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CHAPTER ONE
AS FAR AS luck went, Manhattan-based reporter Isabel Peters had been enjoying ed to nab a cute little one-bedroom on the Upper East Side she could actually afford, she’d won a free ht actually enable her to keep off the fifteen pounds she’d recently lost, and because she’d been in the right place at the right time, she’d landed a juicy story about the New Yorkher name on the map at the network
But as she raced through the doors of Sophoros’s London offices, slapped her card down on the any reception desk in front of the immaculately dressed receptionist and blurted out her request to see Leandros Constantinou, the look on the blonde’s face suggested her lucky streak ht finally have run out
“I’m afraid you’ve missed him, Ms Peters,” the receptionist said in that perfectly accented English that never failed to make Izzie feel totally unworthy “Mr Constantinou is already on his way back to the States”
Dah her ever since her boss had texted her as she was about to board her flight hooose chase across London ca up inside her like a three-car collision She’d done everything she could to make it here before Sophoros’s billionaire CEO left But midday traffic hadn’t been on her side Neither had her poky cab driver, who hadn’t seeency of her mission
She struggled to control the frustration that was no doubt writing its way across her face, re herself that this wo her fingers around the card and sliding it back into her purse “Would you happen to knohich office he’s headed for?”
“You would have to ask his PA that,” the blonde said with a pointed look “She’s in the New York headquarters Would you like her number?”
“Thanks, I have it” Izzie chewed on her bottoo did he leave?”
“Hours,” the other woman drawled “So sorry it was a wasted trip”
Soive her a second look Was the elusive Leandros Constantinou holed up in his office avoiding her? She wouldn’t put it past hi acts when it came to the press, but she didn’t have tiht back to New York left in exactly three and a half hours, and she intended to be on it
She gave the other woman a nod, zipped up her purse and turned away fro to be happy about this Fro Constantinou’s gao public And if NYC-TV didn’t get to him before it did and persuade hioing to be knocking on his door At that point, their chances of landing the feature would be slim to none
She swung her purse over her shoulder with a heavy sigh and lass doors to the bank of elevators A glance at the bored, restless expressions of those in the packed reception area told her she’d walked right into the middle of the midday caffeine and nicotine exodus Which wasn’t to say she herself didn’t have bad habits Hers were justfood she didn’t need in herover a story when she should be at the gyirl to do when her mother was a famous Hollywood diva and her sister sashayed down runways for a living? Perfection was never going to be all that attainable
The ping of an elevator arriving pulled her gaze to the row of silver-coated death traps A group of people crammed theone with theiven her hurry But her heart, which hadn’t quite recovered fro like a jackhaht-foot box s turn to mush
She glanced at the fire exit door, wondering how bad, exactly, walking down fifty flights of stairs would be Bad, she decided Three-inch heels did not lend themselves to such activity and besides, she had to catch that flight Better to slay her de a step back as the thick steel doors slaent bear witness to her incapacitating fear of elevators wasn’t going to happen
Telling herself she was a rational, levelheaded woman hat many would call a heck of a lot of responsibility on her shoulders every day, she looked desperately around the lobby at the crowd that was left in search of a diversion She could do this She wasn’t a total head case
She took in the drop-dead perfect figure of the wo dress that screa Were these woner heels? So not fair The only pair of designer shoes she oere a ruby-red marked-down find she’d fallen in love with, then spent a quarter of acereal for dinner for weeks
She kept her gaze ed in one too ed speci on his smartphone Her jaw dropped How could she have missed him? He was distraction with a capital D And even that didn’t begin to describe the six-foot-soner suit He was distraction in all caps And then some