“NO!” she held up her hand and shook her dark curls. “Enough about my plants’ hatred of me. We’re solving your problems today. Mine tomorrow. Go get dressed. Alejandro loves strawberries and I promised him strawberry shortcake for dinner tonight. So I’m going to raid your garden. You’re going to shower. We’re heading over to Kate’s place for coffee, and then the three of us are going to figure this whole thing out.”
Hayden understood when she was defeated and bowed her head. “Fine,” she muttered, almost cursing her friend’s bullying. But it wasn’t really bullying. More along the lines of tough love. Natalie was strong and confident and, if anyone could figure out the next step, it was this woman. “I’m going. But…”
“No buts! Don’t show your face down here until you are somewhat properly dressed. Understand?”
She emphasized her order by pointing her finger towards the stairs. “Go!” she commanded when Hayden opened her mouth to argue.
Hayden smiled, but she also turned around and headed up the stairs. “You’re not so tough, you know,” she called out.
“Go!” Natalie called out.
“I’m going to put a jasmine vine by your front door!” Hayden called back, halfway up the stairs.
“No you won’t!” Natalie yelled. “Because you would never put one of your plants in danger again. You protect them like they are your children.”
Hayden laughed the rest of the way up the stairs, and as she took a lukewarm shower, she said a silent prayer to God, thanking him for good friends. She, Kate, and Natalie had gone through a lot together over the past few years. Natalie had moved into the small town of Lisdeer, Virginia when she was pregnant with her son. Ever since the kind, gentle, loving woman had moved in, they’d been the best of friends and Hayden felt as if Alejandro was a nephew or a step son. And if that horrible, despicable man who had donated sperm ever came back into Natalie’s life and tried to take Alejandro away, Hayden was going to…, well, she wasn’t sure what she would do, but it would be horrible!
Kate had arrived in Lisdeer about two years ago and took over the small coffee shop, growing it into a thriving business in a short period of time. Hayden had often thought about asking Kate for advice on business issues a few times, but a coffee shop and a plant nursery were just too different. Whatever Kate was doing to increase traffic in her coffee shop probably wouldn’t help in getting Hayden’s customers to pay their bills.
Unfortunately, she didn’t really have any other ideas on how to improve her business. So she shut off the shower, trying to figure out an alternative to…well, an alternative to selling her land to him!
Chapter 2
“This isn’t going to work,” Hayden chanted under her breath, feeling like a beggar as she stepped into the beautifully decorated office. Smoothing her hands down over her hips, she wondered if she looked as pathetic as she felt. Her borrowed dress was too big while her shoes were too small. It was irritatingly hard to look confident when one was wearing an ill-fitting, borrowed outfit.
“What am I doing here?” she whispered as she stared out the floor to ceiling windows. The view was magnificent! She’d never seen Washington, D.C. from this height before. The headquarters to Chenko Industries wasn’t actually in Washington, D.C. but was right across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, hence the sky rise building and the amazing view. The buildings in Washington, D.C. weren’t very high. There was an old law limiting the height of buildings in the nation’s capital to be no higher than one hundred and ten feet. That law had been amended, but the buildings still couldn’t be very high. Hence, any tall buildings were constructed just outside the actual city limits in both Virginia and Maryland.
And there were very few plants, she thought.
Her eyes scanned the horizon, looking for green. There was the National Mall, which was a swath of grass going from the Capital building all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument right in the middle. The grass was lined with big, tall, beautiful trees, but…
With a sigh, she turned away from the view. She was focusing on the wrong things. Finding patches of green amidst the sea of concrete structures was not going to help her figure out how to broach the subject of selling her land. Especially not after her last meeting with the loathsome male. She’d been so adamant, so firm about not selling her family’s land and home to the man who had…well, he’d irritated her with his arrogance and…and his eyes. Yeah, his eyes had conveyed a completely different conversation.
Of course, that wasn’t the reason she’d refused to sell to him, it had only been why she’d been so rude.
Hayden pulled oxygen into her lungs, trying to get her head back in gear. It was just the thought of how tall he was that was making her feel like this. Shaky. Nervous. She wasn’t excited. Nope. She rejected the possibility that this this tingling sensation was excitement.
He was a challenge, she told herself. And Hayden always loved a challenge.
Even when she looked like a pauper, Hayden thought with a bit of humor. The borrowed clothes didn’t fit her properly and everyone could see that. Even the man’s assistant had looked down her nose at Hayden’s dress and shoes.
Ugh! There was nothing to be done about it though. She was a glorified farmer, just like her father and grandfather. She might have a degree in botany and know the technical details on how to grow things and she grew things that made a yard more beautiful instead of something one could put on a table, but in essence, she was still a farmer. Nothing more, nothing less.
Normally, she derived a great deal of pride in her work, loving the plants that she raised and knowing that her “babies” were superior, healthier. But, in this kind of corporate environment, she was only human and she felt…awkward. Amid the beautiful ladies who knew how to elegantly walk into a room in heels and converse on just about any subject, how to sway their hips so that a man took a second look, Hayden felt like a schoolgirl playing dress-up.
Lifting her chin, she shook off her self-pitying thoughts. She shouldn’t concern herself with someone else’s opinion. She knew who she was. Deep down inside, she was a good person. She didn’t lie, cheat, or steal. She loved to read anything she could get her hands on and she cared about the world and her community. At the end of the day, being a good person was all one could ask, right? Knowing how to buy the perfect dress was not her priority.
Shake it off, girl!
Viktor’s hands crumbled the note his assistant had given him. She was here. The gorgeously defiant, stunning woman from the plant nursery was waiting for him in his office. Storming out of the meeting without any explanation didn’t concern him. His second in command could take charge. Nothing else mattered because…Hayden Ferrant was in his office.
The woman had haunted his dreams over the past month. He’d thought of her too many times, smiling over the stubborn tilt of her jaw, which was such a contradiction to her adorable nose and her soft, full lips.
Walking down the hallway, he accepted that he was more interested in this woman because she’d defied him, threw his offer to buy her land in his face. Yes, she was lovely. But he had been around many beautiful women over his lifetime. They were always around, always more than willing. But Hayden Ferrant…chert! She was one of a kind. Smart, unconsciously sexy, and independent to a fault. Despite her lack of creature comforts, she had scoffed at his offer.
Stepping through the door, he watched the delicate beauty walk around his office, amazed by the innate elegance in her movements. He was fascinated. What was it about this woman? From the first moment he’d met her, Viktor knew that he’d acted out of character. He always crushed the competition. With this woman…she fascinated him!
As he watched, she smoothed her hands down over her slender hips and he almost growled with the desire to do that himself.
How the hell could she look so elegant in a dress that was two sizes too big for her fine boned figure? Her hair looked…soft, even though it was pinned up in what might have been
an elegant twist, but soft wisps of dark curls escaped, gently framing her lovely features. Her beauty wasn’t tied up in superficial accoutrements. Her elegance and self-confidence was just who she was.
That sense of self was what made her so…alluring. Enticing.
Beautiful.
Pulling himself out of his contemplation of her figure, he closed the door to his office and walked purposefully towards his desk. “Ms. Ferrant. I thought we’d concluded our business during our last conversation,” he commented conversationally. His hand silently invited her to sit in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “To what do I owe this visit today, then?”
As he came around to sit in the big, leather chair, Viktor was once again shocked by the beauty of her eyes. Those lashes! Long, dark, and thick, those lashes framed eyes that belonged to a cat, he thought. A mischievous, adorable, sexy cat. And those lips! Damn, his body was contemplating what she might taste like, feeling those lips against his mouth as she kissed him back.
She blinked at him and all thoughts of sexy cats and purring kittens vanished. There was a defiance there that immediately captured his attention. Gone was the confident woman who had basically told him to go to hell last month when he’d offered to buy her house and farmland. At this moment, she looked like she was about to burst into tears and all of his previously non-existent protective instincts kicked into high gear.
Those shockingly blue eyes glared at him and he wanted to laugh. Such anger! And in so beautiful a woman.
“I was wondering if the offer to buy my family’s land and house was still available,” she explained stiffly.
Viktor watched with a fascination that bordered on fury as she licked her lips. Was she doing that on purpose? Was she trying to sexually torment him?
Women had tried their little tricks on him before, never succeeding. If he was interested, he would allow a woman to lure him into her arms. If he wasn’t interested, he would walk away.
So why was this woman’s seemingly unconscious gesture making his body harden with a desire that almost doubled him over with need?
Perhaps it was that unconscious defiance tied to the sexual come-on. He wasn’t sure, but it was powerful.
The trembling of her fingers as she smoothed her skirt down over her knees was his first clue that she wasn’t doing this to him on purpose. Every gesture, every covert glance through those thick lashes was…genuine? Impossible!
So, why was she pushing the hemline of her skirt down? If she were trying to play him, she’d be sliding that hemline higher, to give him a glimpse of what was being offered.
“So…?” she prompted.
Viktor looked at the nervous beauty sitting so primly on the other side of his desk. He’d done his research on this woman. She ran one of the best plant nurseries in the area. Her plants were healthier than anyone else’s and she had a larger, more diversified stock. But as much as the woman knew about plants and growing things, she knew nothing about business. She was in debt up to her pretty, blue eyes, underpriced her products, and had no ongoing collections efforts, which allowed her customers to walk all over her.
A month ago, he’d told himself he was collecting information in order to put her out of business. He needed her land in order to start a development project in that area. As his research team pulled more and more information together on this woman, the only hindrance left to the bigger picture of developing the land, he’d thought of about twenty different ways to pressure her into selling him her land.
But he hadn’t implemented any of them.
And now she was sitting here, looking shockingly beautiful and still defiant, yet ready to sell him the land he needed, without any effort on his part.
“No,” he told her, unaware of the intensity of his look as his mind worked through his next move.
When her eyes dropped, he could have sworn that he saw the glint of a tear. Damn it, tears had never bothered him before. Why did the glisten in her beautiful eyes make him want to lift her up into his arms and tell her that he’d make everything okay?
“I see,” she was saying. Her fingers trembled in earnest now as she picked up her purse. Holding that ragged accessory against her stomach, he suspected that she was having trouble absorbing his answer and his gut churned with acid. “I’m so sorry to have wasted your time.”
He saw her prepare to leave and everything inside of him wanted her to stay. He didn’t examine his motives too closely as he quickly made up his mind. “But I’ll save your business.”
Those crystal blue eyes looked up at him, surprised, but not nearly as surprised as he was. Just two days ago, he’d had a meeting to determine how and when to put her out of business. Now, he was saying he would save it?
It was her eyes, he thought. As the startling blue stared across his desk at him, he felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. How could a pair of pretty eyes have such an impact?
“I’m…sorry?”
Viktor stood up and came around to the other side of his desk. Leaning against the steel and glass, he looked down at her, wanting to banish the fear and worry in those lovely eyes. “Marry me and I’ll save your business.”
The shock in her eyes was nothing compared to what he was feeling. Marriage? Where the hell had that thought come from? A long time ago, he’d vowed never to marry and now a pair of pretty blue eyes had him proposing?
And yet, when those eyes blinked up at him, he knew that he wouldn’t take back the words.
There was a short burst of shocked laughter as she looked at him carefully. “I’m sorry?”
“I want a wife, children. A legacy,” he told her. Every word, the very idea, was exactly right somehow. With this woman. Just thinking about having her in his bed, that beautiful, dark hair spread out, her soft, red lips smiling up at him, inviting him…damn, the image made his body throb with need. The need to possess her. Protect her.
She blinked again, that sexy tongue darting out to lick those lips that he badly wanted to taste. “Um…well. That’s very nice,” she replied, bemused, those soft, full lips forming the words carefully. Almost as if she had to concentrate in order to get them out.
He laughed softly, taking her hand and lifting her out of the chair. Her fingers were soft, but he could feel her trembling now. It wasn’t just in her hands either. He knew that she was shaking all over. She might be strong and competent when surrounded by plants, but she was nervous and terrified around him. Yes, he was a big man, but the last time they had met, that afternoon out at her house, she’d stood up to him, glared at him, and tossed his offer to buy her house and land back at him.
He almost laughed at himself. He was pretty sure she was wondering what had changed, trying to figure out what was going on.
“I’m sure you are a bit stunned,” he continued conversationally as he held her hand. “I assure you, this is generally how I do business. When I see something I want, I find a way to get it.”
She blinked and he detected more amusement in her eyes now. “And you want me?”
“Yes. But I believe you are taking this the wrong way.”
The amusement changed subtly. No one could ever accuse her of being soft, he thought with increasing admiration. This woman had a spine! A strong one! No matter how dire her circumstances, she wouldn’t be pushed around or manipulated.
“Mr. Chenko, I respect your business acumen, but I admit that I’m appalled at your personal interactions if this is any indication on how you deal with women.” Her shoulders straightened and she glared up at him. “You can see a car or a house, or even a company, and want it, then go after it. But women are not objects to be acquired.”
He chuckled. “You are correct, my dear.”
Her adorable chin went up a notch and that gesture turned him on even more. “I’m not your ‘dear’ in any way, Mr. Chenko.”
Viktor watched as she straightened her shoulders even more, thinking she might just snap if she stiffened anymore. But she was also stunningly be
autiful. Damn, he loved an intelligent, beautiful, confident woman. And one that stood up to him, sticking to her morals despite the desperation he sensed deep inside of her? Even more incredible! Was there anything about her that he didn’t like?
Not much, he acknowledged. Even during their first meeting, he’d been turned on as those crystal blue eyes had glared up at him. What was it about this woman?
Full discloser, he thought as he watched her unconsciously entice him. “I’m not nice, Hayden. Never think that. Don’t let anyone tell you that either. I’m not nice.” He let those words sink in as his hand tightened around her fingers, trying to convey some of his strength, show her how much he admired her integrity. “I’m one of the meanest men you’ll ever meet. But I know business. I know how to crush the competition and, if you’ll marry me, I’ll show you how to grow yours.”
That’s when he saw it and knew that his words had gotten through to her. He wasn’t sure which words, but he guessed he still wasn’t winning her over on the marriage proposal. Most likely, she wanted to learn. Yes, beautiful, intelligent women wanted information.
Simply seeing that yearning for knowledge in her eyes made his body react.
The woman shook her head, unaware of the dark wisp of hair that had fallen out of the twist at the back of her neck, softening her look even further. “I don’t understand.”
“Your business is failing, your house is falling apart, you owe tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes that you can’t pay. Your bank balance is in the single digits and you look like you haven’t slept in about a week.” He waited a moment. “How am I doing? Pretty close to the truth?”
She started to shake her head, but with a raised, knowing eyebrow, he stopped that denial. He almost kissed her when those shoulders stiffened and her chin jutted out once more. Defiance! Damn, he liked that! She might be at about the lowest point in her life, but she still had pride!
“That all might be true, but I don’t think it is any business of yours.”
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