Sealed With a Kiss

SEALED WITH A KISS

Emerald Lake Billionaires, Book 1

Written by Leeanna Morgan

Copyright © 2016 Leeanna Morgan

Smashwords Edition

ISBN 978-0-9941190-7-0

Published by Rogan Press

For more information visit
leeannamorgan.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,
and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and are
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or
persons, living or dead, is co-incidental.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the US
Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means,
or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior
permission of the author.

About this Book

Three billionaires, an emerald lake, and a
lifetime's worth of happy endings.

John Fletcher is used to living his life on the edge.
He’s an ex-Navy SEAL and the owner of one of the most successful
security companies in the world. He knows what he wants and he
knows how to get it. When his daughter asks for the one thing he
can’t give her, it breaks his heart.

Rachel McReedy isn’t impressed with John Fletcher’s
money, fast cars or jet-setting lifestyle. What she cares about is
Bella, his eight-year-old daughter. She might not have had the type
of life Bella has, but she knows what it’s like to be left on her
own. Rachel is determined to show John the error of his ways, but
she isn’t prepared for what she’s about to find.

The day John meets Rachel, life as he knows it comes
to an abrupt end. She stirs something deep inside of him, creates
havoc in his orderly world, and makes him question what’s really
important. He knows Rachel holds the key to his daughter’s
happiness, but will she willingly hold the key to his heart?

Discover the magic of Emerald Lake in the first book
in the Emerald Lake Billionaires series. This series is linked to
The Bridesmaids Club and Montana Brides series. For news of my
latest releases, please visit
leeannamorgan.com
and
sign up for my newsletter.

As a thank you for all of your support, I have
included the link to a
FREE
copy of
All of Me
,
Tess and Logan’s story, at the end of this book. Happy reading!

Other Contemporary Romances by
Leeanna
Morgan
:

Emerald Lake Billionaires

(Linked to The Bridesmaids Club & Montana
Brides):

Book 1:
Sealed with a Kiss
(Rachel and John)

Book 2:
Playing for Keeps
(Sophie and Ryan)

Book 3: Crazy
Love
(Holly and Daniel)

The Bridesmaids Club series

(Linked to Montana Brides & Emerald Lake
Billionaires):

Book 1:
All of Me
(Tess and Logan)

Book 2:
Loving
You
(Annie and Dylan)

Book 3:
Head Over
Heels
(Sally and Todd)

Book 4:
Sweet on
You
(Molly and Jacob)

Montana Bride
s series

(Linked to The Bridesmaids Club & Emerald
Lake Billionaires):

Book 1: Forever
Dreams
(Gracie and Trent)

Book 2: Forever
in Love
(Amy and Nathan)

Book 3: Forever
After
(Nicky and Sam)

Book 4: Forever
Wishes
(Erin and Jake)

Book 4.5 Forever Santa
: a Montana Brides Christmas
Novella

Book 5: Forever
Cowboy
(Emily and Alex)

Book 6:
Forever Together
(Kate and Dan)

Book 7:
Forever and a Day
(Sarah and Jordan)

“Now I know I've got a heart because it is
breaking.”

- Tin Man -

L.Frank Baum.
The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz

CHAPTER ONE

Rachel parked her car outside her friend’s apartment.
For the entire ride across town, she’d been thinking about the
envelope sitting on the seat beside her, the exciting news that
would bring a smile to Annie’s face.

For the last couple of months, Rachel had
been helping a group of friends who’d started The Bridesmaids Club.
They gave donated bridesmaids’ dresses to brides in distress. Most
weeks, at least a dozen dresses were sent to them, packed in boxes,
bags, and anything in-between.

Rachel sometimes helped with the dress
fittings, but her main job was to sort through the letters they
received. She made appointments for the bridesmaids to see the
dresses and contacted the people they couldn’t help.

Nearly a year ago, a letter had arrived from
a little girl called Bella. All of her friends had spent weeks
trying to find her. But Bella wasn’t easy to find. With no return
address and no last name, the glittery card with sparkling jewels
had become their mystery card. The only clue to where she lived was
the Bozeman postmark on the envelope.

Bella’s big, round handwriting had made them
smile, and her request had touched their hearts. Bella didn’t want
a bridesmaid’s dress. She wanted a bride for her daddy.

Rachel picked up Bella’s envelope and smiled.
She was almost one hundred percent positive that she’d found the
little girl they’d been looking for.

She got out of her car and headed toward
Annie’s apartment. The cold October wind tore through her coat and
left her shivering on the doorstep. They were lucky that it hadn’t
started snowing. Montana’s weather could be unpredictable at the
best of times, but during the fall, they could have four seasons in
one week.

Annie opened her front door just as Rachel
was about to knock. “Tell me you’ve got good news?” She pulled
Rachel into her apartment and closed the door.

“What’s happened?” Rachel stared at the boxes
scattered around the living room. Annie was getting married the
following weekend. She had everything organized, right down to the
way each napkin would be folded on the tables. She’d been
determined not to get stressed, or give in to the last minute
pre-wedding nerves that most brides seemed to develop.

Annie ran her hands through her hair.
“Dylan’s mom is driving me insane. She doesn’t like the table
favors that we’ve organized for each guest. We should have gotten
married next April. Why did I want to get married earlier?”

“Because you love Dylan and couldn’t wait to
be his wife.” Rachel glanced at the tulle and ribbon bags they’d
filled two nights before. “What’s wrong with peppermint creams,
anyway? I thought Dylan’s mom liked peppermint?”

“So did I, but she’s found a company in
Vermont that makes maple toffee crunch brownies. One of her
friend’s daughters got married last weekend. The brownies were the
most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. They come in individual
boxes, gift-wrapped with ribbon to match the theme of the
wedding.”

“But this is Montana, not Vermont,” Rachel
said carefully. She didn’t want to get between Annie and her
mother-in-law, but with one week left before the wedding, it wasn’t
the time to be changing anything.

“Precisely. But is she listening to me? No.
Dylan called her this morning, but she’s determined to have the
brownies. She called the company and they can send enough boxes to
us by Friday. She even offered to pay for them. What am I going to
do?”

Rachel took her coat and scarf off and left
them on the back of a chair. “What difference does it make if you
have the brownies?”

“Nothing, if they arrive in time. We could
give the sixty bags of peppermint creams to someone else. But it’s
the principle that counts. Dylan and I have spent months getting
everything ready.”

“Do you want my advice?”

Annie nodded. “You’re the most sane person in
the room at the moment.”

“Go with the brownies. Who cares what the
table favors are? No one’s going to be worried if they get a
brownie instead of peppermint creams.”

Annie moved two pairs of shoes off a chair
and sat down. “I suppose you’re right. It’s just so annoying.”

“Welcome to the world of families. Dylan’s
mom probably had the best of intentions when she mentioned the
brownies.”

“If she’d had those same intentions two
months ago, it would have been better,” Annie grumbled.

“I’ve got some news that’s better than your
brownies.”

Annie frowned. “Have you found the farmyard
animal costumes from last year’s Christmas play?”

Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think we’ll
ever see them again. One of the other teacher’s must have put them
in a box somewhere. This is more exciting than lost costumes.” She
waved Bella’s envelope in the air. “Do you remember this?”

Annie looked closely at the brightly colored
envelope. “Is that Bella’s card?”

Rachel nodded. “And guess what?”

“You’ve found her?” Annie’s mouth dropped
open. “How did you do that? We spent weeks searching for her?”

“The reason you couldn’t find her is because
she’s homeschooled. Her dad travels around a lot with his job. She
has a tutor who goes with them when they need to leave
Montana.”

“Does her dad really need a bride?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to him.”

Annie grinned. “I’d like to hear how that
conversation goes.”

“You can if you want to?”

“Let me guess…Molly, Tess, and Sally didn’t
want to go with you to meet Bella’s dad?”

Molly, Tess, and Sally, were all part of the
original group of friends who’d started The Bridesmaids Club.
“Molly’s getting ready for another exhibition, Tess is baking like
crazy for a Halloween party, and Sally is busy teaching.”

“Sounds like it’s you and me, then?”

“Only if you can spare the time,” Rachel said
quickly. “I don’t know where Bella lives or what her father’s name
is. If it takes more than a few days to find him, you’ll be well
and truly on your honeymoon.”

Annie walked across to the kitchen. “How
about you let me know when you’ve found him? Now that you know who
Bella is, it must be a lot easier to find her dad.”

“I hope so,” Rachel said. She pulled the
pretty card out of the envelope and re-read the message.
Dear
Bridesmaids Club. Can you please help my daddy find a
bride?

Bella’s message had brought back so many
unhappy memories for Rachel, that she knew she had to find her.
After searching through every public record she could get her hands
on, Bella had simply walked through Rachel’s classroom door.

She knew Bella’s last name, but she didn’t
know where she lived. And once she had an address, she’d have to
figure out how to tell her dad that his daughter was looking for a
mom.

***

John Fletcher stared at the release form in
front of him. He’d been working with the Department of Defense for
the last year, creating a prototype drone that would change the way
surveillance operations were carried out around the world.

They’d passed the field tests and provided
all of the information the Special Ops Unit wanted. Now all he had
to do was sign on the dotted line and his bank account would be
millions of dollars better off.

“You gonna sit there and stare at that paper
or sign the damn thing?” Tank, one of the ex-Navy SEALs that worked
with him, wasn’t known for his patience off the battlefield. But
put him in the middle of an alligator-infested swamp, and he could
stay still for hours.

John glanced up. “Did Connor encrypt the
schematics?”

“All done.”

“And Sam has sent all of the files through to
Tanner?”

Tank focused his flat stare on John. “What’s
wrong?”

John wasn’t about to admit that he’d had
misgivings about this project long before they’d started the design
phase. Tank didn’t need to know about the conversations he’d had
with top-ranked officials in the Department of Defense, or the
issues that had kept him awake for the last few weeks.

He picked up a pen and signed on the dotted
line. “Make sure this leaves here today. I don’t want it getting
into the wrong hands.”

Tank picked up the paper and slid it into a
brown envelope. “It’s safe with me.”

John didn’t believe anything was safe. He’d
learned a long time ago to listen to his instincts, and his
instincts were screaming at him to be careful. “Take Connor with
you. He knows his way around the Pentagon.”