Authors: Ginger Voight
Adele was no stranger to the place, as she had interviewed many a politician or celebrity there. It was one of her favorite places to be, its comfortable decadence and regal
luxury felt warm and familiar. She had often teased Michael that she must have been a royal in a former life, and her lifelong friend dubbed her Princess Prancypants as a result.
It always made her smile when she walked through the ornate lobby.
She met the concierge with the same contented grin. “Hi, Max.”
The older gentleman turned around and caught glimpse of the striking young woman with the strangely colored hair.
“Adele! How long as it been?”
“
The last election,” she answered, taking his hand. “Can you believe that guy won?”
He just smiled.
“I was surprised, after the way you grilled him. Are you here for dinner?”
“
Me, having fun? Are you kidding? We’re here for the press conference.”
Max rolled his eyes a bit.
“Oh, that. Yes, right this way.” He walked over to the phone and punched in some numbers. “Another one is here. Adele Lumas.” He replaced the receiver.
“
They’ll be right down.”
Brian
and Adele shared a glance. “Who’s they?” she asked Max.
“
The royal guard,” he sardonically replied. Her eyebrow rose so he elaborated. “His security detail.” He leaned over the counter for a conspiratorial whisper. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. They’ve taken over the entire hotel. Apparently this big wig Nicholas Sterling thinks he is royalty or something, he has disrupted our entire routine.”
“
What do you mean?” Adele asked.
He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could utter a word two big, burly men in suits
exited the elevator.
“
I’ll tell you later,” Max whispered and then stepped away. “In the meantime, enjoy the gauntlet.”
Brian
and Adele shared a nervous chuckle as the two men approached. They regarded her with caution.
She stretched out her arm to the man so big he dwarfed her.
“My name is Adele Lumas. This is my cameraman, Brian Gray. We’re here for the press conference.”
The big man just nodded with a grunt
that Adele surmised took the place of any real introduction. The other gestured to Brian’s camera bag, which he surrendered easily. After a quick search, the bigger man gave a wave of his hand as he indicated that they should follow.
No one spoke as they rode up to the penthouse suite
s. Brian and Adele inspected the two men as inconspicuously as possible while the two men looked straight ahead as if oblivious. Adele had the sneaking suspicion that they knew everything that was going on regardless. She was even afraid to think too loudly.
The doors dinged open and the men started out without a backward glance. The
y led her down the hall and into the largest penthouse suite in the hotel. The ornate room draped in rich gold accents was already full with other reporters and their camera crews, including Denise Carter, who sent Adele a smug glance. It was a smile that reminded Adele the flashy blond with questionable integrity had scooped every detail on the child killer case thus far.
It was a first in many years anyone had been able to best Adele, and Adele wanted to claw that arrogant smirk right off her face. She
didn’t even hide the scowl as Denise took her place beside an elegant redhead.
“
Guess we know now why there was a press conference instead of an exclusive,” Brian whispered in her ear.
Adele
didn’t bother to respond. Her mind was already reeling how to make this work out to her advantage anyway.
In the midst of the crowd were servants who flitted about from place to place making sure
everyone’s needs were met.
Toward the back
of the room, the head servant oversaw the entire operation. He stood tall and thin and looked almost like he were European aristocracy himself. His long, thinning blond hair was pulled neatly away from his sharply drawn face. He caught glimpse of Brian and Adele and immediately came to greet them.
As he drew cl
oser Adele was struck by his eyes, one brown and one blue. She hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it and for a moment couldn’t even look away. She held out her hand. “Adele Lumas, Action News. This is my cameraman, Brian Gray.”
His eyes
didn’t move from hers as he bowed slightly. “Miss Lumas, of course. My name is Thaddeus Dragomir, Mr. Sterling's valet.” Without letting her hand free he drew them in further into the room. “You may set up over there with the rest of them,” he dismissed Brian over his shoulder as he led her to a chair in the front row.
Adele grew uncomfortable with the contact of his slender hand around hers. She
wasn’t a touchy-feely person to begin with, and those she did touch were very familiar people who had earned her trust – not some strange man with a cool veneer and even colder skin. Finally she managed to pull her hand free as politely as possible. He looked slightly offended, so she gave him a small smile. “Thank you, Thaddeus,” she managed before reaching into her bag for her tablet computer.
He nodded and the
n took his place at the podium. He waited for the room to settle into silence, which everyone was quick to do under his haughty stare. “Thank you all for coming,” he began, his eyes scoping the room and then coming to land on Adele. They remained there until the residual noise of the room had died down. “Allow me to introduce Nicholas Sterling.”
A door
at the far end of the room opened and Nicholas emerged. It seemed all the air was sucked from the room the moment he appeared. This rarely photographed man stepped up onto the podium and, without words, commanded the attention of the entire crowd.
Quite simply
he was beautiful. Such a word rarely fit a man, but in this case, it was the only word that would.
Long dark hair flowed like silk to
the collar of his cream colored shirt. His face was tanned and so flawless it looked like it had been carved, like one of her mother’s statues. His cheekbones were high and his lips were sensual and full, and a mole pierced his left cheek. The elegant suit molded itself to the muscular contours of his tall, lean body. His smile was broad and charismatic as he bestowed its brilliance for the half dozen cameras that exploded with light from all across the room. He was a man refined, with complete possession of self that took Adele’s breath away. No one spoke as he quietly inspected the crowd before him, coming at last to find Adele sitting on the far seat on the first row.
When their eyes
met Adele felt her heart slam to a stop. Deep brown eyes were framed by thick, dark lashes, and his gaze drifted lazily over her face. Brazenly he glanced appreciatively over her more generous proportions contained within the navy pantsuit with a white silk shirt she wore. Instead of seeing right through her, he took notice, and for far more seconds than she was used to. Warmth spread under her skin as if he’d actually reached out and touched her where his eyes lingered. She felt her tummy tighten and her toes curl as fire spread throughout her entire body, warming a soul even as cold as Adele’s. It was all so new to her she wanted to wrench herself out of this psychological embrace, but she couldn’t move to save her life. She was captive in his powerful gaze.
Frankly s
he didn’t like it. Not one little bit.
She gulped and wrenched
her eyes away, as hard as it was to do. Instead she concentrated on the notes in front of her, trying to think of something, anything to write, but unable to think of anything but those endless brown eyes.
“
Thank you, Thaddeus. And thank you all for coming. I apologize for the hour, but as you all know I’ve been very busy these last few weeks as I prepare to bring Sterling International to Darlington.”
Denise instantly piped up.
“And does that include tearing down part of our forest to create a logging company?”
Nicholas looked her straight in the eye, and Adele could have sworn she saw her colleague physically back up a bit. Adele
couldn’t deny how gratifying it was to see Denise taken down a notch or two. “Yes, it does,” Nicholas answered without apology.
Another reporter filled the gap.
“What do you say to the petitions being circulated to stop you from destroying our woods?”
Again Nicholas looked the reporter in the eye, and again the reporter shrunk back.
“It’s a free country. People can sign petitions if they like. Just as I can purchase land that was available for sale and do what I wish to do on that land. And I’ve chosen to bring industry to this town and boost the economy of Darlington.”
“
But at the expense of what?” Adele asked. When his eyes fell on her face again she willed her spine to remain straight. She backed down for no one, and just because this man had a pretty face wasn’t going to change that.
Yet it was m
ore than just the handsome face. There was a charge between them. It was more than being attracted, she felt instantly connected. When he looked at her she felt exposed. It made her feel vulnerable. She gulped and carried on with her interrogation. “The main economy of Darlington is tourism, and the tourist draw of this city is our woodlands. For you to tear down a good portion of that could, in effect, hurt the economy of Darlington.”
“
I’m sorry. I didn’t get your name.” His voice was soft, but what it did to her nerve endings was anything but. It tumbled over her senses like rolling thunder.
Once again Adele found herself having to fight to compose herself. An energy surged between them that was impossible to deny. She gulped,
“Adele Lumas.” Then she eked out, “Action News.”
He smiled. Adele was suddenly very grateful she was already sitting
down, because she knew her unsteady legs would have failed her. What was wrong with her? He was just a man like any other man. Actually he wasn’t like any other man at all. He was a monster who threatened her peaceful community. “Tourism has been on a steady decline for six years,” he answered, almost reading her thoughts. “And on a sharp decline in the last few months, which has helped drive up unemployment. Bringing Sterling International to Darlington, therefore, improves the economy by providing much needed jobs.”
Denise jumped in the conversation, which startled Adele. For a moment there she could have sworn that she and Nicholas w
ere the only ones in the room. “How do you respond that your company is responsible for the attacks on the wildlife that has caused that sharp decline?”
Damn
, Adele thought to herself. That should have been her question. Nicholas tore his eyes away from Adele to answer Denise, and Adele felt much better that the woman he responded to seemed to wilt in the same way she had done. So it wasn’t just her. “I don’t respond to them,” he answered in a firm voice, “because they’re ridiculous.”
Adele cleared her throat.
“It’s a curious and unpublicized fact that these wolf carcasses are found only on your land and not anywhere else in the public forest. Do you think that has anything to do with the death threats you yourself have received? Do you think they’re a warning for you?”
Nicolas glanced back at Adele, only this time she sat straighter and looked him dead in the eye
with a defiantly arched eyebrow. Whatever spell she was under before, she fought like an animal to resist. He suppressed a smile as he answered, “I guess people are willing to do just about anything to fight for what they believe in.”
Her eyebrow arched.
“Including you, Mr. Sterling?”
“
Including us all, Miss Lumas.”
Another reporter rescued her from his gaze as the press conference lingered on
. Adele spent the rest of the time organizing her notes and avoiding his gaze like the plague. She didn’t understand the physical reaction she was experiencing to this man, but one thing was certain. As soon as she could return to her former self, the hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners reporter with a cause, he was toast. It was almost a vendetta now.
Later she wrapped with a final thought in front of the camera.
Brian positioned her in his view finder as she concluded with, “The controversy still grows as the citizens of Darlington prepare to fight this man they tout as a ‘Monster.’ This is Adele Lumas reporting for Action News.”
She gave
Brian the kill signal and turned around, right into the broad, muscled wall of Nicholas Sterling’s chest. He was welcoming and foreboding all in the same instant. “And do you believe I’m a monster, Miss Lumas?”
“
I don’t believe in monsters, Mr. Sterling,” Adele replied, caught decidedly off guard, but she wasn’t about to let him know that.
From the look on his face she sensed that she wasn’t fooling anyone. “
You must call me Nicholas,” he corrected.
She hoisted her bag on her shoulder.
“Must I?” she queried pointedly.
His smile was lazy and slow as his eyes traveled over her face. He said not a word as his gaze landed on her full mouth, powerful like a kiss. Adele could feel her pulse thunder in her ears as she cleared her throat. “
Well, I’m sure you have many more commitments. I won't keep you.
Mr. Sterling
,” she added, giving him a defiant glare, trying to get her crazy reaction to this man under control.