The Executive's Valentine Seduction / Valente Must Marry: The Executive's Valentine Seduction. Merline Lovelace

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      “Yeah, I do. Check out a guy named Juan Casteel for me. He owns a shipping company based in Barcelona.”

      “Juan Casteel.” He jotted down the name. “What’s his angle?”

      “He says he needs more protection.”

      “Who doesn’t?” Harry muttered.

      “Casteel found out I’m in Spain and wants to meet with me. I’ve set up an appointment at his office for three this afternoon.”

      “I’ll get on him.”

      “Caroline, I need you to go with me. Casteel’s English is pretty heavily accented. I’d like a second set of ears to make sure I understand him.”

      Rory ignored the quick glance Harry shot his way. “Pack an overnight bag,” he instructed his surprised conference coordinator. “Casteel said something about dinner at his place, so I could meet his wife and see the layout of his house. If they eat as late as most Spaniards, it’ll be too late to drive back tonight.”

      Dinner or no dinner, Rory had already determined he and Caroline would not hit the road again tonight.

      “Better make hotel reservations,” he told her. “We’ll take my rental car. I’ll meet you in the lobby at noon.”

      She waffled, clearly uncertain and wary. He didn’t give her time to recover.

      “Let me know what you dig up on Casteel, Harry.”

      His deputy gave him a hard look before nodding. “Will do.”

      Harry delivered a background dossier on Juan Casteel to Rory’s suite forty-five minutes later. The Spanish shipping magnate didn’t top the list of his priorities, however.

      “Let’s have it, boss. What the hell are you up to with Caroline?”

      Rory paused in the act of stuffing his shaving kit into his carryall. “What makes you think I’m up to anything?”

      “Don’t give me that bull. I’m the one who kept your ass out of jail, remember?”

      “How could I forget? You remind me at least once a month.”

      Never one to mince words, the retired cop set his jaw. “Caroline’s a good kid, but she’s not in your league. You hurt her again, and you’ll answer to me.”

      “Again?” Rory echoed softly.

      “You think I’m getting senile or something?”

      Disgusted, Harry tossed the background dossier to the bed beside the leather carryall.

      “I knew there had to be some reason behind your insistence that her company handle this conference. I did a little digging. Didn’t take long to figure out you were the one who knocked her up.”

      Wincing at the blunt assessment, Rory yanked on the zipper of his carryall. “Does it make any difference that I didn’t know I’d knocked her up?”

      “Not to me. Or to her, I suspect. What’s your game?”

      “It’s no game, Harry. I intend to atone for past sins.”

      “How?”

      He couldn’t lie to the man who’d become his conscience. “My first plan was a cash settlement. I know money wouldn’t make up for what she went through, but it could ease the future for her. If she wouldn’t accept it outright, I planned to disguise it by steering business her way. Now…”

      Now all he could think of was how Caroline had looked in the moonlight. How she’d tasted, so warm and salty. How much he wanted to taste her again.

      “I’m thinking maybe a more permanent arrangement.”

      “Like marriage?”

      “Maybe.”

      “Little late for that, isn’t it?”

      “Better late than never. Besides, we both know I would have made a rotten husband back then. I was too young and too much of a wiseass.”

      “You won’t get any argument from me on that. I’m curious, though. Why do you think you’ll make a better husband now? You haven’t spent more than a few weeks in that empty barn you call home in the past year. Then there’s the little matter of your line of work.”

      With a jerk of his chin, Harry indicated the scars webbing the back of Rory’s hand.

      “Think you can bust in car windows and haul clients out of burning vehicles indefinitely?”

      “Yeah, well, that’s part of my rationale.”

      Rory glanced down and made a fist. He hadn’t been able to perform that simple act for months after the job in Seattle went sour.

      “We both know the odds, Harry. The higher the profile of our clients, the greater the chances we’ll take a hit along with them. Conversely, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. I’ve got more money in the bank than I can spend in two lifetimes.”

      “And no one to leave it to,” his longtime friend and mentor guessed shrewdly, “except the half dozen charities that hit you up on a regular basis. So you’re going to make Caroline a rich widow.”

      “Not anytime soon, hopefully. But one way or another, she’ll be set for life.”

      “Just out of curiosity,” Harry said, “what makes you so sure Caroline will have you?”

      “I’m not sure at all. But there’s something between us that just won’t die. A spark. A flame. Whatever. It’s been smoldering all these years.”

      “Yeah, I noticed you out there on the beach the other night, fanning the fire.” He palmed his salt-and-pepper buzz cut and eyed Rory thoughtfully. “Have you told her about your plans for her future?”

      “Not yet.”

      “When are you planning to spring them on her?”

      “I’m not sure. Tonight, maybe, in Barcelona.”

      Harry nodded once, slowly. “I repeat, kid. Hurt that girl again and you’ll answer to me.”

      “Understood. Now give me a quick recap of what you dug up on this guy Casteel.”

      Caroline decided the meeting with Rory’s high-powered prospective client required more professional attire than the semicasual outfits she’d worn at the conference. She changed into black pumps, her slim black skirt with its matching jacket worn over an aqua silk tank.

      She was glad she’d made the switch when Rory met her in the lobby. He, too, had changed and was once again the consummate executive in a hand-tailored charcoal-gray suit and silk tie. He looked almost like a stranger again until his amber eyes met hers and a frisson of unsettling sensation rippled СКАЧАТЬ