Scandalizing the CEO

“Come on. I don’t have all day to hang out here,” Jon said.

“Jon, I’m sorry for this inconvenience. Why don’t you take a ten-minute break and Mr. Devonshire and I will straighten this out.”

“Will we?” Steven said.

He had a look that was straight out of a fashion magazine: short hair, styled to look as if he didn’t care, blue eyes—Paul Newman blue. So bright and penetrating Ainsley had been mesmerized by him the first time they’d met.

Of course, back then she’d been seventy pounds heavier, five years younger and minus the self-confidence she had today.

“Yes, we will. I’m sure that there is something we can offer you that will be adequate compensation—though having your store featured in our magazine is quite a boon.”

“From your perspective, perhaps,” Steven said.

“What can we do to make this happen?” she asked.

“I’m thinking feature articles on the Devonshire heirs,” Steven said.

“That would be interesting, but we are a women’s fashion magazine,” she said. Her mind going over what she knew about Steven and his half brothers. The real angle would be getting them to talk about their early years, but even then there wasn’t a fashion twist. Maybe the mothers, she thought. Then she knew she had it.

“How about an interview with your mothers?” she asked. “They were all very fashionable when Malcolm was dating them.”

“My mum’s a physicist.”

“I know, but she was also named one of the most beautiful women in Britain.”

Steven’s eyes narrowed.

“I don’t see how an article on my mum will benefit me,” he said.

“We could do a photo shoot with each of the women in the business units—the airline, the record label and the retail store. I mean Tiffany Malone would be a natural at Everest Records. I can see the spread already.

“We can have each of you in there in a smaller perspective—Henry is definitely on the cutting edge of fashion…and Geoff is very traditional.”

“And I’m all business,” Steven said.

Ainsley looked at him. At this man who’d dismissed her because she’d been frumpy and overweight and he’d made an offhand comment that had devastated her…“Maybe we could do a makeover with you at one of our sister magazines.”

He quirked one eyebrow at her. “I’m not a makeover kind of guy. If we agreed to this, then it’d be an exclusive for you.”

Ainsley thought about it. She’d have to talk to her team, but there had to be some way to make this happen. “I’m not sure we can fit you into our schedule. I mean, if I had Malcolm in the article, too…then that would be a coup.”

“It would be. But I can’t promise that Malcolm would do it.”

“Not close to him?”

“He’s dying, Ainsley,” Steven said.

She felt a pang. He hadn’t shown any emotion at all. She wondered if that meant that he was scared of losing his father and didn’t want anyone to know.

“I’m so very sorry.”

He nodded. “Back to business here. You finish your shoot with Jon and then do feature articles on all of us from the fashion angle involving our mums—which issue?”

“I have to get back to the office and double-check my schedule, but I think it will be in the fall.”

“Very well,” he said. “It’s a deal.”

“Great,” she said, turning to walk away.

“Do you have time for dinner to discuss the details? You could let Davis and Jon finish their shoot.”

Ainsley didn’t want to have a dinner with him. She’d had a crush on him ever since she’d done that interview five years ago. Not a stalk-him-like-a-crazy-woman-and-lie-in-his-bushes crush, but a kind of obsession that involved reading every article published on him. Would it be a good idea to go to dinner with him? Their relationship would have to stay professional, she reminded herself.

But he’d changed her life. When she’d realized that to a man like Steven she’d been completely invisible, it was shattering. Not just because of her size, but because she hadn’t kept control of the interview. He’d unnerved the woman she’d been five years earlier and spurred her change. And now she wanted nothing more to do with him…well, that wasn’t true. She’d love to exact a measure of revenge after the way he’d dissed her.

And she had no plans for tonight other than heading back to the office, working on page proofs and approving every detail of the magazine she’d fought so hard to become the editor-in-chief of. She could squeeze out a few hours for Steven.