How to Trap a Tycoon (28 page)

Well, then Adam would just have to find the other guy and break his neck, that was all.

Once Mack had left that afternoon, Adam had seen no reason not to complete his day in the way that he'd initially planned, and he had halfheartedly driven to
Evanston
to ambush Lauren Grable-Monroe. He expected her to speak at length about the writing of her book, then hawk the publication like snake oil. Instead, she spent much of her time discussing the psychology of men and women and the sexual politics inherent in any romantic relationship. She was surprisingly astute, Adam had to admit, and remarkably animated.

Clearly, she loved the subject matter about which she had written. Her talk was laced with humor, but many of her observations were unexpectedly pithy. She was obviously well versed in the whole man-woman dynamic. Then again, considering how she'd made her way in the world, he supposed that wasn't surprising. All in all, though, the author's presentation was remarkably informative.

Man, he should have invited Mack along today, Adam thought as he listened. She really would have gotten into this. Of course, she'd had other things—another man?—to do, he recalled uncomfortably. Then again, he'd be seeing her tonight, he remembered, heartened some. Even if he hadn't been able to convince her to stay at his place that morning, he'd won the concession from her that they would see each other again this evening.

He could hardly wait.

After Lauren Grable-Monroe concluded her speech, she opened the floor to questions, thereby bringing Adam back to the matter at hand. There were only a smattering of inquiries at first, but gradually, several people in the auditorium began raising their hands. Many eventually started waving them quite adamantly in their demands to be recognized. Ms. Grable-Monroe took her time when selecting her interrogators, though whether that was because she was trying to be fair or because she was trying to weed out anybody who might be too challenging Adam had yet to decide.

"Yes, here in front," she said now, directing her attention to a young woman who had a hand extended in the air.

The girl—for truly, Adam noted, she couldn't have yet completed her freshman year—wore the standard university uniform of baggy cargo pants and massive, long-sleeved T-shirt. She tossed back her ebony curls and adjusted wire-rimmed glasses as she asked, "Ms. Grable-Monroe, would you say a word or two about the Cinderella complex? About how women wait around for Prince Charming to come and rescue them from their unhappy lives and make them feel complete?"

"Oh, I'd be happy to speak at length on the Cinderella complex," the author said cheerfully. "Especially since you don't seem to have a clue what it's really all about."

The student's mouth dropped open in surprise, but before she could defend herself, Lauren Grable-Monroe began to talk again.

"Traditionally, a woman with a Cinderella complex, instead of taking charge of her own life and creating her own destiny, assumes that a man, a Prince Charming, will eventually come and sweep her off her feet and carry her to his palace, and then the two of them will live happily ever after. He becomes, in that respect, her rescuer. That's the popular—and erroneous, I might add—interpretation of that fairy tale. I'd suggest we look at it a different way. Ask yourself who needed whom more in that relationship?"

The student seemed stumped. "I'm not sure I'm following you," she said.

Lauren Grable-Monroe tented her fingers thoughtfully on the dais before her and said, "Cinderella, poor drudge that she was, was, nevertheless, a reasonably happy person. A person who really lacked nothing in her life. She had a family—albeit a dysfunctional one, but hey, who doesn't, right?—and a roof over her head and food on the table and steady work. One might argue that the work was a bit too steady, but still. She had a relatively good life, considering the time period with which we're working here. She needed nothing more. Had Prince Charming never come along, she would have survived quite adequately in her world.

"Prince Charming, on the other hand," she continued, "did need something in addition to his family, his roof, his food, and his work. He needed an heir. No self-respecting prince of the time would be without one. He would be far too easy a target for his enemies. And there was only one way for the prince to get an heir. He needed a woman. Enter Cinderella. She was his rescuer in that respect.
She
was
his
rescuer," the author reiterated. "Not the other way around. Technically, Prince Charming had nothing to offer Cinderella that she didn't already have. She, however, did have something that he didn't—a womb. He couldn't have survived without her. She, however, could have managed quite nicely without him."

"But what about love?" the student asked.

Lauren Grable-Monroe smiled. "Ah, now that's an entirely different question. And an entirely different scenario. If you want to bring love into the union, then you have a much more equitable balance of reward and rescue. Which is entirely the point to my book."

That had Adam out of his chair, arm extended, before he even realized he had intended to take exception. "Ms. Grable-Monroe," he called out, unwilling to wait for her to recognize him.

The author, along with a few hundred other people in the room, turned to look at him, her expression impassive. "You had a question?" she said.

"No," he told her. "An objection."

She arched her dark eyebrows in surprise. "To what?"

"To the fact that you just claimed that your book is about love," he said.

"Actually, Mr.…"

"
Darien
," he identified himself. "Adam Darien. I publish and edit
Man's Life
magazine."

Her smile brightened at his admission, and something inside him responded on a very basic, very masculine level. "So you do," she murmured in that husky timbre that still made his blood run a little too hot for his comfort.

"You're familiar with the publication, then," he said. It was a statement, not a question, because Adam hadn't a single doubt that she was familiar with his publication.

"Of course," she replied. "But you misunderstood me a moment ago. I'm not saying love is what's at the heart of my book. I'm saying that a balanced relationship is what's at the heart of my book."

He barked out a laugh that was completely lacking in good humor. "You can't be serious."

Her expression grew faintly puzzled. "I can't? Why not?"

"In your book, you tell women to use plotting and inveigling and entrapment in order to land themselves a wealthy man who will take care of them for the rest of their lives."

She seemed vaguely amused by his analysis. "Really? Is that what I'm telling them to do?"

"Of course it is."

"I had no idea. How about that?"

"Do you deny it?" he asked.

Instead of answering him, Lauren Grable-Monroe posed a question of her own. "Tell me, Mr. Darien, have you even read my book?"

Adam shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Actually, no," he confessed. "But that's—"

"That's what I thought," she finished before he had the chance, a knowing little smile playing about her lips.

"That's beside the point, Ms. Grable-Monroe. The point is—"

"The point, Mr. Darien, is that you haven't an inkling what my book says, therefore you can't possibly object to it. At no time do I advocate plotting, inveigling, or entrapment. Nor do I suggest that women land themselves a wealthy man to take care of them. What I encourage women to do is to find a mate worthy of them and to use the tools they have at their disposal to ensure an equal power base in that relationship."

"And you don't think that's plotting?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't. I think it's taking advantage of an opportunity women have overlooked in the past."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

The author tented her fingers in that thoughtful way again, tilted her head to one side, and observed Adam in a way that made him slightly uncomfortable. "For millennia," she said, "men have entered into relationships with women and claimed all the power in those relationships for themselves. They've been able to do this because of their superior physical strength and because the laws—
man
-made laws—have been in their favor. Today, in our more
enlightened
times," she continued, clearly tongue in cheek, "those laws are sloooowly changing. In the meantime, I think women are within their rights to effect changes in the balance of power where they can—in whatever way they can—to make the relationship a more equitable one."

"I'm sorry," Adam echoed, "but I still don't understand."

The author smiled at him again. "Read my book, Mr. Darien. Then call my publisher. We'll chat."

And before he could say another word, she turned her gaze to a student who had flagged her down, thereby dismissing Adam with all the interest she might have given to a glob of gum stuck to the heel of her shoe.

Damn
. Well, that hadn't gone well at all, had it? Instead of him ambushing Lauren Grable-Monroe, she'd just mowed him down like a weed.

Reluctantly, Adam sat back down in his chair and mulled over the Cinderella complex thing. He had to concede that she'd made a good point with the rescuer/reward thing. Sort of. But what was this balance of power in a relationship business that she kept going on about? And why did this conversation seem so familiar for some reason? Furthermore, why did Lauren Grable-Monroe seem so familiar for some reason?

Because she did seem familiar somehow. Adam couldn't quite put his finger on who, but she definitely reminded him of someone.

"Which is why we can conclude that it is Beauty who truly holds the most power in her relationship with the Beast," the author was saying now. "It is she who rescues him. He needs her in order to break the spell he's been under. She doesn't need him for anything. Unless," she said meaningfully, "you want to bring up the subject of love again. When love—honest, genuine love—enters the picture, the power base of any relationship shifts and grows more equitable."

Adam itched to raise his hand again, but after the last dressing down he'd received at her hands—and boy, was that an interesting way to put it—he was hesitant to draw her attention again. Fortunately, someone else asked the very question he'd wanted to pose himself.

"Why does the introduction of love into a relationship change the balance of power?" a young woman who stood up a few rows in front of him asked.

The author seemed to give much thought to what she was going to say before she began speaking again. "Very few people would argue," she began slowly, "that men and women are entirely different creatures. There's all kinds of evidence to support the truth in that assertion. The genders simply approach life in completely different fashions. That doesn't mean one is better than the other," she hastened to qualify. "It just means they're different."

Hmm, Adam thought. This was sounding familiar, too. She paused for a moment, thinking, then continued, "Many theorists would have you believe that each gender's reason for entering into sexual relationships likewise differs, and that both reasons are engendered by basic instincts that are throwbacks to primitive times—the man because he needs to procreate, and the woman because she needs protection from natural dangers. I would propose, however, that, like so many other human traits and characteristics, through evolution those primitive urges have changed. They've evolved. Nowadays, I think men and women enter relationships looking to fulfill a need that is identical, regardless of gender—the need to give and receive love."

As he listened to Lauren Grable-Monroe discuss her hypothesis, Adam found himself conceding—with much reluctance—that he found the subject matter to be … well, fascinating, actually. More than that, he found the speaker to be fascinating. As irritating as he had thought the author before, he now found her to be more than a little intriguing.

She was clearly an educated woman. Nobody could expound this stuff with the confidence and articulation she claimed unless they were familiar with the subject matter on an academic level. She must have at least one college degree, but why would a professional mistress bother with an advanced education? Especially since Ms. Grable-Monroe's bio from her own publisher—which, granted, he was certain was complete hooey—had stated that her family had lost everything? How could she have afforded to go to college? And why would she have wanted to, if she'd already decided to make herself available to wealthy men for a living?

Moreover, she was, without question, a
Chicago
native, as Adam deduced from her distinctive accent, which was indigenous to this part of the
Midwest
. And why would a woman who'd made her living on her back—and who demanded anonymity—continue to live in a city where she could easily be exposed by one of her former benefactors? Especially since her book was turning her into a very wealthy woman, one who wouldn't have to make a living on her back anymore? She could be sunning herself in
Rio de Janeiro
or skiing the
Alps
instead.

Too, she was definitely one hot tomata, a fact to which Adam himself could testify. And hot tomatas were notoriously hard to keep under wraps. They were, by nature, attention-seekers, spotlight-grabbers, and paparazzi-bait. How could this woman be making a life for herself in
Chicago
yet be seen nowhere except at the public appearances arranged by her publisher? Because she was never seen anywhere else. Adam was certain of that. Although he hadn't been following her career with a microscope, he'd definitely taken notice of her appearances. And the only time Lauren Grable-Monroe appeared anywhere, it was at her publisher's behest, in order to promote her book. Otherwise, she was nowhere to be found.