The Millionaire and the Glass Slipper (Silhouette Special Edition #1870)

J.T. rubbed the back of his neck as he watched the numbers of the downtown office building's elevator ascend. A run was definitely in order. Or a workout in the hotel's gym. There was nothing like working up a sweat to lessen tension--with the possible exception of sex. Since he didn't know any women in Portland, Oregon, and since he wasn't into one-night stands, a workout seemed his best option for loosening the knots and easing the restiveness he could never quite shake.His broad shoulders lowered with a long expulsion of breath. He didn't want to think about women just then. Aside from making him aware of a different sort of frustration, since it had been a while since he'd had the pleasure of intimate female company, thinking about women reminded him that he was supposed to be looking for one.He still couldn't believe the ultimatum his father had delivered two months ago. Two and a half, he mentally grumbled, reminding himself that the clock continued to tick.His jaw worked in a slow grind as the numbers continued to climb. Justin had discovered he was a father not long after that meeting, but no one knew if he was making any progress with his little girl's mom. As far as J.T. knew, the guy still didn't want a wife. He knew for a fact he didn't want one himself.He wanted nothing to do with the whole home-and-family thing. He knew firsthand that commitment on that level simply didn't work. He couldn't even remember his own mother, his father's second wife. She had bailed when J.T. was two, leaving him to a series of nannies, au pairs and the two succeeding stepmothers who'd pretty much ignored him before they'd abandoned him and their sons, too. They'd literally taken the money and run, which had pretty much proved to him long before he graduated from high school that women could be bought.He'd learned a couple more valuable lessons back then, too. He'd learned that women pretended to care only when they wanted something in return. And that the best way to get any attention from anyone was to get into trouble. A visit from a truant officer was usually good for at least a ten-minute audience with his father. That was often the most time the man spent with him all week.The elevator slowed. Over the quiet drone of the Muzak, a refined ding announced his floor.He didn't cause problems now. At least, not the kind that involved threats of expulsion or fines for speeding tickets. He'd refined his talent for trouble into a tendency to merely break or bend any rule that didn't suit his purpose. His opinion of women, however, hadn't changed much. His father's rules for the Bride Hunt were that the women not know who they were or anything about the family wealth. When he got around to looking for a woman, which he was still in no rush to do, his personal requirements would be more specific.The woman would have to have good genes. Preferably, in a tall, leggy blonde sort of way. She couldn't come with any emotional or familial baggage. And she needed to have a career she wanted to keep so she'd have interests of her own. His father had said that the woman had to fall in love with him--not that he had to fall in love with her. Not that he believed for an instant that his father's demands could be met--which was why he was about to implement Plan B.The elevator doors slid open. Stepping into a wide hall, vaguely aware of the sounds of construction coming from a floor below, he noted the plaque on the wall indicating the direction of the suite he was looking for.Plan B was to have everything in place to open his own architectural firm so he'd have something to fall back on when his father sold out. He figured that would happen in nine and a half months, when the time for the hunt expired. The logistics of that new venture became the sole thoughts on his mind as he opened the door marked Kelton & Associates.A spacious reception area of white walls, gray industrial carpet and a wide mFlynn, Christine is the author of 'The Millionaire and the Glass Slipper (Silhouette Special Edition #1870)', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373248704 and ISBN 0373248709.