LITMIR.BIZ

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you the truth, Grace. Take this as a warning.

      Struggling with her luggage, she came out of the Tube stop near his hotel. He was likely not there but busy at his office, as he hadn’t answered his phone. She would wait for him in the penthouse and…

      Then she saw he wasn’t busy in the office.

      Maksim was walking arm-in-arm with Francesca.

      He looked ruthlessly handsome in a gray suit and coat. The redhead at his side wore an ivory coat and six-inch heels. Grace watched in shock as they passed the smiling doorman and went inside his hotel.

      She saw the look Francesca gave him over the shoulder. Flirtatious. Cozy. Affectionate.

      And Grace felt her knees go weak beneath her.

      Trembling, she stumbled out into the road to flag down a cab. She shoved the suitcases inside and collapsed in the back of the black cab. “Heathrow,” she gasped to the cabbie.

      She could no longer deny the painful truth. She’d loved him, while he…

      He’d taken her virginity to win back another woman.

      Grace needed to get home. Her mother would take her in her arms and stroke her hair and tell her everything would be all right. Her mother knew about broken hearts.

      Grace nearly cried with gratitude when a desk clerk at the airport managed to switch her seat to an earlier flight.

      Crossing the Atlantic that endless day, crammed into a middle seat between two large, snoring men who both hogged the armrests and overlapped her space, Grace kept her eyes tightly closed. If she started crying, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop.

      She had more to worry about than a broken heart.

      How would Grace save the house? How would she support her family? Now that her father’s life insurance was gone, her family was nearly destitute. And the economy was tough. How would Grace find employment when she’d just been fired for blurting out a billion-dollar secret in bed?

      Grace clutched the thin airplane blanket to her chest. Funny to think she’d been so determined to not accept any gifts from Maksim. She’d returned the tiara and Leighton clothes. She’d refused his offer of the Maserati convertible and a new house and his many other suggestions of jewelry and clothes and luxury trips. She’d been so proud to stand on her own two feet. So proud to show Maksim she wanted him, not his money.

      But money, it seemed, was all Maksim had ever wanted. Money. Revenge. Another billion or so dollars to pile on top of his fortune. She’d given him her virginity and her heart, but he’d only wanted money.

      Money…and Francesca.

CHAPTER NINE

      “SHE’S not here.”

      Maksim looked up to see Alan Barrington staring down at him from the doorway of his town house. It was dark and gray, past twilight on Christmas Eve.

      He’d been knocking on the door of Grace’s basement flat for the past five minutes without answer. He hadn’t expected to be so late. He’d promised he would take her to the airport for her late-night flight, but secretly he’d planned to talk her out of going home for Christmas. His private jet was waiting at a small nearby airport to whisk them away to the South of France.

      But he was fifteen minutes late. Only fifteen minutes—that was something of a miracle, given all the surprises today! The merger was nearly a done deal. Thanks to Francesca, it had fallen into his lap, and he’d have been a fool to refuse. But he’d left the meeting halfway through. His people could mop up the details.

      He wanted Grace.

      He’d called her as soon as he got out of the meeting but hadn’t been able to reach her. “Where is she?”

      Barrington glared at him. “Why would I tell you?”

      “Her phone was disconnected. Any idea why?”

      The man folded his arms. “The phone went with her job, which she lost this afternoon.”

      “After all her loyalty, you fired her so quickly?”

      “Loyalty? Some loyalty. Isn’t it enough you already took one woman from me? Now you want the other one?” Barrington turned his lips into a sneer. “I’m not her pimp.”

      In three leaping steps Maksim had run up the stairs and grabbed him by the throat. “Are you calling Grace a whore?”

      “Let me go!” the slender man croaked.

      Maksim released him with a growl. “Apologize.”

      “Oh, so now you’re her protector?” The blond man gasped, rubbing his neck. “You did this. You seduced and betrayed her. Not me.”

      “I never betrayed her,” Maksim said, even as that strange, unpleasant prickle snaked down his spine. Guilt?

      “Why bother denying it now?” Barrington snarled. “You’ve won. You’ve taken the merger. You’ve taken Francesca. You’ve gotten your payback—you’ve gotten rid of me for good. My shareholders have already issued a statement asking for my resignation.”

      “Good.” But at this moment, Maksim’s revenge didn’t feel very satisfying.

      “What do you care about some secretary?” Barrington looked at him with shrewd, beady eyes. “You have Francesca.”

      Right. Francesca.

      Maksim’s capricious ex-lover had shown up at his penthouse that morning, offering him Barrington’s head on a silver platter. “I’ve just told my father the truth,” she’d said, weeping artful tears from her lovely green eyes. “I never wanted Alan. It was you, Maksim, always you!”

      Maksim’s furious retort had been interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Francesca’s father had moved swiftly. He’d always preferred that his company accept the offer from Rostov Oil; only his daughter’s fake engagement had made him consider Cali-West. Within half a day the merger proceedings had been well started, although it would take another several weeks before they would be fully signed, sealed and delivered.

      Maksim had accepted the deal. But he’d chosen Grace. He’d never used the information she’d shared. He’d never betrayed her.

      But he realized now it’d worked out exactly the same as if he had.

      He clenched his fists. “Just tell me where she is.”

      “Flying to Los Angeles, I expect, with the plane ticket I bought her. I hope it crashes.” Barrington slammed the door.

      Coming down the steps from the Knightsbridge town house, Maksim dialed his private investigator to get her address. But that wasn’t all he discovered about her family’s situation.

      An hour later he was on his private jet en route to California.

      The little yellow cottage gleamed in the predawn darkness, a shining beacon on the cliff above the soft roar of the Pacific Ocean.

      Breathing heavily after her uphill walk, Grace crept back into her house, tiptoeing as she walked past the artificial Christmas tree decorated with ornaments from her childhood, gleaming with colored lights.

      “Gracie?” Her mother suddenly peeked around the kitchen door. “You’re awake early. I expected you to sleep in this morning.”

      Grace hid the small purchase she’d bought at the twenty-four-hour drugstore half a mile away. “Um. Jet lag. I couldn’t sleep, so I went on a walk.”

      “Oh, poor dear,” her mother said sympathetically, then brightened. “I’ll make you some coffee. Come chat while I baste the ham.”

      “I’ll be right there, Mom.” Grace tried to calm her rapidly beating heart as she went

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