Chase Adams might consider himself to be the man who had everything, but he’d never had Lara. If she walked into his life, he’d soon discover what was missing. Lara would give the ruthless, coldhearted Chase Adams a night he would never forget.
CHAPTER TWO
TUCKED BEHIND ONE of the pillars on the terrace, Chase Adams stood staring over the Manhattan skyline. He scanned the building closest to him; fifty-four floors of winking glass and gleaming metal, now providing corporate headquarters for three Fortune 100 companies.
He was familiar with every steel bolt.
His company had built it, as they had at least four other buildings within his line of vision.
Buildings were his life. His world.
As a child he’d played with Lego. This was more satisfying. He was creating something permanent, something that became part of the city he loved.
“Chase!” A soft, feminine voice told him that his moment of contemplation was over.
He turned, resigned. “Victoria.”
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. There are people waiting to talk to you!”
Not because they were interested in him, but because they wanted something.
People always wanted something.
There were days when he felt every interaction he had was fake, including his relationship with Victoria.
His parents kept telling him she would be a perfect life partner for someone. It was obvious they were hoping he’d be that someone.
It was true that she was socially adept and confident. She would stand next to him at events like this one and make polite conversation with anyone and everyone from presidents to police chiefs.
There was only one problem.
The thought of waking up next to Victoria for the next fifty years chilled him. He’d never seen her anything but perfectly groomed, and never heard her utter a word that hadn’t been carefully edited. There were times when he felt like tickling her to see if she was capable of spontaneous laughter.
Chase wondered what she looked like in the morning when she hadn’t spent half the day being pampered. Did she sleep in makeup?
What would marriage to someone like Victoria look like? Would she rush to the bathroom before he woke? Their relationship would be strictly regimented. Dinner would be scheduled into their calendars, a stiff formal affair. What about sex? Would he be expected to book that in, too? Their future would be a sea of diary notes and reminders, with no room for spontaneity. Soon he’d be going on more and more business trips to avoid her.
“I was enjoying the view.”
She laughed—a carefully modulated sound, not too loud and not too soft—and linked arms with him in a gesture intended to remind anyone watching that they were intimate. Close.
Chase had never felt more distant from her than he did at that moment.
“You are funny. The view from your apartment is vastly superior, and you’re wasting time staring into space. You need to mingle. There are so many people waiting to meet you.”
Mingle.
The thought lowered his spirits as much as the thought of spending the rest of his life with Victoria.
Was he being unfair? The time they spent together was at events such as these, and there was never time to talk properly.
“Let’s get out of here, Vic.”
“Excuse me?” She frowned at the shortened version of her name, and he wondered what he was supposed to call her if they ever made it as far as the bedroom.
“Let’s leave. Go somewhere.”
“Where?”