Tangling with the CEO: A Half Moon Bay Novel (Entangled Bliss) Read online

  Tangling with the CEO

  A Half Moon Bay Novel

  Annie Seaton

  Other books by Annie Seaton

  HOLIDAY AFFAIR

  ITALIAN AFFAIR

  OUTBACK AFFAIR

  DANGEROUS DESIRE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 by Annie Seaton. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Bliss is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit http://www.entangledpublishing.com/category/bliss

  Edited by Keyren Burgess & Wendy Chen

  Cover design by Jessica Cantor

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-62266-090-2

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition December 2013

  Table of Contents

  Other books by Annie Seaton

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover Annie Seaton’s suspense side with Dangerous Desire, from Ignite Books

  Indulge in romance. Read Annie Seaton’s Affair trilogy and escape…

  Find your Bliss with our Christmas anthology

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  For my two beautiful grandchildren, Benjamin and Charlotte, who were the inspiration for this story.

  Chapter One

  “Ouch.” Anastasia Delaney dropped the hammer and put her thumb up to her mouth. It was sure to bruise from the thump she’d just given it. There was only one more length of decorative beading to nail up around the window frame and then she would have to leave for the meeting she was dreading so much.

  The years had flown by since she and her two best friends had started the restoration department at Joe Hickey’s little hardware store in Nebbiton, California. Ana had spent years in her gramps’s toolshed when she was growing up and had a natural talent for working with wood. Sienna was the artist who worked on the delicate moldings and painting. Sienna’s twin sister, Georgie, was the jack-of-all-trades who could turn her hand to any task. Their company’s reputation had grown and they always had plenty of jobs booked in the old cottages along Highway 1.

  Ana loved nothing more than working with the friends she’d known since grade school. She blinked back a tear at the pain in her thumb and the thought that this could be their last restoration job together.

  “I will miss this so much once the takeover goes through and our department is shut down. We do damn good work, girls.” Ana ran her hand lovingly over the highly polished window frame. “It’s just unfair. Why does everything have to be about profit? We use quality materials, and look at our results.”

  “Don’t be so negative.” Sienna wandered in from the balcony and stood beside Ana. “We’re not going to give up until we know for sure our jobs are gone.”

  Georgie frowned from the top of the ladder where she was hanging curtains at the other end of the bay window. “You can’t be late for your appointment. You should have left already. And you haven’t even changed.”

  “Changed?” Ana brushed the sawdust from her sleeves. “What’s wrong with my work clothes? I’m a tradeswoman.”

  “No. You are a successful businesswoman and you’re meeting with a head honcho of the biggest chain of home improvement stores in the country. He might also be our future boss.” Sienna reached into her pocket and held up a set of car keys. “I came prepared. You’re taking my car and you’ll find a suit and heels on the backseat.” With a languorous wave of the paintbrush she was holding in her other hand, Sienna stared at Ana. “My sporty little car will impress the hotshot executive.”

  Ana looked down at her paint-splattered overalls and sighed. “Maybe you should be the one to go and convince him not to shut us down.”

  Sienna waited for Georgie to climb down the small ladder and then she put the paintbrush on the bottom rung. “Look, we’ve been over this. You knew this guy in college, so that has to give us a bit more bargaining power.”

  “Blake Buchanan worshipped the dollar when we were at USF, so I don’t think we’ll have any chance of him reconsidering the closure of our section.” Ana sat on one of the upturned buckets and looked up gratefully as Georgie passed her a cold drink. “And I didn’t mention it before, but we parted on bad terms, so it’ll probably give us even less chance of saving our jobs.”

  She turned to the large window that looked out over Half Moon Bay. The ocean was a sheet of silver with not a breath of breeze ruffling it. More unusual was the absence of any fog. Just a dull silver sky reflected in the sea. The magnificent view calmed her nerves a little as she sipped the cool water. She didn’t want the twins to know she and Blake had been more than mere acquaintances when they were roommates in the house he’d owned ten years ago.

  Even though they’d both been studying for a business degree, their philosophies had been so very different. Blake’s emphasis on conservative economics had been at odds with her study of welfare economics, and they’d eventually agreed to disagree when their arguments had become too heated. Though their discussions had been stimulating and Ana had loved sparring with him. Most evenings she would bait him with a provocative comment about her day in class just to get a rise out of him. He was so passionate about his beliefs that he fell for it every time. She’d loved watching his eyes darken and his sexy mouth lift in a smile when he realized she was teasing him. She had instigated many a discussion just so she could watch his face come alive. And she’d fallen a little more in love with him the longer she stayed in the house.

  “We were absolute opposites in everything and we fought like cats and dogs,” Ana explained to her friends. “He even listened to classical music. I mean, who does that in college? That was my heavy metal stage and it drove him crazy.”

  “What else?” Sienna’s beautifully made-up eyes were fixed on Ana’s face.

  “You know how I love football?” she continued. “I used to go to the games at Candlestick Park with the other guys and Blake would be off playing golf or something equally as snooty.”

  Georgie giggled. “Are you sure you aren’t being too hard on him? You did go through a pretty wild stage in college.”

  “It all came to a head one night after we’d been to a 49ers game. We came home and Blake was waiting on the porch and he read me the riot act about the state of my room. God, even Mom didn’t do that.”

  Sienna picked up her paintbrush, her eyes narrowed. “Maybe your mom should have?”

  “Thanks, pal.” Ana wasn’t offended. She was used to being teased by her friends. She’d lived in chaos then and she still d
id. There just wasn’t enough time to run a business and finish restoring her old cottage. Keeping everything tidy didn’t pay the bills. “Anyway, I’d had a couple of beers at the game so I told him he had no right to be in there, called him a sexist pig, and slammed the front door in his face. I locked him out of his own house.” She smiled at the memory. “The other guys went to bed and Blake sat outside, cooling his heels until I let him back in. There was a ladder he could have used to climb up to a window but I knew he was terrified of heights.” She chuckled and then sobered. “Then I got the call about Mom the very next day and moved home. You know the rest.”

  Actually, they didn’t.

  They knew she’d given up college in her senior year to come home and nurse her mother through the final stages of breast cancer, but she’d never told anyone about that final night with Blake. It was a delicious memory, one she’d pulled out and relived during the tough nights when her mother had been dying.

  When she’d decided to let him back in, Blake had been sitting on the front steps looking down at the bay and he’d ignored the open door behind him. Ana had stood quietly for a moment drinking in the sight of him before she’d called to him softly.

  “Blake.” His broad shoulders strained beneath his white polo shirt and his dark hair curled over the collar. A shaft of pure longing shot through her. “I’ve opened the door for you.”

  Ana’s fingers had itched to run through his hair, and she’d fought the urge to go and sit on the step next to him in the moonlight.

  “What are you looking at?” he’d asked.

  Heat had suffused her face at the thought of being caught checking him out, and she covered up her discomfort by teasing him.

  “Couldn’t you find the ladder?” She’d put her hand up to stifle the giggle rising in her throat. “I was just wondering if it was safe to let you back in. Or have I pushed your buttons again?”

  Slowly, Blake had pushed himself to his feet and turned around. Ana had edged back through the door, unable to read the look on his face in the shadows, but his stance was predatory. In one swift movement, he’d jumped up the last step and before she could get inside, he’d pinned her against the wall of the porch. Ana had tried to cover up the feelings rioting through her with a nervous laugh.

  “Let go.” She halfheartedly tried to pull away, but he’d laced his fingers though hers and held her hands above her head.

  “Anastasia, you always push my buttons, and you don’t even have to try.”

  She’d been trapped between Blake and the wall, and when she’d looked up at him, her breasts had pressed into his hard chest. With a soft groan, he’d lowered his head and gently slid his lips across her cheek. “You drive me crazy, do you know that?”

  With each word his mouth had gotten closer to hers until they’d hovered over her lips. “The way you walk, your voice, your laugh, that hippie perfume you wear. I can’t get you out of my head.”

  She’d smiled at him and eased her arms from his loose grasp, taking his face between her hands. “I can’t stop thinking about you either,” she’d whispered. “And I’m sorry I called you a sexist pig.”

  That first kiss they’d shared on the front porch had been slow and soft. The fresh smell of his sweatshirt had surrounded her as he’d held her close and to this day, the fragrance of clean washing reminded her of that first kiss. The feel of Blake’s warm mouth on hers was everything she’d dreamed of, and she’d closed her eyes as a delicious languor drifted through her. She’d sensed he was holding back and that it was up to her to let him know it was okay to take it further. Maybe he’d known it was her first time, and she needed to let him know it was what she wanted.

  Finally, she’d smiled against his mouth and murmured, “My room or yours?”

  He’d lifted his head and even in the dim light she could see the laugh lines crinkle around his eyes, and the warmth stirred low in her belly as he’d held her gaze.

  “Is your bed clear?”

  “It’s made, but it’s covered in…er…stuff.”

  “I guess it’s my room, then.”

  “So are you going to stand there daydreaming all afternoon, or are you going to go to San Francisco and save our jobs?” Ana jumped when Sienna dangled the keys in front of her face.

  “All right, I’m going. But be prepared for disappointment. Blake was a nice guy, but when it came to business, profit margins always came first.”

  Georgie shook her head. “I’ve been trying to tell you that for years. You can’t expect a small business to support every philanthropic activity.”

  “Well, Joe does.” The owner of the local hardware store that employed them turned a blind eye to a lot of the work they never billed out to the older folk. Joe’s family had opened the first general store on Main Street in Nebbiton in the 1850s, and he loved his hometown with a passion. “I can’t understand why he had to sell the business anyway, and to a huge corporation.”

  Sienna rolled her eyes. “Well, he’s almost eighty years old. He has no children to take over the store, and he and Magda deserve a nice retirement. She was looking at cruise brochures just the other day.” She nudged Georgie and winked. “She said she might as well read something because she was sick of waiting for our accounts to come in.”

  “All right, all right. No need to be snarky. I’ll do them tonight.” Ana reached for Sienna’s keys. “I will finish them, and when Blake comes to the store, we can show him how much business we pull in. That will convince him to keep us on. Besides, the community needs us.”

  Sienna yawned. “Two problems with that, hon. You’re the one meeting with him, and I have a feeling that may be the only meeting that happens. And do you really think a big company like Home and Hardware will care about the community? Maybe it’s time we faced reality and accept we are all going to be out of a job.” She folded her arms and gazed out the window. “I have enough put away that I can manage for a few months. I’ve already been offered a couple of days’ work at an art gallery in Carmel.”

  Disappointment pressed on Ana’s chest like a dead weight. It sounded as if her friends had accepted that their work was about to end. “Well, whatever you decide, Georgie and I can still keep the business running.” She turned toward the front door full of renewed determination. “I hate change. I really do.”

  Georgie cleared her throat.

  Ana turned around and groaned. “Oh, no. Not you too, Georgie?”

  “It’s just a backup. Just in case you can’t convince your Blake.”

  “He’s not my Blake,” Ana snapped. “And what plans have you made?”

  “Joe told me there will be a position in the new store for me. He knows I don’t mind working there when we don’t have renovation jobs.”

  Ana came back across the room and draped her arms around the shoulders of the two women who meant the most to her in the whole world. Since her mother died, she had no other family and she’d filled the emptiness with her work. Sienna and Georgie and her elderly friends in Nebbiton were her life.

  “It’s okay. I’m being selfish. Like I said, I hate change. But I will convince Blake to keep us on, anyway. No matter what it takes.”

  Sienna grinned at her with a wicked glint in her eye. “No matter what it takes?”

  Ana folded her arms and nodded. There was no way she was going to let her friends and the community down. It was just sheer bad luck that Blake was the new CEO. Their business was at stake and she couldn’t let her old feelings for him affect how she dealt with him now.

  Unless—she turned as a thought struck her, and stared out the window—unless there was some way she could turn it to their advantage.

  Two hours later, Ana parked Sienna’s two-seater red sports coupe across the street from the elegant Victorian mansion in Nob Hill, thanking whoever was looking out for her. A parking space in downtown San Francisco was like gold any time of day or night.

  Raindrops glistened in the watery afternoon sunlight and reflected a rainbow of colors acros
s the front porch of Blake’s stately mansion. Ana sat in the car for a moment and closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves as the memory of being kissed on that very porch slammed into her.

  Maybe she’d been a one-night fling to Blake, but she’d followed his stellar rise in the business world with interest after he’d gone to New York and completed his MBA. Okay, maybe her Internet searches were more than a passing interest—more like a hunger to fill the emptiness where her heart had once been. Last time she’d Googled him, he’d been managing a wilderness retreat in Alaska. After that she had made herself stop cyber-stalking him—it wasn’t healthy and she had plenty to fill her life without dreaming of an old flame.

  “Get out of the car. You’re not in college anymore.” She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. All of her old insecurities had come rushing back. She’d always regretted having to drop out of college, but she knew it had spurred her on to work harder to make the business a success. Just because she didn’t have a piece of paper didn’t make her any less capable, but it always bothered her when people asked about her qualifications. “It doesn’t matter that you don’t have a degree. You’re a successful businesswoman, now act like one.”

  So what if my dreams of New York and my MBA are history?

  She’d had a precious six months with Mom before she died, and her life had turned out just fine without a bachelor’s or master’s degree. So maybe she didn’t have a stellar Fortune 500 career like Blake and some of the others from their house, but the little enterprise she, Georgie, and Sienna had set up was successful and fulfilling.

  Who knows what might have come after our night together if I’d stayed and we’d talked?

  The next morning a gentle hand brushing her hair had woken her. Blake was propped up on one elbow gazing down at her, and his lazy smile had sent quivers rocketing through her.

  “I’ve got an early class, but I’ll come home straight after,” he’d said. “Wait for me?”

  He’d kissed her good-bye and lingered before he’d left for his class, and Ana had snuggled back down in his huge bed to wait until the ringing of the house phone had woken her from a deep sleep.