When She's Bad (24 page)
She had felt useless since her horrible horseback riding accident in college several years ago. She’d nearly died and it had taken three surgeries and months of rehabilitation to put her back together again. Riding had been the passion of her life and she hadn’t ridden a horse since. First, her father had forbidden it. Now, without him, she was too frightened. Scaredy cat is what her sister Delilah would have called her and Delilah would have been right.
Lori bit her lip and felt the beginning of an unwelcome, but familiar edgy sensation. Of her four siblings, she’d gotten lucky with the sperm donor. She’d won the lottery when it came to fathers. Her father had not only loved and adored her, he’d also been loaded. The only thing he’d requested in trade for his devotion and riches was that she leave her mother, half-sisters and half-brother behind. She’d been willing to hide her contact with her half-sisters and brother until the accident. After that, she just couldn’t hide her desire to connect with them anymore, and she feared that was what had broken Harlan’s heart.
She’d felt guilty most of her life. Guilty for having a wealthy father. Guilty for having siblings he didn’t approve of.
The nasty, edgy feeling built inside her so that she couldn’t sit still. “There must be some way,” she ventured. “Some creative accounting way—”
“Creative accountants and their clients often end up in prison.”
Lori glanced at him again. She was surprised they’d sent someone so young. He didn’t seem the least bit affected by her appearance. She wondered if he was gay. He didn’t look gay. Except for his suit, he didn’t look like an accountant either. He was tall with broad shoulders. His nose looked as if it had been broken, but he wasn’t ugly. He wasn’t handsome either. Strong jaw, she noticed. She had the unfun sense that he would be stubborn.
“There’s got to be a way around this,” she said.
He placed a file of papers on the coffee table. “I’m leaving you with a copy of the will and the amount of the allowance you’re due for the next six years. We can meet again tomorrow,” he said, then paused. “Provided you don’t start any new charitable foundations or go on any shopping sprees.”
She frowned at his dry tone. “I don’t like your attitude, Mr. James. I’m not sure I want to work with you. Perhaps I should call Mr. Hollingsworth about working with someone else.”
“Good luck,” Mr. James said in a confident tone that grated on her.
“Why good luck?” she demanded.
“Because everyone else said no to the job. I’m the only sap they could talk into taking you on. They’re all afraid you’ll turn them into mush and send their careers down the toilet.”
“I’m not that difficult to work with! I’m not rude or arrogant or—”
“No. You just come across as so sweet and helpless that you make men feel like they have to take care of you. They want to give you everything you ask for, everything you wish for.”
She didn’t like the image he was painting of her. She didn’t like it at all. “I’m not helpless.”
He cracked a half-smile that didn’t reach his piercing eyes. “Here’s your chance to prove it.”
Dear Reader,
Whether it’s a matter of knowing when to be bad, or knowing when to trust, both of these elements can play a hand in bringing two people together. As Delilah Montague and Carly Martin will discover in our Warner Forever titles this November.
Janet Evanovich exclaims, “When life gets tough, read a book by Leanne Banks.” Nothing could be truer than while reading
Leanne Banks
’s
WHEN SHE’S BAD
. Delilah Montague is a self-made woman who manages an exclusive spa in Houston, TX. She garners a bad girl reputation due to her supposed establishment by a married tycoon, though they were never romantically involved. Delilah uses her bad rep to keep people at a distance. She is one tough cookie who likes to be in control and live a quiet life … until a certain brainy stud moves in next door. Benjamin Huntington begins upsetting her calm existence by renovating in the middle of the night and playing opera music. But her world is about to be turned completely upside-down when a baby appears on her doorstep … and Delilah may need a little help from her handsome neighbor
and
Cupid!
Going from sizzling guy-next-door to brooding alpha male, we offer
TRUST ME
by
Melanie Craft
, a wonderful new voice in contemporary romance. Veterinarian Carly Martin has a soft touch for stray animals and vulnerable men, so she is shocked when a stranger barges into her clinic one day and accuses her of being a gold digger. The stranger is Max Giordano, the illegitimate grandson of an eccentric millionaire, whose menagerie of animals is under Carly’s care. With his grandfather on his deathbed, Max has to inform Carly that she will inherit the Tremayne mansion and the animals. At first, Max is suspicious of her, only he begins to see she’s a guileless and gentle person that he is rapidly falling for. Now if he can just get Carly to trust him after getting things off to such a bad start …
To find out more about Warner Forever, these November titles, and the authors, visit us at
www.warnerforever.com
.
With warmest wishes,
Karen Kosztolnyik, Senior Editor
P.S. With the holidays approaching, Warner Forever presents two titles that are perfect gifts—and perfect indulgences!
Lori Wilde
pens a fun-filled tale about a female private eye helping her drop-dead gorgeous client dodge bullets and goons on their tail when they end up creating sparks that could ignite Las Vegas in
LICENSE TO THRILL
; and
Edie Claire
makes her mainstream romance debut in
LONG TIME COMING
, a captivating novel about a young woman who returns to her hometown to confront her childhood memories of her best friend’s tragic death, and falls in love with the man she held responsible.
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