Want to know what I didn’t want to deal with?
Rome Cipriani.
The bodyguard that my brother insisted on was becoming the bane of my existence. I wasn’t even sure why I was putting up with him being my bodyguard.
Okay, fine…I did know why. It was because I loved my brother, and he simply wanted to ensure I was protected, so he was being extra diligent.
Rome was always with me. When I was at work, at the dentist, even getting my hair done, he was there. The only time I got a reprieve was when I was home. I honestly didn’t need a round-the-clock bodyguard. In fact, my life was rather boring and monotonous.
Well… as boring and monotonous as life could be for the CEO of the biggest corporation on the planet.
My father originally started Bly Enterprises when he was 20 years old. He took advantage of the less-than-stellar economy at the time and started a real estate investment company. From there, he transitioned into stock trading, then hospitality management, and here we were forty years later, with established companies in nearly every industry.
For all intents and purposes, Bly Enterprises ran the world.
And I ran Bly Enterprises.
With this job came publicity and fame. I wasn’t the biggest fan of either, but had adapted to it at a young age. For as long as I could remember, the paparazzi were always around, trying to snap photos of me and my family…and there was enough ‘fan mail’ to fill a storage unit in Queens. I had become desensitized to it all by the time I was in middle school.
My older brother, Will, was the opposite. The moment he’d turned eighteen, he had moved across the country to hide in the woods and separate himself from our company… from our father. Will had his trust fund, which set him up with his monstrosity of a mansion and hundreds of acres surrounding it. His days were spent in the lecture hall as a professor, and his evenings with his new family—the one he had made away from the chaos of our blood family…away from the abuse of our father.
I was initially skeptical as to why he would ever leave this behind, but seeing him now? It made sense. He had finallyconvinced his long-term girlfriend, Jackie, to marry him, and the two of them were happily living in Oregon.
He was supposed to be the successor to my father’s throne as Chief Executive Officer of Bly Enterprises, but with him gone, the role fell to me.
My father wasn’t pleased by this outcome, but his hands were tied. No matter what he did, he would never get Will to follow in his footsteps. He couldn’t even get him on the phone. It would take an army to bring Will back to New York City and take over the family business.
While my dad hated the idea of me running the company, he hated the idea of the company being outside the family even more.
My dad was having a hard time letting go. I had been promoted to acting CEO six months ago when he was supposed to retire, yet I was still answering to him. It was infuriating. I knew what I was doing. I was trained for this. I had a Juris Doctor from fucking Yale University. I had worked as CFO for years. Yet, my father didn’t trust me with his precious little baby, his favorite child…Bly Enterprises.
“Ms. Bly, we’re five minutes away,” my driver remarked.
He was new, I still hadn’t learned his name, but he hadn’t crashed the car yet, so I wasn’t complaining.
“Thank you.”
I tucked my book away in my purse and pulled out my makeup mirror to ensure everything was in place. I had an image to uphold and smudged lipstick wouldn’t do.
“Red’s your color,”heremarked from the other side of the town car.
I rolled my eyes. It was the only way to respond toRome.
Even his name was obnoxious. I was initially neutral about his presence…until he opened his mouth.
“Flirting with me goes against your contract.” I kept my focus on my mirror as I touched up my lipstick, but still caught the smirk out of the corner of my eye.
“Oh, Rebecca Bly, that wasn’t flirting.”
God, he was infuriating.
Truthfully, Rome was excellent at his job. I couldn’t fault him on that; it was everything else about him that I despised.
“Any word on what I should be expecting when I get home?” I asked, ignoring his comment. I found it easier to simply not entertain his flirtatious remarks.
“There are some paparazzi outside the building, but not too many at this time of day. It should be a fast and smooth entrance.”
I put my compact away and looked out the window as the towering skyscrapers of New York City passed by. I had lived here my whole life, but was still awestruck by the beauty. The buildings towered high above me as they moved slowly across the window's view. The traffic was never-ending in the city that never slept. While my brother found solace and family in the woods on the other side of the country, New York City was my home.
