JENNIE LUCAS grew up dreaming about faraway lands. At fifteen, hungry for experience beyond the borders of her small Idaho city, she went to a Connecticut boarding school on scholarship. She took her first solo trip to Europe at sixteen, then put off college and travelled around the US, supporting herself with jobs as diverse as gas station cashier and newspaper advertising assistant.
At twenty-two she met the man who would be her husband. After their marriage she graduated from Kent State with a degree in English. Seven years after she started writing she got the magical call from London that turned her into a published author.
Since then life has been hectic, with a new writing career, a sexy husband and two small children, but sheâs having a wonderful (albeit sleepless) time. She loves immersing herself in dramatic, glamorous, passionate stories. Maybe she canât physically travel to Morocco or Spain right now, but for a few hours a day, while her children are sleeping, she can be there in her books.
Jennie loves to hear from her readers. You can visit her website at www.jennielucas.com, or drop her a note at [email protected]
Recent titles by the same author:
DEALING HER FINAL CARD
(Princes Untamed)
TO LOVE, HONOUR AND BETRAY
A NIGHT OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY RECKLESS NIGHT IN RIO
Did you know these are also available as eBooks?Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk
TWO DAYS AFTER Christmas, in the soft pink Honolulu dawn, Josie Dalton stood alone on a deserted sidewalk and tilted her head to look up, up, up to the top of the skyscraper across the street, all the way to his penthouse in the clouds.
She exhaled. She couldnât do this. Couldnât. Marry him? Impossible.
Except she had to.
Iâm not scared, Josie repeated to herself, hitching her tattered backpack higher on her shoulder. Iâd marry the devil himself to save my sister.
But the truth was sheâd never really thought it would come to this. Sheâd assumed the police would ride in and save the day. Instead, the police in Seattle, then Honolulu, had laughed in her face.
âYour older sister wagered her virginity in a poker game?â the first said incredulously. âIn some kind of loversâ game?â
âLet me get this straight. Your sisterâs billionaire ex-boyfriend won her?â The second scowled. âI have real crimes to deal with, Miss Dalton. Get out of here before I decide to arrest you for illegal gambling.â
Now, Josie shivered in the cool, wet dawn. No one was coming to save Bree. Just her.
She narrowed her eyes. Fine. She should take responsibility. She was the one whoâd gotten Bree into trouble in the first place. If Josie hadnât stupidly accepted her bossâs invitation to the poker game, her sister wouldnât have had to step in and save her.
Clever Bree, six years older, had been a childhood card prodigy and a con artist in her teens. But after a decade away from that dangerous life, working instead as an honest, impoverished housekeeper, her sisterâs card skills had become rusty. How else to explain the fact that, instead of winning, Bree had lost everything to her hated ex-boyfriend with the turn of a single card?
Vladimir Xendzov had separated the sisters, forcibly sending Josie back to the mainland on his private jet. Sheâd spent her last paycheck to fly back, desperate to get Bree out of his clutches. For forty-four hours now, since the dreadful night of the game, Josie had only managed to hold it together because she knew that, should everything else fail, she had one guaranteed fallback plan.
But now she actually had to fall back on the plan, it felt like falling on a sword.
Josie looked up again at the top of the skyscraper. The windows of the penthouse gleamed red, like fire, above the low-hanging clouds of Honolulu.
Sheâd caused her sister to lose her freedom. She would save herâby selling herself in marriage to Vladimir Xendzovâs greatest enemy.
His younger brother.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, she repeated to herself. And, considering the way the Xendzov brothers had tried to destroy each other for the past ten years, Kasimir Xendzov must be her new best friend. Right?
A lump rose in her throat.
I would marry the devil himselfâ¦
Slowly, Josie forced her feet off the sidewalk. Her legs wobbled as she crossed the street. She dodged a passing tour bus, flinching as it honked angrily.