CHAPTER ONE
“I can have any woman I want. There isn’t even a question about that.” Dante Perakis leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head, a satisfied smile on his lips.
“You’re so full of it, it’s not even funny.” Raffaello Palazzo was shaking his head as he stared across his desk at his friend. “Just because you have half of the girls in San Francisco throwing themselves at you it doesn’t mean you can have any woman you want.”
Dante cocked an eyebrow at him. “Wanna bet?”
Rafe folded his arms, a smirk curling his lips. “So you’re up for a challenge, are you? That’s good because I have the perfect woman for you.”
Dante gave him a confident smile in response. “Who is it? Does that beautiful wife of yours have a sister I don’t know about?”
“You should be so lucky. No, the woman in question is a friend of mine, a formidable force in the business world.” He chuckled. “That’s her name, by the way, and quite appropriate.”
“What’s her name?” Dante frowned, confused.
“Force. Sasha Force. You’ve heard of her, I’m sure.”
He nodded. “She gave a presentation last year at the chamber of commerce meeting.” He grimaced. “A looker, but she seems like a real ice queen.”
Rafe laughed. “You’ve got that right.” Then he jerked his chin toward Dante. “Just the right kind of woman to test your talent. Are you up to it?”
Dante cocked his head to one side, still doubtful. “Of all the women in California you could choose, why that one?”
“I told you, she’s a friend.” He shrugged. “I told her, with her ice-cold demeanor, if she doesn’t start loosening up a bit she’s going to scare off any man who might have any thought of approaching. One day she’s going to turn sixty-five then turn around and ask, where did all the men go?” On his lips was a wry smile. “It would take a special man to break through that stony exterior. I wonder if you’re that man?”
That made Dante shake his head, his lips curling in amusement. “Surely, you jest. Are you questioning my skills? There’s no woman who can resist my charms, not even your formidable Sasha Force.”
“All right. Sounds good. Just tell me when you can clear a good two weeks from your calendar and I’ll arrange everything.”
That made Dante frown. “Why would I need to clear my schedule? What am I going to do? Move in with the woman?”
Rafe chuckled. “Not yet, anyway. If I get my wish that’s where this will end up eventually.” He breathed a satisfied sigh. “Since you’re considering the proposition, for two weeks I’ll need you to stay in town. No out-of-town trips, do you understand? During those two weeks you will be on call, ready to move at the drop of a hat.”
If Dante had been confused before, now he was even more so. “What the heck are you talking about?”
“You pride yourself on being such a charmer that you can have any woman at your beck and call,” Rafe said. “So far you’ve done pretty well in the ladies’ department. I’ll give you that, but you’ve had a distinct advantage which few men have.” Rafe cocked an eyebrow. “You’re a billionaire.”
Dante shrugged. “I am what I am.”
Rafe chuckled. “Not for this project, you’re not. It’s way too easy for a billionaire to impress a lady so here’s the bet. Sasha isn’t a fan of driving so she gets chauffeured around a lot. Besides, she’s always on her tablet or her laptop so she doesn’t like to waste time maneuvering through traffic. For two weeks you will be her limo driver, an ordinary working class kind of guy. That’s the man I want her to fall in love with. If you can get Sasha Force, corporate executive and heiress to a cosmetics empire, to fall in love with a regular kind of guy I’ll give you my Ferrari. If you lose your McLaren is mine. Deal?”
As Dante stared back at Rafe, his words sinking in, his gaze narrowed. “You send a man on a mission then you deny him his most effective weapon? You’re a dog. You know that, right?”
Rafe only laughed. “I’m trying to help a friend who needs a nudge from the right man. She’s a hard-headed tyrant but I think there’s hope for her yet. I’m hoping you’ll be the one to break down those barriers she’s built up over the years.” He shrugged. “The bet’s on the table. You can take it or leave it.”
Dante got up and shoved his hands inside his pockets as he looked down at Rafe. “You know I’m the kind of man who can’t walk away from a bet, especially one that involves a woman.” He turned away and walked over to grab his jacket from the sofa where he’d thrown it when he’d walked into Rafe’s office twenty minutes earlier. He shrugged into it then turned back to face his friend, a confident smile on his lips. “You’re on,” he said, his smile widening into a grin. “Get that Ferrari cleaned up and ready for me. By the time I’m done with Miss Sasha Force she’ll be eating out of my hand.”
Rafe didn’t look worried. “I’m not sure you know the kind of lady you’ll be dealing with. All I can say is, good luck. You’re going to need it.”
As Dante walked out of his office, his friend was still laughing. That was when a troubling thought began to prick his mind. What did Rafe know about Sasha Force that he didn’t?
He shrugged and kept on walking. He knew he would soon find out.
***
Sasha Force was not amused. She’d given the maid strict instructions to have a light meal ready when she got home. She’d been home fifteen minutes already and dinner was still not on the table.
“What’s your excuse this time?” she demanded, glaring at the uniformed girl who was hurrying to set the table.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the girl stuttered. “It’s only my second day here. I wasn’t sure where to find the things.”
Sasha gave a snort which was half disgust, half exasperation. Where did they find these people? This was the third less-than-satisfactory temp the agency had sent her in less than two weeks. Not one of them had lasted a week. Now she was on her third and she was this close to firing the girl. She glared at her. “I’m going out tonight and I’m not going to be late because of you. I’ll be back in five minutes and dinner had better be on the table.” She didn’t bother to say, or else. That wasn’t necessary. If the girl had any sense she would have gotten the message loud and clear. Head held high, she walked out of the dining room, her lips tightening as she heard the maid scurrying to comply.
Sasha Force was a ruthless businesswoman and even outside of the boardroom she was as cold as they came. As the boss, whether at the office or to her household staff, she was as firm as she was cold. She had to be. As the woman in charge she had to show her team, both men and women, that she was not someone to be trifled with. That was the only way they would take her seriously. She ran a tight ship and the only way she’d been able to do that was by being a true iron lady.
The girl was new, she would admit that, but she was also slow. For that, there was no excuse. Sasha had never been soft and she wasn’t about to start now.
Five minutes later when she returned to the dining room the meal was laid out in silver bowls on the table. “Now that’s more like it,” she said under her breath. Out loud she said, “Thank you, Cindy. From here on let’s stick to this schedule, shall we?”
When the maid nodded and backed out of the room she took her seat, not sparing the girl another thought. She was thinking about her father, the patriarch of the family, the one who’d made her the strong woman she’d become. She was grateful to him for it. She’d relied on his expertise and experience and even though she’d tried to live up to the Force legacy, even though she was running a successful company, she still felt like she had to do more. Her father expected so much of her. That was why she never eased up in her drive to make Force Factors a top cosmetic brand in the United States. She had to prove to her father and all of the family that she was worthy of the Force name.
Knowing that Amber would soon be there, Sasha ate quickly. She was always punctual, even for social matters. She had no intention of making her friend turn up and have to wait while she got ready for their night on the town. Within half an hour she’d finished eating. She was dressed and putting on the finishing touches to her make-up when the maid came to get her. “Miss Lee is here,” the girl said. “I asked her to make herself comfortable in the sitting room.”
Sasha nodded. “Very good. Tell her I’ll be right down.” As the maid turned to go she stopped her. “By the way, what’s your name?” The agency had told her but, for the life of her, she could not remember the name. The fact that she’d hardly spoken to the servant did not help.
“My name is Tanya, ma’am. Tanya Parkhouse.”
She nodded. “Tanya. That’s easy enough to remember. Thank you, Tanya. Please be sure to make Miss Lee comfortable until I get there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Before the words were even out of the girl’s mouth Sasha was turning back to the mirror. She wanted to look good tonight. She and Amber were going out on the town to catch men. She would look nothing less than sizzling hot.
When she walked into the sitting room Amber was relaxing on the sofa, sipping a glass of red wine. Her friend looked up and smiled. “That’s a very nice lady you have working for you. She seemed so concerned that I should be comfortable.” Then she cocked her head to one side. “What happened to that other lady? The one who had the mole on her left cheek. She was pretty nice, too.”
Sasha grimaced. “I fired her. Too friendly for my liking. She was always calling me Sasha.”
Amber shrugged. “So? That’s your name, isn’t it?”
“Not for the help, it’s not. To them, I’m Miss Force or ma’am. I’m not their friend.”
“Oh, Sasha, come off your high horse before you tumble off. This is twenty-first century America, not England in the Victorian era. Why do you have to be so formal?”
“That’s how the servants always addressed Mother and Father when I was growing up so that’s how I expect to be addressed.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “There goes the girl with the chip on her shoulder. Will you get over it, already? So you were adopted into a rich family. Get over it, will you? You don’t have to put on airs. Just be your darned self.”
Sasha waved her off. “Stop lecturing me. Hurry up with your wine so we can get out of here.”
Amber finished it in one gulp. “Well, that’s it for me for tonight. No more imbibing since, as usual, I’m stuck being the designated driver.” She gave Sasha a pointed look.
“Don’t blame me because I’m no fan of driving. I told you I could have a limo over but did you accept the offer? Oh, no. You said you’d be happy to drive. Don’t throw it on me.”
Amber gave her a wry smile. “All right. You got me. I just didn’t want some limo driver to cramp our style. What if we meet some nice guys and decide to stay super late at the nightclub? We would have some guy outside waiting for us, antsy because he wants to get home to his wife.”
That didn’t mean a thing to Sasha. She only shrugged. “He’d be getting paid, wouldn’t he? Double time after eleven o’clock. A win-win situation, if you ask me.”
Amber tossed her head. “Whatever. I still don’t want any man outside, waiting on us.”
Sasha didn’t bother to answer that. All she knew was that Amber had better not complain about not being able to drink because she would have to drive them home. She’d been given a viable option which she’d turned down. Being a teetotaler tonight was totally her choice.
They got to Temple just after ten o’clock that night, after killing time watching a romantic comedy flick at Century Center. They hadn’t wanted to arrive too early when the forty and fifty-year-olds were out. The after-ten crowd would be perfect. That was when the twenty to thirty-year-olds came out, the right set with men of the right age.
It was a Friday night and the dance floor was crowded, just as it always was on a holiday weekend. Labor Day would be in two days and many of the patrons were college and grad students trying to squeeze the last ounce of fun out of summer before they had to lose themselves in their books. Sasha wasn’t interested in that set, though. She was here because this was also the watering hole for many of the city’s young executives. It was that caliber of man that interested her - corporate executives or business owners, nothing less.
There were many women there without male partners, just groups of girls dancing together, so she didn’t feel out of place hanging out with Amber. In fact, the DJ was doing such a great job that she soon forgot her primary reason for being there and just gave herself over to the music, bopping and bouncing to the hip hop, pop and rock rhythms, laughing out loud as Amber tried to copy her moves without much success.
She was bent over with laughter when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She straightened and turned to find a neatly-bearded man of medium height smiling at her. He said something but with the music pounding in her ears she couldn’t hear a word. She didn’t need to hear him to know what he wanted, though. He was asking her to dance.
Her movements stilled as she looked him up and down. He was wearing a department store business suit and his shoes had obviously been bought at an outlet store. The slight mismatch in the shoelaces said it all. When her gaze traveled back up his body, past his bargain store watch and faux-silk tie, she saw that his face was turning pink. So he didn’t like to be scrutinized, did he? She crinkled her nose. “No, thank you,” she said, knowing quite well that he wouldn’t be able to hear the words. She had no doubt that he would get the message, though. The look of disdain she gave him would be enough.
His face now fully red, the man swallowed then turned and stumbled away, bumping into the dancers who were blocking his path to escape. Seconds later he disappeared into the crowd.
Shaking her head in amusement, she turned back toward Amber, still not believing that guy. The nerve of him. Clearly, he was a nobody. And to think he would approach a woman like her. Didn’t he know who she was? And even if he didn’t, couldn’t he see that she had way more class than pretty much all the women in the club? He must have known he would need to be a man of serious standing to even think of asking a woman like her to dance.
She was still smiling to herself when she glanced across at her friend. She did not look amused.
Before she could even say a word, Amber grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her close so she could speak above the music, directly into her ear. “Why the heck did you do that? That was a nice man you just rejected. You hurt his feelings.”
“What do I care?” Sasha retorted. “I’m not going to waste my time dancing with some low-level office worker. Can’t he see that I’m no ordinary woman? I want to be approached by a man who is at my level or at least a man who knows how to dress. Did you see his bargain basement suit?” She chuckled.
Instead of laughing with her, Amber shook her head. “You’re unbelievable. You may have just refused the perfect man for you. Who says he has to be rich and powerful, as long as he’s genuine?” She tightened her grip on Sasha’s shoulders. “At the rate you’re going, you may be sixty before you find a man who is good enough, if ever.”
Sasha put her hands on Amber’s and pried her fingers loose, but not before making her position very clear. “That’s fine by me,” she grated. “I’m only interested in a certain caliber of man, one who can be my equal in accomplishments even if not in worth. I will settle for nothing less.”
As Amber drew back she slipped in a parting shot. “You just keep declaring that, my friend. Life can be ironic sometimes. The man you end up falling in love with might just be a regular kind of guy…or worse.”
“Me? Fall in love with Mr. Nobody?” Sasha sneered. “That will never happen.”
Slowly, Amber shook her head as she gazed back at her. “For your sake, I hope not.”