake Golding, Mr. Blackwood. Frankie told me you were looking for a shop assistant and---"

  "I didn't realize you were female."

  "I..." His interruption had her blinking in distraction. There was something about the way he spoke - or rather, the way he drawled each word out, like he had all the time in the world to speak. It reminded her of something, no, someone---

  "Oh my gosh!"

  * * *

  Shock-proof. It was how his brothers often jokingly referred to Thornton, every time they tried pranking him...and failed. Nothing ever surprises you anymore, Ethan liked to grumble. Even if someone tells you the world would end in the next minute, I'd bet you'd go about calmly sipping your coffee while you plan to survive the apocalypse.

  While the joke never failed to crack his brothers up, Thornton privately felt it was a little too close to the truth. Everything was too damn predictable these days - had been so for years, and it was why he had been sold on the spot once he found out what Hartland Initiative meant to accomplish.

  With its remote location and artificially low GDP, their small town in Wyoming could only be seen by many as a place to visit but never to stay in. Moreover, with signal jammers secretly installed to keep the place free from the shackles of the Internet, Hartland also allowed Thornton and his brothers to lead ordinary, private lives and never be pestered by the assholes, gold-diggers, and sycophants that were steadily gobbling up the cities.

  There were still times, of course, when annoying tourists would find their way to his bookstore, but since they rarely stayed long, Thornton was able to tolerate their presence. It was only when he received Oliver's letter about a Hollywood crew filming in Hartland for three months that he knew he had to make a few changes.

  The rules of Hartland Initiative were clear: in any situation where the truth about their precious town was in danger of being exposed, members were given two choices: leave until it was safe to return...or stay in character and play their respective roles to perfection until countermeasures had been put into place.

  According to the local grapevine, Slade and Farica, co-owners of the Redwood Cafe, had already flown out of Wyoming. The American tycoon had taken with him his part-time waitress girlfriend Kady for a honeymoon (never mind if they weren't married) while the Dutch heiress had simply left a few days earlier for a scheduled business trip.

  Thornton knew he could do the same. He just didn't want to. But at the same time, he also knew he still had to play by the rules. If filming were to take place at his street, and any of the crew members or even the cast decided to enter the shop...

  Just thinking ab
out it had been enough to have Thornton call Oliver's office to take the other man's offer. He definitely needed a shop assistant to take over during those crucially intolerable times. That way, he wouldn't need to control his temper and force himself to bear the presence of fools. And since the mayor's secretary, Frankie, was supposed to be extremely reliable and resourceful, he had been hoping that the recruitment process would be quick and painless.

  Instead, it had been the opposite.

  All the women Frankie had him interview were terrified of him, and Thornton hadn't the patience to wait for them to realize he wasn't quite the hardened brute his gruff demeanor made him out to be. He had been close to throwing the towel on the whole thing altogether when Frankie suggested one last candidate, and one she personally vouched for to boot.

  Blake Golding.

  The moment he heard the name, he had instructed Frankie to offer the person an employment contract, thinking that Blake was a bloke...

  But obviously, she was not.

  Instead, she was this petite brunette with a smile that lit up her entire face. The whole time they had been talking, her smile hadn't slipped a single time, and it was this which threw him off. For the first time in years, he found himself perplexed, off-kilter even, and when she suddenly gasped---

  "Oh my gosh."

  A rapid rewind of their entire encounter blitzed through his mind, but for the life of him, Thornton couldn't figure out what the girl was oh-my-goshing about.