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seeking out. Luscious Lara had no time for the conventional rules of relationships. She would never wait for a man to call. She was a sexually confident woman who went after what she wanted. The words regret and apology didn’t appear in her vocabulary.

      Chase Adams might consider himself to be the man who had everything, but he’d never had Lara. If she walked into his life, he’d soon discover what was missing. Lara would give the ruthless, coldhearted Chase Adams a night he would never forget.

CHAPTER TWO

      TUCKED BEHIND ONE of the pillars on the terrace, Chase Adams stood staring over the Manhattan skyline. He scanned the building closest to him; fifty-four floors of winking glass and gleaming metal, now providing corporate headquarters for three Fortune 100 companies.

      He was familiar with every steel bolt.

      His company had built it, as they had at least four other buildings within his line of vision.

      Buildings were his life. His world.

      As a child he’d played with Lego. This was more satisfying. He was creating something permanent, something that became part of the city he loved.

      “Chase!” A soft, feminine voice told him that his moment of contemplation was over.

      He turned, resigned. “Victoria.”

      “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. There are people waiting to talk to you!”

      Not because they were interested in him, but because they wanted something.

      People always wanted something.

      There were days when he felt every interaction he had was fake, including his relationship with Victoria.

      His parents kept telling him she would be a perfect life partner for someone. It was obvious they were hoping he’d be that someone.

      It was true that she was socially adept and confident. She would stand next to him at events like this one and make polite conversation with anyone and everyone from presidents to police chiefs.

      There was only one problem.

      The thought of waking up next to Victoria for the next fifty years chilled him. He’d never seen her anything but perfectly groomed, and never heard her utter a word that hadn’t been carefully edited. There were times when he felt like tickling her to see if she was capable of spontaneous laughter.

      Chase wondered what she looked like in the morning when she hadn’t spent half the day being pampered. Did she sleep in makeup?

      What would marriage to someone like Victoria look like? Would she rush to the bathroom before he woke? Their relationship would be strictly regimented. Dinner would be scheduled into their calendars, a stiff formal affair. What about sex? Would he be expected to book that in, too? Their future would be a sea of diary notes and reminders, with no room for spontaneity. Soon he’d be going on more and more business trips to avoid her.

      “I was enjoying the view.”

      She laughed—a carefully modulated sound, not too loud and not too soft—and linked arms with him in a gesture intended to remind anyone watching that they were intimate. Close.

      Chase had never felt more distant from her than he did at that moment.

      “You are funny. The view from your apartment is vastly superior, and you’re wasting time staring into space. You need to mingle. There are so many people waiting to meet you.”

      Mingle.

      The thought lowered his spirits as much as the thought of spending the rest of his life with Victoria.

      Was he being unfair? The time they spent together was at events such as these, and there was never time to talk properly.

      “Let’s get out of here, Vic.”

      “Excuse me?” She frowned at the shortened version of her name, and he wondered what he was supposed to call her if they ever made it as far as the bedroom.

      “Let’s leave. Go somewhere.”

      “Where?”

      “I don’t know. Let’s be spontaneous. Walk and see where we end up.”

      “Walk? Leave your own party?” She gave a breathless laugh, as shocked as if he’d suggested stripping off and dancing naked on the table. “You’re joking.”

      “I’m not joking. Let’s take off these stupid clothes, change into jeans and go for a walk in Central Park. Let’s talk. Really talk. Not about stocks, shares or the state of the property market. Let’s talk about life. I need air. I need—” I need to work out if I like who you are.

      And he needed to work out if he liked who he was when he was with her.

      She withdrew her hand from his arm, her smile a little cooler. “I don’t own a pair of jeans, and these ‘stupid clothes,’ as you call them, were custom-made. I know how important tonight is for you and I wanted to make a special effort.” If her smile was cool, her voice was deep-frozen. “I’m not one of those women who needs compliments all the time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate one when it comes my way, Chase.”

      “You look great.” He wondered how many hours it had taken her to look that perfect. “But I want to spend time with you, not a dress.”

      “You can. Right here.” Her voice was light. “There are important people here, Chase. People who want to talk to you.”

      The problem was that he didn’t want to talk to them.

      “If they all went away, if all this went away, would you still want to be with me?”

      She stared at him blankly, as if he were speaking a foreign language and all she had to hand was a basic phrase book. “Chase, your company is booming. Daddy says he has never met a man with your business skills, and coming from him that’s a real compliment. You’ve turned your family business around. You’ve proved to your father that you can do it. What you have is never going away.”

      “But what if I didn’t do this? What if I worked for the fire department or the police force, would you still want to be with me? What if I went back to building houses instead of paying other people to build them?” At the beginning he’d done that. He had the skills needed to build a house from scratch. He’d been interested in eco-designs, and sustainable features. He’d had plans; plans that had been derailed by his father’s first heart attack.

      “Have you been drinking?” She frowned for as long as it took her to remember that frowning caused lines. “You’re not yourself.”

      That was the problem. He was himself, but no one was interested in who he was. No one cared who he was, as long as he was still CEO of the Adams Construction Group. They wanted the man with the money.

      He felt as if he were being suffocated.

      He was the man who had everything, except the things that really mattered in life.

      If he lost it all tomorrow, he knew he’d find himself alone.

      Victoria’s presence had drawn attention to him, and people were starting to hover hopefully. His moment of peaceful contemplation was over.

      “Chase!” Two men and a woman approached, but before the predictable flow of conversation could begin there was a massive crash from behind them as one of the waitresses dropped a tray of champagne. The sound echoed around the cavernous room and was followed by an appalled hush and a lone female voice.

      “She’s ruined my dress!”

      Everyone turned and stared. A few people moved closer and Chase pondered the darker side of human nature that meant they were so often drawn to gloat over another’s

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