The Beauty and the CEO Read online

  “No.” Zoe hummed a noise again, kicking out of her heels and footing them into the closet. “He’s the CEO. Donovan and Marcus introduced him to us.”

  “Is he hot, like his brothers?” asked Lexi.

  “Lexi!” Zoe gasped, wanting more than anything to elaborate on exactly how hot Will Ravens was. “You’re married with a baby on the way.”

  “I’m married, not blind,” Lexi reminded her. “If it’s who I think it is, William Ravens played soccer and was hurt during a game. I want to say a broken leg.”

  Slipping out of her skirt, Zoe padded barefoot into the bathroom. “Since when did you become the sports fan?”

  “You can thank my beautiful husband for that.” Lexi giggled on the other end of the line. Zoe thought it was a nice laugh. She wanted something like that one day. A man who made her blush just by thinking of him. “I’m pretty sure he paused the match to show me the horrific leg break,” Lexi went on.

  The corners of Zoe’s lips turned down. “Ouch. Well, this Will Ravens did not show signs of any leg injury.”

  As a matter of fact, Zoe thought wantonly, she thought his strut was rather sexy. At least, she had when she thought he was simply a model. As a makeup artist, Zoe was constantly around handsome men. None of them ever had her wanting to jump in a cold shower. How was it going to work out when she got the job at RC? Zoe shrugged and pushed the thought out of her mind.

  “Lexi, what was it you were going to ask me earlier?”

  “Oh, that. I need you to come home for an event next week,” said Lexi. “I’m hosting the Miss Southwood Glitz Pageant and I need a nonbiased makeup artist. Please say you’ll come. I’ve booked up Magnolia Palace from Monday to next Sunday. All the judges and working staff will start coming in Tuesday. I want everyone to get to know each other so they can trust their opinions when it comes time to voting and making this the best pageant ever.”

  The mere mention of the old hotel, Magnolia Palace, evoked a memory of Zoe’s youth. She closed her eyes and heard the sound of her bare feet pounding down the wooden planks as she raced to jump off the bridge. Her parents met on that same bridge. Her mother had been a model and her father out fishing. He’d certainly snagged the biggest catch of his life that day. “Now, how am I going to say no to an offer like that?”

  “You’re not,” Lexi laughed.

  “Since I won’t be starting my CDD position any time soon, I’ll be there. Text me the details.”

  Zoe swiped her phone to the off screen and stood in the center of her bedroom, contemplating what to do next. She was hungry, but the recent talk of Will Ravens began to make her sweat—again. A shower would do her some good, then she’d eat the curry.

  Fifteen minutes after her ice-cold shower, Zoe padded barefoot back into her kitchen and reheated her food. She’d slipped her cell phone into the front pocket of her fluffy pink bathrobe and felt it vibrate on her thigh as she sat at the counter.

  You were great today. A decision will be made in a few weeks.

  Zoe reread Marcus’s text message two more times. How was she supposed to go to bed tonight knowing she hadn’t secured the position of Creative Design Director? Her life was being held up by a man she knew nothing about. Where had he gone to school? Had he been a business major or something in the field of cosmetic chemistry? What had Lexi said? He’d played sports before deciding to join the family business? A feeling of dread sunk to the pit of her stomach at the thought of her life being upheld by an athlete. At least she knew that by the weekend she’d be back home in Southwood and away from the drama for a while.

  * * *

  Will didn’t look up from the rest of the portfolios after his brothers left to pick up dinner. In soccer he’d put in his time on the field and in the locker room. He spent more time on the field finessing his skills than in the club, like some of his teammates. Will knew the odds were against him. He had no training and no experience other than on the soccer field. Since coming to RC, Will couldn’t remember getting home before the sun set. Trudy’s, the West Indian market and restaurant down the block, saw more of him than his own kitchen.

  The grandfather clock in the corner of the office chimed eight. A smile tugged at his mouth. When they were kids, he and his brothers used to play hide-and-seek on this floor of the building. Will’s favorite place was in here, where Grandpa Joe shared the office space with his wife. With a chuckle, Will realized why they’d shared an office. If Grandma was going to stay late at work, so was Grandpa. It must have been nice to have someone who stayed with you if you couldn’t get home on time.

  Now that he wasn’t traveling full time or training, Will wondered if any of that would happen to him. Would he have someone to share office space with, or who would sit back with a knowing smile as his children played in here? Grandma Naomi was going on ninety. So far, her six children had blessed her with over a dozen grandchildren.

  The stack of portfolios in front of him moved and the top folder shifted. A knock at his door sounded and brought Will out of his daze.

  Through the glass door he spotted his identical twin cousins, Joyce and Naomi. Each was beautiful enough to be the face of RC. They were easily six feet tall, with high cheekbones and perfectly arched brows that they loved to raise at Will during their meetings whenever he asked a question about their marketing department. Will considered them allies in this war to dismantle RC. He waved them in.

  Joyce, the older by seven minutes, sat down first in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Naomi, however, crossed the room to admire the photographs Will refused to throw away.

  “What’s going on, ladies?”

  “We have a great suggestion for you,” said Joyce.

  Will sat back in his seat and silently prayed for Marcus and Donovan to return with dinner. Whatever the girls wanted from him, they’d decided to team up.

  The reason they worked so well together was they were complete opposites. Joyce was more business oriented. Naomi was more of the partying type, ironic since she was their grandmother’s namesake. Joyce had more of the ninety-year-old woman’s personality, business first.

  “Uh-oh, do I need reinforcements?” Will teased and pretended to pick up the black office phone on the corner of his desk. “Marcus and Donovan should be back any minute now.”

  “What we are suggesting,” said Naomi from her corner of the room, “your brothers will wholeheartedly agree to, since it will be good for business.”

  The deep breath he took brought in her coconut scent, a perfume he recognized from Ravens Cosmetics. “Alright.”

  “With you coming on as the new CEO—”

  “Coming on?” Will repeated, flabbergasted. “Why does everyone say that as if I had a choice? I believe the two of you were the first ones to second the nomination, knowing good and well I’m out of my league.”

  Naomi rolled her eyes. “I would have nominated you first, but Charles beat me to it.”

  “Anyway,” Naomi huffed. “If you are serious about turning things around, we think it would be a great idea for you to fly up to Southwood, Georgia, as our representative.”

  “Where?” Will began flipping through the paperwork on his desk. His frat brother, Dominic Crowne, recently moved his luxury car business to a town with that name.

  “Exactly,” said Joyce. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. “I need you to be someplace out of your element. I want you to be a judge at this beauty pageant a business associate of RC’s is having.”

  The only thing Will could think of was some guy in a tuxedo holding a long-stemmed microphone and singing to a crowned woman. “No.”

  “Will,” Joyce and Naomi wailed.

  “What do I know about beauty pageants?”

  “You’re a guy, right?” Naomi asked, and answered without waiting for a response. “You just vote on who the pret
tiest is.”

  Zoe Baldwin’s smiling face at the elevator popped into his mind. He’d already met the prettiest woman. “I don’t want to do it. Get Marcus or Donovan.”

  “Seriously?” Naomi asked drily. “There’s a reason we’ve learned to knock on the office doors of your brothers. C’mon, Will. It’s important you make a name for yourself.”

  “Look, Will,” Joyce snapped, “Ravens Cosmetics is the sponsor at this pageant every year. If you don’t do it, it will be someone like Charles or Brandon or even Dixon. You and I both know that isn’t what we need right now, especially with our other choices being your horndog brothers.”

  “Seriously? Me?”

  Joyce shrugged her shoulders. “Over the years, Lexi Reyes has been a great asset for Ravens Cosmetics.” She gave a brief history about their former beauty queen and her golden touch, and how the company had been sponsoring her pageants for years. This was the first Will had ever heard of it.

  “And so, if you help Lexi out, it will give RC a platform to change the way some consumers see us—we’re not simply retro but classic, like you’ve suggested. Our brand will be the only one used for the pageant. Our gift bags of mascara, eye shadows and lotions will go to all the attendees. Do you know how many Southern women attend pageants? Our research shows most women below the Mason-Dixon Line aren’t interested in the avant-garde. We can tap into this community and save RC. And that’s what you claimed you wanted to do. Or was that a lie?”

  “Hell, no.” Will slammed his hand on the top of the portfolios. “I don’t care what our cousins think. RC is not dead.” Will’s gut twisted with doubt. The twins made a great point. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in determination. RC was not dead and had another hundred years left. He didn’t want to risk ignoring a potential market. But a beauty pageant? He hated himself for being suckered in. “Okay, fine, send me the information. What night do I have to be there?”

  “Well, here’s the thing,” Naomi started. “In order for you to be there and be able to mesh with the other judges, you need to be there for maybe a week.”

  “What?” Will exclaimed.

  Joyce held her hands up to calm him down. “It won’t be that bad.”

  “I just started here last month. I don’t have a week to give.” He calculated the forty-plus hours a week he’d already been putting in and knew that time was still not enough. His cousins would be hovering like vultures if he left his throne for more than a few days.

  “Think about how committed the family will see you are if you take the time to represent our products.”

  She had to go there. Will’s weakness. His family’s legacy was his kryptonite. Sales were down. People were losing interest in Ravens Cosmetics. They wanted something fresh and new. Well, if anyone could go to this Southwood and turn things around, it was him. “When do I leave?”

  * * *

  Armed with a suitcase filled with cosmetics, Zoe checked her bags at the counter at Miami International Airport on Tuesday morning and got herself cleared through security. If she was lucky, her plane would be there, allowing her to board.

  This wasn’t her first trip on a plane. She knew it was best to take a change of clothes in her carry-on. No matter how long or short the flight, Zoe always showered after traveling. For this two-hour flight, Zoe dressed in a pair of comfy boyfriend jeans, worn white canvas shoes and her favorite loose T-shirt, bedazzled in pink with Wear More Mascara across the chest. As she rounded the corner toward her terminal, she realized she had no such luck. And every seat in the waiting area was taken. Children pressed their faces against the windows, smudging the glass with their sticky hands as they watched the other planes taking off.

  Zoe had no patience to deal with the man standing behind her she just caught checking out her rear end. The joker wasn’t even embarrassed; he wiggled his brows at her and licked his lips. The only man on Earth, as far as Zoe was concerned, who was allowed to lick his lips at her was LL Cool J.

  “Miss Baldwin?” Will Ravens closed the gap from the private area to where she stood. “I thought I recognized you.”

  For a moment, Zoe forgot how to speak. Will Ravens, the man she needed to hate right now, stood before her in a pair of jeans and a fitted green V-neck shirt, causing her to melt into a puddle as he smiled at her. Dark hairs were sprinkled across his sculpted jaw. A white sign in front of the blue terminal waiting room where he stood alone indicated the area was for passengers detoured from the hangar. Was the private area for other jets, full planes or those under construction? Zoe’s mind raced with questions. Why was he here? Where was he going? How did she look? “Mr. Ravens?”

  “Is everything okay?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

  Blinking and then nodding, Zoe laughed lightly. “Oh, yes, sorry. I must have airport brain.”

  “That’s a thing?” Will asked with a crooked grin.

  “Yeah, you know, when you have fear of flying.” Zoe inclined her head in the direction of the crowded terminal. “Not necessarily with the whole airplane thing, but who you’re going to end up sitting with.”

  Will glanced in the direction she’d indicated and Zoe’s eyes followed. Without any regard for the man currently standing next to her, another stranger blew a kiss at her. “Is it safe to assume you don’t want to end up sitting next to him?”

  An Elvis Presley snarl stretched Zoe’s top lip as she shivered. “Exactly.”

  “You could end up sitting next to me,” said Will.

  Zoe gave her undivided attention back to the hunk before her. “Like you would fly commercial.”

  “I’ve flown commercial before.” Will frowned. The corners of his lips turned upside down in the cutest way. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

  As she took a step backward, Zoe folded her arms across her chest and cocked one questioning brow. Everything about him screamed one percent.

  Will pressed his hand against his heart and bowed his head. “For the record, I’ve been on the company plane just a few times.”

  “And today makes what? Your tenth time on your private plane?”

  In response, Will nodded his dark head. “Every three commercial trips we get a bonus. We get to bring a guest with us. What do you say? Can I give you a lift?” The humorous tone matched the smirk on his face.

  Uncrossing her arms, Zoe shook her head to the side. “What do I say to what?”

  “A ride, you know, to wherever you’re going.”

  It was as if he was asking her to share his cab with her or giving her a lift from the grocery store. So simple. So easy. So tempting. “You don’t even know where I’m going.”

  At the most inconvenient time, a woman’s voice came over the intercom. “All passengers heading for Atlanta, we will begin boarding in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll take a wild guess and say you’re headed to Atlanta.”

  The idea of squeezing into a seat next to either one of those two men, Will or the man who’d been behind her, did not sit well with Zoe. On the other hand, flying with Will might give her the chance to show off her work. “You can’t be serious.”

  “But I am.”

  “I don’t want to take you out of your way,” Zoe said chewing on her bottom lip. So many images of having him her way entered her mind. “Where were you headed?”

  “If I were to tell you, it wouldn’t even matter. Just know that I am headed in the direction of Atlanta and I don’t mind at all giving you a lift.”

  In truth, this deal had been sealed when Will broached the subject. But when one of the kids across the hall screamed he was going to be sick and proceeded to do so, Zoe was sold.

  “Well—” Zoe hesitated with another gnaw on her bottom lip “—you wouldn’t even have to take me all the way to Atlanta. My friend was going to pick me up and bring me down south.”<
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  Will stepped aside and waved his arm in the direction of the terminal. “Where exactly are you headed?”

  Elated to not have to fly on the crowded plane, Zoe stepped forward into the blue area. “A little town called Southwood,” she called over her shoulder. She walked a few more paces before she realized Will was not behind her. She turned around and found him standing in the same spot. “What’s wrong?”

  “Are you attending this Glitz-something pageant?”

  A slow smile spread across Zoe’s face. “What do you know about it?”

  “My cousins, Joyce and Naomi, talked me into going. They said it would be good for business if I represented the company as a judge.”

  “Smart move,” Zoe said with a slight nod of the head. Right now, hearing anything about the twins soured her thoughts. A month or two ago, Marcus had told her about the position at Ravens Cosmetics and got her hopes up. Zoe was supposed to have been a sure thing. Yet here she was, stuck at MIA, contemplating hitching a ride with the man who lacked the ability to see her talents. Zoe cleared her throat.

  “I’ve got nothing but smart moves planned for the company,” Will said.

  Zoe felt the corners of her eyes tighten with a smirk. Her body leaned forward. She expected Will to add something along the lines of “when you join the team.” All she received was a sneer. “What do you know about the beauty industry?” Zoe boldly asked.

  “I know I’m not going to let my family’s legacy fail,” he retorted.

  Without him having to say the words, Zoe knew Will was not impressed with her work. Seemed like this week was going to turn out perfect.

  When Will flashed a smile, her knees went weak again. According to Lexi’s itinerary, they were going to be sequestered for almost a week. Zoe would be making over all of the contestants. One full week to prove to Will she’d be the perfect person for the CDD job.

  A man wearing a dark suit and aviator glasses appeared at the entranceway of the door leading toward the plane. In a ripple effect, the man Zoe assumed was the pilot nodded his head at Will, Will returned the head nod and, in turn, inclined his head to Zoe. “There’s my guy,” Will said. “There’s someone more important in the hangar...”