‘Let me be the first to tell you the good news.’

      Crossing one bare foot over the other, Finn leaned back with more of the insolence he’d doubtless been born with. ‘Somehow I don’t believe you mean good in the literal sense.’

      ‘Oh, I don’t know. We could learn a lot from each other, you and I.’

      The true meaning of that statement lay between them, gathering momentum with every passing second. It would take time, of course. To get him to talk. To unearth his secrets. To make him crack. Thankfully Serena had all the time in the world.

      ‘I doubt that.’

      The lack of innuendo suffused her with pleasure and a heady sense of power. It seemed she was finally getting somewhere.

      ‘Why don’t you enlighten me, Miss Scott? Your excitement is palpable and I find I can barely stand the suspense.’

      She deflected that sarcasm with a breezy flick of her hair off her shoulder. ‘I would love to enlighten you, Mr St George. Me and you? We’re about to be stuck like glue.’

      A shadow of trepidation passed over his face before he cocked an arrogant brow. ‘And the punchline is …?’

      Musing that the word babysitter didn’t quite have the right ring to it, she let her impetuous mouth stretch the truth, not really giving a stuff.

      ‘You’re looking at your new boss.’

      VICTORIA PARKER’s first love was a dashing, heroic fox named Robin Hood. Then came the powerful, suave Mr Darcy, Lady Chatterley’s rugged Lover—the list goes on. Thinking she must be an unfaithful sort of girl, but ever the optimist, she relentlessly pursued her Mr Literary Right, eventually found him lying between the cool, crisp sheets of a Mills & Boon^® and her obsession was born.

      If only real life was just as easy …

      Alas, against the advice of her beloved English teacher to cultivate her writer’s muse, she chased the corporate dream and acquired various uninspiring job titles and a flesh-and-blood hero before she surrendered to that persistent voice and penned her first Mills & Boon^® romance. Turns out creating havoc for feisty heroines and devilish heroes truly is the best job in the world.

      Victoria now lives out her own happy-ever-after in the north-east of England, with her alpha exec and their two children—a masterly charmer in the making and, apparently, the next Disney Princess. Believing sleep is highly overrated, she often writes until three a.m., ignores the housework (much to her husband’s dismay) and still loves nothing more than getting cosy with a romance novel. In her spare time she enjoys dabbling with interior design, discovering far-flung destinations and getting into mischief with her rather wonderful extended family.

       A recent title by the same author:

      A REPUTATION TO UPHOLD

      PRINCESS IN THE IRON MASK

       Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

       The Woman Sent to Tame Him

      Victoria Parker