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CHAPTER ONE

LUKE BRYANT stared at his watch for the sixth time in the last four minutes and felt his temper, already on a steady simmer, start a low boil

She was late He glanced enquiringly at Jenna, his Head of PR, whomotions with her hands All around hiant crystal and an to shift restlessly They’d already been waiting fifteen minutes for Aurelie toand so far she was a no-show

Luke gritted his teeth and wished, futilely, that he could wash his hands of this whole wretched thing He’d been busy putting out corporate fires at the Los Angeles office and had left the schedule of events for today’s reopening to his team here in New York If he’d been on site, he wouldn’t be here waiting for so, booking a washed-up C-list celebrity like Aurelie?

He glanced at his Head of PR again, watched as she bit her lip andnot one shred of sympathy, Luke strode towards her

‘Where is she, Jenna?’

‘Upstairs—’

‘What is she doing?’

‘Getting ready—’

Luke curbed his skyrocketing temper with some effort ‘And does she realise she’s fifteen—’ he checked his watch ‘—sixteen and a halfshe’s meant to perform?’

‘I think she does,’ Jenna admitted

Luke stared at her hard He was getting annoyed with the wrong person, he knew Jenna was aht, she’d booked a co of the store, but at least she had a ream of market research to back up her choice Jenna had been very firroup of eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds, she’d sung three chart-topping and apparently iconic songs of their generation, and was only twenty-six herself