A Cinderella Seduction (The Eden Empire Book 2) Read online

  An overnight heiress meets the man of her dreams—

  and her newfound family’s worst nightmare.

  Discovering she’s a member of Manhattan’s most famous retail dynasty has given Emma Stewart a place to belong. Meeting a seductive stranger makes her rags-to-riches transformation complete. But British-born heir Daniel Stone is secretly carrying out revenge against her new family. Now the clock is ticking down to midnight on their secret affair...

  “There’s a lot of bad blood between our families.”

  A smile bloomed on his face and he rolled to his back. Emma smoothed her hand over his firm chest. “I knew you were a good guy, Daniel. That’s why I wanted so badly to be able to prove you wrong. I think it’s time for us to turn our backs on this feud between Stones and Edens.”

  “Is there an opt-out form I missed?”

  She playfully swatted his arm and leaned down to kiss him softly. “No. I’m just saying that we can say that we won’t play those sorts of games. We’re the newest generation of both businesses, right? I want to find a way to get past the negativity. I don’t see the point in it.”

  A deep crease formed between his eyes. He seemed leery at best. “Have any ideas how to do that?”

  * * *

  A Cinderella Seduction is part of

  the Eden Empire series.

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks for picking up A Cinderella Seduction! It’s the second Eden Empire book about the heiresses of the Eden family who are running their grandmother’s Manhattan department store.

  This book centers on Emma, the half sister neither Sophie nor Mindy knew about until the reading of Grandma Eden’s will in A Christmas Temptation. Emma is truly a modern-day Cinderella, raised with very little until she inherits a fortune and two sisters and is thrust into a glamorous world of money and high fashion. Emma has always been quiet and shy, but she’s forced to take center stage when the New York tabloids become infatuated with beguiling her and dub her a princess. It’s all for the sake of Eden’s department store.

  Enter our “prince,” Daniel Stone, a Brit in the United States opening a New York location of his family’s department store, Stone’s. The only members of the Eden family Daniel knows of are Sophie and her sister Mindy. So when he meets Emma at a fashion show, he has no idea she’s part and parcel of his family’s biggest competitors. That night, they flirt wildly and start to fall hard, and then a broken zipper puts them in close quarters and Daniel’s suit jacket becomes the glass slipper. Once Emma returns it and identities are revealed, they’re left to grapple with a decades-old family feud between the Stones and the Edens. There are twists and turns right up until the very end, when love must save the day.

  I hope you enjoy this Harlequin Desire–style retelling of Cinderella! Drop me a line any time at [email protected]. I love hearing from readers! And don’t miss the next Eden Empire book, A Bet with Benefits!

  Karen

  Karen Booth

  A Cinderella Seduction

  Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ’80s music and repeated readings of Forever by Judy Blume. When she takes a break from the art of romance, she’s listening to music with her nearly grown kids or sweet-talking her husband into making her a cocktail. Learn more about Karen at karenbooth.net.

  Books by Karen Booth

  Harlequin Desire

  The Best Man’s Baby

  The Ten-Day Baby Takeover

  Snowed in with a Billionaire

  The Eden Empire

  A Christmas Temptation

  A Cinderella Seduction

  Dynasties: Secrets of the A-List

  Tempted by Scandal

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or karenbooth.net, for more titles.

  You can find Karen Booth on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!

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  For Piper Trace. Every book I write has your delightfully crazy fingerprints all over it.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from A Tangled Engagement by Tessa Radley

  One

  The room was pitch-black and perfectly still, except for the ring of Daniel Stone’s cell phone. He rolled over in bed and blindly slapped his hand on the nightstand, fumbling for the device. He didn’t bother checking the caller ID. Despite the five-hour time difference between London and New York, his mother never worried she might be calling too early.

  “It’s 5:49 in the bloody a.m.,” he croaked, pushing himself up in bed. He switched on the lamp. The bright light shot across his room, and he squinted hard until his eyes adjusted. “What could possibly be so important?” The second of April, it was still dark out. His three dogs, Mandy, Buck and Jolly, were asleep at the foot of the bed.

  “Are you going to see spaces for the new store today?”

  His mother always jumped straight into business. She’d been this way as long as he could remember, but ever since his brother, William, had passed away, it was even more impossible to keep her content.

  “I meet the real estate agent at nine. Two spaces to see today. I’m hopeful.” That was a lie. Daniel was anything but optimistic, but he had to keep up the charade. It had been his idea to forge ahead with his mother’s long-held dream of a New York location of Stone’s, the family’s wildly successful department store chain based in the UK. He’d hoped it might finally make her happy. So far, it was doing nothing but making Daniel second-guess himself. He’d been in Manhattan for three weeks now and he’d only come up empty-handed.

  “You’ll ring me when you’ve had your look?” she asked.

  “Don’t I always check in?” Daniel hated that she still had so little faith in him. He’d worked for the family his entire adult life. Then again, he’d spent those years playing second chair to his brother. That changed a year ago, when William’s black Aston Martin hit a slick of oil on a road outside London and went careening off a bridge. The Stone family was no stranger to tragedy, but this one had hit especially hard.

  Daniel’s father now spent his days and a considerable chunk of the family fortune sailing the world. No boat was fast enough, no stretch of ocean too dangerous. He was currently somewhere off the coast of West Africa. His mother despised her husband’s new hobby and had become equally reckless with the family business. Daniel felt as though he was babysitting them both, an unfair situation given that they still felt he needed to prove his worth.

  “I trust you’re prepared for the Empire State fashion show this evening?” she asked.

  His mother was the micromanaging sort of boss. Never mind that he was thirty-four and this had become wearisome. “I am.”

  “Taking a date?”

  “I’ve been busy.” Daniel was not in New York to make friends. He certainly was not in America for romance. Women only made life complicated. No, he was here to prove to his parents that he had things well i
n hand and it was time for them both to retire. William might have been the golden boy, but Daniel refused to be the black sheep because of the argument he and his brother had had the night of the accident.

  “I’ll take that as a no then. Now, please tell me you remember your marching orders for this evening.”

  “I track down Nora Bradford and convince her to design a line exclusive to Stone’s.”

  “I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Eden’s has not done right by her and her designs. She’s too talented to be selling an entire line of her gorgeous garments in a second-rate department store.”

  Daniel choked back a grumble. He hadn’t realized his mother still had an ax to grind with Eden’s until he’d already begun his initiative of opening Stone’s New York. If he’d know this much, he never would’ve suggested it. “It’s not second-rate. I’ve seen it.”

  “You’re wrong. And you know how much I despised Victoria Eden. The woman was vindictive.”

  Victoria Eden, the founder of Eden’s, had given his mother her start in retail years ago, grooming her to be the manager of the Eden’s flagship store in Manhattan. Eden’s had locations all over the world, and Stone’s, a business founded by his grandparents, was dying on the vine. His mother had been sent to New York to learn the secrets of Eden’s. But when Victoria found out, she not only fired his mother, she got even with his family by convincing suppliers to stop selling to Stone’s. It nearly crippled their company. A family feud was born.

  “I’m aware.”

  “Our move into New York has everything to do with destroying Eden’s. It does make me sad, though, that William isn’t here to be a part of it.”

  Daniel slumped down in bed. Jolly, the English bulldog that had belonged to his brother, crawled her way closer, curling up at his hip. Daniel gave her a scratch behind the ear, but she growled. She wasn’t always affectionate with him. Even Jolly thought he didn’t quite measure up to William. “Our best strategy is to focus on being Stone’s. May the strongest survive,” he said.

  “The Eden sisters are no competition. Those three know nothing about running a department store. One of them has been off in the south of France her entire life, doing nothing.”

  Daniel closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need to take the dogs out. I’ll ring you later.”

  Daniel said goodbye and shuffled into the kitchen to put on some tea. With the kettle heating up, he strode into the living room. Through the tall windows, he watched the sun begin to creep up over the horizon, illuminating the edges of the lush green tree line of Central Park, tucked neatly inside the hard city landscape. This was a million-dollar view, the sort of vista most people only dreamed of.

  Still, something was missing. He probably felt that way because it wasn’t London. There was nothing tying him to this luxury high-rise or this impossibly busy metropolis. The sooner he found a location for Stone’s, got the store opened and staffed, the sooner he could head back to England and whatever future he could manage to build.

  * * *

  For the fifth time in as many days, Emma Stewart stared into the mirror, scrutinizing herself and her attire. Was this dress chic enough for the Empire State fashion show tonight? It was flattering. Tasteful and tailored. The gray midweight crepe fabric had a beautiful drape. Plus, she had on somewhat daring shoes—black Manolo Blahnik pumps that her half sister Sophie had instructed her to buy. The ensemble was befitting a woman with an executive position at Eden’s department store. But would it make the cut in a room full of designers, celebrities, fashion editors and models? That, she did not know.

  Emma took a final skeptical turn in front of the mirror, gathered her long brown hair and reached back to unzip the dress. It was just going to have to do. The fact of the matter was she was comfortable wearing gray. She might someday be a bolder, sexier version of Emma Stewart, but not today. She wasn’t ready. It didn’t matter that she now had a net worth of over a billion dollars, owned a swank apartment overlooking Central Park, and was CFO of the largest department store in the city. Three months ago, Emma’s checking account held thirty-four bucks, she was renting a tired one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, had a fleet-footed brown mouse for an uninvited roommate, and was a junior CPA at a tiny accounting firm. She wouldn’t be at ease in a dress that might make her the center of attention, mostly because she’d never been the center of anything.

  She tucked the dress inside a garment bag in order to take it to work. She and her half sisters, Mindy and Sophie, were not only attending Empire State, they were going to get ready together, at Eden’s. Sophie had arranged for a hair stylist and makeup artist, which was perfect, since Emma had time for neither this morning. She was going to be late if she didn’t get out the door. Putting her hair up in a ponytail, she bothered only with sunscreen, a light coat of mascara and lip balm, and dressed in her usual work attire—black trousers and a silk blouse. To mix things up, the blouse was royal-blue. She also decided to stick with the sky-high pumps she planned to wear that night. Twice daring counted for something, right?

  Out in the hall, she waited for the elevator, mentally running through the workday ahead. She’d been at Eden’s for three months now, and the days weren’t getting any easier. It was a bizarre situation to begin with—in late December, Emma had been called to the reading of Victoria Eden’s will. Emma had known Victoria Eden only as her cousins’ grandmother, and the owner of Eden’s, the largest department store in the city. Turned out that Victoria Eden was also Emma’s grandma. Emma’s mom had had an affair twenty-seven years ago with her sister’s husband. Everyone kept it a secret, especially from Emma. But Victoria Eden blew the top off this powder keg when she left one-third of her empire to the third granddaughter nobody knew about—Emma. The other two-thirds of the store went to Sophie and Mindy Eden, women Emma had always believed were her cousins. In truth, they were her half sisters. Emma still wasn’t sure what to make of that. She’d grown up an only child. She’d always wanted siblings, but this was a lot to grapple with at once.

  Finally, the elevator dinged. Emma glanced down at her pumps as the door slid open, but then her sights landed on someone else’s shoes. A man’s shiny black wingtips to be exact, leading to charcoal dress pants on ridiculously long legs. The hem of a suit coat led to a trim waist, under which was a crisp white shirt over a broad chest and shoulders, all topped off with a tousled head of thick brown hair swept back from the forehead of a man she’d never before had the good fortune to run into.

  Icy blue eyes connected with hers. The man didn’t say a word. He merely cleared his throat and pressed his hand against the elevator door as it threatened to close.

  Emma hopped on board while a flush of heat washed over her. “I’m sorry. Morning. On my way to work. Too much on my mind.” She added a casual laugh for good measure.

  The towering man said nothing in response, folding his hands in front of him and staring straight ahead at the doors.

  “Are you on your way to work, too?” she asked.

  The man glanced over at her and nodded. “Yes.”

  Ooh. A British accent. “Have you lived in the building long?” She’d been in the building for nearly two months now and had made friends with almost none of her neighbors. Not that she hadn’t tried. She brought pumpkin muffins to the couple who moved in down the hall from her. They seemed...bemused. Emma realized her tragic mistake as soon as the wife said, “How sweet. Homemade and everything.” She should have brought something from Dean & Deluca or Zabar’s at the very least. Next time, it’d be chocolate truffles and a bottle of champagne. Emma was capable of faking her way through this world if she simply put a little thought into it.

  The man shook his head. “No.” He raked his fingers through his hair.

  Emma had another four or five questions queued up in her head, one of which was whether she could smell him some more. His cologne was intriguing—
warm and woodsy. Unfortunately, the doors slid open and he stepped aside. “Please,” he said. If he was that good with single-syllable words, Emma could only imagine what might happen to her if he chose to utter an entire sentence in her presence.

  Emma scurried off the elevator to the right and the main lobby, but the British mystery man strode left through the entrance to the parking garage. She looked longingly as he disappeared from view. Maybe she could get her driver to meet her in there next time. She might be missing out on a whole slew of handsome men.

  Or perhaps she should just get to work and stop thinking about handsome men. Eden’s was her entire future, one she’d never dreamed she could have. There was no room for distractions now.

  After twenty minutes of stop-and-go Manhattan rush-hour traffic, Emma’s driver dropped her at Eden’s. Lizzie, the receptionist in the administrative offices, hardly let her step off the elevator before speaking. “Mindy and Sophie are waiting for you in Sophie’s office. They want to talk about Empire State.”

  Emma forced a smile. “Thanks. I’ll head in.” Simply hearing the name of the big charity fashion show made her nervous again. Their grandmother had apparently attended the event every year. Tonight would be the debut of the three sisters, Mindy, Sophie and Emma, as the new faces of Eden’s department store.

  “Emma. Good morning.” Sophie sprang up from her desk, swung her long, strawberry blond hair over her shoulder and gave Emma a hug. She was wearing a gorgeous navy blue dress and killer red heels. Sophie was the epitome of put-together, and quite frankly, everything Emma hoped to be someday.

  “Hey, Em,” Mindy offered, unsubtly eyeing Emma from head to toe. Mindy was wearing a plum-colored pencil skirt and short peplum jacket. She didn’t have a wardrobe as funky as Sophie, but she always looked impeccable. “I see we went with black pants again.”

  “I was in a rush. I just grabbed what I knew would look good.” Emma stood next to Sophie’s desk rather than sitting. She didn’t want to be here for long.