Chapter One

Drake

I sauntered into the room expecting another bullshit merger discussion, but instead saw the most gorgeous woman I’d ever laid eyes on. My cock instantly jerked to attention.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t wanted for women in my life. But I’d never seen one as enticing as the brunette sitting beside Maurice Fontaine at the head of the table. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with both intelligence and intensity, her round breasts filled out her blazer nicely, and her soft, cream-colored skin looked like it would feel like satin under my touch.

I was the head of the most successful PR firm in Los Angeles. There was no one from Brad Pitt to Emma Stone who didn’t come to me when they needed to take control of a story. If your career was going down in flames, I was the guy to fix it with the right public relations massaging. With my public relations and multimedia talent came billions by the time I was thirty, especially after the company’s IPO. It was how I’d become known as the Sultan of Spin. And it was how I had every woman in L.A. and some far beyond it ready and waiting for me.

I strode to my seat at the opposing end of the table and sat down. Shaking hands was customary, but that wasn’t the tone I wanted to set. This was a mercy killing. Fontaine Media Relations had once been the premiere public relations firm in Hollywood, but it’d been over two decades since they could make that claim. Maurice was once a legend in the business, someone who’d navigated the sharks swimming in La La Land long before I’d started high school, let alone enlisted. But that was then. The old man hadn’t kept up with the times and had bungled the social media age badly. Now they were bleeding out, and I could buy them out, dismantle what I needed, and move on.

Easy, simple.

Calling this a merger meeting was truly too kind.

“Maurice,” I said, then nodded to my lawyer, who promptly delivered the papers to the older man. It was then that I realized a second woman sat beside the aging, balding former PR wizard. She had the same figure as the girl with the bright blue eyes and shared the same long, brown hair. The resemblance was uncanny. Were they sisters? I just wasn’t sure which of the two women was Belle and which was Carol. I’d read all the dossiers on Maurice’s firm. I always knew who I was doing business with, but the sisters were similar enough that in person, it was a toss-up as to who was who.

Except those eyes. Only the girl on Maurice’s left had those blue eyes that hadn’t left mine since I’d walked in. My dick was straining against the fabric of my slacks, and I was glad for the wooden conference table between us. I needed some way to obscure everything. Something about her caught my attention, something I wanted to explore far more than over a conference table.

What is it about you?

Maurice threw the folder down in front of him. The girl on the right scooped it up and scanned it as well. She pursed her lips back at me, and a dull grimace spread over her face.

“This offer isn’t enough,” she said

I cracked my knuckles and eyed her. Oh, so was that the game? Was this daughter Daddy’s Little Ball Buster? Maurice would take the first volley but the girl with the green eyes would play bad cop? They must have made blue-eyes the good cop.

“Your company is dead. Forty cents on the dollar is generous. No other firm in L.A. will touch you, and if one was crazy enough to try, they’d offer fifteen cents.” I leaned forward, going in for the kill. “You need me far more than I need you. If you sign this deal, you get to keep a few things, and Maurice, you and your daughters can stay on as executives at the combined entity after the merger. This is the best you’re going to get. Sign.”

“My dad built this company with his blood, sweat, and tears for over thirty years,” Blue Eyes said in a voice so quiet that it could have been a whisper.

“And you are?” I asked.

“Belle,” she supplied.

“I can see why,” I countered. “You’re certainly beautiful.”

Her blue eyes shone like sapphires back at me. “Mr. McManus, let’s keep this professional.”

Highly unlikely.

I steepled my hands in front of me. “I am being professional, Belle. This is the best offer your family will get. Your father… your family’s entire company needs this. You just sign, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“It’s an insult to everything he’s built, and you know it. He has name recognition still, and that’s why you’re buying us to begin with. To only offer forty percent of what it’s worth… we were thinking around eighty,” Belle replied.

I snorted. “And perhaps you’d like ponies and a new Maserati and who knows what all else? Seriously, this is reality, Belle. You might be great at putting out press releases, but you have nothing to negotiate with. Even sitting down with your family at all was a courtesy. Your firm is dead in the water. So sign.”

The other girl shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. Daddy’s pit bull, indeed. “I can think of other things to do with the deal. Certain places to shove it.”

“Carol!” her dad shouted.

I had to chuckle at that. Neither of Maurice’s daughters was over thirty, both so naïve, but one was all about fairness and the other was threatening to shove my deal up my ass. That inability to accept change and reality as it was certainly hadn’t served Maurice well, had it? Pity to see it in the younger generation. Then I watched Belle’s frown, those downcast eyes of hers.

Something pinged in a heart that had felt long dead, something I couldn’t explain.

“Well, I can see we’re at an impasse. However, I’m not completely heartless. There might be something I could do,” I said.

Carol glared at me and arched an eyebrow, but she at least had the sense to stay silent.

Maurice leaned forward. “What would that be?”

I could see the beads of sweat dotting his lined forehead. The old man hardly had a poker face, but he was in dire straits. Then again, that was the time you had to dig deep and show the bastards no mercy. He’d never make it on the front lines, just like he hadn’t made it in business.

“I want to offer a month of extended negotiations. We have a long way to go to meet at what we need. I’d like to have Belle come with me to my estate in the Bahamas—I already had a vacation set up there—and we can go through all the details there.”

Her head shot up, and I loved her flushed cheeks, the way her eyes darted out like a panicked rabbit in a trap. Smart girl, you know how dangerous I am already, don’t you?

“What?” Belle asked.

I shrugged. “I walk now, and you get nothing, or Belle comes to negotiate with me in the Bahamas. That’s hardly a chore.” I stood then and nodded to my lawyer to recollect the contracts Maurice had perused. “You have forty-eight hours to call me back about this. If I hear nothing by Friday, then I’ll assume you’re passing on everything.”

Maurice stood and shook his head, his cheeks turning an ugly purple shade. Old man needed to watch his blood pressure, that much was obvious. “You can’t just… I know the things you do, Drake. I’m not sending any daughter of mine to your private island.”

I held up my hands to feign my innocence, but I couldn’t keep from smirking. He was right about one thing. There were favors I wanted from Belle, bonuses that would sweeten the negotiations, none of which would make her father happy. After all, there was a reason I didn’t invite Maurice for the extended talks.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Maurice.”

Carol narrowed her eyes. “How dumb do you think we are? No way. Belle stays here.”

Belle’s eyes widened, and it struck me that she had been so innocent that, until now, she hadn’t considered the chance we’d get up to anything other than business. How cute. Straightening her jacket and skirt, she blew past me, even as her composure seemed to crumble. That sent my instincts running wild. It was a chase now, a pursuit. It had been so very long since I’d met a woman who didn’t just fall into my arms and eventually, my bed. Belle Fontaine was someone different than all those other women I’d had, and I craved something real for the first time in years.

I didn’t say anything as I strode out of the conference room, trusting my attorney would handle all the details. Instead, I rushed into the elevator, making it just before the doors shut. Finally, I had access to Belle alone for a few precious minutes as we rode down to the ground floor.

“You left a bit early, princess,” I said, my voice a low rumble. I was deliberate in every action, and I damn well knew what made women wet, what I could do to manipulate them. At least, it had always worked before.

While Belle blushed again, she kept staring ahead at the button panel. “You think you can just buy anyone you want, don’t you, Mr. McManus?”

“I’ve never had trouble before, baby,” I replied, smirking at her.

“Maybe you’ve never met anyone with integrity before. It’s a little hard to find in Los Angeles.”

I hummed in agreement. “But that’s not really it,” I said, turning to her and stroking her cheek. She stiffened but didn’t pull away. “You see,” I continued, leaning in lower and getting close enough to almost kiss her, to take the beginnings of what I wanted. “Everyone has a price, princess. Everyone. I learned that long ago. We all have what we want, and it’s always a question of finding out what that is.”

“And exploiting it,” she said through gritted teeth.

I kissed her then, finding her lips clamped tight but still letting her get a taste of my own. Pulling away, I grinned at her again. “Maybe, but that’s how the world works. You choose what prices you pay, and then you live with the fallout. You’re what? Twenty-two, fresh out of college?”

“Twenty-four.”

Christ, still so young. Everyone thinks they have it all figured out at that age, don’t they? Wait till her thirties hit.

“Well, you’re still idealistic. There’s time for that to be beaten out of you.”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “And you want to be the one to do it?”

Oh, you have no idea.

“I’m offering your family a way out, an olive branch after they shit all over my fair offer. You, Ms. Fontaine, only have to reach out and take it.”

At that, the elevator arrived on the ground floor and I headed out, leaving the princess to think about her options.