âHeidi Rice is simply brilliant when it comes to writing sharp, sassy and sexy romantic novels!â
âCataromance
About HOT-SHOT TYCOON, INDECENT PROPOSAL: âThe amusing opening spins into an emotional and heartfelt story.â
âRT Book Reviews
About PUBLIC AFFAIR, SECRETLY EXPECTING: âI was actually breathless while reading this bookâ¦Itâs a sensual ride you wonât want to lose the opportunity of reading.â
âThe Pink Heart Society
âIâm not blaming you. Iâm blaming the situation.â His eyes met hers and she saw something that stunned her for a second. Was that concern?
âIf you needed money, you should have come to me,â he said with dictatorial authority, and she knew sheâd made a stupid mistake. That wasnât concern. It was contempt.
âThere was no need for you to become a stripper,â he remarked.
Her heart stopped, and the blush blazed like wildfire.
Had he just said stripper?
He cupped her cheek. The unexpected contact had her outraged reply getting stuck in her throat.
âI know things ended badly between us, but we were friends once. I can help you.â His thumb skimmed across her cheek with the lightest of touches. âAnd, whatever happens, youâre finding another job.â The patronising tone did nothing to diminish the arousal darkening his eyes. âBecause, quite apart from anything else, youâre a terrible stripper.â
Unfinished
Business with the Duke
BY
HEIDI RICE was born and bred and still lives in London, England. She has two boys who love to bicker, a wonderful husband who, luckily for everyone, has loads of patience, and a supportive and ever-growing British/French/Irish/American family. As much as Heidi adores âthe Big Smokeâ, she also loves America, and every two years or so she and her best friend leave hubby and kids behind and Thelma and Louise it across the States for a couple of weeks (although they always leave out the driving off a cliff bit). Sheâs been a film buff since her early teens, and a romance junkie for almost as long. She indulged her first love by being a film reviewer for ten years. Then, two years ago, she decided to spice up her life by writing romance. Discovering the fantastic sisterhood of romance writers (both published and unpublished) in Britain and America made it a wild and wonderful journey to her first Mills & Boon® novel, and sheâs looking forward to many more to come.
Recent novels by the same author:
PUBLIC AFFAIR, SECRETLY EXPECTING
HOT-SHOT TYCOON, INDECENT PROPOSAL
A special thanks to my Florentine specialists,
Steve and Biz, to Katherine at the terrific Kings Head Theatre in Islington, and Leonardo, who answered my daft questions about architecture.
THE six-inch stiletto heels of Issy Helliganâs thigh-high leather boots echoed like gunshots against the marble floor of the gentlemenâs club. The sharp rhythmic cracks sounded like a firing squad doing target practice as she approached the closed door at the end of the corridor.
How appropriate.
She huffed and came to a stop. The gunshots cut off, but her stomach carried right on going, doing a loop-the-loop and then swaying like the pendulum of Big Ben. Recognising the symptoms of chronic stage fright, Issy pressed her palm to her midriff as she focussed on the elaborate brass plaque announcing the entrance to the âEast Wing Common Roomâ.
Calm down. You can do this. Youâre a theatrical professional with seven yearsâ experience.
Detecting the muffled rumble of loud male laughter, she locked her knees as a thin trickle of sweat ran down her back beneath her second-hand Versace mac.
People are depending on you. People you care about. Getting ogled by a group of pompous old fossils is a small price to pay for keeping those people gainfully employed.
It was a mantra sheâd been repeating for the past hourâto absolutely no avail.
After grappling with the knot on the macâs belt, she pulled the coat off and placed it on the upholstered chair beside the door. Then she looked down at her costumeâand Big Benâs pendulum got stuck in her throat.
Blood-red satin squeezed her ample curves into an hourglass shape, making her cleavage look like a freak of nature. She took a shallow breath and the bustierâs underwiring dug into her ribs.
She tugged the band out of her hair and let the mass of Pre-Raphaelite curls tumble over her bare shoulders as she counted to ten.
Fine, so the costume from last seasonâs production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show wasnât exactly subtle, but she hadnât had a lot of options at such short noticeâand the man who had booked her that morning hadnât wanted subtle.
âTarty, darling. Thatâs the look Iâm after,â heâd stated in his cut-glass Etonian accent. âRodders is moving to Dubai and we plan to show him what heâll be missing. So donât stint on the T and A, sweetheart.â
It had been on the tip of Issyâs tongue to tell him to buzz off and hire himself a stripper, but then heâd mentioned the astronomical sum he was prepared to pay if she âput on a decent showââand her tongue had gone numb.