Read an Excerpt

Early To Bed?

Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.

Chapter One

Lily McNeil chanted the phrase silently, just as they'd taught her to do in the week-long success seminar she'd recently attended in Tahiti.

Your past does not have to equal your future.

That was phrase number two in her daily mantra. Somehow, the idea that she could transform herself into someone her family could respect had been easier to believe on a sunny beach with all those bright blue waves pounding on the shore.

Of course, the monsoon presently hammering Manhattan was having a debilitating effect on both her hairdo and her ego. And the fact that the taxi driver had dropped her off across the street from her hotel was a slight problem. Rain and wind lashed at her as she waited on the curb for the traffic to clear.

You live under a black cloud.

No. Tightening her grip on her rolling suitcase and her briefcase, Lily dashed across the street. She'd been ten when her stepbrother Jerry Langford-McNeil had first flung the black cloud taunt at her. For years after that, she'd carried the image around in her mind of a dark, rain-filled mist hovering over her wherever she went.

No more. No way. No how. Black clouds were in her past - and her past did not have to equal her future. In the past, her father had never approved of anything she'd ever done. But she was about to change all that.

True, her confidence had slipped a notch when the company plane had failed to pick her up in Tahiti. But she'd managed to charter another plane to bring her to New York. And she was here. Mission accomplished. Dripping, she pushed through the revolving doors of Henry's Place. Then she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass.

The old Lily was staring back at her - unfashionable, insecure, and overweight.

No. She was not that person anymore. Stopping short on the worn oriental carpet that ran up the stairs to the lobby, Lily squared her shoulders, drew in a deep breath and pictured herself the way she wanted to be. Visualization was the key to success. That's what the energetic motivational guru had preached on his island. Her five-hundred-dollar hairstyle might be a little under the weather. She risked a peek in the mirrored wall to her right and felt her stomach plummet. Okay - a lot under the weather. As for her clothes - she closed her eyes and suppressed a shudder. They could be replaced.

She risked another peek, just to make sure that the twenty-five pounds she'd struggled so hard to lose over the past six months hadn't somehow crept back onto her frame. They hadn't. Relief streamed through her. She might look like a drowned rat, but at least she was now a slim one.

Your past does not have to equal your future. Squaring her shoulders, Lily opened both eyes and faced herself in the mirror. She'd changed on the inside, and that was what was important. More important, her father,

J. R. McNeil of McNeil Enterprises, had given her a job and she had to prove to him that she could do it.

"Beware the Ides of March."

With a start, Lily whirled to see a tall ethereal-looking woman standing at the top of the short flight of stairs. She wore a gauzy caftan in faded shades of blue, and her slivery white hair flowed down over her shoulders. She might have been a witch sprung right off the pages of a Harry Potter book. But the voice didn't go with the rest of her. It had an "I don't take any crap" tone that sounded more like a five-star general's. The contrast aroused Lily's curiosity, but then she met the woman's eyes and felt a chill right through to her bones.

"Beware the Ides of March," the woman repeated.

Any mention of the Ides of March brought two memories to Lily's mind. First of all, the fifteenth of March was her birthday, and she'd just celebrated it two weeks ago. And anyone who'd studied Latin in school would recognize the warning that the soothsayer had given to Julius Caesar when he'd marched into Rome. Of course, the soothsayer's prophecy had been dead on. As if on cue, lightning flashed and a huge clap of thunder rattled the glass doors.

Lily jumped.

"Hurry!" Raising one jeweled hand, the witch beckoned to her. "Disaster is near."

Lily climbed the short flight of stairs to the lobby. If this was the way the hotel greeted its guests, it was no wonder that Henry's Place was in dire financial straits. And it had such potential. Its location within walking distance of the theater district as well as Central Park was prime.

Though her father had shown her the file on the hotel the Romano family had been running for almost fifty years, the picture that the lobby presented was worth much more than the thousand words of his report. Decaying was the word that came to mind. Why in the world was Anthony Romano, the family spokesperson, refusing to sell to McNeil Enterprises when they obviously couldn't take care of the place themselves?

In the end, the answer to that question wouldn't matter. During her week's stay at the hotel, her job, as her father described it, was to gather all the information she could to ensure that McNeil Enterprises' next offer would not be refused. Find the weaknesses so we can exploit them.

"Leave your bags here." The witch waved a hand at the mahogany reception desk that formed an L against one of the walls.

Lily immediately set down her suitcase and briefcase and followed the woman. She would have felt a lot better about the job her father had given her if she hadn't had to lie about why she'd really come to Henry's Place. She'd told Anthony Romano that she was heading up a new department at McNeil Enterprises that offered consulting services. She could provide him with an analysis that would allow him to revitalize the hotel. She was even supposed to offer him a financing plan. Of course, it would be a fake. Her real job was to ferret out information that would allow her father to force the sale.

The old Lily would have balked at the deception, and she would have described the job as spying. But the new Lily had to prove to her father and her stepfamily that she was fully capable of assuming a leadership position at McNeil Enterprises.

On the bright side, she might actually be doing the Romano family a favor. Their hotel looked as if it might not survive much longer in its present condition. As she followed the witch/soothsayer to a far corner of the lobby, she couldn't help noting the marble floors were chipped in some places, gouged in others. The carpets covering them, though they must have been charming in their heyday fifty years ago, were badly in need of repair. As for the furniture - the tiny, exquisitely carved settee creaked ominously when her soothsayer sank down on it.

It was only then that Lily noticed the white pillar candles and the crystal ball on the small table in front of the settee.

"Sit." The woman waved her to a chair across from her.

Still wondering how the five-star general's voice could come out of that fragile body, Lily did as she was told.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Early To Bed? by Cara Summers Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---