WRONG BRIDE

  FAKE BRIDE DUET

  BOOK ONE

  PENELOPE WYLDE

  CONTENTS

  MAFIA DADDIES

  Wrong Bride

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  High Heat Billionaire

  High Heat Heroes

  High Heat Billionaire

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  The Morning After Series

  Sons of Bratva Savages

  Newsletter + Free Book

  Also by Penelope Wylde

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2024 Penelope Wylde.

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Em Petrova

  Cover Design: Bookin’ It Designs www.bookinitdesigns.com/

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email to authorpenelopewylde@gmail.com

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Visit my website at: www.penelopewylde.com

  Created with Vellum

  I have a brand new breeder series launching February 2024!

  Six mafia kingpins are shackled to their thrones.

  Loveless. Heirless.

  Until they decide to break their chains

  and steal love anywhere they can find it.

  Pre-order the first two novellas by tapping below:

  Owning Amethyst, Ruining Lili, Possessing Bella, Stealing Grace, Edging Celeste, Chasing Haven

  Forbidden. Stolen. Reckless.

  Mafia Daddies of Chicago is a mafia, age-gap romance novella series of stand-alones. Each delicious ’n spicy title is stuffed with dirty, messy love you can read in one sitting. There’s a touch of danger and the HEA is a must. But getting there is where the forbidden fun happens. Expect ruthless OTT alphas and heart-wrecking instalove!

  A full-length BONUS small town billionaire romance novella is included inside!

  Two weeks, one wedding, zero bride. What could possibly go wrong?

  Juniper never thought her dream man would walk through her front door one hot summer day, but hello sexy cowboy! Marshall Blackwood checked all the boxes… and then some.

  Tall, with the shoulders of Atlas, a voice so rich he could drop panties from fifty feet and her one chance at saving her company from foreclosure.

  The fact he was worth billions helped with the above, but she had a hard time ignoring his strong hands, perfect lips and sexy blue eyes.

  Too bad he was there to hire her as his wedding planner.

  Isn't that always the way? Always the wedding planner, never the bride.

  But not everything is as it seems behind the miles of silk, invitations and planners. Her new boss is in the market for more than a wedding planner and thinks she might be perfect for the position. And he has no shame in using his hot body to get what he wants.

  If she doesn't pay along with the 'I dos' will her one ticket to saving her company walk away?

  Worse yet, will she lose the touch of a man she's become addicted to?

  Wrong Bride was previously published as Claiming His Fake Bride part 1. Wrong Bride has been re-edited and extended. Plus, you get a BONUS small town billionaire romance novella inside!

  Fake Bride 2, Wrong Groom, releases March 4th! Pre-order your copy by tapping here.

  CHAPTER ONE

  She needed to get laid more often.

  Find a boyfriend who was actually in the country for more than a day would be the first step toward making that happen.

  She wasn’t even sure if her lady parts worked any more it had been so long. Maybe she wouldn’t be so stressed out if she went out more often, picked up some handsome stranger with a nice smile and a killer bod and got wild every once in a while.

  But she’d have to be single for that to work.

  Juniper Winters shoved a handful of Tic-Tacs into her mouth and contemplated her life choices, eyes glued shut with complete horror. She could have stayed in law school. Duking it in the courtroom wouldn’t be as stressful as battling a damn, nerve grating perfection-seeking mother fussing over her daughter’s wedding like she was the queen of all things wedding related.

  As a professional wedding planner, it was part of the territory, Juniper reminded herself.

  To be expected.

  But still, that knowledge didn’t mean she had to like the fact that her 3Gs plan to a spectacular wedding—Glamour, Glitz, and Glory—lined her up with another G-word.

  Glitch.

  Of epic fucking proportions.

  Till today, her refined planning system worked like a charm.

  Juniper ducked around the corner to check for cameras and then slid inside a little nook off the side of the foyer. She pulled up short and peeked outside to see guests already pulling up in limos and Rolls Royce’s.

  A crackle of static went off over the ear piece she shared with her assistant, Callie, and the wait staff.

  She let the curtain fall back into place.

  “Jun, you there? Shit’s hit the fan, boss lady. Where are you?”

  Juniper took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “Here. I’m here. Start at the beginning. Everything was garbled. I thought I heard you say the wedding dress is gone. No dress means no wedding which means no payment. The bride can’t exactly say ‘I do’ in front of millions of people with her tits out.”

  Callie laughs. “We’re talking about a Hollywood star here, Jun, and we all remember that movie. Everyone has already seen her tatas.”

  “That’s beside the point, Callie.”

  A headache started to form between her brows.

  “Okay. Okay. You’re right. I’m sure that’s not how she wanted to get the ratings up either.”

  “Callie!” Juniper needed a vacation after this wedding. There were no two ways about it. Maybe find a couple of men on some tropical beach and just lose herself. Palm trees, coconut oil, sun...

  Focus.

  With a guest list that matched her height foot for foot and the barrage of tasks she somehow, someway managed to pull into an actual wedding, her nerves were nearly toast.

  Juniper appreciated her assistant’s attempt at humor but with her heartbeat nearing triple digits, laughing didn’t sit high on her list.

  “I’m just saying what we’re all thinking, but okay, being totally serious now. I saw when you put the dress in the van for transport here from the shop when we brought everything over two days ago, but after that, I don’t know. I just don’t.”

  “Where are you now? Does the client know?” No reason to upset her if the news hadn’t traveled. Not yet anyway.

  Juniper stepped out of the nook and made a beeline for the back entrance where they had unloaded everything.

  “Didn’t you secure the dress along with the groom’s tux?”

  “Affirmative. I placed the dress in the bride’s suite and the tux in the groom’s before leaving. I personally saw to it. Now, who the heck knows.” She heard the shrug in Callie’s voice.

  “Wait.” There was a small pause, a rattle of a doorknob and the snick of a door closing before Callie continued over the earpiece.

  “There is this black bag on the loveseat. It’s way too small to hold the ton of silk and lace of the client’s dress, but let me check.”

  “No. No. That’s not it. Don’t waste your time,” Juniper countered. A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach clued her in on exactly what happened.

  Juniper stopped her mental freak-out to welcome a few guests with a smile before slipping into the growing crowd to make room for more guests to move through the foyer. She took a step back and bumped into a cameraman, who turned the lens on her. She smiled and skillfully slipped behind a burly mountain of a man that looked a little too big for his suit. Given it was balmy ninety degrees outside he looked like he could use a cold drink along with a new suit jacket. He served as a great distraction to draw the attention of the nosy cameramen.

  Don’t make eye contact. Don’t make eye contact.

  She tucked her chin and hurried around the corner before the crew could get the idea of following her. She signaled for a couple of waiters and quickly instructed them to greet the new arrivals with chilled champagne or cocktails.

  Gotta love Los Angeles in the summer.

  Beams of sunlight poured in from the wall of windows that lined the west side of the movie star’s LA mansion and challenged the cooling system to the max. Mansion was the only word Juniper could adequately use to describe the four-story home with l
ong, winding marble staircases and just as many bathrooms as Buckingham Palace, no doubt.

  A small part of her felt sorry for the cleaning crew after this shin-dig wrapped up.

  Striking shafts of light spilled through the massive floor to ceiling windows in the large formal dining area. For the past two weeks leading up to the big day, Juniper had worked closely with set designers to convert the star’s home into a scene straight out of a 007 flick.

  When Gretchen Stewart had made the request, Juniper didn’t blink and found a way to make it happen. The bride-to-be had wanted to honor her start in Hollywood as a coveted Bond girl and Juniper would see it through to the end.

  Daunting as the job had been, it was the first important step in taking her business to the next level.

  A waitress glided through the growing crowd, tray held high. As part of the wedding, all staff color-coordinated with the elaborate James Bond theme. White shirts with golden accents paired with black slacks or skirts. The bridesmaids wore sleeveless black satin blouses with detached golden cuffs complete with cufflinks while she and Callie wore shimmery golden gowns that felt like gold leaf paper against her skin. Her creamy cleavage didn’t look half bad if she had a vote.

  Countless tiny yellow and white roses were woven together to create a stunning floral curtain to drape from the eaves. Above, thousands of balloons covered the domed glass ceiling to create a sea of gold and black. When the sun dipped beyond the water’s edge and night fell, tiny white specks hand-painted on the balloons would sparkle for a magical galaxy effect.

  But right now, none of that mattered.

  “I’m in the west wing in the bride’s dressing room right next to her suite. We’ve looked everywhere and none of the wait staff or maids have moved anything.”

  “Give me five.”

  Juniper heard the rustling of satin, girls’ laughter, and the unmistakable voice of Gretchen Stewart through the earpiece as they broke out in an impromptu rendition of “I’m Every Woman.”

  Unlike most celebrities who preferred privacy, Gretchen saw every event in her life as a reason to have a camera present. That meant triple the cameras for something as big a deal as this. Which made her job all the harder.

  Juniper pushed through the double doors separating the kitchen from the rest of the house and scanned over the chef and her assistants. A bustle of hands and bodies moved in unison as everyone worked around one another.

  The thick aroma of beef with fresh vegetables, apples, cinnamon and of course the sweet vanilla scent of the flawless cake saturated her senses.

  Memories would be made because of what their team pulled off here today. She started to tear up. This was what her job was all about.

  Her gaze landed on a pretty middle-aged blonde with a fetish for hairspray, the color pink and anything that clung to her curves.

  “Bingo.” Gotcha. Right where she thought the meddlesome mother would be, too.

  “Mrs. Stewart. Everything okay here?” She crossed the kitchen and offered one of her cool-as-a-cucumber smiles she reserved for moments like these.

  The mother of the bride stood a few inches shorter than Juniper’s five-eight, but her coif made up for the missing inches. Wrapped in a skin-tight, hot pink one-piece with gold swirls and matching stilettos, Juniper didn’t know how the woman had slipped by her in the first place.

  “Yes, just making sure everything is running smoothly. The cake could use a few more roses, don’t you think? I also wanted to talk to you about the vows.” She went on as she settled a hand over Juniper’s, wrapped around her clipboard. “Don’t you think⁠—”

  “I’m sure it’s exactly like your daughter envisioned, Mrs. Stewart. And we’ve already talked about the vows your daughter will be sharing with her husband-to-be. Those aren’t really for us to change.” Juniper hated to cut in and sound snippy, but she didn’t have time to coddle right now or the bride really would be walking the aisle in her birthday suit.

  “Yes, but they are so dreadfully long. You would think they’re reciting fucking Shakespeare for God’s sake. Don’t you feel the need to save us all?”

  Juniper genuinely laughed. “You remind me of my gran, Mrs. Stewart. You two would get along beautifully.”

  That brought a smile from the bride’s mother and won her a little leeway with the otherwise overly…helpful… woman. “Good. I like the broad already.”

  “Can I speak with you a second in private, Mrs. Stewart?”

  “Of course, dear.”

  Juniper guided them to a small area off the side of the kitchen where they wouldn’t be in the way. “Have you by chance seen Gretchen’s wedding dress?”

  “Yes, yes of course. Gretchen needed something borrowed so I took the dress to my room for a quick surprise to be sewn onto the hem. Nothing to worry about, dear.” Mrs. Stewart winked a perfectly winged-tipped eye at her while snagging a fruit cocktail from a waiting tray.

  Not to worry? Yeah. Screw that. She was hella worried now. And why did that sound synonymous with the world is about to end and you are standing on ground zero?

  Juniper had spent months tracking down the designer, scheduling fittings, and refitting.

  Her breath caught in her throat and blocked her from letting all her worry slip out into words.

  “Thank Heavens!” She lied through her teeth. A little voice piped up in the back of her head with a silent prayer. Please don’t let the dress be ruined! She had personally hand-sewn the two hundred crystals to the hemline and bodice of that dress. She normally left that to the dressmaker, but the client caught a glimpse of a little personal project Juniper had going on tucked away in her own closet and wanted her sewing skills to add the final detail at the last minute.

  Juniper squeaked out her two-word reply, not able to try for anything more elaborate at the moment like, what the ever-loving-hell have you done? And why do I have a feeling I won’t like this?

  “I’ll send Callie to collect it. Thank you, Mrs. Stewart.”

  “Not at all, dear. I’ll go up and see to it that everything is in order.”

  “Juniper.”

  Callie spoke over the earpiece, grabbing her attention.

  “Callie, the dress is in Mrs. Stewart’s room. She’ll be joining you right now so she can help with the dressing.” Juniper nodded and signaled for Mrs. Stewart to go on ahead.

  “I’m on it. God, please don’t let anything else go wrong today.”

  “Amen to that, boss lady.”

  Her friend slash employee knew how much she found humor in the label and used it when she was looking to help make Juniper smile.

  Today she just wanted chocolate, a foot rub and for all this to be over.

  Unlike their competition, Vows from Juniper specialized not only in destination weddings but unique weddings. A wedding in Maui? Fiji? No problem. Want to get hitched under the auroras in the Arctic Circle? You betcha!

  Heck, given enough time, she could make that Mt. Everest wedding a reality.

  But a Hollywood star and her mom were about to make her tap out.

  Today had to be more than just perfect—it had to be magical if her company were to survive. Plus, they couldn’t afford to mess up on live TV.

  Just that thought sent an icy edge of fear raking down her spine.

  Flowers, gowns, perfectly arranged silk bows along church pews and an immaculate cake to top off the perfect day. Every detail had to be perfect. No exception.

  Booming laughter and lively string music erupted through the crack of the doors as two worried-looking waiters pushed through the double oak slabs Mrs. Stewart just exited.

  For some ridiculous reason, Juniper’s ears prickled and her fingers wrapped a little tighter around her clipboard.

  “What? What is it?”

  “Ms. Winter. It’s the champagne and martini ingredients.”

  She turned to give the men her full attention, her heart sinking every second she looked at their fallen faces. “What about them?” There was no Bond wedding without the martinis.

  “Umm…” The waiter who looked only a year or two younger than herself ran a shaky hand through his auburn hair before scratching at an invisible five o’clock shadow.