Blackmailed Into a Fake Engagement / Tempted Into the Tycoon's Trap: Blackmailed Into a Fake Engagement

“Oh, no. Is this another of your young girlfriends?” Jack asked.

“He always goes for the young ones,” Max said in agreement.

“The older ones know better,” Dev added.

“Luc Hudson,” he said into the phone.

“This is Officer Walker with the L.A.P.D. I’m calling on behalf of Miss Nicki McCord. She’s being charged with driving under the influence and asked that we call you.” The man cleared his throat. “She’s not in the best shape at the moment.”

Luc rose to his feet. “Where are you taking her?”

The officer gave the location. “Sir, she was driving the wrong way down a one-way street and narrowly missed hitting a family returning from a trip to Disneyland.”

Luc raked his hand through his hair and shook his head. “I’ll be there as soon as possible,” he said and turned off the phone. “Sorry. Nicki McCord. I have to go.”

“DUI, right?” Devlin said.

Luc nodded.

“Damn,” Max said. “What are we going to do about the prepublicity for The Waiting Room? Nicki was supposed to start the PR jaunt next week.”

“If only you were dealing with her sister Gwen instead,” Jack said. “I hear she was a complete professional.”

“Except when she left her ex-husband high and dry during their last movie,” Devlin said.

“With Peter Horrigan, you don’t know how much of that was spin or not.”

Luc felt his mood turn grim. “I’m going to have to do some spinning of my own.”

“You’re the family problem solver,” Devlin said. “Go do what you do best.”

One

“I’m Luc Hudson. There’s been an emergency with your sister, Nicki.”

Gwen McCord’s heart plunged into her stomach as she looked at the tall, handsome man with the watchful blue eyes standing on her front porch. She barely noticed her yellow Lab’s barks over the panic racing through her. “Is she okay? Is she—” The worst possible thought stole the rest of her words and breath.

“She’s alive,” he said and nodded toward the door. “May I come in?”

“Yes, of course,” Gwen said, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, stepping aside and pulling June, her dog, away from the doorway. Lost in her concern for Nicki, some part of her noticed the man’s height and broad shoulders as he passed by her. He smelled of rich leather and just a hint of a spicy male scent. She glanced past him, spotting the SUV he’d driven to her ranch. For a member of one of Hollywood’s most powerful families, the Hudsons, to make a personal visit to her in Montana, something terrible must have happened.

Gwen’s stomach clenched in fear. “Please go ahead and tell me. Is she in the hospital?”

“No, we put her in rehab,” Luc said, resting his hands on his hips. “She was arrested for driving drunk. Driving the wrong way on a one-way street. The police clocked her speeding thirty miles over the speed limit. She narrowly missed a head-on collision with a family of four returning from Disneyland.”

“Oh my God,” Gwen said, feeling her blood drop to her feet. A sick dizziness rolled over her, and she felt her knees dip. Luc’s strong arms caught her, drawing her against his hard chest.

His eyes searched hers. “Do you need to sit down?”

She nodded. “I think so,” she said as he guided her toward the overstuffed sofa in the sitting area at the front of her ranch cabin.

“Where’s the kitchen? I’ll get some water for you,” he said.

“Straight down the hallway,” she said, resting her head in her hands, castigating herself. If only she could have made Nicki listen! She’d repeatedly begged Nicki to get out of the fast lane, but Nicki had ignored her. Her younger sister had been determined to make a name for herself one way or another, and lately there’d been much more attention paid to Nicki’s partying than to her acting abilities.

Luc returned with a glass of water and shook his head when she started to rise. “You’re still pale,” he said.

She took a sip of water and inhaled a shallow breath. “I should go to her.”

“You can’t,” he said. “No one is allowed to see her during the detox phase.”

She stared at him. “Not even a family member?”

“No one,” he said. “It was a condition of getting her into this rehabilitation center. It has an excellent success rate.”

Unable to sit any longer, Gwen rose to her feet. “I tried to get her to stop. I was able to persuade her to come out to the ranch for a few days. I hoped the fresh air and peace and just being away from the party scene would help. But her friends were always calling and sending her text messages. She got antsy and left early. I made her promise she would be more careful.”

“She’ll get the help she needs now.”

Gwen fought the tears that filled her eyes. “I feel like such a failure. I should have—”

Luc put his hand over her shoulder. “She’s an adult, free to make her own choices, right or wrong. You couldn’t control her.”

Intellectually, she knew he was right. She would have said the same thing to someone else in these circumstances, but it didn’t stop the combination of guilt and helplessness gnawing at her.

Taking a deep breath, she felt a rush of gratitude for the Hudsons. They had gotten her sister to a safe place. “Thank you so much for taking care of her. I would have liked to have been the one to have been there for her, but at least she’s getting help. It could have turned out so much worse.”

He replied with a slow nod and gave her a long considering glance. “Everyone wants Nicki to get better. The problem is that this has happened at a critical time for Hudson Pictures. Nicki was supposed to be preparing to do promotion for The Waiting Room. Her stint in rehab could damage the way this movie is perceived by the press and the public.”

Gwen remembered the PR routine from her years of acting. Although she’d left a promising acting career and Hollywood behind, she would have to have had amnesia to forget the promotional sprint required for movies—interviews with magazines, entertainment and news shows, public appearances.

“That is difficult,” she acknowledged, then shrugged. “But with Nicki in rehab, there’s really nothing that can be done.”

Luc met her gaze with a resolution that made her uneasy. “I disagree,” he said in a velvet voice with an underlay of steel. “In this case, the press needs a distraction. After taking care of Nicki last night, we held an emergency meeting and came up with a solution.”

Gwen shrugged again, not sure why she needed to know this information. Her concern was Nicki, not Hudson Pictures. “I’m glad.”

His lips rose in a crooked grin of irony. “We’ll see.” His amusement faded as quickly as a flash. “In order to keep the focus off Nicki, an announcement was made to the press last night. The announcement was that you and I are engaged.”

Shock slammed through her. Gwen stared at him in disbelief. She blinked, shaking her head. She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “Excuse me?”

“As far as the press is concerned, you and I are engaged to be married.”

Gwen shook her head faster. “Oh, absolutely not. I don’t even know you. I don’t want to know you,” she added to underscore her refusal. “Part of the reason I left Hollywood was to get away from the public relations racket that never stopped. No—”

“It’s already done,” he said in a firm voice. “If you don’t want your sister’s reputation to go down the toilet, then you’ll cooperate.”

The coolness in his voice dug at her. She took a second look into his eyes and glimpsed a ruthlessness that made her shudder. “This almost sounds like blackmail, ” she said.