Chapter One

      “This is the greatest coup of my career,” Toni Carlton said out loud, uncaring of the busy sidewalk she moved down. It was everything she could do not to hug herself and spin around in delight, Mary Tyler Moore-style.

      “Lady, I’ll coo in your ear anytime.”

      She flung a mass of red curly hair over her slender shoulder and narrowed her green eyes at the speaker, a complete stranger in an expensive three-piece suit.

      Tall, dark and a jerk. Weren’t weirdos supposed to wear fatigue jackets and grotesque purple toques?

      He must have gotten the message because he ducked his head, tucked his expensive leather briefcase under his arm and scurried hurriedly down the sidewalk.

      She decided she loved Vancouver anyway. Loved Chinatown. And especially loved Martin Ying, who had just agreed to design an exclusive line of clothing for Madame Yeltsy’s, the quality clothing chain store that she was buyer for. This was her first solo trip, but Madame Yeltsy expected great things every time. The ordinary was not good enough.

      Toni stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to the display window that had caught the corner of her eye. The humble storefront gave lie to the exotic Oriental pieces in jade decorating the front window.

      They were absolutely original and took her breath away. What an incredible complement they could make to the Ying line!

      She burst in the door. Her eyes had to adjust to the light.

      A tiny Oriental man, who looked slightly older than her, perhaps in his late twenties, stood behind the counter, so focused on what he was seeing through the jeweler’s loupe he held to his right eye that he didn’t see her at first.

      He glanced