Justine Davis - Deadly Temptation

A tumultuous reunion .

Logan took three steps towards her. He stared at her, and she found it difficult to breathe. It seemed forever before he spoke. And when he did, his voice was harsh and matched the haunted look in his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“All of a sudden I’ve got Redstone Security on my tail. They said you put them up to it. Why?”

“I’m trying to help,” she said.

He gave a low, humourless chuckle. “Don’t,” he said. “Don’t waste your time.”

Liana studied him. Had he given up? Or was he just in shock over what had happened to him and hadn’t yet begun to fight back? She had to believe the latter; the Logan Beck who’d saved her life would never give up so easily.

“It’s my time to waste,” she said firmly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Justine Davis lives on Puget Sound in Washington State. Her interests outside writing are sailing, doing needlework, horseback riding and driving her restored 1967 Corvette roadster – top down, of course.

Justine says that years ago, during her career in law enforcement, a young man she worked with encouraged her to try for a promotion to a position that was at the time occupied only by men. “I succeeded, became wrapped up in my new job, and that man moved away, never, I thought, to be heard from again. Ten years later he appeared out of the woods of Washington State, saying he’d never forgotten me and would I please marry him. With that history, how could I write anything but romance?”

Dear Reader,

As a writer, I spend a lot of time pondering human nature. As a writer of romance, I spend a lot more pondering the nature of heroes. The quiet kind who never gets the hero fanfare but never stops trying, even in the face of impossible, crushing odds. There’s the hero who takes a stand for what’s right in the face of fierce opposition, and the people who become situational heroes, ordinary people who respond heroically in a crisis.

Then there’s the hero I can never wrap my mind completely around, the one who regularly risks his life for strangers he will never see again. The one who believes in something bigger than himself and is willing to die for it. Perhaps it’s because I’m in such awe of that mind-set that I find it so fascinating. It is that awe and a simple question that inspired Deadly Temptation ; what if someone had the chance to actually repay one of those heroes?

I hope you’ll enjoy Logan and Liana’s story; I have a feeling I’ll be revisiting this ground often.

Happy reading!

Justine Davis

JUSTINE DAVIS

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Chapter 1

Liana Kiley stared at the photograph in the newspaper on her desk. Read the caption again, then the headline, just to be sure. In some part of her mind she knew that when the initial shock wore off she’d be swamped by a mass of emotions and memories, but for now the buffer was there.

“Good mornin’.”

The drawled greeting from her office doorway—a doorway still half-blocked with two as yet untouched moving boxes—made her jump, and she smothered a gasp.

“Thought I’d see how you’re settling in.”

She stared at the tall, rangy man leaning against the doorjamb. So it was true. The great, the brilliant, the incredible Joshua Redstone really did make a tour of his own Southern California headquarters every morning when he was in the building. They’d told her—warned her?—but she hadn’t quite believed it until now, with her new boss standing there in front of her. He’d actually stopped to see her, the newest, lowliest face on the huge Redstone totem pole.

“I—” She swallowed, tried again. It wasn’t every day you talked to one of the richest, most successful entrepreneurs in the world. “I’m getting there, Mr. Redstone.”

He gave her a lazy smile that eased her nerves. “To anyone who works in this building I’m not Mr. Redstone. I’m Josh.”

“Josh,” she said, although even at his request it felt presumptuous.

“Need anything?”

They’d told her about that, too, that if you indeed did need something, job-related or not, these morning tours were the time to ask.

I should ask him to save Logan, she thought, flicking a glance at the newspaper she’d dropped on the desk.

“Problem?”

Her gaze shot back to her boss’s face. He was as quick as she’d thought he must be. This might be her first day on the job, but even she could see that something…alert had come into those cool-gray eyes.

She’d never been, as some were, fooled by the lazy drawl into thinking he was slow or stupid; she’d researched him and the empire he’d built too well before she’d applied for the rare opening. No fool could ever have accomplished what he had—taken a single design for a small jet and built it into one of the biggest privately held multinational operations in the world.

When she didn’t immediately answer his question, he straightened from the doorjamb and came toward her.

“What is it?”

“I…just some disturbing news,” she said, gesturing at the paper.

Josh Redstone grimaced. “That’s the template these days. Even if it’s good news, make it sound disturbing.” He glanced at the page she’d been looking at. His expression changed again. “But that really is disturbing.”

“He didn’t do it!”

The words burst from her, and she wanted to grab them back the instant they were spoken. This was not how she wanted her first day on her precious new job to go.

“I’m sorry,” she said hastily. “I—”

She stopped as he waved a hand at her, clearly requesting silence, and continued to read the headline story. After a moment he looked up at her.

“You know him?”

She nodded, keeping her mouth shut, afraid of what else might come pouring out.

“Boyfriend?”

“No,” she said, startled. “Actually I haven’t seen him in a few years.”

Josh looked thoughtful, and Liana had the sudden feeling that this, of all she’d seen from him this morning, was the expression to be wary of if you were on the other side of a bargaining table from this man.

“But you don’t believe he did what they’re saying? That he’s a crooked cop?”

“I know he isn’t,” she said fervently. “He would no more take money from drug dealers than he would…” Her words trailed off as she was unable to think of an analogy bizarre enough.

“Sometimes,” Josh said slowly, “people hide facets of themselves.”

“Yes,” she said, conscious of the fact that she was debating with her new boss before she’d even sat down once in her new office chair. “But when you’re in a…life-threatening, life-changing situation, facades tend to fall away.”

She held her breath, waiting, wondering if it was going to turn out to be a good thing that she hadn’t completely unpacked yet, because that would make it easier to repack and get out of here after he fired her for insubordination.

“He’s the one?”