Playboy Boss, Live-In Mistress. Kelly Hunter
Praise for Kelly Hunter’s debut novel, WIFE FOR A WEEK:
‘WIFE FOR A WEEK is an amazing debut for author Kelly Hunter. Warm and enticing, this novel sucks the reader in. The characters are engaging and entertaining with their banter, the secondary characters shine like gems and the hero’s mother, effervescent… Exciting new talent Kelly Hunter has managed to produce a novel that not only whets the appetite but leaves the reader craving more. I can’t wait to see what’s up next!’
—CataRomance
WIFE FOR A WEEK was awarded Best First Category Romance of 2006 by CataRomance, and SLEEPING PARTNER was a 2008 finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award in the Best Contemporary Series Romance category!
‘It’s not so wild,’ Sienna whispered.
Lex covered her hand with his and guided it to the back of his neck. ‘Yet,’ he muttered, and bent his head to hers.
Sienna didn’t stop to think. She didn’t want to think, just feel and taste and take. He’d promised her wildness. He’d deliberately sown the seeds of her need for it. Sienna parted her lips and tasted him with her tongue, a leisurely slide along the join of his lips, a request for permission to enter. She expected consent, but instead he pulled back.
‘Be very sure,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’m not playing, Sienna.’
‘Yes, you are,’ she said, her gaze firmly fixed on his mouth. But right now she didn’t care. ‘You always do.’
‘Not always,’ he murmured, and set his lips to hers.
Accidentally educated in the sciences, Kelly Hunter has always had a weakness for fairytales, fantasy worlds, and losing herself in a good book. Husband… yes. Children…two boys. Cooking and cleaning…sigh. Sports…no, not really—in spite of the best efforts of her family. Gardening…yes—roses, of course. Kelly was born in Australia and has travelled extensively. Although she enjoys living and working in different parts of the world, she still calls Australia home. Visit Kelly online at www.kellyhunter.net
Recent titles by the same author:
WIFE FOR A WEEK
PRICELESS
SLEEPING PARTNER
TAKEN BY THE BAD BOY
PLAYBOY BOSS, LIVE-IN MISTRESS
BY
KELLY HUNTER
For those who dare to believe
CHAPTER ONE
ALEXANDER WENTWORTH THE THIRD could be a very patient man when he wanted to be.
Take the stock market, the money market, the futures market, any market, for example… When it came to waiting for the opportune moment, Lex had been known to exhibit the patience of Job.
If an eight-knot wind was blowing north-north-east off the Cornwall coast, and he had no place to be but on his yacht and nothing to do but set a course and peel a diamond-encrusted bikini off a beautiful woman, Lex could be very patient indeed. Journeys of seduction were meant to be savoured and savour them he did. Frequently.
Yes, indeed. Patience was one of Lex’s many virtues.
Unfortunately, his current stock of patience was fading fast, and it wasn’t just because he was fifteen hours into a twenty-five hour flight from London to Sydney, with a stopover in Singapore still pending. It was because his temporary personal assistant had a God-given talent for driving him nuts.
Sienna Raleigh was her name; personal assistant and right-hand man her latest trade. She had a doctorate in Renaissance Art, impeccable if somewhat colourful lineage, and a smile that could drop a man at fifty paces. Sienna had been five when they’d first met. Lex had been all of eleven, and her failure to acknowledge his superiority in all things had both irritated and intrigued him. He should’ve taken it as a warning never to employ her, he thought glumly. He really should’ve made an effort and crushed her insurgency some twenty years ago, the moment he’d first set eyes on her, he deduced with a sigh. Because he didn’t have a hope in Hades of crushing it now.
‘Any more stock reports to read?’ he asked her.
‘You mean apart from the dozens you’ve already read?’ she said, without lifting her gaze from the book she was reading. ‘No.’
‘Any more newspapers?’
‘You’ve read all those too.’
‘Just checking.’ He waited a beat. ‘What’s that you’re reading?’
‘An airport novel.’ Sienna’s long-suffering tone served only to amuse him. Clearly the nut-driving worked both ways. ‘I’m up to the part where our hero—due to a combination of strength, determination, brilliance, luck, and fortuitous plotting—single-handedly nabs the villains and then walks away from the traitorous yet agonisingly beautiful woman who betrayed him.’
‘Sounds reasonable,’ he said. ‘Keep me posted.’ He drummed his fingers on the armrest, flicked through the entertainment channels. Sighed.
Sienna looked up at him from her book, those golden brown eyes with their tiny flecks of green revealing acute exasperation and a refreshing lack of guile. ‘Admit it,’ she said. ‘You have the attention span of a gnat.’
‘I do not.’
‘And you want my book.’
‘No, I don’t. Unless of course you’re finished with it.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Because it certainly sounds like the end to me.’
‘There’s an epilogue.’
‘You actually read epilogues?’
‘Wouldn’t want to miss anything,’ she said sweetly. ‘Attention to detail is what you pay me for, remember? It was in the job description.’
‘Wasn’t catering to my every whim in the job description too?’ he asked. ‘I thought it was.’
‘Maybe in your draft. Your former PA removed all references to slavery before she sent it out.’
‘She was an uncommonly good PA,’ he said on a sigh, and meant every word. ‘I still don’t understand how she could choose marriage and motherhood over working for me.’
‘Unfathomable,’ said Sienna a little too dryly for comfort.
‘You like working for me, don’t you?’
‘Lex, I’ve been working for you for three days and so far it’s been bedlam. I’ve rescheduled five meetings, changed our travel arrangements twice, kept an investment bank president on hold for fifteen minutes, begged your former PA to return on a daily basis, and vowed to shoot you at least a dozen times.’
‘What can I say?’ he said. ‘It’s been a slow week. You’ll like the set-up in Australia, though. Trust me.’
Sienna ran her hand along the leather armrest and looked around the spacious cabin area as if assessing the benefits of business-class travel, before turning an amused gaze on him. ‘Speaking of the set-up in Sydney…I still don’t think it’s a good idea for us to share a house while we’re there. A month is a long time, Lex.’
‘It’s not a house, it’s a business hub,’ he said. ‘And you’ll have an entire wing to yourself and a commute to work of approximately fifty metres. None of my other PAs ever complained of it.’
‘None of them are still working for you either. What if I want to get away from you and the work? What if I want to entertain? What if you want to entertain?’