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PROLOGUE

Eight years ago

‘So, in conclusion, I think the y your people presented to you is hackneyed, stupid and asinine, and pays absolutely no attention to your deraphics, to thetheether, and if you follow it I guarantee that you will lose most of your market share in five years’ time—if not your business’

Luke Savage looked across his e of her chair, her face aniance What was her nalanced down at the file in front of him Jess Sherwood She enty-two, he read, and was currently doing her MBA in Marketing The file did state that she was over-blessed with brains—her school and university achievements were, to put it mildly, ieous as well

A true brown-eyed blonde

She was quite a parcel and, boy, did she know it

Luke kept his face i over the other and lightly linked her hands around a bare knee, an index finger tapping away She wore a short, flouncy dress, falling off one shoulder and showing a thin purple bra strap, and belted at slih, it was too short, too casual, and too sexy an outfit for work—but she wore it with careless confidence

Luke, as seldom surprised at much, was taken aback by her self-importance and her balls-to-the-wall chutzpah She’d been placed as an intern for the suain work experience within St Sylve’sdepartenerations-old family vineyard She’d aed into his office and said that she felt ‘ated’—he curled his lip at the phrase—to tell hi plan was dreadful And now she had the temerity to predict the failure of his business

Herand Luke hissed his annoyance as she dived for her bag and pulled out the phone, squinting at the display She flashed hiy ‘Sorry—I have to take this’

Whatever—I’m just your boss Why don’t I just hile you finish arranging your social life?

He felt twenty years older than her, rather than six, and he probably was in experience University was a dim and distant memory, clouded by the fourteen- to sixteen-hour days he’d been working for the past seven years