The Beauty and the CEO

“Hell, no.” Will slammed his hand on the top of the portfolios. “I don’t care what our cousins think. RC is not dead.” Will’s gut twisted with doubt. The twins made a great point. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in determination. RC was not dead and had another hundred years left. He didn’t want to risk ignoring a potential market. But a beauty pageant? He hated himself for being suckered in. “Okay, fine, send me the information. What night do I have to be there?”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Naomi started. “In order for you to be there and be able to mesh with the other judges, you need to be there for maybe a week.”

“What?” Will exclaimed.

Joyce held her hands up to calm him down. “It won’t be that bad.”

“I just started here last month. I don’t have a week to give.” He calculated the forty-plus hours a week he’d already been putting in and knew that time was still not enough. His cousins would be hovering like vultures if he left his throne for more than a few days.

“Think about how committed the family will see you are if you take the time to represent our products.”

She had to go there. Will’s weakness. His family’s legacy was his kryptonite. Sales were down. People were losing interest in Ravens Cosmetics. They wanted something fresh and new. Well, if anyone could go to this Southwood and turn things around, it was him. “When do I leave?”

* * *

Armed with a suitcase filled with cosmetics, Zoe checked her bags at the counter at Miami International Airport on Tuesday morning and got herself cleared through security. If she was lucky, her plane would be there, allowing her to board.

This wasn’t her first trip on a plane. She knew it was best to take a change of clothes in her carry-on. No matter how long or short the flight, Zoe always showered after traveling. For this two-hour flight, Zoe dressed in a pair of comfy boyfriend jeans, worn white canvas shoes and her favorite loose T-shirt, bedazzled in pink with Wear More Mascara across the chest. As she rounded the corner toward her terminal, she realized she had no such luck. And every seat in the waiting area was taken. Children pressed their faces against the windows, smudging the glass with their sticky hands as they watched the other planes taking off.

Zoe had no patience to deal with the man standing behind her she just caught checking out her rear end. The joker wasn’t even embarrassed; he wiggled his brows at her and licked his lips. The only man on Earth, as far as Zoe was concerned, who was allowed to lick his lips at her was LL Cool J.

“Miss Baldwin?” Will Ravens closed the gap from the private area to where she stood. “I thought I recognized you.”

For a moment, Zoe forgot how to speak. Will Ravens, the man she needed to hate right now, stood before her in a pair of jeans and a fitted green V-neck shirt, causing her to melt into a puddle as he smiled at her. Dark hairs were sprinkled across his sculpted jaw. A white sign in front of the blue terminal waiting room where he stood alone indicated the area was for passengers detoured from the hangar. Was the private area for other jets, full planes or those under construction? Zoe’s mind raced with questions. Why was he here? Where was he going? How did she look? “Mr. Ravens?”

“Is everything okay?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

Blinking and then nodding, Zoe laughed lightly. “Oh, yes, sorry. I must have airport brain.”

“That’s a thing?” Will asked with a crooked grin.

“Yeah, you know, when you have fear of flying.” Zoe inclined her head in the direction of the crowded terminal. “Not necessarily with the whole airplane thing, but who you’re going to end up sitting with.”

Will glanced in the direction she’d indicated and Zoe’s eyes followed. Without any regard for the man currently standing next to her, another stranger blew a kiss at her. “Is it safe to assume you don’t want to end up sitting next to him?”

An Elvis Presley snarl stretched Zoe’s top lip as she shivered. “Exactly.”

“You could end up sitting next to me,” said Will.

Zoe gave her undivided attention back to the hunk before her. “Like you would fly commercial.”