Surely there is some sacrifice youd be willing to make to inspire me to change my mind.
Idont know what you mean.
My hypothetical marriage to your sister is a business deal, after all. As a businessman, I would require compensation for letting the deal fall through.
Quinns blue eyes stung her, causing the pulse in her throat to hammer frantically.
Maybeerthe satisfaction of doing a good deed for once in your life? Kira said.
He laughed. Thats a refreshing idea if ever I heard onebut, like most humans, Im driven by the desire to avoid pain and pursue pleasure.
And to thinkI imagined you to be primarily driven by greed. Well, I dont have any money.
I dont want your money.
What do you want then?
I think you know, he said silkily, leaning closer.
Dear Reader,
Stories are the imaginary children of a writers soul. I tend to write about family, the need to belong and loneliness.
My heroine, Kira, needs to feel she belongs to her family. Theres no sacrifice she wont make in that endeavor. To save her sister, shell even marry a man whose lifelong goal has been the destruction of her family.
As in real life, when all too often the most mysterious forces in our lives are the yearnings hidden deep within our own hearts that drive us, Kira doesnt know where her feelings come from until she discovers a long-kept family secret. Fortunately, by then she is in love with her new husband and is loved in return.
Enjoy,
Ann Major
About the Author
ANN MAJOR lives in Texas with her husband of many years and is the mother of three grown children. She has a masters degree from Texas A&M at Kingsville, Texas, and is a former English teacher. She is a founding board member of the Romance Writers of America and a frequent speaker at writers groups.
Ann loves to writeshe considers her ability to do so a gift. Her hobbies include hiking in the mountains, sailing, ocean kayaking, traveling and playing the piano. But most of all, she enjoys her family. Visit her website at www.annmajor.com.
Terms of
Engagement
Ann Major
www.millsandboon.co.uk
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To Ted, with all my love.
And as always I must thank my editor, Stacy Boyd, and
Shana Smith, along with the entire Desire team
for their talented expertise.
I thank as well my agent, Karen Solem.
One
No good deed goes unpunished.
When would she ever learn? Kira wondered.
With her luck, never.
So, here she sat, in the office of oil billionaire Quinn Sullivan, too nervous to concentrate on her magazine as she waited to see if he would make time for a woman he probably thought of as just another adversary to be crushed in his quest for revenge.
Dreadful, arrogant man.
If he did grant her an audience, would she have any chance of changing his mind about destroying her familys company, Murray Oil, and forcing her sister Jaycee into marriage?
A man vengeful enough to hold a grudge against her father for twenty years couldnt possibly have a heart that could be swayed.
Kira Murray clenched and unclenched her hands. Then she sat on them, twisting in her chair. When the man across from her began to stare, she told herself to quit squirming. Lowering her eyes to her magazine, she pretended to read a very boring article on supertankers.
High heels clicked rapidly on marble, causing Kira to look up in panic.
Miss Murray, Im so sorry. I was wrong. Mr. Sullivan is still here. There was surprise in his secretarys classy, soothing purr.
In fact, hell see you now.
He will? Kira squeaked. Now?
The secretarys answering smile was a brilliant white.
Kiras own mouth felt as dry as sandpaper. She actually began to shake. To hide this dreadful reaction, she jumped to her feet so fast she sent the glossy magazine to the floor, causing the man across from her to glare in annoyance.
Obviously, shed been hoping Quinn would refuse to see her. A ridiculous wish when shed come here for the express purpose of finally meeting him properly and having her say.
Sure, shed run into him once, informally. It had been right after hed announced he wanted to marry one of the Murray daughters to make his takeover of Murray Oil less hostile. Her father had suggested Jaycee, and Kira couldnt help but think hed done so because Jaycee was his favorite and most biddable daughter. As always, Jaycee had dutifully agreed with their fathers wishes, so Quinn had come to the ranch for a celebratory dinner to seal the bargain.
Hed been late. A man as rich and arrogant as he was probably thought himself entitled to run on his own schedule.
Wounded by her mothers less-than-kind assessment of her outfit when shed first arrivedJeans and a torn shirt? How could you think that appropriate for meeting a man so important to this familys welfare?Kira had stormed out of the house. She hadnt had time to change after the crisis at her best friends restaurant, where Kira was temporarily waiting tables while looking for a museum curator position. Since her mother always turned a deaf ear to Kiras excuses, rather than explain, Kira had decided to walk her dads hunting spaniels while she nursed her injured feelings.
The brilliant, red sun that had been sinking fast had been in her eyes as the spaniels leaped onto the gravel driveway, dragging her in their wake. Blinded, shed neither seen nor heard Quinns low-slung, silver Aston Martin screaming around the curve. Slamming on his brakes, hed veered clear of her with several feet to spare. Shed tripped over the dogs and fallen into a mud puddle.
Yipping wildly, the dogs had raced back to the house, leaving her to face Quinn on her own with cold, dirty water dripping from her chin.
Quinn had gotten out of his fancy car and stomped over in his fancy Italian loafers just as she got to her feet. For a long moment, hed inspected every inch of her. Then, mindless of her smudged face, chattering teeth and muddy clothes, hed pulled her against his tall, hard body, making her much too aware of his clean, male smell and hard, muscular body.
Tell me youre okay.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, so tall hed towered over her. His angry blue eyes had burned her; his viselike fingers had cut into her elbow. Despite his overcharged emotions, shed liked being in his armsliked it too much.
Damn it, I didnt hit you, did I? Well, say something, why dont you?
How can Iwith you yelling at me?
Are you okay, then? he asked, his grip loosening, his voice softening into a husky sound so unexpectedly beautiful shed shivered. This time, she saw concern in his hard expression.
Had it happened then?
Oh, be honest, Kira, at least with yourself. That was the moment you formed an inappropriate crush on your sisters future fiancé, a man whose main goal in life is to destroy your family.
Hed been wearing faded jeans, a white shirt, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. On her, jeans looked rumpled, but on him, jeans had made him ruggedly, devastatingly handsome. Over one arm, he carried a cashmere jacket.
She noted his jet-black hair and carved cheekbones with approval. Any woman would have. His skin had been darkly bronzed, and the dangerous aura of sensuality surrounding him had her sizzling.
Shaken by her fall and by the fact that the enemy was such an attractive, powerful man who continued to hold her close and stare down at her with blazing eyes, her breath had come in fits and starts.
I saidare you okay?
I was fineuntil you grabbed me. Her hesitant voice was tremulous and sounded strangely shy. Youre hurting me, really hurting me! Shed lied so he would let her go, and yet part of her hadnt wanted to be released.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. Sorry, hed said, his tone harsh again.
Who the hell are you anyway? hed demanded.
Nobody important, shed muttered.
His dark brows winged upward. Wait Ive seen your pictures Youre the older sister. The waitress.
Only temporarily until I get a new job as a curator.
Right. You were fired.
So, youve heard Fathers version. The truth is, my professional opinion wasnt as important to the museum director as I might have liked, but I was let go due to budget constraints.
Your sister speaks highly of you.
Sometimes I think shes the only one in this family who does.
Nodding as if he understood, he draped his jacket around her shoulders. Ive wanted to meet you. When she glanced up at him, he said, Youre shivering. The least I can do is offer you my jacket and a ride back to the house.
Her heart pounded much too fast, and she was mortified that she was covered with mud and that she found her familys enemy exciting and the prospect of wearing his jacket a thrill. Not trusting herself to spend another second with such a dangerous man, especially in the close quarters of his glamorous car, shed shaken her head. Im too muddy.
Do you think I give a damn about that? I could have killed you.
You didnt. So lets just forget about it.
Not possible! Now, put my jacket on before you catch your death.
Pulling his jacket around her shoulders, she turned on her heel and left him. Nothing had happened, shed told herself as she stalked rapidly through the woods toward the house.
Nothing except the enemy shed feared had held her and made her feel dangerously alive in a way no other man ever had.
When shed reached the house, shed been surprised to find him outside waiting for her as he held on to her yapping dogs. Feeling tingly and shyly thrilled as he handed her their tangled leashes, shed used her muddy clothes again as an excuse to go home and avoid dinner, when her father would formally announce Quinn was to marry her sister.
Yes, he was set on revenge against those she loved most, but that hadnt been the reason she couldnt sit across the table from him. No, it was her crush. How could she have endured such a dinner when just to look at him made her skin heat?
For weeks after that chance meeting, her inappropriate attachment to Quinn had continued to claim her, causing her much guilt-ridden pain. Shed thought of him constantly. And more than once, before shed returned his jacket to Jaycee, shed worn it around her apartment, draped over her shoulders, just because his scent lingered on the soft fabric.
Now, retrieving the magazine shed dropped, she set it carefully on the side table. Then she sucked in a deep breath. Not that it steadied her nerves.
No. Instead, her heart raced when Quinn Sullivans secretary turned away, saying, Follow me.
Kira swallowed. Shed put this interview off to the last possible momentto the end of the business daybecause shed been trying to formulate a plan to confront a man as powerful and dictatorial and, yes, as dangerously sexy, as Quinn Sullivan.
But she hadnt come up with a plan. Did she ever have a plan? Shed be at a disadvantage since Sullivan planned everything down to the last detail, including taking his revenge plot up a notch by marrying Jaycee.
Kira had to sprint to keep up with the sleek, blonde secretary, whose ridiculous, four-inch, ice-pick, gold heels clicked on the polished gray marble. Did he make the poor girl wear such gaudy, crippling footwear?
Quinns waiting room with its butter-soft leather couches and polished wainscoting had reeked of old money. In truth, he was nothing but a brash, bad-tempered upstart. His long hallway, decorated with paintings of vivid minimalistic splashes of color, led to what would probably prove to be an obscenely opulent office. Still, despite her wish to dislike everything about him, she admired the art and wished she could stop and study several of the pictures. They were elegant, tasteful and interesting. Had he selected them himself?
Probably not. He was an arrogant show-off.
After their one encounter, shed researched him. It seemed he believed her father had profited excessively when hed bought Quinns father out of their mutually owned company. In addition, he blamed her father for his fathers suicideif suicide it had been.
Quinn, whod known hardship after his fathers death, was determined to make up for his early privations, by living rich and large. Craving glamour and the spotlight, he never attended a party without a beauty even more dazzling than his secretary on his arm.
He was a respected art collector. In various interviews hed made it clear nobody would ever look down on him again. Not in business; not in his personal life. He was king of his kingdom.
From the internet, shed gleaned that Quinns bedroom had a revolving door. Apparently, a few nights pleasuring the same woman were more than enough for him. Just when a woman might believe she meant something to him, hed drop her and date another gorgeous blonde, who was invariably more beautiful than the one hed jilted. There had been one woman, also blonde, whod jilted him a year or so ago, a Cristina somebody. Not that she hadnt been quickly forgotten by the press when hed resumed chasing more beauties as carelessly as before.
From what Kira had seen, his life was about winning, not about caring deeply. For that purpose only, hed surrounded himself with the mansions, the cars, the yachts, the art collections and the fair-haired beauties. She had no illusions about what his marriage to Jaycee would be like. He had no intention of being a faithful husband to Kiras beautiful, blonde sister.