A Perfect Husband Read Free Page A

He possessed the kind of dark, dangerous features that had proved to be an unfortunate weakness of hers and yet, in terms of a future husband, he ticked every box of her list.
    For the first time she had found a man who was her type and yet he was safe, steady, reliable. The situation was a definite win-win.
    She should be thril ed that he had asked her to a family wedding. This date, despite its risky nature, was the most positive she’d had in years and, at the age of twenty-nine, her biological clock was ticking.
    She didn’t know Lucas wel . They had only met in the context of work over the past few days, with a “business”
    lunch at a nearby cafe tossed in, during which he had told her that not only did he need an escort for his brother’s wedding, but that he was looking for a relationship with a view to marriage.
    Like her, she didn’t think Lucas had succumbed to any kind of intense physical attraction. He preferred to take a more measured approach.
    If it were possible to control her emotions and fal in love with Lucas, she had already decided she would do it.
    She checked her watch and frowned. They were leaving a little earlier than scheduled. If the pilot had only waited a few more minutes, Zane might have made it.
    She squashed another whisper of disappointment and snapped the window shutter closed. Witnessing the smal jet launching itself into the dark, turbulent center of the storm was something she did not need to see.
    The liftoff was bumpy. During the steep ascent, wind buffeted the jet and lightning flickered through the other windows of the cabin. When they final y leveled out, Lilah’s nerves were stretched taut. She had taken a sedative before she had left her apartment, but so far it had failed to have any effect.
    The stewardess, who had retreated to a separate compartment, reappeared and offered her a drink. With the cabin to herself, sleeping seemed the best option, so Lilah took another sedative. According to her doctor, one should have worked; two would definitely knock her out.
    She was rereading Lucas’s compatibility quotient, which was extremely high, her lids drooping, when a heavy crack of thunder shook the smal jet. Lightning flashed. In that instant the door to the cockpit popped open. Zane Atraeus, tal , sleekly broad-shouldered and dressed in somber black, was framed in the searing flicker of light.
    The jet lurched; the folder flew off her lap. The clasp sprang open as it hit the floor, scattering loose sheets. Lilah barely noticed. As always, her artist’s eye was riveted.
    Zane’s golden skin and chiseled face—which she had shamelessly, secretly, painted for the past two years—
    could have been lifted straight out of a Dalmasio oil. Even the imperfections, the subversive glint of the studs in his lobe, the faint disruption to the line of his nose, as if it had once been broken, were somehow…perfect.
    She blinked as Zane strol ed toward her. Her vision readjusted to the warm glow of the cabin lights. Until Zane had moved, she had not been entirely convinced that he was real. She thought she could have been caught up in one of the vivid, unsettling dreams that had disturbed her sleep ever since The Regrettable Episode two years ago.
    Unlike the temporary effect of the lightning flash on her vision, the events of that night had been indelibly seared into her consciousness. “I thought you missed the flight.”
    His steady dark gaze made her stomach tighten. “I never miss when I’m the pilot.”
    Aware that the contents of the folder had spil ed into the aisle, and that the topmost sheet which held the glaringly large title, The Wedding Plan , was clearly visible, Lilah lunged forward in an attempt to regather the incriminating sheets. Her seat belt held her pinned. By the time she had the buckle unfastened, Zane had col ected both the folder and the loose sheets.
    Her cheeks burned as he straightened. She was certain he had read some of the contents, enough to get the