Reforming the CEO (South Beach)

by Marisa Cleveland

  Amelie walked into her room and sank onto the floor by the door. “I owe you an apology.”

  Reece closed her eyes and murmured, “What did you do?” The last time she said she was sorry for something, Reece’s favorite Ferragamo boots had been floating somewhere in the Atlantic, a mishap with a yacht and a Greek heir.

  Her friend let out a sigh. “I’ve always enjoyed the party girl lifestyle.”

  Reece’s eyes popped open, and she looked at her friend through the blur of her sideways position. Amelie’s dark blonde ponytail held the same sleek shine. Her lips had her friend’s trademark red color. But her posture, as she sat cross-legged and leaned back against the wall, slumped.

  “You look tired,” she said. That didn’t explain why her friend was apologizing.

  Amelie offered a small smile. “Gee, thanks. No. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed being the party girl. But that’s never been you.”

  “No. It hasn’t,” she agreed.

  “So I’m sorry I tried to make you into one.”

  Reece blinked in surprise. Amelie didn’t do heart-to-hearts, one reason they’d connected as best friends. But this sounded like it might be a little more than girl chitchat. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m the one who told you to date for fun.”

  “I tried to be all fun and I failed.” Reece groaned. “I failed at fun.”

  If it had stayed sex without emotion, she wouldn’t be so messed up in the head right now. If they’d never attended any of those events, she wouldn’t have gotten to know him and the people around him, and she wouldn’t want to be a part of his life. But now that she’d seen exactly how he lived life, she wanted that lifestyle for herself. He’d drawn her into his world like he was the world’s most powerful magnet and she a twisty metal paperclip.

  “You didn’t fail. You’re not a just-for-fun girl, and now you’re hurting and it’s my fault.”

  Reece admired her friend’s twisted logic. “Technically, I think it’s my fault I’m hurting. I knew what to expect, and I should have guarded myself better.”

  “But that’s it. You shouldn’t have to guard yourself against fun.”

  Hadn’t she always done that? Maintained distance from anything that looked like it might get…messy. Never one to be in the middle of the action. Safe on the sidelines. Watching everyone else have fun. Listening to everyone else tell stories of their epic adventures.

  What if Vincent Ferguson ended up being her once in a lifetime experience?

  With a heavy sigh, she said, “It’s fine. I’ll be fine.” And she would be. People didn’t die from broken hearts, did they? She’d forget him. Eventually. And it wasn’t like she could blame anyone other than herself. He’d said he couldn’t date her, and she’d offered sex. That memory had her sitting up and shaking her head. She was ridiculous. There were starving children in the world, and she was crying over a guy.

  “I know you’ll be fine. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am.” Her friend did look miserable. Guilty.

  No one should feel guilty for encouraging someone to have fun. But in all of Reece’s years working with charities, she’d learned one valuable lesson. Guilty people gave money to causes that helped them feel better about themselves.

  Reece gave Amelie a genuine smile. “I know how you can make it up to me.”

  …

  “I’m promoting Amelie to vice president of the Foundation.”

  It took another week for Reece to brave the daylight and return to the condo, but by the end of July, she’d accepted full custody of the Foundation and relocated their offices to the second floor. After stopping by the finance office to pick up a check for ten thousand dollars to give to Blessings in a Backpack, she marched into Landon’s office to announce her plans.

  As usual, she found him behind his desk, poring over some documents, with about fifty million tabs open on his two ultra-sharp, ultra-wide curved monitors. No question, her brother liked his gadgets. Even Vin, the CEO of a technology corporation, didn’t have curved monitors in his office, or if he had them, she’d never noticed. She bit the inside of her cheek. No thinking about Vin. Bad Reece.

  Landon glanced at his watch. “If I didn’t have a staff briefing on this IPO we’re handling, I’d go down there and congratulate her. I think it’s a good choice for the two of you to work together through Rowe.” He shuffled some papers into a stack. “With both of you here, I’m excited to see the increased philanthropic impact you’ll make.”

  “She’s not in the office yet, and you look like you’re up to your eyeballs in financials.”

  He clipped the stack and slid it into his padfolio. “We’re backing Ferguson. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but you made the right call. He’s going to make us rich.”

  Whoever said it took twenty-one days to break a habit had never been in love with Vincent Ferguson. Because she’d broken up with him twenty-eight days ago, and she still wasn’t over him. Not completely. To the random outsider, it might seem like she’d moved on. Easy to do with a foundation to revamp. But her heart still gave a sharp squeeze when she heard his back door shut or when she forgot to look the other way as she passed his empty parking spot in the garage.

  So, twenty-one days was baloney. She might never see him naked again, but the memories would stick with her for the rest of her life. She still couldn’t look at the moon without wondering if he was looking at it, too. Dumb.

  But okay, she’d focus on the last part of her brother’s ridiculous statement. “Landon, we’re already rich.”

  “Filthy rich.” Her brother emphasized the adjective.

  Filthy. The image brought to mind the memory she’d been trying to suppress. It bothered her that Vin harbored resentment against her for slighting him when they were both much younger. How was she supposed to know how her actions might look to someone else? Besides, he’d made quite the success of himself, and for that he should be proud.

  “How long have you known Vin?”

  Landon frowned. “Geez, I don’t know. Since middle school, maybe.”

  “Why didn’t I know him?”

  “You did. You crashed his birthday party.”

  She barely recalled that memory, didn’t connect the face of that boy with the man. “Is that why you warned me against dating him at Amelie’s party? Because you knew his background?”

  Her brother grunted, scrolling through his phone. Absently, he said, “Vin’s never been a settle-down kind of guy, and I think a whole lot of people were surprised you didn’t dump him after the first week.”

  Did they really make such a mismatched couple? That people in their social circle couldn’t imagine them together? “Why don’t you like him?”

  “I do like him, or I wouldn’t be supporting his business.” Landon stood, tucked his padfolio under his arm, and stared at her a moment too long before saying, “The Vincent Fergusons of the world prove why paying it forward works. Our foundation funded his college. Did you know he was a Rowe scholarship recipient? Because of the opportunity we gave him, he’s grown a company to the point where we’re benefiting, too.”

  Pay it forward. She’d heard that enough in her lifetime. Every time she had something good, she took the time to appreciate it, because someone else didn’t have what she had. She tried to do what others couldn’t do. She lived her life in a constant state of trying to prove her worthiness.

  His phone buzzed at the same time his secretary knocked on the already open door. “Landon, you’re going to be late.”

  He looked at Reece. “You wouldn’t want to sit in on a pre-IPO meeting, would you?”

  If it meant she could watch Vin in action, she did. But she had more respect for her traitorous heart, and the way it sped up just thinking about seeing him again had her shaking her head no. “Ew. Boring.”

  Completely deadpan, Landon said, “Making money is never boring.”

  She waved the charity check in the air. “You keep making it, and I’ll keep spending i
t.”

  She exited and took the elevator to the ground floor, wondering if Vin was already in the building. He wasn’t like any other guy she knew. Not the corporate ones, anyway. Even though she was certain his whole team—lawyers, finance, PR—would be present at the meeting, she rarely saw him with an entourage, while her brother always had someone hounding him or tagging along for the chance to speak with him for five minutes. She’d never seen Vin with anyone except random women. What would happen when he decided to get back to his usual routine?

  She would move for good.

  …

  “I still can’t believe Rowe called and asked for an allocation,” Fred said, placing his briefcase on the conveyor belt.

  “I can,” Simon said, a confident grin on his face. “I thought we should have asked him from the get-go.”

  Vin leaned more toward Fred’s sentiments. After Landon’s threat, coupled with Reece’s timely breakup, he’d been blindsided when Rowe’s team had contacted his to schedule a meeting.

  Now, he was heading into one of the final pre-IPO meetings, and all he could think about was the one person on the planet able to derail his concentration on the one day he needed to be on point. Probably because her family owned the entire building and her name was plastered all over the damn place. He didn’t miss the irony. Give up the girl to get his childhood dream. And maybe at the beginning of the summer, he would have done it without hesitation. But that was before she’d impressed him with her damn wit and charm and…acrobatic abilities.

  He’d been willing to call Landon’s bluff on ruining the IPO deal. And he’d been sure he and Reece had been heading into real dating territory. But she’d beaten him to the punchline, sucker punched him, and he hadn’t stopped her.

  He’d been tired. Had let his pride get to him. Hell, he’d bought her a damn bracelet to prove he cared, and she’d broken up with him before he could give it to her.

  She’d almost had him. Hell. She could’ve had him. But she hadn’t wanted him. And it was because he wasn’t good enough. He’d never be good enough. Not for a Rowe, anyway.

  How could it hurt to lose what wasn’t even his?

  He closed his eyes as the security officer’s wand swiped around his body. What if he’d stopped her from leaving his office that day? What if he’d told her the truth? That her brother had threatened to ruin the business deal, and after mulling it over, he’d decided he was willing to risk it? Would she still have broken up with him in classic Reece style? Cool and smooth. Probably. He let out a long-suffering sigh. For the past month, he’d used every trick in his wheelhouse to not think about her. Not when he attended the fireworks the day after she broke up with him. Not when he came home late from the office and looked up to her darkened bedroom window. Not when he left early and glanced at her empty spot in the parking garage. Not even on Monday when he played at Lacey’s and she didn’t show.

  But now, in her building, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  The way Reece had entered his life out of nowhere and latched into his brain without effort scared the shit out of him. He couldn’t afford to let anyone distract him during his one shot at securing his place in the corporate world. Not when his mother and sister still counted on him to provide in a way his father never had.

  As if willing her into existence, she stepped off the elevator and headed in the opposite direction from the front entrance and the security station. Instinct had his mouth half open, ready to call her name, but he clamped it shut. She broke up with him. He needed to respect that.

  As he watched her beautiful, toned, sexy legs walk away from him, it was terrifying to realize what he’d lost.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As Vincent Ferguson stood in the back corner of the room and listened to his CFO address the men and women sitting around his conference table, he knew three things with absolute certainty: this deal would make them superbly wealthy, he would finally be in a position to acquire other tech companies like his own, and it didn’t mean anything if he couldn’t have Reece Rowe in his bed every damn night for the rest of his life.

  Shit.

  Unlike the other investors, Landon leaned against the wall next to Vin. “What?”

  “Nothing.” Vin shot Landon an annoyed look. Had he cussed out loud? Somehow in the last month, he’d convinced himself that if Reece had broken up with him on the advice of her oldest brother and her best friend, then she valued their opinion above her own feelings. He didn’t think he could change her mind, even if he admitted he’d fallen in love—

  Shit.

  This time Landon hissed a little louder. “What?”

  Vin looked at his CFO in the front of the room, briefing the investors on their final prospectus and the game plan for IPO day. Red herring, bankers, public offerings, initial price point, all the vocabulary blurred together into a single thought. Reece. In four days, they’d price the IPO, at the closing of the markets on Thursday. The stock would begin trading on the exchange on a “when issued” basis on Friday morning. Four days after pricing, the underwriters would purchase their shares, and after the SEC quiet period for twenty-five days, it would be game on.

  Without thinking things through, Vin pushed open the door beside him and slipped out.

  Landon followed. “Cold feet?”

  “What?” he snapped, sick of being polite.

  “Cold feet about losing so much control over your company?”

  “I wish it were that simple.” Yes, he’d be giving up a lot of control, but he’d managed to keep a good percentage for himself. And he had enough board members on his side to guarantee he’d have even more control than the numbers let on.

  Landon shot him a shit-eating grin. “If it’s cold feet, I’ll tell you you’re not the first.”

  “What?” Reece’s brother. Landon was Reece’s brother. He wanted Reece. Not her brother.

  “Come on, Vin. You’re not my first IPO.”

  Mentioning the IPO did the trick, and Vin caught on to the conversation. “Well, now, that’s disappointing.”

  “Seriously, what gives?” Landon’s grin flattened to a firm line.

  “I have to tell you something, and I don’t want it to come between us, but honestly, I could give two shits what you decide to do. Blackball me, if you think that’s necessary.”

  “Aw, now, isn’t that sweet.”

  “I mean it. This is completely separate from that.” He gestured between them and then toward the conference room.

  Landon crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels, a smug expression on his face. “You’re in love with my baby sister.”

  “Damn right I am.” He hadn’t planned on admitting it out loud. Not to Landon, anyway. He needed to tell Reece. But at this point, with the deal so close to being done, would she even believe him?

  “I could play mad and maybe throw a punch or two. Threaten to tear down the entire empire you’re building. But somehow I’m okay with this.” Arms still crossed, Landon gave a casual, one-shoulder shrug.

  “What?” The man had threatened his livelihood. Had issued a damn threat. Had insulted him. Had reiterated Reece was out of his league. And now he was okay with everything?

  Landon shrugged again, this time uncrossing his arms in a what can I say gesture. “As soon as I told her I’d threatened to ruin you, she ended things. But I can see she’s miserable.”

  Vin flexed his fingers and inhaled sharply through his nose. “You said I wasn’t good enough for her.” Not that he hadn’t agreed wholeheartedly with Landon’s assessment, but if he still thought that, then nothing had changed.

  “News flash. No one is good enough for her. She deserves to be worshiped.”

  Vin would’ve rolled his eyes if it wasn’t so true. “How poetic of you.”

  “Well, she’s had a hard life.”

  “Reece?” Were they still having the same conversation? About the same woman? Pampered, spoiled, princess Reece. The girl who had everything handed to her?

/>   “She went through a lot as a kid. Remember your eleventh birthday party?”

  “As if I could forget.” How did Landon know? Had Reece told him?

  “Well, that’s the last time my parents were in the same room that she remembers. And on that day, they’d been fighting as always, and I couldn’t wait for them to just drop us off at your house. She was so excited to come with me, and she begged my parents to let her wear this new dress, and then she spilled something on it, and it started a whole new argument between our parents. I can’t remember what really happened, but she changed into another dress and didn’t even have a piece of your birthday cake because she didn’t want to get it dirty. She thought she caused them to fight. She always thinks everything that doesn’t go right is her fault, and I think she was afraid they might return her, because that was right around the time they told her about being adopted. Anyway, it’s been tough on her, always trying to be so good and quiet and—clean.” Landon blew out a breath and shook his head. “Geez, if you repeat any of that to her…”

  All while Landon had been talking, Vin’s throat clogged. His image of that day had kept his grit strong during middle and high school, working extra jobs, calculating career paths for success, and giving him the courage to take risks when necessary. He’d built his life around wanting to be good enough for a five-year-old girl to not cringe when he wanted to hug her. Now he was days away from achieving that tangible goal he’d set for himself.

  And it wouldn’t mean anything without the girl who’d started it all. The sweet woman who’d offered her body and given her heart. She’d sacrificed what they might have had so her brother wouldn’t ruin him. But Vin had gone along, sort of just let go of the reins, because the ball was rolling and his head wasn’t in the game.

  Vin raked a hand through his hair. “I may have messed up.”