The Ashtons - Cole, Abigail & Megan

was too unsettled to be trusted.
    With Stephanie by his side, he could continue to grow Pearce Industries as planned.
    “Which is why,” he muttered, checking his watch yet again, “we need to get this wedding completed.”
    When the wide oak double doors behind him opened, Simon turned. The wedding planner stepped into the room, and his gaze pinned her in place.
    Megan was a tall blond with cool green eyes and a limited store of patience. On more than one occasion over the last month or so of dealing with her, he’d seen her bite her lip to keep from arguing with one of his decisions. She seemed to be efficient, though, which was no doubt why the Ashtons kept her employed at their estate.
    At the moment, however, she looked as though she’d prefer being anywhere but where she was.
    One of his strengths in the world of business was reading the opposition’s expressions. One look at the woman’s troubled eyes and pinched mouth told him that he wasn’t going to like whatever she had to say.
    “Mr. Pearce.”
    He spoke up instantly and went right to the heart of the matter. “What seems to be the problem?”
    She stepped into the room, closed the doors behind her and shot his assistant a quick look.
    Simon did the same. Dave Healy shrugged andslid his gaze back to the woman crossing the tiled floor with measured steps. Reading her hesitation correctly, Simon said, “You can speak freely in front of Mr. Healy.”
    “All right then,” she said, swallowing hard and squaring her shoulders, “I’m sorry, Mr. Pearce, but your bride seems to have disappeared.”
    “Excuse me?” He bit the two words off.
    But the cool blond wasn’t affected by the simmering anger in his voice. She simply stared him down. “Ms. Moreland has left the estate.”
    “That’s impossible.”
    “Apparently not.”
    Anger jittered inside him, but Simon put a lid on it, fast. Temper wasn’t going to solve this problem. “Have you called her cell phone?”
    “Yes,” Megan said and once again shot an uneasy look at Dave. “She’s not answering and her voice mail says that she’ll be out of the country for the next few months.”
    Out of the country.
    Quickly, Simon’s brain raced back to his last conversation with his fiancée. He seemed to remember her saying something about moving to London for a while. But of course, he’d dismissed it out of hand, since he had too many business deals working at the moment to be that far away. It seemed though that Stephanie had decided to go without him.
    Pushing the edges of his navy-blue jacket back, heslid his hands into his slacks pockets and tried to think past the cold fury raging within. He’d selected his bride with care. He’d thought they were on the same wavelength. Marriage without messy emotions. A tidy merger of two families to the betterment of each of them.
    Now he’d been jilted.
    An old word, but appropriate.
    Deep inside him, anger fluttered into life again.
    Stephanie’s leaving was a personal slap, certainly, but Simon wasn’t hurt. Even now, he could admit that his bride’s disappearance was more infuriating than devastating. He wasn’t foolish enough to pretend, even to himself, that theirs had been a love match. Now, Simon considered the repercussions once word of this got out and didn’t like the images his mind produced.
    The scandal this would cause would set his merger with the Derry Foundation back weeks, if not months. The elder Derry was old school. He was only willing to deal with solid family men—and Simon didn’t have the time to find another suitable wife.
    Damn it.
    This simply did not happen to Simon Pearce.
    He never lost.
    And he wasn’t about to start now.
    “I am sorry, Mr. Pearce,” Megan was saying, and he shifted his gaze back to her. “If you’ll tell mewhat you’d like me to say to your guests, I’ll handle the announcements.”
    He studied her—not for the first time in the last month—and noticed just how lovely she was. Her blond hair was neatly drawn back from a heartshaped face. Her wide green eyes were solemn now, but he’d seen them sparkling with laughter and dancing with indignation. She was intelligent, educated and coolly sophisticated. Over the last month, he’d noticed that she worked hard and had the ability to get things done. A trait he admired. She was even approximately the same size as Stephanie.
    In short, she was perfect.
    And frankly, the situation was just a little on the desperate side.
    Studying