Grand Passion [Paperback]

Jayne Ann Krentz, author of more than fiftyNew York Timesbestsellers, expertly blends rich sensuality dangerous twists, and electrifying suspense inGrand Passion.

What happens when Mr. Right is all wrong?

Cleopatra Robbins has imagined the moment when she’ll meet the man of her dreams. But when Max Fortune strides into the Robbins’ Nest Inn, a devastating sensation sweeps through her. She knows it’shim. And he’sallwrong!

Head of the giant Curzon Hotel chain, a cynical man with a passion for rare works of art, Max is looking for five priceless paintings left to him by his mentor, Jason Curzon. With one long look at Cleo Robbins, Max knows he’s gazing on a masterpiece…and for the first time in his life, the solitary and powerful executive is overcome with the strangest desire for that wonderful institution calledhome. But despite their mutual attraction, Max suspects Cleo of hiding something—and by the time he realizes her secrets have nothing to do with the lost treasures, it may be too late to save her from the danger rising out of her past.Chapter One

It had taken Max Fortune nearly a month to locate Jason Curzon's mistress. Now that he had found her, he didn't know what to make of her. Cleopatra Robbins was definitely not the sort of woman he had been expecting to find.

Max stood quietly near the roaring fire and surveyed the chaos that filled the cozy lobby of the Robbins' Nest Inn. In spite of her evocative first name, Ms. Robbins certainly did not look like a sultry charmer who made her living by seducing wealthy men old enough to be her grandfather.

She looked exactly like what she purported to be: a cheerfully harried innkeeper trying to deal with a flood of new arrivals.

Max glanced at the series of insipid seascapes hanging on the walls as he listened to the hubbub going on around him. He smiled with faint derislã.