How to Trap a Tycoon by Elizabeth Bevarly (thriller books to read txt) 📕

He would be far too easy a target for his enemies. And there was only one way for the prince to get an heir. He needed a woman. Enter Cinderella. She was his rescuer in that respect. She was his rescuer," the author reiterated. "Not the other way around. Technically, Prince Charming had nothing to offer Cinderella that she didn't already have. She, however, did have something that he didn't—a womb. He couldn't have survived without her. She, however, could have managed quite nicely without him."

"But what about love?" the student asked.

Lauren Grable-Monroe smiled. "Ah, now that's an entirely different question. And an entirely different scenario. If you want to bring love into the union, then you have a much more equitable balance of reward and rescue. Which is entirely the point to my book."

That had Adam out of his chair, arm extended, before he even realized he had intended to take exception. "Ms. Grable-Monroe," he called out, unwilling to wait for her to recognize him.

The author, along with a few hundred other people in the room, turned to look at him, her expression impassive. "You had a question?" she said.

"No," he told her. "An objection."

She arched her dark eyebrows in surprise. "To what?"

"To the fact that you just claimed that your book is about love," he said.

"Actually, Mr.…"

" Darien ," he identified himself. "Adam Darien. I publish and edit Man's Life magazine."

Her smile brightened at his admission, and something inside him responded on a very basic, very masculine level. "So you do," she murmured in that husky timbre that still made his blood run a little too hot for his comfort.

"You're familiar with the publication, then," he said. It was a statement, not a question, because Adam hadn't a single doubt that she was familiar with his publication.

"Of course," she replied. "But you misunderstood me a moment ago. I'm not saying love is what's at the heart of my book. I'm saying that a balanced relationship is what's at the heart of my book."

He barked out a laugh that was completely lacking in good humor. "You can't be serious."

Her expression grew faintly puzzled. "I can't? Why not?"

"In your book, you tell women to use plotting and inveigling and entrapment in order to land themselves a wealthy man who will take care of them for the rest of their lives."

She seemed vaguely amused by his analysis. "Really? Is that what I'm telling them to do?"

"Of course it is."

"I had no idea. How about that?"

"Do you deny it?" he asked.

Instead of answering him, Lauren Grable-Monroe posed a question of her own. "Tell me, Mr. Darien, have you even read my book?"

Adam shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Actually, no," he confessed. "But that's—"

"That's what I thought," she finished before he had the chance, a knowing little smile playing about her lips.

"That's beside the point, Ms. Grable-Monroe. The point is—"

"The point, Mr. Darien, is that you haven't an inkling what my book says, therefore you can't possibly object to it. At no time do I advocate plotting, inveigling, or entrapment. Nor do I suggest that women land themselves a wealthy man to take care of them. What I encourage women to do is to find a mate worthy of them and to use the tools they have at their disposal to ensure an equal power base in that relationship."

"And you don't think that's plotting?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't. I think it's taking advantage of an opportunity women have overlooked in the past."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

The author tented her fingers in that thoughtful way again, tilted her head to one side, and observed Adam in a way that made him slightly uncomfortable. "For millennia," she said, "men have entered into relationships with women and claimed all the power in those relationships for themselves. They've been able to do this because of their superior physical strength and because the laws—man-made laws—have been in their favor. Today, in our more enlightened times," she continued, clearly tongue in cheek, "those laws are sloooowly changing. In the meantime, I think women are within their rights to effect changes in the balance of power where they can—in whatever way they can—to make the relationship a more equitable one."

"I'm sorry," Adam echoed, "but I still don't understand."

The author smiled at him again. "Read my book, Mr. Darien. Then call my publisher. We'll chat."

And before he could say another word, she turned her gaze to a student who had flagged her down, thereby dismissing Adam with all the interest she might have given to a glob of gum stuck to the heel of her shoe.

Damn . Well, that hadn't gone well at all, had it? Instead of him ambushing Lauren Grable-Monroe, she'd just mowed him down like a weed.

Reluctantly, Adam sat back down in his chair and mulled over the Cinderella complex thing. He had to concede that she'd made a good point with the rescuer/reward thing. Sort of. But what was this balance of power in a relationship business that she kept going on about? And why did this conversation seem so familiar for some reason? Furthermore, why did Lauren Grable-Monroe seem so familiar for some reason?

Because she did seem familiar somehow. Adam couldn't quite put his finger on who, but she definitely reminded him of someone.

"Which is why we can conclude that it is Beauty who truly holds the most power in her relationship with the Beast," the author was saying now. "It is she who rescues him. He needs her in order to break the spell he's been under. She doesn't need him for anything. Unless," she said meaningfully, "you want to bring up the subject of love again. When love—honest, genuine love—enters the picture, the power base of any relationship shifts and grows more equitable."

Adam itched to raise his hand again, but after the last dressing down he'd received at her hands—and boy, was that an interesting way to put it—he was hesitant to draw her attention again. Fortunately,