Compulsively Mr. Darcy by Nina Benneton

Author:Nina Benneton
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2011-11-21T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Hair

“Go for the jugular.” Anne studied the background report in front of her.

Too bad the CEO didn’t practice that. What a waste of one of the most astute business minds she’d known. No matter. Soon, she’d convince him to see things her way… once they became partners in everything. She flicked at a spot on her sleeve. She’d reduce Richard’s one-third share to nothing—if for nothing else, for ruining her evening two weeks ago at the Frick.

She had been having a great evening until he’d shown up. Darcy had been so appreciative of all her hard work and apologized profusely for arriving late. He had thanked her publicly and stressed to the other museum board members he could not do without the hard work of his valuable vice president Anne de Bourgh.

Later, as they walked around the reception hall thanking the other contributors and patrons, Anne saw his one-time girlfriend Helena’s eyes gleam with envy and jealousy when Darcy and Anne stood in front of Helena and her date. Two years previously, at a similar event in this same museum, the ex–beauty queen had been at Darcy’s side as his date. Distracted by Richard waving at him across the room, Darcy blanked and greeted his old flame as “Elena” before correcting himself. He excused himself to talk to his cousin. Anne followed. Richard’s date was some dark-haired woman wearing an oriental costume.

When they reached the couple, Darcy touched the woman’s arm. “Enjoying yourself, love? Richard’s keeping you entertained?”

Anne managed to prevent her gasp from escaping. It suddenly clicked for her who the woman might be, given the exotic costume. With a brightly colored chopstick sticking out from a twisted bun on top of her head, the woman looked out of place. Loose strands of hair draped across her neck, giving her a too casual appearance considering the formality of the evening.

The woman laughed. “He’s trying to give me an education on art, but he knows less than I do.”

“Just because I mixed up a few artists and paintings,” Richard grumbled.

“Love, let me introduce you to my other cousin. This is Anne de Bourgh. She steps in as PTF’s representative when I’m not around,” Darcy said. “Anne, this is Dr. Elizabeth Bennet.”

Anne forced herself to make pleasant talk to the woman, even when Darcy suggested that the other two stick close. “I want to introduce Elizabeth to some—”

“No way,” Richard cut in. “Trust me, Doc, you don’t want to meet these pretentious drones who go on and on about boring art and how their money supports it. I should know; I spend enough time with these bores at work.” He grinned at Darcy’s frown. “I’m going to show her the rest of the building.”

“Okay, but don’t leave the museum,” Darcy said. “Elizabeth has to be at work early tomorrow.”

“And of course, you’d want her home to bed early to get some rest,” Richard said with a malicious glance at Anne. “I’ll make sure Anne gets home safely so you can get Elizabeth home to have her… uh… rest.

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