CRAZY ABOUT THE BOSS
by Teresa Southwick
SILHOUETTE ROMANCE
Prologue
PROLOGUE
New York—December 23
HEARING his sister’s voice always made Jack feel like that eighteen-year-old who’d left home in disgrace.
How bloody stupid was that? He was Jack Valentine of Valentine Ventures, the reckless genius who had challenged conventional wisdom and made a fortune. And she was asking him to come home again.
Jack squeezed the phone until his fingers ached. “It’s been twelve years, Emma. That’s a lot of Christmases. Why should I come home for this one?”
“Do you have something better to do?” she said, her soft, cultured voice dripping with irritation.
A muscle jumped in his jaw. It was almost as if she knew he had no plans at all. “Anything’s better than that.”
“It’s time, Jack.”
He heard London in her voice. Americans loved the accent. But he heard silk and steel in the soft, firm tone that tapped into an accumulation of loneliness he hadn’t realized was there.
Swiveling his chair around, he stared out his office window and concentrated on the New York skyline instead. It was dark, but across the city lights dotted the windows in the tall buildings. Out there someone was staring at his window and coveting this office with its expensive art, plush carpet, fine furniture and the latest electronics. Standing on the street they were cold and scared and staring, wondering what it felt like to have everything you ever wanted.
He knew because twelve years ago this city was where he’d run and he’d once been down there with nothing. He’d looked up and vowed that one day he’d own the whole damn building. Screw-ups didn’t grow up to be millionaires, but he had.
“It has been twelve years, after all. Are you listening, Jack?”
“Yes. And what I hear is that something’s wrong. What is it, Em?”
There was a big sigh from the other end of the line. “All right. There is a problem here. The business is in trouble. We need your help.”
The precious business Robert Valentine prized above everything? Good. It was about time the womanizing bastard paid for his sins where it hurt him most. “I’m not sure why I should care.”
“Because no matter how stubborn you insist on being, you’re still part of this family.” This time censure mixed with the steel in her voice.
“Did he put you up to this?”
“No.” Another big sigh. “Jack, what happened between the two of you?”
Jack had protected his mother. And it had cost him.
“It doesn’t matter any more, Em.”
The unladylike snort on the other end of the line told him his sister was probably rolling her pale blue eyes in disgust as she fiddled with a strand of curly light brown hair. The vivid image made him miss her.
“I hear in your voice that it still does matter,” she said quietly.
“You’re wrong. Now, if that’s all—” He turned away from the window and leaned back in his chair.
“It’s not,” she snapped. “We need you, Jack. Your job is investing in companies. The family business needs money and quite literally you’re our only hope to keep it going.”
“Lots of investors would love to get their hands on a piece of the action.”
“But they wouldn’t be family. And none of us want to give a non-Valentine a piece of the action because you don’t turn your back on family. It simply isn’t right.”
Even if family turned their backs on him? he wondered. “They’ll survive, Em.”
“I wish I could be as sure.” Sadness shaded her voice. “As you said—it’s been a dozen years. Twelve seems like a good round number to make peace. Tis the season. Peace on earth. Charity begins at home and all that.”
“I’m not feeling charitable.” Jack rested his elbows on his cluttered desk.
“Neither am I.” Frustration laced with anger making her tone more clipped. “You disappeared,” she blurted out. “Dad wouldn’t discuss it and Mum was fragile. I was sixteen when you left me with the whole mess. Big brothers are supposed to take care of their little sisters.”
Little sister knew how to stick the knife in and twist. He’d loved her. Hell, he still loved her.
“I had no choice, Em. I had to leave.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you abandoned me, but you did what you needed to, I guess. Now I need something from you.” She hesitated a moment, then said, “I got married, Jack.”
It took him two beats to pull himself out of the past. His little sister was a married woman? He hadn’t heard. “Congratulations. Who’s the lucky man?”
“He was a prince—”
“Of course he’d be a prince of a guy,” he teased.
She laughed, a happy sound, so different from a few moments ago. “No, Sebastian was actually crowned King of Meridia.”
Meridia. Jack knew it was a small European country and recalled something in the news recently about a scandal in the line of succession. “I’ve heard of it.”
“It’s very important to me that you meet him.”
“Look, Emma—”
“I’ve never asked you for anything,” she interrupted, her voice firm. “But I want this and, quite frankly, I think you owe me, Jack. Come for Christmas. The usual place for the family toast. I’ll be expecting you.”
Before he could decline again, the line went dead. Jack let out a long breath as he replaced the phone. His little sister married a king?
And he’d missed it.
That made him wonder what else he’d missed. But Emma had never told him that she’d felt abandoned. And she hadn’t ever asked him for anything. Until now.
“Jack, you’re out of your mind.” His associate, Maddie Ford, walked into his office without looking up from the proposal he’d given her earlier. “You can’t seriously want to put money into this. It’s crazy. It’s risky. And so like you it makes me want to shake you until your teeth rattle.”
She kept talking, but he was only half listening to blonde, blue-eyed, brainy Maddie. His sensible and down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is Maddie. In the two years since he’d brought her into his company, she’d become more his partner than his assistant. He’d come to rely on her sound judgment. For better or worse she’d become the voice in his head.
She was also the only stunningly beautiful woman he’d never hit on. And he planned to keep it that way because the women who gave in to him were here today and gone tomorrow. Sometimes they were gone in the same day. He wouldn’t do anything to lose Maddie because he needed her around, although what he had in mind wasn’t business related. The thing was, he hadn’t made a fortune by not listening to his gut and it was telling him now to take her with him to meet Emma’s husband.
When she stopped talking to catch a breath he said, “How do you feel about Christmas in London?”
Chapter One
CHAPTER ONE
London—Christmas Day
“I SUPPOSE millionaires have problems, too.”
Maddie Ford waited for a reaction from the bachelor millionaire in the town car beside her and Jack Valentine didn’t disappoint.
He glared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m sorry. Did I say that out loud?” she asked, making her eyes as wide and innocent as she could manage.
“You know good and well you did. Was that a blonde moment? Don’t go blonde on me now, Maddie,” he said, irritation in his voice. Or was it tension?
Definitely tension and that wasn’t like Jack. Whatever business had made him insist she come along on this trip must be really important because the strain was showing.
And that was starting t
o concern her. Jack Valentine was rich, handsome, charismatic and often touted as New York’s most eligible bachelor. He did the charming British thing with overtones of brash American and it worked way too well. From his short, black, carefully mussed hair to his dark blue eyes with the bad-boy gleam that promised trouble in a most appealing way, he exuded the same exciting vibes that had brought down her heart not once, but twice.
In the beginning, she’d had a crush on him but quickly learned he wasn’t a one-woman man. So the fact that he’d never tried anything had convinced her she wasn’t his type. He wasn’t likely to turn his charm in her direction, which was just fine with her. She liked her job.
For the last two plus years she and Jack had worked well together. Her sensible side balanced Jack’s tendency toward rashness. They had been a team. Until he’d messed with her Christmas plans. Although he hadn’t smiled or teased her since leaving New York. The way he was acting made her feel guilty for giving him a hard time. Maybe a little teasing of her own could lighten him up because he normally didn’t do tension.
“If by ‘going blonde’ you’re referring to my current state of irritation, let me assure you I have a very good reason. It’s Christmas. And I’m on the wrong continent. Is there a reason this trip couldn’t have waited?”
“It’s one day and I did promise to make it up to you.”
That was a non-answer. “How do you make up for missing Christmas? I had plans.”
“I know. You’ve made that quite clear.”
He didn’t need to know that her plans hadn’t been with family. Her married siblings alternated holidays with their spouses’ families and this year her parents had taken a cruise. They’d invited her because they felt sorry for their twenty-eight-year-old unmarried-and-not-dating daughter. She’d declined because it seemed too pathetic for words, but she hadn’t shared any of that with Jack. He’d have teased her unmercifully and teasing from Mr Bachelor-about-town regarding her non-existent love life would be too humiliating.
“It’s good of you—”
“No, it’s not. I’m not good.”
“Okay. You’re bad. I can live with that.” For a split second, he flashed his carefree, charming Jack Valentine grin.
Was his grin always that potent? Or did his uncharacteristic tension just make it seem more thrilling than usual? Not going there, she thought. “I can’t believe you played the because-you’re-the-boss card to get me here.”
“Our difference of opinion showed no signs of letting up. In the interest of time, it seemed the expedient thing to do.”
She’d disagreed because she hadn’t liked his attitude and now it was time for his reminder that he couldn’t walk all over her. “My being here makes no more sense now than it did before. Since when do you want me to come along? And what business couldn’t wait a day? More important, who does business on Christmas? It’s un-American.”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re in Britain.”
Did he just snap at her? That was out of character, too. But before she could demand to know what was going on with him, the car smoothly pulled to the curb in front of a restaurant. It was then she realized that by continuing their disagreement on a different continent, she’d missed seeing anything of London. It didn’t matter that it was too dark to see all that much, she really wanted to see London. At least he’d promised her a couple days there. That had finally broken down her resistance.
“Why are we stopping here?” she asked.
“It’s something I have to do.” There was an edge to his voice that said whatever he had to do was tantamount to a firing squad at dawn.
There was an angry, dark look on his face that frightened her, mostly because she’d never seen it before. “What’s going on, Jack?”
“I have to see my sister.”
“Your sister?” If Maddie hadn’t been so shocked, she’d have come back with a brilliantly clever retort. But she was shocked and said exactly what she was thinking. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“Well, now you do.”
“What else don’t I know?” she asked as the driver opened the door for them to get out.
A lot, Jack thought, and he ignored the question, as he didn’t plan to enlighten her. He would see Emma and meet her husband. Duty fulfilled and he’d leave.
Cold London air filled his lungs as he slid out of the car before her. He walked slowly toward the Bella Lucia restaurant he hadn’t been able to get out of fast enough twelve years ago. The gate he pushed open was familiar, as was the courtyard in front of the building. Small white lights twinkled in the shrubs and a subdued glow coming through the frosted windows pooled gold at his feet. There were people inside.
His family. And he was on the outside looking in, a thought that opened up an empty feeling deep inside him.
“Jack?”
He looked at Maddie, grateful for her presence and determined not to let her know. It was just this once, because he wouldn’t let himself need anyone.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said.
“Way to make me even more joyful about missing out on the biggest holiday of the year.”
Her sarcasm made him smile. Brutal honesty was what he counted on from Maddie. She’d never been more indispensable to him than she was at this moment.
He pushed open the door, walked inside the restaurant and looked around. It was all different. Gone was the original Italian style and in its place was a trendy, smart, fashionable restaurant. A restaurant that went dead quiet as everyone turned and silently stared at him.
He recognized his uncle John, in the center of the room with glass in hand for the traditional holiday toast. Robert Valentine stood beside him and Jack met his father’s gaze across the room. The rest of the family clustered on either side of the two men and looked from him to Robert. Jack would swear every last one of them were holding their breath. He could almost reach out and grab the friction out of the air.
Maddie leaned over. “They’re all staring at us, Jack.”
“I know.”
“Do you realize everyone is looking at us as if I’m Scrooge and you’re the Ghost of Christmas Past? Are we crashing a private party?”
“We are, yes.”
Jack didn’t take his eyes off his father. Every muscle in his body tensed as he waited for the man who’d sent him packing to make the first move. The young woman beside Robert looked anxiously between them and the seconds ticked off like the timer on an explosive device.
Finally she rushed over to him. “Jack, you came. I didn’t think you would.”
“Emma?” He recognized the voice, but the petite, curvy young woman in front of him had been a gawky sixteen-year-old when he’d left. Now she was glamorous and sophisticated, her hair no longer light brown, but blonde shot with honey-colored highlights. “You’re all grown up.”
“As are you. You’re just in time for the family toast.” She handed first him then Maddie a flute of champagne.
“Merry Christmas, everyone.” His uncle John continued as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “Here’s to a holiday season filled with health, happiness and success.” He held up his glass. “To family.”
Murmurs of agreement filled the room as everyone sipped from their crystal flutes. Without drinking, Jack set his glass on the white linen cloth covering the table beside him.
“Welcome home, Jack,” Emma said, even as she frowned at the champagne he’d abandoned.
“This isn’t my home.”
And as soon as he met his sister’s new husband, he and Maddie could get the hell out of here. He looked at her bright blonde hair and big blue eyes, letting himself feel the familiar tug for a beautiful woman. In her case he’d never given in to it because he respected her too much. She was different from the women he dated and his relationship with her was as sacred as the separation between church and state.
Emma ignored his sharp words as she looked at Maddie. “Who’s this, then?”
“Madi
son Ford. I’m Jack’s assistant.” Maddie held out her hand. “Call me Maddie. Or better yet, Scrooge,” she finished.
“No Christmas spirit?” Emma asked.
“I left it back in New York. I had plans.”
“After you called,” Jack said to his sister, “I decided to move up a scheduled business trip and convinced Maddie to come along. Where’s your husband?”
Emma turned to look, then smiled at the man just joining them. He stood military straight, even as he slid his arm around her waist. Not quite as tall as Jack, he had wavy dark hair and brown eyes.
Adoration shone on Emma’s face as she leaned into the man. “His Highness Sebastian Marchand-Dumontier of Meridia meet Jack Valentine, my brother.”
They shook hands and Jack noted the prince’s firm grip. Always squeeze a man’s hand as if you mean it. No one respects you if your hand feels like a limp codfish.
When his father’s words flashed through his mind, Jack knew it had been a mistake to come. Then he looked at Maddie as the prince kissed her hand.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness,” Maddie said.
“Please, Sebastian is fine,” he said graciously.
Maddie looked at Emma. “That would make you what? Queen? Princess Consort? I can never keep that straight.”
“Emma will do,” she said with a twinkle.
“Quite nicely,” her husband added, smiling down at her.
Maddie was studying his sister. “I think there must be something in the royal rulebook about fabulous jewels. If you show me your tiara, it might almost make up for the fact that I’m missing Christmas in the States.”
Laughing, Emma leaned into her chuckling prince. “I’m afraid the tiara’s at home in Meridia’s royal vault. But do come for a visit, Maddie. I’ve a feeling you and I would get on very well together.”
“I’m not sure I could spare her,” Jack cut in.
“I’d love to visit Meridia,” Maddie countered, shooting him a look. “His Lordship will just have to get along without me.”
“Jack.”
He turned and recognized his older brother, Max, and pleasure shot through him. He put out his hand and Max took it, then the two of them grinned at each other.
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