Ten Ways To Win Her Man. Beverly Bird

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      “It’s going to be a doozy.”

      He laughed aloud. “What do your friends call you?”

      “Why?” she asked, startled.

      “Danielle? Sir? M’lady?”

      “Danielle.”

      “Ah.”

      This time that single word slid over her skin like warm velvet. “Ah, what?” she asked suspiciously.

      “Just, ah. May I call you Dani? I think it suits you more.” Danielle was the woman he’d just described, he thought. Dani would volley about words like doozy.

      “No!”

      Maxwell laughed again. “Then, m’lady, I will tell you this. Assuming your new resort was actually to come into being, you’d want the entrance to face the sea.”

      “I would?” Danielle sat up straighter in her chair, eyeing him.

      “Imagine the view during a good storm that keeps people inside.”

      He had a point and she liked it.

      “Unfortunately,” he continued, “this resort cannot possibly come into being because if it does, it will destroy untold unborn semipalmated plovers. The birds are indigenous to Alaska and western Canada, but they migrate twice yearly to South America and back again. And Gold Beach is one of their very favorite places to stop and nest along the way. Particularly, your section of Gold Beach.”

      “They’ll be welcome, of course.” Danielle sat back in her chair again. “Our low-end rooms will start at $175 a night.”

      He brought the bottle of scotch back to her desk and topped hers off without adding water. Danielle nudged it away carefully, her hands a little unsteady as he leaned across her desk toward her.

      “I think that’s out of their price range,” he murmured.

      She forced a shrug. He was too close. “I’m sorry. I can’t help them then.”

      “Where else will they go?”

      “Jonas Patterson’s place in Monterey?”

      He grinned, but this time it was a fast look, gone almost before it started. It showed teeth. “The birds only visit in the spring and fall. They should return to that beach any day now. When you break ground on May first, you’re going to destroy every egg they put down. Don’t kill them off, Dani. Have a heart.”

      She shot to her feet. Maybe it was because he had called her Dani. Maybe it was the fact that he’d remained close enough to her to breathe her air. Or maybe it was only because his suggestion was outrageous. “You honestly expect me to scrap a thirty-million-dollar project because of some birds?”

      “Honestly,” he agreed.

      “You’re crazy!”

      “As a loon.”

      “How did that species get into this?”

      “Actually, I saved them, too, at a lake atop Junipero Sierra Peak five years ago.”

      “You’re a regular Birdman of California, aren’t you?”

      “I’m an environmental lobbyist.”

      “And environmental issues are Stanley J. Roberson’s platform. What a coincidence.”

      “Not really.”

      That surprised her. He was honest. She liked it. “Maybe you should tell him to stick to the state budget.”

      “I can’t save that for him and I never promised I would.” Maxwell finally left her desk and strode across the room, back to the model.

      Danielle looked down into her glass. Somehow it had gotten into her hand again and now it was empty. She had probably consumed more scotch in the last half hour than she had in the previous three years combined.

      And Max Padgett was looking better by the mouthful.

      “This is absurd,” she muttered, not sure if she was speaking of the birds or the way his grin softened his mouth, the way he had her reacting.

      “You won’t end up thinking so.”

      She looked up again quickly. “Is that a threat?”

      “More or less.”

      “With what? I’m legal! That sight is clean, totally permitted, ready to go!”

      “But it won’t go because deep in your heart you know I’m right about this.” He paused and looked at her steadily. “Take a step back, Dani. Think it over. If you proceed, you’ll have a substantial fight on your hands. This was a courtesy call. After this, things get ugly.”

      “You can’t seriously think I’ll accommodate you on this. It makes absolutely no fiscal sense, and I have board members to report to!”

      “It was worth a try.”

      “So was looking for life on Mars but no one seriously thought they’d find it there.”

      “Call me a dreamer.”

      And wouldn’t that go with those blue eyes. Danielle shook her head as something soft tried to fill it. “My answer is no.”

      “So it’s on to round two then. But Dani.” He trailed off and moved to the door, opened it and looked back at her. “Don’t take anything that happens from here on in personally. Just for the record, it turns out that I like you.”

      “That’s m’lady to you.” Her intelligent, calculating, CEO knees nearly buckled.

      He chuckled, a sound that was rich and warm and golden, then he stepped through the door again and was gone.

      Danielle’s stomach jittered. It felt as if it had suddenly filled with a hundred fluttering…well, plovers. She’d read somewhere—probably in all that literature he’d sent her—that they darted after their food when they were hungry. Her nerves were darting. She sank back down into her chair again, dazed.

      What had just happened here? Pure, sizzling, instant chemical attraction, she answered herself. It scared her to death. She didn’t know quite what to do with it.

      But she liked it.

      Chapter Two

      “He wants you to call off the resort because of those birds?”

      Danielle’s secretary stood openmouthed in the center of her office early the next morning. Angelique was a stunning, statuesque and shrewd blonde who proved that looks didn’t necessarily preclude brains or vice versa. When Richard had first hired her, Danielle had felt the requisite kick of wifely alarm. Then she had gotten to know her.

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