From Single Mom to Secret Heiress Page 16

  The room had grown so silent, Hannah would swear everyone could hear her pounding heart. This was no time for smart remarks. For questions or doubts. This precious request Logan had made only required one answer. “Yes, I will be your wife.”

  Following a kiss, and more applause, Logan pulled a black velvet box from his inner pocket and opened it to a brilliant, emerald-cut diamond ring flanked by more diamonds. “This should seal the deal,” he said as he removed it from the holder, pocketed the box again, then placed it on her left finger.

  Hannah held it up to the light. “Heavens, Logan Whittaker, this could rival the Rocky Mountains. I might have to wear a sling to hold it up.”

  Logan leaned over and whispered, “Always the smart-ass, and I love it. I love you.”

  She sent him a wily grin. “I love you, too, and I really and truly love the ring.”

  The pop of the cork signaled the party had begun as Marlene started doling out champagne to everyone of legal age. When Cassie asked, “Can I have some?” Logan and Hannah barked out, “No!” simultaneously.

  She turned to Logan and smiled. “You’re going to come in handy when she turns sixteen and the boys come calling.”

  “She’s not going to date until she’s twenty-one,” he said in a gruff tone.

  “And I’m the Princess of Romania,” she replied, although tonight she did feel like a princess. A happy, beloved princess, thanks to her unpredictable prince.

  Following a few toasts, many congratulations and a lot of hugs and kisses, Logan finally escorted Hannah out the door and into the awaiting black limousine, just one more surprise in her husband-to-be’s repertoire. Then again, everything about her relationship with Logan had been one gigantic surprise.

  After they were seated side by side, and the partition dividing the front and back of the car had been raised, Logan kissed her with all the passion they’d come to know in each other’s arms.

  “How did you enjoy that proposal?” he asked once they’d come up for air.

  “It was okay. I really hoped you would have dressed like a plumber and presented the ring on a wrench.”

  He grinned. “Would you have worn a maid’s uniform?”

  “Sure. And I’d even pack a feather duster.”

  The levity seemed to subside when Logan’s expression turned serious. “I’ve set up a trust fund in Cassie’s name, in case you want to tell your former in-laws thanks, but no thanks.”

  “I’d be glad to tell them to take their trust fund and control and go to Hades. And if I did, frankly I don’t think they’d care. But if they do decide they want to see her again, it wouldn’t be fair to keep her from them.” The same way she’d been kept from her father.

  “We’ll deal with it when and if the time comes. Together.” Logan pulled an open bottle of champagne from the onboard ice bucket, then filled the two available glasses. “To our future and our family.”

  Hannah tipped her crystal flute against his. “And to weddings. Which reminds me, when are we going to do it?”

  He laid his free hand on her thigh. “The seat back here is pretty big, so I say let’s do it now.”

  Spoken like a man who’d spent a lot of time with a wise-cracker. She gave him an elbow in the side for good measure. “I meant, as if you didn’t know, when are we going to get married?”

  He faked a disappointed look that melted into an endearing smile. “I’m thinking maybe on July Fourth.”

  That allowed Hannah very little time to plan. But since this would be both their second marriages, it wouldn’t require anything elaborate. “You know something? People will speculate I’m pregnant if we have the ceremony that soon.”

  He nuzzled her neck and blew softly in her ear. “Let’s just give them all something to talk about.”

  Lovely. More rumors, as if the Lassiter family hadn’t had enough of that lately. Oh, well. It certainly kept things interesting. So did Logan’s talented mouth. “Then July Fourth it is. We can even have fireworks.”

  He winked. “Fireworks on Independence Day for my beautiful independent woman works well for me.”

  An independent woman and single mom, and a one-time secret heiress, who’d had the good fortune to fall in love with a man who had given her an incredible sense of freedom.

  Now, as Hannah gazed at her gorgeous new fiancé, this onetime secret heiress was more than ready for the lifetime celebration to begin. Starting now.

  * * * * *

  DYNASTIES: THE LASSITERS

  Don’t miss a single story!

  THE BLACK SHEEP’S INHERITANCE

  by Maureen Child

  FROM SINGLE MOM TO SECRET HEIRESS

  by Kristi Gold

  EXPECTING THE CEO’S CHILD

  by Yvonne Lindsay

  LURED BY THE RICH RANCHER

  by Kathie DeNosky

  TAMING THE TAKEOVER TYCOON

  by Robyn Grady

  REUNITED WITH THE LASSITER BRIDE

  by Barbara Dunlop

  Keep reading for an excerpt from THE SARANTOS BABY BARGAIN by Olivia Gates.

  A family of tempting tycoons and rich ranchers comes to a crossroads in

  Harlequin Desire’s Dynasties series: DYNASTIES: THE LASSITERS

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  Beauty and the Best Man (novella) by Maureen Child (April 2014)

  The Black Sheep’s Inheritance by Maureen Child (April 2014)

  From Single Mom to Secret Heiress by Kristi Gold (May 2014)

  Expecting the CEO’s Child by Yvonne Lindsay (June 2014)

  Lured by the Rich Rancher by Kathie DeNosky (July 2014)

  Taming the Takeover Tycoon by Robyn Grady (August 2014)

  Reunited with the Lassiter Bride by Barbara Dunlop (September 2014)

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  One

  Naomi Sinclair stared at the face filling the TV screen in her partner’s office, an avalanche of memories swamping her. Memories of a time when she’d known exactly how the Titanic had felt.

  She’d crashed into her own iceberg, after all. A colossal one by the name of Andreas Sarantos. The one whose ice now reached out from the screen to freeze her marrow...and simultaneously spill lava into her bloodstream.

  Despite all the cautionary tales of what befell those who approached him, she’d steamed ahead on an intercept course. When she’d collided with him, it hadn’t been for a catastrophic but brief encounter. Oh, no. She’d smashed herself against his frozen annihilation for two tumultuous years. Total wreckage had been the only possible outcome.

  Now her whole being quivered at seeing Andreas again, after four long years. With the sound off, and with him looking right at her so fiercely, she could imagine him saying what he’d said that first day she’d pursued him.

  You don’t want to get mixed up with me, Ms. Sinclair. Walk away. While you still can.

  She could still hear his voice, dark and pulsing with sensual menace, that slight Greek accent making it more compelling. Could still feel his eyes burning her with their inimitable brand of aloof yet searing lust.

  She hadn’t heeded his warning. Not before she’d had a protracted demonstration of how right he’d been. His words had not been a cautioning, but a promise. Of destruction. One he’d carried out. And she’d had no one to blame but herself.

  �
��What do you know! He’s back in town.”

  The comment, laced with surprise and not a little excitement, pulled Naomi back to reality with a thud.

  Tearing her gaze from the gorgeous yet forbidding face still filling the screen, she blinked at her partner.

  Malcolm Ulrich’s comment made her realize where Andreas was. In front of his Fifth Avenue headquarters. He was “back in town.” Where he hadn’t been for four years.

  Though she knew he could be in the next room and make no effort to see her, her heart hammered at the realization.

  Malcolm turned his gaze to her, his green eyes eager. “I’d just about given up on doing business with him, since he deals only in person, and only when he’s here.” Her partner looked at the TV again. “But here he is.”

  She unwillingly followed suit, found Andreas’s eyes drilling into hers as he glowered at the camera with all the tolerance of a wolf regarding a rabbit.

  Malcolm sighed. “I still can’t believe I didn’t manage to pin him down to something when he pulled our fat out of the fire back in Crete, then came here personally to discuss how he resolved our problem with Stephanides. But it’s never too late, and that guy is bigger than ever. This time I’ll do whatever it takes to nail down his elusive hide long enough for him to give our expansion plans serious consideration.”

  A scoff almost escaped her. She hadn’t gotten “serious consideration” from Andreas when she’d been in his bed every night. Not even mind-blowing sex had swayed him to get involved in something he hadn’t considered “financially feasible.” He’d said their sustainable development methods posed too many logistical problems and promised too little profit for him to bother with. That had been the sum total of the business talk they’d had during their...liaison.

  But she doubted telling Malcolm that would dissuade him from continuing his pursuit of Andreas. And it might make him suspect there’d been more between her and Andreas than he, and the world, knew. Only Nadine, her only sister, and Petros, his only friend, had known the truth. To the world, she and Andreas had been two professionals who’d crossed paths sporadically, he as the Greek multibillionaire venture capitalist whose magic touch every business in the world craved, and she as a partner in a real estate development company struggling to make its mark in an increasingly competitive field.

  When it had been over, she’d been endlessly grateful for that fact. No one knew of her folly, making it possible for her to pretend the ordeal had never happened. And she wanted to keep it that way. As much as it pained her, she had to let Malcolm butt his head against the wall that was Andreas Sarantos.

  But it wasn’t as if Malcolm didn’t know it was probably futile, anyway. He’d been after Andreas’s transformative financing even before they’d become partners seven years ago. It was when Andreas finally answered one of Malcolm’s persistent invitations that she’d first met him, a year after she, Malcolm and Ken had set up Sinclair, Ulrich & Newman, or SUN Developments.

  Andreas had come to inspect one of their first projects, with Malcolm hoping to tempt him to finance their ambitious offshore expansion plans.

  From photos, Naomi had already thought him the most incredible looking man she’d ever seen. But it had taken that face-to-face encounter to turn her inside out.

  His gaze and handshake had been cool, detached, yet an all-out invasion at the same time. Throughout his fifteen-minute presence, he’d fascinated and intimidated her as no one had ever done. He’d made few comments, but those had been so ruthlessly denuding, they’d uncovered weaknesses neither she nor her partners had realized had been inherent in their system. Then he’d abruptly taken his leave, giving no indication if he’d been interested or not in their business plan—or in her.

  That hadn’t stopped her from thinking of him to distraction afterward....

  The images on the screen changed, interrupting her reminiscing. Her gaze clung to his figure as he strode away to his limo. Even from the back, he looked every inch the indifferent raider who conquered without trying, devastated without effort and cared nothing about the damage he left in his wake. The reporter, a woman evidently unnerved by her close encounter with the Greek god, regretted that she hadn’t been able to get enough from Mr. Sarantos.

  Enough from, or of? a voice inside Naomi scoffed.

  But if she could have given the woman a word of advice, she would have told her that no one got a thing from Andreas Sarantos. Nothing but hurt, heartache and humiliation.

  Malcolm reached for his cell phone. “I’d better call him right away, reserve the first free hour he has while he’s here, before the whole city starts hounding him.”

  Feeling as if she’d run a mile, Naomi rose unsteadily to her feet. “I’ll leave you to it.”

  “Hey...” Malcolm stood, too, his expression dismayed. “We haven’t even started our meeting.”

  “There’s always tomorrow.” Naomi stopped at the door, mainly to lean on it until she regained her balance. “And I’d probably be useless to you, worrying about Dora, anyway.”

  Which was, incidentally, true. Leaving Dora with a slight fever had made her unable to focus on anything all day. She’d spent most of it checking back with Hannah obsessively, though her nanny kept insisting everything was fine. Now Andreas’s unexpected return—even when Naomi was certain that the news spot would be her only exposure to him—had finished off any possibility for coherent thinking today. Might as well head home early.

  She attempted a smile. “Just as well you found a more important thing to pursue today.”

  “Nothing is more important than you!”

  Naomi’s smile remained unchanged at his protest, and she made no response as she closed his office door behind her.

  Malcolm had always made such gallant statements, but lately she’d been detecting something more in his courteous remarks. Something she hoped she was wrong about. She’d hate it if anything spoiled their friction-free working relationship and friendship. She’d started the partnership with him and Ken in the first place because both men had been happily married. But after Malcolm’s wife died from cancer three years ago, she’d started picking up different vibes from him. They’d become more noticeable since Nadine’s and Petros’s deaths three months ago. Naomi dreaded thinking Malcolm might be rebooting his program with her as the object of his monogamy.

  Her mind was overflowing with this disturbing possibility and with Andreas’s out-of-the-blue return when she entered her apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

  She’d thrown her purse on the foyer table and was hastily hanging up her coat when she heard footsteps rushing toward her. She swung around to find Hannah, once her nanny and now Dora’s, looking anxious.

  The heart that had been thudding all the way here now pounded with alarm. “Is Dora’s fever up again? Why didn’t you call me? I would have come back at once, taken her to the doctor!”

  Hannah looked momentarily taken aback before waving her hand. “Oh, I told you countless times today that her temperature went down after you gave her medicine, and hasn’t come up again. We had a wonderful day and she went down for the night a couple of hours early.”

  Naomi leaned against the wall as tension deflated abruptly. She exhaled. “When you came rushing like that—God, my mind’s been all over the place, more than usual today.”

  Sympathy overflowed in Hannah’s shrewd hazel eyes. “After what you’ve been through, it’s natural for you to be jumpy. It’s amazing you’ve held up this well. But you don’t have to worry about Dora. Robust little tykes like her can weather far more than a temperature. After raising four kids of my own, and you and Nadine, with Dora my seventh baby, I should know.”

  “While I feel I know nothing,” Naomi lamented. “Next week Dora will be ten months old and I still feel like a total novice. I keep worrying every minute she’s out of my sight. Accidents do happ
en....” Like the accident that had taken Nadine’s and Petros’s lives.

  The words clogged in her throat, the wound that had never stopped bleeding for the past three months opening yet again.

  Hannah reached for her, gave her one of those hugs that, as far back as she could remember, had always made things better even at the worst of times. “Being paranoid is part of being a parent, sweetie. And you have more reason than usual for your anxieties. But we won’t let anything happen to our Dora, ever, and she’ll grow up safe and loved, and become a beautiful, exceptional woman like her mom and aunt.”

  Agony swelled all over again as her sister’s exuberant face filled Naomi’s mind. Before tears flowed, she nodded into Hannah’s ample shoulder, letting her touch and scent soothe her. Hannah had always been an integral part of her life, filling the void her mother had left behind when she’d died when Naomi was only thirteen.

  Sniffling and attempting a smile, she pulled away. “So why did you come rushing to the door like that? Did you think I was an intruder or something, since I’m a bit early? Shouldn’t you have come armed?” Her smile wobbled as another alarm sent her hair-trigger nerves into an uproar again. “If you ever suspect anything of the sort, lock yourself in a room with Dora and call the police—”

  Hannah raised both hands. “You really are extra jumpy today. This apartment building is intruder-proof, and you’ve certainly padlocked all entrances against an invading army. Anyone who comes in here has to be invited.” She stopped, hesitated, unease creeping over her genial face again. “Which brings me to the reason I rushed out to intercept you.”