The Beauty And The Ceo. Carolyn Hector

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СКАЧАТЬ tall, with high cheekbones and perfectly arched brows that they loved to raise at Will during their meetings whenever he asked a question about their marketing department. Will considered them allies in this war to dismantle RC. He waved them in.

      Joyce, the older by seven minutes, sat down first in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Naomi, however, crossed the room to admire the photographs Will refused to throw away.

      “What’s going on, ladies?”

      “We have a great suggestion for you,” said Joyce.

      Will sat back in his seat and silently prayed for Marcus and Donovan to return with dinner. Whatever the girls wanted from him, they’d decided to team up.

      The reason they worked so well together was they were complete opposites. Joyce was more business oriented. Naomi was more of the partying type, ironic since she was their grandmother’s namesake. Joyce had more of the ninety-year-old woman’s personality, business first.

      “Uh-oh, do I need reinforcements?” Will teased and pretended to pick up the black office phone on the corner of his desk. “Marcus and Donovan should be back any minute now.”

      “What we are suggesting,” said Naomi from her corner of the room, “your brothers will wholeheartedly agree to, since it will be good for business.”

      The deep breath he took brought in her coconut scent, a perfume he recognized from Ravens Cosmetics. “Alright.”

      “With you coming on as the new CEO—”

      “Coming on?” Will repeated, flabbergasted. “Why does everyone say that as if I had a choice? I believe the two of you were the first ones to second the nomination, knowing good and well I’m out of my league.”

      Naomi rolled her eyes. “I would have nominated you first, but Charles beat me to it.”

      “Anyway,” Naomi huffed. “If you are serious about turning things around, we think it would be a great idea for you to fly up to Southwood, Georgia, as our representative.”

      “Where?” Will began flipping through the paperwork on his desk. His frat brother, Dominic Crowne, recently moved his luxury car business to a town with that name.

      “Exactly,” said Joyce. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. “I need you to be someplace out of your element. I want you to be a judge at this beauty pageant a business associate of RC’s is having.”

      The only thing Will could think of was some guy in a tuxedo holding a long-stemmed microphone and singing to a crowned woman. “No.”

      “Will,” Joyce and Naomi wailed.

      “What do I know about beauty pageants?”

      “You’re a guy, right?” Naomi asked, and answered without waiting for a response. “You just vote on who the prettiest is.”

      Zoe Baldwin’s smiling face at the elevator popped into his mind. He’d already met the prettiest woman. “I don’t want to do it. Get Marcus or Donovan.”

      “Seriously?” Naomi asked drily. “There’s a reason we’ve learned to knock on the office doors of your brothers. C’mon, Will. It’s important you make a name for yourself.”

      “Look, Will,” Joyce snapped, “Ravens Cosmetics is the sponsor at this pageant every year. If you don’t do it, it will be someone like Charles or Brandon or even Dixon. You and I both know that isn’t what we need right now, especially with our other choices being your horndog brothers.”

      “Seriously? Me?”

      Joyce shrugged her shoulders. “Over the years, Lexi Reyes has been a great asset for Ravens Cosmetics.” She gave a brief history about their former beauty queen and her golden touch, and how the company had been sponsoring her pageants for years. This was the first Will had ever heard of it.

      “And so, if you help Lexi out, it will give RC a platform to change the way some consumers see us—we’re not simply retro but classic, like you’ve suggested. Our brand will be the only one used for the pageant. Our gift bags of mascara, eye shadows and lotions will go to all the attendees. Do you know how many Southern women attend pageants? Our research shows most women below the Mason-Dixon Line aren’t interested in the avant-garde. We can tap into this community and save RC. And that’s what you claimed you wanted to do. Or was that a lie?”

      “Hell, no.” Will slammed his hand on the top of the portfolios. “I don’t care what our cousins think. RC is not dead.” Will’s gut twisted with doubt. The twins made a great point. What he lacked in experience, he made up for in determination. RC was not dead and had another hundred years left. He didn’t want to risk ignoring a potential market. But a beauty pageant? He hated himself for being suckered in. “Okay, fine, send me the information. What night do I have to be there?”

      “Well, here’s the thing,” Naomi started. “In order for you to be there and be able to mesh with the other judges, you need to be there for maybe a week.”

      “What?” Will exclaimed.

      Joyce held her hands up to calm him down. “It won’t be that bad.”

      “I just started here last month. I don’t have a week to give.” He calculated the forty-plus hours a week he’d already been putting in and knew that time was still not enough. His cousins would be hovering like vultures if he left his throne for more than a few days.

      “Think about how committed the family will see you are if you take the time to represent our products.”

      She had to go there. Will’s weakness. His family’s legacy was his kryptonite. Sales were down. People were losing interest in Ravens Cosmetics. They wanted something fresh and new. Well, if anyone could go to this Southwood and turn things around, it was him. “When do I leave?”

      * * *

      Armed with a suitcase filled with cosmetics, Zoe checked her bags at the counter at Miami International Airport on Tuesday morning and got herself cleared through security. If she was lucky, her plane would be there, allowing her to board.

      This wasn’t her first trip on a plane. She knew it was best to take a change of clothes in her carry-on. No matter how long or short the flight, Zoe always showered after traveling. For this two-hour flight, Zoe dressed in a pair of comfy boyfriend jeans, worn white canvas shoes and her favorite loose T-shirt, bedazzled in pink with Wear More Mascara across the chest. As she rounded the corner toward her terminal, she realized she had no such luck. And every seat in the waiting area was taken. Children pressed their faces against the windows, smudging the glass with their sticky hands as they watched the other planes taking off.

      Zoe had no patience to deal with the man standing behind her she just caught checking out her rear end. The joker wasn’t even embarrassed; he wiggled his brows at her and licked his lips. The only man on Earth, as far as Zoe was concerned, who was allowed to lick his lips at her was LL Cool J.

      “Miss Baldwin?” Will Ravens closed the gap from the private area to where she stood. “I thought I recognized you.”

      For a moment, Zoe forgot how to speak. Will Ravens, the man she needed to hate right now, stood before her in a pair of jeans and a fitted green V-neck shirt, causing her to melt into a puddle as he smiled СКАЧАТЬ