The Wedding Diaries

Chapter One She saw him the minute she walked in the door. He was beautiful, with dark hair, blue eyes, and chiseled features. Combined with those amazing looks, there was a raw sensuality rippling through his broad shoulders beneath his starched, white, button-down shirt. He stood behind his desk, talking into the phone. He had a commanding presence that was at once primal and ruthless. It was a well-known fact that Maxwell Bowden Landry of MBL Holdings went after what he wanted and got it. Vivienne Stansfield shook the thought away, her long, black-lacquer hair trailing down her back. Her eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, her rosebud lips painted a provocative shade of pink that matched her perfectly manicured nails. Her skirt was short, her heels were high, her legs long. All in all, she was a beauty with a movie-star shimmer, and anyone seeing her would have sworn she knew it. As if sensing she was there, he turned and saw her through the office window. His entire body seemed to go still, his eyes darkening. He looked at her with a single-minded intensity that made sensation spin through her, her breath growing uncomfortably shallow, heat flaring, settling low. He looked at her with something deeper than simple recognition, as if he knew her. For half a second her world seemed to slow as she tried to remember a previous meeting. But then his face cleared, and he gestured for her to enter, though he was still on the phone. Regardless, he wasn't the reason she had come to MBL Holdings. The company was one of the largest conglomerates in Texas, handling land development, construction, and real estate. MBL was said to have a lock on any real estate transaction in the Lone Star state. And Vivienne needed a house. She already knew what she wanted. Despite what everyone assumed she would buy, she was looking for something small, quaint--something that needed fixing up. She struggled to keep her excitement covered by the reserved facade the newspapers wrote about. Her father would expect nothing less. Though it was all well and good for Jennings Stansfield to act however he wanted, Vivienne Stansfield was expected to be a perfect china doll. Most of the time she managed to keep the crystalline veneer in place. But sometimes it was hard. If she wasn't concentrating, she laughed too loud, smiled too much. Once she'd been caught doing the Wave at a UTEP basketball game, even though she'd been sitting alone in her father's private box. It had looked like fun--like a fascinating taste of normal. An assistant led her across the carpeted expanse, phones ringing, people talking, several men stopping what they were doing to stare. "Is that Vivienne Stansfield?" she heard someone whisper. Vivienne raised her chin, her expression composed, praying she wouldn't trip on her high heels. She made it into Max Landry's office, her fuchsia handbag swinging delicately on her wrist, and instantly she knew coming there was a mistake. If she thought he had presence when she saw him across the busy office, when he was only a few feet away she could all but feel the barely contained energy of him charging the room. He exuded power, untamed despite the civilized surroundings of exquisite paintings and fine leather chairs, making her heart beat hard and her knees fuse in a way that she didn't understand. But that didn't stop her from sitting down and fighting back a blush when she noticed the way he studied her as he listened to what someone was saying to him on the phone. He seemed to strip her naked with his gaze, taking her in. She had the sudden, unexpected image of him in bed, the sheets barely covering his naked hips, as he moved slowly, deeply, his weight supported on his forearms as he watched a woman's passion. He hung up, bringing her completely inappropriate imaginings to an end. Then he came around the deskLinda Francis Lee is the author of 'The Wedding Diaries', published 2003 under ISBN 9780804119979 and ISBN 080411997X.