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In Name Only
By Jill Shalvis Day Leclaire Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
Copyright © 2003 Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-373-23015-X
Chapter One
"YOU FORGOT to take the cash I left out for you."
At the low, unbearably sexy voice in her ear, Lani hugged the telephone closer. They weren't strangers, not by a long shot, but neither were they familiar enough with each other for her to joke about what the mere sound of his voice did to her insides. Shakily, she let out a breath. Her heart raced, and to combat the funny, weightless feeling that such a severe attraction caused, she leaned back in her squeaky office chair, lifted her tired, worn-out feet up to her desk and closed her eyes.
"Ms. Mills?"
"Yes, I'm here." He couldn't know she'd recognize his voice anywhere. She sighed and opened her eyes as she straightened. It wasn't right to fantasize about a client, no matter how much that client occupied her thoughts. Truth was, he probably occupied the thoughts of every woman in this small mountain town of Sierra Summit. Not that there wasn't plenty to do in the quaint, lovely place, but Colin West was such absolutely perfect fantasy material.
"Your money for your house-cleaning services," he repeated patiently. "You left it on the counter."
"I know. I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed. At the time, she'd been flustered because he'd been watching her with a silent intensity that she didn't understand as she'd prepared to leave his house.
"No need to apologize, they're your earnings."
Again, that quiet yet steely tone. She was intelligent, she knew she couldn't love someone she didn't really know, but she could lust.
He was a man who knew what he wanted and how to get it, and if rumors were to be believed, he rarely ever let anything get in his way. "Ruthless and aggressive" was what they said about him, but Lani believed it was only a front.
To her, he wasn't frightening or even dangerous, but he was magnetic and passionate and fiercely private.
He also intimidated the hell out of her.
They'd known each other for one year. Lani had provided services for him once a week since they'd met, and though she had hoped their relationship would have risen above this stilted awkwardness by now, it was clear she was the only one who wished it so.
Sighing again, she shoved back all her secret yearnings and desires. "I'll pick it up when I come next week," she said. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." The husky timbre of his voice deepened, and for just a second, Lani thought that maybe it did so with equal yearning, but that was silly.
She was a nobody to him, less than a nobody. What she made in a year, he considered less than pocket change. Her office was smaller and more cramped than the walk-in closet of his huge bedroom.
He probably didn't even remember her first name.
"Next week then, Lani," he said softly.
She hung up the phone, stared out the tiny office window at the Los Angeles Crest Mountains and smiled dreamily.
He did know her name.
"Next week," she whispered to herself.
THE FOLLOWING WEEK when Lani drove up to Colin's house, it looked dark. Disappointment filled her.
She'd rearranged her crazy schedule even though she could have had a rare day off, just to get a peek at him. It was all for naught.
She was an idiot. A lust-bitten idiot.
She walked into the kitchen and saw an envelope with her name on the counter. Inside was her money, for both this week and last.
"You won't forget this time."
Lani nearly leaped out of her skin at the unexpected, silky voice.
He stood in the doorway, filling it with his tall, dangerous-looking presence. She wasn't afraid of him. She didn't know why really, except that she knew all his dark beauty covered pain, not meanness. His gaze, as always, was inscrutable and measured, and every nerve inside Lani went shy. "I won't forget, thank you."
"You should charge more."
"I get by."
"You're worth far more." Colin said this sincerely, even as he remained against the doorway, cool and collected. Distant.
It didn't matter. She knew that was a defense, and she of all people understood defenses. But he'd noticed what a good job she'd done, and while it shouldn't mean so much, it did. Oh, it did. She smiled.
He stared at her, not returning the smile - she'd never seen him smile - his eyes for once readable. In them she saw confusion, which in turn confused her because he was always so sure of himself.
Apparently he didn't like the feeling, because he grabbed his keys, said a quick good-bye and vanished.
Lani watched him go, wondering at the flash of vulnerability she'd seen.
SHE DIDN'T SEE HIM again all month, though he always left money for her services. Twice he left her notes, complimenting her on her work.
She saved them and wondered how long it would be before he allowed them to run into one another again. Wondered also if he felt the connection between them, and if it unnerved him as much as it did her.
COLIN WOULDN'T HAVE SAID desperation was a personality trait of his, but he felt the cold fingers of it now. Frustrated, he stared at the calculated mess in his office. The building was deserted except for him. Even the downtown streets beyond the darkened windows were quiet on this late-summer evening.
His favorite time to work.
If he could, he'd work all night. Every night. Whatever it took to finish this project, he would do it, it was that important.
But he had to go home, had to ward off trouble.
It wasn't often he felt so helpless, and he hated that. There was only one thing to do - fight it.
Fight them.
The them in this case wasn't some terrorist threat or even a horrific viral infection, but something far worse.
It was his mother and her two meddling sisters.
The three of them had come together in their mutual campaign to ruin his life.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from In Name Only by Jill Shalvis Day Leclaire Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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