One year later…

Slade walked in a circle as he inspected the last of the offices on the executive floor. The one he was standing in would be his. He needed to make certain the specifications he’d given to the Realtor and the contractor had been followed to the letter.

Glass walls and an open floor plan welcomed him. Bull had spent so many years hiding behind closed doors in his office, Slade never wanted to adopt the same policy in his new position as owner and CEO of Logan Industries.

“Is everything to your liking, Mr. Hamilton?”

Slade turned around and greeted the Realtor with a firm handshake and a smile. Tall, but still shorter than Slade by a couple of inches, with long dark hair that hung beyond his shoulders and bright blue eyes that flashed with contentment, Kenneth Searlington had come highly recommended for the project Slade was seeking to undertake.

“It’s perfect, Searlington.”

He’d met the man a little over six months prior, and now they were closing the deal on what would cost Slade millions, but net him the world upon its completion.

“I have to admit,” Kenneth responded, “I wasn’t sure we could find you the perfect space and have it ready in under six months, but even in real estate, miracles do happen. You must love New York to invest so much in this location.”

Slade shook his head. “Frankly, it’s a little cold, crowded, and noisy for my tastes. But, the woman I love lives here, so it’s where I need to be.”

“If the size of the check you just wrote me is any indication, you must love her tremendously.”

Slade could feel the ridiculously huge grin tugging at the edges of his mouth. He was a grown man. You’d think he could mask his feelings for his woman while in a business setting. But even here, standing in front of a man he had no personal connection to, he couldn’t help the joy he felt whenever he thought of Mandisa.

“You have someone special at home, Searlington?”

Slade chuckled a little when he saw a matching smile climb onto Searlington’s face. “Yeah, married to a beautiful woman. She’s all heart.”

Slade nodded. “Then you know there isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do to make her happy. In the span of six weeks, she showed me how to live a life I’m proud of. This project is just me showing her what she means to me.”

The Realtor pulled a folder from his briefcase and a pen from his pocket, handing them both to Slade. “Sign here, and your project is complete.”

Slade scribbled his signature on the offered paperwork and returned the documents and pen to the man in exchange for a key ring with three shiny keys.

“As big as this building is, I’m only getting three keys?”

Kenneth laughed. “Most of the doors on the building are key-code or keycard access. Your security firm has been given the current access codes, and I’m certain they will begin changing everything immediately. The only door that needs actual keys is the front door.”

Slade nodded and tipped his hat toward the Realtor. “Thank you, sir.”

Kenneth stretched out his hand and offered it to Slade. “Thank you. Enjoy your property, Mr. Hamilton.”

Slade watched Kenneth Searington exit the room and pulled his cellphone from his jacket pocket. He tapped on Mandisa’s icon and waited for the phone to connect on the other end.

“Hey there, cowboy. How are you?”

The smooth sound of her sultry voice made his cock jump. “Missing my doctor lady something terrible. Are you on your way?”

“Yes, Slade. According to the driver you sent, we should arrive at this mystery place within the hour. Are you going to tell me what this is about?”

“Now, why would I ruin your surprise like that?”

Slade said his goodbyes and walked over to the window to look out across the city. A year ago he wouldn’t have thought he’d be here. But loving Mandisa had changed so much about him and his life. All those changes enriched his existence and made him a better man.

She asked him for three weeks to teach him the error of his ways. What she’d done was shown him how to love on more than just a superficial level.

The first week she’d made him work with one of her younger employees in the Pitkin Avenue store. Carmen was the first in her family to go to college. Although she received financial aid, she could barely afford to eat and buy her textbooks. The job Mandisa provided her meant she didn’t have to choose between starving and studying. Mandisa also made certain her hours were flexible and didn’t interfere with her class schedule.

Watching that young woman work diligently to help customers, stock inventory, and keep the entire store in immaculate condition gave Slade a new respect for the humble little store and its employees. Slade paid his executives more money than Carmen would probably earn in her lifetime, and yet she worked so diligently for Mandisa not because of the whopping check she received every two weeks, but because her boss had invested in Carmen, and Carmen’s future, and she wanted to make Mandisa proud.

Watching Carmen made Slade see Sweet Sadie’s for what it was. Not a smalltime shop that sold insignificant things, but a lifeline for those struggling to make a better life for themselves in a community the world often forgot about.

The second week of their wager, Mandisa took Slade to a rehearsal at a local community center. Inside, he met a dance group made up of local kids. He thought they were cute, and talented as hell. They moved in ways he’d never be able to command his body to, with such ease and confidence. But he didn’t understand how being there would help him appreciate Mandisa’s work more, until he spoke to the director of the community center.

Apparently, these kids were part of a program initiated to keep local children from ending up on the streets. The program offered afterschool care for kids whose parents wouldn’t be able to afford to send them to activities. The kids did homework, played, and worked on talents, skills, and hobbies that helped their development.

This particular group of dancers was practicing to perform in the Labor Day Parade. The director told him their costumes and all fees associated with their entry into the parade had been covered by Mandisa’s company every year. She’d walked him over to a bulletin board where pictures of the previous year’s parade were pinned up. Their little faces were all bright and happy, covered in expertly applied makeup. Mandisa donated more than money—she donated her product and her time.

Outside of that place, the streets were waiting for those children. Ready to swallow them whole and spit them back onto the cold, dangerous concrete. Mandisa’s patronage was the best thing in their arsenal to defend those kids against the harsh realities of their current existence. Suddenly, Slade’s job didn’t seem so important. How many lives had he touched directly sitting in his office? Certainly not enough.

The third week, Mandisa sent him to the Atlantic Avenue store to help with a seasonal promotional event. Of all the requests she’d made of him, this one grated on his nerves slightly.

The store was always busy. He’d barely had a moment to take a breath, let alone learn whatever lesson Mandisa intend to teach him. It was hard to see the intrinsic value of the place when all he could focus on was a different woman asking him for help finding a particular shade of lipstick or the new scent in the body lotion line every two minutes.

Slade was just about to take his assigned lunch break—even though he wasn’t on the store’s payroll, Mandisa insisted he follow all the employee handbook rules regardless of the fact he was technically a volunteer—when he glimpsed a woman standing in the lipstick section.

She was short and curvy, with deep mahogany skin. He’d directed her to that section almost fifteen minutes ago. He couldn’t imagine that anyone could be staring at lipstick that long. It was like selecting a crayon color for your face—pick one you liked, and move on.

Curious, he walked over to her, and asked politely, “Are you finding everything you need?”

Her brown eyes fluttered slightly, and she dipped her head a bit before answering him. “It’s just so hard to wear red with my skin tone. I want to wear a really bright red, but I don’t think I can pull off any of these colors.”

Slade ran his fingers through the reds and stopped when he came across the shade labeled, “Damn.”

“My lady friend wears this one all the time. It’s one of my favorites on her.”

She smiled shyly. “No offense, but your girlfriend and I probably can’t wear the same shade of lipstick.”

“You’d be surprised. Mandisa’s skin tone is like yours. Rich and deep, I love this red on her.”

“Mandisa, the owner? She’s your girlfriend?”

Slade nodded. “Yes, ma’am. You know her?”

The woman smiled as she gently took the tube of lipstick from Slade’s fingers. “Most girls learn to wear makeup as teenagers. I didn’t begin my studies until I was nearing thirty. All my life I’d been told I was too dark to wear anything but dim, drab colors. Only pretty girls with light skin could wear things like pinks, and golds, and reds. When I stepped inside of this store two years ago, fumbling through each aisle, Mandisa stopped and helped me. An hour later, she’d shown me how women like me, the ones who don’t quite fit the world’s standard of beauty, could be just as glamorous as the mainstream models on TV. Stepping into Sweet Sadie’s, I learned I was beautiful too.”

She looked down at the lipstick in her hand and rolled it between her fingers, holding it as if it were something sacred, precious. “You wouldn’t happen to know which lip liner Mandisa wears with this, do you?”

Slade chuckled. He only knew the name of that particular shade of lipstick because he’d been part of the naming process. Mandisa had worn the prototype for one of their dates. When he saw her, lips bold, bright, and luscious, the only word that had spilled out of his mouth was “Damn.” He’d laughed a month later when she’d handed him the tube and turned it upside for him to read.

“No, sugah.” His twang tinged the edges of the word. “I’m afraid the sum of my knowledge of lip color rests in your hands.”

While sitting in the back of the store, eating takeout, he thought about the sadness in that woman’s eyes when she’d said the world told her women that looked like her weren’t beautiful. He wasn’t a woman of color, had no clue what it was like to be a woman of color attempting to buy beauty products. But he knew that every famous makeup model that worked with Venus’ products was Caucasian.

He hadn’t thought much about that until this point. If Logan Industries was doing it, he was certain, his competitors were as well. If all you saw was blonde hair and blue eyes associated with things deemed beautiful, wouldn’t that become your definition too?

Slade realized then all the things he was missing before. That cosmetics were about much more that people looking pretty. They were about making people feel pretty on the inside. Her work was much deeper than what went on top of someone’s skin. He realized why she couldn’t leave Brooklyn. Sweet Sadie’s was part of the community. It helped her little corner of the world thrive.

What a fool he was. Up until that moment, he was so stuck on himself and his way of life, Slade hadn’t figured that Mandisa’s presence in her community, in her customers’ lives was as significant as his title of CEO of L.I. The sick feeling of regret floating at the bottom of his stomach told him how wrong he was.

Slade made money for a living—lots of it. But Mandisa touched people’s lives. In that moment, Slade had to wonder when was the last time he’d impacted someone’s life the way Mandisa had.

Love moved Mandisa to sacrifice the things she wanted for the people who needed her. It was time for Slade to do the same.

He blinked his eyes clear of the memories of their challenge and smiled at the results of those life-affirming lessons. He was standing here in this empty office building, waiting for the woman he loved more than his next breath, simply because he’d learned he wasn’t the most important thing in the world.

A knock on the door pulled him away from the window and caused him to turn toward the entrance. A smile bloomed on his face when he saw Mandisa stepping into the large office.

“Hey, cowboy. Any reason why you had me meet you in an empty office building?”

He walked in her direction, pulling his hat off his head as he reached her. He dipped down, stealing a quick kiss from her lips before placing his hat back on his head.

“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled, kissing her again before pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and swiping his finger across the screen to wake it up.

She took the phone from him and glanced down at it. He could see her assessing the photo, turning his phone sideways to get a better view from the landscape position.

“This looks like the front of this building. But with the L.I. logo?” She looked up at him, the smile dropping from her face as she met his gaze. “Slade, what’s going on?”

“In the last year, you and I have racked up so many frequent flyer miles we could both travel the world twice. I’m tired of feeling as if I must steal time just to be with the woman I love. I closed on this building today. It will probably take a couple of months, but this is going to be the new headquarters for Logan Industries.”

Her eyes, wide with unspoken questions and the sheen of unshed tears, outshone the twinkling lights in the darkening sky. She closed her eyes, and the tears she was holding back spilled onto her reddish-brown cheeks.

“Hey, I hope those are tears of happiness?”

She bit her bottom lip, trying to conceal the self-conscious quiver it displayed. “Slade,” she whispered. “I would never have asked this of you. I would have continued traveling to meet you all over the world if it meant being with you.”

He pulled her into his arms, tucking her into his chest and resting his chin atop her head. “Darlin’, I know you didn’t ask.”

“But what about your mama, Slade?”

“She doesn’t want to come here. Believe me, I tried, but Texas is her home. She gives us her blessing and says we can visit her as often as we want.”

She wiped a nervous hand across her damp cheeks to dry them. He smiled when he saw fresh tears reappear. “Are you sure, Slade? This is a lot to commit to for a relationship.”

He leaned down to kiss her, slowly pressing his lips against hers, savoring her sweetness. She wasn’t asking if he was making a sound business decision, she was asking him if he was certain about them.

“I did this because I’m a selfish bastard at heart, and I wanted to wake up every morning with you next to me. Now, I’ll still have to travel a good bit. Especially while moving our base from Austin to here, but I get to come home to you. Is that something you think you can live with, Dr. Avery?”

She lifted her face from his chest, stepping back a little before she gave him a full smile.

“Oh, I can definitely deal with that, Mr. Hamilton.” She stepped completely out of his embrace, walking around him slowly, her fingertips grazing his chest as she moved from one side of him to the other. “The question is, can you?”

“Is that a challenge?”

She lifted a brow, glancing at him from her periphery. “Well, since Texas has lost both bets to Brooklyn so far, I thought I’d be gracious and give you a chance to win some of your money back.”

She closed the distance between them, pressing her body into his, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down to her. She traced his bottom lip with her tongue, the heat searing him, making his flesh tingle with excitement.

“So what’s your answer, cowboy?”

He tried to steal a kiss, but she backed away from him just in time to deny him.

“Missy, you like playing with fire, don’t you?

She shrugged, snaking a hand down his chest, across the firm expanse of his abdomen, until she was cupping his heavy balls.

“What’s the matter, cowboy?” she whispered slowly as she caught his earlobe between her teeth. “You scared you’ll lose?”

He seared her lips with his. The taste and feel of her against him made every one of his nerve endings crackle with need and excitement. He pulled her closer to him, his hand branding the curve of her ass, stamping his ownership across the firm globes.

The kiss was hard and dirty, his tongue prying her lips open, forcing its way inside. Tasting her wet warmth made him ache for a flat surface to devour her on. Overwhelmed by love, lust, and need, he didn’t give one single damn that they were surrounded by glass walls. If Searlington or some random passersby saw them, they could either enjoy the show or leave.

His body was on fire. But more than that, more than the physical desire coursing through his veins, he was content. He’d never had that in Texas, never understood what it was to not be in a constant state of worry about the future. In his woman’s arms, he had no questions about his place in the world, or his purpose.

From the moment they’d touched, Slade knew he was meant for one thing, and one thing only.

To love her.

He tore his mouth away from hers, smiling as he felt her deft fingers unbuckling his belt. He leaned down, raising her chin with his finger, locking his gaze with hers, and uttering the two words that only a fellow competitive spirit such as his would revel in.

“Bring it.”