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Million Dollar Stud
Meg Lacey
Bored with his million-dollar lifestyle, Richard Darcy Kristof accepts a dare: live for one month with strangers and without his name or his fortune. He's up for the challenge. Calling himself Darcy, he gets a job managing a horse farm. But nothing has prepared him for the challenge of the boss's gorgeous daughter–Silver Braybourne.Silver's future is riding on one horse and its ability to win. She's not about to let anything stand in her way, least of all a new manager who's too arrogant, too sexy for his own good…and hers. If she gives in to the temptation of Darcy, she can again focus on her future. Too bad once isn't enough.…
“I couldn’t sleep…when I closed my eyes, I saw you.”
Darcy’s words whispered against her skin.
Silver felt herself melt under the seductive pull of his words.
“All I could think of was holding you, touching you, kissing you.”
He pulled her flush against him until she could feel every hard, hot inch of him.
She knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t resist. Pulling his head down to hers, she opened her mouth, allowing her tongue to tease, to stroke before pressing her lips to his.
She had to get him out of her system. “Darcy, we’re going to exorcise this tension between us with pure, red-hot sex. Just a good roll in the hay.”
“Since we’re in the office, we’ll have to save the hay for another time,” he teased.
Her eyes narrowed. “There can’t be another time. This is it.”
“In that case, I’m going to make sure I do a damn fine job!”
Meg Lacey first discovered romance in the sixth grade when she wrote her own version of Gone with the Wind. However, her writing career didn’t last. Instead, she went into theater, earned her degree and, over the years, has been an actress, director, copywriter, creative dramatics teacher, mime, mom, college instructor and school bus driver. Currently she is president of her own television and interactive media company, writing and producing in all media from film/video to print. Meg lives in Ohio, where she is currently working on a number of fiction and nonfiction projects.
Books by Meg Lacey
HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION
734—SEXY AS SIN
865—A NOBLE PURSUIT
HARLEQUIN DUETS
13—MAKE ME OVER
SILHOUETTE YOURS TRULY
IS THERE A HUSBAND IN THE HOUSE?
DID YOU SAY BABY?!
Million Dollar Stud
Meg Lacey
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
My husband and daughters—for their laughter, excouragement and always being there when necessary. And who never hesitate to kick me in the behind when I need it.
Contents
Chapter 1 (#ue755e0ab-67ce-5501-a4da-0a6b83f42077)
Chapter 2 (#uf75ebab6-d399-51e0-b6f0-ef87b9a12678)
Chapter 3 (#uf4f88a2a-91e2-5ffc-88c4-6f3ad96d9dba)
Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
1
RICHARD D’ARCY KRISTOF, heir to the Kristof family fortune, strode into a private library at his country club, removed his bow tie with a jerk and quickly unbuttoned his collar. “That’s better. I hate these monkey suits.’’ He took the glass of smooth aged bourbon his older cousin, Nicholas Demetries, handed him, and downed the contents in one gulp, handing it back for another shot.
Nicholas chuckled and refilled the glass. “Rough night, Cousin?”
Darcy scowled. “If I had to dance with one more debutante, or listen to one more proud parent telling me how lovely their…whoever…is, I would have jumped off the balcony.”
The Tremont twins paused in setting out the poker chips and cards. “Wouldn’t have done you any good,” Tommy said. “Not if you were thinking suicide. The balcony is only five feet off the ground.”
“Yeah,” Terry agreed. “Worst that would happen is you’d break a leg and end up in the barberry bushes.”
Nicholas, tall, handsome and immaculately dressed in summer formal attire, clasped his cousin’s shoulder. “Then all those lovely debutantes you’re trying to avoid would be banging on your door trying to give the ‘millionaire stud’ some comfort.”
“God forbid.” With a twist of his lips, Darcy sat down at the table and drew the deck of cards toward him. “And don’t call me that. You know how much I hate that idiotic—”
Nicholas smiled. “The press has to sell their stories any way they can, Cousin.”
“Tell you what, Darcy,” said Tommy. “If you need help with that mob of women who’re always chasing you, I’m at your service.”
“Me, too,” echoed Terry.
Darcy began dealing, snapping the cards off and zipping them across the table to the respective players. “Be my guest. I haven’t met the woman yet who could intrigue me for more than forty-eight hours. Most of them bore me stiff.” He doubted a woman existed who could capture his mind as well as his senses, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying them every chance he got.
“Are you talking about in bed or out of it?” Tommy gave him a horrified look. “You don’t actually talk to them, do you?”
Terry nodded as he considered his cards. “Yeah, what’re you doing talking to them, anyway? That’s a mistake I never make.”
“You’re right, Terry.” Tommy grinned. “Take our advice—much better to look at them. That way you won’t get bored.”
Darcy stared at the twins, then shrugged, feeling the tightness in his shoulders. The tension had been building over the past few months, along with his sense of dissatisfaction. Lately, Darcy had felt confined by the aimlessness of his life. But he didn’t know what he wanted instead. He picked up his cards, fanning the hand. “At the moment, everything bores me.”
“Ah, poor misunderstood rich boy,” Nicholas said, mock sympathy dripping off his tongue. He ducked at Darcy’s feigned punch. “Wish we all had your problems.”
Darcy slid him a glance, then an unwilling grin. “Keep it up, Nick.”
Nicholas winked. “Somebody’s got to keep your feet on the ground.”
Terry gulped his drink, then, his words slurring a bit, said, “Are we going to talk all night or play cards? ’Cause if we’re going to talk, I’m going back to the dance.”
For a few minutes they played in silence, focusing on the cards and their bets. But then Darcy tossed back another drink and threw in his hand. “Sorry. I’m just not in the mood to play tonight. Let’s take a rain check, okay?”
The Tremont twins looked at each other, then back at him. “What’s got into you lately?” they asked in perfect unison.
Darcy lifted a brow, his voice tightening. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, screw this,” Tommy said, grabbing his brother’s arm and raising him to his feet. “Let’s go back to the dance. I got my eye on this redhead….”
Nicholas waved the twins to the door, giving Darcy a narrow glance as he did so. When they’d left, he said, “What is the matter with you, Darcy? You’ve been picking fights with everyone lately. Are you having some kind of problems I don’t know about?”
“Yes, I…no…hell, I don’t know.”
Nicholas stared at him. “Is it money? Do you need an advance on your trust?”
“No. I’ve got plenty of money.”
“I’ll say.” Nicholas chuckled, clasping his hands as he prepared to listen. “Okay. Then regardless of what you just said, it must be a woman.”
Darcy sent him a narrow glance. “A woman?” There hadn’t been a woman for weeks, not since Susanne Westingham had seduced him in the pool at the Overtons’ pool party. Or was it the other way around? Darcy frowned. Sometimes it all ran together.
“I know your parents have been pushing you very hard to settle down.”
“With a suitable bride,” Darcy reminded his cousin. “Which means lots of money and connections. The way they talk about it, I’m supposed to vet them before I even date them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked me to check their teeth.”
Grinning, Nicholas took a sip of his drink. “Well, you can’t quite blame them. There’s a lot at stake from a family point of view.”
“Fortune, reputation, heritage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…” Darcy shuddered.
“Afraid so.”
“Ah hell, Nick, I’m bored to death. It’s all so damn predictable.”
Nicholas rolled his eyes. “How could your life be predictable, Darcy? You’ve got the means to pick up at any time and go anywhere, do anything you want.”
Knowing how fortunate he was, Darcy had the grace to blush. “I know, but sometimes I want something different.” He felt like the spoiled little kid who wished for a pony, then when he got it, wished for a horse instead.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Darcy fiddled with his empty glass. “Don’t you get bored with it all? The same people, the same places. Doing the same type of things. No real challenge, no real enjoyment. You run from place to place, but it doesn’t change.” He thumped his fist on the table. “Lord-in-a-box, I’m bored to death, Nick. I need an adventure. Something to take me out of here.”
Nicholas shook his head, then focused on his cousin for a long, intense moment. “Darcy, maybe the problem’s not on the outside. Maybe the problem is…” He took a breath, then plunged on. “Maybe the problem’s with you.”
Darcy tossed his head like a restless horse. “Of course it’s with me—that’s what I’m telling you. It’s with who I am.”
“That’s not really what I meant.”
“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be nobody. Know what I mean?”
Nicholas picked up the cards, inserting them neatly into their wooden holder. “No, I don’t.”
Leaning back in his chair, Darcy spread his hands wide. “Nobody. Man, wouldn’t that be a lark? To just be an ordinary guy? No living under the microscope, no gossip. No women trying to trap me into marriage, no idiots trying to borrow money or start a fight to prove I’m not any better than they are—nothing like that. Just normal.”
Nicholas hooted with laughter. “Come on, as if you could ever be a normal guy.”
Darcy’s eyes kindled as he sent his cousin the famous Kristof stare, the one his grandfather had used to stare down the enemy during World War II, or so family legend said. “Sure I could. Why couldn’t I?”
“Because you’ve got money and a lifestyle that most people envy and will never achieve—and you’re on the most-eligible-bachelor list for every woman from Virginia to New York to Palm Beach, and have been since you turned eighteen.” Nicholas shook his head. “You couldn’t be normal.”
“Want to bet?”
“Bet what?”
“I’ll bet that I can live the life of a perfectly ordinary citizen for one month.”
Nicholas rubbed his chin for a moment, finally saying, “What are you betting?”
“I’ll bet my car on it.”
“You’ll bet your car?” Nicholas lost his sophisticated air as his jaw dropped to his shoes. “You love that hunk of metal more than you’ve ever loved a woman.”
“That’s because it’s a hell of a lot more fun and much less trouble. But I’m not worried. I won’t lose.”
“We’ll see,” Nicholas commented. “So you plan to waltz out of here and become an ordinary guy, is that it? And where are you, the gossip rags’ poster boy, going to pull off this little miracle?”
Darcy was puzzled for a moment but then brightened, snapping his fingers. “Let’s find a map.”
“A map? Why do you need—”
“I need a place to go. It has to be somewhere where no one knows me.” He walked over to the bookshelves and started pulling out travel literature the club kept handy for members. “Here we go, a map of the U.S.” Darcy walked back to the table and spread it open. Putting one hand over his eyes, he stretched the other over the map, took a deep breath and stabbed with his finger. “All right,” he said, studying the spot. “Cecil, Kentucky—good a place as any.”
“Cecil? It sounds as if it’s in the middle of nowhere. ”
“No, look, it’s in…I’ll be damned. It’s in Bluegrass country, a little southwest of Lexington.”
