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Mr. Temptation
Rachael Stewart
Mixing business with pleasure… …has never been more tempting! Career-focussed Zara Anders, an estate agent for the elite, has sworn off men—until gorgeous Swedish billionaire Daniel Lazenby gets under her skin. Their racy affair heats up quickly, but ends in a hurry when Zara learns about Daniel’s womanizing past. Determined to win her back, Daniel offers her a business deal too good to be true…and some out-of-office fun too tempting to turn down!
Businesswoman Zara Anders always keeps it professional at work—until she meets sexy billionaire Daniel. But their scorching affair is threatened when Zara learns Daniel’s secret... Will his racy business proposal tempt her back to the bedroom?
After a messy breakup with an unfaithful ex, Zara Anders swears off men, vowing to focus on her career running an estate agency for the elite. And then she meets Swedish billionaire Daniel Lazenby: strong, successful and sexually magnetic. Just the kind of man she should avoid.
Daniel is helping his sister buy a house, and Zara finds him impossible to resist. Before long, the pair embark on a passionate fling, all the racier for its secrecy. When Zara discovers the truth about Daniel’s womanizing ways, she’s furious. She wants to end their affair immediately, knowing she’ll only get hurt otherwise. But Daniel isn’t going down without a fight. He hires Zara himself. He wants two houses—and a shot at proving to Zara that their red-hot chemistry is worth fighting for.
Zara knows the deal might break her heart, but the business is too tempting to turn down...and the out-of-office thrills are an electrifying bonus!
Sexy. Passionate. Bold. Discover Harlequin DARE, a new line of fun, edgy and sexually explicit romances for the fearless female.
RACHAEL STEWART adores conjuring up stories—from heartwarmingly romantic to wildly erotic. She’s been writing since she could put pen to paper—as the stacks of scrawled-on pages in her loft will attest to. A Welsh lass at heart, she now lives in Yorkshire, with her very own hero and three awesome kids, and if she’s not tapping out a story she’s wrapped up in one or enjoying the great outdoors. Reach her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/rachaelstewartauthor/), Twitter (@rach_b52 (https://twitter.com/rach_b52?lang=en)) or at rachaelstewartauthor.com (https://rachaelstewartauthor.com/).
Mr Temptation
Rachael Stewart
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08698-1
MR TEMPTATION
© 2019 Rachael Stewart
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my grandparents,
for inspiring my love of Mills & Boon.
To Jenny, for all those weekend trips to the market,
scooping up secondhand Mills & Boons and writing
our own tales together;
And, of course, to my very own Mr Temptation, for
proving to me that love like this is real and worth
taking a chance on.
Yours always, R. xx
Contents
Cover (#u54000df7-ed8d-5e08-a7d9-f3393f527bc8)
Back Cover Text (#u1862b312-d70d-5738-98ba-c9c32dfcfc44)
About the Author (#u77b78ce1-a93e-5808-8ce2-3ed5247518cf)
Title Page (#u98d8d4a2-c4b8-5efb-b0e9-1086bd2a6282)
Copyright (#u86d917a4-aa9a-52b1-b643-dc6aebc84217)
Dedication (#uaf280635-70b6-5152-bfa6-ce0571917f03)
CHAPTER ONE (#u219e270b-0d67-55e9-935d-fe945d938477)
CHAPTER TWO (#u360e132f-9005-5584-9d8f-8e8f58ea750c)
CHAPTER THREE (#u239f9cc7-3bc6-5bef-a1e1-1301b9bf0320)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u93d22ccd-0523-593b-aa7d-75d61d700f25)
‘FUCKERS.’
Daniel raked his fingers through his hair and rose to sit at the edge of the bed, his body hunching over his mobile and its glaring news feed.
It was entirely expected, everything he’d envisaged the night before, so why was he so riled?
He’d asked for it. And the press had delivered. In fact, more than delivered—the article had to be the most scathing yet.
But where was the usual sense of fun, the thrill of living up to his name, of pissing on his mum’s glory?
‘Honey, whatever it is, let it go and come back to bed.’
The voice purred at him from behind, a set of nails down his bare back designed to add to the appeal, and yet he wasn’t taking the bait. Not even a nibble. Both his cock and mind uninterested.
‘You should go.’ He twisted to take in the naked rear of the woman who was last night’s fix. What was it? The third—fourth time they’d slept together.
She was beautiful, everything you’d expect an elite model of her calibre to be. But he was bored, the spark already dying out; it had to be a record. He felt a pang of guilt and buried it. She wouldn’t care, not really; he was careful who he chose to fill his bed. And she’d got what she came for. He always lived up to his rep.
‘What time is it?’ She rolled onto her back, stretching out and pulling the crisp white sheet down her front, her bared rose-tipped breasts pert and alert. His cock gave a twinge, a little interest after all...
But not enough.
It was gone eight. He was due at his sister’s in less than an hour and the press were already gathering outside. The sooner they broke out, the better.
‘Time you went,’ he said, rising to his feet. ‘I’m hitting the shower.’
‘I’ll come with.’
She moved to follow and he faced her off, unconcerned that the semi he was sporting gave a very different response to his, ‘Nej—don’t.’
She gave a sultry pout and fell back onto her haunches. ‘Party pooper.’
‘Don’t tell me you haven’t got a rammed schedule for today.’
She rolled her eyes with a resigned sigh. ‘Thanks for the reminder.’
She turned to reach across the bed and take up her mobile from the side table, her focus now on the screen while her pert little ass beckoned him.
Shower. Now.
Making himself turn away, he headed to the bathroom. He could get his fix later, find someone new perhaps. Hell, he could have his pick...maybe that was the problem...
‘Annie, dahling,’ he heard her coo down the phone, ‘can you sort me an escape from The Shard? Seems we’ve caused a bit of a stir with the paparazzi...’
He set the jets of water running and drowned out the remainder of her conversation. He’d just finished with his hair when her naked body curved around the doorframe.
‘Sure I can’t change your mind?’
Ah, fuck it, another ten minutes isn’t going to hurt...
* * *
‘Zara, Shit-Bag is on line one—he’s after a number for a contact, apparently.’
EJ, her PA and right hand, leant back over her office chair, her head appearing through the open doorway to Zara’s private office. Not even her black-rimmed glasses were big enough to conceal her raised auburn brow and sparking blue gaze. She was as pissed at taking the call as Zara was to receive it.
‘Tell him I have an appointment. I’ll call him back.’ It wasn’t a lie, she did, and she needed to get moving if she wasn’t going to be late. She had the whole day mapped out touring London with her latest client, Julia Larsson, showing her abodes that matched the property brief they’d mapped out together to a T.
‘Righto,’ EJ said, dropping back into her own space. Although it wasn’t really as if the rest of her team had any designated space as such. Not yet.
Other than her office, the walls were only partially in place, the refit as per her design spec was halfway through completion and they were all living with a rather open workspace in the interim. Not that it really mattered. Zara only had a handful of employees currently, but it paid to have space for her expansion plans and, more importantly, it paid to have the right kind of space to entertain the right kind of clients.
The kind of space she’d had up until five months ago when Shit-Bag had left her no choice but to walk out of her former company. Six months of trying to work together following their break-up having taken their toll.
‘Err, Zara, he says it’s urgent.’
EJ walked her chair back into view and gave her an apologetic grimace, making a derogatory hand signal against the receiver at the same time. The latter succeeded in pulling out a smirk. How very different from the way EJ had reacted to him in the early days. How very different from every woman when first being caught in his charismatic web. She’d been no exception. Falling for his clean and slick appearance, a voice that rumbled with teasing provocation no matter what was being said and a body fit for a boxing ring.
Yeah, you fell for it, all right, but no more—you’re older and wiser for it now.
‘It’s okay,’ she assured her, ‘let him through.’
Her tummy twisted, but her smile at EJ was solid. She wasn’t going to upset her with her own discomfort. And she most definitely wasn’t going to let him hear how much he could still hurt her.
She lifted the phone receiver and accepted the call. ‘Charles, what is it?’
‘Zara, be a good girl and send me Tristan Black’s phone number, will you?’
His brash condescension had her teeth clenching, her anger flaring. Did I really find that cockney arrogance sexy once?
‘I’m rather busy right now,’ she said neutrally, using the anger to her advantage. Anger she could work with, it was so much easier to control than pain. ‘I’ll see if I can find it later and send it on.’
‘Come on, Zara, darling, it’s urgent and you know full well you have his number.’ If she didn’t know him better she’d think she caught the hint of panic, as though he could sense she was about to cut the call. Which she was. But panic? What could be so important that he needed to reach Tristan this second? ‘Look, our blasted systems have gone down and I don’t seem to have it on my mobile.’
‘Perhaps that’s because he was my client.’ She couldn’t help the barbed comment. But hell, he’d refused to let her take anyone, enforcing the restrictive contract clauses to the letter. She’d been lucky to set her new business up at all. Even luckier to take EJ with her.
It didn’t matter that he was the reason she’d had to leave in the first place. That she’d been the one who had worked twenty-four-seven to make it the success it had become. The success it still was, only now it was his baby, he was the one reaping all the benefit.
‘Very true,’ he said smoothly, his composure back so swiftly she’d probably imagined the crack—it was too much to hope for after all. ‘But, you know, my client now, of course.’
She clenched her fist around the phone, his smarmy tone and gibe making her want to hurl. The sooner she could have him off the line, the better. ‘I’ll dig it out and send it on, good—’
