Wildest Hearts

courthouse, he had politely overridden her protests. The car would arrive at three, she was told. Annie had been too busy with a customer at the time to argue the point.

    “I don't know.” Joanna twisted her hands. “I just don't know. I feel very uneasy about you moving into his penthouse. Rain has a reputation for being dangerous.”

    “I've gotten to know him very well during the past few weeks, Joanna. He's not dangerous in the least.”

    “Are you out of your mind?” Joanna stared at her. “Annie, you're not accustomed to dealing with this kind of man. For heaven's sake, he's not another Arthur Quigley or Melvin Finch. Rain is not a wounded bird in need of rescue.”

    “I know that. I'm not trying to rescue Oliver. He's going to rescue me.”

    “I seriously doubt that Oliver Rain has ever rescued anything except the Rain fortune in his entire life,” Joanna muttered.

    Annie slashed open another side of the shipping carton and glanced back over her shoulder. Joanna looked as worried as she sounded. There was tension in her pretty face and her gentle eyes were filled with uncertainty.

    Annie had liked Joanna, who was a manager in a successful downtown property management firm, the moment her brother had introduced the two women. Annie had sensed immediately that Joanna was capable of the kind of love and unwavering devotion Daniel deserved. Joanna was as alone in the world as Daniel and Annie were; she longed to be part of a family.

    Pale gold hair and fey blue eyes gave Joanna a deceptively ethereal look. But Annie knew there was rock-solid strength beneath the surface. That inner fortitude had emerged in the days following the news of Daniel's disappearance. Joanna was as convinced as Annie that Daniel was alive.

    “Stop worrying,” Annie said gently. “Oliver and I both understand that the marriage is a business relationship. He's not going to assault me in order to claim his marital rights, or whatever they call them these days.”

    “How do you know that?” Joanna demanded.

    “Wait until you meet him. You'll understand.” Annie slashed open the last side of the lid and peered into the carton. A large object shrouded in bubble wrap loomed inside. An emerald eye winked at her through the plastic. “Great. It's the leopard. I wasn't sure what I'd get when I ordered it. The guy who does these cloisonné animals is a little unpredictable. I'm still trying to move the elephant.”

    “Annie, stop fussing with the new merchandise,” Joanna said, exasperated. “This is your wedding day and I have a ghastly feeling we're all headed for disaster.”

    “Don't be silly.” Annie reached into the box, took a grip on the bubble-wrapped leopard, and started to haul him out. “You're letting your imagination run away with you, Joanna. It's the stress, I suppose.”

    “It's not the stress,” Joanna wailed, “it's my common sense finally kicking in. This marriage of convenience idea is totally crazy. I should never have let you go through with it. I don't know what got into me. I must have been out of my mind to let you talk me into it.”

    “It's a brilliant idea and it's going to work just fine.” Annie heaved the leopard halfway out of the box. “It's already working. I've had phone calls all morning from Daniel's investors and creditors asking if it's true that Oliver Rain will own half of Lyncroft Unlimited by tomorrow morning. When I told them it was true and that he was taking control of the entire operation, they all sounded incredibly relieved.”

    “It's you I'm worried about, Annie, not the company. Listen, it's not too late to call this whole thing off. Tell Rain you changed your mind.”

    “But I haven't changed my mind. We had blood tests and everything. You'll be glad to know we're both extremely healthy, by the way.”

    “I wasn't worried about your health.”

    “Well, there isn't anything else to worry about.” Annie adjusted her grip on the bubble wrap and hauled the leopard a few more inches out of the carton. “Oliver and I are going to be roommates for a while. That's all.”

    “Annie, he's one of the most powerful men in the Northwest, and no one seems to know much about him. He might be, well, you know, strange or something.”

    “He is.”

    “Strange?”

    “Uh-huh.”

    “Oh, my God.”

    “But in an interesting way, if you know what I mean.” Annie had the plastic-bound leopard almost out of the box.

    “No, I do not know what you