trueromance

CHAPTER ONE

“What the hell is this?”
Lucien Gray scowled and read aloud the last paragraph on the first page of the contract. “Disbursal of the monies shall occur upon execution of a legal marriage between the borrower and a suitable female as defined herein.”
He lowered the loan contract and stared, slack jawed, at his grandfather. “The legal marriage shall last for a term of no less than five years?”
Lucas Gray smiled. “My lawyer added that line.”
“This is a joke, right? This is your way of getting back at me for not coming to work for you. Right?”
“No joke.”
“You sure as hell could have fooled me.” Luc flipped to the second page of the contract and scanned down to the middle of the page where the closing paragraph of the contract called for his signature.
“Son, I understand why you declined to come work for me. And now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’ve decided that you were right. We would have killed each other within the first week. We’re just too much alike, you and me.”
Luc thumped the contract with his finger. “This… is absurd.”
“You don’t like it? Aw, I could have sworn that you would have—”
“Are you mad?” Luc shook his head in disbelief. “Mom was right. You’ve finally lost it.”
His grandfather chuckled. “I’m not senile yet, son. I assure you that everything in that contract is legal and binding.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is, because I’m not signing it.” Luc tossed the contract onto the desk and glared at his grandfather. He would have to find another source for the loan he needed to purchase a company named Intrinsic Inc., because he refused to sacrifice his personal freedom to appease his grandfather’s twisted terms.
The only problem was… finding another source that would give him the money within two weeks and not ask a lot of questions.
“Aw, that’s too bad.” His grandfather picked up the contract and waved it in the air. “And here I thought you really needed this loan.”
Luc was staring at the only source he knew of for a quick, generous, no questions asked loan. “Do you get some sort of perverse pleasure out of thwarting my every move?” His voice was thick with bitterness, twisted with sarcasm.
“No, but you do.” His grandfather’s smile disappeared. “You knew I wanted to take over Andersen Corporation and you deliberately interfered.”
“I did not deliberately interfere. I agreed to restructure Andersen Corporation before you even decided you wanted it. Besides, it isn’t the company you want. It’s the building.”
“Dammit. That was before you reorganized it. Now I want all of it, but I’ll have to pay more.”
Luc rolled his eyes and struggled to control his temper. This was an old argument. Six months old to be exact. When he spoke, he did so deliberately, enunciating each word with clear, cold precision. “What you do to or with Andersen Corporation after I finish reorganizing them is your business. I could not care less what you do to that company.”
His grandfather drummed his fingers on the desk. “You could not care less, because… you’ve got something bigger and better lined up.”
“If I do, it’s no business of yours.”
“I beg to differ. You’re asking me for a hefty loan and I’m making it my business.”
Luc met his grandfather’s shrewd, green gaze. “Why? You’ve never made it your business in the past. Every loan I’ve ever taken from you has been repaid in full and ahead of schedule.”
His grandfather waved aside Luc’s comment. “I know you’ll pay me back. That’s not the point. What I want to know is why you need the loan.”
“So that’s what this is about. I get it now. If I tell you why I need the loan, you’ll strike the marriage clause from the contract.”
“I might decide to give you the money. If you tell me why you need it and give me a cut of whatever deal you’re working.”
Luc had heard that particular catch in his grandfather’s voice before. “Forget it, Gramps. I’m not telling you.”
“Now, why am I not surprised.” His grandfather spread the contract on the desk and turned to the second page. “Do you or do you not want the loan?”
“Not like this.” Luc pushed himself up from the leather chair, turned on his heel, and headed for the door.
Luc knew his grandfather well enough to know that if he told him why he wanted the loan that the old man would change his mind about offering it and step in to buy Intrinsic Inc. himself. And the whole point of getting the loan was so that Luc could buy the company and not have to depend on the old man for anything.
Luc made a good living with his one-man business of acting as a management consultant for companies all over the country, but he didn’t want to make ‘just a good living’.
He wanted to make an incredible living.
And if Gramps knew that Intrinsic Inc. was Luc’s ticket to millionaire-hood, then the old man wouldn’t hesitate to sweep the rug out from underneath Luc’s feet. Why? Because Lucas Gray liked to control people and the best way to control people was to control the purse string. That was why Luc’s mother and three older sisters were still living at home and depending on the old man for an allowance.
Luc didn’t want that. He wanted to be self-sufficient and master of his own world. Intrinsic Inc. would give him all of that, because the little Texas company held a contract which owned all the rights to an ingenious engineer’s designs for a better, faster, and revolutionary central processing unit—better known as a computer’s CPU.
The current owner of Intrinsic Inc. didn’t have a clue as to the potential of the CPU, but Luc and, more importantly, Luc’s best friend did. His friend, Benajah Raine, had assured Luc that the CPU was a workable design, which—once they had a working prototype—would make enough money to keep Luc fat and happy for the rest of his life.
That’s what Luc wanted.
“Lucien.”
Luc paused, his hand on the doorknob, and waited for his grandfather to continue.
“I’ll make a deal with you.”
“I’m listening.”
“Tell me why you need the loan and I’ll give you the money.”
Luc smirked and glanced over his shoulder. “I fell for that one when I was twelve. It took me a whole summer to buy back the bike which you so generously bought and leased to me. I’ve had nearly eighteen years to learn from my mistake.” He opened the door.
“Son, if you walk through that door, I’ll…,” his grandfather trailed off with a thinly veiled threat.
Luc stopped. “You’ll what?”
“Do what I’ve been itching to do all along.”
Something in his grandfather’s voice made Luc turn around. “Damn it all to hell.” He slammed the door shut and strode towards the desk. “You know. Don’t you?”
His grandfather smiled. “Well, that got your attention.”
“Answer me,” Luc growled.
The old man chuckled. “Son, this may be my last chance to yank your chain, so I figured… hell, I might as well make it a doozie.” He picked up a pen and offered it to his grandson. “Walk out of this office without taking my loan and… well, I’ll step in and add that little company, which you want so badly, to my empire.”
Luc was seething. He couldn’t speak. He needed to speak. Or rather, he had the uncontrollable urge to rant and rave. But he couldn’t. The wily old bastard knew.
“I bet you’re wondering how I knew, aren’t ya?” His grandfather looked immensely pleased with himself.
Luc’s fingers twitched and it took an incredible amount of willpower not to strangle the man who had helped his mother raise him after Luc’s father had disappeared twenty-eight years ago with a buxom secretary.
“That engineer down at Intrinsic Inc. contacted Dwight Cassidy when he couldn’t get his boss at Intrinsic to pay attention to his idea. You remember Dwight, don’t ya, son? He went to school with your friend, Benajah Raine. Well, Dwight took one look at the schematics for that fancy CPU and introduced the engineer to Benny.”
Luc dragged a hand through his hair. It was like a nightmare. A hellish nightmare. Any minute now, his assistant at Andersen Corporation, Elise Hamilton, would walk into his office with her pretty blue eyes, perky smile, and take him to task for ruining her lunch hour with a mountain of revisions for his final report to Andersen’s board of directors. Luc would give his soul to have Elise walk into his grandfather’s high-rise building and take Luc by the hand, then lead him off to the sweet, innocent world she lived in. A world where grandfathers didn’t play manipulative mind games. A place which was happy and giddy and… as sweet and innocent as Elise herself.
“You may be wondering why Dwight introduced him to Benny. Well, I’ll tell ya.” His grandfather was enjoying this too much. “Dwight’s a busy man. Hell, he works for me and I pay him a lot of money to stay busy. So when he learned that Intrinsic Inc. owned the rights to that little CPU design, he didn’t think twice about sending the engineer over to your friend’s office.
“It wasn’t until after Benny called Dwight for his opinion on the design that Dwight shuffled on up here for a good ass whoopin’. But by the time Dwight confessed his sins to me, you were approaching me for a loan to buy Intrinsic Inc.” He gave a Gaelic shrug as if to say, ‘what could I do?’. “And as much as I like to outmaneuver the next guy, you are my grandson and I do love you. Dearly.”
Luc nearly choked on his outrage. This was a hell of a way for his grandfather to show his affection.
“You’re my pride and joy. I’d do just about anything for you. So, son, sign the contract and take the loan, or I’m gonna walk in and buy that company.”
Luc’s jaw throbbed with tension. He gave his grandfather a harsh look which Elise probably would have referred to as his patented Lucifer expression. The fierce stare may make his temporary assistant quake in her heels, but it did nothing to his grandfather. Nothing, but amuse the slick geezer.
Luc swallowed hard and forced his jaw to unlock. “There are only two good things which can come from this.” He pulled his pen—which should be renamed from his lucky pen to his unlucky one—from his suit pocket, then yanked the cap off and prepared to sign the cursed agreement.
“Only two? Son, I’m envisioning a lot of good things.”
“One is that I get Intrinsic.” Luc gripped the pen and signed his name in an illegible scrawl to his copy of the contract.
“Yep, you sure do. I’m mighty proud of you for findin’ this gem of a company. You’re gonna make lots and lots of money.”
Luc took a deep breath and penned his name on his grandfather’s copy. “And the other is… when my mother and sisters hear of this contract, they will make your life hell. For the rest of your numbered days, my mother and my three sisters will—”
“Think again, son.” His grandfather tapped his forefinger on the only paragraph in the middle of the second page. “That there is a privacy statement. If any party not directly mentioned in this contract hears of it before the execution of the legal marriage between the borrower and a suitable female, then… you don’t get the loan.”
“Son of a… dammit.”
His grandfather grinned. “Which reminds me.” He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a small blue velvet bag, then tossed it to Luc. “Inside there is your great-grandmother’s ring. None of your sisters wanted it and your mother already had one… so maybe your bride will like it. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Luc ignored his grandfather’s blatant dismissal and extracted a simple white-gold diamond engagement ring from the velvet bag. He had less than two weeks to find a suitable female, finish the hellish job at Andersen Corporation, get married, and… buy Intrinsic Inc..
Two weeks.
Damn. Luc dropped the ring into the bag and pocketed it. He snatched up his copy of the contract, folded it up, and then stuffed it inside his suit jacket.
Where the hell was he going to find a wife?
Luc turned and strode from the office. He didn’t have a girlfriend. He spent more time in the office tending to his ambition than he did on the dating scene. Hell, Luc hadn’t been out on a date in… a painfully long time. The last woman, who wasn’t related to him, he took to dinner was the assistant he’d borrowed from Andersen Corporation’s pool of employees for the purpose of speeding up the time it’d take for him to reorganize the company and that didn’t count because Elise was—
Elise. She could be his suitable female. She was single. She was young and attractive and… she’d never agree.
Luc stopped in front of the elevator and banged his fist into the down button. He’d worked with Elise for nearly six months and he knew enough about her to know that she lived in a better world than average humans did. Elise was the woman people referred to as the girl who lived next door. She was innocent, sweet, naïve as hell, and… so pure that one part of Luc begged to corrupt her and the other part screamed to protect her.
The elevator opened and he stepped inside, then mashed the button for the lobby.
His protective instincts were stronger—or maybe it was bachelor-survival instincts kicking in and telling him that an affair with Elise would end in marriage? Either way, Luc had refrained from pursing Elise on a more personal level. There were times when he’d walked into the office, found her bent over the filing cabinets, and… it was all Luc could do to keep his hands to himself. She wore the sexiest business suits with these short skirts, which made him… wonder. And Luc shouldn’t wonder about the things he wondered about, because Elise would surely slap the living… and when she toyed with a pen cap.
Lord have mercy on his poor, unworthy soul. He loved it, absolutely loved it, when she sank her white little teeth into a pen cap and gnawed on it to death. He wished she’d wrap those sweet lips around him instead of a cheap plastic pen cap.
Luc groaned inwardly. That little habit of mutilating pen caps was ten times more erotic than watching her bent over the filing cabinets.
The elevator doors opened and Luc carefully walked towards the entrance.
No matter how much Luc wanted Elise, he knew she wouldn’t agree to a marriage which was less than a picture perfect life of harmony and bliss. Hell, the harshest curse he’d ever heard her utter was fudge. No, she’d never agree to marriage. He told himself to forget it and tried to banish her image from his mind.
But the blonde haired, blue eyed nymph refused to disappear and he was forced to contemplate all her five feet and glorious four inches naked on their wedding night.
Luc muttered a curse and shoved the front doors opened, then walked outside. The wind picked up and thunder boomed in the distance. He’d better walk faster if he intended to beat the storm that was brewing. But then again, maybe a cold shower would do him good. At this point, it couldn’t hurt.
Okay, Luc said to himself as he moved briskly down the two blocks that separated his grandfather’s building and Andersen Corporation, let’s assume for one minute that I ask Elise. What would be required in order to make her say yes?
A miracle. Divine intervention.
Luc grimaced. If divine inspiration hadn’t saved him from his grandfather’s nefarious plans, then he doubted he had enough brownie points upstairs to purchase a boon and get the fairy princess’ hand.
The first fat drop of rain splattered on the sidewalk and lightning flashed across the sky, followed by a loud crack of thunder.
Luc turned all of his attention towards getting back to the office before he got soaked and electrocuted. The way his luck was running today he wouldn’t be surprised if Mother Nature wanted a piece of him, too.

Elise Hamilton cringed as thunder boomed outside Andersen Corporation. The phone line hissed and popped. “Um, Raven, could you repeat that?”
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
Her eyes bulged and a pen slipped from her grip, then bounced from the desk to the floor. “Oh my goodness,” she breathed in horror. Elise swallowed hard and reached for a spare pen cap to gnaw on, then forced herself to ask her brother, “Raven, where in the world are we going to get thirty thousand dollars?”
“I don’t know, Elise.” Her half-brother cursed under his breath. “I called Dad and… well, you know how Apollo is about money.”
“Yeah, I know.” Elise’s shoulders fell. Apollo, Raven’s father, was as confused with money matters as their mother, Moonbeam. “I’ll call my dad. He’ll help.” I hope, she added silently.
“Elise,” Raven said in his wiser older brother tone. “If it were you who needed the money, I’d say ask. But Wyndemere won’t stroke a check for more than a couple of hundred without asking why. And if your father finds out that his money is being used to save Moonbeam, then he will re-enact page three hundred and twenty-six of The Seven Blades of Death.”
“I don’t even want to know what happened on that page,” she muttered. Skimming the blurbs on the back of her father’s books was enough to make Elise sleep with all the lights on for a month. She’d rather curl up with her worn copy of Pride and Prejudice or watch The Parent Trap for the six-hundredth time than experience the bone chilling fear her father’s graphic novels detailed.
Raven sighed. “I just left Mom and she’s—as usual—in another world. Moonbeam swears that The Guiding Light of Gaia will bail her out of this one.”
“The Church said they’d help her,” Elise asked, surprised.
“Not in a way that’ll help. Moonbeam and the head priestess are discussing the proper herbs and chants to use for their super-duper, whammy of a money spell. Her words, not mine.”
Elise fell back in her chair and groaned. “Thirty thousand dollars. I don’t have thirty thousand dollars. My car isn’t even worth a fourth of that.” She closed her eyes, racking her brain for possible sources of fast cash, and came up with a meager solution. “I’ll sell my car and get a second job.”
“Elise, if you sell your car how do you plan on getting to your first job, let alone your second one?”
“Raven, it’s either sell my car or my body.”
“Sell the car,” her older brother said quickly. “I’ll find you a moped.”
Elise managed to chuckle. “Thanks. Nice to know I won’t have to thumb for a ride everyday. What are you planning on selling? Your body?”
“No.” He hesitated. “I… my babies.”
Elise bolted upright in her chair. “Your babies? Are you out of your mind? Insane? You can’t sell your babies! How will you work? I’d rather sell my body than let you sell your cameras,” she snapped.
He growled loud enough for her to hear it from his studio across town. “Elise, if we’re gonna keep Moonbeam out of trouble, then we’ll have to come up with a helluvalot more than thirty thousand. That—my sweet, little sister—is just the beginning.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice along with a heavy dose of anger, which Elise suspected Raven directed at himself. He probably blamed himself for letting their free spirited mother get into a predicament as serious as this.
“Explain,” she ordered. “How bad is Mom’s situation?”
“Bad. Moonbeam didn’t forget to file, she flat out refused to pay her taxes. She’s in the hole about a hundred thousand and—”
“A hundred thousand?”
“Don’t shout, Elise. My head is killing me.”
“Oh, sorry,” she murmured. “Continue.”
“Thank you. Moonbeam didn’t pay her taxes during the Reagan Administration. She was making a statement about something Reagan said in one of his movies. I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now. And—don’t,” he ordered when she drew in a sharp breath, “shout—a hundred grand is just a round about number the tax police came up with. We need to find thirty thousand now or Moonbeam is looking at charges of tax evasion.”
“Ohmiword,” she breathed. “Mom’s going to the slammer.”
“No. She is not. I’m selling my babies. All of them. Including my… bike,” Raven finished in a pained tone.
It took her a moment to speak. “Oh, no. Raven, you can’t sell your Harley. She’s your baby. You built her yourself. You spent years finding all of the parts and….” Her eyes welled with emotion. Raven’s Harley was his pride and joy. His first love. He never went anywhere without Aphrodite—the name he’d given his Harley-Davidson when she’d been a tarnished skeleton of a motorcycle.
“I don’t have a choice, Elise. Mom doesn’t have the cash. She can’t sell the house without losing money. You don’t have the money.” He swore violently. “Hell, Moonbeam is depending on moon magic to save her. I’d rather sell my cameras and my… bike than let her lose everything.” Elise knew Raven didn’t put a lot of credence in their mother’s beliefs, but she also knew when push came to shove he would give his life to spare Moonbeam a moment of pain.
“But how will you work? You can’t be a photographer without cameras,” Elise whispered.
“Ken—the guy I did the last shoot for—said he’d buy them from me. He’ll let me borrow the cameras, as long as I do the Sandy Springs layout and a couple others.”
“Oh, Raven. I wish there was more I could do. Selling your cameras is one thing, but Aphrodite…? Once you sell her, you won’t ever get her back.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. But, Elise, if you’ve got a better idea, I’m listening.”
Elise closed her eyes and braced herself as she asked, “When do we have to have the thirty thousand by?”
“We’ve got two weeks. And Elise?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t even think about selling your body.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny. Like anyone would pay thirty grand for an overworked, undernourished administrative assistant like me,” she muttered.
“They’d pay, but not for your typing skills,” he replied jokingly. “I say we both skip town. We’ll run away when they come for Moonbeam. Can’t feel guilty over something you don’t see.” She heard the smile in his voice as he added, “I heard of a good convent who’s recruiting down in South America. You meet all of their requirements.”
Elise smirked and shook her head. Raven took his brotherly responsibilities too far sometimes. Trying to lighten her mood and keep her chastity belt in place were but two of many. “All but one, Brother Raven.”
“Oh yeah? Which one,” he demanded. “I haven’t seen you out with anyone since the dork from—”
“I’m not Catholic and David wasn’t a dork. He was a… very nice person.”
Raven chuckled. “He was a dork. He only wanted two things from you and when he got the first, he ran screaming for his mama.”
“Raven,” Elise snapped. “I still haven’t forgiven you for introducing David to Dad.”
“Me? Wyndemere wanted to meet him. I didn’t do anything, but introduce them.”
“You know very well what you did.” Elise clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Telling Dad that David was writing a book with me as the heroine—”
Raven laughed. “Not just any heroine, mind you.”
Elise’s frown bordered on a smile. “How could I forget? I was to be Sasha, the sex crazed, man-slaying nymph.”
Raven cleared his throat pointedly. “You know that dork wasn’t good enough for you. I did you a favor by getting rid of him.”
Elise glanced at the six-inch stack of folders her boss had dropped on her desk before lunch and her mood soured. “How about getting rid of Luc? He’s drowning me in paperwork.” She pulled out her desk drawer and scanned it for potential weapons. “I’ll hold him down for you and we’ll tag team him. I’ve got… eight rubber bands. We’ll put his hands behind his back and… we can smother him in Post-it notes.”
“And then what will we do? Paper clip him to death? Oh, no, I’ve got it. We’ll use the stapler and—”
“Yeah, that’s it. I’ll lock him in his office and guard the door. You can take him, Raven. I know you can. He’s no match for you. Please. He left me with a mountain of revisions for his big meeting and… please, Raven. I’m begging you.”
Her brother laughed. “Forget it, Elise. I’ve seen your boss. Rubber bands won’t hold him long enough for me to load the stapler. Now if it had been the dork, rubber bands would have sufficed.” He paused. “Besides, I’d rather waste my time mixing herbs for Moonbeam’s super-duper, whammy of a money spell.” Raven sighed. “Do what you have to, Elise. If you come up with an idea before the end of the week, let me know. Ken’s bringing over the check on Friday.”
“I will. I’ll call you when I get home tonight—if it’s not too late by the time I get out of here.”
“Make sure someone walks you out to the car. I don’t want to have to worry about you, too.”
“Luc always does. Later, Raven, and try not to cry too much.”
Raven grunted and hung up.
Elise stared at the phone and replayed the conversation in her mind. The longer she thought about it, the angrier she became.
Rain pelted the roof of Andersen Corporation’s building and the windows shook as thunder boomed over head.
Elise toyed with the cap before clamping her teeth down on it and gnawing it to death. “This bites big wankerdoodle,” she complained into her cluttered cubicle. “What was she thinking not to pay her taxes?”
“Elise, did you say something?” Donna, in the next cube over, asked.
“No. Just talking to myself. Again.”
Donna chuckled. “Just as long as you don’t answer yourself.”
Elise harrumphed and picked up a folder from the top of the stack she had to muddle through before clocking out, then arranged the papers on the tray next to the monitor. “I’ll tell you what she was thinking. ‘Government, I don’t need no stinking government.’,” she told the computer monitor in a hushed whisper.
Elise threw down the mutilated pen cap and grabbed a fresh one. “Ha! It’s all that nonsense preached about at The Guiding Light of Gaia which has brought the tax police down on her.” Elise shoved the thumb drive, which contained the master document for Luc’s project, in the computer, then moved the mouse and copied it to her hard drive. “Well, Moonbeam, let’s see Gaia get you out of this one.”
A bright burst of lightning flashed outside the window and the lights in the building died as a resounding explosion rocked the corporate office. From somewhere in the middle of the cubicle farm, a co-worker’s blunt, explicit curse reverberated between the walls.
The papers slipped from the tray and floated down into her lap.
“Elise, do you smell smoke?”
The lights flickered and the air conditioning groaned back to life.
Elise’s jaw dropped.
A tuft of smoke unfurled from her computer.
“Oh my goodness.” Elise looked straight up at the white tile ceiling and said fervently, “I didn’t mean it, Gaia. Honest I didn’t. I’ll never say another bad thing again. Just let me keep the hard drive. Please. I was so close to being finished,” she whispered.
“Elise,” Luc called from behind her. “Did you finish those revisions?”
“Oh no,” Elise whimpered.
Luc was back from lunch and, more than likely, ready to dictate more changes to his plan for the financial reconstruction of Andersen Corporation.
Elise swiveled in her chair and gazed up into his clean-shaven face. The fear she felt must have been written all over her expression, because his blue-green, grayish eyes moved, looking over her shoulder to the sizzling computer. She cringed inwardly as his relaxed appearance transformed into his patented Lucifer look. His attention fastened on her face and his jaw tensed, along with his shoulders, his hands, and in all likelihood the rest of his body.
“Tell me it’s not as bad as it looks,” he ground out.
She lifted her shoulders hesitantly and picked up the papers in her lap, holding them with a white knuckled grip. “It’s not as bad as it looks. We’ve still got the hard copies.”
There was a loud crack, then a hiss behind her.
“It’s gonna blow,” Donna cried.
Luc lunged forward and grabbed Elise, yanking her bodily out of the chair. “Someone get a fire extinguisher before the sprinklers go off,” he ordered. Luc snatched up the folders from the desk and thrust them into Elise’s arms. “Tell me you still have the thumb drive,” he said. “Please.”
“Well,” she hedged. “Technically we still have it, but….” She pointed to the computer. “It was sort of in there when…,” she trailed off on a whimper.
Luc ran a hand through his chestnut brown hair and cursed.
Her knees shook and Elise clutched the folders to her stomach, then sank to the ground.
Her mother owed a hundred thousand dollars or more to the government.
Her brother was selling his motorcycle.
Her computer was on fire.
Her boss was mad at her.
And Elise had lost six months worth of work on a project, which Luc had informed her yesterday would be completed within a few days.
Life couldn’t get much worse than this.

CHAPTER TWO

“Elise, where are the notes from the meeting with Hayworth?”
On my fried computer, she nearly answered aloud. “I put it there.” She pointed to a pile on the corner of his desk.
“I looked there.” Luc ran a frustrated hand through his chestnut brown hair and cursed under his breath. He pushed back his chair and surged to his feet, then leaned over the desk to rifle through stacks of folders.
Elise set aside his laptop computer and went to help him look. “I put it with the files from your Tuesday talk with Smithers.”
Luc spared her a glance. “In the same folder?”
“No,” she explained patiently. “It’s in one of its own. I know I brought it in here. It was on my desk before Gaia destroyed by computer.”
“It wasn’t Gaia. It was lightning. And it wasn’t your fault,” he muttered. “So don’t start apologizing again. You heard Jim explain why it happened to your computer and no one else’s.”
“I heard, but that doesn’t mean I believe him,” she retorted sharply. Jim, the computer guru, had assured Elise that the destruction of her computer hadn’t been her fault, but the result of a direct hit to the transformer outside the building. Jim had gone on to say that since her computer was the first one set up on the network, it’d been the first to go. And the only one. Jim had called it luck. Whatever.
Elise knew it’d been Gaia’s revenge. She’d been singled out by Mother Nature for doubting Her ability to help Moonbeam. Rule number one when dealing with Pagan gods and goddesses, don’t irk them. Pay back is heck. Elise was paying for her blasphemy and then some. Having to work with a grumpy Luc was a punishment all unto itself. She wished he would just go home and take a nap. His bad mood was rubbing off on her.
The tab of a vanilla folder peeked out from underneath a mound of papers. “There it is. Lift those and—” Elise touched the folder and the precarious stack on his desk shifted. “No!”
Luc cursed and scrambled to catch the pile as it slid for the floor. “I’ve got it. Pull out the folder. Do it slowly, Elise.”
She sucked in a deep breath and eased the Hayworth notes out. “Luc, I think it would be safer if I just went home. Gaia is punishing me.”
“As much as I’d like to send you home, you can’t leave yet. We have to finish this project.” He righted the stack and held out his hand for the notes. “You just go over there and sit down. Next time I ask where something is, point.” He must have noticed her annoyance, because he added in a sugar sweet, Southern drawl, “Please.”
Elise glared at him, then spun on her heel and stalked back to her seat. When Lucien Gray resorted to his country boy charm, Elise knew she was in trouble. In trouble of melting. When she’d been asked to move from Roger Dill’s boring office to Luc’s temporary one, Elise had been an idiot to agree.
Luc was an overachieving, work-a-holic. Oh sure, he was vocal in his appreciation of her help, but the work was grueling. Not only that, but he was tall, lean, and sexier than he had a right to be. And he knew it. He didn’t flaunt his sex appeal. Luc didn’t need to. It showed in the way he carried himself. The confidence in his walk, the breadth of his shoulders, the angle of his jaw, the arch of his brow, the knowing gleam in his sinfully wicked eyes, the firm, sensuous lines of his mouth, the velvety roughness of his… voice.
Elise swallowed hard and summoned forth an irritation she no longer felt. It did little to erase the heat her errant thoughts had caused. Thinking about him as a man instead of a boss never failed to elicit a response which both excited and mortified her. Having an infatuation for Luc was one thing, but being attracted to a man who was married to his job and only looked at her when he needed a fax or a copy made was completely unacceptable and downright annoying.
She plopped the laptop onto her thighs and settled her fingers over the keyboard. “The next time you ask for something, I’ll draw a danged map.”
Luc sighed and dropped into his seat. “Do that.” He swiveled his chair and returned to pounding numbers on his keyboard.
Her fingers flew over the minuscule laptop and she stifled an exclamation each time her fingernail hit the wrong key, then snagged in a groove. The wretched thing was out to rip her nails. She wouldn’t be having this problem if Luc would let her use his computer which was normal sized. But no, she drawled sarcastically in her mind, Luc was afraid she might summon up another electrical storm and blow up another computer.
Elise didn’t need Raven to take out Luc. She’d do it herself. Working her like a… lowly minion of hell. Maybe he didn’t have a personal life, but she did. She had a stack of books at home waiting to be read along with countless DVR’ed shows which were probably no longer on the air.
He was so smug and arrogant and… demanding. Elise get me this. Give me that. Make a copy of this. Did you call for that? She conveniently left out the fact that he’d remembered her birthday with flowers and he’d taken her out to lunch several times to thank her for helping him.
Her nail snagged in the keyboard and ripped. “Damnation,” she muttered with feeling. Elise was more upset with herself for ignoring his good deeds—such as, walking her out to her car every night they worked late; listening to her comments on his project; complimenting her on her efficiency and accuracy when typing up his notes; bringing her breakfast on those early mornings before a full day of meetings; and, probably the best of all, noticing when she bought a new dress, or earrings, or trimmed her hair. As much as Elise would like to make him into the evil boss she wanted him to be, he wasn’t. He was, she sighed to herself, the best darn boss she’d ever had.
Luc snickered. “Damnation?”
“Yes. As in eternal damnation and hellfire.”
“Another Lucifer reference?”
She blushed. “No. I am not going to give you the satisfaction of another Lucifer reference.”
“Too bad. Some of them weren’t half bad. What was it you called me? Hell’s overlord who wields his lucky pen like it’s… what was that last part?”
Her good opinion of him disappeared and her irritation returned full force.
“I don’t remember,” Elise lied. She remembered the incident clearly. The blasted man had overheard every word of a private gripe session after a particularly difficult day during the first month of their master-minion work relationship. He’d snuck up behind her in the break room and listened to her hushed mutterings when he was supposed to have been in his car and on his way back to his lair.
Luc repeated the phrase, trailing off at the part she wished he’d forget. He knew exactly what she’d said. He just wanted to hear her say it again. Well, she wasn’t about to repeat the words. Suffering another bout of Gaia’s wrath would be preferable than recalling those mortifying words she’d hissed in a fit of real temper.
He tapped his pen—his lucky pen which had put the fear of termination into every employee at Andersen Corporation since its arrival—against the desk. He knew it annoyed her. Just as Elise knew her habit of chewing on pen caps irritated the daylights out of him. Oh, but how she longed to get her teeth on his pen and gnaw it to death.
“Hell’s overlord who wields his lucky pen like it’s…?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Enough. Elise’s tolerance disappeared in a sulfurous cloud of smoke. “Hell’s overlord who wields his lucky pen like it’s his staff of masculinity,” she ground out, then lowered her head and pounded furiously on the laptop’s keyboard.
Luc laughed and the hairs at her nape prickled. “Staff of masculinity. How could I have forgotten that? You could have just said—”
Her cheeks burned red hot. “I made that up before I knew you liked to beat your lucky pen against the desk.”
He turned in his seat and smiled the smile which never failed to raise her body temperature a hundred degrees. “And it was that particular phrase which made your habit of sucking on pen caps all the more bearable.”
Elise glared at him and his smile widened. “Isn’t there another innocent soul you’d rather be tormenting? A convention of hell raisers you should be attending? A baby who needs his candy stolen? A poker game down at the boys’ club which needs moderating?”
“Aw, poor, Elise. Having a bad day?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. Now would you kindly leave me alone so I can finish this wretched spreadsheet and go home.”
“Has anyone ever told you how adorable you are when you’re miffed?”
“Lucien, you are really starting to grate on my nerves,” she muttered.
“Me? What did I do? I was just complementing you.”
“You know perfectly well what you’ve done. Elise, where’s this? Where’s that? I can’t find this. Telling me that it’s not my fault that the stupid computer exploded.”
He chuckled. “That’s right. Let it all out.”
“But it is my fault that the computer went kaboom,” she told him. “If I hadn’t blasphemed then none of this would’ve happened and I’d be home trying to talk my brother out of selling… and preventing my mother from being… oh, would you just go away?” Her shoulders fell and, closing her eyes, she hung her head. Elise sniffled. “And on top of everything, I have to retype all of these durn spreadsheets and… why couldn’t this have happened after you and your infernal pen finished firing everyone?”
“Elise?” His chair creaked and she heard him pull two tissues from a box.
She swiped the moisture from her cheeks. “Don’t you dare be nice to me. I’m mad at you and I’ll stay mad until I’m good and ready not to be. Fudge. Look at what you made me do.” She stared at the dark smudges on her fingertips. “Stupid mascara.”
He handed her the tissues.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
Luc sat down on the couch next to her and took the laptop from her and shut down the program, then set it aside. He sighed and she felt the weight of his thoughtful eyes. “Elise?”
“If you’re about to ask me to tell you my troubles, then—” She stopped when he chucked a finger under her chin and tilted her face up.
“I’d know if you were really mad at me.” His unreadable gray eyes searched her face. “What’s the real reason for this?” His thumb smoothed across her cheek.
A shiver of awareness rippled through her. “Stress.”
He smiled. “Six months ago, I might have let you get by with that excuse, but not tonight. Tell me.”
“It’s personal.”
“A personal problem which involves your brother selling something and preventing your delightful mother from something. Hmm.”
“Luc, I’d really rather not talk about it.”
He ignored her. “This has all the ear marks of another Moonbeam fiasco. Did she put the wrong type of oil in her car again?”
“No and I resent the—”
“Another indecent exposure charge?”
“No and I’m not—”
“Ah, I know. Moonbeam is being blackmailed by an anti-New Age group who has discovered what her real name is and… they’re threatening to spill the beans to the rest of the card carrying New-Age folks unless she comes up with five thousand dollars in order to keep them quiet.”
Elise pursed her lips. “No.”
Luc drummed his fingers on his thigh. “No, that’s not enough to make you cry. Moonbeam has been kidnapped by a band of… no, that wouldn’t work. What would your brother have to sell in order to gain Moonbeam’s freedom?”
“Luc.”
“Hmm?”
“There’s a very good reason why I’m not going to tell you.”
“I know.” He folded his arms and shifted on the couch, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “Your brother is planning on selling you in order to raise enough cash to save Moonbeam from… something dire.” He looked at her. “How much is Raven selling you for?”
“You don’t have enough.”
“Ten thousand.”
Elise was incredulous. “You don’t give up, do you?”
His expression was serious and intent. “Not today. What has Moonbeam gotten herself into this time?”
She gave a resigned sigh, then looked down at the balled tissues in her hand. “My mother owes a hundred thousand dollars in back taxes and my brother is going to sell just about everything he’s worked so hard to get in order to prevent Mom from facing charges of tax evasion.”
“And you’re feeling guilty because Raven’s the one making the sacrifice. Not you.”
She shouldn’t have been shocked by his perceptive statement, but she was a little surprised by it. “I don’t have anything of value to sacrifice. I’ve got a little bit saved, but… I don’t exactly make a ton of money working here.”
Luc sighed. “No wonder you were upset.” He paused, then nodded as if coming to an internal decision. “Go get your things.”
Elise forgot her running mascara. “But the spreadsheets aren’t—”
Luc stood up. “We’re getting out of here while you’re still speaking to me.” He glanced at her and smiled. “Go fix your mascara. I’ll meet you at the elevator.”
Elise balled up the tissue, then got to her feet. “I’ll be ready in five minutes.”
“Take your time. I’ve got to make a phone call.”

Luc waited until Elise disappeared down the hallway, then reached for the phone.
His grandfather answered on the second ring. “What?”
“I need to up the amount by a hundred grand.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry about why. Just adjust the loan amount,” Luc told him.
“You’re not allowed to buy a wife.”
“Very funny, Gramps. Just up the amount and send over the amended contract.”
His grandfather hesitated. “I’ll change it and you can sign it after the wedding.”
“Send it over before Friday.”
His grandfather laughed. “Why should I? You haven’t found a fiancée, yet.”
“Just do it.” Luc hung up and refused to let himself think about the trap his grandfather had boxed him into. He had more important things to do besides dwelling on the injustices of the world.
He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and shrugged into it. He checked his pockets, making sure the velvet bag and ring were where he’d left them, then headed for the door.
Divine intervention? A boon from Mother Nature? Another form of punishment for Elise’s supposed blasphemy?
Luc was too happy to care which it was. Now, what he really wanted to know was… considering everything he knew about Elise, what was the best way for him to use Moonbeam’s latest fiasco to his advantage?
He pondered that question while he waited for Elise.
Elise met him at the elevators, looking more like herself. “Luc, I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“Don’t be. I thoroughly enjoyed.” He pressed the down button. “Do you have any plans tonight?”
She shook her head and the elevator doors opened.
“Then how about joining me for a drink?”
Elise hesitated. “I should just go on home.”
Luc motioned for her to precede him into the elevator, then pushed the button for the lobby and the doors closed. “You have to let me apologize over a drink or two?” He gave her his best puppy dog look. “Unless you’d rather let me appease my conscience by sending you flowers tomorrow?”
Elise blinked and a hint of a smile kindled in her eyes. “Can’t I have both?”
“You can.” The doors opened and Luc ushered her into the lobby. “Come on. We’ll drop off your car at your place, then find a bar.”
“Okay, but that bar better have food. I’m starving.”
“If it doesn’t have food, then I’ll be more than happy to let you have my lucky pen as sustenance.”
“Mmm.” She batted her lashes at him. “You just don’t know how long I’ve dreamed of sinking my teeth into your lucky pen.”
Luc stifled a groan and escorted her towards the exit.

“So that is the whole sordid tale.”
Luc leaned back in his chair and rotated the longneck bottle between his hands. “That’s some tale.” He lifted the bottle, motioned for the waitress to bring him another, then polished off the beer. A few more minutes of casual conversation and Luc suspected Elise would be ready to hear his proposal.
Elise stirred her whiskey sour with the straw, rattling the ice, and pushed her empty plate to the side. “But that doesn’t excuse my snapping at you.”
“Elise, there’s—”
“I shouldn’t have done it. It’s not your fault that my mother didn’t pay her taxes.”
Luc looked her right in the eye and said, “It wasn’t your fault, either.”
Elise blinked and lowered her gaze. “In instances like these, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. What’s important is finding the money and preventing my mother from having to face charges of tax evasion.” She sighed and stabbed at an ice cube with her straw. “Right now, Moonbeam and the head priestess are probably working their super-duper, whammy of a money spell. I hope it works. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle Raven once Aphrodite is gone.”
“Aphrodite sounds like she’s one helluva bike.”
“She is.” Elise stopped playing with her drink and lifted her head, a rueful smile on her face. “You were right when you said I felt guilty. I do.”
His chest tightened at the defeated light in her expression.
Tears pooled in her eyes. “My brother is sacrificing everything that he worked so long and so hard for and I don’t have anything to contribute.” She gave a humorless laugh. “If I thought for one minute that selling my body to the highest bidder would give me enough money to pay for everything, then I’d do it.” She bowed her head and her shoulders shook with a mixture of laughter and sobs. “But the sad part is… Aphrodite is worth more than me.”
“Come here.” Luc hauled her chair closer to his, then pulled her head to his shoulder.
Elise hesitated, but eventually let him comfort her. “Luc, what am I going to do? I can’t let Raven give up everything. I just can’t.” She sniffled. “He always has to make the sacrifices. It’s not fair. Did you know that he’s the one who put me through college? Dad couldn’t afford it, because his books weren’t as popular then as they are now. And Mom couldn’t afford it, because she’d thrown all of her money into who knows what and… Raven said he’d take care of it. And he did.” She swiped at her cheeks and continued in a thick, watery voice. “He sold all his cameras and got a job as a brick layer and… paid for everything. I can’t let him do that again. I just can’t.”
Luc pressed a kiss into her hair. He wasn’t sure which he hated more, Elise’s tears or the fact that his conscience was telling him not to use her current predicament to his advantage. He ignored his righteous inner voice and took a deep breath.
“Elise?”
She plucked a napkin from the table and used it to dab her nose. “Yes?”
“I know of a way you can prevent your brother from sacrificing everything and still save your mother.”
Elise went very still. “How?”
Luc leaned back and waited for her to raise her gaze to his. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the waitress bring him a fresh beer, then leave.
“How?”
“By giving me something which I have no right to ask for,” he said in a low voice.
Her brow furrowed. “My body?”
“No.” Luc smoothed the pad of his thumb across her full bottom lip and fought the urge to kiss her. The time wasn’t right. After she said yes to his proposal would be the perfect time and if she hesitated, he could always ply her with kisses until she gave in. Luc personally hoped she would hesitate. “But I like the way you think.”
He was pleased when his comment brought the color back to her cheeks and a quirk of a smile to her luscious mouth.
“Lucien,” she chided in a husky, sensuous voice which worked on every nerve in his body. “If it’s not my body you want, then what do you want?”
“Darlin’, you misunderstand. It’s not what I want. It’s what I don’t have a right to ask for. Big difference.” His gaze skimmed over her from her silky, dark blonde hair down to her shapely legs ensconced in stockings. “Real big difference.”
Her cheeks flamed and Elise wacked him in the stomach with the back of her hand. “You know what I meant.”
Luc humored her with a mild grunt, then reached for his drink. “Did I?”
“Yes, you did.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” He wrapped his hand around the longneck and willed the coldness to seep from the bottle into his bloodstream. “I don’t want you to suffer any misunderstandings about how attractive you are, because, darlin’, you are very attractive and I am attracted to you. Very attracted.” He lifted his beer and took a long swallow.
“Luc, are you drunk?”
“No, but the night’s still young. I figure if you say no, then I can drink myself into oblivion.”
Elise clicked her tongue and reached for her drink. “Well, you can forget about driving home.”
“If that’s an invitation to stay at your place tonight, then I accept and I swear I’ll sleep on any side of the bed you tell me to.”
“I’m sure you would, but you won’t get that chance.” There was a slight tremor in her voice and Elise drained the rest of her whiskey sour. “You’d best be careful, Lucien, you’re starting to sound desperate.”
She couldn’t know how desperate he was. “Elise, would you do me a favor?”
“If it involves calling you a cab, then—”
“Forget the cab,” Luc interrupted.
“I will not, because you are not driving home and you are not staying at my place.”
“Elise.” Luc set down the bottle and took her drink from her hand, then put it on the table and reached for her left hand. Her fingers were icy cold. “I need a favor and it definitely doesn’t involve a cab.”
She frowned. “Does this favor have to do with what you don’t have a right to ask for?”
“Yes.” He looked down at her hand. “If you grant me this favor, I’ll give you the money to pay the taxes.”
“No.”
His head snapped up. “But you haven’t heard what the favor is.”
Elise shook her head. “Luc, you don’t understand. If you need a favor, then I’ll be more than happy to help you, but I refuse to let you give me the money.”
“But, Elise—”
“Uh-uh. No. You are not going to make me change my mind. Now tell me what the favor is so I can do it.”
Luc took one look at the stubborn tilt of her chin and said, “Marry me.”

CHAPTER THREE

Elise was distracted by the specks of gold in his gray eyes, when Luc announced the favor he needed. She didn’t need to hear what the favor was, because she already knew what her answer would be.
“Marry me.”
“Okay.” Two seconds later she rounded on him. “What did you say?”
“Marry me.”
Her jaw worked but no sound came for a good ten seconds. Marry him? Ohmigoodness. “No.”
“But you already said you would.”
“I changed my mind,” she sputtered. “I’m a woman, I’m allowed to do that.” Ohmigoodness. Shock, yes she was definitely in shock. Her heart thudded erratically. Her breathing was irregular and a horde of butterflies were invading her body.
His jaw tensed and she knew she was in trouble when his Lucifer expression didn’t make a dent in her agitated nervous system.
“And even if I weren’t allowed to change my mind like that, I still wouldn’t marry you,” Elise said in a rush.
“Why not,” Luc demanded.
She racked her brain for an answer. “Because… for starters you don’t have a ring and I promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn’t agree to marry someone who hadn’t taken the time to pick out a ring. ‘Cause darnit I’m worth a ring.” There. That ought to put an end to this marriage business.
Ohmigoodness. What am I thinking, she thought. Put an end to the marriage business? This was one of her dreams, to have the man who she fancied herself in love with ask her to marry her. Elise winced and mentally kicked herself.
“You’re worth a helluvalot more than a ring, Elise.” Luc yanked a blue velvet bag from his pocket and jerked it open, then extracted a diamond ring.
Elise’s eyes widened and her jaw fell open. “You have a ring,” she breathed.
“I do.” He reached for her left hand, but she snatched it out of his grasp. “What now? Am I suppose to get down on one knee? Fine, I’ll do that.” Luc shoved back his chair. “Stand up.”
He has a ring? Ohmigoodness. A ring. He’s serious. Ohmigoodness. He wants to marry me, her mind shouted. A nervous scream clogged her throat. Okay, okay. Calm down, she told herself. He wants to marry me! No, no he doesn’t. Shh, stop over reacting. He wants a favor. Gracious, if ever there was a favor Elise would love to do for Luc, this was it. But she couldn’t. Her spirits plummeted. Darnit. She couldn’t.
Luc stood up, then picked her up from the bar chair and set her on her feet.
Elise swallowed and forced herself to say, “I still won’t marry you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t love me.”
“How do you know I don’t?” He blinked, then shook his head. “No, don’t answer that.” Luc drew in a calming breath and Elise was suddenly aware of the attention they were drawing from the bar’s patrons.
“I wasn’t about to answer it.” A healthy dose of pride was infused in her voice. She’d made a personal vow long ago that she wouldn’t marry for anything other than love. She couldn’t back down on that oath now. No matter how much she wanted to.
“Elise, I asked you to marry me and—”
“No, you didn’t. You said marry me.”
“And you said yes,” he bit out.
“I did not. I said okay.”
“Same thing.”
“Is not,” she retorted. Her resolve was wavering and she knew it. Technically, she did agree to marry him. But the vow…? No, she couldn’t say yes. It would be a disaster if she did. Wouldn’t it?
Oh, Luc, why did you have to go and make me fall in love with you?

A man at the bar snickered and the bartender shushed him.
Luc looked over her head and searched for the magic combination of words which would change her mind. He didn’t find the words, but he found a pair of amused green eyes underneath bushy white brows. His grandfather was lounging at the bar, nursing a brandy, and sitting next to the old man was Luc’s mother and three older sisters.
His mother beamed at him and motioned for him to continue. His eldest sister, Lucy, mouthed for him to go down on one knee. His next eldest sister, Lucinda, flicked a thumb at Lucy and shook her head, saying no to the one knee idea. His twin sister, Eleanor, told him to ignore Cinda and gave the thumbs up on the one knee idea.
Two out of three, huh? Well, it was worth a shot. Things couldn’t get much worse than they already were.
Luc took a deep breath, swallowed his pride, and reached for her hand.
“Lucien,” Elise hissed. “Don’t you dare.”

Elise watched in horror as Luc dragged her out from behind the table—out into plain view of the entire bar—and went down on one knee.
She trembled. “Luc, please don’t. This is too much. Please. Don’t,” she whispered.
He gazed up at her with troubled gray eyes and her heart ached. “Elise, I have to. I don’t have a choice,” he replied in a low, ragged voice. “I need you.”
She blinked and let him tug her closer. “Why now? Why not earlier or yesterday or… why right now?”
“I didn’t have the ring until lunch and then there was the little matter with your computer and salvaging the report. It’s a weak excuse, but… it’s the truth.”
“You could have waited until later when we didn’t have an audience,” she muttered, glancing from side to side. Every eye in the bar was on them and anxiously awaiting their next words.
Luc squeezed her hand and drew her gaze back to him. He held the ring in his right hand, between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m not asking them, I’m asking you.”
Elise gulped and waited. Waited for the question. Waited for her conscience and heart to finish feuding and give her an answer. But what answer did she need?
Would it be a complete disaster if she agreed to marry him? Not a complete disaster, her heart shouted. A complete disaster would be two people who didn’t love each other were to marry. It would only be a minor disaster, because Elise was fairly certain that Luc cared for her. He wouldn’t ask her to marry him, if he didn’t care for her. Right?
Elise whimpered. “Luc, can’t we take some time and think this through? Take a couple of months and—”
“If I could, I would, but this is the only way to save Aphrodite. Do you want to feel guilty for the rest of your life, because you could have saved Aphrodite? A sacrifice which you could have—”
“Stop.” Her knees shook and bit her lip to keep it from quivering. This was another punishment form Gaia. It had to be. This was possibly the worst day of her life. Elise should stop trying to get out of her punishment and just… marry the man she thought she loved. It wasn’t like she was saving herself for anyone else.
“You’re serious about this,” she asked.
“Elise, I’m humiliating myself in front of an entire bar. I’m very serious.”
“This… is the favor you want,” she whispered more for herself than for him.
“Yes,” he answered.
“This is insane,” she muttered under her breath.
“Elise, will you marry me?”
That’s what he asked, but what she heard was… will you do me a great big, huge, whoppin’, doozie of a favor and marry me?
She dragged a deep breath and took her punishment like the good little girl she was.

“Uh, Elise, you look tired, maybe we should talk—”
“Oh, no you don’t. Get in here.” Elise grabbed Luc by the tie and dragged him into her downtown apartment. She was madder than she could ever remember being and Luc wasn’t getting out of her apartment without giving her a full explanation.
“You’re mad.”
Elise slammed the door closed and threw the dead bolt home. “You noticed.”
“I can explain.”
“Then start.” She whirled around and glared up at him.
He at least had the decency to look guilty and uncomfortable. “I can’t.”
“Pardon me?” Her hands flew to her hips and she advanced on him.
Luc held up his hands and retreated a step. “Elise, don’t hit me. I have a good explanation, but I can’t tell you yet.”
“What the devil do you mean by ‘I can’t tell yet’?” Elise pounded a forefinger against his chest. “You are durn well going to tell me what that was about. I want to know why you asked me to marry you as a favor and I want to know right now.”
“If I tell you, then you have to promise me you won’t back out on the wedding.”
“I’ll promise no such thing,” Elise said. “I only said yes, because you put me on the spot and those people in the bar would have turned on me if I’d said no.”
“Now, Elise, that’s not—”
“And you had to go and use my guilt against me.” She wrapped her fingers around his tie and pulled him down, until they were nose to nose. “Don’t you ever, and I mean ever, manipulate me like that again.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She released him and he staggered backwards. Elise turned on her heel and stalked from one end of her homey living room to the other. “You manipulated me in front of your family.”
“For the record, I didn’t know they were there until—”
“My brother is going to kill me. I won’t take the money.” She pivoted and paced back the other way. “Oh, but I should. Just to punish you for this. And then I’ll let Raven introduce you to my father and let him teach you a lesson you won’t soon forget and—” She stopped and scowled up at him. “Well, what are you waiting for? Start explaining.”
“Give me your word you won’t back out and—”
“Dammit, Lucien, I said yes in front of a bar full of strangers and your family. You have my word. Now, explain!”
Luc stared at her. “You said dammit.”
Elise folded her arms over her chest and tapped one toe on the floor. “Lucien,” she warned.
He blinked. “Disbursal of monies shall occur upon execution of a legal marriage contract between the borrower and a suitable female as defined herein.”
Her toe stopped its tapping. “Excuse me?”
Luc reached into his jacket and extracted a folded document, then handed it to her. “It’s all in there.”
Elise took the papers, then unfolded it and scanned it. At the bottom of the first page, she read the condition which Luc had quoted. Her eyes narrowed and her temper flared. “Who came up with this?”
Luc had taken off his jacket and was sitting on the couch. His elbows were braced on his thighs and he cradled his head in his hands, gripping his hair. “My grandfather.” He didn’t look up as he added, “Have a seat, Elise, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Elise sat down and listened. When Luc finished telling her about his dream of Intrinsic Inc., his grandfather’s low down trick, and why he went down on one knee in the bar, she was livid.
“You can hit me if it’ll make you feel better,” Luc offered. “It’d probably make me feel better.”
“Don’t tempt me.” Elise kicked off her shoes and surged to her feet. She was filled with irate energy.
“Do you always pace when you’re angry?”
“No. I usually throw things.”
“Go ahead, I won’t mind.”
She spun around and pinned him with a fierce look. “Why did you have to pick me?”
“You were the first I thought of.” He looked so tired and sounded exhausted. His chestnut hair was disheveled from him plowing his fingers through the thick mass.
She felt her anger weaken. “There has to be another way.”
“If there were, I would have taken it. But there isn’t. I have to have the loan. I have to.”
The pleading desperation in his voice was her undoing. “But… married?”
“It won’t be so bad.”
“You say that now, but what about after our one year anniversary? The second? Third? Fourth? Or fifth?”
“As soon as I repay the loan, then you’ll be free to divorce me.”
Divorce. The word washed over Elise like a large dose of cold water. “How… how long will it take to repay the loan?” Her voice was hoarse.
“I won’t know for sure until I’ve taken a long look at Intrinsic. The sooner I get down to Texas, the sooner I’ll be able to give you a definite answer.”
“Then there’s no way out of this.”
“None.” Luc pushed himself up from the couch and picked up his discarded jacket. “When do the taxes have to be paid?”
“In two weeks.”
He draped the jacket over his arm and nodded. “You’ll get the money on the day of the wedding. And it won’t be a loan.”
“Yes, it will.”
Luc stopped in front of her and tucked an errant strand behind her ear. “No, it won’t. You’re coming down to Texas with me and help me organize Intrinsic.”
“Texas? But what about my job here?”
He smiled. “Your talents are wasted at Andersen. Do you honestly want to go back to work for Roger Dill?”
“No, but—”
“I’ll have the loan repaid faster if you help me.” Luc brushed a knuckle across her cheek. “You’ll have your freedom sooner.”
“So will you.”
“Somehow, darlin’, I think a brief marriage to you will spoil me for all other women.”
A warm rush of pleasure coursed through her veins. “Nice try, but you’re not spending the night.”
He winced. “You sure know how to decimate a man’s ego.”
“It’s a skill my mother taught me when—” Elise halted. Her mother. Oh no. They had to tell her mother they were getting married and… oh no.
And then they’d have to tell her brother and… oh no, the money. How was Elise going to explain the hundred thousand dollars to Raven?
Elise closed her eyes and groaned. And she thought this was the worst day of her life. The worst was yet to come.
“Before we start planning the wedding, I think there are a few things we need to figure out first,” Elise said.
“And they are…?”
“My mother, father, and brother.”

Two days later, Luc placed a hand at the small of Elise’s back and propelled her towards the back of the restaurant. “You’re not leaving me to face Raven alone. Move.”
She sidestepped his hand and latched onto his arm. “Luc, it’s not too late to find someone else to give you the loan. I’ll even help you look.”
He smiled down on her and tapped his finger against her nose. “Not a chance. After we tell your family, we’re as good as married.” And it couldn’t happen soon enough for him. He was tired off keeping his hands off her.
She whimpered and dug her nails into his arm. “Don’t expect me to protect you if Mom goes for your throat.”
He laughed and hauled her to the table where Moonbeam and Raven waited for them. Raven stood as they approached.
Moonbeam resplendent in an airy, purple dress smiled brightly up at him. The tiny bells on her wrists chimed as she lowered her menu to the table. “Lucien. What a nice surprise.”
“You look lovely today, Moonbeam.”
Elise’s mother blushed and touched her long, silver hair which was pulled back much like the last time he’d seen her—in a style which reminded him of a Greek statue. “Thank you.”
Luc turned his attention to Elise’s older brother and held out his hand. “Raven. Good to see you again.”
Her brother reluctantly shook his hand. “Luc. Elise forgot to mention you would be joining us.” His words were directed at Elise who was clinging to Luc’s arm.
“I can’t imagine why she would have forgotten.” Luc pulled out a chair and, detaching himself from Elise, lowered her into the chair. “She’s been under quite a strain lately. I’ve been worried about her working too hard.”
Elise sent him a warning look.
Luc just smiled and motioned for Raven to sit. It still amazed him that Raven and Elise were brother and sister. They looked nothing alike. Except for their eye color. They shared the same blue shade, which proved that Moonbeam was indeed their mother. Raven was around the same height as Luc, six-two. Where Elise was fair, Raven was dark with shoulder length black hair and a natural looking, year-round tan. Luc doubted they had the same father. Neither child looked like Moonbeam. Elise certainly didn’t. Moonbeam was tall with exotic features. Elise was petite and her features, classical.
Raven stared at his sister and she fidgeted. “Elise. Do you have something you’d like to share with the group?”
“Oh yes, Elise. You must catch us up on things.” Moonbeam smoothed her napkin across her lap and smiled benignly at her daughter. “I’m so happy you and Lucien decided to have an affair. You two really do make the cutest couple.”
Luc’s jaw dropped.
“You’re in it now,” Elise whispered, then smiled far too sweetly and nudged him. “Yes, darling, why don’t you explain everything to Mother.”
Raven folded his arms across his chest, leaned back in his chair, and glared at Elise from underneath sharply arched brows. “I think I’d rather hear it from you, Sister Elise.”
“Too bad, Brother Raven. I promised Luc he could tell you.”
“But I don’t know Luc well enough to know if he’s bending the truth.”
“Luc won’t be bending the truth. Will you, darling?” Elise emphasized the endearment with a hard squeeze to his hand, her nails digging into his palm.
The exchange between brother and sister gave Luc the moment he needed to recover from Moonbeam’s statement. “This is not something I would lie about.” He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and dragged Elise’s left hand above the table.
Before he could make his announcement, Raven cursed under his breath. “Tell me that isn’t what I think it is.”
“It is,” Luc told him.
“Oh, how beautiful,” Moonbeam chimed. “And it’s Elise’s birthstone. How thoughtful of you, Lucien.”
Luc’s brow furrowed. What the hell was Moonbeam talking about?
Elise tapped him on the hand. “My birthstone is diamond. I was born in April,” she informed him politely. “Luc, you’re going to have to spell everything out for Mother. She doesn’t see things the way you do.”
“Spell it out? Fine. I’ll spell it out. Moonbeam, Elise and I are getting married next Saturday.”
The benign expression on Moonbeam’s serene face contorted and mutinied. Apparently, she wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of gaining Luc as a son-in-law. Which didn’t make any sense, since Moonbeam seemingly had no qualms with Luc having an affair with her daughter.
Elise scooted closer to Luc. “She’s gonna explode.”
Raven glance at his mother. “What did you expect, Elise? Mom hasn’t lost her temper since the early sixties.”
“That’s not true. She lost her temper when Dad used her altar to research The Seven Blades of Death. It took forever to sand the grooves out of the stone.”
“The Seven Blades of Death? Your father wrote that?”
Raven shook his head and pointed to Elise. “Her father wrote it.”
Luc turned on Elise. “Your father is Jeffrey Wyndemere? You never told me that.”
“Would you have asked me to marry you if I’d told you?”
“Yes,” he answered quickly. “Why would it make a difference?” Damn. Her father wrote books which made Luc break into a cold sweat. Damn.
“Because,” Elise explained patiently, “people are afraid of Daddy. It has something to do with the way he looks at them.”
“It’s more than that,” Raven said. “Wyndemere stares at you like he’s envisioning the best way to dismember you.”
Luc glanced at Raven. “Much like you’re looking at me now?”
Raven’s smile was all the answer Luc needed, but he added, “Naw, Wyndemere’s better at it.”
“Let me guess, your father is Dexter,” Luc murmured, referring to Wyndermere’s favorite villain-slash-blade carrying hero, Dexter Quimby.
“Raven, stop looking at Luc like that.” Elise exhaled sharply. “Raven was the model for Dexter Quimby.”
Raven’s evil smile deepened. “My father is Apollo.”
Luc felt a headache forming. Whatever he’d expected, this was not the simple luncheon he’d predicted. “As in the Greek Sun god?”
“Uh, no. As in the leader of the Apollo Temple of Love. My father has a small commune in California where he keeps his harem.”
Luc stared at Elise. She could have told him some of this before they walked into the restaurant. “Where is your father?”
Raven answered. “Wyndemere couldn’t make it. He was dissecting someone on page seventeen. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it. When you’re introduced, of course.”
“Naturally. Why wouldn’t he,” Luc muttered under his breath.
“He may even let you touch his scalpel.”
“Raven,” Elise warned. “You’re not going to scare this one away.”
At Luc’s surprised expression, Raven gleefully explained, “Her last boyfriend and page three hundred and twenty-six of The Seven Blades of Death.”
A sound from Elise’s mother drew his attention away from Raven and Luc glanced at Moonbeam’s purplish face. He couldn’t help but think the hue of her cheeks complimented her outfit. “What happened on that page?”
“Well, it’s funny you should ask—”
“Raven!”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” Raven promised.
Elise sighed as the waiter arrived. She sipped her water, then smiled up at the waiter. “Raven, did Mom tell you what she wanted to eat?”
Raven placed his and Moonbeam’s order, then Luc and Elise ordered.
Moonbeam made a slight noise and Raven sighed. “When she gets done with you, Luc, I’ll still be here.”
Elise tugged on Luc’s arm and looked imploringly up at him. “You’ll tell him everything, won’t you, darling? Raven’s a romantic, he’ll understand our feelings for each other.”
Moonbeam sucked in a deep breath and Luc suspected she was seconds away from exploding.
Raven’s smile disappeared. “Are you telling me that you two are actually in—”
“Married,” Moonbeam erupted. “Elisabeth Wyndemere Hamilton, you know better than to go and do something as stupid as to… get married! Of all the foolish things you could do! Subjugating yourself to a male dominated institution is the most idiotic notion you’ve ever had. Didn’t you read those articles I gave you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then why would you allow yourself to be manipulated into giving up your independence and losing your femininity in an institution created by man and governed by man? Have you no dignity? Raven, talk to your sister. Tell her what a mistake she’d be making. Elisabeth, don’t get married. Have an affair. It’s much easier and you don’t have to get the government involved and when it sours you can walk away without having to drag it through the courts. Please, Elisabeth. Think. Do you really want to get married?”
“Mom, I—”
“Are you pregnant,” Moonbeam demanded.
“She better not be,” Raven ground out.
“I am not pregnant.”
“Well, why not? You’re not still—”
“Mother,” Elise interrupted loudly. “I am not pregnant. Luc and I are getting married next week.”
Moonbeam scowled at Luc. “Are you blackmailing my daughter into marrying you? I saw that talk show where men just like you blackmailed their employees into—”
“Mom,” Elise snapped. “Luc is not blackmailing me.”
Moonbeam looked as baffled as Luc felt. “Elisabeth, why would you and Lucien agree to do something as binding as marriage? Why not handfast like your father and I did?”
Elise picked up Luc’s hand, laced their fingers together, and dug her nails into his flesh. “Lucien, we have to tell them. They’ll understand.”
“Uh, Elise, I’m not sure if that would be the wisest—”
She silenced him a look of warning. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Lucien.” The enunciation of his name was more pronounced—sweeter, almost like an endearment. “Mother will understand your feelings. She’ll understand why you couldn’t bring yourself to cheapen your feelings for me by having an affair.” She punctuated the word ‘feelings’ with sharp jabs of her nails in his flesh.
“My feelings—”
“Run deep, darling. Yes I know. So do mine. My feelings, that is.” Elise laid her head against his shoulder and kicked him underneath the table. “Go ahead and tell them how much you need me in your life, darling.” She lifted his arm and draped it around her shoulder, pulling herself closer to him and freeing her left hand.
Luc sucked in a sharp breath as Elise used her left hand to carve letters into his leg. He cleared his throat. “Moonbeam, Raven, I am marrying Elise because I need her and I…,” he paused waiting for to finish writing on his thigh. L-O-V— “And I love her.” Love her? Where the hell did that come from?
Elise snuggled closer and patted his leg. “It took me forever to get him to understand, Mom. And Lucien is so old-fashioned. He absolutely refused to have an affair when his feelings for me were so pure and deep felt. How could I have refused him when—with his heart in his eyes—he pleaded with me to marry him and make all of his problems fade away?”

CHAPTER FOUR

Elise stifled a giggle and practically skipped behind Luc as he stalked a path through the cubicle farm towards his office. Lunch with her mother and brother hadn’t been as horrible as she’d expected.
Raven and Moonbeam were now convinced that Luc was madly in love with Elise and they’d reluctantly given their blessings. All that was left was to tell her father, which wouldn’t be a problem. Her father’s motto was: If it’s what you want to do, princess, then nothing I say will change your mind. At least that’s what it would be if she got to her father before Raven did.
Luc marched into his office and Elise followed, closing the door behind her. He hadn’t said a word since leaving the restaurant.
He tossed his jacket onto the sofa and pinned her with a fierce look. “What tale do you plan on weaving for your father? Will we become star crossed lovers brought together over the flames of your computer? With me rescuing you from the billowing flames of the desktop?”
Elise beamed at him. “Daddy doesn’t need a tale. He’ll stare at you for a while and probably tell you fifty ways he can kill a man with a tie, but he’ll give his blessing.”
“Forgive me, darlin’, if I don’t believe you.”
“You’re just mad because you had to tell a little white lie.”
“A little white lie? Elise, you have Raven and Moonbeam believing that our marriage is a fairy tale romance.” He cursed under his breath, ran a hand through his hair, and started to turn away. “No dammit, this is not okay,” he ground out, then advanced on her.
Elise flattened her back against the door as Luc trapped her, pressing his palms against the cool wood on either side of her head. She’d never seen him like this. He was seething. “Um, Luc, I, uh—”
He lowered his head until they were nose to nose. “This will not happen again, Elise.”
“But it was for a—”
“There will be no more scenes like today.”
She’d never noticed until now, but the hint of gold in his gray-ish eyes shimmered like a twinkling star. “It was more of an embellishment and—”
“Elise,” he warned and the gold in his eyes flickered like an unholy flame. “No more.”
“I only did it because Moonbeam would do anything in her power to stop me from committing, what in her opinion would be, relationship suicide. And if Raven knew why, he’d kill me.”
“After he killed me.” Luc groaned and rested his forehead against his arm. “Damn, Elise, all I want to do is marry you. Why does your family have to question my motives? And my feelings,” he said derisively.
She relaxed somewhat, which was hard considered that he was invading her personal space and she was enjoying it more than she should be. “They love me and they want to make sure I’m making the right decision. Your family would do the same thing.”
He gave a short bark of laughter. “My sisters took one look at you and adopted you. I don’t know if you noticed, but my mother was more concerned with throwing the social event of the season than questioning your feelings towards me.” He turned his head to tell her, “By the way, you’re supposed to have dinner with Mom and the sisters tonight.”
“Tonight? What time?”
“Whatever time they get here. You’ll be on your own. Mom said she needs your measurements.”
“What? Alone?” Her body tingled from the heat and proximity of his chest. “Why,” she asked breathlessly. She made the mistake of turning her head and found herself scant centimeters from his mouth.
“For the dress,” he replied softly. His gaze dropped to her mouth.
Her tongue darted out, moistening her lips. “What dress?”
“The wedding dress,” he whispered. “Do that again.”
“Do what?” A slow ache of tension built in the pit of her stomach. Her arms grew heavy and her knees threatened to buckle. Her breathing quickened and her fingers twitched to touch him.
“Lick your lips.” His voice turned husky, rasping deliciously against her skin.
She complied and he moved closer.
“Touch me,” he ordered raggedly.
“Luc, I—”
“Put your hands on my shoulders.”
Her hands lifted and she cautiously slid her fingers up his chest to wide, powerful shoulders. She was trembling with excitement, fear, and anticipation.
“No more scenes, Elise.” One hand skimmed down, then up her side while the other moved across her shoulder, sifting through her hair and caressing her neck. His hands, strong and warm, cupped her face and his attention flickered to her mouth then back to her eyes. “No more scenes.”
Her hands flexed on his shoulders, her nails digging into the cotton fabric of his shirt. “It was just an embellishment,” she breathed as she watched his head descend.
Her lashes drifted shut and she shivered as his lips tentatively touched hers. Lights exploded in her mind as his tongue danced across her bottom lip, tasting and teasing her into opening for him. She sighed and leaned in towards him. His fingers dug into her hair, tilting her head to the side, and he kissed her. His lips moved against hers, his tongue dueled with hers. He devoured her, demanding everything she had and she gave him all.
She felt him groan and his hand moved down to catch her waist, pulling her up hard against him. Her insides turned to liquid and poured into the center of her body. Her body was awake and tingling. Everywhere. Her breasts were crushed against his chest and they ached. She gripped the shoulders of his shirt, wanting nothing more than to rip the crisp, white cotton off him.
Never in her life had anyone kissed her like this. Kissed her with such hunger and need and… urgency. She was starving and couldn’t get enough. Blood roared in her ears and her heart felt as if it would pound out of her chest. Her palms grew sweaty, her knees buckled, and Luc was there to catch her. His arm came around her waist, pulling her harder against him until she could feel his body’s response pressing into her stomach.
Thunder echoed in the distance and muffled whistles shrilled in the background. She whimpered and moved her hands around his neck, threading her fingers through the soft chestnut hair brushing the collar of his shirt. All too soon she felt Luc draw back, ending the kiss as breathless as her. His eyes burned and she knew the heat in his gaze was reflected in hers. She’d never wanted any man the way she wanted him at this very moment.
“Luc,” she whispered, slightly confused and disoriented.
He pressed her cheek to his chest and rested his chin on the crown of her head. “The next time you start to seduce me make sure the blinds are closed. The whole damn office saw us.”
Elise groaned and tried to burrow closer. “I did not start to seduce you, Lucien. You’re the one seducing me.”
“Darlin’, if I’d started to seduce you, I’d have made damn sure the blinds were closed. I’ll be glad when this job is over with.” His fingers massaged her waist, urging her closer.
“When do we leave?”
“The day after the wedding.”
Before she could stop herself, she said, “You still have time to find someone else.”
“After that kiss? Hell no. I’m looking forward to the wedding night.” He pulled back and grinned wolfishly down at her. “You could invite me over to your place tonight and—”
She yanked on his hair and he grunted. “Forget it, Lucien. In case you don’t remember, you’re old-fashioned and you refuse to sully your love by seducing me without the benefit of marriage.”
“Gaia help me if I ever fall for a sweet, little liar like you. You weave the most demented tales I’ve ever heard.” He gave her a small shake. “Do you honestly believe that I would have asked you to marry me in order to get into your bed?”
Elise pulled back and lifted her chin, infused with a healthy dose of pride and dignity. “My mother may subscribe to the philosophy of free love and be ecstatic over having short lived, passionate affairs with whomever may strike her fancy, but I do not.” She unwound her arms from his neck. “You may not be old-fashioned, but I am. I do not give my favors lightly or without a price and you, Lucien, will do well to remember that.” She removed his hand from her waist and walked across the room on shaky legs. She sank down on the sofa and lifted the laptop onto her thighs. “Get back to work. We have a project to finish.”
He leaned against the door and gazed at her thoughtfully. “Marriage to you isn’t going to be simple, is it, darlin’?”
“Marrying me is the easy part. What comes after the vows will be the hard part. If you think I’m going to fall into your arms because of an ‘I do’, then you obviously don’t know me very well.” She had never been more serious or truthful with him. She wasn’t like her mother. She didn’t dish out sexual favors for every attractive man who caught her eye. Elise wanted more out of life than meaningless moments of passion.
She wanted the fairy tale.
“I didn’t, but I’m beginning to.” Luc pushed off from the door and went to sit behind his desk. “For the record, Elise…?”
She looked up expectantly.
“I never once thought you were easy.” He smirked knowingly. “But when you fall into my arms, darlin’, you’re gonna love every minute of it and wish you’d done it months ago.”
Elise blushed for all she was worth and waved a hand, brushing aside his comment. “Get back to work, Lucien. I’m suddenly anxious to get to Texas.” In Texas she wouldn’t have to torment her heart by constantly showing the world just how madly and hopelessly in love with her husband she was. The further away from Moonbeam and Raven’s watchful eyes, the happier Elise would be. In Texas, she would drown herself in a new project and cease dwelling on the elation she’d felt when Luc had confessed, ‘And I love her’.
Elise glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Too bad it wasn’t the truth. Marrying the man she’d been falling in love with over the past six months was more than half of the fairy tale come true.
Elise picked up a pen and gnawed on the cap. Now if she could just figure out how to bring the other half of the fairy tale up to speed. Preferably before she succumbed and tumbled into his arms.

Do you like Staci’s story? Would you like to read more? Comment below & you might be Sue’s Stash random chosen commenter - US only! Good Luck!

Setting: 1737 London, England
Subgenre: Historical Romance
Hero: Lord Griffin Reading
Heroine: Lady Hero Batten

One sentence summary: Lady Hero Batten has the perfect life and the perfect fiancé—until she meets his brother, the decidedly imperfect Lord Griffin Reading.

Scene you like most and would never cut: Well, the book opens with Lady Hero stumbling upon Lord Griffin (who she’s never met) and another woman trysting during a ball. Because Hero has just passed the lady’s husband in the hallway, she can’t simply back out of the room. Instead, she has to interrupt—awkward!—and help Griffin hide under a settee. Naturally this gives Hero a rather unfortunate first impression of Griffin, and he’s not exactly impressed with her either.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Lady Hero is the daughter of a duke—and rather perfect, actually—and thus would never do anything less than ladylike!

What celebrity is your hero like: Hmm. Maybe a young Russell Crowe? Even though Lord Griffin is an aristocrat, he’s able to handle himself in a fight. He’s a bit rough around the edges.

What celebrity is your heroine like: Someone like Grace Kelly: cool and very proper on the outside, a bit more complicated on the inside.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Lady Hero is the patroness of an orphanage in St. Giles.

What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Lord Griffin distills gin in St. Giles, which means he’s in illegal trade—something he definitely should not be doing.

What you think readers will like best about this book: The antagonism and banter between Griffin and Hero as they gradually get to know each other.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: I’ve gotten a fair amount of mail about Winter Makepeace, who appeared in the book previous to this, Wicked Intentions. It’s kind of funny since he only had a small part in that book, but readers seem to have latched onto him. I do promise that Winter’s story is coming soon!

What’s next: Scandalous Desires is out in November and it’s Silence Hollingbrook’s book. This will hopefully come as a relief to all the readers who have been emailing me wanting her story.

I’m giving away a signed copy of Notorious Pleasures! Just tell me whose story you’ve been waiting for from Wicked Intentions and why you love those tortured hero’s so much?

Setting: Alternate contemporary version of New York
Subgenre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Hero: Raven Matokwe
Heroine: Kathryn “Kitt” Jordan

One sentence summary:
A shape-shifting Romeo and Juliet meets Silence of the Lambs.

Scene you like most and would never cut:
The first scene of the book. It’s deliciously dark and in the POV of the serial killing antagonist. I just loved getting into the killer’s head. I adore horror. Stephen King is one of my idols along with Clive Barker who writes some really scary stuff. I would love to be able to write a book that scares the pants off people.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying:
Kitt would never jump into a fight just for the fun of it (unlike Antoinette, the heroine from the first book, who also has a rather big part in this book too). Don’t get me wrong – Kitt will fight if she has too. She’ll fight to protect or save someone and she’ll fight for her family.

What celebrity is your hero like:
Alex O’Loughlin would make the perfect Raven – especially his character in Hawaii Five-O with a dash of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the Origins movie.

What celebrity is your heroine like:
The closest I could come up with for Kitt is a blonde Jessica Alba. When asked this question – I really get stumped, because my characters are so fully formed in my head that it’s hard to try find someone who fits the bill.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing:
Kitt Jordan has just resigned as the chief parahuman medical examiner to take up a teaching position as a lecturer in Parahuman Forensic Pathology at the New York campus of the Academy of Parahuman Studies. She comes from a long line of healers and yet somehow she ended up dealing with the dead, which seems to be a bit of a habit. On her first day in her new teaching role, her surrogate big brother, Oberon, drags her into a murder investigation very similar to her husband’s death years earlier.

What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing:
Raven was a covert assassin/agent in the black ops team known as the Draconis Nocti, which was disbanded some years earlier. He returned home, but no longer fit in with Pack life. Then he met Kitt. Since the murder of Kitt’s husband, for which he was blamed, he has been on the run and serving as the protector of their twin daughters. He is now working covertly for Oberon DuPrie and his investigation team (known only as The Team because they are too cool for labels). He loves our heroine and wants her back and he will do anything to get her – even if it means letting her go.

What you think readers will like best about this book:
I’m hoping it’s the world in which the Dark Brethren novels are set. To me one of the most important “characters” of my series is this alternate version of earth. My paranormal creatures live openly in a tenuous relationship (and some like the Aeternus are symbiotic) with humans, yet they have their own societal structures as well. I’ve been working in this world for some time now, but I have barely scratched the surface of the complex cultures and governance. There are still some cultures yet to write about, such as the mer-people and my one exception to the hidden race rule, which I will finally get to write about in book 3 of the series.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet:
I get requests for two characters from my first book. The first is Oberon – the ursian (or were-bear as some people refer to him, although to me they are more shape-shifters than were-creatures). The other character that I get most emails about is Viktor – and those who have read NIGHT’S COLD KISS will know what I mean.

What’s next:
I am working on book 3 of the Dark Brethren series. This one will follow the white witch Bianca Sin and a new hero. This one is currently slated for 2012.

There seems to be a constant debate on whether my books are Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance – I’m even finding myself confused these days. I think there is a spectrum with Urban Fantasy at one end and Paranormal Romance at the other. I also think my books are more in the middle of the spectrum, a kind of melding of the two, maybe something like Urban Fantasy Romance. What do you as readers like to see in these genres and what do you think makes a story one or the another?

Random commenter will win give away - a signed copy of Death’s Sweet Embrace along with a signed copy of Night’s Cold Kiss as a prize.

By Magic Alone
Dorchester Publishing – Paranormal Romance
e-release December 2010 / Trade release May 2011

Something is drawing Julia Collins to Magical Matchups. The Chicago-based dating service is a direct competitor to her own, and it’s winning. It even converted her two best friends, despite the fact that it’s run by a crackpot—if sweet—old woman named Verda who gives personality tests that rate men like fruit! She also espouses everything Julia distrusts: magic, lust, and romantic love rather than logical partnerships.
Five minutes after they’ve met, Verda introduces “the man Julia will marry” – her best friend’s ex. The old woman had better be a witch, because although Scot’s kiss ignites a fire in her soul, there’s only one way Julia can see them finding a happily after.

By magic alone.
Setting: Chicago, Illinois
Subgenre: Light Paranormal Romance
Hero: Scot Raymond
Heroine: Julia Collins

One sentence summary: A leather-bound journal and Chicago’s newest matchmaking service live up to the hype: they make magic and bring Julia Collins the man of her dreams.
Scene you like most and would never cut: One of my favorite scenes in this book is when Julia, expecting to meet her parents for dinner, finds their house empty. At this moment, there’s a lot going in on her head, as everything she’s ever believed in is being challenged. She’s concerned, lonely, and frightened…and the person she reaches out to is Scot. She shows him some of her vulnerabilities and he reacts just as a hero should.
Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Julia begins the story as a true non-believer: in love, in fairytales, in the happily-ever-after, and yes…in magic. So, at least in the beginning of the book, she would never claim to have experienced love at first sight.
What celebrity is your hero like: Hm. Well, Julia describes Scot as a cross between James Dean and Johnny Depp. In other words, he’s luscious. 
What celebrity is your heroine like: Julia is similar in appearance to Courteney Cox-Arquette’s character Monica from the television show Friends. Though, one of Julia’s best friends in the book likens her to Snow White.
What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing: Julia owns and runs the Chicago dating service, Introductions. Career is a huge aspect of Julia’s life, so when her company begins to lose clients and is in danger of going out of business, she has to consider that maybe her vision of success isn’t the most accurate.
What is your hero’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing: Scot is a blue-collar guy and earns his living in construction. During the off-season, he works as a carpenter. One of the great aspects of Scot’s character is that he’s found a way to be successful doing what he loves to do.
What you think readers will like best about this book: By Magic Alone is a story about a very logical woman discovering that there is very little about life—and love—that is logical. The journey is magical and I hope readers will love Julia’s progression through the story as much as I do.
The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Actually, I’ve heard from quite a few readers that would love to hear Sheridan’s story (Chloe’s sister from the third book in the series, A Breath of Magic). I’m hoping I’ll have the opportunity to share it, because Sheridan has an amazing story to tell.
What’s next: Up next is my first book for Harlequin Special Edition, tentatively titled Miracle Under The Mistletoe, which will be released in November, 2011. This is an emotional love story about a married couple finding their way together again after a tragic loss with the Christmas season as the background.

Magic plays a huge part in this series, so I would love to know: If you could have any magical ability of your choosing, what would it be?

I’m giving away a signed set of the first three books in this series (A Taste of Magic, A Stroke of Magic, and A Breath of Magic) to one lucky winner. To enter, just leave a comment with your answer!

Alexandra Ivy
Devoured by Darkness

Setting: Hannibal, MO, Chicago, IL and Russia

Subgenre: Vampire Paranormal

Hero: Tane—a vampire without a clan or family. He’s a loner who is scarred from his past and isolated from his brothers.

Heroine: Laylah—a half breed Jinn. She has no memory of her parents, but her very existence is forbidden by the Oracles who are the leaders of the demon-world.

One sentence summary:

Laylah’s been forced to hide in the shadows for her entire life, but now she must protect a child from an ancient evil that intends to use the babe to return from the depths of hell, and as if the looming Armageddon isn’t enough, she also has a gorgeous, obnoxiously persistent vampire who is determined to become her personal pain in the neck…literally.

Scene you like most and would never cut:

The scene where Tane and Laylah meet for the first time. Despite the fact they’re both lonely people who are incapable of trusting others, they’re acutely aware of one another. You can sense their need to reach out, even as they’re determined to fight their natural instincts. It’s always been easier for them to remain isolated than to risk being betrayed.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying:

“Thank god you’re here big boy, I need someone to save me.”

What celebrity is your hero like:

He has a dash of the Colin Ferrell bad boy along with the more heroic Viggo Mortensen. The best of both worlds.

What celebrity is your heroine like:

Sandra Bullock in The Net. She’s an isolated loner who suddenly has to come out of her shell to save the world.

What is your heroine’s occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing:
Protector of the Gemini. She’s been given the task of shielding the child from the disciples of the Dark Lord who hope to use the babe to resurrect their evil Master .

What is your heroes occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing:

Charon. He’s a vampire assassin who has the duty to hunt down vampires who have gone feral and execute them. It’s no wonder he isn’t on the invitation list for the clan reunions.

What you think readers will like best about this book:

Devoured by Darkness is a combination of adventure, humor and great sex  Hopefully the perfect ingredients for a fun story. And for those who have enjoyed the previous books in the series, it answers a few lingering questions, while broadening the storyline of the war that’s been brewing in the background. I’m really amping up the tension as the darkness threatens.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet:

Levet!!! My tiny gargoyle is a fearless companion with a smart mouth and magical abilities that are dubious at best and downright dangerous at worse, but his heart is always in the right place and my readers are demanding his ‘happily ever after’.

What’s next:

“Bound by Darkness” will be released November 2011. This will be Ariyal and Jaelyn’s story, and it will continue with the looming battle against the Dark Lord. I’m really excited to see where it will go! I’m also excited to announce that I will be included in the anthology titled “Supernatural” that will be released next September with the fantastic authors Jacquelyn Frank, Larissa Ione, and G.A. Aiken!! This story will include Uriel who was introduced in “Yours for Eternity”.

This is my first continuing series and while I’m enjoying each and every story, I have to admit that it’s difficult to step back and judge them as a reader might. I know there are series that many readers thought ‘jumped the shark’ but on the other hand, is there a series you thought ended too soon? Did you still have questions that hadn’t been answered or characters you wanted to have their own story? I know that I would have loved David Eddings to continue with his Belgariad series forever and I plan to stage a mutiny if JR Ward decides to stop her Brotherhood series!
What’s your thoughts?

Alexandra is giving away two copies of Devoured by Darkness (US and Canada, please)!!! Just leave a comment below to be entered.

GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART by Teresa Medeiros

Since Borders Romance Buyer and True Romance host Sue Grimshaw and author Teresa Medeiros chat all the time on Twitter, we thought it would be fun to do our Borders interview about Teresa’s new “Twitter” novel GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART in tweets today!

@SueGrimshaw: So what is the setting for your very first women’s fiction novel GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART?
@TeresaMedeiros: My heroine Abby Donovan actually lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. It’s always been a personal fantasy of mine!
@SueGrimshaw: The idea of writing the book primarily in tweets is a groundbreaking one. Do you think you’re creating a new subgenre?
@TeresaMedeiros: I really consider the book women’s fiction because Mark and Abby’s tweets are framed with vignettes from Abby’s life.
@SueGrimshaw: What do you think is the difference between romance and women’s fiction?
@TeresaMedeiros: Romance focuses almost exclusively on the relationship between the hero and the heroine. In GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART, we see the effect of that relationship on one woman’s life.
@SueGrimshaw: Tell us about the heroine of GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART.
@TeresaMedeiros: When we first meet Abby, she’s a washed-up, semi-agoraphobic writer who has let the pressure of being chosen for Oprah’s book club freeze her creatively.
@SueGrimshaw: Do you think that would happen to you?
@TeresaMedeiros: Wouldn’t I love to find out?
@SueGrimshaw: What missing quality does Mark bring into Abby’s life after they start tweeting?
@TeresaMedeiros: Mark is smart and has a very self-deprecating sense of humor that Abby finds irresistible. He refuses to let her take herself (or anything) too seriously.
@SueGrimshaw: Can you sum up the book in one sentence?
@TeresaMedeiros: Can a couple who meet (and tweet) by chance find the love of a lifetime?
@SueGrimshaw: Out of all of their tweet exchanges, which one is your favorite?
@TeresaMedeiros: There’s a hilarious scene where Abby thinks she is Direct Messaging Mark (which would be private) but she accidentally sends something rather naughty to all her Followers.
@SueGrimshaw: Ouch! Anyone who has ever accidentally hit Reply to All could relate to that! Give us one thing Abby would never be caught dead doing or saying?
@TeresaMedeiros: I hate cats.
@SueGrimshaw: So is Mark a boxer or a brief kind of guy?
@TeresaMedeiros: Oh, definitely boxer! I’ve spent my entire career writing about the perfect fantasy man. Mark is more like the guy you’d actually end up marrying.
@SueGrimshaw: Who’s your favorite secondary character in the book?
@TeresaMedeiros: Abby’s friend Margo. She’s from Atlanta and can leave you sobbing on the floor with nothing more than a “God love her” or “Bless her little heart!”
@SueGrimshaw: Aside from tweeting, what is Abby’s favorite hobby?
@TeresaMedeiros: Going to Starbucks. (Just like me.)
@SueGrimshaw: And what would Mark’s favorite hobby be?
@TeresaMedeiros: Traveling! He tweets Abby from exotic locales all over the world. Oh, and keeping secrets because he has a secret that turns out to be a real game-changer for both he and Abby.
@SueGrimshaw: What you think readers will like best about this book?
@TeresaMedeiros: I’m already hearing from readers who said they read the book in one sitting and it made them laugh and cry. I can’t think of a higher compliment.
@SueGrimshaw: What else makes GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART special?
@TeresaMedeiros: It would be the perfect choice for a Book Club or Reader’s Group because I even included Discussion Questions in the back of the book.

If you could pick a contemporary actor to play a hero like Mark in a movie version of GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART, who would it be?

Two randomly chosen commenters in the U.S. and/or Canada will win a copy of GOODNIGHT TWEETHEART!

Setting:
The story takes place in modern day Southeast Asia, on the open sea (where pirates and sea monsters wait for the unwary).

Subgenre:
Paranormal romance, with a little bit of thriller mixed in.

Hero:
Perrin, a merman who has been exiled to land for a crime he didn’t commit.

Heroine:
Jenny, a human woman, who has made it her life’s mission to uncover the ocean’s secrets.

One sentence summary:
When Perrin and Jenny meet as children, they form a psychic bond that allows them to share each other’s dreams — a bond that holds the key to preventing a terrible catastrophe that could kill millions.

Scene you like most and would never cut:
I really enjoyed writing the prologue, which shows Perrin and Jenny’s first meeting — and gives the novel the feel of a fairy-tale.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying:
“I give up.”

What celebrity is your hero like:
Hm. Well, Perrin is an albino with long silver hair. So, appearance wise, he doesn’t really resemble anyone (though, for some reason, I keep thinking of Alexander Skarsgard).

What celebrity is your heorine like:
She’s a tall red-head. A young Nicole Kidman, I think.

What is your heroines occupation, or if unemployed, what should she be doing:
Jenny is a marine biologist who sails around the world investigating claims of sea monsters, and other strange creatures. She is driven, even obsessed, with the idea of finding her mysterious boy from the sea — though, intellectually, she knows the chances of that are almost impossible.

What is your heroes occupation, or if unemployed, what should he be doing:
After Perrin is exiled to land, he has to learn how to be human, and to survive as humans do. He ends up homeless for some time, and in jail. Afterwards, he takes odd jobs, and when the book opens he’s working as a janitor at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. His heart is broken, but he refuses to give up.

What you think readers will like best about this book:
I think readers will appreciate the intensity of the bond between Perrin and Jenny, and the depth of their compassion for one another. These are two people from very different worlds, who meet as children and then share their dreams for years, relying on each other to overcome tragedy and terrible loneliness. They’re friends and soul mates, but that doesn’t come easy for either of them when they find each other again, in the flesh.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet:
It’s a tie between Koni (a shape-shifter who can transform into a crow) and Eddie (a fire-starter).

What’s next:
I’m working on the next Dirk & Steele novel — Eddie’s story — set in New York City, and featuring a heroine who is a dragon shape-shifter.

When you were a child, what mythical creature (if any) sparked your imagination?

I’m giving away a signed copy of IN THE DARK OF DREAMS to a random commenter!

And here’s an excerpt from the Prologue:
She found the boy at dawn, during her morning escape from the big house on the hill. Not running, not walking either — occasionally skipping down the narrow path to the rocky shore, dragging a beach towel behind her, and a tote bag for her drawing pad and pencils. Dawn light was the best, but it was always cool and windy, and she was bundled in so many layers of wool and cotton, she felt fat.

It was a relief to leave the house. Her grandparents were kind, but their business occupied them all the time, and the girl did not always care for their guests, or the fights those strangers brought with them. She also disliked the way some of them looked at her — with puzzlement — and sometimes, disdain.

Twelve, she had overheard one of the visitors say, the night before. Twelve years old and ordinary.

Better ordinary than rude and mean, thought the girl, listening to the gentle throbbing roar of the waves rushing the shore. She had better things to do with her time than listen to stupid men who wore stupid suits and smelled like ladies perfume. That, and her grandfather had told her more than once that she was perfect the way she was. The girl knew that was a lie, but it was enough that he loved her.

The path curved. Gulls cried. The sun was just beginning to peer over the ocean horizon, a glint of gold carved in an endless wash of peach light. The girl inhaled deeply, throwing out her arms. Pretending she could fly toward the dawn and burn in that light.

A fantasy interrupted by a low moan.

She flinched, heart thudding, and spun around to search the beach for another person. Ready to run, if she had to. But she saw nothing. Just rock and driftwood, and the water rushing in, dark with glints of silver that lengthened and then were lost in shadow, again and again, shimmering as the sea sometimes did, as though the foam was made of diamonds.

Nothing. The girl saw nothing, until she heard that moan again, soft and anguished. She took a step, staring. Sensing movement behind one of the pale, twisted logs that had drifted onto shore.

She almost fled. Her grandparents were always telling her to be careful, that bad people might try to take her, that she should trust no one but them, ever, because their business made enemies and even though they had taken precautions, even though no one but a handful, mostly family, knew their faces…

The girl took another step, and then another. Slow, halting, her lungs aching from holding her breath. She was going to run, she told herself. Fly in the opposite direction, and go get help.

But that voice sounded so pained. What if someone was really hurt? What if there was no time to get help?

She had to see. Had to be certain.

It seemed to take forever to cross the distance. Just thirty feet, but it felt like a mile. The girl finally got close, though. She was short, and the driftwood was large. All she could see on the other side was a shimmer of light covered in tangled seaweed. And then that light shifted, and became…scales.

Her breath caught, again. But scales were less frightening than human legs. Emboldened, she walked quickly around the end of the log.

And saw the boy.

She did not expect him. Something else, maybe, but not him. Not a boy her age, with a gaunt white face covered in dried salt, or large eyes the pale blue of a sea glacier. His lips were cracked, and his hair was long, tangled, a white-blonde halo glinting silver around his face. The sun was rising behind him. She felt blind for a moment, her knees weak.

He had no legs. Just a tail. A fish tail.

CALL ME MRS. MIRACLE

by

Debbie Macomber

Setting: New York
Subgenre: Christmas romance/romantic comedy
Hero: Jake Finley
Heroine: Holly Larson

Scene you like the most and would never cut:

The final scene, which was actually cut in the Hallmark movie. (That’s one of the differences between books and movies—scenes that work in one don’t necessarily work in the other.)

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying?

Putting down the toilet seat for Gabe, her nephew, who lives with her. Her issue is that he needs to do this out of consideration and good manners.

What celebrity is your hero like?

Unfair question because he’s a real hunk who’s already in the movie. (I’m not saying who . . . you’ll have to see for yourself.)

What celebrity is your heroine most like?

See the answer to previous question and substitute beauty for hunk..

What is your heroine’s occupation?

Holly is an assistant to a sportswear designer.

What is your hero’s occupation?

He sells toys. (Well, it’s a little more than that. He’s the son and heir of a department store owner and is working his way up through the company. Right now, he’s the manager of the toy department—a very demanding job at Christmastime.)

What do you think readers will like best about this book?

Well, I hope there’ll be a number of reasons my readers will rush out to purchase this book. Top of the list is that it’s a sequel to Mrs. Miracle, which was also a Hallmark movie –in fact, it was the top-rated Hallmark movie of 2009. Another reason is that it’s my homage to Miracle on 34th Street, one of the all-time great Christmas movies. Another is that it’s a charming Christmas story with appealing characters, delightful relationships, lots of humor and genuinely moving moments. (My editor told me to say that.)

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet?

Let’s rephrase this question. Unless readers have telepathy, they can’t know what character I haven’t written about yet–although many readers have written to ask me to send Shirley, Goodness and Mercy back to earth.

3 random winners will receive copies of Call Me Mrs Miracle - USA & CA - good luck!