Scandalizing the CEO

Her cell phone rang and she thought about getting up to answer it. It might have been Steven, but she knew it wasn’t him. He would have come back if he’d had a change of heart.

And she would have let him in. Even though he’d said those things, she still loved him and she had a feeling she would for a long time.

Fourteen

Steven knew he’d made a mistake the first time he’d slept with Ainsley. She was a mass of contradictions and she made him care too much.

The rest of the week passed in a haze. Dinah had gone above and beyond on her recommendations for the North American operation with detailed notes for all the locations. She was turning that line of business around. He wouldn’t have anything to base that on, other than his gut instinct, until the first financials came in at the end of the month, but so far each day they were improving and were way above last year’s revenue at this same time.

His business unit was outperforming Henry’s by a hair and Geoff was struggling, thanks to rising gas prices. But now, he didn’t care about winning the competition with his half brothers anymore. All he really wanted was…Ainsley.

But he’d made damn sure that she was out of his life. He hoped she moved on quickly, but he knew the way he’d ended things would take time for her to recover from.

But as she’d sweetly listed all the reasons why she loved him, he had felt so afraid. Not for her, because she so obviously loved him, but for himself, because he felt the same way. He wanted desperately to spend the rest of his life with her.

With one person.

And that was a weakness he’d never allowed himself before this. Never even encountered. So he’d done the one thing he could think of: end things. End them in a way that would leave him no way to go back to her. Because if he’d left even a hint of an open door there, he knew he’d come back and break that door down.

And if he held her in his arms again, he was keeping her. He wasn’t about to let her go. Not his Ainsley with her sweet smile and made-for-sin body, her brassy confident manner in the office and her shy sensuality in the bedroom.

He walked out of the bedroom at his apartment in London and into the living room to the bar. He pulled out a bottle of aged scotch and poured himself two fingers. He downed it and then poured himself another one.

There wasn’t any amount of liquor that could drown this, however. No amount of thinking or rationalizing that was going to make the tears he saw in her eyes okay. He should never have been so brutal.

He knew from what she’d said that she’d been as lonely as he had been. And she’d tried to change her life first by losing weight and then by reaching out to him. By making love with him and then by loving him.

And he’d spurned her.

And for what?

He was a coward, just as she’d said. He was the worst kind of man. The same as his father, the man he’d never wanted anything to do with.

He picked up the phone despite the late hour and dialed her number. What was he going to say? He had no idea. “Hello?”

Her sleepy voice made him smile and he knew he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t talk to her now when he was feeling like this. He needed to make sure he could be her man. And not run away the first time there was something he deemed too emotional.

He hung up without saying a word and sat back in the big leather chair of his. He found his cell and dialed Edmond’s number.

The lawyer answered on the very first ring.

“This is Steven.”

“Hello, Steven. What can I do for you?”

“Tell me why Malcolm even acknowledged my birth and the births of Henry and Geoff. It was clear he didn’t want a family or heirs. So why did he?”

“I have no idea. At the time the Everest Group was struggling financially and he was trying very hard to get it back on track.”

“Then why have heirs?”

“I think he wanted to ensure the company would live on after he died. I just don’t think he knew how to focus on a woman and his business at the same time.”

“Just like me.”

“Indeed, sir. I’ve heard you are very like your father.”

“In what way?” Steven asked.

“That you are a workaholic. Someone who focuses only on the bottom line.”

“That doesn’t make me like him. That makes me like any other corporate shark,” Steven said. “Ainsley called him a sperm donor and that’s all he’s been.”

“I’m sorry that you feel that way. Malcolm did the best he could by you and the other heirs.”

Steven thought about that for a very long time. “Have you ever—never mind. Sorry for bothering you so late.”

“Not a problem, sir. Call me any time. Is there anything else?”