Fully aware she was drinking in her fill, he puckered his lips like he might blow her a kiss. But he’d been born with those dark sultry eyes and that decadent luscious mouth. Of course, she’d seen him before he’d learned to groom himself so handsomely. She knew he’d spent a fortune to look like he did, but knowing it didn’t make her appreciate it less. These kids will learn.Īnthony sheepishly pulled his chair back and returned to his place at the table.Īs Val waited for order to return, she let her gaze linger on Dane, draped against the wall in all his languorous beauty. He gestured for Dane to sit, but Dane’s lip curled up on one side in disdain, and he simply leaned against the back wall, languidly pushing a stir stick around his Styrofoam coffee cup. Anthony vacated his chair with alacrity, as though he feared someone else might beat him to it. Fifteen intern heads swiveled away from Val and gawked at him. The door swung open, and Dane waltzed in. Now they were all a neat row of matching pawns. Val raised an eyebrow at him, and he straightened up and put his forearms on the table. Leaning back in his chair, one foot crossed on his knee.

So far, the only one with the chutzpah to approach her sat at the far corner of the table. Val scanned the other interns, chess pieces on her board, sizing up their value to her. Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo If they don’t agree to a cease fire, Val’s reputation will be destroyed and Dane will lose his heart before he even realizes he’s risked it. Although they’re adept at using everyone around them like chess pieces, their interpersonal game has no rules and can only end with their mutual destruction. While Dane doesn’t notice that a jealous Val has set him on a path to ruin Noelle, Val’s blind to the traps Dane has laid to bring her down. But Dane’s not interested because he’s stumbled across his own opportunity for vengeance-a chance to seduce Noelle, the new CEO, and the woman who spurned him years ago.Īs Val and Dane play cat-and-mouse with everyone else, their long-simmering history of unresolved romantic injuries with one another begins to burn beyond their control. When Geraldo’s daughter shows up as an intern in Val’s summer training program, Val sees the perfect opportunity for her longed-for revenge-she’ll teach the girl nefarious business practices and send her home ethically compromised. Meanwhile Val plays the role of a scrupulous mentor, while secretly playing mind games with everyone at the office. Dane deals with the boredom by leaning into his playboy ways. But after they lost the internet trading company they built from the ground up to ruthless Geraldo Valencia, they had to tuck tail and run to a Midwestern firm.

ĭiabolical Wall Street traders, Dane Russ and Val Montgomery, vaulted into fame and fortune as the power duo of financial technology. Warning: What you’re about to read is not a romance.

Some Kind of Magic by Mary Ann Marlowe