Praise for ‘The Enemy’, winner of Romantic Book of the Year

  A great read. This author understands a modern woman and she writes for 21st century women. The main female character is sassy, fearless and funny. The male character is strong, emotional. He LIKES and admires the woman he is in a relationship with.

  — AMAZON REVIEWER

  Thoroughly enjoyed. It provided light moments along with scenes that provoked significant emotion.

  — AMAZON REVIEWER

  Jax was gorgeous, grouchy, brooding, but really sexy! Ruby was sassy, fearless, loyal & endearing. A nice way to lose a few hours!

  — AMAZON REVIEWER

  The Enemy

  BLING AND A FLING

  BOOK ONE

  NICOLA MARSH

  Copyright © Nicola Marsh 2012

  Published by Parlance Press 2026

  All the characters, names, places and incidents in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names and are used fictitiously. They’re not distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author and all the incidents in the book are pure invention. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in any form. The text or any part of the publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

  The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the word marks mentioned in this work of fiction.

  First Published by Harlequin Enterprises in 2012 as MARRYING THE ENEMY.

  World English Rights Copyright © 2025 Nicola Marsh

  From boardroom bargain… to bedroom temptation.

  Jewelry designer Ruby Seaborn will do whatever it takes to save her family’s crumbling empire. Even if it means proposing the most outrageous deal of her life: a no-strings, business-only marriage to Jax Maroney, the ruthless diamond tycoon with the power to make or break her legacy.

  Jax needs her connections. She needs his fortune. It should be the perfect arrangement. However, when sparks fly and rules blur, their marriage of convenience feels anything but convenient.

  Ruby’s resolve is as unbreakable as her jewel designs. But what happens when the man supposed to save her company is a threat to the one thing she vowed to never risk… her heart?

  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

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  About the Author

  Free book and more

  Chapter One

  Jax Maroney had traded clear outback skies for this.

  The exclusive enclave of Armidale in Melbourne, home of Australia's premier jewellers hosting A-listers tonight, and he'd crashed the party.

  Damn usurpers. They were more than rivals, they were the enemy. The enemy who deliberately ignored him tonight; who whispered and pointed and glared.

  The enemy he'd have to court to achieve his goal.

  That irked. He didn't give a damn what they thought of him personally, but needing these people onside in the business arena pissed him off.

  Regret pinched his gut, tempered by an ever-present slow-burning anger against the one person who'd landed him in this predicament.

  "Careful. Next time the door opens and the wind blows in, your frown will stick."

  Surprised anyone had approached him considering his determined distance from the rent-a-crowd at this shindig, he glared at the smart-mouthed blonde, dripping with enough diamonds to keep his Western Australian mine in business for the next decade.

  "What's it to you?"

  Undeterred by his surliness, her ruby-slicked lips curved into a teasing smile. "The launch of a Seaborn spring collection deserves champagne and caviar and exuberance."

  She pointed at his forehead. "That frown you've got going on? Doesn't fit."

  "Because most of the snobs here can't move their Botox injected brows?"

  His derisive stare swept the designer clad, immaculately coiffed, moneyed crowd who shunned him for the sins of his father.

  To his surprise, her smile widened. "You're probably right but you should play nice."

  "Why?"

  "Because the undercover security doesn't take kindly to boorish types standing back and surveying. They'll think you're a thief."

  Her brash glance swept him from head to foot and his gut inexplicably tightened.

  When her defiant gaze met his, he swore he glimpsed heat. "On second thoughts, maybe not."

  Against his better judgement, he wanted to match wits with the intriguing blonde. People never challenged him; in business or elsewhere.

  He liked his women transparent and uncomplicated. The bold blonde? Anything but.

  He waved her away. "Shouldn't you be mingling?"

  "Shouldn't you be smiling?"

  His mouth twitched and she raised a fist in victory. "There. I knew you could do it. Not so hard once you try."

  Nonplussed, he shook his head. "Who are you?"

  She poked out her tongue. "Your worst nightmare, Happy Face."

  The laughter spilled from his lips, an oddly alien sound. When was the last time he'd laughed?

  "A mouth like that can get you into trouble." His gaze focused on her lips, the glossy sheen highlighting their fullness, and that surprising twinge in his gut moved lower.

  She cocked a pretend gun with her thumb and forefinger and pulled the trigger. "I'm all for trouble."

  Impressed by her audacity, he decided to call her bluff.

  "Big statement, but can you deliver?"

  With a nonchalant shrug, she turned away, leaving him with a tantalising view of bare skin to her waist where the emerald satin of her designer dress tied in an incongruous bow.

  She took two steps, paused, and glanced over her shoulder.

  "If you stick around after the launch, you might find out if you're lucky."

  She sashayed away, working her hips for his benefit, the satin clinging to a fine ass.

  He'd given himself thirty minutes to show Melbourne's high society he was back and there wasn't one damn thing they could do about it.

  Until the daring blonde had crashed his resentment party for one and dangled that tempting offer.

  He didn't want to be here any longer than he had to but sticking around now held a certain appeal.

  Chapter 2

  Ruby grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, needing to hold something before she gave into the urge to rip off the rare green diamond plaque de cou necklace and have a good scratch.

  How her sister Sapphire did this on a regular basis, she had no idea.

  The diamonds weighed a ton around her neck and it felt like her ear lobes had lengthened by an inch with the matching earrings dangling in a waterfall of sparkle.

  While the crowd oohed and aahed, admiring the pieces she created especially for this collection, she had to curl her fingers into her palms to stop herself from scratching.

  Her oversensitive skin beneath the jewels prickled. Wouldn't the press have a field day with that: Ruby Seaborn, lapidary and creative genius behind the Seaborn latest spring collection, allergic to her own inventive masterpieces?

  It had to be her subconscious telling her she belonged behind the scenes rather than a genuine physiological reaction. She only used the finest metals and gems. Gems that were harder to come by these days thanks to Maroney Mine, the corporate mining giant devouring everything and everyone in its path.

  If she ever got her hands on Jax Maroney, the CEO, she'd throttle him.

  Speaking of getting her hands on a guy… She darted a glance over her shoulder at the truculent Adonis propped against the far wall, deliberately detached from the milling crowd.

  He might be wearing a charcoal pinstriped suit, baby-blue business shirt ,and indigo tie, but his respectability ended there. With unreadable ebony eyes, an inscrutable expression, and that imperceptible curl of disgust to a sexy top lip, the guy had bad boy written all over him.

  Along with the folded arms and ominous glare, he'd been rudely brusque when she'd approached. He didn't want to be here. Which begged the question why he'd turned up and who was he?

  The Seaborn’s had built their reputation on exclusivity. Every person here tonight had lineage, class, and money. Money to burn.

  Money her family's jewellery business needed desperately to survive.

  She stared a fraction too long, her gaze locking with his, and as a mocking eyebrow arched, a shiver skitt
ered over her skin, making it prickle from more than the necklace.

  Unaware she'd been holding her breath, she exhaled and saluted before turning away. She slipped a finger beneath the front-fastening choker-style necklace that seemed to have a stranglehold. It didn't help, his potent stare eliciting a heat that coursed through her body like a power surge.

  He exuded something raw, something primitive, and she unwittingly responded on a visceral level, the tug of excitement deep inside unexpected and unwelcome.

  She'd usually toy with a guy like him, have her fun, then move on. He wasn't her type. But with Sapphire convalescing on enforced leave, she'd assumed more duties than she could handle. Creating the pieces she loved had been surpassed by spokeswoman and modelling tonight, with more to come. Much more.

  Even now, several months since her sister had almost collapsed and Ruby had learned the truth, she wished the last year had been different.

  She wished her mother and Sapphire had trusted her.

  Dealing with grief over losing their mother had been tough, and she'd admired Sapphire assuming CEO duties of Seaborn as well as being the face of the company. After all, it was what Saph had been groomed to do since she could walk.

  Ruby never envied her sister the responsibility, preferring to indulge her creative side, happy to be the scatty, carefree Seaborn.

  Thanks to Sapphire's bombshell before she had an enforced recuperation, Ruby now had more responsibility than she could possibly want or imagine. And it made her mad as hell that it had taken her sister's near breakdown for her to discover the truth.

  Throw in Seaborn's ever-decreasing profit margins as chain stores flourished under a worsening economy, and Maroney Mine doing their best to drive them out of business, and the last few months had sucked.

  But she had twelve weeks while Sapphire recuperated to turn Seaborn around, twelve weeks to prove to her sister and the rest of the corporate world she wasn't the flighty airhead they thought, and kick some business butt.

  As Ruby moved through the crowd, accepting air-kisses and congratulations for her latest creations, her gaze drifted towards the surly stranger too many times for her liking.

  Worse, whenever it did, he was staring straight at her.

  Determined to shake the feeling they were inexplicably linked by a force bigger than the both of them, she flitted from one group to another, laughing at nothing, smiling at anything.

  All too soon the event ended and she sagged on a stool in relief. Until her cousin Opal tapped her on the shoulder and shoved a manifesto under her nose.

  "How many pieces did we sell?"

  Her heart sank as Opal frowned and shook her head. "Not enough."

  "Damn." She snatched the listing and scanned it, the lack of gold foil sale stickers making her stomach gripe with angst. Seaborn had been in financial trouble for a while and nothing, even their biggest launch and her best pieces yet, could save it.

  Opal squeezed her arm. "It'll be okay."

  Unexpected tears stung Ruby’s eyes and she blinked them away. "It'll have to be."

  For Sapphire's sake, for her sake, for the sake of a family business she had no intention of losing.

  Unbeknown to her until recently, Sapphire had made a promise to their mother on her death bed last year when Mathilda Seaborn, the matriarch of Seaborn for the last fifty years, had been pumped full of morphine but completely lucid.

  The pancreatic cancer might have ravaged her body but it hadn't touched her astute business brain; her mum had made Sapphire promise to do whatever it took to make her legacy survive. For them. For their children.

  Considering Ruby couldn't sustain a long term relationship any longer than Sapphire, kids were a long way off.

  Irrelevant now, with her sister under strict doctor's orders after collapsing from stress and exhaustion because she'd shouldered a burden they both should've shared.

  It had been a double shock, learning of Seaborn’s grim financials, and the fact she'd been inadvertently responsible for Sapphire's collapse.

  And she had been, no matter which way she looked at it. She'd always been the indulged Seaborn, the one allowed to follow her dreams and travel, with Sapphire happily shadowing Mum, learning everything she could.

  While Sapphire had studied hard to obtain straight As, she'd coasted, lucky to pull her usual Cs up to an occasional B.

  While Sapphire had done a master's in Economics as a foregone conclusion, she'd breezed through an Arts major, not really caring whether she finished or not because she'd already started creating signature pieces for Seaborn.

  While Sapphire had no social life due to Seaborn's commitments, she'd danced and partied her way around Melbourne with a hip crowd as laid back as her.

  Little wonder Mum hadn't trusted her with Seaborn's viability.

  Time to prove her mother and Sapphire wrong.

  She might've been too self-absorbed in her carefree, creative life before, but now she had a chance to set things right by taking Seaborn out of the red and firmly into the black.

  Opal nudged her. "By the way, we've got a hanger-on."

  Ruby glanced over her shoulder in time to see Security hassling Happy Face. He'd waited around for her. Her pulse skittered and she clamped down the urge to grin in triumph despite the bad news Opal had just delivered.

  Men were so predictable. A little light hearted flirtation and they thought you'd handed them your heart on a plate.

  "I'll take care of this."

  Opal frowned as Happy Face glowered at their security guard, towering over him by a foot. "Sure?"

  "Yeah, the bigger they are, the harder they fall." Opal groaned at her cliché as Ruby hugged her. "Thanks for your help, Cuz, couldn't have done it tonight without you."

  "I'll have to add hostess with the mostest to my geologist credentials."

  Ruby bumped her with her hip. "You bet. Now off you go, and I'll take care of our recalcitrant guest."

  Casting a last doubtful glance in Happy Face's direction, Opal headed out the back.

  Ruby squared her shoulders. The necklace still made her neck itch, her feet ached from wearing stilettos rather than the ballet flats she preferred, and the satin sliding over her hips set off some strange static reaction that zapped her at inopportune moments. Like now, as she strode towards her glowering guest, intent on kicking some surly butt.

  "What seems to be the problem here, Fritz?"

  Their long-term security guard's stern expression softened as he turned towards her. They'd always had a bond since he slipped her gum drops, her favourite treat all through childhood, when her mum wasn't looking.

  She loved coming here as a kid, had loved the glitter and the sparkle and the hush. No way would she lose it.

  Fritz gestured towards Happy Face, who glared at her as if his impending eviction was her fault. "This gentleman won't leave."

  Fritz's audibly icy gentleman indicated he thought the guy anything but.

  Time to revoke her earlier invitation. She didn't have time to waste flirting with some guy she'd never see again. She had more important things to do, such as come up with another scheme to raise much-needed funds to keep Seaborn afloat.

  Ready to give the stranger his marching orders, she made the mistake of locking gazes with him again. Challenge sparked sable flecks, taunting her to see if she'd carry through with her earlier challenge.

  Damn him. How could he know she'd never backed down from a challenge?

  Youngest to brave the Mad Mouse roller coaster at Luna Park, youngest to surf Bells Beach in her family, youngest creator Seaborn had ever had.

  She rose to any challenge and she wouldn’t let this mysterious man get one up on her.

  "It's fine, Fritz, I invited him to stay for a coffee."

  Fritz's bushy brows joined in the middle but he didn't dare question her judgement. He'd never do that, his loyalty to Seaborn unwavering.

  "Do you want me to lock up?"

  She nodded. "Please. I'll take our guest upstairs so close up the showroom and head home."

  If Fritz thought it unusual she intended on inviting a stranger to her apartment, he didn't show it, his expression carefully blank. “Good night, Miss Ruby."

  "Thanks, Fritz."