In Pursuit of Caviar

2005 Golden Heart Finalist - Romance Writers of America
2006 Golden Gateway Finalist

He'd sold the company? Oh, God. Liberty Hunt heard a click on the phone. "Dad? Dad?" Dead silence indicated he'd hung up. She hit speed dial to get him back and got dumped directly into his voice mail. Damn him.

She yanked off the headset and tossed it down. The magnitude of her father's actions warred with her reality. In eighteen days, she was to be named CEO of the family's business. Absurdly, she noticed that the plant on the corner of her desk could use some water. Then the leaves merged together in a fuzzy green as her focus blurred.

"Like hell." She stabbed the intercom. "Send in Mr. Jacobs."

Time to find out what's really going on.

Mark Jacobs strode into her office. His confidence pushed her anger higher. Her family's strongest competitor invading her turf. She wanted to kick him to the curb.

Mark's lined face revealed nothing. "Liberty." His eyes swept her office. A smug little smile played at the corner of his mouth. The last thing she wanted to experience was his triumph. "I wish we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances, but I'll try to make this as painless as possible."

He had to be crazy. She barely resisted snorting. Instead, she forced herself to focus. She rose and extended her hand across the desk. He clasped it, pumped once and released. She was about to offer him a chair, but he sat before she could extend the courtesy. She itched to grab his red power tie and choke him with it.

Instead, Liberty forced her knees to bend and sat in her big executive chair, determined to ignore the shift in dynamics. She'd lost control of the situation.

He placed his monogrammed briefcase on the edge of her desk and opened it, extracting what looked like a contract and passed it to her. Here it is, she thought, proof that this was way worse than any nightmare.

Brief Synopsis:

In Pursuit of Caviar is a 2005 Golden Heart Finalist for Single Title Contemporary and approximately 90,000 words.

Everything in Liberty Hunt's life is upended when her father sells the family business only days before she's to take the reins. With a desperate need to reclaim the company she was raised to run, Liberty accepts a challenge from the new owner to turn around a fledgling company he owns down the California coast. Even though she's sure there's a catch. Somewhere. Every man she's ever trusted has let her down and she's determined never to count on one again. Her only focus is on winning the challenge. Which becomes a lot harder after she badgers gorgeous celebrity chef Luca Lozano into helping her. The passion he stirs up about things she's never given much thought to has her reassessing a lot about her life and men. Especially Luca.

Luca Lozano's focus on becoming a celebrity chef, so he'd have a platform for sharing his culinary innovations, backfires crushing his self-confidence. His producers have focused on his sex appeal instead of his skills. In his frustration at being unable to sway them, he's walked off his show, jeopardizing everything he's worked for. When the chance to rescue Liberty Hunt presents itself, he's thinking he's finally found a way to get respect and give his producer's a new perspective. But that niggling feeling that he's an imposter keeps getting in the way until Liberty can convince him he's the real deal--in more ways than he ever expected.