A Calculated Seduction

by Melissa Schroeder

  “But you can stand on your own two feet. Both of my girls are gorgeous, flirty, but show them a checkbook and they get confused. Don’t get me wrong. I love them, but they’re like their Mama in that respect. You pulled yourself up, got a job and survived. Plus,” she said studying her Dulcy’s hair, “this new makeover has made a huge difference. You look pretty cute. ”

  “Cute? Bunnies are cute.”

  Clarice laughed again. “I don’t know why I worry about you, young lady. You are just like your Daddy. Strong as an oak. ”

  A lump formed in her throat and a curious warmth filled her chest. Clarice sniffled suspiciously, then cleared her throat.

  “Now, what are we going to do about this Ethan person? You know that Henry DeMarco I dated last year has some connections. He would do anything for me. We could make Ethan cry.”

  * * * *

  Ethan stood in his empty Houston apartment and surveyed the surroundings. He’d had the apartment for over two years, but the place had never been a home.

  “Don’t tell me you’re not going to miss this view,” Todd said from behind him.

  Ethan chuckled and walked to the floor to ceiling windows. “No way. Besides, I’ll see if every time I visit you. When are you moving in?”

  “Tomorrow. They’re packing me up right now. You want to explain why you’re moving to Dallas? And why you’re renting an office space up there?”

  He turned and studied his employee. No, scratch that. His partner. He’d decided to offer Todd the opportunity to buy into MacMillan Securities and let him run it.

  “No.”

  “This has to do with the trust fund baby, doesn’t it?”

  Ethan shook his head and returned his gaze to the window.

  It’d been two weeks since he’d had his revelation of love and he was still acclimating himself to the feeling. He definitely wasn’t discussing it with Todd. Ethan turned back around to face Todd.

  “Well, I guess I’ll get going if you don’t need me for anything more, boss.”

  “You’re the boss now, Todd.”

  His brown eyes lightened with his smile. “Hey, that’s right. See ya, partner.”

  When he was finally alone, Ethan walked through the apartment, looking for anything the movers might have missed. He found nothing but an empty shell of a home. But it had always been that way. He’d always been that way.

  He strode to the door. Ethan knew he was risking everything on one bet but that’s what he had to do. One last chance to win Dulcy, or live a lifetime as a cold empty shell.

  Chapter Fourteen

  With less than a year left before her trust fund was available to her, Dulcy decided to work through a temp service. She made plenty of money to survive Okay, it was tight, but she could deal with it for a few more months.

  On her third week, she’d headed to the Dallas area for an assistant job with a new security company. They apparently needed extra help setting up.

  She parked in the building’s garage with five minutes to spare. A few moments later, she was hurrying off the elevator and down the hall to her new office. She opened the door and every bit of her composure fled when she found Ethan leaning against the doorjamb to the main office.

  “Good morning, Dulcy.” Deep and rich, his voice flowed over her. His hair had just been cut, the same little sexy half-smile lightened his face and he looked good enough to eat. Damn him. He hadn’t called in three weeks.

  “I think there’s been some mistake.” Her steady voice amazed her.

  “No, there hasn’t been a mistake. I own a security company. That was one of the reasons...”

  His voice trailed off.

  “One of the reasons Bill thought to hire you.”

  “Yes,” he said with a sigh. “I own a company in Houston.”

  “Ah.” She turned to leave.

  “Dulcy.”

  “Really, I don’t think we have anything to talk about, Mr. MacMillan.”

  “I thought if I could get you here, see my side of it, maybe you’d understand.”

  She turned around and noticed the things she’d missed in her anger. His eyes spoke of sadness, bags beneath his eyes testified to his loss of sleep. Her resolve weakened. She’d love to wrap her arms around him, pull him close and cuddle. To feel that human warmth, to feel secure. But, in reality, it wouldn’t last.

  She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and straightened her spine. She wouldn’t let him wheedle his way back into her heart. “You have to understand, I didn’t know anything about you. Uncle Bill’s suggestion you were embezzling puzzled me, but I was just following up.”

  “You slept with me.” Her voice was flat.

  “Yes, yes I did, Miss Menendez.” The wealth of satisfaction in his voice irritated her.

  “You,” she said pointing at him, “thought I,” she stuck her thumb at her chest, “was embezzling from your uncle.” Anger and pain swirled through her. “And you slept with me.”

  “I’m trying to apologize.”

  “You’ re doing a shitty job. ”

  “Hey,” his said, his voice rose with his anger. “You’re the one who jumped me in the limo.”

  Of all the nerve. Without a word, she turned on her heel and headed out the door. She couldn’t stay in the same room with the man without doing him bodily harm.

  * * * *

  Ethan winced when the door slammed shut. That didn’t go well. At least she had talked to him. That was more than he expected. From the anger that lit her eyes when she saw him, he was relieved to have all his body parts intact. In fact, for a second there, he was convinced she was softening toward him.

  Damn, but she’ d looked good. All rosy and round, he’ d had to fight the urge to grab her and kiss her.

  What the hell was he doing standing here thinking about her?

  He hurried out the door and down the hall to the elevator. The door closed just as he got to it. A second later, he was running down the five flights to the lobby. He burst through the door and caught her before she could get out the front door of the building.

  “Dulcy.” She turned and looked at him as if he’d grown another head. He grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the doors.

  “Mr. MacMillan, really.” She tried to twist her hand free, but he refused to give up.

  “I made a mistake.”

  She stopped struggling.

  “I’m an idiot.”

  She let out a very unladylike snort in agreement and he smiled.

  “I want to explain why I did what I did.”

  “There is no explanation. You didn’t trust me and you slept with me.”

  People had gathered, their attention caught with that topic. Embarrassment burned through him.

  “It isn’t what it seems. I didn’t use you.”

  “That doesn’t matter, does it? You didn’t use me, but you didn’t trust me. You took something I gave you, something precious and twisted it and ruined it.”

  All eyes turned to him and the embarrassment rose. “You weren’t a virgin.”

  Her eyes widened and her cheeks reddened. Too late, he remembered their audience.

  She broke free of his grasp and started to back away. “What I was talking about was my love and trust, but you only look at the bottom line.”

  It was all slipping away because of his damned arrogance. She was inching further away and with each step, a vise squeezed his heart.

  “Dulcy—”

  “No, Ethan, you’ll never learn.”

  She turned away from him. Panic pumped through his blood. She was leaving. His life would be dull and lifeless without her.

  “Dulcy.” His voice echoed through the lobby. “I’m sorry. I made a huge mistake. Really, woman, what do you want me to do? Cut off my left arm? I don’t think I need to suffer the rest of my life without the woman I love because I acted like a jackass.”

  * * * *

  Dulcy stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. Warmth stole through her. “Wh
at did you say?”

  He sighed and rested his hands on his hips. “I said I acted like a jackass. ”

  She waved that notion away. “I know that.” She stepped forward. “The other part.”

  A completely unholy light lit his dark eyes. He stepped forward and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants. “Oh, the part about cutting off my left arm?”

  “No.” She took another step.

  “The part about making a mistake?” He inched another step closer. They were about two steps apart and the scent of his spicy aftershave reached her.

  “No, that one part about love.”

  “Ah.” He stepped closer and she could feel the very heat of him. “I said I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life without the woman I love. You gotta know the only reason I did such a stupid thing was because I was in love with you. Otherwise, I never would have slept with someone I suspected.”

  “Hmmm. ”

  “You want me to go down on my knees, I will.”

  She chewed on her lower lip. “Naw, the floor is kinda hard. But you have to promise me something.”

  “Anything.”

  “Foot rubs every night.”

  For a second, he didn’t say anything. In fact, his face showed no expression, but there was a gleam of amusement hidden in the dark depths of his gaze. A smile curved his lips and then he laughed out loud. Before she had a chance to think, he grabbed her and was pressing his lips on hers, hard. Warmth spread through her. From the top of her head, past her weakened knees and all the way to her toes.

  He pulled back and it was then she heard the applause. She glanced around and noticed their audience was now cheering.

  “Foot rubs it is, Miss Menendez. As long as you make an honest man out of me. My uncle keeps reminding me he would like to have a few grand nieces and nephews.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “Are you proposing to me?”

  “Yes, I am. What’cha say, Dulcy? Let’s get married and have a passel of rowdy children.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Rowdy.”

  “Well, with a mother who flashes her boss then jumps in the limo, what kinda kids do you think we’d have?”

  She laughed, love wrapping around her heart as he guided her out of the building and toward the rest of their lives.

  About Melissa Schroeder

  Born to an Air Force family at an Army hospital Melissa has always been a little bit screwy. She was further warped by her years of watching Monty Python and her strange family. Her love of romance novels developed after accidentally picking up a Linda Howard book. After becoming hooked, she read close to 300 novels in one year, deciding that romance was her true calling instead of the literary short stories and suspenses she had been writing. Since her first release in 2004, Melissa has had over 30 short stories, novellas and novels released with multiple publishers in a variety of genres and time periods. Those releases include the Harmless series, a best-selling erotic romance series set in Hawaii. A Little Harmless Sex, book 1, was one of the top 100 bestselling Nook Books of 2010.

  Since she was a military brat, she vowed never to marry military. Alas, fate always has her way with mortals. Her husband is an Air Force major, and together they have their own military brats, two girls, and two adopted dog daughters, and they live wherever the military sticks them. Which she is sure, will always involve heat and bugs only seen on the Animal Discovery Channel. In her spare time, she reads, complains about bugs, travels, cooks, reads some more, watches her DVD collections of Arrested Development and Seinfeld, and tries to convince her family that she truly is a delicate genius. She has yet to achieve her last goal.

  You can connect with Mel all over the web:

  WEBSITE

  TWITTER

  FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

  HARMLESS ADDICTS

  THE HARMLESS SERIES

  THE CURSED CLAN

  Or email her at: Contact@MelissaSchroeder.net

  Other Books by Melissa Schroeder

  Harmless

  A Little Harmless Sex

  A Little Harmless Pleasure

  A Little Harmless Obsession

  A Little Harmless Lie

  A Little Harmless Addiction

  A Little Harmless Submission

  A Little Harmless Fascination

  A Little Harmless Fantasy

  A Little Harmless Military Romance

  Infatuation

  Possession

  Surrender

  The Harmless Shorts

  A Little Harmless Fling—Free on Website

  A Little Harmless Kalikimaka—Free on Website

  A Little Harmless Surprise

  A Little Harmless Gift

  Prelude to a Fantasy

  By Blood

  Desire by Blood

  Once Upon An Accident

  The Accidental Countess

  Lessons in Seduction

  The Spy Who Loved Me

  Leather and Lace

  The Seduction of Widow McEwan

  Leather and Lace—Print anthology

  Texas Temptations

  Conquering India

  Delilah’s Downfall

  Hawaiian Holidays

  Mele Kalikimaka, Baby

  Sex on the Beach

  Getting Lei’d

  Bounty Hunters, Inc

  For Love or Honor

  Sinner’s Delight

  The Sweet Shoppe

  Tempting Prudence—free on website

  Her Wicked Warrior

  Connected Books

  Seducing the Saint

  Hunting Mila

  Saints and Sinners—print of both books

  The Hired Hand

  Hands on Training

  Cancer Anthology

  Water—print

  Stand Alone Books

  Grace Under Pressure

  The Last Detail

  Telepathic Cravings

  Coming Soon

  The Best of Both Worlds Harmless Bundle

  The Santinis: Leonardo

  The Santinis: Marco

  The Santinis: Gianni

  The Santinis: Vicente

  A Little Harmless Ride

  The Cursed Clan: Angus

  Craving

  Relentless

  Upcoming Reissues

  Her Mother’s Killer

  Cowboy Up

  Going for Eight

  Chasing Luck

  Coming this May

  An exciting new novella military romance series from Melissa Schroeder Publishing.

  Four Brothers who believe in service before self, and the four women who will bring them to their knees.

  THE SANTINIS

  Leonardo-May 3rd

  Marco-May 10th

  Gianni-May 17th

  Vicente-May 24th

  Now, get a sneak peek at the exciting first novella, Leonardo:

  “Now, here, take this,” she said as she offered Vince the plastic container of food.

  He took it with that drop-dead gorgeous smile—dimples and all. “No problem. That hardly leaves you any, though.”

  “Believe me, I don't need that hanging around my house. Once Tuesday hits, I'll be gone so much with work, I will end up throwing it away. Or worse, I will eat it all tomorrow on my day off.”

  He nodded and headed to the door. Leo said nothing as he followed his brother to the door. Once Vince stepped through the doorway though, Leo shut the door and grabbed her by the wrist pulling her to him, then crowded her up against the door. Before she could tell him to get his hands off her—and she was so totally going to do that, really—he slammed his mouth down on hers.

  Her brain fizzled. Just right there, stopped working. She couldn't seem to do anything but to kiss him back. Every other thought dissolved and the primal instinct to connect took over. Heat bloomed within her, pulsing through her veins. In that one instant she went from sort of frustrated to wanting to tear off his clothes. When he pulled back, they were both breathing heavily.

&n
bsp; “Now, just so you know which Santini is really interested.”

  Coming May 3rd from Melissa Schroeder publishing.