by Ava Miles
Valley of Stars
by
Ava Miles
~ The Merriams ~
Michaela & Boyd
© 2019 Ava Miles
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International Bestselling Author Ava Miles’ acclaimed family series, The Merriams, returns with a fun and feel good romantic comedy filled with second chances, everyone’s favorite matchmakers, and lots of high stakes and adventure.
Boyd McClellan is a smooth-talking, wicked-smart, lying jerk.
True, Michaela Merriam isn’t objective where her ex-boyfriend and former business partner is concerned, but she’s justified given he screwed her—and her family’s corporation—over.
Except Boyd is back and dangling the discovery of a lifetime: the location of a rare flower known to cure all illness. He claims that without her, he can’t bring it back.
Yeah, right.
Trusting him seems stupid. She did before and look where that got her: brokenhearted and with a demotion. But she doesn't have any choice but to accompany him to the fabled Valley of Stars after her bossy Mr. President brother orders her to go to make up for her love-sick snafu.
She's definitely not stupid enough to go alone. She's bringing her own chaperones: her beloved Uncle Arthur and Aunt Clara. One caveat: absolutely NO matchmaking.
Trekking in the savannah isn’t like “The Lion King.” Worse, the deeper they go in, the sexier the safari becomes. Michaela doesn’t understand Boyd’s game, and he’s playing his cards close to his vest. She hopes her aunt and uncle will be able to help her figure out his endgame before anyone—namely, her—gets hurt. Because lying with him under the African night sky, she realizes that she’s falling for him all over again. But can she trust it—and him?
To my kind and brilliant editor, Angela Polidoro, who’s been with me since my first book and shares my love of the savannah, food, Paris, and so much more—thank you for being one of the best divine partners ever.
And to my divine entourage, who helps me open myself up to so much more.
Old boyfriends, lovers, and crushes are sometimes like bad pennies—
they come back when you least expect them.
Usually a woman simply needs to toss them aside.
They’re more trouble than they’re worth.
But that rare old coin…
stamped perhaps with tragic yet treasured history, deserves closer inspection.
With some simple buffing, it might shine right up.
And be worth every bit of effort and then some.
That’s what some people call a lucky coin.
The kind you take with you everywhere.
The kind you tuck close to your heart.
Clara Merriam Hale
Intermediate Matchmaker Extraordinaire
Chapter 1
Michaela Merriam froze in the doorway of her brother’s office. Connor was called the Big Bad Wolf behind his back, both in the family and in the office, but he wasn’t living up to his reputation today. The traitor was sitting with Boyd McClellan, her former boyfriend, best friend, and fellow adventurer. The lack of visible bruises or flesh wounds told her all she needed to know. This “meeting” she’d been summoned to was a ruse of the worst variety.
Her brother had sold her out.
Boyd wasn’t even situated in the hot seat, in front of her brother’s massive rosewood desk. No, they were sitting on his cozy Italian leather couch with an effing silver coffee service on the shiny black marble table in front of them like they were long-lost friends.
Sure, she’d never been close to her eldest brother, but this was ridiculous. Both men lowered their cups at the same time when they noticed her in the doorway. She felt her breath catch as Boyd’s chocolate brown eyes met her gaze. Damn him for still making her pulse skip and her heart flutter. His hot muscular body hadn’t gone saggy with depression over losing her, and he hadn’t changed his hair—it was still that same shaggy brown mass that defied the precision of scissors and tempted a woman’s fingertips.
She shouldn’t be feeling any of this after breaking up with him six months ago. He’d betrayed her and her family business, and her brother damn well knew it.
“What the hell?” she all but shouted across the room.
Boyd cocked his brow—an outright challenge—and her fire surged from the bonfire variety to an outright forest fire.
“Michaela, come join us,” Connor commanded, rising from the couch and crossing to her.
She gave him her best glare, perfected from years of dealing with five occasionally pushy older brothers. Of course, Boyd was pushy too, which had been both comfortable and perfect for her at one time. “Not just yet. I’m trying to decide who to punch first.”
Connor’s mouth twisted, so at least he felt some remorse. Boyd only kicked his long legs out, crossing them at the ankles. She noted he was wearing an elegant navy suit, no tie. Dear God, the sky had fallen. He never dressed corporate.
And man, did the sight make her mouth water…
Damn him.
“You didn’t answer any of my messages, Mickey,” Boyd said to her, his voice as smooth as a rock skipping across water.
No, she hadn’t, although his last message had tantalized her like a cup of water to a thirsty man in the Sahara: I think I found the Valley of Stars. That valley—the supposed location of a rare healing flower of mythical proportions—was her unicorn, her Holy Grail. She knew all the stories about it. Her most trusted guides in East Africa swore it existed, but they’d told her the location was a closely guarded secret, protected by a local tribe for generations, something she believed to her bones. The flower was also Boyd’s Holy Grail, but they weren’t partners anymore. They couldn’t be. Didn’t matter that he was the best she’d ever had—in bed and out of it.
“It’s Michaela to you, Boyd.”
“This meeting must seem highly irregular,” her brother interrupted, taking her arm, “what with your history, but it seems we have business with Boyd here.”
Michaela yanked her arm away, not caring if it was unprofessional. This whole setup was unprofessional. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Con. Six months ago, you chewed me out in this very office because I didn’t get Boyd to sign our usual nondisclosure agreement before he started working at Merriam Enterprises. Heck, you even demoted me from the job you’d promised me, saying it was fitting for the, and I quote, ‘lovesick snafu.’”
Her brother stared at her with his creepy bi-color eyes, courtesy of Heterochromia Iridis. “Michaela, this is business, and right now, I’m more concerned that you once again let your personal feelings for Boyd keep you from hearing out his business proposition.”
“Is that what he’s calling it these days?” she sneered, careful not to look at Boyd because under all that fire raging inside her, there was an avalanche of tears threatening to break loose.
“Worse, when I pulled your travel records since the breakup and read your reports on who our competitors were on the superfoods you were hunting, I noted Boyd’s company wasn’t one of them. I got to thinking that wasn’t a coincidence.”
Her heart sank. Yes, she’d purposefully chosen objectives that weren’t also being pursued by Boyd, not wanting their paths to cross. How could she explain to the Big Bad Wolf that she’d needed time to toughen up after their breakup? Her brother wasn’t the sort to be moved by such things. The motivations he cared about were professional, not personal. “I got the appropriate approvals from Iggie.”
“Dr. Ignatius Vajra
, Director of Merriam Enterprises’ Plant Sciences division—”
“Under the Merriam Pharmaceuticals umbrella… Blah, blah, blah.”
“You also stopped pursuing a superfood you and Boyd had been working on before he left,” Connor said, all boss now.
“That’s my fault,” Boyd interrupted. “Michaela and I submitted a grant on an Indonesian tree berry, and we flipped for the full rights after the breakup. I won.”
He was covering for her. She’d flipped for it and texted him to inform him of his victory. It had pissed her off to pass up that hunt, but they couldn’t pursue the grant together, working for competing companies. Of course, she could have lied about the outcome of the coin toss, but one of them needed to care about fairness.
“You did what? Michaela, there are departmental approvals—”
“Which I got,” she said, crossing her arms. “Connor, I don’t need to be reminded how things work around here.”
She was the youngest Merriam, but she’d poured her heart and soul into Merriam Enterprises, just like everyone else. Which meant Connor and her next eldest brother, Quinn, Big Bad Wolf one and two, were her bosses. Sure, she’d followed Connor around when she was a kid, pretending her satchel was an attaché and filling his ear with her plans for traveling the world, but they’d all grown up since then. Sometimes it felt like they’d grown apart.
Or maybe she was just the odd woman out. Trevor and J.T. were twins and had that weird bond even scientists couldn’t explain, and although Michaela was probably closest with Caitlyn, her only sister, most of the time Caitlyn and Flynn paired off to talk fashion and the like. Connor and Quinn were cut from the same cloth—cloth for an expensive business suit, no doubt.
There was no denying Michaela was the baby of the family, the outlier. The girl who not only liked bugs but caught and studied them. Who boiled down plant compounds and made slides for her microscope. But she’d found her niche in the family business, and she was proud of the contributions she’d made. The profitable contributions.
This wasn’t how you treated someone on your team, and her brother should damn well know that.
“Connor, you called me up here for a meeting and submarined me with all this crap about Boyd’s business proposition. If you’re upset with—”
“You’re damn right I’m upset with you,” her brother shot back. “You’ve been searching for the Valley of Stars for years. Boyd says he told you about this in his message. Why didn’t you call him back?”
She’d left her phone at the office for a week after receiving his last message to ensure she wouldn’t give in. “Because we broke up, Connor.” Business ran in her brother’s blood, but she hadn’t expected him to be this clueless.
“From what Boyd’s told me, this could be a huge find for us! Can’t you see why I might be questioning your business sense?”
Her brother believed the Valley of Stars and its mythical flower existed? Boyd wasn’t messing around. She’d thought he might be trying to tempt her into having a post-breakup conversation, but surely he wouldn’t have brought things so far if he didn’t have the goods. Only…why would he want to share such a huge find with her?
“This is all my fault,” Boyd said, finally standing up but staying across the room from her, wise man. “I could have done a better job of reaching out. Michaela, can we please set aside our past issues for the moment? Like Connor said, the Valley of Stars is one of the rarest finds of the century perhaps.”
“You don’t need to tell me how rare it is, Boyd. You know how much I want this find. But you can’t blame me for being suspicious either. When you first reached out, I just couldn’t see why you’d share such a hallowed find with your competitor. If you hadn’t left Merriam for Hendricks Pharmaceuticals—”
“You’re misremembering things, Michaela—”
“You’re playing some game here, and I can’t believe you, Connor, are playing into it,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Enough!” Connor pointed to the couch. “Sit down, Michaela, and don’t say another word until you hear us out.”
She bit her lip, wanting to bark you’re not the boss of me, but technically he was, damn him.
“Michaela, would I ever put Merriam Enterprises in jeopardy?” her brother asked.
“Aren’t you questioning my motives? I would never hurt our company either.”
He let out an aggrieved breath. “Come sit. Please.”
Connor rarely said words like please and thank you.
“Fine.” She stalked to the couch as the men took their seats again. “But I’m walking out of here if I hear any bullshit. And I will not apologize for my language. Boyd isn’t a regular walk-in.”
Boyd’s feet were in the way, so she kicked them, noticing he’d even slapped on her favorite cologne. The animal! “Were you raised in a barn?” She sat on the exact opposite side of the couch, leaving Connor to sit between them.
“You know where I was raised,” Boyd said blandly. “We didn’t have etiquette classes on the local street corner. Too many drug deals.”
“Civility would be a good start, you two,” Connor said, clearing his throat and pouring her a cup of coffee. “Let’s begin again.”
Boyd leaned forward and plucked two sugar cubes out of the bowl before she could. That he remembered the way she took her coffee pissed her off even more. All the little details from their time together were still lodged inside her brain, everything from how he liked to sing Shania Twain in the shower using the shampoo bottle as his microphone to how his face was creased from sleeping with his hand tucked against his cheek. If she could redo her dissertation, she’d look for a plant that erased painful memories and didn’t have side effects.
“I hope you washed your hands,” she said, flicking him a glance as he plopped the cubes into her coffee. She would not thank him for the sugar.
“When we were on one of our treks, I’d go days without washing my hands.”
His mouth formed a smirk, and she knew what he was thinking. You didn’t mind my hands then. They were all over you whenever we had the chance.
“I’m a simple man,” Boyd continued, picking up his coffee.
Bullshit, she thought. He was as complex as a DNA strand and crazy smart, and she used to think he was fun and sweet and super sexy.
“Let’s move on,” Connor said, crossing his ankle over his knee. “Boyd, perhaps you should begin by outlining why you came to Merriam with a joint venture for this find.”
A joint venture? But temptation was starting to get the better of her, if her vital signs were any indication. Connor wouldn’t have arranged this little tête-à-tête otherwise. Her big brother wasn’t the type to tilt at windmills or pour money into legends.
“I left Hendricks last month after realizing they weren’t a good fit for me.” Boyd shrugged as if to say it was no big deal. Like he hadn’t left to work for a competitor.
She gripped her cup so she wouldn’t punch him in the face.
“I’ve started my own company, something you know I’ve talked about doing, Michaela.”
Part of her was impressed he’d managed that feat years ahead of his personal timetable. He’d dreamed of pursuing his own vision for the future of superfoods and plant science, separate from the big pharmaceutical companies, which weren’t always interested in promoting natural alternatives.
“When I got a solid lead on the Valley of Stars, I knew my time at Hendricks was over. They might have compelled me to keep the location secret or taken over the site and destroyed the find.”
Hendricks was cozy with several health insurance companies, and she’d heard nasty rumors about how they’d handled other miracle cures from nature. Boyd had heard the rumors too, of course. That he had chosen to work with them anyway had made his betrayal all the more painful. Merriam Enterprises might not be perfect, but they did adhere to strict ethical protocols.
“I don’t have the capital or resources to go after something this big
on my own yet, and I don’t want to wait a few years until I do.”
That made sense to her so far. “Continue…”
“As you wish, Dr. Merriam,” he said with a smirk. “I’m also not sure I want my company to specialize in large-scale manufacturing and distribution, something Merriam Enterprises has down pat as an established Fortune 500 company. My niche has always been finding medicinal plants, working with local people on fair trade and access, and testing it according to modern standards. Given our past relationship and my regard for the way you do business, I came to you.”
Was he telling the truth? She searched his eyes. At one time, she’d thought they were so connected they could practically read each other’s thoughts. But she hadn’t known he would choose Hendricks, hadn’t even guessed it was in play. She didn’t trust him anymore. Worse, she didn’t trust herself to read him. Her instincts were broken when it came to Dr. Boyd McClellan, and somehow that hurt worse than anything.
“The terms of the joint venture Boyd laid out are acceptable to me,” Connor said. “We’ve shaken on it with the plan to formalize our agreement in writing when you return with the find.”
Her brother wasn’t putting this down on paper? What the hell? He was usually such a stickler for doing things by the book, and Boyd had burned them before.
“If you’re only interested in giving us manufacturing and distribution, Boyd, why do you want me on the ground?” she asked.
“You and I have always wanted to find this flower. I couldn’t imagine not having you and your expertise on the trip.” He looked her in the eye as he said it, and she fought the urge to look away. He did respect her as a colleague, but he wasn’t giving her a full answer, and they both damn well knew it.
