Chapter One
“If you think Ryan McKay’s so hot, Faith, then you marry him.”
Faith Lewis watched in stunned silence as her boss’s bride-to-be flounced out of the penthouse suite, the train of her designer wedding gown trailing gloriously behind her.
No more than a moment after Erica Stanton walked out the door in a huff, Ryan McKay stepped in.
He threw Faith that look. The irritated, things-weren’t-going-his-way-and-he-wasn’t-happy-about-it look. The same expression crossed his handsome features at countless business meetings.
“I saw Erica leaving,” he said. “I called to her, but she slipped into the elevator before I could get there.”
Mere inches separated them. His six-foot frame towered over her, his crisp, clean scent calling to mind snow-covered mountain breezes. No man should be allowed to smell that good. Black hair, gray eyes and broad shoulders, he was the picture of handsome elegance. Her heart fluttered despite his angry scowl.
“Faith, what’s going on?” Ryan asked.
Offering up a silent thanks a lot to Ryan’s now-former-fiancée, she braced herself to deliver the bad news. This went way beyond her job as his executive assistant. “Umm, Miss Stanton has changed her mind about marrying you.”
Prepared for the inevitable McKay tirade, Faith couldn’t believe the disappointment shadowing his powerful features. “I see,” he said. “You couldn’t convince her?”
She’d never seen that defeated look before. Ryan McKay never gave up. But he was quickly running out of options. He had roughly five hours to get married or lose control of McKay Corporation and it was now a certainty that Erica Stanton wasn’t going to be the bride. That meant it was time to execute Plan B. She wondered if there actually was a Plan B.
“I tried, Mr. McKay, really I did. She changed her mind about having your child.” Faith had tried her best, but the ice queen had refused to listen to reason. No matter what she suggested, Erica countered. Faith surmised that Erica simply didn’t want to ruin her cover girl body with a pregnancy.
“We went over that a hundred times and she assured me she could handle it.” Ryan glanced at his watch, then back at Faith. “I don’t understand it. I’m the CEO of McKay Corporation. The Chalet Casino Hotel is the most prominent hotel in Las Vegas and I’m a multimillionaire. So why can’t I find one single woman willing to marry me?”
Faith opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Silly thought, anyway.
“Tell me, Faith. Why the hell did I wait until the last minute when I had a year to get this done?”
She studied her sensible shoes and clasped her hands behind her back. “Actually, Mr. McKay, I…um, reminded you of that very fact several months ago.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He sighed. “I thought I could find a loophole in Grandfather’s will that would get me out of needing to marry. After wasting nearly a year, I still haven’t found one.” Ryan plopped down on the sofa nearby, the Italian leather giving with a whoosh. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
She wanted to offer him comfort—wanted to sit down, pull him into her arms and reassure him. But, of course that would never happen. She wouldn’t dare. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. They didn’t have a relationship at all. She was an employee and nothing more.
Instead, she stood next to the sofa and waited, wondering if there was something else she could have said to Erica to convince the woman to go ahead with the wedding. Certainly appealing to Erica’s soft side would have done no good—she didn’t have one.
Tall, blonde and nearly perfect, Erica had one fatal flaw, in Faith’s opinion. She was utterly cold. Like a stone statue—a Venus of incredible beauty, but devoid of life or any emotion. Why Ryan had chosen to marry Erica was something Faith would never understand. Then again, this deal wasn’t exactly a love match, so it didn’t really matter who he chose as the woman he married.
But Erica? The homeless bag lady who wandered the streets would have been a warmer choice.
Ryan opened his eyes and stared at her. Faith’s heart leaped. Had he heard her quiet chuckle?
His gaze held hers and warmth seeped into her middle. She’d never had a steady man in her life, but if she had a fantasy guy he would look like Ryan McKay. Hair the color of midnight and turbulent eyes like the Oklahoma storms she remembered as a child.
She’d loved those come-out-of-nowhere squalls while growing up in her small town. Whenever a storm approached, she’d run outside on the front porch and watch as the clouds gathered momentum, moving ever closer until the wind whipped her inside the house to watch from the safety of the windows.
The energy had always charged her. The storms shook her to the core, fired up the energy around her and took her with them in a maelstrom of fury and passion.
Ryan’s eyes were like that. Changing like rolling clouds and loaded with the fire of a blistering rainstorm. She had seen those eyes flash with brilliance, light with anger, and shine like a glittering diamond when he closed a deal. Never had she seen them spark with passion, but she could imagine it.
“Faith, are you listening?”
“Oh. Oh, Mr. McKay, I’m so sorry.” She shook off the daydream. How many times over the years had she fantasized about him? She thought she’d finally had a handle on her crush and could now think of him only as her boss. He was, after all, as unattainable as a man could get.
At least for her.
“I asked you to sit.” He patted the sofa cushion next to him.
She sat. Clear on the opposite end.
“Faith.”
“Yes?” She pulled a notepad out of her bag, ready to take down instructions.
“Come closer. You’re half a mile away. I won’t bite.” He flashed her that charming, devastating smile that made her insides melt away.
Maybe he wouldn’t bite, but then again maybe she’d like him to.
Really, she had to stop her errant thoughts. Ryan was her boss. The one who never noticed her. She remembered her mother’s lessons well.
Not a day went by during her childhood that her mother hadn’t reminded her to blend in and not call attention to herself—to stay away from men because they’d only hurt her. She was plain, her mother had told her, had little to offer and she’d better use her brains because her looks would get her nowhere in life.