“I thought I might announce my impending marriage.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Marriage? You aren’t getting married.”

“No. But don’t you think it would make a nice headline?”

She let out a completely undignified involuntary snort. “No one would believe it.”

“And why is that?”

“Marriage requires monogamy,” she said.

“I don’t cheat on women. If I’m attracted to someone else, I end the relationship I’m in. I see no point in pretending to want one woman if I want another.”

“You seem to change the woman you want with alarming frequency.”

“And that’s why it would be such a big story if I were preparing to get married.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ll give you that. But where are you going to find a woman who won’t want to marry you for real? One who will keep her mouth shut about the arrangement?”

She looked back at Gage. His blue eyes were trained on her, a slow smile spreading over his handsome face.

“Lily.”

She didn’t like the way he said her name—with intent, his low voice rolling over it, making it sound like a verbal caress.

“I want you to marry me.”

About the Author

MAISEY YATES was an avid Mills & Boon® Modern™ Romance reader before she began to write them. She still can’t quite believe she’s lucky enough to get to create her very own sexy alpha heroes and feisty heroines. Seeing her name on one of those lovely covers is a dream come true.

Maisey lives with her handsome, wonderful, diaper-changing husband and three small children, across the street from her extremely supportive parents and the home she grew up in, in the wilds of Southern Oregon, USA. She enjoys the contrast of living in a place where you might wake up to find a bear on your back porch and then heading into the home office to write stories that take place in exotic urban locales.

MARRIAGE MADE ON PAPER

MAISEY YATES

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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21st CENTURY BOSSES

Impossible, infuriating and utterly irresistible!

In the high-octane world of international business, these arrogant yet devastatingly attractive men reign supreme.

On his speed-dial, at his beck and call 24/7, it takes a special kind of woman to cope with this boss’s outrageous demands!

21st Century Bosses

Impossible, infuriating and utterly irresistible!

CHAPTER ONE

LILY FORD wasn’t thrilled to see Gage Forrester standing in her office, leaning over her desk, his large masculine hands clasping the edge, his scent teasing her, making her heart beat at an accelerated pace. She wasn’t thrilled to see Gage, the man who had turned her down, but her body seemed to be on a different wavelength.

“I heard that Jeff Campbell hired your company,” he said, leaning in a little more, his shoulder muscles rolling forward. He certainly didn’t spend all of his time behind a desk in a corporate office. A physique like that didn’t happen by accident. She knew that from personal experience.

It took her four evenings a week in the gym to combat the effects of her mostly sedentary job. But it was important. Image counted for a lot, and it was her job to keep the images of her clients sparkling clean in the public eye. She felt that if her own image wasn’t up to par she would lose her credibility.

“You heard correctly,” she said, leaning back in her chair, trying to put some distance between them. Trying to feel as if she had some measure of control. It was her office, darn it. He had no call coming in here and trying to assume authority.

But then, men like Gage operated that way. They came, they saw, they conquered the female.

Not this female.

“So, are you here to offer me congratulations?” she asked sweetly.

“No, I’m here to offer you a contract.”

That successfully shocked her into silence, which was a rare thing. “You rejected my offer to represent your company, Mr. Forrester.”

“And now I’m extending you an offer.”

She pursed her lips. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that Jeff Campbell is your biggest competitor?”

“I don’t consider him a competitor.” Gage smiled, but in his eyes she could see the glint of steel, the hardness that made him a legend in his industry. You didn’t reach greatness by being soft. She knew it, she respected it. But she didn’t necessarily care for Gage, or his business practices. Generally speaking, she thought that he was somewhat morally bankrupt. But an account with Forrestation Inc. would be a huge boon for her company. The biggest account she’d ever had.

“Like it or not, he is your competitor. And he’s quite good at what he does. He doesn’t leave half the mess for me to clean up that you would.”

“Which is why he isn’t really my competition. He’s too politically correct, too concerned with his public image.”

“It wouldn’t hurt you to be more concerned with it. The endless stream of actresses and supermodels on your arm doesn’t exactly give off an aura of stability. Plus you’ve had a series of very unpopular builds lately.”

“Is this a free consultation?”

“No. I’m charging you by the half hour.”

“If I remember correctly your services aren’t cheap.”

“They aren’t. If you want cheap, you have to suffer incompetence.”

He sat down on the edge of her desk and effectively threw half of her office supplies out of alignment. Annoyance coursed through her, along with the desire to reach out and straighten her stapler, which was nearly as strong as the need she suddenly felt to touch his thigh, so close to her hand now, and find out if it was as hard and muscular as it looked.

She grimaced at her own line of thinking, her train of thought irritating and confusing her. She didn’t indulge in fantasies about men, she just didn’t.

“That’s one thing I liked about you when I interviewed you, Lily. You’re confident in your skills.”

“What was it you didn’t like about me, Mr. Forrester? Because as you and I both know, you hired Synergy to represent your company, not me.”

“I make it a practice not to hire women under a certain age. Particularly if they’re attractive.”

She felt her mouth fall open in shock, and she knew she looked like some sort of gasping guppy, but there was nothing she could do combat it. “That’s sexist.”

“Maybe. But I haven’t had to deal with unwanted affections from my male personal assistant, unlike my previous PA, who fell hopelessly in love with me.”

“Maybe you were imagining things. Or maybe you encouraged her.” Privately, she had to admit that Gage was an attractive man, but that didn’t mean that every woman under a certain age was immediately going to fall in love at first sight with him. Yet he probably believed it. Power did that to people, men especially. They started thinking of everyone as their property, like they were entitled to the slavish devotion of everyone around them.

Some men didn’t even need wealth. They just needed someone weaker than they were.

She shook off the memories that were creeping in.

“I wasn’t imagining it, trust me. And I never encouraged her,” Gage said. “I was never interested in her. Business is business, sex is sex.”

“Never the twain shall meet?”

“Exactly. To compound the matter, when I fired her she made a huge scene.”

“Why did you fire her?”

One dark eyebrow shot up. “I came into the office one morning to find her perched naked on my desk in a pose that would make a centerfold blush.”

Lily’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But since then, I haven’t hired women to work closely with me, and since then, I haven’t had any other issues.” He regarded her closely. “You aren’t engaged or expecting a baby anytime soon, are you?”

She almost laughed. “No worries there, Mr. Forrester. I have no plans for wedding or baby in the near, or distant, future. My career is my focus.”

“I’ve heard that said by more than one woman, more than once. But then the woman meets a man who makes her hear wedding bells, and I end up having wasted my time training someone who never intended to stay on with the company.”

“If I ever hear wedding bells, Mr. Forrester, you have my guarantee that I will run in the opposite direction.”

“Good.”

“I still think you’re sexist. Assuming that just because a woman is a … a woman … she’s going to fall madly in love with you the moment she looks into your eyes, or that the moment she gets a job she’s going to run off and get married and abandon everything she’s worked for.”

“I’m not sexist. It’s called covering your bases. I don’t make the same mistake twice. But I’ve seen the press releases you’ve prepared for Campbell. I’ve also watched his stocks go up.”

“Yours have been going up, too,” she added.

“That may be, but his were on their way down. The only thing that’s changed is his hiring you.”

She held a hand out, pretending to examine her merlot-colored nails, hoping he didn’t notice the slight tremor in her fingers. “So, now you want me to go back on my contract with Mr. Campbell? It would have to be a pretty sweet offer, Mr. Forrester.”

“It is.” He named a figure that made her heart slam into her ribs.

She’d been working so hard, struggling to keep things going with her small public relations firm for so long the thought of all that money made her feel light-headed.

And money was only part of it. There was the notoriety, good and bad, that would come from working for Forrestation. Gage had a reputation as being a bit of a rogue, which was both appealing and frightening to investors. He took risks, sometimes at the expense of popularity, and they paid off.

Some of his larger building projects had been unpopular with a vocal minority, and while the hotel properties had been resounding successes once completed, he’d had protestors lining the streets in front of his San Diego office building on more than one occasion. A lot of the protests were simply against any new building being built, but some of the issues had seemed understandable to Lily.

As controversial as Gage might be, he was a billionaire for a reason. And even if, sometimes, she had sympathized with the protesters, she couldn’t argue with the numbers.

“Say I was interested,” she said, feigning a lot more absorption in her manicure than she felt. “There’s an early termination fee on my contract with Mr. Campbell.”

“I’ll cover it.”

She blinked. “And I need an expense account.”

He leaned in slightly, his scent—she was noticing it again for the second time in ten minutes—making her heart beat faster. “Done, as long as you don’t consider manicures a business expense.” He reached out and took her hand in his for a moment.

His hands were rough. Rougher than she imagined a man with a desk job’s hands would be. It was just the right amount, though. Not too rough that having him touch her was uncomfortable. Although his skin was hot, and it made a rash of heat flare through her body, raising her core temperature at a rate that didn’t seem physically possible.

She tugged her hand back, trying to seem as though his casual touch hadn’t just flustered her like that. Nothing flustered her. Ever. She didn’t do flustered. Especially not during business hours.

She cleared her throat. “I don’t. Although I consider image to be an extremely important part of my job. I always present myself in a professional, polished manner. Your presentation and my presentation matter to each other. Our success is linked, which makes our business relationship very important.”

“Is that your standard speech?”

She felt her cheeks heat slightly. “Yes.”

“I can tell. It’s very well-rehearsed. And I think I heard it during your interview.”

She tightened her lips, trying to hold her temper in check. Something about Gage made her feel very shaky and almost … unpredictable. He brought her emotions very close to the surface. Emotions she was usually very good at holding down.

“Well, rehearsed or not,” she said, eyes narrowed, “it’s true. The better I look, the better I make you look, the more money you make. And the better you behave, the better you follow my advice, the more money you make, the more success I’ll have.”

“So, is this lecture your form of consent?”

“Yes,” she said, not missing a beat.

“I want you to work with me personally. I don’t want anyone else on your team involved with my account. It has to be you.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“The building project in Thailand is already controversial, which has my shareholders clutching their wallets in terror.”

“And what about the Thailand project is controversial?”

“The fear that by building more resorts we’re distorting local culture. That such a Westernized focus doesn’t show people the real Thailand. That we’re giving tourists a theme park rather than reality.”

“And are you?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter to you?”

“I don’t have to like you, Mr. Forrester, I just have to make sure everyone else does.”

“So, even if you did have a personal problem with the project?”

“Like the wedding bells, not an issue. This is business. My business is presenting your best to the public and to your shareholders.”

“I need to get the details hammered out as quickly as possible.” He leaned over and picked his briefcase up from the floor, opened it and pulled out a thick stack of papers. “This is the contract. If you need anything changed, let me know and we’ll discuss it. And you need to terminate your dealings with Jeff Campbell. One thing I require is that your firm no longer represent him in any capacity. Conflict of interest.”

“Of course.”

He looked at her, and reached across her desk, picking up her cell phone and holding it out to her.

“What? You want me to call now?”

“Time is money, or so I’ve heard.”

She snatched the phone from his hand and dialed Jeff’s number, her palms slick with sweat. She hated that he had the ability to make her lose her cool. It didn’t help that Jeff Campbell had definitely been giving her the “let’s make this business into pleasure” vibe. Which made terminating the contract sting just a little bit less, as the last thing she wanted to deal with was working with a man with sex on his brain.

The phone rang once before Jeff answered. “Hi, it’s Lily.”

Gage raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment.

“I know.” Jeff sounded far too pleased about it for her peace of mind, his tone of voice almost intimate. It made her skin crawl.

“I’m really sorry to have to tell you this, but I’ve been offered a better contract and I feel I can’t afford to turn it down.”

She listened while Jeff expressed his disappointment, in a very nice fashion, considering she was breaking a contract they’d drawn up a week ago. He was probably still hoping to get a date. Which was confirmed when he asked if they could meet over dinner to discuss it further.

“Sorry. I’m going to be really busy with … work. Because of the contract. The new one.” Gage’s blue eyes were locked on her and it was making her nervous, which she hated. Men never upset her personal balance. She never let them close enough to do that.

“There’s a monetary penalty for terminating the contract,” Jeff said, his voice icy now.

“I know. I was there when the addition was made and I read the contract thoroughly before I signed it.” She looked at Gage, trying to judge his reaction. “But this is a business move that I feel I have to make. It’s the best thing for my company.”

“So ethics, fulfilling your commitments, aren’t as important as money?”

Ouch. She took a breath. “It’s business, Jeff. In my position you would do the same. Business is business,” she said, unconsciously echoing Gage’s earlier statement.

“You certainly never treated it like it was only a business arrangement.” The inference and the venom in his tone shocked her. Though she knew it shouldn’t. Men seemed to think a polite greeting meant she wanted to hop into bed with them. And that was their problem, not hers.

“Sorry to have given you the wrong impression,” she bit out, conscious of Gage’s close study of her. “But as far as I’m concerned, yes, it was only a business arrangement. And now, it’s a defunct business arrangement.”

Gage took the phone from her hand, his expression far too satisfied for her liking. “Just wanted to affirm that Lily is working for me now.”

And now Lily felt like a treat being fought over by two dogs, and it was not pretty. She didn’t like that she was in the middle of some kind of alpha war. And the feeling was only magnified by the fact that Jeff had, apparently, assumed she was interested in him as more than just a source of income.

She could hear the tone, not the words, to Jeff’s curt reply before Gage snapped her phone shut and set it back on the desk.

She stood up and rounded the desk, reckless anger coursing through her. “This is my office, Mr. Forrester. I might be working for you but I expect you to remember that.”

“You’re working for me, Ms. Ford, that’s the bottom line, whether we’re in your office or mine.” His blue eyes held that steel that made him so successful.

On the outside he might seem like the kind of man who didn’t take life seriously. The endless succession of models and actresses on his arms saw that he featured in the tabloids regularly, and he’d garnered a reputation as a playboy. But she knew that he hadn’t reached the level of success he had without an edge of ruthlessness. He didn’t often put it on show, but then, he wouldn’t have to. The man radiated power. And beneath that she sensed that he had the soul of a predator. The fact that he was in her office now was proof of that.

At one time that would have intimidated her. He would have intimidated her. But not anymore. She was an up-and-coming player in the business world, and she wasn’t going to reach her destination by backing down.

But she hadn’t gotten where she was by being stupid, either, and even if she was angry beyond reason that Gage was usurping her authority in her own office, she wasn’t about to spar with her brand-new boss.

“I apologize,” she said, lowering the register of her voice, trying to project a calmer demeanor than she currently felt capable of projecting. “But I have to confess I’m a little bit controlling and I can be very territorial.”

Gage tried to ignore the tightening in his gut. The woman practically purred when she spoke. And when she stood from her desk, she sauntered around to the other side, her walk as slinky and liquid as a cat’s, her curves enough to remind him why it was so good to be a man.

She was stunning, not like the women he usually dated with their breezy West Coast manner, and their fake-and-bake tans. She was more like a museum display. Refined, elegant and partitioned off with thick velvet rope. She had Do Not Touch signs all over her, and yet, like a museum display, that made her all the more tempting.

She tilted her head and put one perfectly manicured hand on her shapely hip. Her skirt-and-jacket combo was expertly tailored to skim her curves, revealing her figure, but not in an obvious way. Her dark brown hair was twisted into a neat bun and her pale, flawless skin, rare in the sun-obsessed state of California, had just the right amount of makeup to look a bit more perfect than nature allowed.

“What are your terms?” she asked.

“My terms?”

“What do you expect from me so that I may be worthy of the somewhat exorbitant sum you’re offering me?”

She had attitude, but that was a good thing. She would be dealing with the media on his behalf, and in order to do that, she was going to need a backbone of steel. She seemed eager to prove that it was firmly in place.

“If you really think the sum is exorbitant I could always offer you less.”

“I could never turn down your generosity, it would be rude.”

He chuckled. “Well, in the interest of good manners, by all means, accept it. As for the rest, I expect you to be on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I have projects happening all over the world in several different time zones, that means it’s always business hours. That means if something happens and I need my PR specialist, you have to be available. I can’t afford for you be off on a hot date.”

“Your chauvinistic nature is showing again, but I assure you that nothing takes priority over my job. Not even hot dates.” She quirked a dark eyebrow, her brown eyes glittering. She liked this, challenging him, he could tell. And he took it as a good sign. His last public relations specialist had cracked under the pressure in less than a year. It was a hard business, even harder in his industry and with his level of visibility in the media. The fact that Lily seemed to enjoy a little bit of friction was a good sign.

“In that case why don’t you get down to the business of signing your life away to me?” he said.

A faint smile curved her berry-painted lips and she turned to face her desk, grabbed a pen out of the holder and bent over slightly so that she could sign the contract. It was a pose she had to know was provocative. Her fitted pencil skirt cupped the round curve of her butt so snugly he couldn’t help but admire the flawless shape. And she had to know that. Women always knew. No wonder Jeff Campbell had assumed she’d been making a play for him. Deluded idiot. Lily wasn’t making an offer, she was out to intimidate. And on most men, he could see how it might work. But not on him.

She straightened and turned, her jaw set, her expression one of satisfied determination. She extended her hand and he took it. She shook it firmly, her dark eyes shining with triumph.

“I look forward to doing business with you, Mr. Forrester.”

He laughed. “You say that now, Ms. Ford, but you haven’t started the job yet.”

CHAPTER TWO

THE fact that the very first thing she felt when Gage’s deep, masculine voice pulled her out of the deep sleep she’d been in was a shiver of excitement, and not a pang of annoyance, was disturbing on a lot of levels, all of which she was too tired to analyze in that moment.

“It’s one in the morning, Gage.” Lily blinked against the blinding light radiating from the screen of her smart-phone. After four months in his employ, she should know better than to be surprised by a midnight phone call.

“It’s nine a.m. in England.”

“And we have a crisis on our hands?” She rolled over and brushed her hair out of her face, the cool sheets from the side of the bed that had been unoccupied chilling her slightly.

“The sky isn’t falling, if that’s what you mean, but we have protesters lining the streets at our newest building site and I need a press release that will help cool things down.”

“Now?”

“Preferably before the mob tears down the foundation of our new hotel,” he bit out.

Lily sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, pushing the button for speakerphone and bringing up the specs of the project up on the screen. “What’s the issue?”

“Environmental impact.”

She studied the report. “It’s a green build. Recycled materials are being used for as much of the hotel as possible, anything that isn’t is being purchased locally and it’s helping to stimulate local economy.”

“Good. Put all of that in a press release and get it sent.”

“Just a second. I was in bed. Asleep. Like a normal person,” she said, sleep depravation making her grumpy.

She stood and made her way to her desk, which she had moved a mere foot away from her bed just for such occasions. Her laptop was still fired up, so she sat down, dashed off all of the necessary info and emailed it to Gage. “How’s that?”

“Good,” he responded a few moments later. “What do you suggest? Written or verbal?”

“Both. Call down there and see if you can speak to someone on the phone. I’ll contact the local news station. Then we’ll work on getting it into online editions of the papers today and print for tomorrow. That ought to defuse things, as much as possible anyway. They still might not be happy about the build in general, but if you show that you’re conscientious it should go a long way in smoothing things over, at least with the general public, which is really the best you can hope for.”

“You really are good,” he said, that voice sending a little frisson of … something … through her again. She’d thought she would get used to him in the months since he’d walked into her office and hired her. In a lot of ways she had, but he still had the ability to throw her off balance if she wasn’t prepared for him.

“I’m the best, Gage,” she said sharply, “don’t forget it.”

“How can I? You never let me.”

“I hope you mean in deed rather than word,” she said archly.

“Take your pick.”

“All right. I’m going to call some televisions stations and then I’m going back to bed.”

“Fine, but I need you in the office by five.”

She bit back a groan. “Of course.” It was likely he was already at the office. Between work and dalliances with supermodels she wasn’t sure if Gage Forrester ever slept.

She hung up the phone and proceeded to make her phone calls before falling back into bed. She could get two good hours before she had to be in the office.

And why did Gage’s voice seem to be echoing in her mind while she tried to drift off?

She walked into Gage’s office at 4:59 a.m. with two industrial-sized cups of coffee. “Thought you might need a hit,” she said, setting the cup down in front of him.

He looked up from his computer screen. Annoyingly, despite the five-o’clock shadow he was sporting he looked fresh and well-rested, while she knew she had puffy eyes that were just barely made to look normal by gobs of under-eye cream.

“I definitely need a hit,” he said, picking up the cup and bringing it to his lips. She couldn’t help but watch him, the way his lips moved to cover the opening of the lid, the slight view of his tongue. His mouth fascinated her. Like the effect his voice seemed to have on her, she was certain she didn’t want to know why his mouth fascinated her.

Well, she knew why. It was the same reason an endless stream of beautiful women were constantly on his arm. The same reason she did as much talking to the press about his personal life as she did about his professional life. Gage Forrester was one sexy man. Even she could admit that.

In theory, she liked sexy men, at least from a distance. When said sexy man was her boss, it made life a bit more complicated. It didn’t really matter, though. Business was business and she had no intention of crossing any lines with him. She wasn’t his type anyway. He liked party girls. The shallower, and the shorter the skirt, the better. And he definitely wasn’t her type. Of course, she wasn’t entirely certain what her type was as far as practical application went. Judging by her recent string of failed dates she didn’t really have a type.

“How many shots?” he asked, lowering the cup.

“Quad,” she answered, trying to bring her mind back into the present and away, far, far away, from his lips.

“Good. It’s going to be a long day.”

She sat down in the chair by his desk, pulled her notebook out of her briefcase and sat poised with a pen in her hand.

“Why do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“Take physical notes on paper. You have a million little gadgets for that kind of thing. I know because most of them were purchased with your expense account.”

“This helps me commit it to memory. I always log it electronically later.”

A small smile curved his lips, lips she was staring at again. She looked down at her notebook.

“The England site, how do you feel about the damage control that’s been done there?”

“Great,” she said. “You have a satellite interview scheduled with one of the news outlets very late tonight. Also, the written release is set to run in major newspapers tomorrow, and you spoke to the organizer of the protests personally, right?”

“Yes. Nice woman. Didn’t like me very much. I think she called me a … capitalist pig.”

She looked up and her heart jumped a bit. She looked back down at the lined paper of her notebook. “You kind of are.”

“A rich one.”

“Touché.”

“I was able to explain to her the process by which we’re building the hotel. I also explained, very nicely, how it would help the economy, and that, in addition to the construction workers who have work now, it would provide at least a hundred permanent positions. And the fact that it’s being built on the site of what was essentially a crumbling wreck of an old manor, and not on any farmland, went over well.”

“All very good,” Lily said, scribbling on her notebook before reaching over to grab her coffee cup off of Gage’s desk and taking a sip.

In the beginning it had seemed strange, coming in early when no one else was in the building, sitting in Gage’s luxurious office, watching the sunrise, glinting off the bay, and the hundreds of boats moored in the San Diego harbor. It had almost seemed … intimate in some ways. Half the time he hadn’t shaved yet when she arrived, and he would go into his private bathroom that adjoined his office and take care of it before the other staff arrived, but he didn’t bother for her.

She’d never shared her mornings with a man before, so the insight into the masculine prep-for-the-day routine was an interesting one.

Then at eight his PA would arrive and Gage would brief him on the schedule for the day and Lily would go to her office. Her new office in Gage’s building. She and her small crew had relocated once she’d realized the constant crosstown commute wasn’t conducive to keeping tabs on her account with Forrestation, and they were essentially the only account she handled personally. Gage kept her too busy to do anything else.

“The build in Thailand is going well,” he commented.

“Good.”

“You’ve certainly managed to keep the public, and in turn, the shareholders, placated with that one.”

“You’re providing so many jobs for the area and the wages you pay are more than fair. It’s only going to be good for the economic growth of the region. And you’ve certainly taken great care to keep environmental impact at a minimum. And the fact that you bought several hundred acres and had it set aside as a wildlife preserve is helpful. If you would let me announce it.”

He shrugged his broad shoulders and his shirt pulled tight across his muscular chest, exposing the outline of his pectoral muscles. She looked away. “It doesn’t matter to me what the vocal minority thinks. No matter how many protesters show up at a construction site, the general public still patronizes my hotels and I can still sleep at night. Anything else is an incidental. It wouldn’t matter at all if weren’t for the shareholders. The curse of going public.”

“Why did you choose to go public then? You don’t strike me as the sort of man who likes to be accountable to anyone.”

He leaned back in his chair and pushed his dark hair off of his forehead. “You noticed.”

“Hard not to.”

“I went public because it’s a great way to increase visibility. And at the time I had debts to pay off from the start-up of the company. It helped increase my capital immensely, and enabled me to pay off the business loans I’d taken out.”

Gage was from a fairly affluent family, that was general knowledge. It surprised her that he’d had to take out loans to start up his company. She’d imagined him having full family support, both financially and emotionally. The fact that he started the same as she had, by herself, with nothing and no one standing by to bail her out, made her stomach tighten.

“But now you have to play the diplomacy game,” she said.

“I would anyway. I develop resort and hotel properties, the public has to have a favorable view of me.”

“That’s true.”

For the most part, the public did have a favorable view of him. He was charismatic and charming and dated the most eligible women in Hollywood, which put him on the front cover of a lot of magazines and made him very high-profile for a businessman.

He was also a slave-driving taskmaster, but only his employees knew that. And in fairness, he never expected anything from her that he didn’t expect from himself. In fact, he seemed to expect more from himself. Which was why, even when her phone rang at 3:00 a.m., she managed to resist hurling obscenities at him.

“Anything else on the agenda?” she asked.

“I need a date for an event tomorrow. Fundraiser. Art gala.”

“And you’ve misplaced your little black book?”

“No, it’s in a safe somewhere so that no one can ever get their hands on it and use it for evil.”

“You use it for evil,” she said.

“On occasion. But the real issue is that none of my black book entries are suitable.”

“Well that sounds like an issue of taste to me,” she said. It bothered her sometimes—okay, all the time—that a man with his drive to succeed dated women who were such bubbleheads. But then, she didn’t imagine he was interested in the contents of their minds.

“No, it’s an issue of venue. I want you to go with me.”

“What?”

“But you need something else to wear.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“You’re intelligent. You know how to make conversation.”

“So do most women. You just tend to date women who can’t talk and walk at the same time without injuring themselves.”

“I didn’t know you had an opinion on my choice of companion.”

She gritted her teeth. “Doesn’t matter, what matters is that I shield the public from the full horror of it. And what’s wrong with the way I dress?”

She spent an obscene amount of money buying good quality clothing and having it tailored. She always, always, looked polished and ready for a press conference. Always. It was essential to her job and she took it very seriously.

“Nothing. If you have a business meeting. But you look more like a politician’s wife than a woman I would take to a fundraiser.”

“Politicians’ wives go to fundraisers.”

“But I’m not a politician.”

“And I’m not for hire.”

His dark brows locked together. “No. You’re not, because I already hired you. You work for me, and if I need you I expect you to make yourself available. You signed a contract agreeing to it.”

“To be your PR specialist at all hours, which is quite enough, thank you very much, not to hang on your arm at art galas.”

“This is PR. I could skip the fundraiser and look like a capitalist pig with no conscience, or I could go with Shan Carter. She gave me her number the other night.”

An image of the spoiled blonde heiress in her thigh-high boots and cling-wrap dress flashed before Lily’s eyes.

“You can’t do that,” she said, all of her PR training recoiling in horror at the thought.

“I know. I didn’t even need you to tell me.”

“Fine. I’ll go. But you’re not picking my dress.”

His icy gaze swept her up and down. “You’re not.”

“Why not? You’ve never seen me in date clothes. You don’t know what my date clothes look like.” She didn’t own date clothes, but he didn’t have to know that. She had confidence in her taste in clothes. She knew what she looked good in and she really didn’t need some wafer-thin personal shopper to try and tell her what she already knew.

“All right, but no tweed.”

“I don’t wear tweed. Well, I have a jacket that’s tweed, but it’s chic. Lycra isn’t the official fabric of fashion, you know. Though I know you couldn’t prove it by your dates.”

He shrugged in that casual manner of his, that shrug that seemed especially designed to provoke her. “I like to have fun. I work hard. My obligations are met. I see no issue with conducting my personal life in the way I see fit.”

He had a point, as much as she hated to admit it. Although she couldn’t imagine why any woman in her right mind would date him. Well, that was a lie, it was obvious visually why a woman would want to date him. He was tall, broad-shouldered and perfectly built. But on a personal level, while he was smart and fun to banter with, he was also totally uncompromising when it came down to it, and she knew she could never deal with a man like that. She’d seen the kind of toll a man like that could take on a woman’s life. And she’d vowed she wouldn’t become like that. She wasn’t letting anyone have control over her life.

Although, obviously Gage had some modicum of control over her life since he was her boss, but that was different. When a woman gave a man her body he owned a piece of her. She thought the whole thing was just entirely too unsettling. And no matter how gorgeous Gage was, it wasn’t enough to erase the memories that she carried with her. Warnings. Her mother’s mistakes had to count for something, otherwise they really would be a complete tragedy, and as contentious as her relationship with her mother was, she didn’t want that.

“If you expect me to buy new clothes you have to give me time to shop.”

“You can have the afternoon off.”

She shook her head, her tight bun staying firmly in place. “Morning and afternoon. I need sleep.”

“Morning to lunch hour,” he countered.

“Deal.”

“No black. No beige.”

“It’s an art gala, most of the women will be in black.”

“I know, and that’s exactly why I want you to wear something else.”

She frowned. “I’m not in the habit of allowing men to dictate what I wear. I can choose for myself.”

He stood from his desk, and she was distracted, as she always was when he surprised her like that, by the superb shape of his body. Narrow waist, broad chest. And she knew, though she was ashamed to admit it, that he also had the best butt she’d ever seen. Although she hadn’t taken notice of very many men in that way before, so she didn’t have much to compare to.

He raised an eyebrow. “So if your lover had a preference for lingerie you wouldn’t consider that, either?”

She bit the inside of her cheek and tried to will herself not to blush. She never let men rattle her. She’d been on the receiving end of pick-up lines from cheesy to crude since she began to develop at the age of thirteen, and then, after she’d moved and started her new life, men had naturally assumed she was ready to bed-hop her way to the top of the corporate ladder. As a result, she’d assumed she’d lost the ability to blush a long time ago. Apparently not. She felt her face get hot.

She’d never worried about her lack of sexual experience. It was a choice she’d made. In the environment she’d been raised in it had been a fight to hold on to any sort of innocence, physical or psychological, and she’d been determined that no one would take it from her. But in that moment she knew she would rather walk across broken glass than admit that no man had ever had cause to have an opinion about her lingerie.

“I have impeccable taste,” she said instead, lifting her chin, trying to keep her expression smooth. Cool. Not completely flustered. “No one has ever had reason to complain.” She picked her briefcase up from the floor and stood. “And neither will you.” She turned on her heel and stalked out of the office, trying to ignore the thundering of her heart.

CHAPTER THREE

GAGE had never seen Lily look less than perfect. She always looked beautiful, even when she rushed into the office at two in the morning to handle some sort of media crisis. But in a dark navy blue gown with ruffled sleeves, a demure neckline and a back that dipped so low it ought to be illegal, she was stunning.

Her hair was pinned to the side so that her curls cascaded over one shoulder, and didn’t cover any of the skin that was on display in the back of the gown. Her makeup was more dramatic than she usually wore to the office and her legs were bare, and on glorious show, the dress barely skimming her knees. And they were amazing legs.

Gage’s libido kicked into gear, a reminder that he hadn’t had sex in a very long time. But business had been intense and when he hadn’t been focused on his various building projects he’d been handling Madeline’s big move into her new, off-campus apartment. An apartment she hadn’t wanted, because she couldn’t afford it herself. But there was no way he was letting his little sister live in a dangerous part of town, not when he could afford to buy her any home she might want. But she was stubborn, and while he appreciated that aspect of her personality, it could also be a major pain. It was also time-consuming and detrimental to his sex life.

But that was why he was now standing in the foyer of the San Diego Aquarium eyeing his PR specialist’s legs.

He put his hand on the curve of her bare back and he felt her jump beneath his touch. A slow smile curved his lips. He leaned in and her sweet feminine scent teased his sense. “You wore navy blue because I told you not to wear black, didn’t you?”

She pursed her lips and looked to the side, her expression defiant and sexy at the same time. “Maybe.”

“Because you like to challenge me without defying me outright,” he said, his lips brushing her ear. He felt the small tremor that shook her body. Interesting. She wasn’t as icy as she wanted him, and people in general, to believe.

“I don’t want to get fired,” she whispered, her dark eyes warning him to back up or lose a limb.

He frowned. He liked the feisty edge that Lily had, but she was his employee and he had no right to touch her simply because he felt an attraction. She was a good employee, and everything that made her so great to work with, made her the kind of woman he never wanted to get involved with.

He dropped his hand and studied her flawless face. She looked different out of her work suits, with her brown curls shimmering over her shoulder. Softer. Touchable.

His hands itched to do just that. To touch her petal-soft skin, to run his fingers through her hair. His body tightened in response to the thought, even as his mind rejected it.

“As if I would fire you,” he said, putting distance between them. “You know too much.”

“I think I might get that matted and framed. High praise indeed.”

They walked into the main section of the art exhibit, which was being held in the kelp forest. The entire room was cast in a bluish glow, compliments of the massive, three-story cylindrical aquarium that made up the structure of the space. Water plants grew to impossible heights and fish wove through them. Art was placed on easels around the room, with a place to write down and submit bids next to each one of them.

Gage walked over to one of the displays and, without even glancing at the artwork, took a form and wrote an astronomical sum on it before dropping it in the box.

“You really should be less discreet when you do things like that, and when you do things like create wildlife preserves near your resort sites,” she said.

“Why is that?”

“It would help your image. And you need it. ‘Property developer’ is kind of a tough profession to sell to the public. You could make my job easier by trumpeting charitable contributions.”

He frowned. “You were a witness. Trumpet it.”

“You don’t want me to, though.”

His jaw tensed. “Giving for the sake of your reputation is just paying for good publicity.”

“Most people don’t have a problem with that.”

“And what’s your opinion on it, Lily? And don’t give me your ‘my opinion doesn’t matter as long as the public likes you’ speech.”

She bit her lip. This side of Gage always confused Lily. In some ways he seemed more uncomfortable having people know anything good about him. He didn’t seem to mind the negative press that came when he dated one supermodel, then switched to an actress the next night. But he didn’t seem to want to let anyone know about his good behavior. And there was something about that that made her almost like him sometimes, and that made all the other physical things he made her feel intensify.

“It’s … okay, events like this are definitely a little bit fake. It’s see and be seen. Most people are flashing their bids all over the place.” She jerked her head toward the glittering celebrities and debutantes gathered around different pieces of art, waving their bids around while they talked.

“I don’t play the game,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal.”

“You have to play the game a little bit, Gage. It’s good for business.”

“What’s it like for you, doing a job that’s so at odds with who you are?”

The question was so strange and unexpected, she turned sharply, her mouth dropping open. “I … how is it at odds with who I am?” She knew better than most how important image was.

The Lily Ford from a Kansas trailer park, who had pulled her way from poverty and put her past far, far behind her, was not going to get anywhere in the field of public relations. She knew, she’d tried that. But the Lily Ford who knew how to present herself with icy cool dignity, the Lily who wore tailored, designer clothing and always had her hair done perfectly, that Lily was a success. And it had all been a matter of image.

Who she was underneath didn’t matter to clients or to the public when she was making a statement. All that mattered was what they saw. That philosophy was how she made her living, and she believed it, lived it, more than anyone she’d ever come into contact with.

“You seem to value some sort of integrity. And you believe that these sorts of shows of wealth and generosity are false. But you wish I would engage in them.”

She shrugged. “If the world were different, maybe these things wouldn’t matter. But we’re in a media-obsessed culture. That means making a good face to present to the media, and through that, the public.”

“I don’t like to pander to the public.”

“I know you don’t, but you do like to make money. And that means keeping your image favorable. Again, easier said than done for a capitalist pig like yourself.”

He shot her a deadly look that she ignored.

They continued to walk through the room. She noticed how, though Gage greeted people casually, he seemed separate from them, too. He didn’t really engage with people. She made her money partly by reading people, she had to have a good idea of who her clients were and what made them tick. But after four months, in a lot of ways, Gage remained a question mark. She spent nearly every day with him, but even with that, she knew very little about him personally.

The conversation they’d just had was probably the most revealing one she’d ever had with him. Otherwise it was confined to business.

Gage knew how to play the game. He said the right things to the right people, but there was nothing personal in the way he spoke to anyone. It was the first time she’d realized that even she had never seen past Gage’s public persona.

A thin blonde socialite with cleavage spilling over the top of her dress grabbed Gage by the arm and beamed up at him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Lily was standing on the other side of him.

“Gage,” the blonde said breathlessly. “I’m so glad I saw you here. There’s dancing out in the courtyard,” she added.

She noticed that Gage didn’t bother with his signature smile. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to dance with my date.” He hooked his arm around her waist and slid his fingers over her hip, the light touch sending heat ripping through her body. When he brought her close to his side her legs felt as if they might buckle.

She’d never in her life been affected by a man’s touch like that. Of course, that could be because she rarely let men touch her. She’d watched her mother go through an endless succession of men. Men who had asked her mother to uproot them and move from one town to another, men who had berated and belittled both of them, men who had always held the control over both of their lives. Lily had never wanted that. By the time she was thirteen she’d decided that from what she’d seen of relationships she wanted nothing to do with them.

She’d finally left home at seventeen and moved to California. Ten years later she had her own business, a beautiful apartment, complete control over her own life, and still no man. She had never regretted it. Some of her friends thought she was crazy, and insisted she was missing out on one of life’s fundamental experiences. But every time she agreed to go on a date with some guy her friends promised would be perfect for her, she found herself dissecting his behavior, imagined how the possessive hand on the curve of her back would change to a fist intent on controlling her once the newness of the relationship wore off. She didn’t have second dates.

It was fine for her friends. Fine for other women who hadn’t seen the steady digression of a relationship over and over again.

But Gage’s touch didn’t make her think of being controlled. She couldn’t think of anything. All she could feel was the gentle sweep of his fingers over the curve of her hip.

“Care to dance?” he asked, his lips close to her ear, her body responding so eagerly she felt certain he would be able to see just how much he was affecting her. Her breasts felt heavy and she was thankful for her moment of near-defiance in purchasing the navy blue. Hopefully it would help conceal her tightened nipples.

The blonde was giving her a glare that had the potential to turn a lesser woman to stone, and her pride only left her with one answer to give Gage. “Of course,” she said.

In a moment of total madness, she reached up and touched his face, the dark stubble there scraping her palm. Her heart hammered hard, her throat suddenly dry. She dropped her hand back to her side. She’d thought about touching his face before. Fleeting moments that had invaded her thoughts while she fought for sleep at night, fantasies that had now bled over into reality. Her palm still burned.

She followed him through the hallway lined with more aquariums and out into one of the outdoor courtyards where a band was playing.

He took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and drawing her into his body, his expression intense. Her heart was thundering in her chest now, and there was no pretending that what she felt wasn’t attraction. The most acute, real, dangerous attraction she’d ever felt in her life.

“This is inappropriate,” she said, horribly conscious of the fact that her voice felt as shaky and jittery as her whole body felt.

“Would you rather I danced with Cookie?”

She snorted a laugh, then covered her mouth with the hand that had been resting on his shoulder. She lowered it when she caught her breath, not sure whether or not she should put it back on him. “That’s not really her name is it?”

“It might be a nickname, I’m not sure.”

“You never asked?”

“It wasn’t important at the time.”

That spoke volumes about the way Gage treated relationships. He avoided commitment with flings. She avoided relationships by not having romantic contact with men altogether. But they were both avoidance tactics. In that, at least, they obviously saw eye-to-eye. Relationships were overrated.

Gage put his hand on the small of her back, on her bare skin, and he felt a small shiver go through her whole body. She was feeling every bit of the attraction he was. Strange, because he had only ever seen her in her buttoned-up professional mode, now suddenly she was unbuttoned and very, very hot. Although, she’d always been hot. He’d thought more than once about uncoiling her tightly wound hair and watching the dark curls tumble down.

She shifted against him, her hip brushing his body intimately. His muscles tensed and desire roared through him, his body hardening at the accidental contact.

He drew her closer, letting her feel. Letting her know exactly what she was doing to him. He didn’t hit on employees as a rule, ever. But she tempted him. And that was a new experience. Women appealed to him, and he desired them. But he’d never considered them a serious temptation. If it wasn’t the right time, it was easy for him to leave his date standing on the doorstep and go home without taking her to bed. There had been a lot of times in his life when pleasure had had to be deferred due to responsibility, either because of his family or because of business. He was an expert at deferring pleasure if necessary. But this feeling, this hot surge of lust coursing through him, didn’t feel like something that could be deferred or denied.

Her head jerked up, her dark eyes wide, her breath coming in short bursts. “That’s definitely not appropriate,” she whispered.

“Maybe not, but I’m enjoying it.”

She licked her lips, the slow, sensual movement hitting him like a punch to the gut. She looked down again, not saying anything, but leaning in a little bit closer, her breasts brushing his chest.

Her eyes fluttered closed, her lips parted slightly and she swayed a bit in his arms. Then she went stiff, pulled back quickly, her brown eyes huge with shock.

“Did you make all the bids you were planning on making?” she asked, her breasts rising and falling with her labored breathing.

“Yes,” he said, trying to ignore the ache of unsatisfied desire that was gnawing at him.

“Then we should go. We’ll probably have another early morning.”

She turned and walked back into the building. He shook his head. She was right to have stopped things, as much as his body rebelled against the admission. He valued her too much as an employee to sacrifice it for sex. Even if it would be incredibly hot sex.

He liked to keep his life compartmentalized. There was work, there was his family life, and then there was his sex life, and he didn’t combine them. Ever.

Though with the memory of her in his arms, how soft and sweet she’d felt there, how close he had come to tasting her lips, it was hard to remember why that was.

Lily couldn’t sleep, and it was all Gage’s fault. And hers. He’d nearly kissed her. She’d nearly kissed him. Curiosity. That was all it had been. The need to know what it would be like. She’d wondered about it. She wouldn’t be human if she hadn’t.

Gage was so much more than any other man she’d ever met. More successful, more driven. And those were things that appealed to her. But she had never felt so compelled to abandon all of her tightly held business principles for a few moments of … of … lust.

She hadn’t wanted to pull away, hadn’t felt like he was trying to manipulate her in any way. She’d felt … passion. For the first time in her life she’d experienced real, physical passion. She’d always felt passion for her work, a drive and a need to succeed, but that was where it had been contained.

Her body still felt hot and restless, unfulfilled.

“I don’t want Gage,” she told her empty bedroom. “I don’t.”

He was her boss. If she wanted a relationship, which she definitely didn’t, it wouldn’t be with him. Her job was too important to risk it by blurring personal and professional lines. It had never been an issue for her before.

Her clients had been almost exclusively men, and even when they’d shown interest, like Jeff Campbell, she hadn’t been remotely tempted to accept. There was a clear line drawn in her mind. Work was work.

She clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to make the shaky feeling go away. The worst thing wasn’t that Gage was her boss, it was how out of control he’d made her feel. She’d kissed men before—several of them—and the experience had ranged from completely undesirable to okay. None had lit her on fire from the inside out. But the near kiss with Gage made her feel like she was burning.

The worst thing was that she knew that if his lips had touched hers, that last shred of sanity would have turned to a vapor and any inclination she had to resist him would be gone with it. And when had she ever struggled with her willpower? She created her own destiny. She was in charge of her own life.

She let out a low growl of frustration and tossed off her covers before stalking over to her computer. If she wasn’t going to get sleep, she would get work done.

She opened up her email account and clicked open the message that she knew contained her search engine alerts on Forrestation Inc. and Gage Forrester. It was important for her to keep tabs on what was being said about him so she could release a statement if necessary.

She scanned the message and her stomach dropped. She bit out a curse and picked up her phone, speed dialing Gage’s number, not caring that it was three in the morning.

“Gage, we have a very serious problem.”

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