Even her tía Zenaida, who usually let her three sisters opine while she silently observed, chimed in. “Patricio was always ruthless when it came to his business,” she declared, while the others nodded. “If anything, I imagine he’d been keeping an eye on you and your hustle.” She leaned over to tug one of Esme’s curls, making her smile. “I hated that jackass, may he rest in peace.” At that they all crossed themselves in unison, as if they had not all been cursing the man’s name a second ago. Esme would’ve smiled at their ridiculousness, but she could barely move from the warring emotions coursing through her.
“For better or worse he always put that studio first,” Zenaida said, which prompted a flurry of nods from the older women. “If he picked you to be the president and CEO it’s because he thought you were right for the job.”
“His wife is going to make my life a living hell,” Esme said, unable to hide the real wariness in her voice. Carmelina Sambrano was not above humiliating her. But that got Ivelisse’s back up.
“She can try, but you can stand up to her,” her mother said with a confidence Esmeralda wished she felt. “And besides, you’ll be in charge.”
“I don’t know, Mami.” She hated that even thinking of being rejected by her father’s wife and children made her feel small.
Ivelisse made another clucking noise and pulled Esme closer. “Screw them. Go in there tomorrow and claim your place. Use them and this opportunity to do all the things you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t gotten the chance to.”
Esme’s chest fluttered with an ember of hope and longing at her mother’s words. Ivelisse was right, she’d been killing herself for the past five years—trying and failing to get her projects off the ground, but she could not get a break. Because her ideas weren’t “commercial” enough, or relatable to the “mainstream” audience. She was tired of getting doors shut in her face because she refused to compromise. As head of Sambrano Studios she could make her dream come to life. Put shows out there that reflected all the faces of Latinx culture.
If she wasn’t pushed out by Carmelina first.
“Mami, that woman is never going to let me stay. And I don’t want to sink to her level.” Ivelisse had been a wonderful mother, gentle and kind, but she was a fighter when it counted, and the mention of her old foe lit a fire behind her eyes.
“Carmelina won’t know how to fight you, baby. That woman has never done a day of work in her life. When you go in there—smart, competent, full of fresh ideas—that board won’t know what hit them.” That ember was now a tiny flame fueled by the faith Esme’s mother had in her. Still, she’d learned the hard way not to trust anything that came from her father.
“But won’t the board have someone picked out already? Someone that doesn’t come with the drama that I will certainly cause?”
Her mother averted her eyes at her question and that gave Esme pause. “Mami?” she asked wearily as she scanned the paper in her hands again, looking for whatever her mother wasn’t saying. And when she got to the very last paragraph she understood. Her body flashed hot and cold, just from reading that name. There in black and white was the last push she needed to jump right into an ocean of bad decisions.
“Him?” she asked tersely, and from the corner of her eye she saw her mother flinch.
Rodrigo Almanzar, her father’s protégé and the person who for years had been the only tie she had to Patricio. The man she’d given her heart and her body to only to have him betray her when she needed him most. The man whose very name could still make her ache with longing and tremble with fury. How could it still hurt so much after all this time?
She felt tired. Tired of this damn thing hanging over her head. Tired of all the complicated feelings she had about everything having to do with Sambrano Studios. Especially when it came to the tall, brawny, arrogant bastard who was probably hoping she’d do the very thing she’d been considering. Let her pride and her baggage make her decision for her.
And she might have, if he wasn’t the one who’d end up as president and CEO. She wouldn’t do it out of greed, or even to appease her mother, but she would do it out of spite. Rodrigo had betrayed her just so he could continue as her father’s lapdog. Now she’d take the thing he’d sold his soul for...just when he thought he finally had it.
“Actually,” she said, standing up, already feeling the fire in her gut that usually preceded her doing ill-advised things. “You’re right.” The four women in her living room were all looking at her with varying degrees of anticipation. “I’ve been saying for years that if given the chance to shoot my shot I wouldn’t hesitate to take it. This isn’t exactly how I’d hoped to get it, but now that I do, I’m not wasting it. Tomorrow, Sambrano will get its new president and CEO.”
Her mother eyed Esme with suspicion, probably guessing what had been the deciding factor for her change of heart, while her aunt Yocasta crowed with delight, “Ay, Ivelisse, what I wouldn’t give to see the look on Carmelina’s face when Esme walks into that boardroom tomorrow.”
Esme smiled wryly at her aunt, but her mind was already racing toward the other shocked face she was looking forward to seeing.
Copyright © 2021 by Adriana Herrera
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ISBN-13: 9780369706454
Tempting the Rancher
Copyright © 2021 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Breaking Bailey’s Rules
First published in 2015. This edition published in 2021.
Copyright © 2015 by Brenda Streater Jackson
His Until Midnight
First published in 2018. This edition published in 2021.
Copyright © 2018 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Reese Ryan for her contribution to the Texas Cattleman’s Club: Bachelor Auction miniseries.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Tempting the Rancher Page 32
