The Beauty And The Ceo. Carolyn Hector
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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.”
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,