by Kate Pearce
She went toward her door, and Rio called out to her.
“Maybe that’s why I prefer bulls.”
Her smile was sweet. “Then maybe one of them will kick some sense into your thick head.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Come up to the suite, darling! We’re not ready to leave yet!” Isabelle said.
Yvonne sighed as her cunning plan to avoid Rio came crashing down around her ears. She’d hoped to meet the Martinez ladies in the lobby, but had obviously overestimated both their timekeeping skills and sense of hospitality.
She’d spent a sleepless night going through every moment of her evening with Rio and working out what she should’ve done differently. Did she regret making love with him? Even if it went against common sense and everything she held dear?
No, and the worst thing was that, if offered the opportunity again, she’d probably do the same thing. So what did that mean, and where did that leave her and Rio’s relationship? The fact that she was even contemplating changing her stance on having a relationship at all was mind blowing.
She got into the elevator, and went up to the top floor. There were only two doors opening off the lobby, and the Martinez one was already open.
“Hey.”
Of course it had to be Rio standing there waiting for her. She made herself meet his soft brown gaze and smiled. He wore a tight black T-shirt and jeans, and looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower.
“Isabelle told me to come on up. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Not at all. They are just finishing breakfast.”
He held the door open for her, and she resisted the urge to inhale him in as she went past.
“Thanks.”
She spotted Isabelle and Josie sitting at the table near the floor-to-ceiling window, and made her way over to them. At least they appeared to be dressed, and almost ready to go.
“Ah! Yvonne, my darling girl!” Isabelle waved at her. “Please sit down and have some coffee. Graham has lent us a driver for the day, so there is no need for us to worry about sore feet or too many bags.”
“Nice.” Yvonne took a seat and accepted the coffee Isabelle poured for her. Rio hadn’t returned to the table, meaning he might be somewhere behind her, which made her nervous. “Do you have thoughts about where you want to go?”
“I’d like to check out some vintage stores,” Josie said as she dabbed at her mouth with her napkin. “Mom will want to hit every single brand-name store in the city.”
“I don’t come to San Francisco very often, Josie,” Isabelle said with a smile. “I have a lot of pent-up need when I get here.”
Yvonne nodded at Josie. “I know some great vintage places that suit my budget. We’ll focus on your mother this morning, and then go farther afield to find what you like.”
Isabelle looked past her. “And what are your plans for the day, Rio, my dear?”
“I’m going to drop these signed documents back to Graham. After that, I’m not sure,” Rio called out.
“Then join us for lunch and come shopping!” Josie shouted. “I’ll text you to let you know where we are.”
“Okay.” He came to stand by his mother’s chair, and bent to kiss her cheek. “Have a good day, Mamae, and don’t bankrupt the ranch.”
“As if I would,” Isabelle scoffed. “That place means more to me that anything.” She patted his shoulder. “Thank your father for lending us his chauffeur, won’t you?”
“Of course.” Rio kissed Josie on the top of her head and dropped an envelope on her plate. “Graduation money. Enjoy.”
“Oh, wow! Thanks!” Josie squealed and jumped to her feet to give Rio a hug.
His amused gaze met Yvonne’s, and for a moment, there was nothing else worth doing but sharing a smile with him. Yvonne hastily dropped her gaze to her coffee and took a huge gulp. Okay, so she wasn’t getting over him any time soon. Time to think up a plan B.
“I’ll see you guys later.” Rio picked up his hat and went toward the door. “If you hear anything back from Tasty Treats, Yvonne, don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Will do.”
With one last cheery wave, he left the suite, closing the door behind him with a definite clunk. Yvonne let out a quiet breath. The first meeting after sex was always difficult, and that had gone okay—apart from the fact that she’d wanted to grab him and do it all over again.... She looked up to find both Isabelle and Josie staring at her expectantly.
“So is Rio going to talk to his father about the job offer after all?” Yvonne asked.
Isabelle wrinkled her nose. “What job offer?”
Inwardly, Yvonne cringed even as she tried to sound careless. In her efforts to misdirect conversation away from herself, had she just dropped Rio right in it? “Oh, nothing, I must have misheard what he said.”
“No, you’re right, Yvonne,” Josie chimed in. “I just don’t think Rio had mentioned it to Mom yet. Graham did offer Rio his job back. Both of them told me last night.”
“Well, why didn’t anyone tell me?” Isabelle shook her head. “Why is it a secret?”
“Seeing as Rio isn’t interested in the job, he probably thought it wasn’t worth bothering you about,” Josie said. “He hates Graham’s guts.”
“I know.” Isabelle put her coffee down. “And that’s my fault.”
“How did you work that out?” Josie asked.
“I was very young when Rio was born and I . . . probably shared too many of my fears and anxieties about his father with him. I needed a champion, but I should not have forced my son into that role, or used him against his father.”
“Seeing as Graham took full custody away from you, I should imagine Rio feels he has quite enough ammunition of his own to dislike the man,” Yvonne pointed out.
“He told you about that?” Isabelle was studying her intently.
“Yes, well, some of it anyway,” Yvonne answered. “Why?”
“Because he never usually talks about it.” Isabelle’s smile returned. “He must like you a lot.”
“We’re just good friends.” Yvonne shrugged.
“Yeah, right.” Josie snorted. “My brother is so confused right now that he doesn’t know which way is up.”
“We’re friends, really,” Yvonne repeated. “Neither of us is in a good place for a relationship right now.”
“Wow, you sound just like Rio.” Josie winked. “You two commitment-phobes are obviously made for each other.”
Isabelle patted Josie’s hand. “Now stop being rude to our guest, dear, and let’s get ready to go out.” She rose to her feet and smiled down at Yvonne. “I’ll call the driver and make sure he’s there when we get down to the lobby.”
* * *
Rio followed his father’s admin through the row of cubicles, aware that some kind of buzz, like a slow tidal wave of interest, was following along behind him. Had someone worked out his relationship to Graham and leaked the information to everyone on staff? It was highly likely. No company was without its gossips, and there might still be people around who remembered him from a few years ago.
“Aurelio!”
He turned toward the shout to see a familiar face grinning back at him from one of the offices.
“Frank! How are you doing, buddy?” Rio went over to shake hands. “I’m glad to see you’re still working here.”
“Someone has to keep everyone in order.” Frank smiled at him. “Congratulations on that world championship, by the way. I never thought I’d live to see Graham Howatch’s son on the back of a bull.”
“Thanks.” Rio hesitated. Frank was in charge of the San Francisco office when his father wasn’t around, and had been something of a mentor to Rio. “I owe you an apology for walking out all those years ago.”
“I understood why you had to go. Your father was ten times harder on you than on anyone else, and the pressure just got to you.”
“Thanks for being so nice about it.”
“We all felt for you,”
Frank said. “Graham isn’t the easiest man to work for, period, and with you, he became a tyrant. We were all placing bets on how long it would take for you to rebel.” Frank held up his hand. “Not that any of us wished you anything but good, of course.”
“It’s okay. I get it.” Rio nodded. “I still didn’t handle it very maturely, and I regret that.”
“You’re forgiven.” Frank smiled broadly and then leaned in. “Especially if the rumors are true, and you are coming back into the fold?”
“Not true, I’m afraid.” Rio found a smile. “I only came to help my mother with some legal matters. I’m back on the bull-riding circuit soon.”
“That’s a shame. The best way to learn how a company operates is to come onboard early so that when you take over, you’re familiar with the entire structure.”
“I’m not planning on taking over.”
Frank looked him right in the eye. “Then a lot of folks are going to be out of work.”
“I’m sure my father will find an amazing successor to his throne.”
“The thing is, he won’t even look. He’s determined to pass the company down to you.”
“Then he’s going to be disappointed.” Rio shook Frank’s hand again. “It was great to see you again. Give my best to your wife.”
“Will do. Nice to see you again, Aurelio, and I do hope you’ll reconsider.”
Rio carried on walking until he reached the open door that led into his father’s private sanctum. During his hectic tenure at the company, he’d gotten to know lots of his father’s employees all across the country. Would his father really let them all lose their jobs just because he couldn’t settle on a successor? Or would he leave everything to Rio and make him responsible for the mess that would follow?
Graham’s admin waved him through to his father’s office, and he went on in. His father was sitting behind his desk, typing away on his keyboard.
“Good morning, son.”
“Why haven’t you trained a successor for your little empire?” Rio asked.
Graham looked up at him over the top of his spectacles. “I beg your pardon?”
“Why haven’t you appointed a successor?” Rio repeated the words slowly.
“I’m not stupid. I heard what you said. I just can’t believe you require an answer.”
“Because you thought you’d have an heir?” Rio sat down in front of the desk. “Surely you made contingency plans?”
“I certainly have considered a variety of employees who have potential, yes, but ultimately none of them felt right.”
“If you’re considering stepping down, you can guarantee half your staff already know about it. Not having an obvious heir will cause uncertainty, and hurt the company.”
“That’s true.”
“Then why haven’t you promoted someone into that big empty office beside Frank’s? It’s not like you to risk the future security of a company you built from scratch.”
Graham shrugged. “Uncertainty also breeds competition.”
“And you’re way too young to be considering stepping down anyway.”
“You think so?”
“What are you going to do with yourself if you retire?” Rio asked. “You have no hobbies, you never take a day off, and you hate traveling.”
“A man can change his habits, Aurelio. When you were a child, I had to work extremely hard to ensure my survival.”
“Survival? Don’t make me laugh. You were already a multimillionaire in your twenties. You worked because you loved it.”
“I worked to support you and your mother.”
“Bull crap. You could’ve supported us on a fiftieth of what you brought home. You just liked making money. Mom and I were supposed to stay in the background and shut up.”
“As if your mother would ever do that.”
“You didn’t know what she was like when you married her though, did you?” Rio argued. “You had no idea she’d hand you your ass rather than be the kind of showcase wife you wanted.”
A reluctant smile warmed his father’s rather cold features. “She certainly proved to be a fighter.”
“But even she couldn’t prevail against your wealth and connections, could she? You got rid of her eventually, and kept me just to spite her.”
Graham frowned. “That’s not true.”
“I was there, remember?” Rio pointed out “That’s exactly what you did.”
“Your mother was . . . very young when we separated and very angry with me. I was concerned that she would struggle to bring you up in a manner in which I approved. I thought she might be taken advantage of because of her newly acquired wealth, and would marry unwisely.”
“Wow, you really didn’t know her at all, did you?” Rio shook his head. “Instead, she married someone even older than you, and almost as wealthy.”
“Which, if you remember, was when I finally let her have joint custody of you.”
“You thought Arturio would be a stabilizing influence on her?” Rio half-smiled. “He was like putty in her hands.”
“I . . . wanted you to have the opportunity to see your mother,” Graham said slowly. “Is that so hard to believe?”
Rio didn’t even bother to answer that.
“I also knew Isabelle would use every penny Arturio was worth to fight for you in the courts.” Graham hesitated. “I didn’t want to put you through that again.”
“So I should really be grateful to Arturio for taking my mother on,” Rio murmured, still unwilling to give his father credit for anything, but unsettled all the same. Did Graham have a point? Had he attempted, in his own way, to ensure that Rio was protected? “He did at least give me a stable home, unlike you.”
“You had a very stable home, staffed by the best money could buy, and the care of my new wife.” Graham stared him down. “A woman you attacked and threatened to kill, by the way.”
“A woman who used to shut me in my bedroom closet in the dark if I made any sound louder than breathing. A woman who beat the shit out of me when she thought no one was looking, and deprived me of food. Yeah. A very stable home. I was almost glad when you sent me away to that appalling school.”
Graham frowned. “Vanessa told me you were impossible to control. She showed me bruises and bite marks on her skin.”
“You might have been impossible to control if you’d been stuck in a locked closet all day, and then were physically attacked.” Rio held his father’s gaze. “Of course I wanted to fricking kill her.”
“I had . . . no idea about this.” Graham sounded shaken.
“Why would you?” Rio shrugged. “You were never there. She basically had a free hand once she’d replaced all Mother’s staff with her flying monkeys.”
“I’m sorry.” Graham met Rio’s gaze. “I truly didn’t know.”
“It’s in the past.” Rio shrugged. “I’ve gotten over it.” Eager to change the subject, he tossed the two folders he’d brought with him on his father’s desk. “I just don’t get why you need me now.”
“Is it so wrong of me to want my own flesh and blood to run my businesses for me?”
“In this case? Yes.” Rio sat forward. “It’s not like you to be sentimental.”
Graham looked out of the window. “Maybe I’ve changed. Maybe I’m concerned about all the people I employ losing their jobs if I don’t find a worthy successor or if the business gets sold and split up so that only the most profitable elements of it survive.”
“Why would you care? You’ve spent your life doing those very things to others. Maybe it’s time for you to see it from the other side.”
Even as he spoke, Rio couldn’t help but picture all the employees he’d met having to worry about their futures just because Graham was having some kind of personal crisis.
“You wouldn’t let the business go under just because I refused to play your games, would you?” Rio asked slowly.
“Why would you care, if you turn your back on the opportunity?”
“Because
destroying things in a fit of pique has never been your style. You’re a cold shark of a businessman, not a bleeding heart.”
“As I keep trying to tell you, maybe things are different now.”
Rio wasn’t getting into that fantasy world. He pointed at the two files he’d put on the desk. “Mom signed your paperwork. It all looks good.”
“Thank you.” Graham put the file in his outbox. “What’s the other one?”
“My proposal for the sale of Mom’s ranch to me.”
“Excellent. Let’s discuss that over lunch.”
Rio half-rose from his chair. “I wasn’t planning on sticking around—”
Graham met his gaze. “If you want me to consider your offer, then you owe me a few hours of your time. I have some business to take care of. You can accompany me. Then we can sit down together like civilized people, and discuss your offer, and my proposal. If you insist on disappearing again, I will not look at anything from you until I return home to Boston.”
Rio let out his breath. “Fine. Then let’s get on with it.”
* * *
Yvonne accepted the cup of coffee Josie poured for her and sat back on the couch.
“Take your shoes off,” Josie said. “I don’t mind. We’re practically family.”
“Thanks, I will.” Yvonne groaned as she kicked off her high heels and stretched out her toes. “Your mother could shop for America.”
“I know. She’s crazy, isn’t she? I’m not surprised she’s gone for a nap.” Josie grinned. “Thanks for taking me to those great vintage shops. Due to that timely infusion of cash from Rio, I was able to get some awesome things.”
“You both did great.” Yvonne yawned so hard her jaw cracked. She’d had a wonderful day out with two kindred spirits. If she never saw the Martinez ladies again, she suspected they’d remain friends for life. She really should get back to her hotel, but her body wasn’t willing to move yet.
The door into the suite opened, and Josie turned around.
“Hey, Rio. How was your day?”
Yvonne closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the couch. She was too tired to make a quick escape. If Rio wanted to talk to her, she’d let him. He was used to her falling asleep around him anyway.