Grand Passion by Jayne Ann Krentz

Author:Jayne Ann Krentz
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schusters
Published: 1994-06-06T04:00:00+00:00

An hour later Cleo stirred in the darkness. “Max?”

“Umm?” He barely heard her. He was drifting on the edge of sleep, his body satiated, his mind at ease. Cleo was cradled against him, her lushly curved derriere pressed against his thighs. The peaceful feeling that consumed him was so unique that he wanted to savor it until he fell asleep.

“Were you and Kimberly lovers?”

“Hell.” Max was suddenly wide awake.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing important.” Max opened his eyes, folded one arm behind his head, and contemplated the frilly canopy overhead with a brooding glare.

“So what about you and Kimberly?”

“We were engaged for a while.”

“Engaged.” Cleo shot straight up into a sitting position. “Are you telling me you almost married her?”

“It was a very short engagement.” Max gave her a cautious glance and saw that she was glowering down at him.

“How short?” Cleo demanded.

“Uh, six weeks, I think.” Five weeks and four days. Not that he had been counting at the time.

Five weeks and four days of thinking that he had finally muscled his way into the inner circle of the Curzon family. Five weeks and four days of believing he had made a secure, permanent place for himself in Jason's world.

“You think? Can't you remember?”

Max groaned. “It was three years ago, Cleo.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened. We got disengaged, that's all.”

“Did you change your mind?”

Max yawned. “She changed hers,” he said before he stopped to think. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew he'd made a grave tactical error. “I mean, it was a mutual decision.”

But it was too late. Cleo pounced. “She's the one who called off the engagement? Not you?”

“We decided we weren't meant for each other,” Max said.

“Why not?”

“There were a lot of reasons,” Max said.

“What reasons?”

Max began to feel hunted. Instinctively he drew a line, just as he always did when someone tried to apply pressure. “Stop pushing, Cleo. My relationship with Kimberly was finished three years ago.”

“But you've been working for her all this time?”

“I told you, I worked for Jason, not Kimberly. Now I work for you.”

“Hmm.” Cleo considered that. “Why did she call off the engagement?”

Max drummed his fingers lightly on the bed. “She decided that we came from two different worlds. She was right.”

“Which two different worlds?”

“She came from old money, good schools, and a long line of socially acceptable ancestors. She was the heiress to Curzon International. I came from nothing. The only money I have is what I earned working for Jason. Her father did not approve of me. Hell, Kimberly didn't approve of me, herself. Not really.”

“So she married somebody named Winston?”

“Roarke Winston.”

“Let me guess,” Cleo said. “Old money, good schools, a long line of socially acceptable ancestors?”

“Right. He's in charge of his family's business empire.”

“What did Kimberly mean when she said I should ask you about your leg?”

Max gave Cleo another sidelong glance. He had a feeling she was going to prove tenacious. It figured. That quality went right along with the other Girl Scout attributes. “We got engaged shortly after I injured my leg.

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