Prologue
Ridge
"Do you have any special plans tonight?"
When I glanced up, my assistant’s attention was focused solely on me as she leaned against the doorjamb in a way that highlighted her long legs. Fiona’s makeup had been freshened up since I last saw her. If I wasn't mistaken, the skirt she wore was positioned a bit higher than it had been throughout the business day as well. My father's warning from the previous week came to mind as an uneasy feeling twisted in my gut.
“Careful with that one, she has stars in her eyes, and they get brighter around you.”
Fiona knew I was happily married, and she was one of the best, most professional, assistants who had come to work for me in more than a year. My personal assistant position had turned over very quickly a few times before Fiona came onboard, mostly due to inappropriate behavior from the women who had been hired or promoted to work by my side. When Fiona got right down to business after she was hired, I was finally able to take a breath and relax. The constant turnover had added undo stress to my job. It had also lengthened my work hours quite a bit, something neither my wife nor I was happy about. Since Fiona had proven herself not just competent but above board thus far, I’d blown off Dad’s concern.
"I'm going out with my lovely wife in just a bit." My eyes flitted to the clock that hung over the top of the door to my office. Since it was directly above where my assistant had perched, it was hard not to notice when she thrust her breasts out. The subtle movement of her leg, as she twisted it just so to cause her skirt to pull a bit higher, exposing more thigh, was also something I noted and quickly dismissed. Even if she was trying to make herself look more appealing, I wasn’t the least bit interested in anything beyond the fact that it was abnormal behavior for her.
"I bet I could give you a better present. You just have to want it bad enough to take it." Fiona winked as a sultry smile formed on her freshly made-up face. She had definitely gone through the trouble to touch her face up before she came to my office. "You only turn thirty-four once, after all."
"You know better,” I warned and immediately diverted my attention from my assistant back to the work in front of me. If I didn't finish going over this contract soon, I'd be late to pick up Violet, my wife of eight years. When I really stopped to think about it, it was hard to believe we had been married that long. I had met the love of my life exactly one year before we married, so most of the time we counted that year into our anniversary, too, since each of those special dates coincided with my birthday.
I wondered for a moment, if my assistant knew the true significance of the date, would she have even made such a silly attempt? The fact that it seemed so unbelievable, and out of character, was the only reason she was allowed to keep her job. It had to be a joke.
"Are you sure? Last chance to have the best birthday of your life," she offered again with a sultrier voice than I’d ever heard her use before.
“You do know that if I wasn't sure you were kidding right now, you wouldn't have a job anymore, right?" I asked my assistant. Fiona had worked directly under me for about six months. While she did an amazing job, constant harassment wouldn't be tolerated, and she knew that. It's why I'd fired the three women before her. They got a little too comfortable and thought they would be able to convince me to replace my wife.
Fiona giggled and then stood straight instead of leaning on the door. "I know,” she offered in a teasing tone. “You love your wife, and I love my job. Just wanted to make sure you smiled for your birthday." She winked again. It was a bit more awkward than her previous attempt as she quickly turned to leave. I didn't miss the way she glanced back over her shoulder longingly. My father might have been right about her having a crush, but he wasn't aware of how much she loved her job. Love of money, and a decent boss, outweighed any silly crush she might harbor. That thought, and not wanting to search for yet another assistant, was what solidified my decision to blow it off as a poor attempt at a joke.
"I've never had something like that,” I admitted to my wife as we both focused on the screen. “It always made me wonder what it would be like to walk into a surprise party and truly not know what was coming."
Violet giggled. "So, you've secretly always wanted a surprise party thrown for you?" I shrugged and then tickled her in retaliation for her teasing tone. "The problem with you important, filthy rich guys is that there's really no surprising you. Between all the security, the calendars keeping track of your every minute, and everyone you know doing the same, it's impossible."
I groaned in frustration. My wife wasn't wrong. It would take a miracle to pull off a surprise like that for me. Well, another miracle. "You were a complete surprise," I reminded Violet. "The best birthday gift a man could ever receive.”
We met nine years earlier, on my twenty-fifth birthday. Violet had recently turned twenty-one. I don’t even remember what drew me to Clear Lake Park in the middle of a Tuesday. Work had been particularly taxing, and I needed fresh air. That’s what I told myself then. Somehow, it felt more like fate had a hand in what happened that day. As I walked along the lake the town was named for, I turned at the sound of a child’s shrill cry and then pleased giggles.
Just as I turned my attention back to the path I was on, a woman - who had also been caught up by the little girl’s joy - ran right into me. She had been jogging from the opposite direction. I stumbled back from the force and caught the lady around her upper arms to steady her. At first, all I could see was a puff of auburn hair. I made sure she was stable on her feet again before I moved to let go. As I did, the woman’s eyes came up to meet mine and I couldn’t look away. They were such an odd, stunning shade of blue that I would dare call them purple instead.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry,” she whispered as I continued to stare.
“No worries, I think we both got distracted for good reason.” I tipped my head in the direction of the family with the giggling little girl.
“Her laugh was infectious, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” I smiled down at the woman who wore navy blue, calf length joggers, white running shoes and a white, baggy t-shirt that looked to be three sizes too big for her frame. For a brief moment, I questioned if it belonged to a man in her life. Then she smiled at me, and it didn’t matter. I had to shoot my damn shot because there was no way I wanted to miss out on having the woman of my dreams aim that smile in my direction every day for the rest of my life if it was possible.
I was just about to follow through with that plan when the woman’s face screwed up in disgust and she huffed in frustration. “No, I’m not talking to myself, DD. Yes, I’ll be there tonight, I promise. I wouldn’t miss Tessa’s celebration for anything.”
It was then I spotted the device in her ear. She glanced up at me sheepishly and gave a quick shrug of her shoulders. “Sorry,” she mouthed to me before she slid around my body and started to jog away. “The Blue Fin,” the woman huffed. “Got it. I’ll be there at eight.”
At 7:45 that night, on my twenty-fifth birthday, I made my way into The Blue Fin with my cousin, Moreland. He shook his head and laughed at me when I told him why I’d picked this place to celebrate my birthday.
“You know that’s basically stalking, right?” Moreland asked. The asshole could get away with calling me out because he was my best friend and also my cousin. That’s why I tossed a smirk his way and chuckled along with him.
“Listen, if you saw her, you’d understand.”
“You only saw her for like two minutes tops after she crashed into you. And she was jogging, which meant she was probably a flushed, sweaty mess.”
He wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t been in her presence that long. That didn’t seem to matter. It was like that brown, fluffy bun on her head that caught the light just right to reveal deeper red tones, and those unusual eyes of hers had stamped themselves onto a piece of my soul and I couldn’t let it go with just a quick meeting. I had to know if there was more to her. There was a reason I went to that park to get some air. While it was close to home, it certainly wasn’t close to my office in downtown Atlanta. It had taken me almost an hour to drive to the park thanks to a traffic jam.
On any other day, I would have let the traffic influence my decision, turned back around, and called the drive to nowhere my thinking time to clear my head. It hadn’t been enough earlier. I’d butted heads with my father because he thought I was headed in the wrong direction with my career and the type of music I wanted to produce. More specifically, he was upset with my inability to pick a lane. My taste was too diverse for his liking. He didn’t understand that the hottest music was the stuff that crossed boundaries, blurred genre lines, and touched more people as a result.
