It was just as well that he’d rushed out of the office, he thought as the elevator descended to the lobby. It would’ve been a lot worse if he’d stuck around and she’d happened to notice the bulging evidence of his desire for her.

Adam rubbed his hand along his jaw in frustration. What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t some hormone-driven kid out on a date with the prom queen. This was just lust, pure and simple, and easily conquered. He wouldn’t be led around by his libido. Ever.

Shoving open the private entry door leading out to the parking lot, Adam realized what this sudden attack of lust was all about. He’d been working day and night for months in anticipation of closing the Fantasy Mountain resort deal. He just needed to get the job done, then he needed to get laid. And not by one of his own employees, he added silently. There were any number of willing women he could call for a night of casual sex. And he would. As soon as he closed the deal.

As he jumped into the driver’s seat of the Ferrari, he remembered his earlier conversation with Brandon and Cameron. Something about Mom trying every trick in the book to set him up with a marriage-minded woman.

An image of Trish James flashed through his mind and Adam frowned. Okay, that was ridiculous. There was no way his mother had anything to do with Trish being hired. Yes, the timing was a bit coincidental, and Adam didn’t believe in coincidences. But the idea was ludicrous.

He turned the key and listened to the finely tuned, high-performance engine roar to life. It was beyond ridiculous to imagine his mother going to that much trouble. He realized that he was buying into Brandon’s paranoia and he shook it off.

But, meanwhile, he would do everything he could to avoid spending too much time with the gorgeous brunette who seemed destined, through no fault of her own, to make his calm and ordered life a living hell.


After a quick glass of water and a few cleansing breaths, Trish was ready to get to work. After all, she was being paid well and her work ethic was strong, so just because she was out to ruin the man didn’t mean she wouldn’t do a good job for him while she was here.

She started by exploring her new workspace. It was bright and spacious, just outside the doors to Adam Duke’s palatial office. Everything was big and impressive, befitting the executive assistant to the president and CEO of Duke Development International.

The cherrywood desk was almost as big as her apartment’s actual living room. And while it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the floor-to-ceiling view of the coast from Adam’s office, Trish actually had a view of the ocean from the window directly across from her desk. If she wasn’t careful, she could get used to all this extravagance. “But you will be careful,” she admonished herself. She wasn’t here to get comfortable, to enjoy any perks of the job. Just as she wasn’t here to sigh over Adam Duke like some starstruck teenager.

But really, why couldn’t the guy look like a troll?

“Let it go, Trish,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Just get to work.”

Forty minutes later, after she’d finished revising Adam’s letters and documents and completed the cost analysis he’d left, Trish faced the file drawers. She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for, but the faster she found something incriminating inside these drawers, the faster she’d be able to give up this sham job and be on her way. Maybe she would find what she needed today. That would certainly save her from weeks of turmoil, working side by side with the most delectable man on the planet.

“He even smells good,” she groused, recalling his subtle scent that reminded her of green forests and autumn rain. “You weren’t going to dwell on that, remember?”

Resolutely she opened the first drawer and began to sort through the files. An hour later, after memorizing every client name from A to M, Trish came to the Mansfield file, the one Adam had requested. He still wasn’t back from his meeting so she looked through the file, studied the issues involved in the deal, then laid the thick folder on Adam’s desk.

Finished with the tasks he’d assigned her, Trish checked her e-mail, printed her list of job priorities. She vowed to be on time every day and to do her job to the best of her ability while creating a pleasant work environment for everyone around her. She would make herself an invaluable member of Adam’s team.

And then she would destroy him.

Two

“I’m telling you, the woman’s gone off the deep end with this marriage thing.” Brandon Duke paced in front of the Dunsmuir Bay Yacht Club’s wide bay window, ignoring the picture-perfect view of sailboats and blue skies lying beyond the glass. “She’s obsessed.”

“Why is that a surprise?” Adam grinned, then took a quick sip of strong coffee. “And why are you so freaked out? It’s not like this is the first time Mom’s tried to talk us into getting married. She wants grandkids and we’re not cooperating.”

“That’s right,” his brother, Cameron, said, sitting back in the comfortable captain’s chair. Despite the thousand-dollar business suit and silk designer necktie, Cameron looked completely relaxed. But Adam knew he never relaxed. A former Marine, Cameron was more driven, possibly more ruthless, than anyone Adam had ever known. Except himself.

“Remember when she forced us all to watch videos of her wedding day?” Cameron asked, shaking his head. “She thought it would soften us up or something.”

“That was gruesome,” Brandon agreed. “But the wedding cake looked good.” He stretched his wide shoulders, glanced around the busy dining room, then sat down at the table and studied the yacht club breakfast menu. “Are we eating or what?”

“Are we breathing?” Adam said with a laugh.

“You’re always eating,” Cameron said to Brandon as he picked up the menu.

Brandon ignored his older brothers and signaled the waitress over. “I’ll have pancakes, eggs and bacon. And toast. Better make it a double order of toast.”

“I’ll have the Denver omelet,” Cameron said, and set the menu down. “And throw in a short stack, will you, Janie?”

“You bet, Mr. Duke,” Janie, the waitress, said. She turned to Adam. “How about you, Mr. Duke?”

“I’ll stick with coffee,” Adam said. He needed the jolt to snap him out of the knee-jerk reaction he’d had to his new temporary assistant earlier. If he’d been more awake, she never would’ve caught him so off guard.

Janie poured more coffee, then scurried off.

Brandon said solemnly, “Look, guys, about Mom. This time it’s different. She’s serious. You should’ve heard her on the phone with her pal, Beatrice. She’s lined up a whole squadron of friends to work on this thing. They’ve already got women lined up for each of us.”

“Oh, yeah?” Cameron said with a leer. “I’m always on the lookout for new women. Remind me to thank her when I see her this weekend.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “If you really want to date someone Mom picked out, there’s always Susie Walton.”

Cameron shivered visibly at the high school memory. “Why’d you have to go and spoil my appetite like that?”

“That’s my job.” Adam turned to Brandon. “Did you tell her you’re on to her?”

“Hell, no,” Brandon said. “The woman’s a runaway train and I don’t feel like getting flattened.”

“Smart.” Adam stared out at a sailboat passing by under motor power until it made its way into the marina channel. He shook his head. “What makes her think I’d marry any woman she threw at me?”

“Good question,” Brandon said, stymied.

“What makes her think we’d marry anyone, ever?” Cameron said.

“She’s Mom,” Brandon said with a shrug.

“Yeah.” Cameron sighed. “She’s like a heat-seeking missile when she gets a bug up her butt.”

“Interesting mixed metaphor,” Adam said as he lifted his coffee cup. “But apropos nonetheless.”

Cameron shot Adam a look of derision. “Dude, apropos? Nonetheless?”

Brandon slugged Cameron’s arm. “Leave him alone. He’s using his words.”

Cameron snorted. “Right. Sorry.”

Adam disregarded them. “The bottom line is, she’s not setting me up,” Adam said easily.

“That’s my point,” Brandon persisted. “She’s not setting anyone up. It’s going to be a surprise attack this time. She told Beatrice, and I quote, ‘They won’t know what hit them.’”

His two brothers shared a look of amusement, but Brandon wasn’t cowed. He shook his finger at Adam. “Ignore me at your peril, dude.”

Adam glanced at Cameron, who raised his eyebrows at his brother’s adamant tone but said nothing.

Brandon saw the exchange and held up his hands. “I’m just saying, watch out. You’re first on her list, Adam. And if you fall…”

“I won’t,” Adam said.

“Good luck,” Brandon grumbled. “The woman’s diabolical.”

Cameron took a sip of coffee, then wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “It’ll be so poignant watching Adam tie the knot.”

Brandon grinned and joined in with a few fake sniffles. “Our little guy’s all grown up.”

“Very funny,” Adam said tightly. “I’m not tying any thing.” He looked from Cameron to Brandon. “And neither are you two. We made a pact.”

The men grew silent as Adam’s words took them back to the day when three eight-year-old boys were forced to make peace with each other. They’d been fighting all morning until their foster mother, Sally Duke, had had enough. She put sandwiches, chips and boxes of juice up in the custom tree house she’d had built for them and warned them not to come down until they could learn to live as brothers.

They were up in that tree house for hours before the dark and dirty secrets began to spill out. Cameron confessed about life on the edge with his junkie mom. Brandon talked without emotion about his father, who beat him regularly until the man was killed in a bar fight. His mother had disappeared long before that, so Brandon was put into the foster care system.