PERSONAL ASSETS By Emma Holly Contents Best Friends Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen PERSONAL ASSETS "One of the best writers of erotic fiction around." —Susan Johnson EMMA HOLLY Author of Catching Midnight and Hunting Midnight ROMANCE "HOLLY BRINGS A LEVEL OF SENSUALITY TO HER STORYTELLING THAT MAY SHOCK THE UNINITIATED…"—Publishers Weekly Style and sensuality. Power and passion… There's something about the Parisian boutique Meilleurs Amis that provokes all who enter to blur the line between business and pleasure. No one knows this better than Béatrix Clouet, the daughter of its infamous and not-so-dearly departed founder. With Béatrix's mother gone, the fate of the exclusive chain of boutiques rests in the hands of handsome Englishman Philip Carmichael, Bea's young beau-père. With temptation so near at hand, the time has finally come for her to find out if the attraction simmering between them all these years will live up to its sizzling promise. Meanwhile, Bea asks her best friend, Lela Turner, to run Meilleurs Amis's New York boutique. But Lela needs management lessons—and for those she turns to the enigmatic executive Simon Graves. They strike a devil's bargain: for each lesson Simon gives, Lela will exchange a night of sexual bliss. It's a perfect arrangement, until Simon threatens the very future of Meilleurs Amis—not to mention Lela's dearest friendship. From the boardroom to the bedroom, these best friends will have to weigh the price of love and lust—while making their wildest fantasies come to life… "Emma Holly is a name to look out for." —Robin Schone, bestselling author of Gabriel's Woman www.penguin.com ISBN 0-425-19371-3 "Titillating, erotic and fun." —The Best Reviews "The love scenes were an excellent mixture of eroticism and romance and they are some of the best ones I have read this year." —All About Romance "The sexual tension and sensuality readers enjoy, combined with a complex plot, a dark and brooding hero, and [a] charming heroine… a winner in every way." —Romance Reviews Today "I just love [the] characterization, plotting, and the prose used. Ah, the marvelous prose! Truly beautiful." —Sensual Romance PERSONAL ASSETS EMMA HOLLY BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK A Berkley Book Published by The Berkley Publishing Group A division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2004 by Emma Holly Book design by Kristin del Rosario Cover design by George Long First edition: January 2004 ISBN 0-425-19371-3 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA