Maxine thought about her hormones running wild and chalked it up to the fact that she hadn’t been with a guy in almost two years. She’d been celibate way too long. Way, way too long. And now, the one guy who fueled the fireworks to explode inside her and was rocking her world without even knowing it had just walked out of her life again. How was she going to get with him now? Not that she really wanted to be involved with a local celebrity, but damn! Hot damn! She at least wanted to see him again. She was quickly becoming addicted to the way he made her mind spin and butterflies to flutter inside her.
“You like him, don’t you?” Betty leaned in with a grin.
“No. I don’t,” Maxine shot back sharply. She felt sorry for snapping at Betty who was only trying to make light of the situation. “Sorry, Betty, I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
“I know. No worries.”
“Anyway, we’ve got tons of work to do before the new system goes live. I’m going to contact the advertising agency we used last year and see if they can do a little campaign on a budget for us. It’s the only thing we have going if we’re going to compete in the new market.”
“Tell me about it. Everything is self-serving these days. All you need is an Internet connection and a password to do anything and everything.”
“For sure,” Maxine said, lifting her latte to her lips. Her mind was still on Lucas, though. Would she ever see him again—besides on the Internet tabloid news?
CHAPTER SIX
Four weeks had passed since the sex scandal involving Lucas Romero became public. All eyes were on Lucas as he sat at the head of the long oval table in the boardroom with the sun beaming through the ceiling-to-floor windows. He casually leaned back in his leather executive chair with his knee propped up.
“So, what’s the verdict?” He turned to his team.
His grandfather insisted on attending the meeting along with his brothers Zack, Jules, Troy and Carl. Though the brothers didn’t always attend meetings together, one thing was for sure—they stuck together like a pack of wolves during tough times.
“We need to do damage control again,” Toni said firmly.
It had been a few good weeks since allegations that Lucas had gotten a young woman he’d met in a nightclub pregnant.
What did Lucas do?
He reluctantly followed the advice of his grandfather and the family’s spokesperson to lay low for a while.
He almost disappeared from the limelight. And it was a divine coincidence that a senator was engulfed in a political scandal that rocked the nation and dominated headlines, thus taking the spotlight off Lucas for a while. But still he would see reporters camped out at his family’s home or one of his condo buildings once in a while.
But as much as he wasn’t commanding headlines, he was still in hot water with some of his contractors.
Lucas sat in the boardroom of Romero Foundation on the forty-third floor of the tall glass high-rise in the downtown Toronto core. The view on the lakeside was breathtaking below. The July sky was a cloudless blue, yet Lucas’s mind was filled with dark clouds.
It had been four weeks and he still couldn’t shake Maxine Summers out of his system or his mind. He fought to keep his distance from her by having D’Andre, his tech, guy go over to the Dream Weddings, Inc. headquarters to personally help them get their new e-system up and running. Why hadn’t he done it himself? He had to get hold of his emotions and put things into control.
He had his connections look into who the heck was sending Maxine the hate mail, too. So far, they received some lukewarm leads but nothing substantial, yet. Lucas thought of himself as her guardian angel. Invisible. Yet present. A grin touched his lips at the thought.
“I say we do business as usual and those who prefer to go by headlines and rumors can go to—"
“Lucas!” his grandfather interrupted, fuming. “We’ve just lost one of our biggest clients, the Carlson College! Do you not care?”
“Of course I care,” Lucas fired back, leaning forward in his chair. He felt his blood burn inside his veins. He folded his hands tightly in front of him on the table.
“That program meant everything to me, Grandfather. You know it did!” Lucas asserted. He was about to break but maintained his cool. Carlson College had a very close place in his heart but he wasn’t about to go there.
“Well then, I’m glad we got that settled. I’m sorry to say this, Lucas, but sometimes we need to take aggressive means to clear our good name. The college does not want to be associated with you or your program because of the recent headlines in the media. Including the most recent one. That woman has been giving interviews on talk shows right and left.”
“I don’t care what she wants to do with her spare time. I’ve got a foundation to run, Grandfather.”
“And a reputation to protect. A family business to run,” Toni added, pinching his lips.
“One thing’s for sure, Lucas. We don’t want to lose more contractors. First, the college makes the announcement they are severing ties with us. Who knows who else will follow?” Zack spoke up in a serious tone. A tone of voice Lucas had not heard from him in a while.
Was Lucas playing with fire? What else was he to do?
“Listen, she wants to play games. I do not negotiate with extortionists. We’ve been through this already. She’s good alright,” Lucas chuckled. “I wonder who put her up to this. She knows it’s too risky to do a paternity test until the baby’s born, which would prove once and for all she’s a liar, so she figured she’d drag my name through the mud for the next few months until she delivers hoping to gain some financial advantage. Have any of you thought of how that would look even if I was crazy enough to pay her off for the sake of a pristine image?”
Zack nodded thoughtfully.
Lucas’s team of close advisors were also in agreement, silently at the table. The truth was that Lucas ran that division of the foundation dealing with software developments, which included the famous Healthy Start Pre-screening programs used at dozens of clinics across the province.
“I understand, Lucas. Please try to understand my point of view as well. I’m your grandfather. I may have come from a different era where business practices differ from today but it’s out of love for you why I’m being tough. I’d rather it come from inside than outside. It hurts me to see your name tarnished while your great ideas suffer negative publicity. Do you understand that, Lucas?”
Lucas could feel the tension in the boardroom.
Though the advisors and he were close, it almost seemed as if they were squirming in their seats. Talk about uncomfortable. He wondered why he allowed his grandfather to attend. Oh, right. Out of respect for him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Toni Romero was the one who initially gave each of his grandsons their startup cash flow and the connections to get started. Of course, the rest they did on their own with their own ideas and initiatives and their own blood and sweat and precious tears.
They each opened their own division within the foundation and hired their own staff and grew business from their one million dollar startup to their multi-billionaire dollar empire. The tech world took off in ways that surprised even Toni.
Of course, they’d had a string of successful stock investments and wealth building strategies that literally soared. All in the name of helping others achieve their best potential. Still, Toni insisted in continuing to be a presence in their business from the shadows. It gave him something to live for. Something to hope for. He was still useful and wanted to be their ever-present guide. It’s just that they didn’t always see eye to eye on everything or agree with everything.
“You need to do damage control, Lucas. Pronto,” Toni continued, “The media is painting a picture of you as an unstable young man who has a wild side and takes nothing seriously. Unfortunately, sometimes what sells isn’t the good news or the good things you do day-to-day to run this part of the foundation. They love it when you make a mistake.”
“Because it m
akes them look good,” Lucas finished the sentence with a taste of bitterness in his mouth.
Lucas sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair once more. He gazed out at the view of the Toronto skyline. The other tall buildings glistened under the shining sun. It was a picture perfect day outside. He wished he could say the same about inside his office. Or inside his heart. The sun certainly wasn’t shining there at the moment. It was a dark and cold place inside him. He felt as if nothing could make that gloominess go away. Nothing.
Lucas thought for a minute. Was the foundation seriously blaming him personally for the loss of their biggest contract? What was he supposed to do? Barricade himself inside his own home and become a recluse? Never to associate with anyone again? Never speak or say anything? Ridiculous. And not happening.
He remembered an old saying he’d read somewhere in college. “Well,” Lucas broke the silence in the room. “You know what Aristotle once said, right? ‘To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing…'”
“Be nothing,” Zack added with a smirk as he finished his brother’s speech.
“And we all know, Lucas is not one to go away quietly, Granddad,” he said with an air of coolness.
“What do you mean by that?” Toni leaned forward in his chair across the table.
“They’ll be people who criticize me no matter what I do. I’m not playing into their game. Nor will I go away quietly. I’m truly sorry we lost the…Carlson College account,” Lucas said as he rose from the table. “But we’ll move forward on all the other trial programs for the new version of updated software programs across the board.”
“And?”
“And those who are with us, are with us, and those who aren’t…well, I bid them adieu.”
“You’re not leaving the meeting now, are you?”
“Yes.”
“But we’re not finished yet,” his secretary Mary pointed out.
“I’m finished. Ever since the meeting started, the agenda has always come full swing to my behavior or my actions that cause embarrassment for the corporation and the foundation. Well, I’m taking a break…” Lucas glanced down at his watch. “Right now!”
Lucas walked over to where his grandfather was seated and kneeled beside him. “Granddad, I love you. It has nothing to do with you. I just need to work out some things.”
The elder Romero did not look the least bit impressed.
“Listen, why don’t we meet back tomorrow morning?” Zack posed to the team. “Lucas and Granddad, I’m sure you need to discuss a few things.”
Those words provided the cue for everyone else to clear out of the boardroom.
Lucas got up from kneeling and heaved a sigh. His grandfather’s face was stone cold. Lucas shoved his hands in his pockets and paced by the window.
“What is with you, Lucas? Why do you have to be such a hardhead? The more you encounter opposition, the more you try hardest to be a jackass.” The pout on his grandfather’s face was priceless.
In spite of himself, Lucas turned to face his grandfather and burst out with a hearty guffaw.
Soon, his grandfather’s lips melted into a smile then he, too, laughed. “Lucas, what am I going to do with you, grandson?” The affection Toni had for Lucas was evident in his voice.
Lucas and his grandfather always had this understanding with each other as long as they’d known each other. It was always an inside thing that no one else could understand.
“I don’t know, maybe give me back to the stork that delivered me to my parents. Probably the old bird lost direction and sent me to the wrong family.” Lucas shrugged.
He watched as his grandfather mockingly rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Are you alright, grandson?”
“I’ll be fine, Gramps. Don’t worry about me.”
“Are you sure? Lucas, you’re a fine young man. Sometimes you can be a bit rough around the edges but you’re so brilliant at all the work you do and the lives you’ve saved through that wonderful Healthy Start pre-screening program. You’ve made so many people happy. I just want to see you happy, my boy.”
“I know, Granddad,” Lucas answered softly.
“Now, what about that nice young girl, Maxine?”
Oh, boy.
Here we go again. Now how did I know he was going to bring her name up?
“Granddad!” Lucas arched a brow. “Please, drop it.”
“But you two looked so happy together at Antonio’s wedding. And she seems like a very nice, thoughtful girl. Remember she helped arrange Lucy and Antonio’s wedding without Lucy knowing? She’s a good friend, Lucas. A true friend. Friends like that don’t grow on trees. I think she’d make a fine—"
“Granddad,” Lucas scolded in a lovingly warning tone. “I don’t think Maxine or any woman is the answer to my troubles right now. Besides, we can’t just get with people because we want to fix things in our lives. It wouldn’t be fair to them or to us. It should be done for the right reasons.”
Whatever those reasons were, of course.
The truth was, Lucas didn’t see himself following in Antonio’s footsteps any time soon. He really didn’t care for marriage or lifelong commitment to one woman. Period.
The thought shot a dagger straight to his heart. He had come close only once in his life when he was fresh out of high school. Then that tragic day...
Lucas blinked hard to avoid tears stinging his eyes.
He wasn’t about to take that solemn trip down memory lane again. Ever. The past was dead and gone.
“Okay, Lucas,” Toni broke through Lucas’s concentration. “Very well. I’ll let it go for now. But I’m not going to let it be buried forever, you know. I saw the way you looked at Maxine at the wedding and Lord knows she has something for you. She couldn’t keep her eyes off you whenever your back was turned. Geez!” Toni feigned shock by shaking his head and slapping his hand on his forehead.
She couldn’t keep her eyes off me?
Lucas thought deeply.
Really? Geez, Granddad, why didn’t you tell me this before?
CHAPTER EIGHT
What a whirlwind the last few weeks were, Maxine thought to herself as she pulled up into the parking lot of the nursing home to visit her mother. Luckily, the dirty hate mail had slowed down to a trickle. The only odd piece of correspondence she’d received was from some foreign prince requesting her phone number, driver’s license and banking information so that he could wire fifty billion dollars into her personal checking account. Yeah, sure! She automatically spammed that with the rest of said type of emails.
The bottom line was that whomever was stalking Maxine seemed to have cooled. At least for now. She wondered if Lucas had anything to do with it.
A smile touched her lips at the thought. In fact, Lucas had dominated her thoughts once too often during the past few weeks. At times she thought she was wide awake in a dream. Lucas kissed her hand. Oh, the silky, erotic touch of that soft kiss. Imagine that! What would she be feeling if he’d done more that day? She was still buzzing for his soft lips on her again. The man really knew how to kiss. She’d dreamt about him, fantasized about him pleasuring her with his lips and with his firm body. But all she had was the sweet memory of his kiss. Would she be treated with more servings of his delicious chemistry any time soon?
Maxine was hungry for Lucas. And with each day that drifted by, she’d eagerly waited for him to call her, to drop by her office. Nada. She’d been left feeling empty again. Was he avoiding her? Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so unresponsive to his flirtatious attempts.
Whenever the tech guy from the foundation dropped by during the last few weeks to help her company set up the e-program online she’d casually question him. How many times had she snuck in questions about Lucas while asking D’Andre about the software program? Was he out of town? In a meeting? Would he be coming back to her office for more follow-up to see how the program was going? Her inquiring mind wanted to know. Lucas seemed to be pretty much out of the media spotlight—for now, at
least. She was glad for him that the scandalous story was dying down a bit. Maxine really wished she could have spoken with him.
Heck, she was scared out of her wits to call Lucas’s number and ask him anything. She didn’t want to seem as if she was into him. What did she fear? Rejection? Embarrassment?
Or perhaps, she was truly out of his league and didn’t want to risk being a convenient one-night stand. Maxine tried hard not to believe what she’d read about him in the newspapers. You couldn’t believe the tabloids or sensationalism, could you? And that woman seemed as if she was an opportunist, appearing on every show she could to tell her story and talk about how much money she should have for her unborn child. Something just didn’t ring true about that duplicity. Poor Lucas. How awful to be in his shoes.
***
Maxine turned off the engine and the car shuddered before shutting down. Okay, she really needed to take her car in to be fixed. Trouble was, she was not auto savvy and oftentimes would be ripped off by mechanics. She could not even afford to replace anything in her old vehicle. She prayed it wouldn’t conk out on her in the middle of traffic.
Lucy had offered to buy her a new car but she really felt funny about accepting any of her friend’s husband’s money like that. It just didn’t feel right. Lucy and she had only just briefly met before Lucy married into the Romero family anyway.
Lucy had taken over the agency from her dead estranged auntie who left it to her in her will. So this was new to a lot of people when Chris, the late owner of the Dream Weddings, Inc. died suddenly a couple years ago. It wasn’t as if Maxine and Lucy were lifelong friends. They’d met on the job two years earlier. Maxine didn’t have too much in her life right now. But her pride was one of the things she held dear.
She glanced down at her list of things to do this week, most of them to be done today.
Ask Dr. Branson about Mom’s new medication
A Bride for the Billionaire Bad Boy (The Romero Brothers, Book 2) Page 5
