An enormous weight has just been lifted from my tired old shoulders. I just received an anonymous message assuring me that my missing foster daughter, Emily, is alive and well and will return home soon. Iâve shared the news with my eldest son, Rand, and also confided my concerns about my crumbling marriage. Rand seems to know more about his motherâs bizarre behavior than heâs letting on, but heâll tell me whatâs on his mind when heâs good and ready. Rand always did me proud, but I do worry about his ruthless determination to succeed. He needs a good woman to show him whatâs important in lifeâand he may have found her in his feisty new legal assistant, Lucy Lowry. Why, this pretty spitfire lights up the office with her spunk and energy, and she is no pushover, let me tell you! She has zero tolerance for Randâs overbearing ways, which of course doesnât sit well with my hot-tempered son. Mark my words, all that simmering sexual tension between them is bound to set off some major fireworksâ¦.
VICTORIA PADE
is a native of Colorado, where she continues to live and work. Her passionâbesides writingâis chocolate, which she indulges in frequently and in every form. She loves romance novels and romantic moviesâthe more lighthearted the betterâbut she likes a good, juicy mystery now and then, too. She particularly enjoyed being included in the Colton series for the opportunity to write a book with a more cosmopolitan feel to it and for the chance it gave her to research Washington, D.C.
Meet the Coltonsâa California dynasty with a legacy of privilege and power.
Rand Colton: The beast. A powerful mover and shaker, this attorney is used to getting his own wayâuntil his new assistant quickly turns his well-ordered life upside down!
Lucy Lowry: The beauty. Capable of giving as good as she gets, Randâs new assistant tempts him like no other woman heâs ever met. And itâs not long before her boss has only one item on his âto doâ listâto move their relationship from the boardroom to the bedroomâ¦.
Dr. Martha Wilkes: The baffled therapist. Her patient calls herself Patsy Portman, and yet none of her memories match that womanâs life. Is this a case of multiple personality disorderâ¦or something more nefarious?
âW ell, of course, you know I need the money. There were all the moving expenses and the cost of the mailings and ads for the business. And thereâs no way of knowing how long it will be before I get any kind of work, butââ
âBut nothing. The job is only until Rand finds someone else, and itâll give you the opportunity to become familiar with downtown, plus get your foot in the door with one attorney and make contacts with several others. Thatâs what you want, isnât it? Then theyâll send their research work your way and youâll have your start here.â
Here was Washington, D.C.âGeorgetown to be specificâand Lucy Lowry had to admit that her aunt, Sadie Meeks, was right.
Lucy had just moved cross-country from California with her four-year-old son Max and the move itself had been expensive. Now that she was settled into one of the four row houses her aunt had invested in, she needed to concentrate on earning an income, hopefully doing legal research so she could work out of her home and still be with Max as much as possible. But until all her efforts to drum up that kind of business succeeded, she intended to do secretarial work and/or bookkeeping to make ends meet. Which was exactly what her aunt was proposingâthe secretarial work, anyway.
âBeing downtown is the problem,â she said to her aunt. âNot only would I not be working out of the house, I wouldnât even be nearby.â
Sadie waved away her concern. âBut it would only be for a little while. I told you I spoke with the director of the day care and theyâll let you leave Max there as a favor to me for reading to the kids once a week and because the director is my old sorority sister. Itâs a very exclusive day care and thereâs a mile-long waiting list that weâre circumventing. Max will get the chance to meet some friends of his own. And he can stay with me some of the time, too. Weâll work on my Gameboy skills.â
Sadie paused and switched gears. âDo it as a favor to me, if nothing else, darling. Iâm enjoying my retirement and as fond as I am of Rand Colton, I just donât feel like going back to work. But heâs in such a bindâ¦.â
Lucy knew she couldnât argue with that tack. Her auntâher favorite auntâhad only recently bought the row of four town houses and offered one to her and Max rent-free. Sadie had insisted that the rent on two of the places paid the payment on all four and if Lucy and Max moved to Georgetown to help manage the properties, particularly when Sadie traveled, it would more than make up for the lack of rent on the town house theyâd occupy. Because of that arrangement Lucy could afford to freelance rather than work a nine-to-five office job and so sheâd jumped at the offer. But now she couldnât very well refuse to do Sadie a favor in return.