Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 112701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“I must agree. This is very creative. Unique.” He bobs his head. “I love it.”
Air rushes from my chest as my eyes meet Charles’s. He’s smiling, and I can’t help but return it.
“I’m in if Sergio is.”
“Give me a day to check with my attorneys, but I agree, Cavendish is the right fit.”
“Thank you.”
They all stand to leave. Sergio is escorted out by Charles, but Summer makes her way to me.
“You have a very bright future ahead of you. I think I need to follow your career.” She smirks. “I can’t wait to see if Pax has more campaigns from Cavendish.”
“That’s very kind of you, Ms. Smith.”
“Please”—she waves me off—“call me Summer. I hope we can have a great working relationship,” she says. “I broke off my contract with Bauer because they didn’t appreciate my input. They wanted more makeup. I wanted less. They thought I needed to lose a few pounds. I thought I was fine the way I was.”
“What? That’s sick,” I say. “No wonder you quit. That’s ridiculous.”
“Especially these days.” She sighs. “It’s no matter. I just spoke to an attorney, and I plan to sue Bauer.”
“Good for you.”
She smiles. “I’ll be in touch.”
When the office is quiet, I sit in the dark, basking in the glow of potential success.
We might not have officially won them back, but it sounds promising. We’ve done all we can do, and now we wait for word from Sergio.
Everything is on the up and up, except nothing feels right.
As much as I want to celebrate, I can’t.
Charles and I are still at odds, and it’s killing me.
“Raven,” he calls from the door.
I look up, and my breath hitches at the sight. He looks worn but no less handsome. He’s my dream in reality. The one thing I’ll never be okay with losing.
He takes a seat next to me.
“Charles, I—”
“Please,” he says, “let me go first.”
I nod.
“I’m sorry about the Hamptons and what happened afterward. You did nothing wrong, Raven. It was my past sneaking up on me.”
“I know,” I say, and his eyes narrow.
“You do?”
“I did some digging and learned all about the time you spent with Tabitha. I know that she married your father.”
He blows out a breath. “Yeah, that was very difficult. But not in the way you think.”
“Tell me.”
“I never loved Tabitha. It was a relationship of convenience. One that kept going because I cared so little for her. I did whatever I wanted. There was no reason to break things off because we were hardly together.”
“You had to have loved her at some point. You asked her to marry you.”
“I didn’t. Marriage isn’t always about love, Raven. Sometimes, it’s a simple business transaction. Families marry their children off to other important families as power plays.”
“She was the daughter of farmers.”
Not that I don’t think farmers make a good living but compared to Cavendish? It seems unlikely.
“Her father owned half of London’s untouched land. The amount of pull he had was vital to the growth of Cavendish.”
“You would’ve married her just for that?”
He shrugs. “Like I said, love wasn’t a factor.”
“That seems cold.”
“I didn’t use to think so, but since I’ve met you, I realize what a long, horrible life it would’ve been.” Standing up with a sigh, he says, “You don’t have to say anything, Raven. You don’t have to feel the way I do. But I want you to know that I’m not falling. I’ve completely fallen in love with you.”
My breath hitches, and my heart pitter-patters in my chest.
“From the moment I saw you across the room in Silver, you’ve been all I think about. My world is dull without you, and I can’t go back to that. I won’t.”
“Charles—”
“Not yet,” he says, shaking his head. “Let me finish.”
I close my mouth, biting my lip to contain myself. I don’t want to let him tell me what to do, but I am desperate for his words.
“I don’t need you to tell me you feel the same way. I don’t need you to promise me a future. All I need is your reassurance that we’ll see where this goes. That you’ll give me a chance to prove that I’m not the arsehole who spouted those horrible things to you. I will make it up to you, Rae.”
I don’t allow him to say another word. I can’t.
My heart is pounding, and my legs are shaking with the need to be in his arms.
I launch myself at him, slamming my mouth against his.
We’re tangled together in Cavendish Group, and I couldn’t care less.
If we’re going to do this, it isn’t going to be a secret. I lost him once, which taught me that I don’t care what people think. I’m amazing at what I do, and if I have to prove that through hard work, so be it.
It’s been my way all along anyway.