âMarriage was my daughterâs suggestion to this untenable situation,â Rafael said. His expression looked like thunder.
Mallory felt the point of that fiery dart penetrate her soul. But it meant Apolonia had found a way around her fatherâs objections and that salient truth flooded Mallory with happiness.
âYouâll have to pretend to be my wife in public and live in my suite so the staff donât talk,â Rafael ground out.
âUnlike a wife, I plan to live my own life taking care of your daughter. I intend to let you live yours.â
Rafael tossed his head back. The man had been caught in a snare of his daughterâs making and he didnât like it one bit.
âSo when do you want our wedding to take place?â
Every woman has dreamsâdeep desires, all-consuming passions, or maybe just little everyday wishes! In this brand-new miniseries from Harlequin Romance® weâre delighted to present a series of fresh, lively and compelling stories by some of our most popular authorsâall exploring the truth about what women really want.
Step into each heroineâs shoes as we get up close and personal with her most cherished dreamsâ¦big and small!
Is she a high-flying executiveâ¦but all she wants is a baby?
Has she met her ideal man? If only he wasnât her new bossâ¦
Is she about to marry, but is secretly in love with someone else?
Or does she simply long to be slimmer, more glamorous, with a whole new wardrobe?
Whatever she wants, each heroine finds happiness on her own termsâand unexpected romance along the way. And sheâs about to discover whether Mr. Right is the answer to her dreamsâor if he has a few questions of his own!
This month enjoy Rafaelâs Convenient Proposal by Rebecca Winters.
And look out for more from our bestselling authors coming soon!
âFOR those of you just joining the Jack Hendley Friday Night Live show broadcasting from New York, we have the gorgeous Ms. Mallory Ellis in studio with us this evening.â
The band played a little theme music and the audience clapped.
âIf you have eyes in your head, you could be forgiven for thinking sheâs a world-class supermodel or top box office movie star, but youâd be dead wrong. At twenty-nine years of age, Ms. Ellis has the distinction of being one of the youngest female executives ever featured in Financial Wizards of Wall Street.
âA top honors graduate in corporate law from Yale University, Ms. Ellis was snapped up by Windemere Cosmetics, a struggling Los Angeles based firm. In three short years under her guidance, the company not only has a new name, âLady Windemere Cosmetics,â it has also gone global. So far the profits keep rising which is good news for the employees who now own stock in the company.
âAccording to the magazine article, her undisputed genius lies in profit and loss savvy, but tonight weâre hoping sheâll reveal some of the secrets of her phenomenal success story.â
From far away, the audience couldnât tell the TV hostâs eyes glittered as he studied her. âAccording to a source close to you, youâre a woman who knows what women want, and you put women with the right credentials in charge. Did you always plan to be a big female tycoon?â
There was an edge to his question rather than a teasing tone. Sheâd seen him in action before. Jack Hendley was a male chauvinist who had fixed ideas about a womanâs place in life. That was all right with Mallory. A lot of insecure men had the same problem.
Coming on this show was the last thing sheâd wanted to do. But when Liz Graffman, the seventy-year-old widow who owned Lady Windemere Cosmetics, received a call from the television network asking that its vice president fly to New York and be on the Jack Hendley show, Mallory couldnât say no to Lizâs plea.
Lady Windemere Cosmetics would get the kind of exposure on his show you couldnât buy at any price.
Over the last thirty-six months, Malloryâs relationship with Liz had become like that of a favorite great-aunt and niece. Surely Mallory could stand a half hour of being patronized by one of televisionâs longstanding night talk show hosts.
âA tycoon by definition implies someone who owns a company or many companies. I only work for one,â she corrected him with a friendly smile. He didnât smile back which was no surprise since he could sense she was refusing to play ball with him.
âHowever to answer your question, when I was old enough to think about the world, there was only one thing that drove me; my insatiable love for surfing.â
His eyes flared because he hadnât been expecting that response. âWhere did you grow up?â
âHuntington Beach, California.â
âThat explains it. Were you a good surfer?â
âI won a few western regional championships at Redondo Beach and Malibu.â
Several wolf whistles resounded along with the clapping from the listening audience.