Lacey ~ 3 months ago

“I want you to handle the KBBM acquisition, Lace. I don’t have time right now.” Blake stood in front of my desk looking exhausted as he raked a hand through his blond hair. The blue eyes he inherited from our dad looked tired and when he dropped down in the sleek white chair, I knew there was something more to it.

“Why? I mean, I’m happy to do it, but you are such a control freak I figured you’d want your fingerprints all over this deal.”

“Control freak? Now you sound like Poppy.” He shook his head, looking even more tired than I realized. “Can you do this or not, Lacey?”

“Of course I can.” I rolled my eyes at this fatherly big brother tone, not ready to give in quite so easily. “But you’ve had such a stranglehold on this company for so long, I want to know what the hell is going on.”

He sighed. “Poppy just found out she’s pregnant. Only eight weeks but she’s going to have to scale back which means I need to ‘learn to fucking delegate’. Her words, not mine.”

I nodded and assured him that I was more than up for the challenge and spent the next month going through stacks of papers on the financial and market health of KBBM. The sports television was the top spot for all things sports, particularly those outdoor sports that Oregonians love like hiking, kayaking and mountain climbing. For twenty years Bob and Marie Shepherd had ran the station perfectly, drawing in big names in sports and in the state to host programs and comment on events. Their tragic death in an avalanche three years ago started the decline. The two Shepherd siblings hadn’t done a good job and they were finally ready to admit defeat.

It had taken me months to get a handle on just how the station was doing because the two smaller holdings, a radio station and a network of online channels and blogs, were doing much better under another manager. Now I pulled open the green glass doors of the building where the KBBM studio and offices were held and went inside. The lobby was just as one might expect from this kind of office building, understated sophistication. The goal was to make all but the most important and richest, feel inferior.

It worked.

But I wasn’t intimidated. My older brother Blake was as rich and self-important as they came but dealing with him for decades meant I looked at men like him as if they were squish teddy bears. Just like Blake. After a careful appraisal of the lobby the bell finally sounded for the elevator and I stepped inside, barely able to hide the eyeroll at the mirrored gold doors. Tacky as fuck.

Just as the doors closed a hand shot out attached to a beautiful man with wavy caramel hair and sparkling green eyes. He looked vaguely familiar in the way that really gorgeous guys tend to and I couldn’t look away for even a second. He was hot as hell with a smile that held all kinds of erotic promises, but he also looked like a guy who knew his appeal and took full advantage of it. He probably wasn’t cruel as some were, or even mean, but careless all the same. And really nice to look at.

“You know, if you take a picture it’ll last longer.” His deep voice startled my own erotic thoughts and I chanced a quick look at the man beside me rather than his reflection and dammit the man was even hotter up close. And more familiar. “Nah. Pretty sure I’ll remember a face as pretty as yours.”

His amused laughed bounced off the walls of the elevator and I turned my gaze back to the doors, mentally going over a few points I wanted to remember before my meeting. “Do we know each other?”

I resisted the urge to groan at his tired pickup line but I did laugh, because he was way too hot for that. “Are you really using that line on a chick you met in the elevator?”

“I’m serious. You look familiar but different if that makes sense.”

It didn’t and I put him on the backburner as my phone buzzed and a message from my twin brother Lukas popped up.

Just found out who else is trying to buy KBBM. Walker Titus, we went to college together. Remember him? LS

Hell yes I remembered the handsome jerk who’d had two girls on his arm the weekend I met him. Since Lukas and I attended different colleges, we didn’t have the same circle of friends and I’d only visited a handful of times. Walker had been a beautiful, charming player who didn’t take anything seriously. I turned to study his features again and just like that they all familiarized in my mind. His hair was a little shorter, his skin a little more tan and the clean cut look had been replaced with a manicured beard. “Walker Titus.”

He smiled down at me, a sparkle in his eyes. “We do know each other. I rarely forget a face.”

“Just the names attached to them?” He laughed again, green eyes still trying to identify me.

“Something like that, but I’d have remembered if we slept together.”

“We didn’t. But you were the first person to hold my hair while I tossed my cookies into a dorm toilet.” Not my finest moment, but it was the most memorable of our three meetings.

“Holy shit. Lacey Sayers,” he said, his gaze like a caress up and down my body. “What a stunner you turned into!”

“I…what? Thanks.” I hated that he flustered me because what I knew of Walker was that he’d use it against me, and now that we were officially opponents for KBBM I needed to be careful.

“It’s true. Last time I saw you I recall a curly afro like thing on your head and baggy jeans with a shirt that was at least two sizes too big for you. This…I approve.”

I laughed. “Then I can now die a happy woman.” His laughter shouldn’t have been as sexy as it was, but dammit I loved a man who could laugh.

“Seriously. I’m happy Lukas sent you.” Instantly my hackles rose. Not that I wasn’t used to men underestimating me, I was because in the corporate world it was one of their favorite past times.

Still I was ready to tell Walker off. “Why?”

“Because I would have wiped the floor with Lukas. He’s smart as hell but a shit negotiator. I think you’ll be a much bigger challenge.” His words said he meant it more than in the professional sense, and the fact that it pleased me should have been a warning sign.

But I was having too much fun with Walker and his flirty banter and it needed to stop. He was the enemy and the last thing in needed was a conflicted romance like my brother had with his fiancée Poppy. “Good answer.”

“Thanks,” he said, voice filled with amusement.

“Too bad I’m still going to have to wipe the floor with you.”

He laughed and his shoulder brushed mine as the elevator doors slid open. “Looking forward to it, Lacey.” The way my name curled off his tongue send a spear of fire racing through my body and I made a mental note to stay the hell away from Walker Titus.