HE TAKES ME TO A FANCY restaurant at the summit of a skyscraper, the kind so exclusive we’re seated within a private room with our own waiter serving us.

I figure Jeff doesn’t want us to be seen in public, which is just as well. He’s quite famous and a paparazzi could snap a picture of us together. I don’t want to be exposed like that.

I stop myself from thinking about my problems and try to enjoy lunch with Jeff. But I’m also anxious about a more pressing matter. Does he actually plan for us to be intimate tonight on his island?

I’m not prepared.

I was hoping he’d give me a day or two, at least, to visit a salon or something, get those girly things done. I haven’t been in the dating mode for years and in just a span of a day, I’m about to get extremely intimate with a man. A man like Jeffery Vandercourt who’s used to the most beautiful women who look like they visit the salon every day.

This little vanity problem is preventing me from enjoying the lunch prepared by a celebrated New York chef.

“I need to do a few things at the office. I’ll have my chauffeur bring you to a beauty spa or a salon. I figure you’d want to…uh…” his words trail off and he smiles naughtily.

I’m so amazed by his intuition, and I no longer care if he reads minds. “Yes!” I readily say. “Please,” I add with more finesse. I’m so relieved I want to kiss him.

His eyes are so hot on me. “I’ll give you three hours. We have time. It’s only a two-hour flight to the Bahamas. We’ll get there just in time for dinner. The island staff are already waiting for us.”

“Is this your real time?” I can’t help the little snark in my tone.

He grins, unapologetic. “Uh-huh.”

“From now on, I’ll call you Supersonic Jeff,” I say saucily.

He bursts out laughing.

I’m enthralled. He looks so different when laughing. The powerful, intimidating man disappears and he’s simply Prince Charming, period.

“I’ve been called names but never that. I think I like it.”

I feel a bit at ease with him now. It must be the thought of spa. I need some Brazilian wax. I’m going to have sex for the first time and I want to feel beautiful and sexy for this man.

His hand covers mine on the table.

“Don’t be afraid, Mara.”

I freeze at his touch but the gentleness in his voice calms me.

“I want you to relax. I want us to be friends while we do this. I want you to enjoy the process.”

Enjoy. Can I actually enjoy it?

“I’ll try, Jeff.”

“I’ll make sure you will.”

The hot promise in his eyes makes my trip to the spa more urgent.

“Now, eat, baby.”

Baby. I should get used to hearing his endearments and not take them to heart.

He’s treating me like a queen for a specific purpose.

This is only temporary.

While Mara was at the spa, I went to my office on Fifth Avenue.

I received the medical report on Mara after only an few hours. It was emailed to me and I browsed it with bated breath. I paid good money to have it rushed. Before I take her tonight, I want to make sure she’s clean. Beautiful as she is and despite Corazon vouching for her, I know nothing of her sexual history except what she’s told me, so far. One boyfriend back in high school. But I wasn’t about to just take her word for it.

I practically heaved a huge sigh of relief when her tests came out negative of anything that would render my business arrangement with her void.

She’s clean. Quite healthy. Her womb ripe for child-bearing.

Now, I can’t wait for us to be on the island and…

Christ, I’m so hyped up I can’t sit still. There’s a pressure in my groin that won’t go away.

I’m hard and I’ve been trying to keep it down, but to no avail.

It wants what it wants. It knows what I want. What I’m dying to do.

Plant my seed inside Mara’s womb.

But I need to wrap up this meeting with my right-hand man first before I leave my work place for a week. This has been a spur of the moment decision for me and it was one of the strangest things I’ve ever done in my career as head of the Vandercourt conglomerate—take a week’s leave from work.

Work has been my whole life. The center of it. Being the eldest scion of the present generation of Vandercourts, the responsibility of safe-guarding the family’s vast holdings lies on my shoulders the most. I have been trained for this role from the moment I learned who I was. Not being in this tower and connected to my key employees on a close-contact basis is unheard of. It’s not in my work ethic.

But since I met Mara, my work ethic took a drastic one-eighty. I can’t wait to leave this place and have that alone time with her in the Bahamas. Yes, have her all to myself.

“Jeff?”

I take my eyes from my phone, away from Mara’s lovely face and look at Wilson Gates across the conference table, the Chief Operations Officer of Vandercourt Group’s flagship company, Core Financial, which manages the chain of Core Banks across America and the world.

I was caught red-handed not paying attention, and it’s unheard of, too. I’m always on top of things and nothing escapes me. Now I don’t even know what Wilson was talking about. My mind was completely elsewhere.

I clear my throat. “I’m sorry. What were you saying, Will?”

Wilson’s brows draw together. “Is the proposal okay with you?”

Wilson is a tough-ass and plays a kind of hard ball business that will put ten of the meanest, biggest sharks on Wall Street to shame. I’m glad he’s one of the Vandercourt Group raiders who have a constant craving for corporate bloodbath. God knows it got old for me some time ago. I was the meanest of them all when I was younger and all I could think about was being number one. How things have changed since Grandfather died last year.

But my employees don’t need to know this, that their leader is getting soft in the battlefield and wants to make babies with an illegal alien on a remote island instead. My mother might have a conniption when she learns about this. New York high society will have a field day. And the tabloids…

The possible scenarios are extremely aggravating, but I’ll not worry about that now. I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.

“Jeff,” Wilson calls my attention in a sharper voice. He’s impatient, eager to take orders from me. Tough, merciless orders. Wilson lives for this shit.

“I’m sorry, what…proposal?”

“The proposal sent by Eon Stark, Jeff, remember?” Wilson says with obvious exasperation. “Have you gone through the adjustments?”

Shit. Eon Stark’s Space City is one of the companies that I’ve invested big Vandercourt money into. Eon has a new satellite project which needs more funding. The guy has sent me a proposal last week and is awaiting my decision. I actually ignored the great Eon Stark in favor of Mara and making that baby with her.

“Uhh, why don’t you review it for me, Will? Call me about it tomorrow.”

Wilson looks surprised. “Me?”

“Yeah. Your decision will be as good as mine.”

Wilson’s expression quickly morphs into suspicion. “What’s the matter, Jeff?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been distracted the whole meeting.”

I feign a cough. “I’ve been listening.”

“No, you weren’t.”

I evade his eyes. “I need to go. I’ll be out of town for a week.”

Wilson’s jaw drops. He looks comical in his shock. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No.”

“What the hell, Jeff? Where are you going?!”

“I need to attend to some personal matters.”

“Personal? For a week?! Are you all right? Are you sick or something?”

While Wilson is my right-hand man, he’s also a friend. He’s happily married with three children, something I secretly envy. But I’m not prepared to tell him about Mara. Not yet. Maybe when I get back.

“No, I’m fine, Will. Just take care of everything while I’m gone. My phone lines are open 24/7. Report to me anytime.“

“But…Jeff…”

I stand up. “I need to go.”

Before Wilson can quiz me further, I pick up my brief case and leave my office.

My secretary, Mona, a fifty-two-year-old sharp as a whip woman that I inherited from my father when he passed the CEO reins to me almost ten years ago beams at me.

“You know what to do, Mona.”

“I sure do, Mr. Vandercourt. Don’t you worry about anything. I got this.”

I wink at her. “That’s my girl. See you next week.”

“Have fun!”