Plain Jane in the Spotlight

Plain Jane in the Spotlight
Lucy Gordon

Mills & Boon

is excited to present this new family saga from award-winning author Lucy Gordon

The Falcon Dynasty

Five successful brothers looking for brides!

Amos Falcon is a proud, self-made man who wants his legacy to live on through his five sons. Each son is different, for they have different mothers, but in one aspect they are the same: he has raised them to be ruthless in business and sensible in matters of the heart.

But one by one these high-achieving brothers will find that when the right woman comes along love is the greatest power of them all…

RESCUED BY THE BROODING TYCOON August 2011

MISS PRIM AND THE BILLIONAIRE February 2012

PLAIN JANE IN THE SPOTLIGHT July 2012

Dear Reader,

With the third book of THE FALCON DYNASTY I found myself facing new challenges. Travis is unlike most other heroes, and certainly unlike the other Falcons. Amos’s ruthless, demanding nature has descended to several of his sons. Darius, Marcel and Leonid have obvious traces of their father. Even Jackson is a Falcon, in his clear-eyed determination to do things his way.

But Travis is different: an actor in the glamorous city of Los Angeles, he’s a gentle, sweet-natured man who makes his way through life with charm and humour. His greatest gift is for winning hearts, so his career flourishes and he can take his choice of beautiful women. Whatever he touches turns to gold, and he seems to have everything a man could wish for.

It takes a special woman to discover the truth. Charlene would call herself plain and dowdy, but she’s the only one Travis trusts sufficiently to reveal the vulnerability he hides from the rest of the world.

Despised and half rejected by his domineering father, Travis has always felt on the outside of the Falcon family. Now Charlene’s open arms offer comfort and safety, and he takes joyful refuge in them. But when suddenly he has the chance to win Amos’s respect it could be at Charlene’s expense.

What he does now will define his life, and his decision reveals him as a true Falcon: not to be deflected from his chosen path. But few men would have the strength to do what he does.

Travis is my favourite Falcon. I hope you love him as much as I do.

Best wishes,

Lucy Gordon

About the Author

LUCY GORDON cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Charlton Heston and Sir Roger Moore. She also camped out with lions in Africa, and had many other unusual experiences, which have often provided the background for her books. Several years ago, while staying in Venice, she met a Venetian who proposed in two days. They have been married ever since. Naturally this has affected her writing, where romantic Italian men tend to feature strongly.

Two of her books have won a Romance Writers of America RITA

Award.

You can visit her website at www.lucy-gordon.com

Plain Jane in

the Spotlight

Lucy Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHAPTER ONE

‘FOR pity’s sake, Travis, why do you never listen? You’ve been warned a dozen times. Stay out of sleazy nightclubs.’

Denzil Raines, boss of the Sandora Studio in Los Angeles, snapped out the command and tried to control his temper. It was hard because Travis would try anyone’s patience.

The studio produced several money-making television series, but none of them raked in the wealth as fast and gloriously as The Man From Heaven, starring Travis Falcon, and protecting that investment was a major operation.

The young man enduring the lecture seemed to sum up the whole of the investment in himself. Travis’s body was lean and vigorous, his face was handsome, his air charming, his smile devastating. It spoke of eagerness to enjoy life to the full. Late nights, curiosity for new experiences, untiring energy for a vast range of pleasurable activities. They were all there in the quirk of his mouth, the gleam in his eye, and they caused much hair tearing among those who needed to keep him in check.

Denzil reflected that he’d picked the right word. Sleazy. That was it. Sleazy nightclubs, sleazy pleasures, sleazy Travis. But he knew it was precisely the hint of a ‘bad boy’ lurking in the shadows that hit the magic spot with the public. And it would go on doing so as long as it stayed in the safety of the shadows. If it was allowed to escape … Denzil groaned.

Travis was standing by the window, looking out over the view of Los Angeles. Clearly visible in the distance was the huge gleaming sign, HOLLYWOOD, that for ninety years had symbolised the city where glamour, entertainment and money united in brilliant supremacy. His gaze was fixed on the sign, as though to remind himself of the achievements he was fighting to keep. He stood, bathed in sunlight, apparently nonchalant, but actually alive to every threatening nuance.

‘I didn’t know it was sleazy,’ he said with a shrug. ‘My friend chose it for his stag night.’

‘Stag night?’ Denzil echoed in outrage. ‘Then you might have guessed there’d be half-naked dolly birds prancing around. What else are stag nights for? You should have got out of the place instead of … this!’

He held out a newspaper, jamming his finger down on a picture of a man and a girl clinging to each other. He was sitting down, shirt ripped open, the half-naked girl on his lap, her arms about his neck, kissing him madly, which he showed every sign of enjoying.

‘You had to lay yourself out for those girls,’ Denzil groaned.

‘I didn’t lay myself out,’ Travis protested. ‘I was having a quiet drink when this lady … well …’

‘Quiet? Hah! When did you last do anything quietly? And she was no lady. She’d been hired for the night to “entertain” the male guests. She entertained you all right.’

‘I didn’t ask her to sit on my lap.’

‘You didn’t push her off, either.’

‘No, that would have been rude. I was just trying to be polite.’

‘Oh, it was politeness that made you put your arms about her waist, draw her close, nuzzle her—’

‘I’m only human,’ Travis protested. ‘When a half-naked girl drapes herself over a guy he’s expected to show some appreciation.’

‘You did that all right,’ Denzil snapped. ‘She’s not the only one who’s half-naked. Look at your shirt, open to the waist, so that she can dance her fingers over your bare chest. Did she pull it open? Did you? Or did you arrive like that, hoping something would happen?’

Travis groaned. ‘Can we just leave this? I didn’t know the press was there, OK?’

‘The press is always there where you’re concerned,’ Denzil growled. ‘You should know that by now. Ever since the show became a hit they’ve been watching you, trying to find out something that makes people’s hair stand on end. And, let’s face it, there are plenty of those!’

‘I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me,’ Travis said with a touch of wry humour.