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Authors: Eve Jordan

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BOOK: The Reluctant Heir
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“What are you working on?” she asked as walked towards the table.

“Buying a chain of gasoline stations on the East End,” he answered without looking up.

Her ears perked up. “Marshall?”

His eyebrows rose questioningly as he leaned back into his chair, assessing her in a way that made her cheeks burn. “Why do you say that?”

“There’re only two local chains in the area,” she began uneasily. Why was he looking at her like that?

“And the Relope family would never sell,” she continued, blabbering. From her case studies, she knew that they were too uptight about keeping the business in the family and making sure everything was top quality. Many larger chains had tried to buy them, but they’ve never succeeded. At least, not yet.

He continued looking at her strangely.

Had she said something wrong? Perhaps, he had found a way to charm Mr. Relope and it was the Relope chain he was buying or maybe he thought that she was fishing for information. She winced. What if he thought that she was working on the other side? Maybe he thought she was in mergers and acquisitions and was trying to pry information from him.

It would’ve been better if she had just stayed quiet, she realized duly. Suddenly feeling as if she had overstayed her visit, she shook her head. “Never mind.”

“Have you already eaten?” she asked as she sat down at the other end of the table.

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

Steam came out of the metal container and guilt coursed through her. She hoped he hadn't waited for her.

She removed the warm metal top from the plate and was assaulted by the delicious smell of rosemary.

There was a large piece of salmon with diced potatoes and some greens that looked terribly delicious. Eagerly, she stuck her fork into a potato and felt as if she’d gone to heaven when the warm, buttery taste of the potato hit her lips. Famished, she began to eat.

“So tell me about yourself,” Landen’s smooth voice came in a few minutes later, sending shivers throughout her body.

Surprised to hear him speak, she looked up at him and saw that he had stopped working. “There’s not much really,” she began. “I’m from Essex.” She shrugged. “Only child, good parents, and of course, a solicitor trainee.” Her friends often ribbed her about her choice of profession, but she enjoyed it.

“What made you decide to be a solicitor?”

The tips of her mouth quirked when she remembered her childhood dream. “I thought it’d be fun to help put bad people in jail.”

“But you ended up in Shaw, Blake and Associates,” he said dryly.

She smiled. Most of their clients were international corporations. Even to a businessman like him, it must’ve seemed as if she’d ended up on the other side of the law!

She shrugged. “During law school, I realized that it was the business case studies that interested me the most and I just went for it.”

Though she loved the business aspect of law, she still didn’t know exactly what she wanted to concentrate in.

She’d always thought that she would stay with the mergers and acquisitions division under Mr. Shaw. But now that he was gone, she would end up working under Mr. Penn and she didn’t like the way he took advantage of the smaller family companies.

Thankfully, the insurance division had also expressed their interest in her after training contract ended so it wasn’t like she had to go M&A.

But at the same time, she'd had her heart set on M&A for so long that she was worried that she’d be making the wrong decision if she chose to go to insurance law.

She smiled wryly. When she'd first started as a trainee, she'd hoped to make a good enough impression for someone to hire her. And now there were two departments willing to take her.

Even though she was grateful, she wished only one had offered so she wouldn't feel as if she was making a mistake by picking one over the other.

Not wanting to think about that just yet, she looked back at Landen and asked, “And you? Aside from the buying up all the businesses, I mean. What do you like to do?”

“Manage the businesses,” he answered dryly and her heart went out to him. With his busy schedule, he probably didn’t have any time for himself. There were no holidays for him. Just work, work, work.

They quickly fell into silence again and though she knew it should’ve been awkward, she was comforted by his company.

When she finished her meal, she grabbed her plate and stood up. “Well good luck on your deal. I’m going to go pack my stuff now and get out of your hair. Thank you for-”

“I canceled your room.”

“What? How-?”

“You were asleep when they called. They’ve overbooked and since I had the extra room, I told them that you didn't need it anymore.”

She groaned inwardly. She doubted she could actually sleep, knowing that his room was just a footstep away. The only reason why she’d been able to sleep earlier was because she had been so tired.

But after all the wrong assumptions she'd made about his character, she didn't want to sound ungrateful. “You’re sure about having me stay here?”

“Yeah.” Crossing his arms, he leaned back into the chair and raised his eyebrows. “That is unless you have a problem with that?”

“No- Of course not. Thank you.”

Having no where to go, she settled back into to the chair, a bit confused. Why was he letting her stay in his room? Surely, he didn’t need her here to bother him when he had so much work to take care of.

“So what’s the plan tomorrow?” he asked.

“Well, I hired a boat to scatter the remains out in the morning.” Mr. Shaw had left all the instructions on that in the will. For someone who hadn’t thought he was dying, he had been well prepared.

A strange emotion passed over Landen's face and her heart went out to him. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was feeling right now.

“And then an appointment to swim with dolphins and a luau at night.”

She knew it was touristy, but she’d always wanted to swim with dolphins.

He nodded. “Sounds good.’

She raised her eyebrows. “You’re coming with me to swim with the dolphins?” she asked, smiling.

His eyes twinkled with amusement as he nodded.

“And the luau?” she pressed.

He nodded again and she laughed. He obviously had more important things to do but if he wanted to play tourist with her tomorrow, that was fine with her.

“All right.” she said. She looked down at one of the stacks of paper and saw that it was an income statement from a couple of years back.

“Do you want me to help?” she asked as she gestured towards the stacks of papers he had.

“You’re offering to help me with my due diligence?”

Her cheeks flushed. She had forgotten that he might think that she was the opposition. She shrugged. “I have a little experience with M&A.”

A grin tugged at his lips. “I know. I was just surprised. But I’m just looking over some things.”

“All right then. I’ll just go take a shower now.”

“Need help?”

Blushing, she looked back to see his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Just returning the offer,” he supplied happily.

Instinctively, she glanced at his lips before looking back at him. There was an intenseness in those eyes that made her shiver. Suddenly, the air seemed charged and she seemed all too aware of her beating heart.

“Ha ha,” she said forcefully as she stood up quickly.

Unable to look at him at the eye, she mumbled her good night and retreated to her room, ashamed at herself for being so obvious. Though he had started it, he was only joking and yet she had actually considered his offer.

What kind of a horrible person was she?

Here he was tying to bury his grandfather and she was thinking about how nice it would be to feel his lips on hers!

She groaned. Hopefully, she would have better control over her hormones tomorrow.

 

 

Chapter Five

With a heavy heart, Rebecca watched as the small boat she had hired to scatter Mr. Shaw’s remains sailed farther and farther away into the ocean.

It was over.

She’d be flying back to London tomorrow and it would be back to work as if nothing had changed.

“You really liked him, didn’t you?” Landen asked.

“Of course!” she answered, surprised at such a question. “He took me on when he didn’t have to and was always there when I needed him.”

She hadn’t even had to tell him when she’d needed help. He'd just always known.

It was a shame Landen never got to meet him.

She didn’t know what had happened between his father and his grandfather, but she was sure that it had all just been a big misunderstanding.

“I know that you coming here would’ve meant a lot to him.”

Landen felt something inside of his chest move as he looked back at those large brown eyes. Her innocent act was getting to him.

He didn’t know what it was. Aside from those innocent doe eyes and her scarlet blush, she wasn’t really any different from all the other gold diggers out there. The combination just made her more dangerous, because he was falling for her games even when he knew he was being played.

He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone who could play the innocent card as well as her for surely it was all an act. She couldn't have really cared for his grandfather.

But it was so easy to look into those eyes and believe everything that she was saying. He knew that he was falling dangerously into her trap when he started second guessing what his parents.

Yes. She was very dangerous indeed.

He hadn’t been able to keep his mind off of her since meeting her. Though he hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with his grandfather, he had found himself asking his assistant to run a background check on her. He hadn’t been sure what he’d find, but he’d hoped it was something damning, as if a mar on her innocence would change his opinion of her. As if her being a mistress to his grandfather wasn’t bad enough.

But when he hadn't found anything suspicious, he'd found himself flying to Hawaii and bribing the receptionists at the hotel to not let her check in. He’d been conscious of what he'd been doing, but he hadn’t been able to control himself.

So instead of just washing his hands free of the man that had been his grandfather, he was halfway around the world, following this woman, the man’s mistress, because he had developed this strange fascination with her. He didn’t know what it was about her. Even knowing what she was, he couldn’t let her go just yet.

He smiled wryly.

He’d seen the way she’d looked at him last night and knew that she'd would be willing to sleep with him. Hell. Perhaps she'd even been laying out this trap for him since that day she'd called him. It would explain why she wasn't interested in inheriting the house. She believed enough in her charms to get the bigger catch - him.

And though she was playing the innocent, she knew the rules of the game. Sex for pleasure and then for money and jewelry, if it lasted long enough. Wasn’t that what they all wanted in the end?

He’d never denied himself the pleasure of sleeping with a woman because of her past relationships and he didn’t know why he was hesitating now.

Turning to look at the calming water, he thought about their plans for the rest of the day. The idea of swimming with dolphins seemed so innocent-like that he didn’t know if that was what she really wanted to do that or if she was just yanking his chain.

Either way, he had come all this way and would get her out of his system. Knowing that the faster they got out of here, the faster he could get her in bed, he said gruffly, “Let’s go.”

 

Chapter Six

Checking herself for what seemed to be the dozenth time in the mirror, Rebecca gave her hair a last minute pat before she headed towards the door.

She found Landen in the living room, working on one of his laptops again.

He’d changed into a white Hawaiian shirt and dark shorts and she couldn't help but notice how good he looked.

She groaned inwardly.

After today, she’d found herself falling for him all over again. Except this time, it was worse.

Now, she was falling for the real man, not the romanticized version she had made up in her head, and somehow reality had surpassed her own imagination.

“I know you’re just standing there,” he said suddenly as he stopped typing and looked at her with a knowing look.

She raised her eyebrows. “Then why are you still sitting there?”

A smile tugged at his lips. “Playing hard to get?”

“Ha ha.”

With his looks, he was probably used to women fawning all over him. Remembering all the women she had seen in the clippings, she doubted that she even had a chance with him. And besides, she didn’t want to be one of them.

When she fell in love, she wanted it to be real and forever. Not something that only lasted a month and then ended when he tired of her and sadly, Landen was just that kind of a man.

BOOK: The Reluctant Heir
8.75Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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