Bedded, or Wedded? [Harlequin Presents Series #2684]

Xavier Lauran, chief executive, chairman and majority shareholder of the XeL luxury goods company, whose ornate logo graced 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 woman of my dreams, Xav--she doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to marry her!Xavier's jaw tightened. For a moment he brooded darkly, staring out over the darkening Paris skyline, the Arc de Triomphe visible from the windows of the XeL headquarters, overlooking the Place d'Etoiles. He should, right now, be leaving his office and going back to his apartment to change, ready to escort Madeline to the opera--and thereafter back to her apartment for their usual mutually enjoyable end to the evening. The arrangement suited him. Madeline de Cerasse, like all the women he selected for his leisure hours, knew what 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 intimate. Emotional intimacy was something Xavier neither sought nor desired. He was not, he knew with 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 complete lack of judgement, he had fallen into the clutches of a woman who had taken unscrupulous advantage of his good heart, deviously trotting out some rubbish about having to keep her frail grandmother in an expensive nursing home, as well as wringing his heart with tales about the charity for African orphans she'd claimed to work for. Armand had responded generously--until Xavier, with his habitual protectiveness of his younger brother, had had the woman checked out. Only to discover she had been lying through her teeth in order to win Armand's sympathy and money for herself.Armand had been duly disillusioned. But his faith in the general goodness of people--and especially women--was undiminished. And now he was talking about marriage.To whom? Who was this 'woman of his dreams'? Armand had said nothing about who his intended bride was. Swiftly Xavier scanned the remaining lines of the e-mail.This time I'm being cautious, Xav, the way you like me to be. She doesn't even know that I've anything to do with you or XeL--I deliberately haven't told her. I want it to be a wonderful surprise!But any initial relief that Armand was showing signs of thinking 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...Grimly, Xavier stared at the screen. This was not good--not good at all. Armand was admitting upfront there would be problems and that his bride was not ideal.Yet he was still talking about marriage.Alarm speared through 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 company founded by Xavier's grandfather, another Xavier Lauran. A company which was riding high--and very lucratively--as one of the world's most recognisable global brands of luxury goods. 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 company produced. But not only was Armand a very highly paid director of XeL, but his father, Lucian Becaud,James, Julia is the author of 'Bedded, or Wedded? [Harlequin Presents Series #2684]', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373126842 and ISBN 0373126840.