Scandalizing the CEO (6 page)

“H
ow was your date?” Freddie asked as he joined her in the cab at the end of their third day in New York. “What date?”

“With Steven Devonshire. We haven’t had a moment to chat and I want all the details. Was it everything you thought it would be? Did birds sing? The heavens open up?”

She punched him playfully in the arm. “You make me sound like…someone who is obsessed. It was just drinks. He’s a very sophisticated and charming man.”

“What makes him sophisticated?”

“His choices.”

“Tell me everything.”

She wanted to laugh at the way he said it, but she knew that she’d never share what she felt about Steven with Freddie. It was one thing to let him know about what she’d
read on the Internet, but how Steven kissed was personal and she wasn’t about to share it.

“It was just a nice evening.”

“A nice evening? What are you hiding? Do you like him?”

She shook her head. “It’s complicated.”

She wanted the taxi ride to be over. But of course it was rush hour and they’d be stuck here for at least thirty minutes.
Damn.

“Tell me.”

“I can’t. I haven’t figured it out yet myself,” she said.

He reached over and patted her knee. “I’m here if you want to talk.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Isn’t it funny how foreign this city feels?”

He laughed. “Yes. I think we’ve been in London too long.”

“It’s only been three years. Do you ever think of coming back?” she asked him.

“Never. I like London. And my best friend lives there.”

She smiled at him and blew him an air kiss. “We’d still be BFFs if you moved.”

“You say that, but life would change. Besides, I have my Maxim now and he likes our quiet neighborhood.”

Maxim was Freddie’s English Bulldog. And she knew he’d never move if he thought that dog would be traumatized by it. He was so attached to him that he’d set up a webcam so he could chat with the dog once a day while he was on this trip.

She made small talk until traffic started moving. Her BlackBerry pinged and she glanced down at her e-mail—she didn’t know how she’d live without her BlackBerry—and
saw that Tiffany Malone had accepted the invitation to do an interview.

“Yes! Just what I was hoping for. Tiffany Malone said yes to the interview.”

“She’s one of my faves. Her music was so earthy. It’s a shame she stopped performing.”

Ainsley nodded and typed an e-mail back to her assistant to finalize the details for the interview. She would use the leverage of Tiffany’s agreement to secure an interview with the other women. No one had ever printed their stories and it was past time that those women had a voice.

She sent a personal note to Tiffany, telling her that one of their writers—Bert Michaels—would be in touch with her soon. Once the article was written they’d compile pictures from the past and present to round out the piece.

The rest of the day was busy, but Maurice wanted her to lock in all three of the Devonshire heirs for the interview. Cathy had tried, but her secretary hadn’t been able to get the men to return her calls, so Ainsley knew she’d have to do it herself. Geoff was difficult to reach, so she had to settle for leaving a voice mail.

She called Henry’s office and got his assistant, Astrid, who put her right through.

“Hello, Henry. This is Ainsley Patterson with
Fashion Quarterly.
I spoke to Steven a few days ago and he intimated that you’d be agreeable to participating in an interview with our magazine.”

“I can’t say no. My mum would have my head. She told me you were going to interview her.”

“We are. Once I have a confirmation from Geoff, my assistant will call you and set up the times and all that. I’d love to photograph you with your mother and maybe get one with all three of you boys and Malcolm.”

“Good luck with that. I’m not sure that Malcolm’s health will allow it.”

“If it does, will you participate?”

“I’ll think about it. Probably.”

“Thank you, Henry.”

“No problem. According to my mum, your magazine is one of the best. She had nothing but great things to say about it.”

“Thanks,” she said. She ended the call a few minutes later and then dialed Steven’s number.

He answered it on the third ring. “Devonshire.”

“It’s Ainsley.” She didn’t want to mention last night or the fact that they were both in New York.

“What can I do for you?”

“I need you to talk to your mother about the interview. Tiffany Malone has already agreed. If we can get your mum as well it would be a more well-rounded interview.”

“I was hoping you were calling to talk about our date.”

“Nope.”

“That’s a very American answer.”

“Is it? I can’t talk about that right now. I’m in a conference room with other staff members.”

“So you’re not alone?”

“Exactly.”

“If I talk dirty to you will you blush?” he asked, his voice deepening.

“Probably,” she admitted.

“I will do my best to get my mum to agree, but someone is going to have to go to Berne to interview her. Her work is entering a critical stage and I know she won’t leave.”

“Should I go there and ask her?”

“It might help.”

“Okay. I’ll work that out. I guess that’s all for now.”

“I suppose that is. I can’t wait to kiss you again,” he said.

“Me, too,” she said, preparing to disconnect before he could say anything else.

“Are you available for dinner tonight?” he asked.

“No. I think we’ll have to wait until we’re back in London,” she said.

He agreed and hung up. She thought that she’d dodged a bullet. She was cool and confident when it came to business, but the personal aspect of her relationship with Steven scared her.

Steven left a message for his mother with Roman, his mother’s lab partner and assistant, to alert her that Ainsley would be calling. Roman had been working with Lynn for the last fifteen years. Steven actually liked the man; he was funny.

“How are you, Steven? Your mum mentioned that you were running Malcolm’s business now.”

She would put it that way. Either she didn’t listen to what he’d said or she simply assumed that he’d won the competition that Malcolm had set up for all his heirs.

“It’s going well. I’m not running the show yet, but I’ve been here less than a week.”

Roman laughed. “I’ll give you one more week to get everything in order.”

“That should just about do it. Will you let my mum know I need to speak to her?”

“Of course I will. She’s spending most of her nights in the lab, so if you try after nine, you can probably reach her there.”

“Thanks,” Steven said. Thinking back he realized
that he’d always learned what his mother was doing from Roman. It had been that way his entire life.

“I’ll call back later.”

Steven had a lot of information to go through and he spent the rest of the day running numbers. He was happy when Geoff called and invited him to join him for dinner.

Steven often wondered if his life would have been different had he and Geoff met when they were boys. Steven had used Malcolm’s name to gain entrance to Eton. The prestigious school the young princes had attended was extremely hard to get into. And Geoff’s mother’s family had been going there for generations. But at the last moment Geoff had been sent to a school in the States.

Steven had always believed it was because of the publicity that had surrounded the enrollment of two of the Devonshire bastards. That had been the first time that he had become aware of how many people were interested in the circumstances of his birth.

It had been a bit overwhelming—he’d almost asked his mother to withdraw him, but she’d been called to a meeting in Switzerland and he’d had no choice but to go to school as scheduled.

He shook his head. He had forgotten what it had been like to be that boy. He’d been scared and had felt out of place there. He wasn’t a boy with the family background of the other boys who attended Eton. And he had quickly learned to fend for himself. He’d used his wits to survive and that had been his first lesson in how to succeed in this life.

Geoff was waiting at the club when he got there. It didn’t surprise him. Geoff had struck him as someone who didn’t like to keep others waiting.

“Thanks for agreeing to meet me.”

“No problem. What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the interviews that you agreed we’d do with
Fashion Quarterly.
”

“Of course. What’s the problem?”

“My mum doesn’t really like publicity and the editor-in-chief has called her a couple of times. She has never talked about her affair with Malcolm and she moved on when she married my stepfather…she just doesn’t want to discuss the past.”

“I understand that. I have no idea if my mum will agree to the interviews or not. I do know that Tiffany Malone agreed to do it. So she will be sharing her perspective on what happened.”

Geoff took a long swallow of his drink. “I don’t know what to do. I think that having just Tiffany’s story will be a bit odd. Will they still do the interview with us?”

Steven had no idea. He suspected that Ainsley would. She wanted to talk to them. “Probably. She wants to talk to Malcolm, too.”

“I wish her success with that, but he wasn’t much for agreeing to things when he was healthy. I can’t see him doing it now.”

Steven would have concurred, except he’d seen Ainsley in action and he was willing to bet that if she got in to see Malcolm, she’d find a way to convince him to do it. She’d find an angle that he wouldn’t be able to say no to.

“I’m going to try to convince my mum to do the interview. I want to hear her side of the entire affair,” Steven said.

Geoff shrugged. “My mum will be harder to convince, but I’ll bet if she hears that Tiffany and Lynn are doing it
she’ll agree as well. Of course, she’ll have to coordinate with the royal family’s PR department.”

“I hope so. Ainsley is really hot to do this interview and I’ve been working the business angle. I know she wants to talk about the past, but I want each of us to talk about the new things happening in each business unit.”

“Henry and I are collaborating by painting the album covers of his new artists on the side of several of our planes.”

“I love that idea,” Steven said. “I think we’ll produce some T-shirts picturing the album covers to sell in the store. And maybe we can run a promo the first week the CD comes out to bundle the shirts with the CD.”

“Yes, that’ll work. I’m sure Henry will agree to it,” Geoff said.

They talked more about the business and it wasn’t lost on Steven that the father he’d never known had given him brothers that he had a lot in common with. As a man who’d always been on his own, it was unnerving to realize that he finally had a family.

More than his mum and Aunt Lucy anyway. He wasn’t sure he liked it. But he did know that Henry and Geoff were men he’d have hired to work for him. They were driven and innovative and together the three of them were going to take the Everest Group to heights that Malcolm had only dreamed of.

Ainsley’s office overlooked the Basilica at St. Peter’s Cathedral. She stood at the window as dusk fell over the city and thought about the coming evening. New York had been exhausting and she’d spent too much time in the offices there. She was glad to be back home.

She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but at some point
in the last three years London had become home. She’d gotten used to the sights and sounds of this city and made it her own.

Her assistant, Cathy, stood in the doorway when Ainsley turned around. “I thought you’d left.”

“Not yet. I had something that I wanted to talk to you about. Geoff Devonshire wants to meet with you before he will agree to be a part of the interviews.”

Ainsley thought that Steven had already gotten the approval of his half brothers so this was news to her. “Fine. When is he available?”

“Um…he’s actually in the reception area. He stopped by and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Cathy guarded her office like a shark, so to hear that Geoff had somehow gotten her to put him in the reception area surprised her.

“He’s charming?”

“And so very handsome,” she said. “Too handsome. But I also knew you wanted this locked up so I figured I’d let him stay.”

“Good thinking. Hiring you was a very smart decision,” Ainsley said.

“As I remind you daily,” Cathy said, turning toward the door. “I’ll go get him. Do you want me to interrupt after ten minutes?”

Ainsley rarely had time in her schedule to give anyone more than ten minutes, and from the beginning she and Cathy had an agreement that the assistant would come in and stop the meeting if it ran long.

She had dinner reservations with Steven tonight. Would there be time to collect herself before he arrived?

“Yes, please.”

“Okay. I have put some things for your signature in your
box. If you want to be efficient and sign them now, I can process them while you’re in your meeting.”

“You’re getting a little too bossy, Cath.”

“That’s the only way I keep you in line,” she said, walking out the door with a smile.

Ainsley reached for the folder that Cathy had mentioned. Inside were some mock-ups for the cover of their current issue. She made notes on three of them. None of them were that exciting. She was going to have to address this first thing in the morning at their staff meeting. She made a note for Cathy to make sure that those responsible for the cover shoot were there.

Then she moved on to the photos Davis Montgomery had taken of Jon BonGiovanni. They were perfect. She approved three of them for use before she heard her door open.

She stood up to greet Geoff Devonshire. He looked tall and elegant and, aside from the set of his eyes and his jaw, he scarcely resembled Steven.

“Hello, Mr. Devonshire. May I call you Geoff?”

“Of course,” he said, taking the hand she’d extended for him to shake.

“I’m Ainsley,” she said. “Please have a seat. Can I offer you something to drink?”

“I’m good,” he said.