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CHAPTER ONE

XAVIER LAURAN, chief executive, chairoods coraced so many of the expensive possessions of the rich and famous, scanned down the e-mails on his desktop PC The words of Armand’s e-mail from London leapt from the screen in front of him

… she’s the wo to marry her!

Xavier’s jaw tightened For aParis skyline, the Arc de Triomphe visible fro the Place d’Etoiles He should, right now, be leaving his office and going back to his aparte, ready to escort Madeline to the opera—and thereafter back to her apart The arrangement suited him Madeline de Cerasse, like all the women he selected for his leisure hours, knehat he wanted from a relationship and provided him with it—sophisticated companionship at the many social events his position required him to attend, and then, in private, equally sophisticated pleasures of an intimate nature Physically intiht nor desired He was not, he kneith candid self-awareness, someone who let his heart rule his head

Unlike his brother

Xavier’s expression darkened Armand always let his heart rule his head—and the last time it had happened it had been a disaster With coement, he had fallen into the clutches of a woood heart, deviously trotting out sorand his heart with tales about the charity for African orphans she’d claienerously—until Xavier, with his habitual protectiveness of his younger brother, had had the woh her teeth in order to win Armand’s sympathy and money for herself

Areneral goodness of people—and especially woe

To who about who his intended bride was Swiftly Xavier scanned the re lines of the e-mail

This ti cautious, Xav, the way you liketo do with you or XeL—I deliberately haven’t told her I want it to be a wonderful surprise!

But any initial relief that Ar with his head dissolved into deepest foreboding as he finished the e-mail

I know there will be problems, but I don’t care if she isn’t the ideal bride you think I should have—I love her and that has to be enough …

Griood at all Ar upfront there would be problems and that his bride was not ideal

Yet he was still talking about e

Alarh Xavier If this woman turned out as disastrously as the last one had, extricating his brother would be far more difficult if he married her

And expensive, too—Armand was not the type to consider a pre-nup OK, so Armand was only his half brother, and had therefore not inherited the corandfather, another Xavier Lauran A coh—and very lucratively—as one of the world’s oods The exclusive XeL logo giving cachet and social status to anyone possessing any of the myriad extortionately expensive items, from watches to suitcases, which the cohly paid director of XeL, but his father, Lucian Becaud, who when Xavier was a sht Armand would be a rich catch for any woman in search of a moneyed husband

Was that what Armand’s intended bride was? Armand clearly did not think so The final lines of his e-mail were adamant

Xav—this ti, and you can’t change my mind Please don’t interfere this time—it’s too important to me

Xavier sighed harshly He wanted to trust Ar? What if another unscrupulous wo him to her true nature? There would be heartbreak for his brother down the line—not to mention the expense of an acrimonious divorce and the distress to Armand’s parents

No, he could not take the risk Not with his own brother’s happiness He needed to find out who this woman was, and whether his brother was safe with her Reluctantly, but with grim determination, he reached for the phone on his desk He would make some discreet enquiries The company’s security team answered to him alone—and if he required them to keep his brother under surveillance for a short while they would simply assuht reveal the identity of this wo ‘the ideal bride’, whom he’d already conceded would come with ‘problems’

As he waited for his head of security to answer, Xavier could feel the thoughts for unnecessarily