Taming the Tycoon by Amy Andrews

called him from across the room and she smiled at him. “She wants to show you off. She’s very proud of you.”
    Nathaniel nodded and excused himself, uncomfortable with that look on her face. He was used to it from his grandmother and mother, but not from her. Women looked at him with lust in their eyes and sex on their list. Addie didn’t. She looked at him like he had promise and she was the one who was going to bring it out in him.
    He preferred lust and sex.
    Their paths crossed on and off over the course of the night, but it wasn’t until people were starting to leave that he had a chance to share more than a few words with her. Addie had been popular and his grandmother seemed to be enjoying showing her off just as much she had him.
    He found her standing on the terrace, the fairy lights playing in her hair and shining in the crystals of her necklace, talking to possibly the most boring man alive—Bill Hodges, who owned the farm next door. Fortunately, he was able to quickly dispense of the older man by telling him his very scary wife was looking for him.
    Addie’s eyes looked glazed as she thanked him. “I didn’t think he was ever going to stop talking about his new effluent drainage system.”
    Her lips had some glossy stuff on them that glittered in the subtle lights and almost made him forget the ache in his thigh from standing all night. “You sure you don’t drink? One conversation with Bill is liable to drive most teetotalers to liquor.”
    As if they’d been organized to do so, Eunice and Kathy chose that moment to interrupt them with a bottle of Kathy’s elderberry wine and four glasses. “Now come on, you two,” his grandmother boomed. “Drink up. Don’t want to insult my dearest friend in the world, do you?”
    “Thanks, Grandy,” Nathaniel said, smiling apologetically, “but Addie doesn’t drink and seriously, Kathy, real men do not drink elderberry wine.”
    Kathy looked at him with an unwavering gaze. “You have flowers in your hair.”
    Addie burst out laughing. “She has you there.”
    “Here, dear, get this into you,” Eunice urged Addie, pouring her a glass. “It’s one hundred percent organic, isn’t it, Kath?”
    Kathy nodded vigorously. “Always wins best in show, too.”
    Addie looked at him and he could see she was wavering. “Okay, as long as you do, too,” she said to Nathaniel.
    “Are you sure?” he asked.
    A glass of organic wine once in three years wouldn’t bring the leukemia back, surely? But he didn’t blame her for being hesitant.
    Addie nodded. “Just the one, though. I get flirty after two.”
    Nathaniel grinned at his grandmother. “Better top it up a bit.” Addie laughed as she took a sip and actually gave him a playful shove.
    Maybe it was working already?
    “Here,” Addie said to Eunice, passing her the little gift bag he hadn’t noticed she’d been toting. “Nate and I got you something special.”
    Eunice actually blushed and beamed at him. “You did?”
    Nathaniel cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the deception. “Well—”
    But then Addie interrupted. “I guided him a bit,” she said, smiling, and his grandmother looked so thrilled, he let it be.
    They watched Eunice pull out the box and snap open the lid. Her delighted gasp grabbed at his gut. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered in her crackly voice as she fingered the earth mother. “Just perfect.” Then she ordered Kathy to put it on her.
    Nathaniel smiled and leaned in to kiss his grandmother’s cheek. “Just like you, Grandy.”
    Eunice gathered Addie up in her arms for a big hug and Nathaniel felt an odd shift in the vicinity of his heart. “Thank you, my duck,” Eunice said pulling away. “Now, I must show Delphine.”
    And then she and Kathy disappeared and it was just the two of them. He looked down at her and smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “The gift was a great idea.”
    Addie gave a faux gasp. “What, better than a farm voucher?”
    “Yes.” He