The Heiress’s 2-Week Affair

  “What are you doing here, Matt?”

  He avoided her eyes. He’d become good at lying, but he never could to her. “I told you—I wanted to bring you dinner.”

  Liar. “Is that the only reason you’re here?” she pressed. “To make sure I eat?”

  This time he did raise his eyes to hers. “That, and because I still like looking at you, Natalie. You are still one of the most beautiful creatures God ever created.”

  Wow…he sure did know how to press her buttons.

  “I can’t do this,” she told him suddenly.

  “Do what?”

  “I can’t sit here opposite you and pretend I don’t feel anything, that I don’t still—”

  He didn’t let her finish.

  Pushing his chair back, Matt was on his feet, sinking his hands into her hair, tilting her face up to his. Immobilizing her lips by feverishly pressing his own against them in a kiss that set her body on fire.

  Dear Reader,

  I love beginnings, when anything can happen. The beginning of a series is like that, like watching a rosebud open up and become a lovely flower. So here we are, you and I, at the beginning of LOVE IN 60 SECONDS. This series is set in Las Vegas, a city of glamour, of glitz, where fortunes and reputations are won—and lost—not only at the turn of a card, but at the whimsical hands of fate. At the core of this series are the Rothchild family and a legendary, rare diamond—the Tears of Quetzal—that is worth millions. The true, rightful ownership of the gem is in question, which leads us to our mystery. Was powerful casino mogul Harold Rothchild’s daughter Candace murdered for the diamond—or for revenge?

  This is the question that haunts Detective Natalie Rothchild, Candace’s far more grounded twin sister. As she struggles to put the pieces of the puzzle together, Natalie finds that she has to rely on the help of a newly resurfaced Matt Shaffer, himself a member of a family with shady connections, and the man who, eight years ago, abandoned her while in possession of her heart.

  I hope you find this tale of lost and found as intriguing as I did and that you’ll come back for the next installment. As ever, I thank you for reading and I wish you love.

  Marie Ferrarella

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  The Heiress’s 2-Week Affair

  Special thanks and acknowledgment to Marie Ferrarella for her contribution to the Love in 60 Seconds miniseries.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Silhouette Romantic Suspense

  *In Broad Daylight #1315

  *Alone in the Dark #1327

  *Dangerous Disguise #1339

  **The Heart of a Ruler #1412

  *The Woman Who Wasn’t There #1415

  *Cavanaugh Watch #1431

  ‡Her Lawman on Call #1451

  ‡Diagnosis: Danger #1460

  ‡‡My Spy #1472

  ‡Her Sworn Protector #1491

  *Cavanaugh Heat #1499

  ‡A Doctor’s Secret #1503

  ‡Secret Agent Affair #1511

  *Protecting His Witness #1515

  Colton’s Secret Service #1528

  The Heiress’s 2-Week Affair #1556

  Silhouette Special Edition

  §Her Good Fortune #1665

  †Because a Husband Is Forever #1671

  §§The Measure of a Man #1706

  †She’s Having a Baby #1713

  †Her Special Charm #1726

  Husbands and Other Strangers #1736

  ***The Prodigal M.D. Returns #1775

  ‡‡‡Mother in Training #1785

  Romancing the Teacher #1826

  ††Remodeling the Bachelor #1845

  ††Taming the Playboy #1856

  ††Capturing the Millionaire #1863

  †††Falling for the M.D. #1873

  §§§Diamond in the Rough #1910

  §§§The Bride with No Name #1917

  §§§Mistletoe and Miracles #1941

  §Plain Jane and the Playboy #1946

  §§§Travis’s Appeal #1958

  MARIE FERRARELLA

  This USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author has written more than one hundred and fifty books for Silhouette, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her Web site at www.marieferrarella.com.

  To

  Shana Smith.

  Welcome

  aboard.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Prologue

  The burst of joy that bathed over her like warm summer rain when Natalie Rothchild opened her eyes began to recede as the reality of the situation slowly penetrated her consciousness.

  The spot beside her on the bed was empty.

  Empty and cool to the touch when she ran her fingers over it.

  “Matt?” She called out his name, but only the echo of her voice answered her. There was no sound of running water from the bathroom, no indication that there was anyone else in the hotel room but her.

  Her heart began hammering hard, so hard that it physically hurt her. It felt as if someone had shot arrows through it.

  He couldn’t have gone.

  But if he was here, where were his clothes? The ones that he’d torn off so carelessly last night, throwing them on the floor along with hers? The first time they’d made love last night, she’d all but caught on fire.

  The ache within her chest grew.

  “Matt?” she called out again. Fear and bewilderment filled her voice as she sat up. A chill ran down her spine. Something was wrong.

  Last night, he’d told her that he loved her, told her that they’d be together forever. He’d said he wanted to marry her. She knew he’d meant it. Knew it wasn’t just something expedient to say because he wanted to make love to her. He’d said it after, not before. After was when it carried weight.

  So where was he?

  And why did she have this awful, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, this uneasy sensation that something was very, very wrong?

  As Natalie shifted to swing her legs out of bed, she saw it. Just beneath his pillow—his pillow—there was a bit of paper peeking out.

  Natalie froze.

  She wanted to leave it there. To ignore it. Because the moment she acknowledged it was the moment she had to read it. And the moment she read it, she knew that the euphoric state she’d allowed herself to slip into would burst apart like a soap bubble that had floated on the breeze a second too long, done in by the very thing that had made it float.

  But she was Natalie Rothchild. Natalie, the sensible one. The one who faced her problems and life in general head on and fearlessly. Natalie, the rebel who refused to allow her family’s vast fortune to keep her from living a life of purpose.

  Matt told her that was one of the things he loved about her.

  He loved her.

  Didn’t he?

  Pressing her lips together, steeling herself, Natalie pulled the note out from beneath the pillow. She held it in her trembling hands and forced herself to read it.

  Her eyes clouded with tears, nearly blinding her before she finished.

  Balling up the paper, she threw it across the room and then buried her face against her raised knees. Her heart broken, Natalie did what she rarely did. She surrendered to despair.

  Quiet sobs filled the silence within the room.

&
nbsp; She was really alone.

  Chapter 1

  Excitement vibrated through Candace Rothchild’s veins.

  She could literally feel her adrenaline accelerating. Creating a rush. It was always this way when she stepped out in front of the cameras. Being the center of attention—even anticipating being the center of attention created a high that few drugs, legal or otherwise, could equal. Ever since she could remember, Candace thrived on the limelight, ate it up as if it was a source of energy for her.

  Unlike her twin sister, Natalie, whom she considered a dull, placid being with little imagination or flair, Candace positively bloomed when attention was thrown her way. The bigger, the better had always been her motto.

  To this end, she always made sure that she was picture perfect. She wore the latest fashions, had the kind of figure women would kill for and men remembered long after she had passed out of their lives. If, at times, that necessitated starving herself and spending outrageous amounts of money, well, so be it. It was all worth it. She wasn’t cut out for the tranquil, humdrum life. Which meant the role of doting mother, to sons she hardly knew and had less time for, wasn’t for her. The only plus from that end was that the tabloids were forever attempting to guess who had fathered them and if, indeed, it had been the same man in both cases.

  Beyond that, the children—Mick and David, named after her favorite singers—held no interest for her. Far more important was that there was always another premiere, another function, another occasion to be photographed and fawned over. At times, she would imagine average, desperate women hungrily devouring the tidbits of her life, fantasizing about the men she’d bedded, all in an effort to leave, however briefly, their own drab lives behind.

  She was doing a public service living this way, Candace told herself, a smirk twisting her ripe, collagen-full lips. She gave those poor, hopeless women something to dream about.

  Why, she was positively noble, if you gave it any thought, Candace silently congratulated herself as she gracefully slid out of the backseat of the limousine and onto the red carpet that was unfurled before The Janus. This opulent casino, where tonight’s charity gala was being held, was Luke Montgomery’s most extravagant enterprise to date. Never mind that Luke and her father were rivals the way only the nouveau riche could be in Las Vegas, where the stakes that ran highest were not always found on a blackjack table.

  The gala Luke was hosting centered around an international jewelry convention. On display was a breathtaking collection of gems that had been donated by various members of the rich and famous, all in the name of charity. The price of admission was high but only in terms of what the average person could afford.

  The sum meant nothing to Candace. Money had never been a problem for her. Sustaining her high had been—because she needed to stay in the spotlight in order to survive. Without it, the insecurities that lingered in the background began to encroach, darkening her world and threatening to sink her into a nether region fraught with madness.

  So she did what she could to ensure that she would never descend to those levels. She surrounded herself with glamorous people and basked in the glow of the limelight the way no one else could.

  Charity or not, Candace had no gems she was willing to part with. She never met an expensive bauble she didn’t immediately love. And tonight, she was sporting the best of the best, a legendary diamond that, according to a rumor she’d heard, had been in her family for several decades. The Tears of the Quetzal. Only gems of quality had names, she thought with a smug grin.

  Her father, Harold Rothchild, thought the ring was safely under lock and key. But then, he had no idea how determined she could be. Or how clever. Like everyone else, he had underestimated her. His problem, she thought carelessly.

  Besides, what good was jewelry if you couldn’t wear it? Couldn’t flaunt it and make others look at it enviously? None, that’s what. Jewelry had to be seen to be appreciated.

  And its owner envied.

  Candace looked down now at the ring on her hand. The incredible multifaceted diamond captured all the light in the immediate vicinity and flashed it back onto her in bursts of green and purple. It was as if she had a star on her ring finger. Rumor had it that there was a curse attached to it.

  All nonsense, she was certain. The so-called curse was started by her father, or maybe Grandpa Joe before him to keep people from making off with the gem. But she wasn’t ignorant like the rest of her pathetic family.

  She had no concerns about a curse, only about the attention wearing the priceless gem could garner her. She stood for a moment as the limousine pulled away, letting those in the immediate vicinity drink in the sight of her. She gave the appearance of being taller than she was, helped, in part, by stiletto heels. The long, clinging scarlet gown she wore would have been eye-catching under any circumstances. On her it was doubly so, and she knew it. Cascading platinum hair completed the picture. She was a knockout.

  She was alone tonight. Deliberately so. She wanted to be unencumbered as she scanned the sea of men this gala had lured. She wanted to be free to scan them and to bring the one that pleased her most back to her condo. Her sons had been packed off with the nanny for an overnight visit with the nanny’s sister and nephews—which left the terrain open for her. There would be no disapproving nanny, no annoying children popping up at inopportune times to ask even more annoying questions.

  She was in the mood for something new tonight. Something different. Exotic, perhaps.

  Exotic, yes.

  A smile slipped over her lips as she slowly made her way along the carpet, her pace timed to the flashes that were going off, marking her passage. Photographers called out her name and vied for better positions in order to snare the “perfect” photograph.

  In a pinch, Candace mused, she might not mind reverting back to the tried and true. Like Luke Montgomery. In his time, he’d been very hot in bed. Hot enough to leave an impression on her in his wake, even now. Not an easy feat considering the number of lovers she’d had over the years. Her collection had begun at the precocious age of fourteen when she’d surrendered her virginity, already rather compromised, to the family chauffeur. Paolo, as she recalled, had been poor, but beautiful.

  And very, very skilled in the ways of lovemaking.

  She wondered where Paolo was these days. Her father had gotten rid of the driver the moment he’d found out about the affair. Harold Rothchild had indignantly threatened the man with prison, but even she’d known that the threat was empty. Ever conscious of their reputation, her father wanted nothing more than to avoid any sort of public scandal that reflected poorly on the family.

  She’d given him quite a run for his money, she thought, turning her face up so that the lighting caught her just so.

  “Poor Dad, you should have raised prize-winning roses, not daughters,” she mused under her breath.

  Recognizing them, she paused to pose for several national magazine photographers. One hand on her hip, the other—the one with the ring—delicately placed just beneath her collarbone and above the deeply plunging neckline that left only the tiniest speck to the imagination. Of the two of them, she wondered which was more of a disappointment to her father, she with her penchant of attracting every photographer within a fifty-mile radius, or Natalie, who worked as a police detective, for God sakes. How mundane and common can you get?

  “This way, Candace. Look this way!” a deep male voice called out urgently.

  The voice, she noted, sounded vaguely familiar to her, although she doubted she could place it as she turned in the direction it had come from.

  And then she smiled more brilliantly. She was right. She had recognized the voice. Recognized the man as well, although she couldn’t remember his name.

  Something beginning with a P, she thought, although she couldn’t be sure. Or maybe it began with a B. But then, it didn’t matter if she remembered them, only that they remembered her, and by the look on this one’s face, he most certainly did remember her. />
  They’d slept together, hadn’t they? she thought. He looked like her type. Tall, muscular, with an olive complexion, thick black hair and high cheekbones that gave him almost an aristocratic look. She might have mistaken him for one of the invited guests—if not for the camera he was clutching.

  But he was exotic looking and she really was in the mood for someone exotic.

  “What have you got for us, Candace?” he called out, elbowing his way forward ahead of the gaggle of photographers. Grumbling and curses marked his forward progress.

  “A lot of sugar,” she answered in a breathless voice that made her sound as if she were channeling the spirit of the late Marilyn Monroe at her zenith. “And, of course, this.”

  “This” was the ring that she now held up like a courtesan in the court of King Henry VIII waiting to have her hand kissed. A satisfied smirk graced her lips again. A flurry of cameras went off, capturing the image and the moment.

  But her attention was only focused on the photographer with the aura of danger about him. Winking, she bent forward, giving him, she knew, ample view of her endowment.

  “Didn’t we…?” Candace deliberately let her voice trail off even as her eyes held him prisoner in their blue gaze.

  His smile, she caught herself thinking, was incredibly sexy as he answered in a low voice, “Yes, we did. I’m flattered that you remembered.”

  It was the perfect thing to say to her and he knew it, even as he maintained his innocent expression.

  Candace did her best to recall the details of their coupling—and failed. “I’m afraid your name…” She shrugged playfully, a laugh escaping her carefully made up lips. “I was never good with names.”

  “Patrick,” he supplied politely, snapping another photograph. She preened. “My name’s Patrick Moore.”