“I want you to know, I don’t make a habit of dragging women into my arms like that.”
He ran a hand through his hair, looked around. Out the corner of her eye, she saw him crack a lame smile. “Must be something in the air.”
She closed her eyes and withered. If she could turn back time and wipe out these last few moments, she’d do it in a blink. That she’d surrendered so completely was bad enough. Did he need to rub in the fact that he regretted it, too?
“Daniel, please don’t worry that I’ll give another moment’s thought to it.” She tilted her head and drawled, “I have been kissed before.”
He didn’t reply, didn’t move. Only his eyes glittered in the moonlight as time stretched out and, growing increasingly edgy, she wondered whether he would ever take his leave or call her bluff and announce she might have been kissed, but never like that.
Dear Reader,
Home is where the heart is. It’s a great saying. One I believe in.
Unfortunately, sometimes choices aren’t that simple.
Welcome back to Royal, a town set to erupt! In Millionaire Playboy, Maverick Heiress, the bid to claim the club’s presidency is heating up, gossip involving blue-blood and babies is rife, and outsiders, like star-architect Daniel Warren, have been called in to shake up some stodgy foundations.
Daniel is happy to help his friend and presidential hopeful, Abigail Langley, develop a winning design for the new clubhouse … even if painful memories of growing up around these parts has Daniel eager to jet back to New York as soon as business is done. He didn’t bank on meeting Elizabeth Milton, a woman who holds his fascination as effortlessly as she combines a wardrobe of blue jeans and cowboy boots with furs and priceless jewels. A brief steamy affair seems inevitable. The subsequent choice between his heart and her home is far less cut and dried.
Hope you enjoy Daniel and Elizabeth’s story!
With best wishes,
Robyn
About the Author
ROBYN GRADY was first published in 2007. Her books have since featured regularly on bestseller lists and at award ceremonies, including The National Readers Choice Award, The Booksellers’ Best Award, Cataromance Reviewers Choice Award and Australia’s prestigious Romantic Book of the Year Award.
Robyn lives on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast with her real-life hero husband and three daughters. When she can be dragged away from tapping out her next story, Robyn visits the theatre, the beach and the mall (a lot!). To keep fit she jogs (and shops) and dances with her youngest to Hannah Montana.
Robyn believes writing romance is the best job on the planet and she loves to hear from her readers. So drop by www.robyngrady.com and pass on your thoughts!
Millionaire
Playboy,
Maverick Heiress
Robyn Grady
This story is dedicated to the talented authors who also contributed to this series.
It’s a huge honor. Thanks for having me along.
And to the series editor Charles Griemsman who is as fabulous as everyone says!
One
Just what was so funny?
Daniel Warren’s focus dropped from the hot blonde sending over a half amused, half pitying look to the architectural model he and three of his design team were struggling to carry. Admittedly, the mock-up was large in more ways than one, but Texas was a big state. The new headquarters for the renowned Texas Cattleman’s Club needed to make a big statement. Aesthetics like giant steer horns adorning a twenty-foot-high cowhide double entrance wasn’t over the top.
Was it?
His second in charge, Rand Marks, spoke in his ear.
“Boss, this weighs a ton. Want to keep moving?”
From their expressions, the other assistants were also curious about the holdup. There wasn’t one. Or shouldn’t be.
Daniel was known in the business not only for talent but also decisiveness. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d second-guessed himself. When he’d been invited to submit for this project, he’d put his fifteen odd years of successful industry know-how behind developing a design that would blow the committee members away—old-school as well as avant-garde. And yet now, that bombshell’s one dubious look burned like a smoking brand in his mind.
Who was she anyway?
“I’m sorry to intrude, but you must be Abigail Langley’s friend?”
At the sound of a sultry, Southern, very female voice, Daniel’s heartbeat skipped and his attention shifted again. The blonde, and her ambivalent expression, now stood an arm’s length away. Close up, she wasn’t merely hot. Lord above, she was stunning. Wrapped up in a silver-fur jacket and jeans that hugged hips and thighs just right, she looked as if she’d just stepped off the Aspen slopes. Set in a fine oval face, large, well-lashed green eyes sparkled like a pair of priceless jewels. But her long bouncy mane struck him most. It was the kind of hair that made a man’s fingertips itch to reach out and touch.
Setting his jaw, Daniel straightened his spine.
None of that altered the fact he was less than thrilled by her reaction to his work. He’d satisfied countless clients and had become filthy rich in the process. He didn’t need to field subtle insults at the eleventh hour from “Miss Texas and Loving It” here.
Dragging his gaze from those plump kissable lips, Daniel cleared his throat and answered the lady’s question.
“Yes. I’m Abigail Langley’s friend—”
“Daniel Warren.” She tasted his name as if she were enjoying a sip of sweet hot chocolate on a blustery winter’s day. “You’re the hotshot architect Abigail brought in all the way from New York City.”
When the peak of one fair eyebrow arched, Daniel took a moment. Was she goading or flirting? With these Southern belles, who could tell?
“Don’t know about hotshot, but I’m well-known in the industry,” he confirmed as her weight shifted from one denim-clad leg to the other and she hitched her Birkin higher on one shoulder. “You know Abigail, too?”
“Everyone in these parts knows Abby. Her husband, God rest his soul, was the great-great-great-grandson of Tex Langley, the founder of this establishment.” When she leaned a conspiratorial inch closer, he caught the scent of her perfume—delicate with undertones of dangerous. “My money’s on Abigail to win the upcoming election. She’d make a fine club president—” those lush lips pursed “—no matter what that stick-in-the-mud Brad Price has to say on the matter.”
A suit in his forties sauntered up. He spared Daniel a cursory glance before addressing the lady with a lazy Texan drawl.
“My dear, we’re expected inside.”
“I was introducing myself to a visitor to Royal,” she said, indicating Daniel with a nod and interested smile.
“Boss?”
Daniel’s attention slid back. Damn, he’d forgotten the boys.
“If you’re going to be a while,” Rand said, “mind if the rest of us take this inside? Don’t know about you but my arms are ready to snap.”
Daniel slipped his arms from beneath the model’s base as the other