Lee Wilkinson - Mistress Against Her Will

He laughed mirthlessly. ‘I would say we’re already about as up close and personal as it’s possible for two people to get.

‘But before I make love to you I would like to know why you’re still wearing another man’s ring.’

‘I don’t want you to make love to me. It’s all been a terrible mistake. I should never have let things go this far.’

‘Why did you?’ he asked interestedly.

‘Because I… I…’

As she floundered, he drawled, ‘Don’t bother to think up any lies. You let things go this far because you couldn’t help yourself. You want to go to bed with me.’

Lee Wilkinsonlives with her husband in a three-hundred-year-old stone cottage in a Derbyshire village, which most winters gets cut off by snow. They both enjoy travelling, and recently, joining forces with their daughter and son-in-law, spent a year going round the world ‘on a shoestring’ while their son looked after Kelly, their much loved German shepherd dog. Her hobbies are reading and gardening, and holding impromptu barbecues for her long-suffering family and friends.

Recent titles by the same author:

THE PADOVA PEARLS

WIFE BY APPROVAL

THE BEJEWELLED BRIDE

Dear Reader

As Mills & Boon celebrate their centenary in 2008, this is a great time to acknowledge how much pleasure and romance they have brought to their readers worldwide, and to say a big ‘thank you’ for the small part they have allowed me to play in their success.

It’s over fifteen years since they accepted my first story, and I was warmly welcomed into the fold. Since then, backed by a wonderful team of dedicated people, I’ve written thirty-five books for Mills & Boon, and had a great deal of fun and excitement doing it.

I always choose locations that I know, and that mean a lot to me, and I have to confess that, although I’m very happily married, I always fall a little in love with my current hero. I particularly enjoyed writing my latest book, MISTRESS AGAINST HER WILL, and I hope that you will enjoy reading it just as much.

Love

Lee Wilkinson

BY

LEE WILKINSON

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS early, barely seven twenty-five, and London’s morning traffic was still flowing fairly freely as Paul’s pale blue Jaguar purred towards the city centre.

Normally, Gail knew, he would have been enjoying a leisurely breakfast before embarking on the day’s business meetings. Judging by the look on his fair, handsome face, having his routine disrupted did nothing to improve his temper.

Sitting in the front passenger seat beside him, she sighed. She had told him more than once that she could make her own way to Jenson Lorenson’s prestigious London offices. But, in spite of earliness of the hour and the personal inconvenience, he had insisted on picking her up and driving her there himself.

He had arrived early and, stressed and harassed when she’d changed handbags at the last minute, she had omitted to pick up her notecase. All she had with her was her purse, which contained her credit card and some small change.

When she mentioned the oversight to Paul, he said irritably, ‘I don’t see what you’re worrying about. You won’t need it.’

Perhaps he was right. With a bit of luck there would be just about enough to get a bus back home.

‘Now don’t look flustered, whatever you do,’ he instructed her as they stopped for a red light. ‘Lorenson expects his personal staff to be cool and efficient. You’ve let this thing get to you and, now the crunch has come, you’ll need to keep your composure.’

After a sleepless night, she felt washed out and on edge and in no mood to be preached to. ‘I just wish there was some other way to achieve what you want,’ she blurted out desperately. ‘I hate all this lying and scheming.’

‘There’s no need to tell a lot of lies; in fact it’s much safer to stick to the truth whenever possible. Your working background is solid and reliable, and you’ve got all the qualifications and experience Lorenson’s looking for.

‘Added to that, you’ve been recommended by a woman he trusts, so there’s no reason for him to suspect anything. All you have to do is forget that we two have ever met and you can’t go wrong.’

Glancing at her, he added, ‘By the way, you did remember to take off your ring?’

‘Yes.’ The three stone diamond engagement ring that Paul had bought her was on a thin gold chain around her neck.

‘Don’t forget to emphasize that you have no ties and there’s no current boyfriend. Lorenson has a massive office complex in Manhattan and he likes his Personal Assistant to be free and unencumbered, to be able to travel to his New York offices with him at the drop of a hat.’

‘Oh, but I—’

‘He’s not an easy man to work for like Randall was. You’ll have to be prepared for someone cold and arrogant and uncaring. Someone who expects his staff to jump when he says jump.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘My sister, Julie, made a point of getting to know the woman who used to be Lorenson’s PA. Apparently she’d been with him for over five years, and would still be working for him now if she wasn’t planning to get married…’

As the lights changed to green, he went on, ‘She told Julie that though he expects a twenty-four hour commitment, she rates him as a good boss…’

‘When you say a twenty-four hour commitment,’ Gail began uneasily, ‘you don’t think he’ll…?’

‘No, there’ll be no funny business. Lorenson isn’t known for mixing work and pleasure. Quite the opposite, in fact.’

‘Then he’s married?’

‘No, and never has been. His ex-PA, who admitted she’d once been madly in love with him, told Julie she’s convinced that there’s no real place in his life for a woman.

‘However, he’s a good-looking devil,’ Paul admitted grudgingly, ‘and it appears that when he wants a woman to warm his bed there are always plenty only too willing to jump in with him. So you’ve nothing to fear on that score.

‘Once you’ve got the job, all you have to do is be your normal efficient self and everything should be plain sailing.’

Gail wasn’t convinced by his blasé attitude. ‘But even if I do get it I’ll be new, an unknown quantity. He may not trust me with—’

‘The word is,’ Paul broke in, his blue eyes impatient, ‘that once he’s chosen his personal staff he trusts them. He won’t hire someone he doesn’t trust. So you shouldn’t have any trouble on that score…’

Somehow, knowing that only made her feel worse.

Oblivious to her mental discomfort, Paul was going on, ‘I’ve had a report from someone I’d already planted—the plans for the Rainmaker project should be finalized in the next few weeks, which means we’re just in the nick of time.

‘As soon as you’ve managed to see those plans and get the latest gen, just let me know.’

He made the whole thing sound so casual, so innocuous, Gail thought helplessly, but to her it was spying, pure and simple, and she hated the thought of being involved.

But after days of unrelenting pressure Paul had made it a test of her love….

‘There’ll never be another opportunity like this. With his present PA leaving just as the Rainmaker project is going through, and you being out of a job, this is exactly the chance I’ve been waiting for.

‘Lorenson has a reputation for being daring, for sticking his neck out when it comes to these really big deals. That’s how he comes to be a billionaire at just turned thirty. If he intends to play it the same way this time and I know about it in advance I can be waiting with a hatchet.

‘This is important to me.’ He took her hand and squeezed it by way of emphasis. ‘I have to know what’s in those plans. I need to be at least one jump ahead.’ Taking her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to her palm he continued, ‘That way, if I can’t bring him down altogether, and he may be too powerful for that,’ Paul admitted regretfully, ‘at the very least, I can bring him to his knees.

‘All I need is some reliable inside information, and when you’re his PA it’ll be a doddle…’

When Paul had first mentioned Jenson Lorenson, Gail had felt her heart stop, then start to race again uncomfortably fast.

‘Jenson Lorenson?’ she echoed warily.

‘Don’t tell me you’ve never heard the name. It’s a big Anglo-American concern. It was started in the States by Richard Jenson just as the boom in electronics really got under way.

‘When Jenson retired five years ago, he made the company over to Zane Lorenson, his nephew, who’d been his right-hand man for a number of years…’

So it was him .

Unbidden, a mental picture of Zane Lorenson filled her mind. Tall, black-haired, broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped… A lean, tanned face with strong features… A mouth like a fallen angel, and long, heavy-lidded dark green eyes. Handsome eyes. Eyes that seemed able to look into her very soul.

A shiver ran through her.

Paul went on, oblivious to her reaction. ‘Lorenson, who had an American mother and an English father, is a clever swine and brilliant when it comes to business. He added the Anglo part, moved into Information Technology and Research and Development and trebled the company’s profits inside two years…’

‘But I don’t see what—’

Paul cut in, speaking over her. ‘He’s an old adversary. That swine was responsible for my first company going down, and I’ve hated his guts ever since. Now, with your help, I’ve a chance to derail the Rainmaker project and get some of my own back.’

Gail turned to him, wide-eyed. ‘With my help? Oh, but I—’

‘Just listen. It should work like a dream…’

While he outlined the scheme her agitation grew. As soon as she could get a word in edgeways she said in a rush, ‘No, Paul. I don’t want anything to do with it.’

Once again, he dismissed her protest. ‘It won’t be difficult. Think about it. I’m sure you’ll change your mind.’

‘I won’t change my mind.’

With a smile that would normally have melted her heart, he coaxed, ‘Come on, sweetie, do it for me.’

Even if it hadn’t involved Zane Lorenson she wouldn’t have wanted to do it. But as it did , there was no way…

‘I’d never be able to bring it off.’

Well aware that she was besotted with him, and wondering at her unusual reluctance to toe the line he had marked out for her, Paul demanded, ‘Surely you could at least try?’

Her lovely mouth set in a determined line, she shook her head. ‘I don’t want to get involved.’

Paul turned to meet her gaze and said somewhat sharply, ‘You once said you’d do anything for me.’

‘I said anything I could do. But this is something I can’t do,’ Gail pleaded.

‘Why can’t you?’

She shook her head, helplessly. ‘I just can’t .’

‘There must be a reason,’ he pressed.

Cornered, she blurted out, ‘I once knew him.’

‘How do you mean, you once knew him?’

‘I met him when I was living in the States. He was…friends with Rona.’

‘Your stepsister?’