BOOK 1

He’d been smiled at by many beautiful women, but there was something unique about Danielle.

Very few things he could think of would have gained her his complete and undivided attention as quickly as the Idss had. It had been a sucker punch. He hadn’t seen it coming, and when it did arrive, he’d been helpless to guard against it.

He’d been thinking about it ever since.

He’d looked forward to their next encounter, because he’d thought he would be able to make her pay for kissing him as she had, for making him want her, then for running away with another man.

But she’d fooled him.

“Isn’t a scavenger hunt kids’ play?”

“I suppose it depends on your point of view. My friends and I thought it was great fun, and we didn’t break too many laws.”

“Too many?”

She shrugged. “More importantly, no one got hurt.”

“I suppose that depends on your point of view.”

“You’re talking about the kiss, aren’t you?”

“That was the only part of the scavenger hunt I was personally involved in.”

Firmly she shook her head, causing her hair to ripple over her shoulders. “You weren’t hurt, Nathan. I didn’t leave one mark on you, inside or out.”

He smiled inwardly. She’d been nervous when she’d first arrived, but around the time she’d told Sin and Lion to stop talking and listen—something very few people had ever done, but something he knew they’d gotten a kick out of—she’d come into her own. She had backbone and seemingly every bit as much integrity as her father.

Since Edouard was retired, he probably would never have known what she’d done unless she’d told him. But her sense of rightness had brought her here to apologize.

“In fact, you probably wouldn’t have even remembered the kiss if I hadn’t showed up again.”

“You’re wrong, but never mind that now. Let’s talk more about the kiss.”

A slight wariness crept into her expression. “What about it?”

“Do you often go around kissing strange men?”

She sighed. “It was a game, Nathan. Don’t you ever play games?”

“Quite often. But I’ve never kissed a strange woman, especially without warning.”

“I gave you warning.”

He smiled. “Of a sort. By the way, what made you choose me?”

He saw her gaze drop to his smile and felt a surge of satisfaction. She wasn’t unaffected by him.

“Quite honestly, it was fairly simple. I hadn’t made the decision yet to go for that particular item on our list, but when I saw you, you looked like someone I wouldn’t mind kissing, and I went for it.”

“Someone you wouldn’t mind kissing,” he repeated slowly.

“Look. It was never intended to be a big deal. It was only supposed to be a closed-mouth kiss and it wasn’t supposed to last long. It was you who—”

“Opened your mouth and kept you longer than you intended? Don’t blame me, Danielle. I was only following your orders.”

“My orders?”

He nodded. “You said, ‘Kiss me as if you’re madly in love with me and are never going to let me go.

“Right, I did.” She grimaced. “Those words just sort of popped out. I’m not sme why.”

“Okay, then, what was it about me that made you think I’d go along with you?”

She fixed him with a look of exasperation. “You could have taught the people involved in the Spanish Inquisition somediing about interrogation. What are you going to do next? Put me on the rack?”

“Not if you answer my question.”

She leaned forward and propped her forearms on the table. “I know you and your family have had to guard against a lot of people who have wanted to harm you, but please believe me when I say that kissing you tonight was not part of some Byzantine plot on my part. I was simply running around Paris, having fim with my friends, nothing more, nothing less. As for the kiss, I chose you because I thought you were nice-looking, and I figured if I took you off guard by saying what I did, and I kissed you fast enough, you wouldn’t have a chance to turn me down.”

There was a sweemess in her effort to reassure him, and he realized with vague surprise that she had touched him on some emotional level. “As it turns out, you didn’t need to catch me off guard. I rarely turn down a request from a beautiful woman.”

She sat back and eyed him consideringly. “You must stay very busy.”

He smiled. “I keep myself occupied. Tell me about yourself.”

Once again, she stared at his smile for a moment. “I don’t see the point. I’ve done what I came here to do. Now I should really get back to my friends.”

“Not yet. Not until you pay me what you owe me."

“Excuse me?” She looked stunned. “You think I owe you something?”

“Yes, I do. You said it yourself. You won because of who I am. I helped you to win your prize, your snow globe. In my book, that means you owe me.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is that what your father would say?”

“Are you saying you’ll tell my father if I don’t pay you back?”

“If I ever threaten you, Danielle,” he said softly, “you won’t have to ask. You’ll know.”

She exhaled a long breath. “You’re not talking about money, are you?”

He stared at her for several moments. A game had been behind the kiss, chance had been behind her choosing him, but it didn’t matter. The kiss had happened, and though she might not want to admit it, they’d connected during the kiss. She might be willing to let it go at that, but he wasn’t.

“I have a charity ball to attend in New York in three days, but I don’t have a date yet. You’re going to come with me.”

She looked at him blankly. “Me?”

He nodded.

“But why? There must be scores of women who would love to be your date.”

“That’s not the point, is it? The point is that because of me, you won the prize. You owe me and this is how I want you to repay me.”

“And you wouldn’t be just as happy with a snow globe?” she suggested tentatively.

He smiled, hilly, and with humor. “No snow globe.”

“I see,” she said as she sat there absorbing his smile and feeling something shift in her. Technically, in the strictest sense of the word, she supposed he was right. She’d admitted to him that he had helped her win the game, which, for some reason, he’d decided meant she owed him. Now he was calling in the debt. Who knew why?

She’d gone on a scavenger hunt and found a Damaron, and now she appeared to be stuck with him for a little while longer. She knew there were people who would say she was the luckiest girl in the world, but she wasn’t so sure. “You say I owe you. That must mean you’re upset with me in some way.”

“Not now.”

“But you were.”

He nodded. “When I thought you were going to sell the tape, I was very angry. But now I know you were simply using me in an entirely different way that had only a small part to do with money.”

“Money?”

“It took money to buy the snow globe, right, so therefore it’s worth money, even if it cost only a few francs.”

She wasn’t certain she believed him when he said he was no longer angry with her, she reflected as she tried to reason her way through his motive. True, what she’d done had been a bit outrageous. Oh, okay, it had been a lot outrageous. And also true, the kiss had been more than she had bargained for and so had he. She remembered the kiss as if it had happened moments instead of hours ago.

“You owe me, Danielle. The snow globe is proof of that.”

“And what would you do if I refused to go along with you on this?”

To her astonishment, his eyes began to twinkle and a shiver ran down her spine. This man was dangerous on many levels.

“Oh, come on, Danielle. You don’t really want to find that out, do you?”

He was being completely charming now, but she couldn’t miss the steel behind the words.

He went on. “It’s not as if I’m asking you to give me your last dime, is it? Or even do something as outrageous as strip naked right here and now and have sex with me on this table.”

His hand flattened on the table and her heart gave a leap. It was a big hand, with long fingers and fine dark hair on its back. She remembered how he’d cupped her head and thrust his tongue deep into her mouth. The kiss had almost undone her. What would having sex with him to do her?

“Danielle? This can’t be that hard a decision for you.”

By rights, it shouldn’t be. He was one of the most eligible men in the world and he was simply asking her to attend a ball with him. Why was she hesitating? With her next breath she answered herself. Because with him she had a feeling there was nothing simple about anything he did. “When did you say this ball was?” she asked carefully.

“Three days from now. This Saturday.”

Relieved, she shook her head. “I’m not due to return to New York till Sunday. My plane leaves Saturday afternoon.”

“Your plans can be changed.”

“No, I’m sorry, but they can’t. My friends and I got the cheapest fares we could. Our flight plans are locked in and there is no refund.”

“Your father is Edouard Savourat. Money can be an issue."

"I stopped taking money from my father the day I graduated from college. I pay my own way in everything I do.”

He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. “Well, in any event, this is no problem. You can fly home with me.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t afford another ticket and I won’t allow you to buy one for me.”

He smiled, revealing a row of even, white teeth that reminded her of a shark’s. “I don’t have to. My jet will be flying back to New York tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be on it, and it won’t cost a cent more if you’re aboard.”

She almost groaned. “You have your own plane?” Of course he did. “Will your cousins be aboard too?” Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if Sinclair and Lion were with them. She liked them.

“No, they’ll be flying home in their own separate planes. We try not to fly together unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Right.” She remembered now. It was a policy formed because of their parents’ deaths. Her thoughts returned to his request. There was no getting around it, he had an answer for everything.

Her father had always told her that a person who crossed a Damaron would regret it for the rest of his hfe. But he had also told her that if a person was fair and honest, that Damaron would be fair and honest with him. That thought was what was keeping her in her seat. She’d started the game. He was asking her only to finish it out.

Truthfully, he’d be a hard man for any woman to turn down. He was a man of great power and charm and the ability to kiss a woman until she forgot and,went much further than she’d intended.

With her, it had started with the kiss, and here it was, happening again. She wanted to go to the ball with him.

She met his gaze. “Never let it be said that I don’t pay my debts. And since we’ll be attending a ball together, call me Dani.”