Heidi Rice - Vows They Can't Escape

Still legally wedded...

Xanthe Carmichael has just discovered two things:

1. Her ex-husband could take half of her business.

2. She’s actually still married to him!

When she jets off to New York, divorce papers in hand, Xanthe is prepared for the billionaire bad boy’s slick office...but not for the spear of lust that hits her the moment she sees Dane Redmond again! Has her body no shame, no recollection of the pain he caused? But Dane is stalling... Is he really checking the fine print or planning to stir the smoldering embers of their passion and tempt her back into the marriage bed?

‘So we’re still, technically speaking, man and wife,’ Xanthe clarified.

‘You had better be kidding me!’

‘I’ve come all the way from London this morning to get you to sign the newly issued papers so we can fix this nightmare as fast as is humanly possible. So, no, I’m not kidding.’

She flicked through the document until she got to the signature page, which she had already signed, frustrated when her fingers wouldn’t stop trembling. She could smell him—the scent that was uniquely Dane’s—clean and male and far too enticing.

She drew back. Too late. She’d already ingested a lungful, detecting expensive cedarwood soap now, instead of the supermarket brand he had once used.

‘Once you’ve signed here.’ She pointed to the signature line. ‘Our problem will be solved and I can guarantee never to darken your door again.’

She whipped a gold pen out of the briefcase, stabbed the button at the top and thrust it towards him like a dagger.

USA TODAY bestselling author HEIDI RICE lives in London, England. She is married with two teenage sons—which gives her rather too much of an insight into the male psyche—and also works as a film journalist. She adores her job, which involves getting swept up in a world of high emotions, sensual excitement, funny, feisty women, sexy, tortured men and glamorous locations where laundry doesn’t exist. Once she turns off her computer she often does chores—usually involving laundry!

Books by Heidi Rice

Beach Bar Baby

Maid of Dishonour

One Night, So Pregnant!

Unfinished Business with the Duke

Public Affair, Secretly Expecting

Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal

Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition

Visit the Author Profile page at

millsandboon.co.ukfor more titles.

Vows They Can’t Escape

Heidi Rice

www.millsandboon.co.uk

With thanks to my cousin Susan, who suggested I write a romance with a female CEO as the heroine, my best writing mate Abby Green, who kept telling me to write a classic Modern, my best mate Catri, who plotted this with me on the train back from Kilkenny Shakespeare Festival, and to Sarah Hornby of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, who explained why having my hero and heroine spend a night below decks while sailing a yacht together round the Caribbean probably wasn’t a good idea!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text Still legally wedded... Xanthe Carmichael has just discovered two things: 1. Her ex-husband could take half of her business. 2. She’s actually still married to him! When she jets off to New York, divorce papers in hand, Xanthe is prepared for the billionaire bad boy’s slick office...but not for the spear of lust that hits her the moment she sees Dane Redmond again! Has her body no shame, no recollection of the pain he caused? But Dane is stalling... Is he really checking the fine print or planning to stir the smoldering embers of their passion and tempt her back into the marriage bed?

Introduction ‘So we’re still, technically speaking, man and wife,’ Xanthe clarified. ‘You had better be kidding me!’ ‘I’ve come all the way from London this morning to get you to sign the newly issued papers so we can fix this nightmare as fast as is humanly possible. So, no, I’m not kidding.’ She flicked through the document until she got to the signature page, which she had already signed, frustrated when her fingers wouldn’t stop trembling. She could smell him—the scent that was uniquely Dane’s—clean and male and far too enticing. She drew back. Too late. She’d already ingested a lungful, detecting expensive cedarwood soap now, instead of the supermarket brand he had once used. ‘Once you’ve signed here.’ She pointed to the signature line. ‘Our problem will be solved and I can guarantee never to darken your door again.’ She whipped a gold pen out of the briefcase, stabbed the button at the top and thrust it towards him like a dagger.

About the Author USA TODAY bestselling author HEIDI RICE lives in London, England. She is married with two teenage sons—which gives her rather too much of an insight into the male psyche—and also works as a film journalist. She adores her job, which involves getting swept up in a world of high emotions, sensual excitement, funny, feisty women, sexy, tortured men and glamorous locations where laundry doesn’t exist. Once she turns off her computer she often does chores—usually involving laundry! Books by Heidi Rice Beach Bar Baby Maid of Dishonour One Night, So Pregnant! Unfinished Business with the Duke Public Affair, Secretly Expecting Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal Pleasure, Pregnancy and a Proposition Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.

Title Page Vows They Can’t Escape Heidi Rice www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedication With thanks to my cousin Susan, who suggested I write a romance with a female CEO as the heroine, my best writing mate Abby Green, who kept telling me to write a classic Modern, my best mate Catri, who plotted this with me on the train back from Kilkenny Shakespeare Festival, and to Sarah Hornby of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, who explained why having my hero and heroine spend a night below decks while sailing a yacht together round the Caribbean probably wasn’t a good idea!

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

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

XANTHE CARMICHAEL STRODE into the gleaming steel-and-glass lobby of the twenty-six-storey office block housing Redmond Design Studios on Manhattan’s West Side, satisfied that the machine-gun taps of her heels against the polished stone flooring said exactly what she wanted them to say.

Watch out, boys, woman scorned on the warpath.

Ten years after Dane Redmond had abandoned her in a seedy motel room on the outskirts of Boston, she was ready to bring the final curtain crashing down on their brief and catastrophic liaison.

So the flush that had leaked into her cheeks despite the building’s overefficient air conditioning and the bottomless pit opening up in her stomach could take a hike.

After a six-hour flight from Heathrow, spent power-napping in the soulless comfort of Business Class, and two days and nights figuring out how she was going to deal with the unexploded bomb the head of her legal team, Bill Spencer, had dropped at her feet on Wednesday afternoon, she was ready for any eventuality.

Whatever Dane Redmond had once meant to her seventeen-year-old self, the potentially disastrous situation Bill had uncovered wasn’t personal any more—it was business. And nothing got in the way of her business.