The Tycoon's Seduction Plan

by Elizabeth Lennox

  She was becoming frustrated with her progress at house hunting but, since Victor didn’t seem to mind her staying, she accepted the current arrangement. But still searched for something better. The progress on her book was much better. With the quiet of his penthouse, as well as all the wonderful amenities, she was working through the details quickly, loving the way the plot was unfolding. Victor even told her to use his office during the day.

  She was stunned when his housekeeper answered the door one afternoon and a team of delivery people paraded through the rooms. Within an hour, her own office was set up in the room right next to his complete with a beautiful, delicate desk, lovely, colorful carpets, even a set of overstuffed chairs and ottoman so she could snuggle down in their softness while editing. She couldn’t believe Victor’s thoughtfulness. When he came home that night, she’d made a delicious, but simple dinner for him, complete with his favorite dessert of tiramisu.

  “Thank you for the office,” she said as soon as he walked into the penthouse. She was holding a dry martini for him and a lemon drop martini for herself, a concoction he’d introduced her to and she’d loved immediately. Reaching up, she pressed a soft kiss on his jaw. But he pulled her closer, accepting the martini with one hand and wrapping the other around her waist.

  “Do you like the furniture?” he asked, deepening the kiss before pulling away to look into her eyes so he could see if she was just being nice.

  “I love it. I’ve never worked at anything so beautiful.”

  “Is it romantic enough for you?” he smiled, his eyes looking at her soft lips and soulful eyes that were so expressive.

  “Very. I cooked dinner for you,” she said. She loved the surprise in his eyes. “Yes, I cook. Nothing like your housekeeper can do but I hope you like it.”

  Victor was touched. No woman had ever cooked for him before, most of them needling him to take them out for dinner to the latest must-be-seen-in restaurant. But Lana wasn’t like them, he knew. She didn’t look for ways to get his money. She seemed to just like being with him.

  “I’m sure it will be delicious.”

  Lana smiled and led him through the massive rooms to the dining room. There were chairs for twenty people at the table but she’d covered only one end with a white linen cloth and set out place settings for them together. “Have a seat and I’ll get dinner ready. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  She walked into the kitchen and wasn’t surprised to see him follow her. He talked while she finished the meal, tossing the salad and fixing the steaks in the broiler. The evening was a wonderful success. They talked, laughed, discussed the latest politics and relaxed while sipping wine. And when Victor pulled her into his lap, she happily complied, eager for his touch and his kisses.

  Chapter 8

  Lana closed her computer and sighed happily. Looking at the finished manuscript, she ran a hand lovingly over the papers. This was truly one of her best efforts. The book was perfect, the characters more intense and the plot much better than she ever could have come up with before meeting Victor. And there was sex. Great sex.

  She bit her lower lip, not liking the fact that several of the love scenes were written about the scenes she and Victor had actually done together. She hated the idea that others would see into her personal life. Did she want others to read all the things she’d done with Victor? Oh, the scenes were different and there were slight variations but overall, the sex was theirs.

  She hesitated once again. She should rewrite the scenes, make them a little less personal.

  Her cell phone rang and she grimaced when she saw who the caller was. “Hi, Nancy,” she sighed as she answered the call. “Yes, the book is ready.” She listened for a long moment. “I know. The deadline is this afternoon. I’m on my way to deliver it now.”

  She spoke the words that would seal the deal. She closed her phone and picked up both the hard copy as well as the electronic version on CD. She’d have to hurry or she’d withdraw the book from publication. She couldn’t hesitate. She needed the money and she couldn’t live off of Victor’s generosity forever. She had to make it on her own, knowing that they would break up sooner or later. She’d been with him for longer than she’d ever thought possible.

  It was starting to snow when she stepped out of the building and Jimmy was waiting for her with the car. “To Lincoln Publishing,” she said and ducked into the back of the car.

  Once inside Nancy’s office, she waited while Nancy was in a staff meeting.

  “Goodness,” Nancy said, breezing into the small office. “I can’t believe all the changes that are happening around here. The only saving grace is that our new owner is one of the hottest men I’ve ever met in my life.” She sat down at her desk and smiled at Lana. “In fact, he looks like the guy in your latest novel, I’d say but I know that’s impossible.” Nancy laughed at her outrageous comment. “So you’ve got it for me?”

  Lana bit her lower lip, hesitating once again. “I have it,” she confirmed but didn’t hand over either the hard copy or the electronic version.

  Nancy glanced down at Lana’s lap. “Okay…can I have it?” she said with a teasing tone of voice.

  Lana desperately wanted to hold back, knowing this would be published, that everyone would read it and see into her personal love life. And there was no way she could get around the fact that it really was her love life. She was madly in love with Victor.

  But she was a romance writer, she told herself. She’d always used her experiences for her novels. This was no different, she tried to convince herself. The intimate details of her love life were just as relevant for her stories as buying a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, as long as everything pushed the plot along.

  “Yes,” Lana said decisively and handed over both versions to her editor.

  Nancy brightened, taking the manuscripts with relief. “Good! I thought something was holding you back. I can’t wait to get this set up. And read the last few chapters,” she said with laughter in her voice.

  Lana looked away. Glancing outside Nancy’s office, clasping her hands in her lap to keep them from reaching for the pages back. It was then that she felt the electricity sweep through her body. The feeling was exactly the way she felt each time Victor entered a room and she looked around, confused.

  Then she saw him. “Victor?” she whispered, looking towards the conference room where a group of men and women were talking with Victor who was patiently answering their questions as he walked down the hallway.

  Nancy heard her and looked down the hallway. “Yep. That’s the man in the flesh, so to speak,” she laughed. “That’s Victor Davenport, our new owner. He’s the man responsible for all the changes around here.”

  Lana felt as if her world was starting to spin out of control. Victor was the publisher? No, that wasn’t right. He owned the publishing company though. That made more sense. But how could she have missed that? And why hadn’t he told her?

  His eyes locked with hers and she saw the smile form on his face. The look he gave her froze her insides and she looked away. In that same instant, her eyes fell on the manuscript still in Nancy’s arms. The book!

  Her eyes moved from the manuscript back to Victor and all the pieces fell into place. He was the new owner of the publishing company. And he wanted more sex in the books. She was one of the writers, hence he’d do anything to increase sales. Including showing a poor, dumb writer how to add a little sex to the mix.

  Lana finally understood, all the lessons, all the sweet gifts. They were all ways he could increase the sales of his books. It wasn’t about her and forming a relationship with Lana. To Victor, it was all about the bottom line.

  The shock must have shown on her face because Victor’s expression mirrored the horror she was feeling inside. He took a step toward her and she took a step back, unable to get close to him under the circumstances.

  She finally tore her gaze away from him and looked around, her eyes frantically searching for an escape. She had to get away, she
had to hide and think. Rushing out of Nancy’s office, she tore down the hallway, ignoring the surprised and indignant expressions on the other people in the office as she brushed by them, desperately trying to make it to the elevator before she broke down in tears.

  She couldn’t think of anything except getting away from him. Lana knew that, if he caught up with her, he’d pull her into his arms and he’d make her feel better. If there was anything about Victor she could count on it was his ability to spin situations in his favor.

  She jammed her finger to the elevator call button but at the same moment, she heard him call her name with his deep, hypnotic voice. She abandoned the elevator and slipped into the stairwell, taking a long, deep breath in an effort to silence her betrayed heart. Her whole body was starting to shake with the pain of his betrayal and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle the situation right now.

  Getting away was all she could think of at this moment. She couldn’t let him talk his way out of this and slide everything so it would work to his benefit once again. She couldn’t allow that. She knew what was happening and she didn’t want to hear him spin this away.

  She rushed down the stairs, her heart racing and her breathing frantic in the effort. She burst out of the building and looked at the beautiful winter’s day. She wasn’t sure how it could be so wonderful when her entire world had just crumbled around her feet.

  Lifting her arm, she numbly hailed a cab, ignoring Jimmy’s surprised expression as he stepped out of the car.

  “Ma’am?” he called out, starting to walk toward her but Lana shook her head.

  “I have to go, Jimmy. Thank you!” Without another word, she ducked into the back seat of the cab. “Just go,” she almost yelled to the cab driver, terrified that Victor would emerge from the building at any moment. She watched the front doors and sure enough, a moment later, she saw him explode from the building, his eyes searching the sidewalk traffic for her. Jimmy called out, his arm indicating her direction and Victor’s jaw hardened as he nodded to Jimmy.

  The cab turned the corner at that moment so she didn’t see if he was able to catch up with her and she sighed in relief, turning to face forward in the cab. She let the tears fall now that she was finally alone.

  “Where to, lady?” the cab driver asked, somewhat politely since he noticed her distraught expression.

  Lana tried to concentrate. She looked out of the window and tried to get her bearings. She was in the middle of New York but wasn’t very familiar with the specific street. “Um…could you just take me to a decent hotel?” she asked, unsure of where she would go from here. All she knew was that she needed time to figure things out and decide how she was going to take the next step. And even what the next step would be.

  The hotel the cab driver dropped her off at was fine but was one of those non-descript places that wouldn’t stick out in her mind. The décor was mostly grays and mauves but nothing that would differentiate it from any of the other mid-level hotels she’d been in during her childhood.

  As soon as she was able to close the door behind herself, she fell onto the bed, her body wracked with tears of shame and humiliation. How could she have been so gullible as to think someone as handsome and dynamic as Victor would be interested in a nobody like her? She wasn’t his type. She wasn’t sure about the kinds of women he’d been with in the past but imagined they were all super glamorous and ultra chic. She hadn’t even been able to kiss properly before meeting him.

  And he was wealthy. That had been obvious from the start so why had she ignored that little detail? She’d even been to his office and knew the kind of power he wielded. She’d had the forethought to take her computer and thankfully the hotel had high speed internet.

  She had difficulty logging on since her eyes kept blurring with tears. But she finally got her computer hooked up and running and the internet connection was definitely fast. Too fast, she thought as she pulled up a search on Victor Davenport. What she found genuinely scared her. Victor was more than wealthy. He was a billionaire that owned what seemed like half of London and large chunks of many other cities not to mention a slew of companies under his holding company. There were articles with him meeting with the Prime Ministers of various European countries, monarchs, even the American president.

  Good grief, she thought as she switched from the business articles to the gossip columns. What she read here only confirmed what she’d been thinking earlier. She wasn’t anything like these women. They were stunningly gorgeous and all of them looked so confident and secure as they posed for pictures on Victor’s arms, smiling for the cameras as if they had been born into the life, and they probably had been.

  There were supermodels, actresses, many of whom she’d seen at the cinema. At the time, she’d genuinely respected their talent. Now, seeing them on her computer, draped against the man she’d thought she was in love with, she now hated them beyond anything she’d considered having the capacity to hate.

  Shutting down the computer, she laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How was she going to survive? She had no idea and simply rolled onto her side, letting the sadness take over, unable to fight the feelings any longer.

  Two days later, she knew she’d have to get up and do something about her situation. She hadn’t left the hotel room for anything, not even food and now she was starting to feel the effects of her hunger. As she showered, she knew she was going to have to pull herself together. She didn’t bother to look into the mirror, afraid of what she would see.

  Instead, she pulled on the clothes she’d been wearing for the past two days, packed up her computer and purse and left the room. She looked like hell but didn’t care. Victor had betrayed her and the hurt she was feeling was so much more horrible than what she’d gone through with Drew. She now understood that she had been dependent on Drew. It hadn’t been love but merely an existence with him. Victor she loved with all her heart and soul. And his betrayal had left a hole inside of her that was so much deeper than anything she had thought could exist in the world.

  Knowing she had some tough decisions, she checked out of the hotel and stood on the sidewalk. Apartment, she thought instantly. She had to find a place to live. She couldn’t go back to Victor’s place. And her old apartment had been vacated. So her first objective was to find a roof over her head. Knowing she was homeless at this particular point in time, she smiled to the doorman and asked him to catch her a cab. Moments later, she was in the back of a cab, giving him directions to one of the places she’d shown to Victor. It was within her budget and had been the one place he hadn’t had any strong objections to. The security was good and the apartment layout interesting. Arriving at the rental office, she was grateful that the agent she’d spoken to before was still available, as was the apartment she’d been looking at. She signed the paperwork that afternoon and was given keys.

  Standing in the empty apartment later that afternoon, she had to fight down the desire to sink into the carpet once again and let the pain take over. She would not allow Victor the joy of breaking her. He’d gotten his profit in her book and she wasn’t going to give him anything else. She knew the book would sell well because it was her greatest so far.

  Lana gritted her teeth at the memory of how she’d been so conflicted about allowing Nancy to publish such intimate details of her and Victor’s relationship. And all that time, Victor had been re-inventing her so he could make a profit on her writing skills. The man was a genius, she’d give him that. Anything for profit.

  How could she be so gullible? How could she have thought that Victor had cared for her? She’d been so blind!

  But now that was all in the past, she told herself firmly, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. “Food,” she said to the empty apartment, ignoring the echoes since her words had nothing to stop the vibrations.

  She went back to the rental office and asked directions to the nearest grocery store. They told her it was only two blocks to the right and Lana enjoyed the fresh ai
r as she made her way down the street. And each time she started thinking about Victor, she pushed him from her thoughts. Fresh fruit, lean chicken, cereal and milk was about all she could endure purchasing on her first outing. She walked back to her new apartment and unloaded the groceries into the pristine refrigerator and pulled out the chicken. Then put it back. She didn’t have anything to cook it with. She took out the fruit instead and munched on the apple, accepting that she’d have to go out once again.

  She needed a change of clothes as well. She’d been in the same outfit for three days and it was starting to wear thin. She thought about her wardrobe back in Victor’s penthouse but shook her head. She’d never ask him for anything again, not even her clothes. Eventually, she’d have to get her furniture out of storage but she wasn’t even sure where that was since she’d let Victor take care of all those details, happy enough to go along with him in ignorant bliss.

  Well, this is the price she’d have to pay for that head-in-the-sand approach. She walked the opposite direction toward the stores she knew about and chose several pairs of slacks, shirts and underwear, avoiding all the sexy lingerie she’d been wearing for the past several months while with Victor and reverting back to her plain, cotton underwear. It was good enough, she told herself. She wouldn’t be allowing any other views of this underwear, she told herself as she walked back to her apartment, clothes and a few kitchen items under her arm. She should take a cab but she wasn’t sure what her financial situation was at the moment.