by Maya Banks
“Oh, Evan, I love you, too. So much. I do forgive you as long as you’ll forgive me, too.”
His entire face lit up. He looked almost boyish as he stared at her in wonder. “You love me? You’re not just saying it?”
She smiled and kissed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and put every ounce of her love into her kiss. He lifted her up until their mouths were even and their noses bumped.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
Evan sobered and he let her slide back down until her feet touched the floor. He cast her a sheepish look. “I might have stormed into Maddox Communications, threatening death and destruction if someone didn’t tell me where the hell you were. I’d already tried your apartment, your cell phone. I even called Noah’s agent because I couldn’t reach Noah, either.”
Celia giggled. “Death and destruction? Noah’s agent?”
“Well, maybe not death and destruction but I did threaten to pull my contract if I didn’t get some answers. Let’s just say that the entire Maddox team developed a sudden interest in your whereabouts. Someone found Adam’s business number, had him paged and then waited an eternity for him to call back. He told us you were here and I came right over.”
She shook her head, but her grin was so big she couldn’t hide it.
“Did you mean it?” he asked softly. “Do you love me? Enough to put up with my ogre ways and my demanding personality? Enough to marry me?”
She sucked in her breath as tears flooded her eyes.
“I think I can tolerate you,” she said teasingly. “If you can tolerate the fact that I can’t cook worth a darn. I’ll probably never meet you at the door wearing an apron, and the thought of having children scares the bejesus out of me.”
A slow grin spread across his face. “I think I can handle all that. So will you? Marry me? Put me out of my misery?”
“You don’t mind me keeping my job? I’ve fought too hard and have spent too long coming to grips with my issues regarding public opinion. There’s no way I’d want to quit now.”
He cupped her chin and smoothed a thumb over her cheek. “You can’t quit. You’re handling all my advertising. I’d be broke inside of a year without you. Besides, I’m way too damned proud of you to ever want to clip your wings.”
“I love you,” she said fiercely. “And, yes, I’ll marry you.”
He lowered his head to hers and kissed her long and sweet. “I love you, too,” he whispered.
He reached down into his pocket and pulled out the same ring he’d given her before. He grasped her hand in his and slid it back on her finger.
“I’ve kept this in my pocket ever since you gave it back. I can’t tell you how wrong it felt when you handed it back to me that night. Promise me you’ll never take it off again.”
She glanced down at the glittery diamond, tears blurring her vision. Then she glanced back up at the man staring at her with so much love in his eyes that her knees threatened to buckle.
“Never. This time our engagement is for real.”
* * * * *
Advertising Media Volume 186
FEATURESPOTLIGHT
This Week in Advertising.
The Adman:
Ash Williams
His New Campaign:
Truth serum. When you have to discover what’s real … by whatever means necessary.
We’ve been wondering what’s been going on with Ash Williams. Maddox Communications’ CFO has always been controlled and on his game. But lately he’s become very distracted, almost as if he were missing something. Could it have been a woman? Perhaps the very same woman who is now living in Ash’s home? His fiancée …?
How is it possible that one of the most eligible bachelors in San Francisco is engaged and no one suspected a thing? We’ve all seen how Ash has discarded one woman after another, never willing to be “shackled” for long. So why is this mystery woman now wearing his ring, having no memory of how or why the millionaire proposed?
MONEY MAN’S
FIANCÉE
NEGOTIATION
MICHELLE CELMER
About the Author
Bestselling author MICHELLE CELMER lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband, their three children, two dogs and two cats. When she’s not writing or busy being a mum, you can find her in the garden or curled up with a romance. And if you twist her arm really hard you can usually persuade her into a day of power shopping.
Michelle loves to hear from readers. Visit her website, www.michellecelmer.com, or write her at P.O. Box 300, Clawson, MI 48017.
To the ladies of Sister Night:
Karen, Janet, Susie, Toni and Cora.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to book four of the Kings Of The Boardroom series, the story of CFO Ash Williams and his mistress, Melody Trent. Or is she his fiancée? I guess you’ll just have to read to find out!
There is nothing more lethal than a man with power who is out for revenge. Especially one who is too stubborn to consider that he might be wrong. Ash is determined to make Melody pay for betraying him. But it’s tough to be angry with someone recovering from a nearly critical brain injury. And even harder to hold her responsible for things she can’t remember doing. She’s not the person she was before the accident. He has to wonder if he’s finally seeing the real Melody, not the carbon-copy mistress she thought he wanted her to be.
She nearly died, and she spent weeks in a coma, but Melody Trent refuses to let her guard down and play the victim, and she’s wary of this steamy man who claims to be her fiancé. His story checks out, and he’s playing the part of the devoted companion convincingly, but she can’t shake the feeling he’s hiding something. What was she doing in Texas without him, and why was she carrying four thousand dollars in her purse?
Melody wants answers, but Ash is determined to keep their past a secret. Now that he’s let himself fall for her, her memories are the one thing that could tear them apart.
Writing their story was exhilarating and heartbreaking and sometimes downright confusing! But their journey was a rewarding one.
I hope you enjoy it!
Best,
Michelle
Prologue
February
Melody Trent shoved clothes into a suitcase feeling a sense of urgency that was totally without merit. Ash wouldn’t be back until late. He’d been working longer and longer hours lately. Spending less and less time with her. Honestly, she would be surprised if it didn’t take a few days before he even noticed she was gone.
Emotion welled up in her throat and tears stung her eyes. She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek and took a deep, calming breath. It had to be hormones because she had never been a crier.
She would love to be able to blame her mother and her revolving bedroom door for this. She would like to think that she’d stayed with Ash for three years because her mother’s longest marriage—and there were five in total—barely lasted nine months. She wanted to be different from her mother, better than her, and look at the mess it had gotten her into.
She looked over at the photo on the dresser of her and her mother. It was the only one Mel had of them together. She was thirteen, with the body of a ten-year-old. Scrawny, skinny and awkward, standing next to her voluptuous, beautiful mother. No wonder she’d felt so insignificant, so invisible. It wasn’t until college, when she shared an apartment with another student who worked part-time as a personal fitness trainer, that she finally started looking like a woman. It took vigorous daily workouts and relentless weight training, but she finally had curves to speak of, and within a year men began noticing her and asking her out.
Her body was the bait, and sex the addiction that kept them coming around, that kept them interested, because what other reason would a man have to be with someone like her? She was smart, but in her own opinion not very pretty. She was content to sit at home and study, or read a good novel, when her peers only wanted to party.
That was why she and Ash had
always worked so well. She was able to go to law school, and do all the other things she enjoyed, and never worry about how the rent would get paid, or where she would find money for her next meal. He took care of her financially, and in return all she had to do was take care of everything else. And the truth was, she didn’t mind the cooking and cleaning and laundry. She’d been doing it nearly her whole life, as her mother had never taken an interest in anything domestic—God forbid she break a nail.
And of course part of the package was keeping him sexually satisfied, and at that she was a master. Only lately, the past six months or so, she could feel him pulling away from her. When they made love she felt as though his mind was somewhere else. No matter what she did, however kinky and adventurous to hold his attention, she could feel him slipping away.
When she missed her period she was sure it was a fluke. Ash had been pretty clear about the fact that he was sterile. And though their relationship had never been about love, it was mutually exclusive, so for almost three years they had never so much as used a condom.
But then her breasts started to feel tender, and her appetite suddenly became insatiable. She knew even before she took the pregnancy test that it would be positive. And of course it was. Ash had made it clear on more than one occasion that he didn’t want to be tied down. But he was a good man, and she knew he would do the right thing. The question was, did she want to be stuck in a relationship with a man who didn’t want her or her child?
If she left Ash, she would have to quit law school, though honestly, she’d lost her interest in the law a while ago. She just hadn’t had the heart to tell Ash. He had invested so much in her education. How could she tell him it was all for nothing?
She had been in the shower, debating her next move, when Ash came in with the video camera. She felt exhausted, and depressed, and in no mood to play the vixen, and really saw no point. She had already pretty much decided what she had to do. There was no need to keep trying to impress him. Three years of playing the role of the perfect woman had left her utterly exhausted. But when he stepped in the shower and started touching her, started kissing her, more tenderly than he ever had before, she melted. And when he made love to her, she could swear that for the first time he actually saw her. The real her. She let herself believe that somewhere deep down maybe he loved her.
For two weeks she agonized over what to do. She let herself hope that he would be happy about the baby. Then he came home from work in a foul mood, ranting about Jason Reagart being forced to marry and have a child he hadn’t planned or expected. He said how lucky he was to have a woman who respected his boundaries. She knew then that her fantasy about her, Ash and the baby was never going to happen.
That was last night. Today she was leaving.
She stuffed the rest of her things in her case, leaving the cocktail dresses and sexy lingerie behind. She wouldn’t be needing them where she was going. They wouldn’t fit in a few months anyway. She zipped it up and hauled both pieces of luggage off the bed. Her entire life in two suitcases and an overstuffed duffel bag. She was twenty-four with hardly anything to show for it. But that was going to change. She was going to have a child to love, and maybe someday she might meet a man who appreciated her for who she really was.
She lugged the bags to the front door then grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter. She checked to make sure the six thousand was safely tucked inside. It was money she had been gradually accumulating over the past three years and saving for a rainy day.
When it rained it poured.
Next to the stack of credit cards Ash had given her, Mel set a notepad and pen out so she could write Ash a letter, but the truth was, she didn’t have a clue what to say. She could thank him for all he’d done for her, but hadn’t she thanked him enough already? She could tell him she was sorry, but honestly, she wasn’t. She was giving him his freedom. Wasn’t that enough?
She didn’t doubt he would find someone to replace her, and in a few weeks she would be just a distant memory.
She grabbed her bags and opened the door, took one last look around, then left that life behind for good.
One
April
Asher Williams was not a patient man by nature. When he wanted something, he didn’t like to wait, and truth be told, he rarely had to. However, he was warned, when he enlisted the services of a private investigator, that finding a missing person could take time. Particularly if the person they were looking for didn’t want to be found. That being the case, he was surprised when he received a call from him a mere two days later.
Ash was in a meeting with several of his colleagues and wouldn’t normally answer his cell phone, but when he saw the P.I.’s number on the screen, he made an exception. He suspected it was either very good news, or very bad.
“Excuse me for just a minute,” he told his colleagues. He rose from his chair and walked across the room, out of earshot. “You have news?” he asked, then heard the three words he had been hoping for.
“I found her.”
In that instant he felt a confusing and disturbing combination of relief and bitterness. “Where is she?”
“She’s been staying in Abilene, Texas.”
What the hell was she doing in Texas?
That wasn’t important now. What mattered was bringing her back home where she belonged. And the only way to do that was to go and get her. He was sure, with some convincing, he could make her see that he knew what was best for her, that leaving him had been a mistake. “I’m in a meeting. I’ll call you back in five minutes.”
He hung up the phone and turned to his colleagues.
“Sorry, but I have to go,” he told them. “And I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Hopefully no more than a few days. I’ll let you know when I have more details.”
The look of stunned confusion on their faces as he walked from the room was mildly amusing, and not at all unexpected. In all his time as CFO of Maddox Communications, Ash had never missed a meeting or taken a sick day. He had never been so much as five minutes late for work, and he honestly couldn’t recall the last time he’d taken a vacation—much less one with two minutes’ notice.
On his way into his office Ash asked his secretary, Rachel, to hold all his calls. “And cancel any appointments I have for the next week, just to be safe.”
Her eyes went wide. “A week?”
He closed his office door and settled behind his desk, his mind racing a million miles an hour with all that he needed to do before he left as he dialed the P.I.’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“You told me it could take months to find her,” Ash said. “Are you sure you have the right Melody Trent?”
“I’m positive it’s her. Your girlfriend was in an auto accident. It’s how I found her so quickly.”
Melody Trent wasn’t his girlfriend. By definition, she was his mistress—a warm body to come home to after a long day at work. He paid her law school tuition and living expenses and she offered companionship with no strings attached. Just the way he liked it. But it was no time to split hairs.
“Was she injured?” he asked, expecting, at worst, a few bumps and bruises. He truly was not prepared for what the P.I. said next.
“According to the police report, the driver, your girlfriend, was pretty banged up and there was one fatality.”
Ash’s stomach bottomed out and his mouth went dry. “How banged up?”
“She’s been in the hospital for a couple of weeks.”
“You said there was a fatality. What happened exactly?” He rose from his chair, began pacing as the P.I. gave him what few details he had about the crash. And it was bad. Worse than Ash could have ever imagined. “Is Melody being held responsible?”
“Fortunately, no. The police filed it as an accident. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a civil suit, though.”
They would deal with that when and if the time came. “How is Melody? Do you have any details on her condition?”
“All th
e hospital would say is that she’s stable. They’ll only give details to family. When I asked to talk to her, they said she wasn’t taking phone calls. That usually means that for whatever reason, the patient is unable to speak. My best guess would be she’s unconscious.”
Since Melody left him, Ash had been counting the hours until she came crawling back to ask forgiveness, to say that she’d made a mistake. At least now he knew why she hadn’t. Although that wasn’t much of a consolation. And he would be damned if anyone was going to stop him from learning the truth. “I guess I’ll just have to be family.”
“You going to say she’s your long-lost sister or something?” the P.I. asked.
“Of course not.” He needed something a bit more believable. Something he could easily prove.
Melody was his fiancée.
The next morning Ash caught the earliest flight to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, then rented a car and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Abilene. He had called ahead the afternoon before, setting up a meeting with the doctor in charge of her care. They told him that Melody was conscious and out of the woods, but that was the most they would say over the phone.
Once he got to the hospital he strode right past the registration desk. He’d learned a long time ago that if he looked as though he belonged somewhere, showed he was in charge, people naturally followed along, and no one tried to stop him as he stepped onto the elevator. He got off on the third floor, surprised to realize that he was actually nervous. What if Melody didn’t want to come back to him?
Of course she would, he assured himself. Her leaving had obviously been a great error in judgment, and it would have only been a matter of time before she realized how much she missed him. Besides, where else would she go while she healed from her injuries? She needed him.
