Tempted by Scandal

by Karen Booth

  “You had a question?” she asked, perching on the back of the sofa.

  He took a deep breath. “Yes. But first I want to say that I like you, Teresa. I have launched some terrible accusations at you, and not always been on my best behavior and you weren’t afraid to stand up to me.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him, her blue eyes shifting to a darker shade. “I had to defend myself. And I couldn’t live with you believing those things about me.”

  “Absolutely. As it should be. But when you’re a man in my position, not many people challenge you. And I think I need that. So, thank you.” He swallowed hard. “And so I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in us staying together during the retreat at The Opulence. We’ll both be incredibly busy, but I think we both know we’ll have a hard time staying away from each other.”

  “I’ll definitely need to blow off some steam.”

  He took her hand and raised it to his lips. “Take it all out on me. Please.”

  She stood and led him over to the sofa, where they sat close. “I like you, too, Liam. A lot. You might be the most complex man I’ve ever met.”

  A breathy laugh escaped his lips. “That’s a good thing?”

  “It makes me want to dig past the layers to find the real you.”

  Liam’s fingers went to her jaw and her eyes met his. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.” He kissed her softly, relishing the way she nearly melted into him. It made him so eager for more time alone with her.

  From across the room, Liam heard someone clear their throat. He and Teresa quickly separated, both a bit startled. It was the chief steward, standing with his hands behind his back. “Mr. Christopher, I’m sorry to interrupt, but dinner will be served in an hour.”

  “Great. Thank you.”

  “I guess there’s no real privacy on a boat, huh?” Teresa asked, sitting back and sipping more of her champagne.

  “There will be. Later.” Liam glanced down at the coffee table and the thick envelope waiting for him. He hadn’t even peeked inside. Something had told him that it wasn’t a good idea to be alone when he read the documents, but Matt was leaving for New York this evening with Nadia, and Teresa had indeed been close to his dad. “I guess I’ll take this chance to take a look at my dad’s will. Get it over with. It won’t take long.”

  Teresa nodded eagerly. “Yes. Of course. Open it.”

  Liam sat back and opened the flap, pulling out the thick sheaf of papers. “Just a little light reading,” he joked.

  “Anything in particular you’re looking for?”

  He began flipping through the pages. “No. Not really. My dad and I discussed it the day he told me he was sick. So I think I know pretty much everything. Of course, I have to make sure it’s all in order.”

  “Of course. A lot of money on the line.”

  “And the company.” Liam leaned forward and took another drink, then went back to reading. “I hope I’m not boring you with this.”

  Teresa reached out and rubbed his shoulder affectionately. “It’s not boring to me. This is your future. And your past. I’m honored to be a part of it. It makes me feel good to know you wanted to include me.”

  Liam began looking through the personal assets. The vacation house in Bali. His father’s yacht, which was moored in the Cayman Islands. The winery and villa in Tuscany. “There’s a lot of property on this list. I’m going to need to hire someone just to deal with all of it.”

  Teresa’s eyes lit up. “Ooh. Like what?”

  Liam’s sights returned to the document. “Mountain house in Switzerland? How does that strike you?”

  She patted his leg. “Sounds lovely. Now which way to the ladies’ room?” She got up from her seat and Liam pointed her in the direction the steward had taken.

  “Right back there. First door on the right.”

  “Perfect. I’ll be right back.”

  Liam’s phone beeped with a text and he pulled it out of his pocket. It was from Matt, a photo of Nadia and him on Matt’s jet. Just like he and Teresa, they were toasting with champagne. The message read:

  On our way to the Big Apple. See you in two days.

  Liam couldn’t help but smile at his phone. It felt so damn good to know that Matt had found happiness. True love, no less. Could Liam have that ahead? Was it possible? One step at a time, of course, but it was hard not to think he was on the right track with Teresa.

  He tapped out a reply to Matt.

  Have fun. Love you guys.

  Liam returned to his reading and the long list of personal effects. His father or his lawyer had been very thorough. There were pages and pages of watches and cars and plots of land all over the world. Impatient, Liam flipped ahead to the sections about the business. He just wanted to make sure that everything was in order, that he’d explained the succession plan accurately and that there were no surprises. The stability of the company, especially in light of the passing of its founder and CEO, was of paramount importance.

  But when he reached the section where it was supposed to say that one hundred percent of his father’s personal stake of the company went to Liam, there was a single detail he had never, ever imagined. Something that made it feel like his heart had not only stopped, but that it might also not ever beat again.

  75% of personal stake in Christopher Corporation to Liam Christopher

  And...

  25% of personal stake in Christopher Corporation to Teresa St. Claire

  Teresa returned from the bathroom, looking refreshed. “What’d I miss?”

  Liam felt sick. Truly, truly sick. Everything that had been so perfect a few seconds ago had just gone up in smoke. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before saying what he had to say. “I can’t believe you lied to me.”

  * * *

  How will Liam and Teresa deal with his father’s

  betrayal? Is Joshua really on the hook for millions? What happens when a storm rocks the resort?

  Don’t miss a single episode in the

  Dynasties: Secrets of the A-List quartet!

  Book One

  Tempted by Scandal by Karen Booth

  Book Two

  Taken by Storm by Cat Schield

  Available June 2019

  Book Three

  Seduced by Second Chances by Reese Ryan

  Available July 2019

  Book Four

  Redeemed by Passion by Joss Wood

  Available August 2019

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A Contract Seduction by Janice Maynard.

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  A Contract Seduction

  by Janice Maynard

  One

  Tumor. Inoperable. Cancer.

  Jonathan Tarleton gripped the steering wheel, white knuckled, and stared unseeingly through the windshield. The traffic on the 526 beltway that surrounded Charleston was light in the middle of the day. Even so, he probably shouldn’t be driving. He was undoubtedly in shock. But all he could think about was going home.

  Like an injured animal seeking its den, he needed to go to ground. To hide. To come to grips with the unimaginable.

  Thank God, his sister was recently married and living with her new husband, Jonathan’s best friend. If Jonathan had come face-to-face with Mazie at the big house out at the beach, his sibling would have known instantly that something was wrong. The two of them were close.

  Under ordinary circumstances, neither Jonathan nor Mazie would still be living under the roof where they had grown up. But their father was all alone and getting more and more feeble day by day. Though a number of the old man’s friends had moved to communities where they had companionship and medical care close at hand, Gerald Tarleton clung to his fortress of a home on a barrier island.

  Jonathan pulled into the under-house parking and rested his forehead on his hands. He felt weak and scared and angry. How the hell was this going to work? He was the sole force that directed the family shipping company. Even though his father’s name was still on the letterhead, Jonathan carried the weight of the entire enterprise.

  His twin brother should have been here to help, but Hartley was nowhere to be found. After inexplicably stealing a million dollars from the company and then vanishing, Hartley had been written out of the will and out of their lives.

  The betrayal had cut Jonathan to the bone. It was a secret hurt that ate at him like the disease in his body. He and his father were the only ones who knew what had happened. They hadn’t wanted to break Mazie’s heart or tarnish her image of her big brother.

  With a shaking hand, Jonathan turned off the ignition. Instantly—now that the AC was unavailable—humidity began to filter into the vehicle. Jonathan was a South Carolina lowlander to the bone, but the summer heat could be brutal.

  He gathered his things and headed upstairs. Because of security concerns, the Tarletons had two high-tech offices inside the house in addition to those at Tarleton Shipping headquarters. Not only did the arrangement ensure privacy when necessary, but it meant that Jonathan could keep tabs on his father. The situation sometimes cramped his style, but he had a condo in the city where he could escape on occasion.

  For a man of thirty-one, almost thirty-two, his social life was a joke. He dated occasionally, but few women understood the demands he juggled. His family’s decades-old shipping empire was both his great privilege and his curse. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt close to any woman, physically or otherwise.

  But he made the sacrifices willingly. He was proud of what the Tarletons had built here in Charleston. Proud, and absolutely determined to see it thrive.

  He paused for a moment in the living room to stare out through the expansive plate-glass windows to the ocean glittering beneath a June sun. The view never failed to soothe him. Until today.

  Now, the immensity and timelessness of the sea mocked him. Humans were little more than specks in the cosmos. Grains of sand on the immense sandy beach of the infinite universe.

  All the old clichés were true. Facing one’s mortality turned everything upside down. Time, that nebulous resource that once seemed a cheap commodity, was suddenly more precious than anything he had ever stored in a bank vault.

  How long did he have? The doctor said six months. Maybe more. Maybe less. How was Jonathan going to tell his sister? His father? What would happen to the company, his family’s legacy? Mazie had her own interests, her own life.

  She would be the sole owner of the family business once Jonathan and Gerald were gone. Since she had never shown any signs that she was interested in being a hands-on partner in Tarleton Shipping, maybe she would sell. Perhaps that would be for the best. The end to an era.

  The thought pained him more than he could say. Until today he hadn’t realized exactly how much he was emotionally invested in the company. It wasn’t merely a job to him. It was his birthright and a symbol of his family’s place in Charleston’s history.

  Moments later, he found Gerald Tarleton dozing in a chair in the den. Jonathan didn’t wake his father. He felt raw and out of control. And his head hurt like hell.

  The debilitating headaches had started almost a year ago. At first they were infrequent. Then the episodes increased. One doctor said it was stress. Another wrote it off as migraines.

  A dozen medications had been tried and discarded. Today his doctor had given him a handful of sample pills, along with a prescription for more. Right now Jonathan could take one, climb into bed and hopefully sleep off the throbbing pain.

  But that wouldn’t solve the bigger problems.

  The prospect of drugged oblivion was almost irresistible. He didn’t want to face another minute of this wretched day. But when he reached the kitchen, he grabbed a tumbler, filled it with tap water and downed a couple of over-the-counter acetaminophen tablets.

  He had responsibilities. Responsibilities that weren’t going anywhere. The only thing that had changed was the time line.

  Jonathan always thrived under pressure. Give him a project, a deadline, and he would leap into motion. The adrenaline rush of achieving the impossible drove him to labor, to excel, to work harder than he had to.

  Those traits would stand him in good stead for the next few months.

  Grimly he leaned his hip against the marble countertop. In that instant, he made his first postdiagnosis decision. He would keep this news under wraps for now. There was no reason for his family and friends to be upset. To grieve. There would be plenty of time for that when he was gone. Right now, all he wanted was to preserve the status quo.

  The first order of business was to make a plan. He would figure this out. Vague, desperate ideas flitted through his brain, each one more flawed or untenable than the last. There had to be an answer. He couldn’t simply walk off into that final great sunset and let everything sink into ruin.

  He needed time to process, to come to terms with the sword of Damocles hanging over his head. His money and power and influence were worthless currency now. He couldn’t buy his way out of this...

  * * *

  Lisette Stanhope punched in the alarm code, waited for the large gates to slide back and then drove slowly onto the Tarleton property. Even after working with Jonathan Tarleton for six years, she never failed to appreciate the magnificence of his family home.

  Tarletons had lived for decades on the tip of a small barrier island just north of the city. Their fifteen acres were more than enough for the compound that included the main house and several smaller buildings scattered around.

  An imposing gated iron fence protected the enclave on land. Water access was impossible due to a high brick wall at the top of the sand. The beach itself was public property, but no one could wander onto Tarleton property, either out of curiosity or with dangerous motives. Hurricanes and erosion made the wall outrageously expensive to maintain, but the current Tarleton patriarch was by nature paranoid and suspicious, so security was a constant concern.

  When she saw Jonathan’s car parked beneath the house, her heart sank. He was usually not home this time of day. She’d been hoping to slip in, say hello to Gerald and put the envelope in her purse on Jonathan’s desk.

  She could have carried out her errand at the main office where she worked most of the time, but this particular scenario demanded privacy. The decision to turn in her resignation ha
d her stomach in knots. Jonathan would be either furious or perplexed—or both.

  After reading her brief note, he would demand an explanation. Naturally. She had been practicing her speech. In a rut. New challenges. More time to travel. When she said the words in front of her bathroom mirror, they almost seemed believable. The part that made her wince was acknowledging how good Jonathan and his family had been to her.

  Lisette’s mother had suffered a debilitating stroke when Lisette was in grad school. For almost seven years, Lisette had worked two jobs and barely managed to keep food on the table and pay the stable of women who helped care for her mother’s considerable needs.

  Being hired by Tarleton Shipping six years ago had literally changed her life. The generous salary and benefits package had relieved her financial worries to a great extent and had enabled her to spend quality time with her mother.

  When her mom had a second stroke and passed away last fall, Jonathan had insisted that Lisette take ample time to mourn and to handle her mother’s affairs. Not many other bosses in a corporate setting would have been so generous.

  And now Lisette was about to repay Jonathan’s immense consideration by abandoning the company...by abandoning her boss.

  He wouldn’t see this coming, but it was her only choice.

  She wanted marriage—a husband and a baby and a normal, ordinary life. Mooning over her boss for another year or two or five was never going to bring those dreams to fruition. She’d had a silly crush on Jonathan, but he’d never once given any indication that he felt the same. She needed a fresh start, a new setting, a chance to meet another man and get Jonathan out of her system once and for all. Her personal life had been on hold for so long she barely knew how to begin, but she knew instinctively that she had to move on.

  Her heart slugged in her chest. She didn’t want to face him. Guilt and other messier emotions might derail her plan.

  When she opened the door at the top of the stairs, again with a code punched in, she stepped into a house that echoed with quiet. Maybe Jonathan wasn’t here after all. Maybe a friend had picked him up. Or maybe he was with Mazie and J.B. The newlyweds loved entertaining.