Bachelor On The Prowl by Kasey Michaels Page A

the whole world. But don’t lie to yourself.”
    Her hand halted in midair, poised in front of the alarm control panel. “ Keep trying to get rid of him, and the more he’ll want to stay. Simple psychology.” She closed her eyes, made a face. “No, I can’t do that. It would be mean. Not fair, or even honest, since I do sort of like the idea of having him around. S till, it could be interesting… ”
     
     
    C o li n arched his back against the soft leather seat of his rented BMW, trying to ease his discomfort after a nearly three-hour drive in heavy traffic and two hours spent sitting in the parking lot of Holly’s apartment building, waiting for her to come home.
    Had he always been this impulsive? He didn’t think so. Yet here he was, checked out of his suite at the Waldorf, his luggage locked in the trunk of the BMW, with no hotel reservations and no idea what he’d say to Holly if and when she finally showed up.
    Irene had given him a few helpful hints, when he’d run down that good woman at the Waldorf. Don’t be too pushy, Irene had told him, but don’t give her too much time to think, either. Don’t flatter her a lot, because she won’t believe you. Do bring her food, because Holly loves to eat. Consider jellybeans, the red ones most especially.
    “Oh,” Irene had added, “and you might want to think about looking less like the cover model on GQ, if you can figure out a way to manage that. That could only help matters. Lastly, you’d better be telling me the truth, young man, because if you hurt that little girl I’m going to have to hurt you.”
    Colin smiled now, remembering the stem look on Irene’s face as she’d given him her warning. It would seem that Julia hadn’t just built a successful company; she’d built a family from her employees. That was nice, and very like the atmosphere Max tried to foster throughout the sprawling Majestic Enterprises. Big shouldn’t mean impersonal, that’s what Max had told him, and so far, Max had made it work.
    Max made a lot of things work, and Colin knew he could have done a lot worse in choosing a role model.
    But his admiration for Max, as a cousin, as an employer, as a man, only went so far. It did not extend to include listening to that man’s advice given late this afternoon over cocktails at the Waldorf bar.
    “A full-out assault on her mind and heart,” Max had instructed him. “Move in, take over, make it impossible for her to ignore you. Don’t give her time to think. You two are perfect for each other, but she’s not going to believe that, not if you give her time to think. Be romantic, Colin. You do know how to be romantic, don’t you?”
    Yes, Colin knew how to be romantic. But, he’d decided, with Holly, it would probably be better to go with the jellybeans.
    He was sitting low on his spine in the leather seat, fighting the heaviness in his eyelids, trying not to fall asleep as the clock on the dash displayed the fact that it was nearly nine-thirty. He was still operating on Paris time, and his body wasn’t sure if it was sleepy, awake, or even hungry.
    Was that it? Maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly. Maybe that’s why he’d gotten it into his head that Holly Hollis was the one woman in the world he wanted, would always want.
    Love by jet lag?
    Anything was possible.
    Except that he still didn’t know if he loved her. How could he know that? He wasn’t a complete fool, he was more than a little aware that what he felt for Holly Hollis could be infatuation, physical attraction, the thrill of not being pursued solely because of his physical appearance.
    Except that it didn’t feel like something so simple as physical attraction, or even the considerable challenge she presented by running away from him each time he tried to get closer to her.
    There was more to it than that. He didn’t know just what, couldn’t put a name to it or describe it, but there was just some something about Holly that made him want to protect her,