The Temporary Wife Summary: A Secret Marriage Deal
Introduction
For eight years, Valentina Diaz has been the one person who keeps pace with Luca Windsor, the cold and calculating billionaire who runs Windsor Finance.
Then two things happen in the same week: Luca’s grandmother announces his arranged engagement to an oil heiress, and Valentina hands in her resignation.
The Temporary Wife by Catharina Maura is the second book in The Windsors series. It follows a secret three-year marriage contract built on practical terms, and the two people who struggle to keep it that way.
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Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Contemporary Billionaire Romance; Arranged Marriage / Marriage of Convenience; Workplace Boss-Secretary Romance
- Core Narrative Tropes: Marriage of convenience, secret marriage, boss and secretary, forced proximity, grumpy hero, jealous and possessive hero, estranged father
- Tone & Atmosphere: Intense, passionate, angst-filled, emotional, glamorous
- Primary Conflict: Valentina’s fear of abandonment and inequality against Luca’s possessive control and past betrayal, all while hiding a secret contract from family and colleagues
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced and angst-driven, built around episodic personal and corporate hurdles
- ISBN: 978-1464233326
- Pages: 400
- Book Structure: 71 numbered chapters, followed by Epilogue and Epilogue: 10 Years Later; alternating dual first-person POV between Luca and Valentina
TL;DR: The Short Version
A billionaire who refuses to lose his secretary. A secretary who refuses to watch him marry someone else. A handwritten contract that solves both problems and creates a third.
- Luca Windsor needs to dodge an arranged engagement without losing his inheritance.
- Valentina Diaz needs medical care for her grandmother and a way out of a dead-end role.
- They marry in secret for three years, then spend most of those years breaking their own rules.
- Core themes: breaking generational cycles, autonomy versus family tradition, and earning a career on merit.
The Temporary Wife Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers ahead. This section recounts the book’s main events, including the ending.
Luca Windsor and Valentina Diaz have worked side by side at Windsor Finance for eight years. Grandma Anne Windsor appointed Valentina to the role herself, and Luca initially tried to force her out with brutal workloads and mandatory night classes.
She stayed, earned her MBA, and became his indispensable right hand. Neither admits the pull between them.
At the vineyard wedding of Luca’s brother Ares, Luca watches Valentina dance with executive Joshua Rivera and pulls her into a gazebo. He kisses her, then immediately accuses her of using his network to find a wealthy partner.
Hurt, Valentina retreats into cold professionalism. Shortly after, Grandma Anne announces Luca’s arranged engagement to Natalia Ivanov, the daughter of an oil tycoon.
Valentina submits a six-month resignation. Luca tears it up, offers to double her salary, and tries to negotiate. When she holds firm, he blacklists her with executive recruiters and buys the restaurant chain where she goes on a date with fund manager Theo Miller.
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Then Valentina’s grandmother, her Abuela, wanders from home because of worsening dementia. Valentina asks Luca for help, and he has his head of security, Silas Sinclair, locate her within hours.
Luca uses the moment to propose a deal. He will arrange round-the-clock medical care for Abuela and advance Valentina’s career if she marries him in secret for three years.
Mayor Zachary Kingston marries them that same evening. Their handwritten contract sets a three-year term, absolute secrecy, shared sleeping quarters, no more than three consecutive nights apart, and mutual fidelity.
Valentina insists that love stays out of the arrangement. In Catharina Maura’s narrative, Luca responds by courting her anyway, with a custom Laurier diamond ring, a black credit card, and new identification reading Valentina Windsor.
They tell Grandma Anne they eloped out of love. She freezes Luca’s personal family accounts but agrees that three faithful years will release his inheritance.
Luca ends the engagement with Natalia Ivanov, who accepts it gracefully and admits she knew his heart was elsewhere. Meanwhile, Valentina’s college ex-boyfriend Ben Harris joins Windsor Finance and competes with her for the Chief Operating Officer position.
Luca also discovers that Miguel Garcia, CEO of ReInsure, is the biological father who abandoned Valentina as a child. To punish him, Luca cancels every Windsor insurance contract with ReInsure, triggering a collapse at Miguel’s firm.
Valentina pitches and wins a major investment deal with Alec and Elena Kennedy, and earns the COO role on her own merits. Luca gives her a desk plaque reading Valentina Windsor, Chief Operating Officer.
Both finally admit their love for each other. Then Abuela passes away peacefully.
Overwhelmed by grief and a recurring fear of being abandoned, Valentina retreats to her mother’s house and asks Luca for a divorce. He gives her space, and Grandma Anne enforces the three-day rule by evicting Luca from family properties and terminating Valentina’s employment.
Encouraged by Dion Windsor and her mother, Valentina recognizes her mistake and reunites with Luca at his hotel. The two decide to leave corporate pressure behind and board a flight to Canada.
They are redirected instead to the Windsor private jet, where Grandma Anne and the entire family are waiting. She reveals that she orchestrated the whole pressure campaign, knowing since their childhood that their late parents wanted Luca and Valentina together.
The obstacles were designed to force them to abandon their transactional contract and choose each other freely. Luca then takes Valentina to a private lake decorated with every pink sticky note she ever wrote him over nine years, and proposes properly.
They hold a formal wedding on a Hawaiian beach surrounded by family. Ten years later, Valentina is CEO of Windsor Finance while Luca serves as Chairman, and they share a life with their two children, Evan and Isabella.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
| Luca Windsor | Billionaire CEO and eventual Chairman of Windsor Finance; marries Valentina under a secret three-year contract. |
| Valentina Diaz (Windsor) | Luca’s executive secretary of eight years who becomes COO and later CEO of Windsor Finance. |
| Grandma Anne Windsor | Windsor family matriarch who enforces arranged marriages and orchestrates Luca and Valentina’s union. |
| Abuela | Valentina’s grandmother who raised her; her dementia and care drive the marriage agreement. |
| Valentina’s Mother | Raised Valentina after being abandoned by Miguel Garcia and distrusts wealthy men. |
| Natalia Ivanov | Oil heiress initially engaged to Luca before he breaks the arrangement. |
| Ben Harris | Valentina’s college ex-boyfriend who joins Windsor Finance and competes for the COO position. |
| Stephen Harris | Retiring Chief Operating Officer of Windsor Finance and Ben’s father. |
| Miguel Garcia | CEO of ReInsure and Valentina’s estranged biological father. |
| Ares Windsor | Luca’s older brother, married to Raven Du Pont. |
| Raven Du Pont Windsor | Ares’s wife, a fashion designer and confidante to Valentina. |
| Sierra Windsor | Luca’s sister and Valentina’s close friend. |
| Dion Windsor | Luca’s brother, engaged to Faye, and a supportive figure to Valentina. |
| Lexington “Lex” Windsor | Luca’s youngest brother. |
| Zane Windsor | Luca’s brother. |
| Silas Sinclair | Windsor head of security, married to Alanna. |
| Joshua Rivera | Businessman whose dance with Valentina triggers Luca’s jealousy. |
| Theo Miller | Windsor Finance fund manager who takes Valentina on a date. |
| Mayor Zachary “Zach” Kingston | Mayor who secretly marries Luca and Valentina. |
| Xavier Kingston | Friend of the Windsors and brother to Mayor Zach Kingston. |
| Alec & Elena Kennedy | Investors recruited by Valentina for Windsor Finance. |
| Hugo Garcia & Mateo Garcia | Valentina’s uncle and half-brother, who compel Miguel Garcia to apologize and transfer family assets to her. |
| Evan & Isabella Windsor | Luca and Valentina’s children, featured in the ten-year epilogue. |
Books Like The Temporary Wife
The Wrong Bride by Catharina Maura — Book one of The Windsors, built on an arranged marriage, high angst, and billionaire family dynamics.
The Unwanted Marriage by Catharina Maura — Book three of The Windsors, centered on arranged marriage, hidden feelings, and high-society expectations.
King of Wrath by Ana Huang — A billionaire arranged marriage romance involving corporate leverage, blackmail, and a possessive lead.
Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher — A billionaire boss-and-secretary marriage of convenience story shaped by an inheritance contract.
The Fine Print by Lauren Asher — A billionaire workplace romance with an intense executive and a determined heroine inside corporate expectations.
