Acquired: The CEO's Small-Town Bride

This was the very reason he’d stayed away from the Tennis Club and away from Sarah. He didn’t need the distraction of an unresolved attraction dogging him,

especially not now when he was so close to finally having his revenge on Ronald Worth.

Hauling his eyes off her, he snagged his suit coat from the back of his chair. “I’ll need a to-go box for my lunch. How about you just have them pack up the daily special for both Chase and me? I’m not picky, but I am now in a hurry.”

“Happy to accommodate that request.” She smiled tightly.

“And put a lid on my tea,” he couldn’t resist taunting. “You’ll have to pardon me if I’m suspicious of open containers around you.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t pick the coffee,” she said softly between gritted teeth.

He blinked back his surprise at the level of her anger, all because he hadn’t been able to leave well enough alone. Including that one last urge to call her Kitten. Apparently that had crossed a line for her. While he knew she still stirred up a helluva fire in him, seeing that he ignited such a strong reaction in her as well gave him pause.

A hand on his shoulder startled him. He glanced back to see his stepbrother. Chase Larson didn’t even bother hiding his surprise about the whole tea-soaked situation.

Anger faded from Sarah and a pink blush stole up her face as if she’d only just realized the magnitude of the scene she’d caused. Without a word, she spun away, sidling past the wary manager. She whipped her apron off and thrust her way through the double doors leading to the kitchen.

“Chase,” Rafe said, pulling his eyes from the swinging doors and back to his stepbrother, “we’re going to have to put the rest of our luncheon meeting on hold. As you can see, I need to change clothes.”

Chase Larson was not only his stepbrother, but also handled Rafe’s personal finances and some of his business dealings. They’d become stepbrothers when Rafe’s dad married Chase’s mom fourteen years ago. They hadn’t spent any time living in the same house, but they shared a healthy rivalry that had helped propel them both out of poverty.

His stepbrother pulled his suit jacket from the back of the chair and shrugged it on again. “What the hell happened to you? Did you drop your drink or what?”

“Something like that.” His eyes gravitated to the kitchen doors again where Sarah had disappeared seconds earlier.

He wasn’t normally a man who wasted time on regrets, instead opting to charge forward and tackle the future. But right now, he couldn’t ignore a whopping big regret—that he’d never slept with Sarah Richards.

The next day, Sarah folded and refolded a towel in her kitchen while her grandmother sat serenely shaping ground beef into patties to be frozen. Individual patties for lonely meals. Her grandmother and parents invited her to their homes often, or came over to hers like tonight, but nothing could replace the daily companionship of the husband she’d lost.

Tonight, she and Grandma Kat had eaten salads and discussed last-minute details for her grandmother’s upcoming sixty-fifth birthday bash this weekend. Yet still Kathleen didn’t leave, offering to help with small household chores. Normally, Sarah would have insisted she was fine, but after the day she’d experienced, facing her empty house seemed tougher than normal.

Silently, she worked alongside her grandmother, trying not to think about her lunch shift at the Vista del Mar Beach and Tennis Club. The manager had given her the afternoon off to cool down. She’d been an employee there long enough that she wouldn’t get fired—unless Rafe flat-out requested it.

She didn’t think he would be that vindictive and he had laughed.

Damn him.

She slammed the towel into the laundry basket, wrecking her stack. “I can’t believe he’s just going to dismantle the factory, put hundreds of people out of work.”

Grandma Kat folded plastic wrap over a perfect circle of hamburger. “I assume you mean Rafe Cameron.”

“Who else?” She kicked the wicker hamper to the side. “Even my parents will be out of a job after working at that plant their whole adult lives. Grandma Kat, doesn’t this inflame you? Aren’t you pissed? You worked for Ronald Worth for forty years. Aren’t you hurt to see the place torn apart? Lives destroyed?”

With her parents so close to retirement age, they were too old to start new careers. They’d given up so much for that factory, working long hours and double shifts just to keep a roof over her head. Thank God she’d had Grandma Kat to look after her or she would have been very alone growing up.

“Of course I am upset, dear.” She stacked the dozen individually wrapped burgers into a Tupperware container and sealed the lid. “I know the faces and names and histories of all the longtime employees. Thinking of them being out of a job not only makes me mad, it breaks my heart.”

Sarah had thought her heart couldn’t be sliced any deeper than when Rafe moved away after high school graduation, leaving her behind. And then she’d pieced her life together, marrying, creating the home with Quentin that she’d always wanted. Only to have her spirit crushed all over again by multiple miscarriages and then her husband’s death.

Truly, she would have thought the calluses on her emotions would leave her immune to pain now. She was wrong.

Tears burned her eyes, blurring her perfect little kitchen. She sagged back against the Formica tabletop she’d loved for its fifties appeal. So much hope had gone into this space. Quentin had repainted the vintage cabinets and wainscoting white while she’d sewn bright chintz curtains and a sink skirt, painting the four chairs bright accent colors.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Sarah scrubbed her wrist under her eyes, ever aware of her grandmother’s perceptive gaze. “I know Rafe blames Worth Industries for his mother’s death, but to hang on to that for all these years? That’s quite a grudge, especially when there’s no proof.”

Her grandmother stood up and walked to the ancient refrigerator. She tucked the container full of patties into the freezer. “Heaven knows he was torn up when Hannah died.”

When Rafe’s dad had decided to remarry near the end of their senior year, Sarah had been hopeful that he was coming to grips with losing his mother. And recently when she’d heard about the charity he’d created in honor of his mother, she’d thought finally Rafe would find some peace. Hannah’s Hope, based in Vista del Mar, was a literacy charity that paired financially disadvantaged individuals with mentors.

Was it really just a promo gig to divert attention from his grudge against Worth Industries or a true testament to making peace with the past? “Do you really think particulates from the factory caused Hannah Cameron’s COPD?”

“I honestly don’t know who or what to blame for Hannah’s tragic death.” Kathleen Richards eased back into her chair, slowly, the hint of arthritis the only sign she was slowing down. “Factory safety standards were so different back when she worked there over thirty years ago. And she died nearly sixteen years after she was fired. So it’s tough to tell.”

“And what about Mom and Dad?” Her parents had worked at the plant for their entire adult lives.

“I do know that Ronald Worth has adhered to safety standards. Were those standards lax? Possibly,” she conceded. “Did the man have regrets in his life? Absolutely. But his are more of the personal variety. I would hate to see Rafe suffer that same guilt from letting his private life affect his business decisions.”

“You need to tell him that.” Sarah reached across the table to clasp her grandmother’s hand urgently.

“Do you honestly think Rafe would listen to me?” Kathleen stared back with eyes as green as her own.

“He resented the way I kept tabs on you. If you recall, he and I didn’t part on the best of terms.”

Sarah snatched her hand away. “And you think he and I did?”

“True enough. The two of you have always evoked strong emotions in each other. Always.” Kathleen pinned her with a look stronger than any grip. “I believe you hold sway with him now just as you did then. You are the only person who stands a chance at getting Rafe Cameron to rethink his position on closing the factory.”

Her grandmother’s words sank in slowly, shockingly. Sarah knew without a doubt Kathleen had come to supper and stayed with a specific agenda. She wanted her granddaughter to use her past connection with Rafe to influence him.

“Grandma, you can’t be suggesting I seduce the guy into keeping the factory open?” While her mind, her heart, balked in horror, her body tingled to life at even the suggestion of Rafe’s hands on her again. “You vastly oversell my appeal.”

“Maybe you undersell yourself. But that’s beside the point.” Kathleen shook her head, dangling cat earrings swaying. “I would never even suggest anything so crass. I’m simply saying that you and Rafe had a special connection fourteen years ago.”

“Whoa, wait.” Sarah held up a hand, certain she must have misheard. “You think he and I had a special connection? The way I remember it, you were always trying to break the two of us up.”

Her grandmother snorted. “I was trying to keep you from having a baby before you graduated from high school like I did and your parents did.”

Sarah stifled the urge to wince over her grandmother’s mention of babies, but since her grandmother didn’t know about the miscarriages, she couldn’t blame her for venturing into painful territory. The first miscarriage had occurred before they’d had a chance to tell anyone, then they’d been wary of sharing news until she made it into her second trimester. That never happened.

There was a time she’d worried her out-of-control passion for Rafe would lead to an accidental pregnancy. Then she’d dreamed of carrying his children. Now she knew she would carry no man’s child. “Well, you accomplished your goal, because in spite of all your hints to the contrary, Rafe and I never went far enough to risk that.”

In high school, her friends had all assumed she was sleeping with Rafe, but she’d held back, wanting to wait for marriage. Or maybe she’d somehow known from the start they were doomed.

Regardless, how weird was it to be talking to her grandmother about sex?

Kathleen’s eyebrows inched toward her hair. “Really? You’ve surprised even me. The two of you were sneaking around all the time, trying to find time alone.”

“That’s not fair. We were teenagers dating. Teenagers who also worked long hours after school and had a very, very eagle-eyed grandmother breathing down our necks.”

“Hmm, silly me.” Kathleen nudged the saltshaker even with the pepper. “I thought dates involved cars and movies, not climbing up a tree to slip into your bedroom.”

She gasped, her mind flooding with memories of her and Rafe tangling up in her comforter. “How could you have known that?”

Her grandmother grinned. “I didn’t know for sure. Until now.”

Sarah sagged back in her seat, weary to her toes from the way Rafe had upset her life all over again. “I can’t believe you’ve reduced me to these word games.”

“I just wanted you to be careful then. I could see there was something intense between the two of you, something neither of you were mature enough to deal with yet.”

“Well, you were wrong.” Her spine steeled with anger even after all these years over how bitterly they’d ended the relationship. “We broke up and moved on. We haven’t spoken in fourteen years until today.”

“I was there to pick up the pieces when it all fell apart. Everyone in town knows. And if that explosive encounter is anything to judge by, the two of you have some unfinished business of your own.”

She pressed her lips tight. What could she say? She agreed. But Rafe hadn’t made even a token effort to contact her once he returned. God, she hated how her temper had run away with her today, sucking her into revealing too much of her own unresolved feelings—mostly furious ones—for him. Especially when it was clear he’d moved on.

Kathleen squeezed her hand lightly. “Life is all about timing. You have a chance here to find closure with Rafe and help the employees at the plant.” She clasped her granddaughter’s hands. “Talk to him.”

As if she had any choice when her grandmother put it like that. And just when she’d thought her heart was numbed from years of scar tissue, she felt a flutter of excitement tickle her ribs at the notion of talking to him again. Without question, one look from Rafe Cameron still sent her body into overdrive. Even if he had turned into the first-class snob he’d sworn he would never become.

With the town’s livelihood on the line, she needed to keep her wits about her when dealing with this man, which meant keeping her hormones in check.

Because without question, Rafe had a way of scrambling her thoughts with just one touch.

Sarah stood outside Rafe’s office in the Worth Industries building—now Cameron Enterprises—while his secretary checked to make sure he was “available.” All high-tech and chrome, the place sure looked up-to-date and safe. It also looked pricey. No refurbished vintage finds around here. This office in Rafe’s newly acquired holding was a world away from her tiny house.

When they were teenagers, Rafe had told her more than once that he intended to own this whole town, including a house bigger than Worth’s. She’d believed he would become successful, but she’d never envisioned anything like this. She couldn’t fathom how he’d made it happen. But then he’d always worked harder and longer hours than anyone she’d known, so much so that finding time for each other had been nearly impossible.

No wonder he’d wanted to leave her behind when he left town. They would have never seen each other. She would have grown frustrated, much as she had when they were dating. A marriage for them would have been destined to fail from the start.

Somehow knowing he’d made the right decision didn’t ease the sting of rejection even after all these years.

His office door opened and she jolted. His secretary waved her in without a word, the older woman all crisp efficiency in a wrinkle-free suit. Nerves churning, Sarah refused to feel self-conscious about her simple sundress. Her sandals didn’t make a sound as she walked across the plush carpet.

Rafe stood at the window wall with his back to her. The expanse of spot-free glass offered a spectacular view of Vista del Mar, homes and bluffs. Between the tall palms, a distant view of the Pacific Ocean sparkled.

Off to one side in the distance, small stucco houses like hers nestled into a community. On the other, a handful of mansions filled exclusive beach lots.

She’d heard Rafe bought a three-and-a-half-million-dollar condo on the exclusive side of town. How did he feel, finally standing inside Worth Industries and claiming it as his own?

A sentimental corner of her couldn’t help cheering for all he’d accomplished. He may have broken her heart, but she’d also loved him. She would let those softer feelings for the boy he’d been help control her temper through this meeting.

She knew he was aware of her entrance even though he didn’t turn, so she waited for his next move. And she had to admit, it was nice to have a second to study him without worrying about him picking up on the attraction she fought so hard to hide. His shoulders filled out the black suit, the fabric so obviously fine she could feel the softness from across the room. Everything from his engraved cuff links to his smooth leather shoes shouted elite, expensive.

And understated.

He might be showing off his wealth for all of Vista del Mar, but he was classy about it.

Finally, he extended an arm and waved her over. Those nerves in her stomach double-timed as she slid into place beside him. Her simple sandals looked so out of place next to imported leather on the Aubusson carpet. There’d been a time when they’d danced barefoot on the beach together.

A million years ago.

She cleared her throat and her mind. “I want to apologize for the way I acted at the Tennis Club. I shouldn’t have dumped tea in your lap. I would offer to pay for your dry cleaning, but the Rafe I remember wouldn’t let me pay for so much as a soda.”

Still, he didn’t look at her, just kept staring out over their hometown. “You’re apologizing for how you acted but not what you said?”

He wasn’t making this easy for her. Once upon a time, she would have just reached for him, threading her fingers through his tawny hair until he shook off his mood and turned toward her.

She tried again. “I’m sorry that I shouted at you in front of a roomful of people.”

“Interesting to note that you still haven’t taken back what you said, only the way and place you said it.”

Okay, so much for the dignified approach. Less than a minute together and he was already making her angry. “Why have you ignored me since you returned to town?”

“I didn’t think you would want to speak to me,” he said simply. “Isn’t that what you said the last time we spoke? Something like, ‘I’m going to get out of the car now and I do not want you to follow me. I’m going to call my grandmother for a ride. And I mean it. I don’t want to see you again.’”

That was exactly what she’d said. Verbatim. That he remembered after all this time, that she remembered, rocked her. Too much.

“I was an eighteen-year-old girl in the middle of a drama queen meltdown.” She’d issued ridiculous ultimatums out of fear, and also out of a certainty that he would follow her. She’d been wrong. “We’re both adults now.”

“You’re right.” Turning, he faced her. His features might look familiar but the calculating gleam in his blue eyes was new and unsettling. “You came here for a reason, now let’s get to it.”

She tipped her chin and refused to let him intimidate her. “I want to make it up to you for how I behaved. How about a home-cooked meal?”

His blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You are asking me to dinner?”

“For old time’s sake.” Because she needed to help her family. And because she couldn’t deny she needed some of that peace for herself when it came to how they’d left things between them after graduation. “An olive branch in the interest of declaring a truce.”

“At your place?”

“Seven o’clock at my house, yes.” Where she’d lived with Quentin Dobbs. No man other than relatives had set foot in her home since he died. She swallowed down a swell of emotion. “I’m not a five-star chef by any means, but I grill a great steak and my backyard atmosphere can’t be beat. For old time’s sake,” she repeated.

Impulsively, she thrust out her hand and then felt silly standing there while she waited for him to take it.

Or worse yet, waiting for him to reject it, reject her.

His hands slid from behind his back and enfolded hers in his. His fingers closed over where she wore her wedding band on her right hand these days, since she’d lost Quentin. Was it her imagination or did Rafe’s thumb press harder against the silver band?

She’d loved Quentin, deeply. Yes, that love had been different from what she and Rafe shared, different but still special. She missed Quentin and the simple life they’d built every single day.

So why did she ache to squeeze Rafe’s hand and tug him closer? Something flashed in his eyes, but skittered through so fast she didn’t have time to analyze it before it was gone.

The heat of his skin warmed her for an instant before he let go.

“I’ll see you at seven o’clock then.”

“Great.” She backed away, reaching behind her for the door. “We’ll finally have a chance to talk and catch up on everything.”

Her grip closed around the doorknob and she exhaled hard with relief. She’d made it through this encounter easier than she’d expected. Maybe talking to Rafe tonight wouldn’t be so difficult after all.

“Sarah?”

His voice stopped her dead and made her skin tingle with nerves. She glanced back over her shoulder. “Yes?”

“Skip the steak. I’d rather have a cheeseburger.”

His arrogant grin told her he knew full well the reference would bring reminders of that first night he’d climbed through her bedroom window, and other stolen moments of picnic meals and frantic make-out sessions. Rafe may not have spoken to her since he returned to Vista del Mar, but it was clear he hadn’t forgotten the past any more than she had. Fourteen years ago she’d trusted Rafe not to hurt her and he’d trampled all over her feelings and dreams.

This time, she wouldn’t be so naive.

She recognized the light in his eyes too well. The same blue-hot flame had blazed over her whenever he’d vowed he wanted nothing more than to bury himself heart-deep inside her. And though she felt the same passion coursing through her veins, she’d held back then, even when she’d loved him.

She would sure as hell hold back tonight.

Three

Rafe leaned against his desk as Sarah made tracks out of his office. She may have invited him to her place for supper, but he suffered no delusions that she wished to rekindle their old flame.

Business instincts blared that she wanted to convince him to leave what remained of Worth Industries intact. And she would fail. She couldn’t succeed in diverting him from revenge now any more than she had in the past. But he was still curious just how far she would go to persuade him.

Sundress swishing around her slim legs, she angled sideways out the door being held open by Chase on his way in. His stepbrother nodded politely, then turned his attention toward Rafe. Chase didn’t even bother hiding his curiosity as an eyebrow shot up.

At least he waited until Sarah stepped into the elevator before speaking.

Turning back, Chase asked, “What’s she doing here? Sounded to me like she said her piece back at the restaurant yesterday.”

Rafe closed the office door again, the floral scent of Sarah lingering in his space. “Apparently not.”

“At least you managed to stay dry this time.” Chase dropped into a black leather chair by the sofa, sliding a portfolio onto the coffee table. “Does this mean the two of you are rekindling the old flame?”

Rafe forced himself to sit in the seat across from Chase rather than pacing around, broadcasting how restless one visit from Sarah left him. “Just because you’re wallowing in marital bliss with Emma doesn’t mean you have to haul the rest of us down with you.”

While they shared the same business drive, they differed in their personal lives. Rafe kept dating low-key, fostering easy relationships with corporate women who had as little free time as he did. Chase had been more of a player until settling down with Emma Worth. The former playboy was now a proud papa-to-be.

Chase thumbed his own wedding band absently. “I know how far gone you were on Sarah Richards back in the day. I could see it whenever I came out to visit Mom, and I barely even knew you.”

“Back in the day, sure.” He’d loved her then, or thought he had. He couldn’t deny he was still attracted to her. But that’s all it was. “Not now.”

“That’s not how it seemed at lunch. Sparks were flying.”

“That was me flying out of my chair when she soaked my lap.”

Chase chuckled. “Priceless moment.”

“Glad you’re amused.” He tapped the monogrammed portfolio in front of him. “Do you think we could stop gossiping about my love life and focus on business?”

“She’s single. You’re single,” Chase said without so much as reaching for the graphs Rafe spread out on the coffee table. “What’s to stop you from following those sparks?”

“Did you not hear me, my brother? We’re here to work.”

“No need to start without Preston and Tanner.” Both men were top-level executives, part of the very small inner circle of the trusted few in his own personal Dream Team.

Rafe looked sideways at his stepbrother. “You’re a real pain in the ass today.”

“You’re extraordinarily crabby yourself, and I think we both know the root of your bad mood.” Chase leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “She could only bother you this much if she still means something to you.”