The Beginning—A Duet: Ryder & Two Worlds Colliding Read Online Free PDF

me.
    Give me gentle and caring.
    Apparently the kind of men I liked, were as easy to find as unicorns. Which was why cousin Lexi reminded me that I was going to die an old maid.
    Not if Daddy had anything to do with it. Marcus Masterton was my father’s protégé and had just been made junior partner in his law firm. He was exactly the type of man my parents hoped I’d end up with. Well bred, Marcus was from a wealthy family with old money, and an up and coming young lawyer who would make full partner in the next ten years, if he kept wowing everyone with his brilliance.
    Besides all of those credentials, Marcus was hot as hell. Whenever I dropped in to Daddy’s office, he always made a point of chatting to me. He could just as easily have been a model or an elite athlete with his tall, lithe body and thick dark eyelashes that framed dazzling blue eyes. His TV-commercial smile, displaying perfect pearly whites, made many a pantie damp in the offices of Summers, Walker and Hedgewick.
    In fact, I’d heard via the grapevine that many of the secretaries did a trip to the photocopy room more often than they needed to, just to walk past his office and to steal a peak at the gorgeous man. It was a joke around the firm that Marcus had more cups of coffee or tea brought to his office than any of the other junior or senior partners had in decades.
    So, needless to say, I was rather apprehensive when my father informed me that we were going to dinner on Friday evening, at the prestigious club most of the partners frequented, and that he had invited Marcus along as well. I was being set up with the office hunk by parents who were eager for grandchildren.
    “Daddy, I would’ve preferred if Marcus invited me on a date himself, rather than being set up by my dad. He probably feels obligated to come because you’re the boss. I mean, how could he say no and it not be a career limiting move for him?”
    My father laughed, shaking his head. “Nonsense honey, it’s just a matter of time before he asks you anyway. I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you come into my office. Somehow he always happens to be around my office at lunch times. Exactly when he knows you’re likely to pop in.”
    Mom chimed in her two cents worth. “Yes, from what I’ve heard, the girls in the office are practically throwing themselves at him. Getting a jump start, before Marcus latches on to one of them, is a really good idea, Jade.”
    I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. “Oh. My. God. The two of you are treating me as if I’m a business deal, or some stock to be bought and sold. Are you sure you don’t want to ask Marcus if he wants to set a wedding date on Friday night?”
    My mother looked up from her magazine, smiling. “Now there’s an idea. You know I like to be organized.”
    The woman was probably damn serious. I laughed nervously. “Mom, you’re crazy. I hardly know the man and you’re trying to marry me off. Anyway, I’m way too young to be tied down now. I still have so much more of the world I want to see, before I settle down.”
    “What do you mean, too young? At twenty two I was already married, with your brother on the way.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “That’s because Dad couldn’t keep it in his pants, and you couldn’t just shack up without scandal in those days.”
    “Jade!” My mother feigned shock, but I could see the good humor in her eyes. Her and my father were always telling stories of how they met and fell in love, and couldn’t wait to be together forever. It was so sweet and I loved hearing it. But it was also annoying, because they wanted the same for me. Sooner rather than later.
    Jade Summers was definitely not an ‘insta-love’ kind of girl. I’d never felt those butterflies they professed to have felt the first time they laid eyes on one another. Love at first sight was something that the fictional characters in my novels did. It wasn’t for a smart, level headed woman like me. In fact, I’d hardly