Buch lesen: «More Than Perfect»

“There’s one part of this job we haven’t discussed.”

“Which is?”

“Sex.”

“Ah,” Lucius said. An expression came into his eyes, one that had her throat going dry and a hot pool of want forming in her belly. Waves of it lapped outward, roiling and seething in endless demand. “How could I have neglected something so vital?”

“I gather that’s a yes.”

“No.”

She stiffened, shocked by his answer. Had she miscalculated? Had he considered their kiss a mild and forgettable flirtation, easily forgotten and dismissed, while she’d built it up into something far more serious and memorable?

“Not a yes?” she asked faintly.

“Not a yes,” he responded gravely, “but rather a hell yes.”

Dear Reader,

More Than Perfect brings together two people who have experienced betrayal and must learn to trust again. Add to the mix a baby in desperate need of a mother and father, and you end up with one of my favorite types of books to write—one that is emotional, has a touch of humor and deals with issues from the past that must be overcome.

Trust is one of my favorite themes to explore because so many of us have trust issues. We’ve all been let down by those we love and must decide to either keep our hearts tucked safely away, or take that leap of faith. I’ve always chosen to try one more time, to take the risk and hope that somehow, someway everything will work out. So, it never fails to delight me when love overcomes the scars and pain from the past.

For those of you with scars, I wish healing. For those wondering whether or not to take the plunge again, I hope you’ll go for it. And for those of you who’ve risked everything, I wish you the ultimate success … love.

Warmly,

Day Leclaire

About the Author

USA TODAY bestselling author DAY LECLAIRE is described by Mills & Boon^® as “one of our most popular writers ever!” Day’s tremendous worldwide popularity has made her a member of the “Five Star Club,” with sales of well over five million books. She is a three-time winner of both a Colorado Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill Award. She’s won RT Book Reviews Career Achievement and Love and Laughter Awards, a Holt Medallion and a Booksellers’ Best Award. She has also received an impressive ten nominations for the prestigious Romance Writers of America’s RITA^® Award.

Day’s romances touch the heart and make you care about her characters as much as she does. In Day’s own words, “I adore writing romances, and can’t think of a better way to spend each day.” For more information, visit Day at her website, www.dayleclaire.com.

More than

Perfect

Day Leclaire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To friends and family

who have been with me from the beginning.

My thanks and my love.

Prologue

He awoke to soft morning light and an empty bed.

Lucius Devlin turned his head toward the subtle indent where Lisa should have been … and wasn’t. In the distance, he caught the soft murmur of her voice and couldn’t quite decide if he felt relief or regret that she hadn’t left.

Last night had been a mistake. A bad one.

He rolled off the mattress and crossed to his dresser. In the bottom drawer he found an old pair of drawstring sweatpants and yanked them on before heading to the kitchen. Lisa was there and at his appearance, she ended her call and flipped her cell phone closed. She sat at the table, wearing her red power suit from the day before, a cup of freshly made coffee resting at her elbow. Thank God she’d made coffee. Right now he needed it almost as desperately as he needed air to breathe.

She regarded him with eyes every bit as dark as his own while he filled a sturdy mug to the brim. “You’re dressed,” he said, stating the obvious. He took a swift, settling hit of caffeine, his eyes narrowing at her through the haze of steam. “I gather you’re leaving?”

“Yes.” She played with her cell phone with long, supple fingers and actually allowed a slight frown to crease the space between her winged brows. Damn. If she were risking wrinkles, that meant it was serious. “I am leaving, this time for good.”

“Or until you and Geoff have another fight?” He gestured toward her phone. “I’m guessing he called.”

Her mouth tightened a fraction. “You always were too smart for your own good.”

“That makes two of us.”

Lisa sighed. Leaning back in her chair, she crossed her spectacular legs and eyed him with reluctant amusement. “Why couldn’t you have been a stupid billionaire and made the incredible mistake of marrying me when we were first together?”

He took her question at face value. “Probably because stupid and billionaire are incongruous since I wouldn’t be a billionaire for long if I were stupid.”

“That’s true in your case.” She tilted her head to one side, her gaze watchful. “I’m not sure you can say the same about Geoff.”

Great. Now she’d forced him into the bizarre position of defending his best friend to the woman who’d slept with them both—first with him, then when he wouldn’t stick a ring on her finger, she’d moved on to Geoff, the head of his PR department at Diablo, Inc. Lucius suspected it was a foolish attempt to force a proposal out of him, one that had proved a spectacular failure.

“Geoff is neither a billionaire, nor stupid,” Lucius informed her. “Naive, perhaps, especially when it comes to women like you. But he’s solid gold.”

“Unlike us?” She didn’t need his silence to confirm her question. She already knew the answer. She picked up her cup and took a dainty sip. “He’s an angel with two devils sitting on his shoulders, poor boy. Would you care to place a small wager on which devil he’ll listen to, Lucius? Which devil he’ll obey?”

He refused to participate in whatever game Lisa seemed intent on playing. “What do you want?”

“From you? Nothing.”

“And from Geoff?”

She offered a catlike smile, full of sly confidence. “I have what I want from him, as well.”

Lucius stiffened, something in her tone warning of incoming mortar fire and he braced himself for the hit. “Which is?”

“A marriage proposal.” Her smile grew. “That was Geoff on the phone. He’s seen the error of his ways and asked me to hop on the next plane to Vegas with him. We’ll be married this afternoon and on our honeymoon by tonight.”

The words pounding through Lucius’s brain were coarse and crude enough that he refused to speak them aloud, even in front of Lisa. “Fast work. You roll out of one man’s bed one night and into another’s the next, then back again on the third.” He tilted his head to one side in consideration. “I think there’s a name for that ….”

Her smile died and her dark eyes swam with accusation and fury. “At least when I roll back into Geoff’s bed I’ll be wearing a wedding ring. That’s more than you ever offered.”

“And if I call and tell him where you were last night?”

“He already knows. Why do you think he proposed?”

For the first time he caught a crack in her legendary control. “I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear he forgives me. Forgives us both.”

This time Lucius did swear aloud. “Don’t do this, Lisa. He won’t survive marriage to you. You’ll eat him alive.”

And maybe that’s why he’d allowed her to talk him into a final fling last night, in the hopes that Geoff would hear about it and finally see Lisa for what she was. An opportunist. An amoral cat who’d bed down with anyone who could afford her price. Instead, all he’d managed to do was guarantee his best friend a marriage made in hell. Great. Just great.

“If you didn’t want me with Geoff, then you should have been the one to offer marriage. But you’re just too damn clever for your own good, too intent on manipulating your world and everyone in it.” She shoved her porcelain cup and saucer aside with a quick little jerk. The coffee sloshed over the rim and stained the virginal white saucer in bitter darkness. “I’m marrying Geoff and that’s the end of it. I can make him happy and I fully intend to.”

“What do they say about the road to hell?” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, right. That smear of pavement is one long, filthy tarmac of good intentions.”

“In that case, I’m going to hell, though I doubt I’m going there alone. You’ll be right there beside me.” She shoved back her chair and stood. To his surprise tears glittered in her eyes. “Would you like to know what’s funniest of all? Geoff wants to start a family right away. It’s the one thing we both agree on. I may be a gold digger, but I’m a maternal one.”

A fierce wave of cynicism swept through him. “Not to mention that when your marriage bombs, that little tyke you pop out ensures nice, fat child support payments to go along with that nice, fat alimony check.”

Instead of his words sending her up in flames as he expected, it cooled her. “You’re a total son of a bitch, Lucius. Thanks for reminding me of that fact.” She snatched up her phone, shoved it into her purse and faced him with a pride he could only admire. “And one of these days I plan to make you eat those words. I may not want Geoff the way I want you, but he’s a good man. A decent man. I haven’t had many of those in my life. I plan to make him very happy. Delirious, in fact. And I hope you’re stuck watching us enjoy that happiness for the next fifty years. That way you can choke on it.”

And with that, she swept out the door.

One

“You aren’t just a devil, you’re a total son of a bitch!”

Angie Colter’s head jerked up at the unmistakable sound of a hand striking flesh and she swiveled to stare at the closed door of her boss’s office—Lucius Devlin, owner and CEO of the Seattle based company, Diablo, Inc., a multibillion dollar business that specialized in buying and rehabbing commercial real estate. The next instant the door slammed open and Ella, the gorgeous redhead Angie had ushered in not ten minutes earlier, emerged. The woman had been Devlin’s latest in a long string, lasting a full two weeks. A record breaker among the spate of women her boss had seen over the past three months.

“I don’t know how you could possibly think I’d be interested in your insane proposal.” With that, she swept across the plush expanse of carpet on impossibly high heels, her backside twitching out her profound irritation as she headed for the private elevators.

Okay. That was interesting and added to Angie’s growing suspicion that something was up with Lucius. She hadn’t figured out what, but suspected the six-month-old baby he’d received guardianship of a short three months earlier was somehow responsible. The baby, Mikey, was the son of the former head of PR for Diablo, Geoff Ridgeway. He and his wife, Lisa, had died in a train wreck in Europe shortly before Christmas, appointing Lucius the guardian of their infant son. From the moment Angie had first taken Mikey into her arms, she’d fallen in love with the little guy. Maybe it was due in part to the faint ticking of her biological clock. More likely it was those huge dark eyes staring so gravely into hers. Whatever the cause, an emotion unlike any she’d ever experienced before had fisted around her heart and refused to let go.

Angie glanced toward Lucius’s office in open speculation. Initially, she’d thought her boss was searching for the perfect nanny, someone to replace the sweet-natured woman who’d accepted the job in a temporary capacity. But lately … Unable to contain her curiosity, she snatched up her electronic tablet and stylus. Crossing to the open doorway, she gave a brisk knock.

Her boss stood in profile, drowning a handful of ice cubes in scotch. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him sprawled the city of Seattle, modestly veiling its beauty behind a misty, gray morning. At six foot two Lucius “The Devil” Devlin possessed a powerful physique at odds with a job that required endless hours behind a desk. No doubt he’d spent some of his billions on a home gym, filled with the best equipment money could buy. And used it with the same ruthless efficiency that characterized everything else he did in his life. He was a gorgeous man with hair the color of soot and eyes as dark and mysterious as a moonless night. A man who could steal a woman’s breath without even trying. And the first time he’d tossed his devil-may-care smile in her direction, he’d stolen her heart … and quite possibly her soul.

Maybe that was why she’d committed the ultimate folly and fallen in love with him.

He glanced over his shoulder at her and frowned. “This isn’t a good time.”

The scowl snapped her back into focus. Ignoring his order, she stepped into the office. “Try using some of that ice on your jaw,” she instructed crisply. “It’ll help with the swelling.”

“She packs quite a punch for a woman.”

“I don’t doubt it. Ella can bench-press a hundred and a quarter.”

He swiveled to fully face her. “Get out. Seriously?”

“Dead serious. We go to the same gym. You’re even more lucky she didn’t use those Christian Louboutin heels on you. I’ve seen what she can do in our kickboxing class. She’d have skewered you like a shish kebab.”

“She never mentioned she knew you.”

Angie didn’t doubt it. That would involve connecting with someone of the female sex. Ella only had eyes for men. “I doubt she noticed me. I don’t exactly stand out.”

Lucius tossed back the scotch, then took her suggestion and pressed the iced glass against the red mark darkening his jaw. His gaze swept over her. Even though he stripped her with that swift look, it was in a—sadly—asexual manner. Not that it surprised her. She knew what he saw. She’d come to the conclusion long ago that she had a head for business and a bod for … well, business.

At five foot eight, she was as slender as a reed, her curves best classified as subtle. Granted, she possessed an attractive enough face and great hair, even if she did keep it confined in an elegant twist, the color containing every shade of brown known to man. But her most attractive feature were her eyes, a brilliant aquamarine that her former lover had called “unnerving.” Of course, that was right before he’d dumped her for her five-foot-two, blonde and buxom—former—best friend, whom he’d promptly married. Nine months later they produced the baby she’d dreamed of having with him, and that he’d claimed he not only didn’t want, but would never want. Maybe that was why Angie had chosen to throw every scrap of her time and energy into her career. While Britt was giving birth to Ryan’s baby, Angie secured the prime job as Lucius Devlin’s PA. She hadn’t quite decided who got the better deal, which told her that maybe her feelings for Ryan hadn’t run as deep as she’d thought.

“Ella didn’t notice you because you’re female,” Lucius stated, echoing her earlier thoughts. “Not because you don’t stand out. The right clothes, the right hairstyle—”

She stiffened, pricked by his careless dissection. The hazards of loving a man who saw you as a piece of equipment rather than a human being. Damn him. Her chin shot up and she pinned him with her “unnerving” gaze, pleased to have found some use for it. “Oh, wow. Advice from Lucius ‘The Devil’ Devlin on how to transform myself into the perfect woman. Wait now. Let me take notes.” She flipped her electronic tablet over and allowed the stylus to hover above it. “Please, Lucius. Don’t keep me waiting. Other than the right clothes and hairstyle, how else am I lacking?”

“Hell, woman.”

She narrowed her eyes at his use of the word woman, pleased to see him wince. Huh. Maybe she’d patent the look. It was certainly coming in handy. “You should know all about hell, Lucius.”

A grim expression closed over his face and he snatched up the cut glass decanter, splashing more scotch into his glass. “I should and I do.”

Despite the threatening storm clouds, Angie refused to back down. “I don’t doubt it.” She lifted an eyebrow in open challenge. “Anything else you’d care to add about my appearance?”

He took a long swallow, regarding her over the rim of his tumbler with intense black eyes. “Not a chance.”

“I didn’t think so.” She gestured toward his glass. “Put the ice back on your face or you’ll have to explain that bruise to your clients. I shudder to think what sort of nosedive your reputation will take when you’re forced to admit you were coldcocked by a woman.”

“That’s not how I’m going to tell the story.” Still, she couldn’t help but notice that he rested the glass against his jaw—an aching jaw if she didn’t miss her guess.

She offered an angelic smile. “No, but it’s how I plan to tell it.”

“How the hell could I have thought you’d make the perfect PA?” he snarled. “I must have been out of my mind.”

“Agreed.” Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked, “What in the world did you say to Ella that made her so mad?”

His annoyance intensified. “You would think it was my fault.”

“Do I owe you an apology?”

She could see the internal debate rage, before he settled on admitting the truth. “No, it was my fault. I made the mistake of proposing to her.”

Angie struggled to breathe. He couldn’t have hit her any harder if he’d been the one doing the kickboxing. “What?”

He glanced her way and blew out a sigh. “Oh, get over it, Colter. This isn’t high school. We’re not talking about some grand romance. Hell, I’ve only known the woman for two weeks. I made a business proposition that involved marriage and for some reason that ticked her off. Go figure.”

Her world righted itself and she found she could breathe again. It took a second longer to settle her face into something that passed for mild interest. Another few seconds to gain control over her vocal cords so she didn’t sound as shrill as a steam whistle. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how bad she had it, just how desperately she’d fallen for him. His brilliance. His innate kindness, a kindness he worked so hard to encase in a cold, tough exterior. The wealth of inexplicable pain buried in his eyes, and no doubt his heart. In the year and a half she’d worked for him, she’d gotten to know the man behind the reputation. And with that knowing had come the sort of love she’d only played at with Ryan, skating across the surface of the emotion without embracing the true depths and scope.

Gathering her control, she allowed a cool smile to drift across her mouth. “You’re right, Lucius. I can’t imagine why any woman in her right mind would find a marriage proposal phrased as a business proposition in the least offensive,” she commented drily. “Go figure.”

Lucius set his glass down with a decisive click that caused the ice to shiver in warning. He took a step in her direction and fixed her with a dark, impenetrable gaze. “You have an opinion to offer on the subject?”

She didn’t answer the question directly, didn’t dare. “Is this about Mikey?” She couldn’t help the softening that came into her voice when she said the name, any more than she could help the softening that invaded her whole being when she held the baby in her arms and imagined what it would be like to have something so precious come from her own body.

He hesitated and she could tell that he wanted to rip her apart in order to release some of his fury toward Ella. But he wasn’t the type to take his aggression out on an innocent. He gathered himself, banked the fire, then nodded. “Yes,” he admitted. “This is about Mikey.”

“You’re attempting to find someone who would make a suitable wife for you and a good mother for the baby?”

“Again, yes.”

“And you expected Ella to jump at the opportunity after a two-week courtship?”

His teeth came together with a snap. “I had my reasons for believing it a distinct possibility. Are you done with the cross-examination?”

He’d reached the end of his rope and she responded accordingly. “Absolutely.”

“Then may I suggest we get some work done? We still have to finalize the schedule for my meeting with Gabe Moretti.”

She touched the screen of her tablet and called up the pertinent information. “He’s agreed to go in on the Richter building with you?”

“Only if I give him majority interest.”

“No doubt,” Angie replied. “But if he remodels it the way he did Diamondt Towers, it’ll be well worth the investment, even with only a minority stake.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“No, it never is.” He was a man who needed to hold the reins. Unfortunately, so was Gabe Moretti. “Will Moretti concede the point?”

“We plan to meet and discuss terms.”

Meaning … no. Moretti had no intention of giving up majority interest, which suggested a showdown between titans. What she wouldn’t give to see that! She touched an app on the screen that accessed Lucius’s calendar. “Would you prefer a lunch meeting or dinner?”

He considered, took another sip of his refilled drink before returning it to his jaw. “Dinner on Friday. Let’s make it at Milano’s on the Sound. Speak to Joe personally about the menu, would you?”

She made a quick notation. “I’ll take care of it. Eight o’clock work for you?”

“Only if it works for you.”

Angie’s poise faltered for a telling instant before she gathered herself back up. “Sorry?”

“Now that Ella’s out of the picture, I’ll need you to attend with me. You’re one of the most observant people I know. I could use your input on this.” His smile drew attention to features devil-perfect and sinfully attractive, and her heart gave a sharp, painful tug. “Problem?”

She dragged her gaze away from his dark, angel beauty and focused on the tablet, pretending to make a quick notation. “I’ll check my schedule and get back to you.”

“Right. You do that.”

She let the hint of mockery wash over her. “Next. I have several calls from a Pretorius St. John. He indicated it was a private matter. Something about a computer program he was personalizing for you. If it isn’t anything you want me to deal with, I’ll forward it to your PDA.”

“Go ahead and do that.”

She hesitated. “That name is familiar for some reason. Should I know it?”

“It’s possible. His nephew is Justice St. John, the robotics wunderkind. Pretorius specializes in computer software.”

Wow. “Okay, color me impressed that you have a software inventor willing to tweak one of his programs in order to fit your personal specifications.”

“You know, there are some days I think you forget who you’re working for.”

“Oh, dear. Not again.” She made an exaggerated curtsy. “I do apologize, Mr. Devlin, sir. I promise I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“See that you are.” His eyes glittered with laughter while he studied her, curiosity spilling into the intense darkness. “I don’t intimidate you in the least, do I?”

“No.”

It was the truth. For some reason he didn’t and never had. That hadn’t been her problem, mainly because she’d been too busy fighting her attraction for him to worry about his standing in the business community. Instead, she’d done everything within her power to conceal her reaction whenever they accidentally touched. To hide how desperately she’d like to experience his hands on her. His mouth. His body covering hers with nothing between them but the damp sheen of want. She closed her eyes briefly, closed off those sort of painful, wayward thoughts—something that grew more difficult with each passing day—and fought to regain her equilibrium.

Lucius was a closed door to her. What she felt for him would never become a reality and the sooner she accepted that fact the sooner she could move on. Only one problem with that plan. She didn’t want to move on. She wanted … him.

To her eternal gratitude, Lucius didn’t appear to notice anything wrong. “Your self-possession and your natural way of behaving around me are two of the qualities I most appreciate about you.”

If he only knew. “Just two?” she managed to tease.

“Fishing for compliments, Colter?”

“You bet.” She pretended to cast a fishing line and reel it in, forcing out a careless grin.

“Fair enough.”

He approached, circling like a shark, unnerving her for the first time in the eighteen months they’d worked together. Until now he’d regarded her almost like a piece of office furniture. Useful. Functional. An integral, if replaceable, cog in the wheel that was Diablo. This time when he looked at her it was through a man’s eyes. Her amusement faded and it took every ounce of that self-possession he’d applauded only moments before to maintain her poise and keep a calm, cool expression on her face. Her grip tightened on the electronic tablet and stylus and she could only hope he didn’t notice the whitening of her knuckles or the tension pouring off her. Though, knowing Lucius, he not only noticed but would use it against her.

“Do you know why I picked you out of all the endless candidates to be my PA?” he surprised her by asking.

“Not a clue,” she admitted. “I’m good at my job, but so were the other applicants, I assume.”

“You’re wrong,” he said softly. “You’re not good. You’re great.”

He’d stunned her. When she’d first started working for him eighteen months ago, he’d chosen her from a pool of dozens of equally efficient and qualified PAs, women—and men—who were the best in the country. Granted, Angie had worked hard for the opportunity, particularly since she’d failed in just about every other area of her life. But Lucius Devlin could afford to hire the very best, and deep down she couldn’t quite convince herself that she was the best. And yet, here he stood, insisting she wasn’t just good, but great.

“Great,” she repeated faintly.

“Don’t get a swelled head, Colter. Though you were great when I interviewed you, there were others who were better.”

“Then why …?” Her eyes narrowed, the truth hitting like a tidal wave. After she’d been offered the position, she’d worked longer and harder than she thought physically possible, throwing herself into the job to justify having been chosen. No doubt that’s why he’d hired her. He knew she’d go the extra distance, knew on some level she’d been desperate enough to throw her heart and soul into the position. Maybe the other women hadn’t been quite as committed. The knowledge that he’d used her with such deliberation gave her heart a small, painful twist. She’d been used before by Ryan and vowed at that time to never allow it to happen again. The fact that it had been Lucius who used her hurt all the more. “Damn it, Devlin. That’s low, even for you.”

He picked up on her intensity, caught the ripple of pain in her soft words. “If I’d known you then as well as I know you now, I’d have chosen a different method. But I needed to work you—hard—to make sure we were a good fit.” An odd expression swept through his gaze, something she couldn’t quite identify, but that caused her pulse rate to kick up a notch. “And we are a good fit, aren’t we, Angie?”

Her mouth tugged to one side in a reluctant smile. “So far. But if you play me like that again, we won’t be any sort of fit.”

“Fair enough.” He shot her a quick grin. “Still, you have to admit it worked. Not only did it work, but you’ve more than proved yourself. You’ve exceeded even my high standards.”

“You’re welcome,” she murmured drily.

“That staggering paycheck you receive is my thanks. I’ll even throw in a bonus if you go out and buy something decent to wear to our dinner with Moretti. I want him so focused on you that his reputation for being all business, all the time, will take a serious beating. Thanks to you, I expect him to be less business and more man. Got it?”

“I wasn’t hired for that,” she retorted tightly.

“You were hired to do the jobs I assign you. That’s the current job.”

Now what? Did she admit that she wasn’t equipped to handle the current job? Or did she simply allow him to figure that out for himself? Because there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the level of excellence she exhibited at work perfectly balanced the level of mediocrity she exhibited in every other area of her life, particularly under the heading of male-female relationships. Hadn’t Ryan explained that to her in no uncertain terms when he “accidentally” tripped and fell naked on top of her best friend, Britt? And in their bed, no less. What had he told her …?

Oh, right. Though she had brains and business acumen in spades, but when it came to hearth and home—particularly the bedroom portion of the home—he found her decidedly lacking. Fair enough. She found Britt and Ryan’s concept of friendship equally lacking. That’s when she’d decided to stick to what she was best at … work. And she had, until she’d committed a huge error. That absolute no-no of no-nos. She’d fallen in love with the boss.

She spared Lucius a single, searing look. “I don’t know how, but I fully intend to make you pay for putting me through this humiliation.”

That stopped him. “You consider dinner out with your boss and a client humiliating?”

“No, I consider playing the part of a seductress for my boss and his client humiliating.”

Anger flared in Lucius’s dark gaze. “I don’t recall saying anything about seducing Moretti. Merely distracting him.”

“It’s not a role I’m comfortable with. And I resent being put in that position. You know damn well that’s not part of my job description.” She held up a hand before he could argue the point. “And don’t try and claim my job is whatever you tell me it is. That’s not going to fly with me. It’s whatever you tell me within the confines of the four corners of this office building. Period.”

Under any other circumstance, she would have found his look of pure masculine bewilderment and frustration amusing. Instead, it tempted her to follow Ella’s example and give him a good, hard smack upside his clueless head.