Ruthless Pride Page 17

  But so much more.

  Joshua’s future rode on this press conference.

  “Ready, Josh?” Haley asked, laying a hand on his upper arm. Concern and just a bit of sadness darkened her hazel eyes. “Are you sure about this?”

  He nodded. “I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life.” He covered her hand with his and clasped it. “And just in case I’ve never said so before, thank you for everything you’ve been to this company and to me. Those first few years, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to make it without you.”

  Tears glistened in her eyes, but, Haley being Haley, she tipped her chin up and cleared her throat. “You’re right. You wouldn’t have,” she drawled.

  He chuckled and, giving her hand one last squeeze, moved forward into the throng of media.

  At his appearance, the noise reached a fever pitch as questions were lobbed at him from overeager journalists. But he ignored them as he stepped to the podium and microphone, scanning the crowded lobby for one person...

  There.

  Sophie stood in the middle, lovely and composed.

  Relief barreled into him. He’d been afraid she wouldn’t show up—had even placed a call to Althea to request Sophie’s presence. But that hadn’t guaranteed she would’ve agreed. Seeing her here, though, the anxiety that he’d fought off all morning kicked in the door of his calm. This was the most important moment of his life. Hell, he was fighting for his life—his future.

  I love you—I probably always will—but I’m not that strong.

  Her words, so final but so weary, echoed in his head. The resolve in her voice had set his heart pounding, terrified he’d lost her. But hope, his love for her and, yes, desperation refused to let him give up. He would go to war for her. He just had to hold on to her declaration of love. And his belief that she was stronger than both of them put together.

  “Thank you for coming here today on such short notice,” he said into the mic. Immediately, the voices hushed, but the excitement and tension crackled in the air. “I’m going to share my announcement and will take only a few questions at the end.”

  He inhaled, his eyes once more finding and locking onto Sophie. Her silver gaze met his, and he found the strength to continue there.

  “Fifteen years ago, I took the helm of Black Crescent Hedge Fund after my father embezzled money from the company, nearly bankrupting it and devastating his clients and their families. Since that time, I’ve rebuilt the business and have tried to make reparations for his crimes. But today, I will be stepping down as CEO of Black Crescent.”

  A roar of disbelief filled the lobby and camera flashes nearly blinded him. Still, he kept his attention on Sophie, spying the shock and confusion that widened her eyes and parted her lips. Questions bombarded him, and he held up his hands, warding them off. Again, silence descended.

  “Over the next few months there will be a search for my successor. He or she will be carefully handpicked to replace me as CEO. I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’m resigning. I plan to go back to my first love, my art. I gave it up to run Black Crescent, but I’ve decided to return to it. And possibly—if the woman I’m in love with will agree to marry me—to plan a wedding.”

  Again, the room erupted. But he cared only about Sophie’s reaction, and his heart seized at the shock and tears and...and love. Please, God, let that be love glistening in her gray eyes.

  “I let my pride and fear blind me and hold me hostage for far too long. And I’m praying that it doesn’t cost me her love. I’ve spent too many years in my father’s shadow, worrying what other people thought. If I was worthy enough. But she brought me out of the dark and into the light with her love. And because she loves me, I am worthy. And I want to spend the rest of my life proving that she didn’t make a mistake by taking a chance on me. If she’ll have me.”

  He stared at her, silently willing her to let him tell the world her identity. But more, silently asking her again for her forgiveness and her love. Her hand in marriage.

  It seemed like an eternity passed as he stood behind that podium, reporters yelling at him, cameras flashing again and again. But still, he caught her nod. Caught that beautiful smile that lit up her face, her eyes and his heart.

  “Sophie, will you come up here with me?”

  She didn’t hesitate, but wound a path through the throng, and like Moses with the Red Sea, they parted, letting her pass. He didn’t pay attention to anyone but her. His heart swelling larger than his chest as she neared. And when his hand finally enfolded hers, something inside him that had been hollow, filled. That lost puzzle piece slotted into its place, and he was whole. Complete.

  He drew her close, and closer still until she walked into his arms. Bending his head over hers, he pressed a kiss to her hair. A shiver worked through him and he didn’t care who saw it. She was in his embrace again. Her scent enveloped him. She warmed him. And God, he’d been cold for so long.

  Leaning back, he cupped her face, tipping her head back. The tears he’d glimpsed seconds ago tracked down her face, and he wiped them away with his thumbs, brushing his lips across her cheekbones, the bridge of her nose, her lips.

  “Sophie Armstrong, I’m who I was meant to be with you. I was created to love you, and I not only cannot imagine a future without you, I don’t want one without you in it. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

  “Yes, Josh,” she said without hesitation and with a certainty and confidence that erased the hurt, shame and pain that had dogged him for fifteen years. “I love you, and there’s nothing I want more than to live by your side.”

  With reporters exploding into chaos around them, he claimed her mouth.

  And his future.

  * * *

  Dynasties:

  Seven Sins

  It takes the betrayal of only one man

  to destroy generations.

  When a hedge fund hotshot vanishes with billions,

  the high-powered families of Falling Brook

  are changed forever.

  Now seven heirs, shaped by his betrayal,

  must reckon with the sins of the past.

  Passion may be their only path to redemption.

  Experience all Seven Sins!

  Ruthless Pride by Naima Simone

  Forbidden Lust by Karen Booth

  Insatiable Hunger by Yahrah St. John

  Hidden Ambition by Jules Bennett

  Reckless Envy by Joss Wood

  Untamed Passion by Cat Schield

  Slow Burn by Janice Maynard

  Available May through November 2020!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Scandalous Reunion by Jules Bennett.

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  Scandalous Reunion

  by Jules Bennett

  One

  Sam sipped his black coffee and glanced at the stacks of mail on his desk. After being away for three weeks, the piles weren’t too bad. His assistant had sorted them between junk and urgent. Sam opted to go with the junk first to get that out of the way.

  As he reached for the piece on the top, his cell vibrated on his desk. He glanced to the screen, but didn’t recognize the number. He set aside the piece of junk mail and answered his phone, already looking to the next piece.

  “Sam Hawkins.”

  “Sam, hi. It’s Maty Taylor.”

  Maty Taylor. No two words could thrust him faster or deeper into his past than the woman who’d left him brokenhearted...a woman he hadn’t spoken to in sixteen years.

  Refocu
sing on here and now, Sam struggled to catch back up to what she was saying.

  “...the attorney representing Rusty Lockwood,” she went on in her professional tone as if he were a total stranger...as if their intimate bond had been severed forever when she left. “I’m calling to set up a meeting.”

  Sam’s hand froze on the letter addressed to him as he gripped his phone with his other hand.

  “Maty.”

  Just saying her name seemed foreign, yet still so familiar, but he had to say it. He wanted her to nix the stiff tone and talk to him like she would if she ran into him on the street.

  “I’m sorry, but did you say Rusty Lockwood? A meeting?” he repeated.

  “Yes. I called last week and your assistant said you were out of town, so I wanted to catch you first thing this morning before your schedule got too busy.”

  Wait...what? Was she for real? Just calling out of the blue on behalf of his main rival and she wasn’t even starting with a “Hi, how are you?” All of this was unbelievable, not to mention disappointing. How could she have any dealings with such a bastard?

  “You work for Rusty Lockwood?” he double backed to ask, as he was still confused. It was too damn early for this bomb to blow up in his face. His past and present colliding to conspire against him? Oh, hell no.

  When he and Maty had parted ways, he’d been in college and she was heading off to law school, set on changing the world. And where had she landed? At the door of the most crooked man Sam had ever known.

  What the hell happened to the woman he knew?

  “I’m his new personal attorney,” Maty answered, still using that professional, polished voice. “Which explains the nature of my call. I’d like to set up a meeting to discuss my client’s generous offer to purchase your distillery.”

  Sam snorted and dismissed the ludicrous idea. He took a seat in his leather desk chair and opened the next piece of mail.

  “Your client is well aware that I’m not selling now or ever, so your call and this meeting are irrelevant.” He pulled open a handwritten letter and smoothed it out on his desk to read. “Is that all you needed to discuss?”

  “Sam,” she said, her tone going from poised to nearly pleading. “I’m only asking for five minutes.”

  Five minutes. He wasn’t giving Lockwood five seconds. The man only wanted what he couldn’t have, and Sam was tired of playing this game. Sam refused to sell his distillery, and Rusty refused to take no for an answer.

  “What the hell, Maty?”

  “Excuse me?” Maty gasped.

  “How did you get messed up with a man like Rusty Lockwood?” he asked. “He’s not a good guy.”

  Silence greeted him on the other end and Sam shoved the letter aside as he came to his feet, waiting to hear a defense from her side.

  “My professional status or my reasoning behind my position are none of your concern,” she informed him. “My main focus is getting this meeting set up.”

  There she went again with that tone. Sam gritted his teeth and clenched his fist at his side as he turned to stare out at the mountainside and the creek running directly behind the distillery. This place was his everything and he’d be damned if he let anyone get their hands on it...especially Lockwood, even if he wanted to do it by way of Sam’s ex.

  “What the hell kind of game are you playing?” he demanded.

  “Game?” she repeated. “I’m not playing any game. I’m simply calling on behalf of my client. Can we meet on Wednesday at one? I’ll come to you.”

  Sam shook his head and laughed. “I’m not meeting you, Maty, but I will give you a piece of advice. Find someone else to work for instead of that bastard.”

  Sam disconnected the call and slid his cell back into his pocket.

  What the hell was going on and what was Maty Taylor doing back in town and working for the devil himself?

  Sam wasn’t the same love-struck eighteen-year-old he’d been, chasing after the sexy blonde four years his senior. He’d been naive enough to think they’d be together forever. What a joke. She chose law school over him, but looking back, her leaving was the biggest and best life lesson he’d ever had. He’d learned to guard his heart, focus on his career and build his brand.

  Sam stared at the pile of mail he still needed to go through. The handwritten letter still sat there, but he didn’t care about that. No, his mind was on the woman who’d contacted him out of the blue. He knew full well that wasn’t the last time Maty would try. Rusty was a persistent bastard and Maty didn’t give up on what she set her sights on, either.

  Sam looked forward to seeing her again after all these years. He only hoped she’d prepared herself because he was stronger, more powerful and much more experienced than the last time she’d seen him.

  * * *

  “Damn it.”

  Maty muttered her curse, but frustration coupled with fear and anxiety pumped through her. Sam had the nerve to laugh at her and not even attempt to work with her on a meeting. Is that how he conducted all his business?

  Even though he’d been a complete jerk, he still had that low, gravelly voice that made every nerve ending stand up. Damn him for still being sexy.

  And she knew he was sexy because she had seen enough photos of him over the years, and time had most definitely been kind to him.

  Sex appeal or not, he still didn’t have to blow off her request like she meant nothing to him. They’d shared a past, yet he couldn’t find time to meet with her?

  Too damn bad. She had too much at stake to let Sam call the shots. Granted her situation wasn’t his fault, but he was the only solution. If there were any other way to save her brother, Maty certainly wouldn’t be contacting Sam again. But Rusty couldn’t be dissuaded and his blackmail scheme was impossible to get out of so she had to get Sam to see her, and then she had to convince him to sell his distillery to Rusty Lockwood.

  Giving up wasn’t an option, so Maty would just have to go to Sam.

  Rusty made it clear, in very certain terms, what her duties were as his new attorney. What she’d have to do to protect her brother.

  No, she didn’t like being blackmailed, but she had no choice but to do Rusty Lockwood’s dirty work. Since coming to Green Valley to work for Lockwood Lightning, the world’s largest moonshine distillery, she’d heard rumors of Rusty’s bad reputation. He was allegedly skimming money off his employees’ donations to a charity for children that he supposedly supported.

  Thankfully that was not her area of law so he had other lawyers, likely crooked, handling that ordeal.

  No, Rusty had other plans for her, and they were only marginally related to her law experience. He’d tracked her down specifically because of her past with Sam Hawkins.

  They’d been in love once, planning a future together, until she’d decided to go to law school and he’d refused to leave Green Valley. They’d had to reevaluate everything and in the end, Maty left town without looking back.

  Yet here she was again after a sixteen-year absence, and if she didn’t get Sam to sell his distillery, Rusty would stop payments for the care and therapy of Maty’s younger brother.

  If that happened...well, it just couldn’t happen. Maty had no other funds, nobody to help her, nothing to fall back on. She wasn’t like Rusty or Sam, both of whom had more money than they knew what to do with. She was truly alone for the first time in her life and more vulnerable than ever.

  Maty pulled in a deep breath and smoothed her hand down her black pencil dress. She didn’t expect approaching Sam to be an easy task. If getting him to sell his precious distillery had been easy, Rusty wouldn’t have needed to enlist her help.

  She nearly laughed. He hadn’t enlisted her help. He’d demanded it. He’d removed her from her other firm in Virginia, and he’d brought her here—going so far as to set her up in an old apartment that he knew held too many memories and making it
clear her brother would have all the care he needed so long as she did his dirty work.

  Rusty had to have dug deep into Sam’s past to find her. She and Sam hadn’t had a relationship since college—though she’d never forgotten him.

  She’d been four years ahead of him, more eager to jump into the career world, while he’d still been finding his way and dealing with his mother’s gambling addiction.

  As serious as their relationship had been, as in love as they’d declared themselves to be, so many outside circumstances had wedged between them that eventually the last tie binding them finally snapped.

  Maty swallowed the lump of emotions in her throat and forced away the memories. She wasn’t that same woman anymore. There was a vast difference, a lifetime practically, between twenty-two and thirty-eight. She’d experienced heartache far beyond that of losing her first love.

  Though she’d still wondered about Sam over the years. It would have been impossible to ignore the explosion he had made on the scene here in Tennessee and across the country. The youngest distiller to break one billion dollars in sales in one year and the youngest master distiller in history. She couldn’t go to an upscale restaurant or even a pub back in Virginia without seeing his signature bottle behind the bar.

  But here in Green Valley? Nothing. The only place you could purchase Hawkins gin, and soon to be bourbon, was at the distillery itself. Rusty Lockwood kept those hard liquor licenses tied up with his moonshine. There was no way to touch the iron-fisted mogul, or his hold on the locals, and Sam was in for one hell of a fight because Maty couldn’t fail. She had everything to lose.

  Blackmail was a crime, but Rusty was careful not to leave a trail. He was as crooked as they came and she was in the thick of his web now. Her only edge at this stage was the element of surprise. Clearly Sam had been stunned by her Monday morning phone call. She couldn’t let the momentum stop. Not only did she need to keep Sam off his game, she had to move before her fears and her memories made her call off this whole thing.