Romance tropes
Marriage of convenience romance
The marriage is the tool. The year is the test. The heart is not in the terms.
In a marriage of convenience romance, nobody pretends the wedding was a love match. The deal is practical. She needs a factory built. He needs a wife within ninety days. They agree the rules in advance and then discover that living them is another matter.
That is the shape of Contract Groom, Book Two of The Boardroom Vows. Engineer Marli Venter has drawn every line of her dream plant in the Eastern Cape and nine investors have said no. Ruan Rhys offers her a deal: marry him before New Year to meet his late grandfather's will and he will fund the plant and build it with his own two hands.
Marli writes the contract on a napkin. One year. Separate rooms. No lies, ever. Ruan adds one clause: no pretending in private. Then there is a farmhouse with one bathroom, a storm that cuts the power and a rival determined to prove the marriage is a sham.
The book can be read as a standalone. Read the opening, or start the series with Contract Bride.