Kitabı oku: «Heated Moments»

Chapter 1

“Son of a...!”

An uncharacteristic censuring glare from her father halted Lola Gray’s curse, but not her outrage. She glared at her family gathered in the boardroom of Espresso Cosmetics for their quarterly meeting.

“Calm down, baby girl,” her stepbrother and company CEO, Cole Sinclair, warned from the head of the conference room table. The endearment didn’t diminish the sting of his stern tone. Nor did it soften the blow of him using against her the voting rights she had entrusted him with.

“Calm down?” Lola asked, incredulous. Standing abruptly, she flung a head shot of the model they intended to replace her with across the boardroom table. “How would you feel if I gave your job to a drag queen?”

“That drag queen was nearly your new step-mother.” The gravelly voice of Espresso’s longtime secretary, Loretta Walker, chimed in.

A grunt sounded from Lola’s father’s direction. “Are you ever going to let that go?”

“Not as long as I’m still breathing,” Loretta retorted.

“It was an honest mistake,” Lola’s father grumbled. “The guy looked just like a woman, a really good-looking one.”

Lola’s shoulder-length hair swished against her shoulders as her head swiveled between them like a tennis ball in a championship match between Venus and Serena.

Unbelievable.

She’d walked through the doors of the Espresso building this morning expecting to hear an update on their family business, as well as more information about her upcoming photo shoot in China for the new red-lipstick collection. Instead, her family had broken the news she was out as the face of Espresso, as casually as they’d poured coffee from the carafe situated at the center of the long table.

And now they’d segued to an entirely different topic.

“Gorgeous, isn’t he?” Lola’s older sister, Tia Gray-Wright picked up the discarded glossy photo. “This was the most challenging makeover I’ve ever done, but Freddy Finch is one stunning woman...uh, I mean man...um, I mean...”

Her husband and now Espresso’s attorney, Ethan Wright, patted his wife’s hand. “We know what you mean, sweetheart, and you did a spectacular job.” He turned to his father-in-law. “Always check the neck, man.”

Cole nodded in agreement. “And if you spot a giant Adam’s apple bobbing in the throat, then she is more than likely a he.”

Raucous laughter erupted around the table. Lola stared at them openmouthed. If she didn’t know better, she’d think she was in the middle of a comedy-club act instead of a business meeting.

How could they all sit around joking after the bomb they’d just dropped?

Fed up, Lola fisted her hands on hip bones sharpened by years of torturous exercise and a diet of tasteless protein shakes. “Shut up!” she yelled. “Every one of you. Just shut up!”

Silence fell upon the room, and the startled eyes of its occupants landed on her. Satisfied she finally had their attention, Lola wanted to make it crystal clear she wasn’t going to stand by and let them take her job. Not without a fight.

“As a member of this family and a part owner of Espresso Cosmetics, I have a say in this matter,” she began.

“I hold your proxy,” Cole reminded her. Again, his chilly monotone had a firm edge, so different than the indulging one he’d always used with her. “So you’ve already had your say.”

“That was fine when I was out of the country for months at a time, but I’m back now. I’ll vote my own shares, thank you very much. We’ll just do a recount.”

Lola turned imploring eyes to Cole’s new wife, Sage, who had recently merged her own cosmetics company with Espresso. Her sister-in-law had a rebellious streak. If she got Sage on her side, Lola calculated quickly, and then sweet-talked her father into changing his mind, she’d have the voting power to overturn Cole’s decision to oust her as the face of Espresso Cosmetics.

Sage glanced at her husband, and Cole winked in response. Lola’s hopes plummeted as she watched her sister-in-law’s light brown face flush. She recognized a dick-whipped woman when she saw one, and Sage was clearly under his spell. Just as she expected, her sister-in-law shook her head slowly and mouthed the word no.

Cole cleared his throat. “Even if you did vote your shares, it’s not enough to overrule my decision,” he said. “Mr. Freddy Finch is the new face of Espresso Cosmetics. We’ll announce it to the public next month. He’ll also travel to Hong Kong to shoot the campaign for the special-edition red lipsticks.”

“So this was a done deal before I even walked into the building,” Lola whispered, more to herself than to them. “I never stood a chance.”

She glanced around the room at her father, siblings and their spouses. Her family. They were the very people who were supposed to have her back. Instead, she felt their disloyalty as keenly as if they’d took turns plunging a knife into her back.

“I have a contract. I’ll sue.” Lola knew she was grasping.

“That wouldn’t be wise,” Ethan said, sounding more like the lawyer he was than her brother-in-law.

Cole heaved a sigh from the head of the table. “Hopefully that’s settled.” He turned to his secretary. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“It is certainly not settled.” Lola struggled to keep her emotions in check. “This—this is...” she stammered, her brain scrambling for the right word. “This is bullshit!”

“Lola!” her father admonished from the other end of the conference table.

However, she had too much at stake to back down. “You raised me to call it as I see it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” She addressed her father, and then scanned the room.

“I put my best face forward for years, while this company churned out one stale collection after another, earning the reputation as old-lady makeup,” Lola argued. She was the one the public associated with Espresso’s senior-citizen image. Not her in-laws, her father or her siblings. “Now that we’re finally making a comeback with fresh colors and exciting new products, you want to kick me to the curb, for a man in a wig.”

Zeroing in on her brother, Lola jabbed a gel-manicured fingertip in his direction. “If that’s not a load of crap, then you tell me what is!”

Cole raised a brow. “Since you never have a problem saying exactly what’s on your mind, I’ll return the favor.” His eyes narrowed as he leaned back in the black leather executive chair. “Let’s start with this sudden concern for your job. Where was it last year when Tia had to personally escort you to the airport so you could make a flight to a location shoot?”

He fired off another question before Lola could answer the first one. “Do you know how much it cost Espresso to appease that prima donna photographer you kept waiting?”

She knew before she opened her mouth to explain that he wouldn’t understand. Her sister certainly hadn’t. “My very best friend’s fiancé had just called off their engagement, a week before their wedding. Britt was hysterical. How could I walk away when she needed me most?”

“Easy,” Cole said. He appeared as unmoved as Tia had been at the time. “You hand her a box of tissues and head for the door.”

Lola closed her eyes briefly and wondered how she could be from the same family as her coldhearted older siblings. Then she remembered, when it came to Espresso, their late mother and company founder, Selina Sinclair Gray, could be downright brutal.

Cole wasn’t finished. “Then, following that hotel incident where you were kicked out after throwing a wild party and trashing their suite, I specifically cautioned you to stay out of trouble, but instead of heeding my warning you made news again. What was it this time?” He turned to his secretary, who was all too eager to supply him with an answer. “That’s right, last week an airplane en route to Nashville from Los Angeles had to make a pit stop in Denver, so you could be hauled off it for allegedly assaulting a fellow passenger.”

“B-but—” Lola began.

Again, her brother barely let her utter a word in her own defense. “Do you know how embarrassing it was for Espresso to have its top representative escorted off an airplane by security? Cell-phone videos of it went viral. You’re still all over the internet, dragging our company down with you.”

His secretary held up her tablet computer. “Lola’s airline fiasco is currently trending higher on social media than those reality-show sisters with the big behinds,” she said.

Lola rolled her eyes. So much for hoping the hubbub would die down. The wisecracks about her on celebrity gossip websites and YouTube snippets replayed in her head. Even worse, tabloid television shows had run different cell-phone videos of the same incident every night since it happened, adding horrid titles such as Espresso Diva’s Mile High Tantrum and Pretty Ugly: Lola Attacks Man over Smelly Feet.

Of course, there had been no video footage of the uncouth passenger in the row behind her resting his bare feet atop the seat—and the head—of the elderly gentleman sitting beside her.

Lola exhaled. Contrary to what Cole believed, she had taken his warning seriously, and she had really, really tried not to intervene, knowing the last thing she needed was more trouble.

She’d white-knuckled the armrests as the jerk behind them blatantly disregarded the flight attendant’s repeated requests to put his feet on the floor where they belonged. “It’s none of your business.” Lola remembered muttering the words under her breath almost like a mantra.

However, when her senior-citizen seatmate’s polite pleas were met with the oaf behind them laughing and wiggling his toes, impulse took over. She’d jumped from her seat and shoved the offending feet off the elderly man’s chair, earning the grandfather’s heartfelt gratitude and the applause of everyone in the first-class cabin.

Unfortunately, the moment the lout had caught sight of her famous face he’d immediately yelped in pain and crumpled into the fetal position.

The upshot: they were both escorted off the plane. Lola was flanked by security, while the rude passenger, who claimed she’d beaten him senseless, was hauled away in a wheelchair, his contrived moans and groans echoing in the air.

“Your behavior was unacceptable,” Cole said.

“But they got the story all wrong,” Lola said. By the time airport security got to the truth and released her with an apology, the strangers taking videos on their cell phones were long gone. “I was simply helping a fellow passenger.”

Tia shook her head. Lola saw her father stifle a yawn with his fist, and her brother-in-law took a surreptitious glance at his watch.

“You also helped yourself right out of representing Espresso,” Cole said.

“Under the circumstances, any of you would have reacted the exact same way,” Lola countered. “Only no one else would be painted as a volatile diva or have to stand here pleading for their job.” Nor would they have to dodge tabloid television reporters trying to goad them into saying or doing something stupid.

Cole rubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair. He met her gaze, and for a moment, Lola thought she’d actually gotten through to him.

“My decision stands,” he said finally.

“B-but—”

“The subject is closed.”

“So where does this leave me?” Years of practice kept her posture ramrod straight, but Lola couldn’t control the telltale quiver in her voice as she looked around the table. “Or did you all go behind my back and vote me out of this family, too?”

“Of course not, baby girl.” Her father’s face, which like Cole’s had been uncharacteristically hard, softened with his tone.

“You know better,” Tia said.

Lola raised a brow. “Do I?”

Cole cleared his throat, loudly. “We discussed this earlier,” he said, his words aimed at Tia and their father. “Lola’s not a child anymore. She’s a twenty-five-year-old woman.” He continued as if she wasn’t standing right in front of them. “And these situations, incidents, or whatever you want to call the messes her impulsiveness constantly gets her into, are bad for business.”

Realization dawned as Lola studied her siblings, who had both married over the past year and a half, and their spouses.

“Oh, now I see where this is going.” Maybe she hadn’t been booted from the family yet, Lola thought, but they were definitely ganging up on her. She pointed at her sister and brother-in-law. “First, there’s you two, who are so in sync you finish each other’s sentences.” Then she turned to her brother and Sage. “Next we have the two of you, who are so much alike, it’s downright scary.”

Cole huffed out an impatient sigh. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It appears I’m the odd man out, in this family as well as this company.”

Her brother frowned. “Look, we have a lot of Espresso business to cover, including our plans for the building, dealing with competition from Force Cosmetics and future ad campaigns for Freddy,” he said. “So either have a seat and put that marketing degree you earned online to work, or stop holding us up with this ridiculousness.”

“R-ridiculousness?” she stammered.

Ignoring her protests, Cole signaled his secretary who announced the next item on the meeting agenda.

A discussion about the future of Espresso’s aging building ensued. Meanwhile, Lola stood frozen, dazed from the callousness of her so-called loved ones. They’d actually pulled the plug on her career, she thought. A career that had already been on life support.

The New York City–based talent agency Lola had hired to field offers outside of Espresso hadn’t taken her calls since the amateur videos of the airplane incident became social-media fodder. Not that they had presented her with a job she’d actually consider.

Lola wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing there when the sound of Cole calling her name yanked her out of her own head.

“Well, are you going to just pose like a mannequin, or help us strategize next year’s ad campaigns for your replacement?” he asked.

She blinked. After leading their family’s underhanded coup, her brother had the unmitigated gall to expect her help. There was no way in hell she’d take him up on his offer. She opened her mouth to tell him so.

Don’t be hasty.

A warning from her inner voice, the same one that tried so hard to keep her impulsiveness and tendency to say exactly what was on her mind from getting her into trouble, made Lola hesitate.

You may not like it, but it’s the best offer you’ve had in months.

Lola recalled the proposed gigs the talent agency had called with, and cringed. But how could she even consider her family’s offer after the way they’d all treated her this morning, not to mention the humiliation of being replaced by a drag queen?

Swallow your pride and take the job!

“We’re all eager to hear your thoughts,” her sister said encouragingly.

Gulping, Lola tried to swallow the lump of indignation stuck in her throat. “I—I...” she began.

It just wouldn’t go down.

“Well?” Cole asked. “Surely, as Espresso’s former model you have something useful to say.”

Glaring at her brother, Lola silently told her inner voice to take a hike, along with any notions of kowtowing to the very people who had just given her the boot. “All I have to tell y’all is where to shove the idea of me helping you screw me over.”

“Lola—” her brother began, but this time she was the one to interrupt.

“I’ll give you a hint.” She looked pointedly at the chairs under their behinds. “You’re sitting on it.”

Without stopping to think about her actions or the consequences of them, she hefted her pink leather tote off the table and walked toward the open conference room door. Lola paused in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder.

“Firing me was a huge mistake,” she said. “I’ll try to remember we’re family when you all come crawling for me to save this company and your asses.”

Pulling the sunglasses perched on her head down to cover her eyes, Lola strutted down the hallway toward the bank of elevators, reveling in the stupefied expressions on their faces.

She jabbed the down button and flipped her hair over her shoulder, noting the frayed ends. Espresso wasn’t the only cosmetic company in the world, she told herself. Once word got out she was available, there would be plenty of offers from rival brands.

“Wait!” A male voice rang out as she boarded the elevator.

Humph. It didn’t take them long to realize they’d screwed up in letting her go. Lola pressed her lips together to stifle a grin. Triumphant, she spun around, only to see not a member of her family, but one of the building’s maintenance crew carrying a ladder.

“Thanks for holding the elevator, Miss Gray.”

Remembering the employee was a newlywed, Lola inquired about his wife on the ride down to the lobby. Making small talk kept her mind off the fact that the sense of satisfaction she’d gleaned from her parting shot at her family had diminished. So had her confidence she’d ever be offered another job as good as the one she’d just lost.

In reality, with the exception of some runway work during New York and European Fashion Weeks, there was only one segment of the market vying for her face. At her age, a very unappealing market.

The elevator pinged.

“See you around, Miss Gray,” the coverall-clad worker said.

Putting one foot in front of the other, Lola walked in the direction of the building’s exit with her head held high, as her insides began to cave over the morning’s events.

She stopped short when she spotted through the lobby windows a man she’d recognized. He was standing in front of the parking garage across the street. The slimeball was a cameraman for the reality show Celebrity Pranks, and he appeared to be in deep conversation with a guy dressed in a clown costume.

Lola bit back a curse. That stupid show had been out to trip her up since the airplane incident. She’d first seen the cameraman lurking outside a boutique in Atlanta three days ago, only that time his partner had been dressed in a gorilla costume. Fortunately, another shopper had come in and mentioned a Celebrity Pranks SUV parked around the corner.

It would serve them right if she marched across the street, snatched the big red nose off that clown and stuck it...

“Oh, no, you don’t,” Lola muttered, this time allowing the voice of common sense to overrule her impulse.

Unemployed or not, the last thing she needed was to be caught on video getting in that clown’s painted face. The footage would fuel the reality show’s ratings better than any stupid prank they had up their sleeve to make a fool out of her.

Lola continued to watch them through the lobby’s floor-to-ceiling windows, debating whether to have Espresso’s building security escort her to her car in the parking garage. Maybe she should just tuck her hair under the baseball cap in her bag and try to slip past them unnoticed.

Her phone buzzed, and she shrugged the massive designer tote off her shoulder. Rifling through it, Lola unearthed a curling iron, packets of protein-shake mix, a plastic blender bottle and the remote control for her television that had somehow made its way into the black hole of a bag. The ringing had stopped by the time she’d retrieved the phone, nearly nicking her fingers on a pair of scissors she’d used to cut crochet braids from her hair a few weeks ago.

Lola swiped the screen with her thumb. Her tote weighed down the crook of her arm like a bowling-ball bag. She listened to the message, gave the phone a quizzical glance and then frowned.

Her agent, Jill, had said it was urgent she return the call, but not much else.

“Lola, honey.” Jill bubbled enthusiastically through the phone moments later. That saccharine-sweet voice laced with faux cheer could mean only one thing, Lola thought. She stifled a grunt. Here we go. Another offer to advertise something aimed at the AARP crowd.

“You won’t believe who just called. They want you to—” Jill started.

“No.” Lola cut her off. Usually, she would have heard the agent out and then politely declined, but after getting shafted by her family in the company boardroom and being stalked by that silly tabloid show already today she was in no mood.

“But you haven’t even heard what the job is...”

Rolling her eyes, Lola tapped her foot against the lobby floor. She had a pretty good idea. Espresso’s senior-citizen image clung to her, and no one seemed to care that she was only in her twenties.

“Look, I thought I already made this clear. I’m not interested in being the face of a denture adhesive, walk-in bathtubs or doing commercials where I’m snuggled up to some old dude with an idiotic grin on my face because he popped a pill to get a hard-on.”

“I promise, this one is different. It’s a fantastic opportunity and absolutely perfect for you,” Jill insisted.

Lola grunted again. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”

“Please. Just hear me out.”

Lola shrugged. At this point, she had nothing to lose by listening. She leaned against the wall near the windows and faced the lobby’s interior. “Fine, go ahead.”

The agent filled her in on the details, and Lola broke out in a huge grin. If she played her cards right, this wouldn’t be just a job, but the opportunity of a lifetime.

She ended the call and dropped the phone into her pit of a bag.

“Boo-yah!” Pumping a fist in the air, she whispered the words she wanted to scream loudly enough for her family to hear on the tenth floor.

“I’m back!”

Nothing could bring her down now, Lola thought. Not even the sight of the maintenance worker from the elevator removing the giant poster of her that had hung from the lobby’s rafters for years, and replacing it with one of a man wearing a blond wig and lipstick.