She had officially taken over as junior executive of marketing at the St. Paul office. One of the first things she’d done was to promote Adelia to junior management — the position previously held by Larry Matthews.
“It’s morning already?” Haddison asked, looking at her through a pair of groggy eyes. She understood why. They hadn’t managed to get much sleep last night, making up for the time they’d been apart.
She smiled. “Yes, it’s morning, but I’m sure Maceo wouldn’t care if you’re late. Some of us don’t have your connections to the boss.”
He leaned in the doorway in what she thought was a sexy pose, with his PJ bottoms riding low on his hips. He really hadn’t needed to put them on just for her. She had no problem seeing him naked. In fact, she liked seeing him that way best.
“You’d have those same connections if you say ‘yes’.”
She slowly stood and walked over to him. In a clear voice, she said, “Yes.”
Groggy eyes widened, and he tilted his head to stare at her. “Did you just say ‘yes’?”
She chuckled. “Yes, I just said ‘yes’.”
He looked at her for a moment longer, as if not quite believing his ears. “Hold that answer and stay right here.”
He quickly disappeared back into the bedroom. She stayed where she was, and a few moments later, he returned with a small white box in his hand. While she stared at the box in surprise, he knelt in front of her, then opened the box to show her the beautiful ring he’d chosen for her. “Kennedy Bennett, will you marry me?”
Kennedy definitely hadn’t expected this. She figured she would let him know and they would talk about wedding plans. She hadn’t expected him to have an engagement ring ready to slip on her finger.
“Kennedy?”
She blinked back tears as a huge smile touched her lips. “Yes, Haddison. I will marry you. I love you.”
He slid the ring on her finger, and when he stood up, he said, “And I love you, too, sweetheart. So very much.”
Kennedy threw herself into his arms, remembering her horoscope of eight months ago…
Today might not start out as a good day, but don’t despair — in the end, you will remember it as the best day of your life.
That day had indeed ended up being the best day of her life because that had been the day she’d met Haddison. She was getting the man she loved and a June wedding after all.
IN THE MEETING ROOM of Bennett Nursery and Landscaping Corporation, in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, Victoria Bennett ignored the January thunderstorm outside her office window. Instead, she was studying the man across the conference table from her, his sleeves rolled up as he went through the contractual documents before him. Cortez Masters was her attorney. He was also the stuff of women’s fantasies. He’d certainly been hers when they’d first met four years ago in Paris.
It had been the summer before her last year in the master’s program at Tuskegee University. She’d been lucky enough to have been chosen to study in Paris while working at the botanical gardens there. She’d been a few months shy of her twenty-fourth birthday, and her trip to France marked the first time she’d traveled on her own. And she was loving every minute of it. She might have been a virgin when she got there, but she hadn’t intended to stay one for long. Her goal was to return to the States a liberated woman.
Thanks to Cortez, she had.
He’d been twenty-seven and in Paris celebrating — he’d just finished law school and had passed the bar on the first try. She recalled the first time she’d seen him, and her heart fluttered. Unfortunately for her peace of mind, he hadn’t changed much over the years. He was still drop-dead gorgeous. Although he was older now, around thirty, she figured, he still possessed an almost visible sexuality that made women drool.
He had traveled from his office in Los Angeles to St. Paul for today’s meeting. One of her clients, the Lampshade Group, was causing problems for her, and her father had suggested she bring in the big guns.
The Lampshade Group was located in South Carolina and had hired her company to landscape their new office park. She’d taken the job, and completed it, without issue. But now, they were complaining that the plants and foliage she’d put in had died.
When she’d looked into the matter, she’d discovered that they had failed to install an adequate water sprinkler system. They’d been told more than once, both verbally and in written documentation, that they needed a sprinkler system to cover their entire area.
They’d failed to maintain one, and now were demanding that she replace all of the plants, or they would take her to court. Well, let them try.
When Cortez had removed his jacket earlier, she couldn’t help noticing how his white business shirt bulged over impressive biceps. The minute he’d walked into her office, she’d been caught off guard by his scent. It brought back so many memories. And the way his trousers fit, almost too well, made her swallow. Hard-muscled thighs were in sync with the material with his every heart-pounding stride. Everything about Cortez exuded power, endurance, and strength. Even those gorgeous bedroom brown eyes.
But what had changed about him, and what she missed more than anything, was his roguish smile. She’d seen it a lot in Paris. But these days, he would frown when he saw her. She knew it was because of the way things had ended between them.
She wished she could say she didn’t care, but she did. They’d had something special, and as much as she didn’t want to, she missed him. What made things especially awkward was the fact that his cousin, Quinn Masters, a well-known entertainment attorney in Los Angeles, was married to her cousin, Alexia Bennett Masters, a Grammy-award-winning singer and songwriter.
Quinn and Alexia were big on family, and it hadn’t taken them long to pick up on the bad vibes between Victoria and Cortez. When Alexia had asked her about it, Victoria had brushed it off and Alexia had let it go…for now. But with another family function happening in a couple of months — her Uncle Grey’s birthday party in Orlando — she knew they needed to put their bad feelings behind them. She and Cortez were expected to get along, both professionally and personally. But considering their history, she wasn’t sure how that was going to be possible.
He glanced up and caught her staring, and their gazes locked for one intense moment. He was starting to get to her. Those bedroom eyes, that handsome face… He was one of a set of triplets. All three were good looking, but there was something about Cortez that had hit her hard, right from the start.
“So, what do you think? Am I going to have a problem?” she asked, clearing her throat to try and break the sexual chemistry flowing between them. It was always there, whether they wanted to acknowledge it or not. They usually didn’t. Instead, they had built a wall, which unfortunately, only seemed to increase the animosity between them.
And it had all started in Paris, which was something neither of them ever talked about.
He tossed the documents aside. “The Lampshade Group doesn’t have a leg to stand on. You fulfilled the terms of your contract. They signed off that the plants you delivered to them were alive and healthy. If they failed to do what was necessary to keep them that way, it’s not your fault. And if it goes to court, they will have a hard time proving otherwise.”