by Cat Schield
Will she reap the benefits of betrayal...
with a man impossible to resist?
Reeling from a bad divorce, Zoe Alston makes a pact with two women similarly scorned. Her mission: take down gorgeous businessman Ryan Dailey by sabotaging his sister’s political campaign. The problem: the white-hot chemistry sizzling between them. Now she’s caught between her promise and the man who’s bringing her back to life. How far will she go for revenge...or love?
“I can tell you exactly how to avoid any trouble with me...”
Zoe set one hand on her hip. “You can walk right out of here and never bother me again.”
Ryan’s instincts warned him that he should do as she suggested and never see her again. But his blood pulsed hot and fast through his veins, setting his entire body alight.
Indulging his desire for her would be madness.
“You’re right when you say it would be better if I left and never came back,” he said, cursing the insistent thrum of hunger that made him reach out and snag her waist, drawing her toward him. “But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to do this.”
Ryan wrapped his arm a little tighter about her, drawing her slim curves more firmly into contact with his unyielding planes, and, to his delight, her lips parted on a soft moan. This was his cue and he dipped his head, sealing his lips to hers.
Time didn’t just slow. It stopped. Her lips parted on a luxurious sigh, granting him access to her sweet mouth while her body molded to his.
Rushing this first kiss would be a crime. Instead, he intended to savor every slow, sexy second of it...
* * *
Revenge with Benefits is part of the Sweet Tea and Scandal series from Cat Schield.
Dear Reader,
It’s always bittersweet when I finish the last book in a series, especially when I love the characters. But while Revenge with Benefits is the final book in my Sweet Tea and Scandal trilogy, there are lots of scandalous Charleston stories that need to be told.
Revenge with Benefits is my twenty-fifth Harlequin Desire. As I look back on all the books I’ve written, I can’t believe how fast the time has gone and what an amazing journey it has been bringing the stories of my heart to readers around the world. Thank you for being there with me through all the romantic ups and downs as my characters find their happily-ever-afters.
Happy reading,
Cat Schield
REVENGE WITH BENEFITS
Cat Schield
www.millsandboon.com.au
CAT SCHIELD has been reading and writing romance since high school. Although she graduated from college with a BA in business, her idea of a perfect career was writing books for Harlequin. And now, after winning the Romance Writers of America 2010 Golden Heart® Award for Best Contemporary Series Romance, that dream has come true. Cat lives in Minnesota with her daughter, Emily, and their Burmese cat. When she’s not writing sexy, romantic stories for Harlequin Desire, she can be found sailing with friends on the St. Croix River, or in more exotic locales, like the Caribbean and Europe. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at catschield.net and follow her on Twitter, @catschield.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Excerpt from A Convenient Scandal by Kimberley Troutte
Prologue
While the keynote speaker for the Beautiful Women Taking Charge event droned on, Everly Briggs contemplated Zoe Crosby and recognized the former Charleston, South Carolina trophy wife was the weak link in her plan.
Before the networking function Everly had researched the attendees and settled on two women recently wronged by the men in their lives. Over cocktails, Everly had chatted up both women, sharing her own tale of how her sister had been wronged by wealthy entrepreneur Ryan Dailey. In addition to Zoe Crosby, she’d encouraged London McCaffrey to pour out her heartbreak after Linc Thurston broke off their engagement.
“We’ve each been the victim of a wealthy, powerful man,” Everly said, thinking that was most true of Zoe. Her ex-husband had hired Charleston’s most ruthless divorce attorney and rumor had it that Zoe’s settlement was going to be eaten up by her lawyer’s fees. “Don’t you think it’s time we get a little payback?”
“Anything we try would only end up making things worse for us,” Zoe said, her hesitation grating on Everly’s nerves.
Up until this moment, Zoe Crosby had been listening and nodding sympathetically. Before meeting her, Everly figured if anyone would want to take down a powerful man it would be a wife who’d been cheated on by one, then cast aside and forced to defend her honor in divorce court.
Instead, Everly was starting to understand why Tristan Crosby had treated his wife with such disdain. The woman was too soft, too passive. She lacked fire and purpose. Well, Everly would just have to stir up the socialite’s indignation over how she’d been treated and drive Zoe into the revenge scheme.
“Not if we go after each other’s men,” Everly explained, gratified to see London McCaffrey nodding in understanding. Zoe still looked worried, so Everly continued to lay out her plan. “Think about it,” she said, fighting to keep impatience out of her voice. “We’re strangers at a cocktail party. Who would ever connect us? I go after Linc. London goes after Tristan and, Zoe, you go after Ryan.”
“When you say ‘go after,’” Zoe said cautiously, “what do you have in mind?”
Everly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. From the first she’d suspected Zoe would be too timid to make a good revenge partner, but at least the socialite could be manipulated into doing as Everly wanted.
“In Ryan’s case, his sister is running for state senate,” Everly said, deciding she’d better monitor Zoe’s part of the plan to make sure Ryan Dailey paid dearly for putting her sister in jail.
After all, he was responsible for breaking Kelly’s heart and driving her to act out against his firm by deleting millions of dollars worth of engineering drawings. If he hadn’t led her sister on, Everly was convinced Kelly never would’ve snapped like that.
Zoe’s frown deepened at Everly’s suggestion that she go after Ryan indirectly. “I thought we were supposed to be going after the men. I don’t feel comfortable.”
“Since Ryan destroyed my sister’s life,” Everly explained with elaborate patience even as her irritation reached a boiling point, “it only seems fair that we ruin his sister’s chances at being elected.” Her pause was too brief to give Zoe a chance to argue further. “Getting at Ryan through his sister is the best way to go. Okay?”
Zoe’s abbreviated nod didn’t fill Everly with confidence. Well, if the socialite couldn’t do what needed to be done, Everly would just have to take care of things herself.
One
Fingers biting into the armrest of the hair salon’s cheap vinyl chair, Zoe Crosby—Alston, she reminded herself yet again—stared at her reflection. As of today it was official. Forevermore she would check the divorced box on every survey form or application that asked her marital status. Even though for the last year she’d told herself it wasn’t her fault, the shame of failure sent heat rushing over her skin, leaving her feeling sweaty and miserable.
“Are you sure about this?” the stylist asked, her face screwed into doubtful lines. Penny
raked her fingers through Zoe’s long, silky hair. “Your hair is so gorgeous. The caramel color with the paler blond streaks. Are you sure you don’t want me to take an inch off and call it good?”
Zoe set her jaw and shook her head. “No. I want you to shave it all off.”
The stylist looked even more pained, if that was possible. “It’s none of my business, and you are beautiful enough to wear your hair whatever length you want, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t talk you out of doing something that radical.”
Tristan had been very particular about her hair. He’d wanted it to end exactly at her nipples, deeming it the perfect length. She was not allowed to have bangs or layers. Just a silky, straight curtain with blunt ends. She hadn’t been allowed to curl it or to put it up when he’d been around. It was just one of the many ways he’d controlled her.
Zoe sighed, her courage deflating. She’d marched into the hair salon after deciding to shave her head as a middle finger salute to her ex. Tristan couldn’t control her anymore and that was empowering, but maybe getting rid of all her hair was a bit extreme. Still, she needed to do something to mark the day that she was utterly and joyfully free of Tristan Crosby. Her gaze swept the photos of women modeling various haircuts lining the walls, snagging on one in particular.
“What about that?” She pointed to a brunette sporting a short, spiky cut. “Only I’d like to go platinum blond.”
The stylist looked relieved. “With your bone structure, that look would be fantastic on you.”
“Do it.”
An hour and a half later Zoe regarded her reflection and didn’t recognize herself. Gone was the traditional wife of a successful Charleston businessman with her sweater sets and pretty floral dresses. In her place was an edgy replacement in a graphic T-shirt and torn black jeans. Zoe shivered as she raked her fingers through her new do.
Tristan would hate her dramatic transformation.
But then dismay flooded her. When would she stop running all her decisions through the filter of pleasing her ex-husband? All the more reason to make the change. She needed to think about what made her happy.
Plus, she had another reason for altering her appearance.
With step one of her transformation complete, Zoe exited the salon and popped into a drugstore to purchase lipstick and an eye shadow kit in smoky shades that Tristan Crosby’s ex-wife would never have been allowed to wear. In the parking lot, she sat in her car and applied the makeup.
Drawing confidence from her new look, Zoe put her car in gear and headed to the campaign headquarters for Susannah Dailey-Kirby’s state senate race. She intended to volunteer for the campaign, making herself indispensable and gathering as much dirt as she could to take down Ryan Dailey’s twin.
Everly had suggested the strategy to get back at him for Everly’s sister, Kelly.
At the time Zoe had been happy for the input. She’d had absolutely no idea how one went about seeking revenge. Her time married to Tristan had been all about surviving his psychological battery, leaving her little energy for schemes or the gumption to carry them out.
Yet that wasn’t completely true. As a safety net, she’d managed to siphon off tens of thousands of dollars from her allowance during her marriage. Having grown up not exactly poor but with a family that lived paycheck to paycheck, she’d liked the idea of financial independence that ready access to the secret stash offered her.
She should have realized Tristan would view any attempt at self-sufficiency as a threat to his power. When he’d found out, he’d reclaimed her stash and monitored her spending more closely. But instead of intimidating her, his actions had made her more determined, and less trusting of her so-called friends and allies.
The crushing loneliness of being married to Tristan was almost as bad as the emotional and psychological abuse he’d heaped on her. Maybe she shouldn’t have let Tristan convince her to quit college after her junior year. But she’d chosen to plan an elaborate wedding instead of finishing her degree. Floating down the aisle mere months before her twenty-first birthday, she’d actually believed the rest of her life would be like a fairy tale. And in some ways it had. Only she hadn’t been the lucky princess rescued by Prince Charming. Tristan had turned out to be more like the evil king who overtaxed the peasants and punished his subjects whenever the mood struck him.
She’d had no real friends, as was glaringly obvious in the wake of her separation from Tristan and subsequent divorce. No one had stepped up to support or to help her. She’d become a pariah in their tight social circles as Tristan had leaked false stories of her infidelity. No one had cared or believed her when she’d denied the allegations. It was one thing if a man strayed, but unseemly for a Southern woman.
Zoe came out of her reverie as she neared North Charleston. Susannah Dailey-Kirby’s campaign headquarters wasn’t far from the humane society where Zoe volunteered once a week, loving the time she got to spend with the animals. She’d grown up with dogs and cats, but Tristan had refused to allow her to have a pet.
After parking her car in the strip mall parking lot, Zoe strode along the sidewalk in the direction of the campaign’s storefront. For the last week or so she’d been sitting at the fast-food franchise across the street, contemplating the comings and goings of the staff and gathering courage to make her approach. In the weeks since she’d agreed to the revenge bargain, her enthusiasm for the project had waned.
But she’d made a promise and staying true to her commitments was an intrinsic element of her personality she couldn’t just set aside. She couldn’t help it, even when that trait had kept her in a bad marriage past all self-preservation. She’d meant it when she’d stood before family and friends and pledged to love, honor and cherish Tristan until death. That he’d done everything to destroy her good intentions hadn’t lessened her dedication to her vows. No doubt she’d still be married and miserable if he hadn’t decided to cast her aside.
Some days it was hard for her to distinguish whether the brunt of her anger over the failure of her marriage was directed at Tristan or herself. The rational part of her mind blamed Tristan’s unreasonable expectations, but her emotions turned the fault on her shortcomings.
Approaching the campaign headquarters, Zoe took a deep breath and held it while she pushed all doubts and worries out of her mind. She needed to focus on the task at hand or everything would be lost.
She’d decided to keep her backstory vague, because she didn’t want to talk about her ex-husband or the messy divorce he’d put her through. She was restarting her life as Zoe Alston and that opened up a whole range of possibilities. But first she had to see her commitment through.
Gathering a deep breath for courage, Zoe pushed through the front door, expecting the campaign office to be buzzing despite the election being a year off. But the space she entered was static and tense, as if she’d burst onto the scene of a tragedy.
A tiny bell had rung as she’d entered, but no one had noticed. The same chime sounded now as the door swung shut behind her. The campaign staff remained focused on a large TV. Feeling like an intruder, she advanced two steps into the room and then hesitated, unsure if she should continue or retreat. She’d obviously stumbled into something dire.
Four people stood in a semicircle surrounding a tall, slender man with thick, neatly combed gray hair. Phones rang at several desks but no one paid them any heed. In fact, the staffers’ only reaction was to dial the TV volume up.
Zoe shifted her focus from the campaign workers to the news footage that held their attention. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that someone new had entered the race and apparently this was very bad indeed. Realizing this was not a good time for her to approach the campaign team about volunteering, she started to pivot back the way she’d come and promptly collided with someone.
Like the campaign staff, she’d been so focused on the television coverage she hadn’t no
ticed the tinkling bell. Now, however, as her nose took a hit from the man’s cologne, her senses went on full alert. She was still reeling from the masculine scent of him as her right shoulder impacted with his rock-solid chest. It was like hitting a wall. Zoe bounced off him like a kitten off a mastiff.
She stumbled and might’ve fallen had he not caught her by the arm. His fingers were strong. His grip firm and steadying. It sent her heart sprinting as he guided her back the way she’d come. Her brain struggled to catch up with the to-and-fro movements of her body and decode the electric jolt she felt when he’d first touched her.
Her gaze collided with pale gray eyes of incredible intensity. For a moment she was utterly mesmerized. And then recognition flared. She gulped in panic.
Ryan Dailey.
Less than thirty seconds had passed since she’d initiated her part of the revenge plot and already she’d bumped into her target. And what an unexpected encounter it was shaping up to be.
The man’s sharp jawline, hawkish gaze, impossibly wide shoulders and sensual grin packed a solid wallop. Tingles raced across her nerve endings as heat built beneath her skin. It raced past her throat and exploded in her cheeks.
“You okay?” Ryan Dailey asked, his deep, rich voice rumbling against her eardrums and awakening queer flutters in her stomach.
“Yeah.” It was all she could manage.
“I’m Ryan Dailey,” he said, letting his focus flow over her white-blond spikes, dark plum lips and edgy bohemian outfit. “Susannah’s brother.”
While he checked her out, she took in his custom navy suit, white shirt and pale blue tie. Even with the four-inch heels on her ankle boots making her about five-nine, the man towered over her. Yet despite his imposing stature, she didn’t experience the bitter taste of anxiety her ex-husband had often awakened.
But that didn’t mean she felt calm.