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      For Andrea Johnston, Suzanne Barrett,

       and Noelene Jenkinson, Critique Partners,

       Mentors, and Friends

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Coming Next Month

      One

      Every man in the room was staring at Kia Benton. And Brant Matthews was one of them. He’d seen many beautiful women in his life but none who affected him like the woman who’d entered the ballroom of Darwin’s Shangri-La Hotel. Australia’s most northerly city may possess a tropical lifestyle that was the envy of the rest of the country, but it still didn’t hold a candle to this woman’s beauty.

      Dressed for an evening that promised glitz and glamour, Kia looked stunning tonight, with her ash-blond hair pulled back in a stylish chignon, her perfectly made-up features accentuated by the black liner circling her eyes.

      The eyes of a seductress, Brant mused, his gaze sliding down over bare shoulders to the shimmery silver dress that hugged her breasts, then slid over slim hips and long legs.

      But it wasn’t just her looks that coiled sexual hunger in the pit of his stomach. She had something that called to him on another level. A quality he’d never found in another woman, not even in his ex-fiancée, Julia. Hell, definitely not Julia. Julia had only been about one thing.

      His mouth tightened. He had to remember that Kia was no different. Both women wanted the same thing.

      Money.

      He’d been suspicious of Kia from the moment he’d stepped onto the plane on his way back from Europe and caught sight of a photograph of her and his partner Phillip in the society section of a Darwin magazine. It was being read by the man next to him, and the picture had shown her arm in arm with Phillip at a cocktail party, looking very pleased with herself. The last he heard, Phillip still had his secretary from years back. This Kia was a total shock.

      The caption had read, “Has one of Australia’s richest bachelors finally been hooked by his new personal assistant? Miss Kia Benton obviously knows a thing or two about getting ‘personal.’”

      Yes, this woman knew how to get her hooks into someone all right. But what she didn’t know was that he’d heard her on the telephone when he’d gone into the office the next day.

      Of course I’m working on getting myself a rich man, she’d been saying when he’d passed by Phillip’s office and seen her leaning against the desk, looking for all the world as if she owned the place. Then she’d laughed and said, It’s as easy to love a rich man as a poor one, right?

      This was the reason she’d made herself indispensable to his business partner so quickly. Within two months she’d had Phillip eating out of her hand. Oh, yes, she was a gold digger, this one. A beautiful, deceitful gold digger.

      “Oh, don’t they make a lovely couple?” one of the executive wives tossed into the conversation going on around him, pulling Brant from his thoughts and dropping him back into the Christmas festivities that were a necessary evil at this time of year.

      “Yes, they’re perfect together,” one of the others agreed after all heads turned toward Kia and Phillip standing beneath the Merry Christmas sign in the doorway.

      Then the head of the Legal Department’s wife put her hand on her husband’s arm. “Hon, I don’t know what they’re putting in the water at your office, but she’s beautiful.”

      Simon puffed up with an odd sort of fatherly pride. “That’s Kia. She’s got brains as well as beauty.”

      Brains as well as beauty.

      And she had no qualms about using those assets, Brant thought, hating the pull of her attraction but unable to do anything about it.

      Dammit. If only he’d met her first. But two months ago, as senior partner, he’d gone to Paris to establish their new office and get everything up and running. Phillip hadn’t wanted to go because he’d been heavily involved with his then girlfriend, Lynette. Yet when he’d returned a month later, Phillip’s secretary had resigned due to ill health and Kia had been firmly ensconced as Phillip’s personal assistant during work hours.

      And his constant companion out of hours.

      Like now.

      Of course, if he’d seen her first, they would have been lovers straight away. No doubt about it. He’d known it from the moment he’d gazed into her sparkling aquamarine eyes.

      Why?

      Because she knew what she did to him, that’s why. She knew the attraction he felt for her. This deep, pulsing need to make her his own. She merely had to glance his way and sizzling heat coursed through his veins. Even now he could feel himself burning to be inside her, feeling her close around him as he moved ever so slowly in and out, watching her eyelids flutter against her cheeks, hearing his name a murmur on the parted bow of her lips.

      “She’s got a brand new car, too,” someone interrupted his thoughts, making him stiffen in disbelief. “A Porsche. It’s fantastic.”

      “Lucky girl,” one of the guys said. “Did Phil buy it for her?”

      Simon darted a look at Brant, as if he knew this wasn’t a subject they should be discussing in front of the boss. “Er…I’m not sure,” the other man said awkwardly.

      “It’s understandable,” Simon’s wife added in a sympathetic tone. “He probably doesn’t want her to have a similar accident to the one he had.”

      Pretending to ignore the conversation, Brant leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his whiskey. Late one night, Phil’s car had broken down after he’d gone out on a date with Kia. When he’d stepped out to check the problem, a passing vehicle had clipped his leg, busting up his knee and breaking his ankle, leaving him with what would eventually be a permanent limp.

      And Kia…God bless her, Brant mused cynically…had been quite happy ever since, going back and forth between the hospital and the office, assisting Phil with his workload. Through it all she must have been manipulating him to get the car. And a Porsche, to boot. Bloody hell. His friend and business partner deserved better than someone who was only using him for his bank account.

      He was