The Executive's Valentine Seduction / Valente Must Marry: The Executive's Valentine Seduction. Merline Lovelace

      

      The Executive’s Valentine by Merline Lovelace

       A series of small shocks rippled down her spine. Those eyes.

      That deep golden tint. The russet outer ring around the dark iris. Wolf’s eyes, the former librarian in her catalogued automatically, due to the high incidence of that colour in wolves.

      Like…Like…

      Like the eyes that had haunted her dreams for years. Mocking her. Taunting her to shed her prissy inhibitions. Tempting her to sin.

      It couldn’t be him! This high-powered executive couldn’t be the hot stud she’d given her virginity to. The bastard who’d roared out of her life the next morning, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake.

      She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think as he approached. Those wolf’s eyes never left her face. “Hello, Caroline. It’s been a long time.”

      The Executive’s Valentine Seduction

      by

      Merline Lovelace

      Valente Must Marry

      by

      Maxine Sullivan

       MILLS & BOON®

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      The Executive’s Valentine Seduction

      by

Merline Lovelace

      Merline Lovelace, a retired air force officer, served at bases all over the world, including tours in Taiwan, Vietnam and at the Pentagon. When she hung up her uniform for the last time, she decided to combine her love of adventure and flair for storytelling, basing many of her tales on her experiences in the service.

      Since then, she’s produced more than seventy-five action-packed novels, many of which have made the USA TODAY and Waldenbooks bestseller lists. Over ten million copies of her works are in print in thirty-one countries. Named Oklahoma’s Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year, Merline is also a recipient of the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award.

      Check Merline’s website at www.merlinelovelace.com for news, contests and information about forthcoming releases.

      Dear Reader,

      My husband and I have stumbled across some magical spots during our many years of rambling. Tossa de Mar, on Spain’s Costa Brava, ranks right up near the top of our list. We found it by chance during a jaunt that took us from Madrid to Seville to Barcelona to the Strait of Gibraltar.

      When we stopped in Tossa, I fell instantly in love with its sparkling bay, crescent-shaped beach and ancient ruins. What made it even more special is that Al and I celebrated an anniversary there. So when I needed a spot to set the stage for The Executive’s Valentine Seduction, I knew it had to be beautiful Tossa by the Sea.

      All my best,

       Merline

      For my darling, who explored Tossa de Mar with me all those years ago. I can’t wait for all the adventures yet to come!

      One

      Caroline Walters had no premonition her world was about to implode that balmy February afternoon.

      She stood in the lobby of a new, upscale resort in Tossa de Mar, a seaside vacation spot on Spain’s Costa Brava, just an hour north of Barcelona. While Caro breathed in the fragrance of the bloodred gladiolas on the table beside her, she waited for the silver BMW gliding along the palm-lined drive to pull up at the resort’s entrance.

      The big moment was finally here. Her first meeting with the client who’d had her and her two partners jumping through hoops for the past month!

      She used the final few seconds before he arrived to check the mirror framing the gladiolas. Her honey-brown hair was smooth, with not a single tendril escaping from the heavy twist. Her green eyes gazed back at her with just the right degree of confidence. Her slim, black wool crepe skirt and matching jacket didn’t show a single wrinkle.

      Satisfied she looked the part of a coolly competent travel consultant and event coordinator, she flipped through the embossed leather folder she’d prepared for Rory Burke, founder and chief executive of the LA-based firm Global Security, Inc. She wanted to make sure she’d included everything Burke had requested.

      Final conference agenda, check.

      Resort layout, check.

      Diagrams showing room setup for general sessions, check.

      Additional diagrams for breakout rooms, check.

      Arrival times and room numbers of all attendees, check.

      Burke’s hotel preregistration and room key, check.

      Reassured everything was in place, Caroline closed the folder. She was primed and ready.

      She should be! She and her partners had worked their buns off since this short-notice job dropped in their laps a few days before Christmas. They’d had just a little over a month to scout locations and pull together a conference plan for the hundred-plus security agents flying in from all parts of the world.

      January had passed in a blur of frantic prep work. The flurry of e-mails and phone calls with Burke’s people had multiplied exponentially the first week in February. Two days ago Caro had flown to Spain to nail down the final details. In several marathon sessions with the resort’s conference coordinator, she’d reconfirmed menus, special dietary considerations, room setups and audiovisual aids.

      She’d also tackled the rather daunting challenge of arranging a demo facility for an assortment of lethal weapons. In a last-minute change to the conference agenda, Global Security’s head honcho had added a hands-on session to test new offensive and defensive weaponry for the protection of their clients.

      As its name implied, GSI specialized in providing threat analysis and personal protection for clients ranging from kings and rock stars to newspaper editors who landed on religious fanatics’ hate lists. The company profile indicated its agents were drawn from the ranks of military and law enforcement in twelve different countries.

      The company’s CEO was equally fascinating. His bio read like a James Bond novel. U.S. Army Ranger. Special Ops duty in war-torn Bosnia. A short stint with an unspecified government agency. Advisor to the Columbian Presidential Protection Unit. Founder and chief operating officer of GSI. Now fielding highly specialized agents in Iraq, Darfur, Indonesia, Latin America—just about every hot spot on the globe.

      Somewhere along the way he’d also managed to complete a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement and a master’s degree in international affairs. Curiously, neither his bio nor his company Web site had included a photo of Burke or any of his operatives. Caro suspected that might have something to do with GSI’s pledge to provide “complete, confidential and anonymous protection.”

      As a former librarian, Caroline had read more than her share of action/adventure novels. She could admire real-life James Bond types like Rory Burke. Unfortunately, her one brief walk on the wild side had produced such disastrous consequences that she had zero desire to emulate their exploits.

      So she couldn’t help feeling both curious about and just a touch wary of her new client. She didn’t allow either emotion to show, however, as the rental car she’d reserved for him at the Barcelona Airport pulled under the resort’s vine-covered portico. A polite smile firmly in place, she waited while