Not For Sale Read Free

gone.
    No big thing. That was what he’d thought. In fact, it was long past time they said goodbye to each other…
    And then, reality had come rushing in.
    The dinner. Leonid Rostov. His wife. For one wild second, Lucas had imagined going after Elin and asking if this meant she wasn’t going to go with him tonight…
    He stalked to the built-in rosewood cabinet across the room, bypassed Denise-Elise’s witch’s brew, opened a sliding door and took out a thin Baccarat highball glass and a bottle of Macallan single malt Scotch.
    It was all his fault. He should have known better than to mix business with pleasure but it had seemed perfect. Abeautiful, sophisticated woman who would know which fork to use even as she translated Russian into English and English into Russian. Where in hell could a man find a woman like that at the eleventh hour, even in New—
    “M-M-Mr. Vieira?”
    “Damnit,” Lucas snarled, and swung toward the door. His P.A. was trembling. Beside her stood, hell, Jack Gordon. Lucas had hired him a year ago. Gordon was bright and innovative. Still, there were times Lucas wondered if there was more to Gordon than met the eye.
    Or maybe less.
    Lucas jerked his head. Denise-Elise stepped back and closed the door, and Lucas turned an icy look on Gordon.
    “This had better be good.”
    Gordon blanched but he held his ground. Lucas had to admire him for that.
    “Sir. Lucas. I think, when you hear what I have to say—”
    “Say it and then get out of here.”
    Gordon took a breath. “This isn’t easy…” He took another breath. “I know what happened. You and the Jansson woman…Wait a minute, okay? I’m not here to talk about that.”
    “You damned well better not be.”
    “She was supposed to go with you tonight. To that meeting,” Gordon said hurriedly. “You mentioned it Monday morning, how Rostov didn’t want real translators, so he’d talk through his wife and you—”
    “Get to the point.”
    “Sir. I know someone who’s fluent in Russian.”
    “Perhaps you weren’t listening to everything I said on Monday,” Lucas said with icy precision. “Rostov refuses to have anyone he thinks of as a functionary present tonight. He says that’s what official translators are, and perhaps they are, in his world, but what it comes down to is—”
    “Dani can pretend to be your date.”
    Lucas’s mouth twisted. “I don’t think I can fool our Russian friend into thinking I’ve suddenly decided to go in for boys.”
    “Dani’s a girl, sir. A gorgeous girl. She’s smart, too. And she speaks Russian.”
    Lucas felt a flare of hope. Then he faced reality. A girl, sight unseen? For an evening as important as this? No way. For all he knew, he’d be compounding what was already a mess into a disaster.
    “Forget it.”
    “Sir, it would work.”
    Lucas shook his head. “It’s clever, Jack, but this is a twenty billion dollar deal. I can’t run the risk of this woman screwing things.”
    Gordon laughed. Lucas’s eyes narrowed to emerald slits.
    “Did I say something amusing?”
    “No, no, of course not. Look, I’ve know Dani for years. She’s exactly what you need for a situation like this.”
    “And if I were foolish enough to say yes to your suggestion, she would do this because…?”
    “Like I said. We’re old friends. She’d do it as a favor to me.”
    A muscle flickered in Lucas’s jaw. A twenty billion dollar deal, hinging on a man who drank too much vodka, a woman who had more limbs and libido than an octopus and a woman he’d never met?
    Impossible.
    And impossible to pass up.
    “All right,” he said sharply. “Call her.”
    Jack Gordon’s eyebrows rose. “You mean it?”
    “Isn’t that what this conversation was all about? Call her. Tell her—”
    “Dani. Dani Sinclair.”
    “Dani. Tell her I’ll pick her up at seven-thirty. Where does she live?”
    “She’ll meet you,” Jack said quickly.
    “The lobby of the Palace. Eight o’clock sharp. No. Make it ten of