Authors: Fiona Brand
“Good move.” Lucas examined a bottle of very expensive French champagne then replaced it. “Nothing like making the vendor think we’re cooling off to fast-track a sale. Mind if I have something to eat? I missed breakfast.”
Probably too busy shuttling between women to think about foo
d
. The last Zane had heard Lucas had also been having a wild “secret” affair with Carla Ambrosi, the public relations officer for Ambrosi and the sister of the woman their brother, Constantine, was marrying.
“Oysters.” Lucas lifted a brow. “Having someone in?”
Zane stared grimly at the platter of oysters on the half shel , complete with rock salt and lemon wedges. “Not as far as I know.”
Unless his new assistant had made some arrangement.
If she was helping Lucas with his engagement during her lunch breaks, anything was possible. “Help yourself to the food, the juice…”
My girl
.
The thought wel ed up out of the murk of his subconscious and slipped neatly past al of the reasons that commitment could never work for him. Especial y, with a woman like Lilah.
Since the age of nine, relationships had been a difficult area.
After being abandoned by his extravagant, debt-ridden mother on a number of occasions while she had flitted from marriage to marriage, he had definite trust issues with women, especial y those on the hunt for wealthy husbands.
Marriage was out.
Lucas took out the bowl of strawberries and surveyed the tempting fruit.
“It doesn’t bother you that Lilah’s on the hunt for a husband?”
An odd expression flitted across Lucas’s face. “Actual y, I respect her straightforward approach. It’s refreshing.”
Despite every attempt to relax, Zane’s fingers curled into fists.
So Lucas had fallen under her spell, too.
Try as he might, now that Zane had acknowledged that Lilah was his, he could not dismiss the thought. With every second that passed, the concept became more and more stubbornly real.
It was a fact that for the two years fol owing the incendiary passion that had almost ended in lovemaking, he had been tormented by the knowledge that Lilah could have been his.
He had control ed the desire to have a reckless fling with Lilah. He had control ed himself.
Lucas selected the largest, plumpest strawberry. “Lilah has a fear of flying. I was hoping, since you’re piloting the company jet that you could take her with you to Medinos when you leave.”
Zane’s jaw tightened. Everything in him rejected Lucas’s easy assertion that Zane would tamely fal into place and hand-deliver Lilah to his bed.
He fixed on the first part of Lucas’s statement. In al the time he had known Lilah she had never told
him
she had a fear of flying. Somehow that fact was profoundly irritating.
“Just out of curiosity, how long have you known Lilah?”
Lucas did spend time in Sydney, but not as much as Zane.
He had never heard Lilah so much as mention Lucas’s name.
“A week, give or take.”
Zane went stil inside. He knew his brother’s schedule.
They had al had to adjust their plans when Roberto Ambrosi, a member of a once-powerful and wealthy Medinian family, had died. The Atraeus Group had been forced to protect its interests by moving on the almost bankrupted Ambrosi Pearls. A hostile takeover to recover huge debts racked up by Roberto had been averted when Constantine had stunned them al by resurrecting his engagement to Sienna Ambrosi. The impending marriage had gone a long way toward healing the acrimonious rift that had developed between the two families when Roberto had leveraged money on the basis of the first engagement.
He knew that, apart from a couple of flying visits in the last couple of weeks—one to attend Roberto’s funeral—
that Lucas had been committed offshore. He had only arrived in Sydney the previous day.
Zane had spent most of the previous week in Sydney in order to attend the annual general meeting of the charity.
As usual, Lilah, who helped out with the art auctions, had been polite, reserved, the tantalizing, high-priced sensuality that was clearly reserved for the future Mr. Cole on ice. She had not mentioned Lucas. “Why not take Lilah with
you
?”
Lucas seemed inordinately interested in selecting a second strawberry. “It’s a gray area.”
Realization dawned. Lilah had not been subtle about her quest of finding a husband. He had just never seen Lucas as a candidate for an arranged marriage. “This is a first date.”
A trace of emotion flickered in Lucas’s gaze. “I needed someone on short notice. As it happens, after running a background check, I think Lilah is perfect for me. She’s talented, attractive, she’s got a good business head on her shoulders, she’s even a—”
“What about Carla?”
Lucas dropped the ripe berry as if it had seared his fingertips.
The final piece of the puzzle fel into place. Zane realized what the odd look in Lucas’s eyes had been just moments ago: desperation. Hot outrage surged through him. “You’re stil involved with Carla.”
“How did you know? No, don’t tel me. Elena.” Lucas put the bowl of strawberries back in the fridge and closed the door. “Carla and I are over.”
But only just.
Suddenly the instant relationship with Lilah made sense.
When Sienna married Constantine, Carla would practical y be family. If it came out that Lucas had been sleeping with Carla, intense pressure would be applied. Under the tough exterior, when it came to women, Lucas was vulnerable.
He was using Lilah as a buffer, insurance that Carla, who had a reputation for flamboyant scenes, would not try to publicly force him to formalize their secret affair with a marriage proposal.
That meant that love did not come into the equation.
If Lucas genuinely wanted Lilah, Zane would walk away, however that was not the case. Lucas, who had once been in the untenable position of having a girlfriend die in a car crash after they had argued about the secret abortion she’d had, was using her to avert an unpleasant situation. As calculating as Lilah was with relationships, she did not deserve to be caught in the middle of a showdown between Lucas and Carla.
Relief eased some of his fierce tension. He didn’t think Lilah had had time to sleep with Lucas yet. Somehow that fact was very important. “Okay. I’l do it.”
Lucas looked relieved. “You won’t regret it.”
Zane wasn’t so sure.
He wondered if Lucas had any inkling that he had just placed a temptation Zane had doggedly resisted for over two years directly in his path.
Two
Heart pounding at the step she was taking, her first bona fide risk in twelve years of careful y managed, featureless and fruitless dating, Lilah Cole boarded the sleek private jet that belonged to Ambrosi Pearls’s new owner, The Atraeus Group.
The nervy anticipation that had buoyed her as she had made her way through passport control ebbed as the pretty blonde stewardess, Jasmine, seated her.
Placing the soft white leather tote bag that went with her white jeans and comfy, oversized white shirt on the floor, Lilah dug out the discreet, white leather-bound folder she had bought with her. She had been braced for another stress-fil ed encounter with the dark and edgily dangerous Zane Atraeus, the youngest and wildest of the Atraeus brothers, but she was the sole occupant of the luxurious cabin.
Fifteen minutes later, with the noise from the jet engines reaching a crescendo and a curtain of gray rain blotting out much of the view from her tiny window, Lilah was stil the only passenger.
She squashed the ridiculous idea that she was in any way disappointed as she fastened her seat belt with fingers that were not entirely steady.
Flying was not her favorite pastime; she was not a natural risk taker. Like her approach to relationships, she preferred to keep her feet on the ground. A stubborn part of her brain couldn’t ignore the concept of al that space between the aircraft and the earth’s surface. To compound the problem, the weather forecast was for violent thunder and lightning.
As the jet taxied through the sweeping rain, Lilah ignored the in-flight safety video and concentrated on the one thing she
could
control. Flipping open the folder, she studied the profiles she had compiled.
Cole women had a notorious record for fal ing victim to the
coup de foudre
—the clap of thunder—for fal ing passionately and disastrously for the wrong man then literal y being left holding the baby. Aware that she possessed the same creative, passionate streak that ran through both her artistic and bohemian mother and grandmother, Lilah had developed a system for avoiding The Mistake.
It was a blueprint for long-term happiness, a wedding plan. She had found that writing down the steps she needed to take to achieve the relationship she wanted somehow demystified the whole process, making it seem not such a leap in the dark.
When she did eventual y give herself to a man, she was confident it would be in a committed relationship, not some wild fling. She wanted marriage, babies, the stable, control ed environment she had craved as a child.
She was determined that any children she had would have two loving parents, not one stressed and strained beyond her limits.
Over the last three years, despite interviewing an exhaustive number of candidates, she had not managed to find a man who met her marriage criteria and appealed to her on the al -important physical level. Scent in particular had proved to be a formidable barrier to identifying someone with whom she could have an intimate relationship. It was not that the men she had interviewed had smel ed bad, just that in some subtle way they had not smel ed
right
. However, things were final y taking a positive turn.
Lilah studied the notes she had made on her new boss, Lucas Atraeus, and a smal number of other men, and the points system she had developed based on a matchmaking website’s recommendations. She spent an enjoyable few minutes reviewing Lucas’s good points.
On paper he was the most perfect man she had ever met. He was electrifyingly good-looking and used a light cologne that she didn’t mind. He possessed the kind of dark, dangerous features that had proved to be an unfortunate weakness of hers and yet, in terms of a future husband, he ticked every box of her list.
For the first time she had found a man who was her type and yet he was safe, steady, reliable. The situation was a definite win-win.
She should be thril ed that he had asked her to a family wedding. This date, despite its risky nature, was the most positive she’d had in years and, at the age of twenty-nine, her biological clock was ticking.
She didn’t know Lucas wel . They had only met in the context of work over the past few days, with a “business”
lunch at a nearby cafe tossed in, during which he had told her that not only did he need an escort for his brother’s wedding, but that he was looking for a relationship with a view to marriage.
Like her, she didn’t think Lucas had succumbed to any kind of intense physical attraction. He preferred to take a more measured approach.
If it were possible to control her emotions and fal in love with Lucas, she had already decided she would do it.
She checked her watch and frowned. They were leaving a little earlier than scheduled. If the pilot had only waited a few more minutes, Zane might have made it.
She squashed another whisper of disappointment and snapped the window shutter closed. Witnessing the smal jet launching itself into the dark, turbulent center of the storm was something she did not need to see.
The liftoff was bumpy. During the steep ascent, wind buffeted the jet and lightning flickered through the other windows of the cabin. When they final y leveled out, Lilah’s nerves were stretched taut. She had taken a sedative before she had left her apartment, but so far it had failed to have any effect.
The stewardess, who had retreated to a separate compartment, reappeared and offered her a drink. With the cabin to herself, sleeping seemed the best option, so Lilah took another sedative. According to her doctor, one should have worked; two would definitely knock her out.
She was rereading Lucas’s compatibility quotient, which was extremely high, her lids drooping, when a heavy crack of thunder shook the smal jet. Lightning flashed. In that instant the door to the cockpit popped open. Zane Atraeus, tal , sleekly broad-shouldered and dressed in somber black, was framed in the searing flicker of light.
The jet lurched; the folder flew off her lap. The clasp sprang open as it hit the floor, scattering loose sheets. Lilah barely noticed. As always, her artist’s eye was riveted.
Zane’s golden skin and chiseled face—which she had shamelessly, secretly, painted for the past two years—
could have been lifted straight out of a Dalmasio oil. Even the imperfections, the subversive glint of the studs in his lobe, the faint disruption to the line of his nose, as if it had once been broken, were somehow…perfect.
She blinked as Zane strol ed toward her. Her vision readjusted to the warm glow of the cabin lights. Until Zane had moved, she had not been entirely convinced that he was real. She thought she could have been caught up in one of the vivid, unsettling dreams that had disturbed her sleep ever since The Regrettable Episode two years ago.
Unlike the temporary effect of the lightning flash on her vision, the events of that night had been indelibly seared into her consciousness. “I thought you missed the flight.”
His steady dark gaze made her stomach tighten. “I never miss when I’m the pilot.”
Aware that the contents of the folder had spil ed into the aisle, and that the topmost sheet which held the glaringly large title,
The Wedding Plan
, was clearly visible, Lilah lunged forward in an attempt to regather the incriminating sheets. Her seat belt held her pinned. By the time she had the buckle unfastened, Zane had col ected both the folder and the loose sheets.
Her cheeks burned as he straightened. She was certain he had read some of the contents, enough to get the gist of what they were about. She took the sheets and stuffed them back into the folder. “I didn’t know you could fly.”