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that’s what you should be doing,” her grandfather told her roughly. James Corey, or Grandpa Jack to Jaime, still officially lived in the town named after his family, in the U.S. But no one would know it, judging from how much time he was spending in Paris, now that both his granddaughters were there. “Your father is such a pain to work with. Always trying to be in charge.”
    Jaime raised an eyebrow. “You want me to take over Corey Chocolate so you can take me over?”
    “Just to show you the ropes!” The old man’s blue eyes glinted. They were sitting on the terrace of the apartment he and her father had recently bought. It offered a magnificent view of the green sweep of the Jardin du Luxembourg in one direction, where the Palais du Luxembourg rose proudly from the gardens and tiny little specks of color floated on the great bassin, sailboats being chased by children. In the other direction, the Eiffel Tower rose past a stretch of Paris rooftops. “Since you’ve spent your entire life refusing to learn them.”
    “Pardon me for wasting my life doing something unimportant,” Jaime said, dangerously mild.
    “Oh, your work had its uses.” The old man waved his hand, completely oblivious to the danger. “Good publicity, for one. Made it easy to lead the pack for that fair trade chocolate craze. I’ve got to hand it to Cade, I thought she was just on another one of her gourmet snob kicks when she backed you on the fair trade thing, but she was right about that one. You helped us corner the market.”
    A muscle in Jaime’s jaw tightened. In her mind, a twelve-year-old boy carried loads she couldn’t even lift. She had tried to heft it. The photo of her failing, falling to her knees under the effort, had created an international furor. It had almost gotten the photographer a Pulitzer prize. “Publicity and market share weren’t why I did it.”
    Grandpa Jack winced. “I know, Jamie, but you don’t have to keep reminding me. I’m trying to imagine you as future CEO material of a major multinational corporation.”
    “Don’t hurt your brain. I’ll never be CEO material. Talk to Cade.” First-born Cade had been the heir assumptive, and Jaime had taken pains to make her own refusal of the role clear. Her participation in anti-capitalist protests and wild parties in college had made her stance a public scandal years ago.
    Her grandfather grunted. “Have you tried talking to Cade lately? She’s gotten almost as impossible as you’ve always been. It’s getting lonely over there in the States. You can’t leave me and your dad together by ourselves, I might have to start spanking him again.”
    Jaime grinned involuntarily. “Did you ever really spank him?” It was hard to imagine her father as a little boy, in someone else’s control. He controlled half the world.
    “No.” Grandpa Jack looked disgruntled. “I told your grandma we were wasting a golden opportunity, but she always insisted on giving him extra chores instead. And look where that got us.”
    “He works all the time?”
    “ And he’s bossy to his own father.”
    “I don’t think I can stop Dad from being bossy, Grandpa.” She grinned at the older Corey.
    The truth flashed out of him in a sudden desperate rage, lightning from what had seemed an innocent white cloud: “At least you would be safe. ”
    Jaime drew back into herself, hair rising all up and down her arms in spite of herself. “What happened didn’t make me helpless, Grandpa.”
    Just incapable of doing any damn thing.
    Maybe if she took over the reins as Corey heir apparent, she would at least be capable of something. Even if it was only running half the world.

C HAPTER 4
    “B onjour .” The low, rough, gentled voice stroked over her, and Jaime looked up at Dominique Richard helplessly. This crush was overwhelming her, too sudden and intense. Her defenses were all down: physical weakness; her sense of purpose hiding in a fetal ball; and now her heart was going to