by Lisa Childs
Ever since Lisa Childs read her first romance novel—a Harlequin story, of course—at age eleven, all she wanted was to be a romance writer. With over forty novels published with Harlequin, Lisa is living her dream. She is an award-winning, bestselling romance author. Lisa loves to hear from readers, who can contact her on Facebook; through her website, lisachilds.com; or her snail mail address, PO Box 139, Marne, MI 49435.
If you liked Dating the Rebel, why not try
The Fiancé by Stefanie London
Her Playboy Crush by Nicola Marsh
Masquerade by Cara Lockwood
Also by Lisa Childs
Liaisons International
Dating the Billionaire
Legal Lovers
Legal Seduction
Legal Attraction
Legal Passion
Legal Desire
Discover more at Harlequin.com
DATING THE REBEL
LISA CHILDS
To Dr. Megan McNitt, I am so happy you’ve become a fan of my books. I am a fan of yours! Congratulations on becoming an MD!
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Excerpt from The Fiancé by Stefanie London
CHAPTER ONE
“WHAT THE HELL is he doing here?” The question exploded out of Miranda Fox just as she felt like exploding. Usually she enjoyed the size of her small office, the elegance of the brocade wallpaper and white-painted coffered ceiling, but right now it wasn’t giving her enough room to pace and nowhere to escape. If she walked out, she would have to pass him in the reception area. And the office was too many floors up for her to safely jump out the window.
And she wasn’t about to risk her life, or anything else, over Grant Snyder.
“He wants to become a member of Liaisons International,” the receptionist, who was also her younger sister, replied, as if it was obvious.
But it wasn’t. Nothing was ever obvious about Grant.
Miranda shook her head. “No, he doesn’t. He’s up to something.”
He had to be. Why else would he have flown from his office in London to show up at her business in Monaco? Sure, he co-owned a private charter plane company, so flying to him wasn’t much different than driving, but still...
There wasn’t even an airport in Monaco. He would have taken a helicopter or a car to travel from Nice to her office. Why take the time for a visit? Why hadn’t he just called her? Then she would have been able to hang up on him.
Oh...
That was why he’d made the trip instead of calling. But what was his real reason for the visit?
“Maybe it’s about Blair,” Tabitha suggested.
Blair was Grant’s younger sister and Miranda’s best friend since they were little girls.
Tabitha’s face twisted into a slight grimace of concern as she almost reluctantly continued, “Maybe something’s happened to her.”
Miranda shook her head again—with such force that the ends of her blond tresses struck her face and tangled in her long lashes. She could not even consider such a horrible thought, for so many reasons. One—she’d spent so much time worrying about her friend when she’d been a fighter pilot. Retired and flying planes only for the private charter business that she’d started with her brother, Blair was safe now. And because of Miranda’s business, Liaisons International, she was also happy. “No, if something happened to Blair, he would never come to tell me.”
Unless it had been Miranda’s fault...
Then he would seek her out to lecture her just like he’d done when they were all kids. Like he was any better than she was...
Like he’d never gotten into trouble.
Hell, he was trouble—just the way he looked, so muscular, so big, so damn good-looking...
So charming when he wanted to be. He’d never wanted to charm her, though. He only ever wanted to warn her to stop messing up his sister’s life. Not that she’d ever really messed it up except for a detention or two or three in school. And now that they were adults, the most she’d ever done was talk Blair into taking a break from work and into joining her dating service.
Was that why he was here now?
But Blair and Matteo Rinaldi were happy and too perfect for each other to be having problems already. In fact, the billionaire had just granted an interview in which he’d revealed that he was happier than he’d ever been—thanks to Blair and Liaisons International.
So if Teo was happy, Blair was, too. And no matter how big a jerk Grant had been to Miranda, he’d only ever wanted his sister to be happy and safe, which was probably why he’d been such a jerk to Miranda. He’d been protecting his sister from her bad influence.
She hadn’t purposely gotten Blair into trouble, but she hadn’t always exercised the best judgment.
She had to know why he was here, so she drew in a deep breath and said, “I’ll see him...”
Tabitha grinned and eagerly nodded. “You’d be missing out big-time if you didn’t. I think he’s gotten even hotter than he used to be.”
Was that possible? While they’d talked on the phone when she’d called their business looking for Blair, she hadn’t seen him in person in years.
She’d been counting on the opposite—on her teenage mind having overexaggerated how damn good-looking he’d been. Like how, in her child’s mind, she’d remembered her father’s house as having been so large and elegant, but when she’d finally been invited back to visit him, it had been small and sad. Like he’d been.
Tabitha opened Miranda’s office door and slipped out, closing it behind her. But even through the thickness of the solid mahogany wood, Miranda could hear her sister giggling in response to a deep rumble that made her own traitorous pulse quicken with excitement. Then the door opened again, and she had confirmation.
It wasn’t just possible. It had actually happened—Grant Snyder had gotten even hotter. Unlike her father’s house, Grant was even bigger than she remembered. Taller. Broader. More muscular. His hair was a deeper gold, his eyes a darker blue, and that reddish beard trimmed so close to his skin only enhanced the rigid line of his strong jaw. Damn him...
* * *
Damn her...
This was supposed to have been a simple mission. Track down Miranda Fox and warn her to stop messing with his sister’s life. Blair was in a good place—a great place—now; she didn’t need Miranda talking her into playing hooky from work or from her new relationship. It was a mission Grant Snyder had carried out many times in his youth, albeit never successfully. Miranda had always ignored him then.
So had his sister.
Then Grant had left to join the navy and hadn’t been around enough to monitor their many misadventures. He’d had no excuse for not catching and putting a stop to their recent one, though, since he worked with Blair now. He should have noticed what was going on with her, but he hadn’t—until it was too late.
Until she’d been reduced to tears, and his sister, a former naval fighter pilot, never cried, not even when
their dad had died. But Miranda had set her up with that billionaire and nearly gotten Blair’s heart broken. Teo had proved to be a good guy, though, but no relationship of Blair’s had ever lasted, usually because of Miranda’s meddling.
Damn Miranda Fox...
That was her fault. And if he didn’t step in and get her under control this time, she would no doubt make Blair cry again. He couldn’t have that; he hadn’t been able to protect his sister like he’d wanted in the past, but he would now.
But who the hell was going to protect him...from Miranda Fox?
She’d been a cute teenager.
But now she was all woman—with full lips highlighted with just a shimmer of gloss. Unlike the heavy Goth makeup she’d worn as a teen, she looked to be wearing barely any at all but for that shimmer. Given how pale her coloring was, her lashes probably weren’t real, but they looked naturally long and black surrounding her silvery-blue eyes. Her dress was nearly the same color, in thin silk that clung to her every curve. And she definitely had more of those than he remembered.
Unfortunately she had the same sassy attitude she’d always had. “You better make this fast, Snyder. Since you don’t have an appointment, I’m fitting you in between other meetings.”
How long had he been standing there in the doorway to her small office? Probably with his mouth hanging open. He touched his bottom lip, checking for drool. Not wanting her to throw him out before he’d had a chance to issue his warning, he stepped into her office and closed the door behind him. “Would you have given me an appointment if I’d asked for one?”
“No,” she admitted freely—almost rebelliously. She’d always been such a rebel, but she didn’t look like one now.
While still petite, she was as elegant as a princess. Maybe that was why she’d moved to Monaco—in the hopes of becoming one. Her many-times-married mother had been obsessed with husbands, the richer and more important the better. Maybe her oldest daughter had inherited that same obsession along with the business.
Her office reflected her elegance and her small size. With the door shut, he didn’t have much room between him and the desk, even though it was small with spindly legs. She stood on the other side of that desk. Was she purposely keeping it between them? He leaned back against the door and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Why not?” he asked. “Why wouldn’t you let me make an appointment with you?”
“Because all you’ve ever done is yell at me and threaten me,” she said.
He suppressed the instinct to flinch at her direct hit. Threatening her, so she wouldn’t interfere in his sister’s happiness, had been what he’d planned on doing today. “I’ve never yelled at you,” he said in his defense. And he wouldn’t have yelled at her today, either.
“You don’t need to yell,” she said. “You have that voice...” She shuddered.
“Like it ever got to you,” he said. “You never listened to me, anyway.” She had never heeded any of his threats to stay away from his sister, which indicated that maybe it was time he changed his tactics with her.
“So why would you bother coming here?” she asked. “When I have no reason to listen to you now...” The way her voice trailed off suggested she wasn’t entirely confident of that, though.
Was she up to something?
She lifted her chin and squared her slender shoulders. “Blair isn’t in any trouble. In fact, she’s happier than I’ve ever seen her.”
“I agree,” Grant said. And he damn well intended to make sure his sister stayed that happy. But the only relationship Blair had ever maintained was her friendship with Miranda, which Grant suspected had cost her all the other relationships she would have had if not for her best friend’s interference.
“So you have no reason for coming here,” Miranda said, and she glanced down at the delicate gold watch on her wrist, as if implying he’d already taken up too much of her time.
“Don’t you think that gives me every reason to come here?” he asked.
Her lips, with that tantalizing shimmer, curved into a slight smile, and she walked around her desk to lean against the front of it, her shapely bare legs crossed at the ankle. “Oh, are you here to apologize for the hard time you’ve always given me? Are you finally going to admit that you were wrong about me?”
With her standing this close to him, he was the one having the hard time—controlling the sudden surge of attraction pulsating inside him and his damn traitorous cock. How could he be attracted to a troublemaker like her?
Easily.
Grant had always been drawn to the greatest danger, to the biggest risk...
But unlike with the other risks he’d taken, he doubted there would be any reward with her. Only heartache, like all the hearts she’d broken as a teenager.
But still, he couldn’t resist...
He straightened away from the door, which brought him closer to her, so close that he could feel the heat of her slight body. And his began to tingle with awareness.
“Oh, I wasn’t wrong,” he said, and he leaned over more as if there was some cable between them pulling him closer. “Not about you. You’re definitely trouble.”
She uttered a soft sigh, her breath touching his mouth—making him want those shimmery lips to touch his instead. All he had to do was lean a little farther.
But she reached out and pressed her palm against his chest as if to hold him back, as if she’d read his mind and knew how damn badly he wanted to kiss her.
His chest tingled where her hand touched him, where his heart pounded harder with the attraction and desire coursing through his body.
Did she feel it, too?
“And you’re still more trouble than I ever was,” she informed him. “If all you’ve come here to do is call me names again, you can leave.” She used her free hand to point at the door.
She definitely wasn’t going to listen to him any more than she had when she was a teenager. But Grant had always been good at improvising when the original plan for a mission had failed. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have survived.
“Have you considered that I might have another reason for being here?”
She narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Really? What? You had a crush on me all those years ago, and you’re seeking me out now because of your unrequited love?”
He tried to suppress the chuckle that bubbled up the back of his throat, but it slipped out before he could control it. Kind of like his attraction to her...
But that was new. He’d never been attracted to her before. Even though he was only a few years older than her and his sister, he’d always felt much older—too old to have ever looked at her the way he was looking at her now.
She arched a brow. “What? No unrequited love?”
“What about you?” he asked. He was well aware that some of his sister’s friends had had crushes on him. But Miranda hadn’t giggled and flirted with him like those girls, like her very own sister just had. No. She’d only ever glared at him, like she was glaring now.
And she laughed. But it sounded more forced than his had been. Of course, she’d never found him funny before. Why would she now?
A weary-sounding sigh followed her laugh, and again her breath brushed across his skin with the faint scent of cinnamon. He loved cinnamon.
“I really don’t have time for your games,” she said with another pointed glance at her gold watch. “Why are you here, Grant?”
He couldn’t tell the truth—not now—not when she was already so irritated with his visit. She would probably coerce Blair into doing something stupid just to spite him—like he suspected she’d done when they were younger.
“I want to join your dating service, of course,” he said, as if it was obvious.
She laughed again, and this time it didn’t sound forced at all.
“Why is that funny?” he asked. “Blai
r had such success that, of course, I would be interested in—”
“Are you looking for a billionaire?” she asked, interrupting him. Then shaking her head, she added with pity, “What? Have you gambled away all your money?”
A curse burned the back of his throat, but unlike the chuckle, he was able to suppress it. He grinned instead. “Quite the opposite, in fact. I would make a great catch.”
She laughed again—even harder than she just had, so hard that her beautiful eyes crinkled and a dimple pierced one cheek.
His breath caught, probably on the curse he’d choked back, over her beauty. She was stunning and, unfortunately, almost as damn aggravating as she had always been. He leaned back against the door so that her hand finally fell away from his chest.
She glanced down at it as if she hadn’t realized it was still there.
Obviously touching him hadn’t had her tingling with awareness like it had him. He crossed his arms so that he didn’t reach for her, so that he didn’t try to make her feel the attraction, too.
Could he...
Was that the new tactic he should take? Making her want him?
Damn, the challenge was just too tempting. She was just too tempting...
“Why do you think I’m not a good catch?” he asked.
She drew in a breath, as if she needed it to stem the laughter. “I didn’t actually say that.”
“Clearly, you think it.”
“Come on, Grant, what are you up to?” she asked. “You don’t want to join a dating service. You’ve never wanted anyone to actually catch you.”
She and Blair were apparently even closer than he’d feared. Counting on his ability to bluff, he replied, “I’ve never said that.”
Not like she and his sister had...
Unlike Blair’s other little friends, who’d put pillowcases on their heads and pretended to be brides, Miranda and his sister had done anything but—swearing that they would never marry. That was why he was certain she was going to mess up Blair’s new relationship.
“You’ve always showed it,” Miranda said, “like when you left your prom date alone on the dance floor while you played poker with the chaperones in the janitor’s closet.”