Second Chance Rival

I just didn’t expect her grandfather to reveal…

“Giving us a bloodline heir will be.”

Chapter 1

—Belle—

Now: Four months later

As soon as I stepped off the elevator to my office, my executive assistant, Paige, was walking beside me with her iPad in her hands.

“Talk to me,” I stated like I did every morning, requesting my daily agenda. It changed every day, sometimes on a whim.

I was Chief Operating Officer, (COO) of Montgomery Enterprises. It was the second highest position below my grandfather. My primary responsibilities were to oversee business operations, which included marketing, human resources, sales, production, research and development, and those were just to name a few.

Basically, I made sure we stayed on top of everything. Meaning, I had no personal life. These companies were my entire existence, and that was all by choice.

“Belle, your—”

My cell phone rang, cutting her off. “Hold that thought, Paige.” I answered, “Hello.”

Minutes later, I walked into my office, kicking the door shut behind me as I finished up the call. Suddenly I heard two words from a familiar, yet unfamiliar voice.

“Hello, kitten.”

My body instantly turned while my feet stopped dead in their tracks, almost giving me whiplash in the process. Our eyes met, and I was dragged back to another place and time where he looked nothing like the distinguished man who was prominently sitting in front of my desk, wearing a black three-piece suit with a blue collared shirt.

Even after all this time, I was still physically attracted to him. He was as handsome as ever with his bright, piercing blue eyes that always looked like they could see into my soul. The facial hair he was sporting only made him appear more distinguished. His golden-brown hair looked darker than I remembered, but he probably didn’t spend as much time outside as he did back then.

Tristian Hawkins.

My enemy through generations of an ongoing rivalry between our families’ businesses. His family, the Hawkins and my family, the Montgomerys, were gods in our town of Lexington, Kentucky. Everyone knew who we were and how much our families despised one another.

We were the talk of the town.

Still were.

Especially after what we’d accomplished with our families’ companies since we began working for them. The media loved to compare our businesses. Constantly fueling the fire in a war that began several lifetimes ago. If it wasn’t our rivalry that people were discussing, then it was the fact that I was still single with no suitable fiancé in the wings.

Unmarried at thirty-seven wasn’t exactly fitting for the granddaughter of the great Chance Montgomery. If it were up to my grandfather, he’d die in his office, sitting on his throne where he was king.

For the last fifteen years, I’d bent over backward for my family’s business that I’d expanded into multiple successful businesses. My grandfather wanted an heir, and I jumped at the chance of inheriting his legacy. To see Tristian in my office, a place I called my second home, was a situation I never thought I’d find myself in.

What’s going on?

As I took him in, my mind raced with questions I had no answers for. I hadn’t seen Tristian in twenty years, and there he was…

Sitting right in front of me with an expression I couldn’t quite place. Although with Tristian, it wasn’t unusual to feel like I couldn’t read him. If he didn’t want me to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling, what he wanted or needed, then that was the end of it.

He was always in control of his emotions, even back then.

After what felt like forever, I finally broke the deafening silence between us.

“Well look what the cat dragged in.”

He grinned, in that shit-eating way I always hated.

“And the pussy has claws,” he drawled.