Virgin Seductress
J.M. Jeffries
MILLS & BOON
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Jackie: For my father, Earl Alexander Hamilton, you
taught me the magic of dreams and the power of
wishes. I have loved you since my first breath and I will
miss you until my last. For Miriam, this would never
have been possible if you didn’t believe in me. You are
the ultimate fairy godmother.
Miriam: To my husband, Parker, thank you for your
love, your loyalty and your perpetual faith in me.
When I was writing stories and hiding them, you
taught me to believe in myself. I would not be at this
point in my life and my career without your incredible
belief that I would succeed. To Jackie: You have
brought so much energy to my life, I can never thank
you enough. This book is your gift.
Contents
Acknowledgment
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Acknowledgment
For Sherrie, you put up with us and in our book that earns you the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Never thought you’d get one of those, huh?”
Prologue
Wayloo, Mississippi
Nell Evans gripped the armrest of the navy leather chair in her grandmother’s lawyer’s office. “How much money did she leave me?” She doubted it was too much. She and her grandmother had lived simple lives.
Billy Ray Cross swiped the snow-white handkerchief across his balding forehead. “Including stocks, bank accounts, a few outstanding loans and property after estate taxes, Miss Sarah left you about eighteen-point-five.”
Numb, she gazed out of the office window and studied the statue of Robert E. Lee on a rearing horse in the town square. Nell flexed her fingers hoping to get some feeling back. Eighteen point five what? Thousand? Hundred thousand? Her mind refused to go beyond that. There was no way her grandmother could have had anything more than that. Was there?
“Nell, honey?”
“Hundred?” Not possible, she thought even as the word left her mouth. Grandmother had complained over every little expenditure and when gas prices had passed the two-dollar mark, she’d parked the old big-as-a-boat Buick away in the garage and insisted Nell walk everywhere.
“Million.” Billy Ray grinned over the tops of his steepled fingers. “Give or take.”
The least he could do was look as shocked as she felt. “Oh, my,” she croaked. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Her face got hot. Her heart raced as if it would burst out of her chest. She was too young to have a heart attack, but her chest was tightening. Panic and disbelief set in. Inhaling deeply, she tried to get some air into her lungs before she fainted.
Billy Ray leaned forward and grabbed a glass pitcher of water off his desktop. He turned over a glass and started pouring some water into it. “Nell, honey, are you okay?” He stopped pouring and held out the glass to her. “You want some water?”
Her hand was shaking so badly, she refused, afraid she’d drop the glass. Instead, she licked dry lips and fanned her hot face. Eighteen-point-five million! She almost pinched herself. Not possible. This just wasn’t possible. Where had all that money come from? “Are you sure? There has to be some kind of mistake.”
“No mistake.”
Feeling a bit calmer, Nell tried to think how this could have happened. The diner her grandmother had owned and where Nell worked didn’t generate the kind of money that would produce eighteen million dollars. This had to be a mistake. Only a few days before she’d died, her grandmother had scolded Nell for leaving the light on in the bathroom. Money doesn’t grow on trees. She had taught Nell how to stretch a dollar, but eighteen-point-five million dollars was almost ridiculous. “But my grandmother was such a…a tightwad. She couldn’t—”
“Honey,” Billy Ray said as he put the glass on the table then pushed it toward her, “you done hit the mother lode. Be happy.”
Well, no kidding. Her grandmother clipped coupons. Used soap until it was a sliver. Wrapped presents in the Sunday comics. The room spun for a second, but Nell took a deep breath and steadied herself. She picked up the glass and gulped the water down. “I don’t understand. Where did all this money come from?” Grandmother, she silently chided the dead woman, you kept secrets from me.
“Miss Sarah was a right smart woman who saved and invested wisely. She just lived like she didn’t have a dime.” He loosened his tacky hula-girl tie. “Matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t still have her first dime.”
Nell opened her mouth to speak. But nothing came out. Her mind couldn’t quite grasp the fact that she was an heiress. An heiress! Just like Paris Hilton. She blew out a long breath and forced her hands to stop shaking. Her life had just taken a strange turn for the better.
Eighteen-point-five million dollars! That would buy a lot of dreams. Dreams she’d kept tight inside her for so many years, afraid even to write them down in her journal. With that kind of money she could do anything she wanted, including her most cherished dream of quitting the diner, moving to New York and creating a new life for herself. She could go to college. She could buy a swank New York apartment. She could go to the theater, to galleries, to museums. Walk through Macy’s or Sak’s Fifth Avenue and buy anything she wanted. Finally she could see Times Square and take a carriage ride through Central Park!
Outside, a little boy on a brand-new bike pedaled down the street, passing Doolittle’s Five and Dime. Not that anything was only five or ten cents anymore, but the name had never changed despite the advancement of inflation. Nell thought of all the times she’d shopped the clearance racks at the back of the store, paying as little as she could for the cheapest anything. She