Promoted to Wife (Destiny Bay) Read Online Free

for the next ten years.  
    Since leaving the Carringtons, her father had worked as the manager of housekeeping services for a large Malibu hotel. But recently he’d been let go, told he was just too old for the job. That experience had crushed him. Terry had really thought he might just give up—until the call had come from the Carringtons. Suddenly he’d had a reason to live again.  
    And now Terry had been given the chance to feel some of that pride her father had known. She had something to prove here. She might be a flop at her chosen career—trying to be an actress in Hollywood had not been a stellar choice, it seemed-- but she was darn well determined she was going to make a good butler—and she wasn't going to let Rick Carrington stand in her way.
    “My father was hired by your grandfather,” she began staunchly. “I'm taking my father's place, but I know I can do the job. Your grandfather seemed to feel I could do it as well.”
    “My grandfather never saw you face-to-face, did he?” Rick drawled. “I'm sure he made a mistake. He's got standards that date back to the Stone Age. He'd never have hired a girl like you deliberately.”
    She could cheerfully have beaned him with a handy lamp for calling her a “girl” as much as anything, but the sad fact was, he was right. Mr. Calvin Carrington thought she was her father’s son. She’d heard her own father on the phone with him, and though neither of them had mentioned it, she knew her father had avoided the issue.  
    But too bad. Calvin Carrington had agreed to this. And here she was.  
    “I've got a contract,” she reminded him sweetly.
    “I can break it,” he replied with easy tranquility.
    A rush of panic flooded her. He just might. She was treading on thin ice, confronting him this way. Why couldn't she lower her tone and try a little sweet talk instead? She swallowed hard, trying to muster a seductive smile, but the effort died somewhere inside. She knew she could never make it that way. There seemed to be a reason she’d failed as an actress, wasn’t there?  
    “You're not being fair,” she said instead, her chin set stubbornly. “Give me a chance to prove myself.”
    Rick's eyes were glimmering with amusement. “Just like that? You think you can come in here and begin 'butling' on the spur of the moment? You think you can jump right into a profession that has been developing into a fine art over the centuries?” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I have to admire your courage. Just wait until the Butlers United gets wind of this. They'll come around here with a lynch mob.”
    “I know what I'm doing. I've been trained by the best.” Her father was the best she knew of. “I'm a good worker. You won't be disappointed.”
    “Won't I?” he asked softly, and she sensed a break in the ice.
    She knew she was looking so very eager, so very willing to work her little fingers to the bone. He gazed at her for a long moment. There was hesitation flashing in the misty golden-brown of his eyes, but she could see that he was a bit captivated by her.  
    “Why don’t we wait for your grandfather to arrive and see what he thinks,” she said. She had a feeling, no matter how hide-bound Calvin was, she was going to be able to charm him. Just give her a chance!
    But Rick was shaking his head. “He won’t be coming. Not right away. He came down with the flu a few days ago. They don’t want to let him travel until they’re sure he’s all over that.”
    “Oh.” So much for that idea. “But he is coming?”
    “Oh yes. At least, we all hope so.”
    She smiled. “I can hardly wait to see him again. He and my father were quite close in the old days.”
    Rick grinned. “Meeting you, I can understand why.”
    She was winning. She could feel it. She began to smile, awaiting confirmation.
    “I think I like you, Terry Yardley,” Rick said at last, leaning back again. “There's something very appealing about those huge blue eyes of yours, and