Enticing the Ex Read online

  Dear God, the man still took her breath away. He was even more beautiful than she remembered. Tall and dark, he had golden-brown eyes and the most dazzling smile she’d ever seen with the deepest, adorable dimples he’d always hated. The years had been very good to him, filling out his chest and shoulders. Either that or the heavy winter coat he wore gave her overactive imagination too much to play with.

  How the hell was she going to get through a one-on-one meeting with him tomorrow? Maybe he would defer to Derrick once he saw her. That would sting, but she wouldn’t blame him for wanting nothing to do with her. And maybe it would make the whole transaction a little easier.

  To be honest, this entire event was harder than she thought it would be. As soon as she set foot in the airport, her knees had gone weak. So much had changed: the airport was now triple the size it had been when she’d left, all the roads were bigger, and housing encroached on what was once miles of empty fields.

  Growth and economic sprawl had trashed her sweet memories of the little town she once called home. Funny how this was the same place she claimed stifled her future.

  The plaguing question of what could have been screamed at her, as tears she was desperate to hold back threatened to break free.

  The next morning, Regan parked her rental in the space reserved for Tim McKinsey in the garage built beside Fifth and Fifth. Parked right next to the elevator, Regan gathered up her tote, as well as her courage, and entered the lift, selecting floor fifteen. As the doors opened, she was presented with two glass doors, one of which had BDG LLC etched in the glass, Brett’s and Derrick’s names proudly displayed underneath.

  What happened to the guy who was content to work for his father’s custom furniture business for the rest of his life? Hell, when they’d married, he hadn’t even cared about going to college. He was more than happy to work nine to five, Monday through Friday, with little concern about their futures.

  Apparently, his new wife had convinced him to want more out of life. A bitter pill to swallow, considering Regan had never persuaded Brett to do more than the bare minimum.

  She opened the door, and a gentle chime announced her arrival. Derrick, just as handsome as she remembered, and all grown up after all these years, came around the corner. His dazzling smile morphed into a mask of confusion as his eyes lit up with recognition. “Regan?”

  She swallowed hard, putting her hand out. “It’s been a long time, Derrick.”

  He glanced at her hand and then over her shoulder before coming back to meet her eye. “What are you doing here?”

  Awkwardly, she let her hand drop to her side. “I was invited. I represent Mr. McKinsey and the Munro Corporation.”

  “Oh, shit. Please tell me you’re not Mrs. McKinsey.”

  “No.” She shook her head, turning to glance over her shoulder as the chime announced another arrival. “Ms. Grayson.”

  Brett came off the elevator, surprised to see a woman—curvy in all the right places—talking to Derrick. It wasn’t until he let his gaze slide up the back of a pair of killer legs he noticed the very distinctive birthmark on the back of her right calf.

  He’d know that mark anywhere, as he’d traced it with his tongue enough times over the six years they were together.

  Entering the room, Brett got the wind knocked out of him as she turned to face him, the words “Ms. Grayson” coming out of her mouth.

  She sucked in her breath and took a step back, obviously just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

  Brett recovered first. “Regan.”

  Damn, she looked good. She’d cut her long hair, leaving it in a wispy bob that lay playfully around her high, round cheeks. No longer platinum blonde, she’d allowed her hair to return to a natural strawberry red color, which made her skin seem even creamier than he remembered. A pair of deep, brown eyes and thick, dark lashes stared back at him.

  Nodding, she licked her heart-shaped, pouty lips. “Brett.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  She rolled her shoulders. “As I was telling Derrick, I was invited. BDG sent us a compelling proposal, and I’m here to see if this could be a profitable business venture for Munro Corporation.”

  His eyes went wide and jaw dropped. How screwed were they if Regan was the deciding factor whether Munro fit within Spring City’s growth plans? She’d always hated this town and thought it was too small to be worthy of anything culturally relevant.

  Derrick cleared his throat. “Do you mind if I have a word in private with my brother, Regan?”

  She waved them away, placing her tote in a chair. “No, I’d expect nothing less at this point. Do you mind if I take off my coat?”

  Brett shook his head, snapping out of the stupor he felt sucked into. He reached out as she shrugged out of her coat and folded it over his arm. Oh God, she still wore the same perfume. The scent burned into his memories, wafting up from the wool fabric. Floral, with a hint of warm, amber musk, unlike anything he’d ever smelled before or after her. Or maybe it was how she wore the fragrance that made it so great.

  Regardless, it took everything within him not to press it against his face and breathe her back into his soul.

  “Let me take that for you. If you’d follow me into the conference room, would you like coffee, water? We have both on the sideboard.” He motioned to a Keurig and pitcher of water.

  She gave a tight-lipped smile. “I’ll help myself. Go do what you got to do.”

  He hung her coat on the rack behind the door. Giving her a once over, he blew out the breath he’d been holding. “You look good, Regan. I’ll be right back.”

  The shock on her face was worth his admission as he left the conference room and walked into Derrick’s office, closing the door behind him.

  Derrick paced behind his desk, his jaw clenched. “Did you know?”

  Brett furrowed his brow. “Did I know what?”

  “Did you know she worked for Munro? Is that why you picked them?”

  “Whoa, man, back the fuck up. I had no idea she worked for Munro. I picked them after a lot of careful analysis and conversations with Evelyn and Alisha about who and what would be best for this area.”

  Derrick plopped into his chair and ran his hands over his face. “This is a shit-show in the making.”

  “Did I hear her correctly? She still goes by Grayson?” Brett could barely believe it. Why would she keep his name after all this time? It certainly explained why he never found her on the rare occasion he’d googled her name. He hadn’t thought to look for Regan Grayson, as he figured his name would have been the first thing she ditched.

  Well, second—him being the first.

  “Yeah.” Derrick pegged him with raised brow. “How you doing about that?”

  Brett sat in the opposite chair, popping his neck with a quick right and left jerk of his head. “I’m shocked, obviously. Not a word since she left, and she shows up here as a Grayson.”

  Frowning, Derrick scrolled through his calendar on his phone. “I’ll reschedule the appointments I have today and take her on the tours. It’s your choice if you want to accompany us tomorrow to city hall.”

  “Wait.” Brett jumped out of the chair. “You’re not taking this from me. We agreed I’d run this until I either signed the deal or cried uncle. I haven’t cried uncle yet.”

  “I know, but that was before Regan walked into this office representing exactly who we want and need. You’re telling me after what she did to you, you want to spend two days courting her to get to Munro? This is a delicate dance under normal conditions, but she represents a huge problem and a cluster of left feet.”

  Exactly who we want and need. How hard had Derrick hit Brett’s exact thoughts on the head? She’d been exactly who Brett wanted and needed when they’d married. But that was then. Now he had a business run, and an opportunity to prove himself. He wasn’t walking away, no matter what obstacles they threw in his way.

  “I’ll do what I have to do to prove Munro belongs he
re. Sure, Regan’s going to be a harder sell, but you sold me on the idea three years ago, so now let me sell it to her.”

  Derrick grumbled and stood up. “Shit. Let’s get in there, then.”

  Leading the way, Brett found Regan with her back to them, staring out the windows at the city below. Without turning around, she mused, “Who’d have thought there’d ever be a twenty-story building in the heart of Spring City?”

  “A lot has changed since you left,” Brett said.

  She turned, casting her beautiful, brown gaze on him, her lips spreading into a small smile. “I see that. It’s all grown up now.”

  His blood heated under her gaze. Dammit, she’d always had that power over him. He returned her smile with a wry grin. “It was bound to happen, eventually.”

  She laughed. “Indeed. Look, I know it’s a shock to have me standing here, but I think you’ll feel better once I lay my cards on the table.”

  Brett nodded and motioned for her to take the seat across from him.

  Derrick sat beside him, leaning back in his chair. “Please, continue.”

  Blowing out a breath, Regan’s gaze danced around the room before bouncing between him and Derrick. “This is a huge opportunity for me. My boss has no idea about our past, and I plan to keep it that way. I’ll conduct this visit like I would any other, with detached emotion and pure logic.”

  Brett narrowed his gaze. Yeah, she’d know all about detached emotion. Maybe he wasn’t the best person to court her for the next two days. All kinds of feels were bubbling up in his chest, pain and betrayal dancing with lust and bittersweet memories.

  She continued. “Our past will not affect this transaction, nor will it benefit it. If the data presented coupled with your future plans sell Fifth and Fifth as the next best location for Munro, I’ll back it wholeheartedly.”

  “Seems fair enough. What do you think, Brett?” Derrick snapped him out of his thoughts.

  “Yeah. Let’s get to it.” He checked his watch. They had just over an hour before brunch, but fifteen minutes less than he’d planned to tour the empty space below where he hoped the next Munro department store would soon thrive.

  3

  Regan followed Brett to the elevator, surprised when Derrick didn’t accompany them.

  “Is it just you and me?”

  Brett nodded without saying a word and pushed the second-floor button. While his chiseled jaw seemed clenched, his full lips looked soft and kissable as he stared straight ahead.

  Great. This isn’t going to be awkward at all.

  “So, tell me about this gentrification effort you’re championing here.”

  He sighed. “It’s really Derrick’s thing. Ever since he moved home from New York, he’s been motivated to drag Spring City into the next tax bracket.”

  “Derrick lived in New York?”

  “New York and Los Angeles. Like you, he desired big city living and all the great stuff that goes along with it.”

  She glanced at the floor. “Wow. I hadn’t realized he’d had those kinds of dreams.”

  Brett laughed, dark and humorless. “Yeah, I guess you picked the wrong Grayson.”

  The elevator stopped and opened to a massive empty space. She grasped his hard bicep, forcing him to stop and face her. “Maybe we should hash out this conversation and get it behind us.”

  He put his hands up. “No, I’m sorry. That was unprofessional. Let’s avoid personal connections and focus on the business opportunities we can both profit from.”

  Gesturing to the open space, he put his hand on her back and urged her to step forward. Regan fought the chill running up her spine. The heat from his large hand splayed on her back caused memories to surface she couldn’t afford to have.

  “This would be the top floor of Munro’s retail space. I’ve done research on some of your more successful stores, and multiple floors averaging one hundred thousand square feet fit your business model, which is what we have available here. Obviously, we hope to have Munro serve as the flagship for the new area, but they wouldn’t have to carry the economy on their own. Right now, we are negotiating with MAC Cosmetics, Apple, Williams Sonoma, and Victoria’s Secret, along with a few others.”

  Regan laughed. “Since when do you do luxury retail? Or any retail, for that matter?”

  “It’s my job to know...” He smiled. “But you know Evelyn and Alisha helped me.”

  She glanced around the open space, remembering how easy it could be when they got along. It had been so wonderful at one time, and then she’d messed it all up. Although she rarely admitted it to herself—much less aloud—she missed him.

  “This is beautiful. And with a bank of windows on each floor, the aesthetics and window dressings Munro could do with this space would be worthwhile.”

  Brett pointed out a few features. “Freight elevator in the back with passenger elevators on either side of the store. The bathrooms are next to them, and the escalator is in the middle. This space has pretty much everything Munro needs.”

  “Agreed.”

  Regan followed Brett down the escalator to pretty much the same open space, which was fine for their needs. Munro would want a blank slate, their design and marketing departments having specific plans for each of their stores.

  She couldn’t stop her gaze from drinking in the man Brett had matured into as he walked her through the space. Wearing a tailored suit fit to his broad shoulders, she’d never seen him looking so sharp—or big.

  What she’d seen last night was definitely not the result of a bulky winter coat.

  Considering they’d eloped days after graduation, she’d never seen him in a full suit, especially not with the body of a grown man. His jacket tapered in at the waist, which made her wonder how much muscle was buried underneath his clothing.

  As a football and basketball player in high school, he’d always been athletic, but after school he’d been content to work for his dad at the family business. Lugging around lumber kept him in shape, in addition to the weekends they’d spent hiking or camping, but she bet all of his muscle now was built in a gym.

  Just like her.

  That’s what working from sunup to sundown in the concrete jungle afforded you: another temperature-controlled building to sweat in. Not that she couldn’t drive out to one of Chicago’s suburbs to go hiking, but it was more efficient to hit the gym before stumbling home to her lonely apartment every night.

  She wondered if Brett worked out with his wife, like the two of them used to. Maybe they were members of one of those fancy gyms that had daycare and a play pool just for kids.

  The thought turned her stomach.

  “Regan?”

  She spun around to find him watching her with a raised brow. Had she been so lost in her thoughts and jealousy that she missed a portion of their conversation?

  “What did you say?”

  “You all right?”

  Plastering a smile on her face, she waved her hand over the space. “The space is perfect.”

  He nodded. “Are you hungry?”

  Considering it was past lunchtime in Chicago and she’d been too nervous to eat breakfast this morning, she was starving, and yet nauseous at the same time. “I could eat.”

  “Great, because we have reservations at Castilla’s Reserve.”

  She smiled. “I saw that on the agenda. Fancy, fancy, Brett. You guys were prepared to go all out for Munro.”

  He slid his hand to the small of her back, guiding her towards the doors with the sign parking garage entrance overhead. “And we still are. There is no reason for our plans to change, especially since your boss has no idea of our past, and as you said, it will not affect this transaction in the slightest.”

  “Correct.”

  “Then relax and enjoy the wine and dine, Regan.” He opened the door, a blast of cold air greeting them, reminding her she left her coat and tote upstairs. Before she could say a word, Brett pointed to an Audi RS5 Coupe in metallic green. “Your coat and tote are already
in the car. Derrick brought them down on his way out.”

  “Nice car. Is that yours?”

  Nodding, he opened the passenger door for her. “Yeah. A bit different from my old, beat-up truck, huh?”

  She gave him an appreciative once over, taking in the man all grown up, and disappointed she’d missed it all.

  “Everything is different.” With no one but herself to blame, she plastered on a smile and slipped into the luxurious leather interior already warmed to a comfortable seventy degrees.

  Brett closed her door, his heart hammering in his chest. His brain told him to keep his distance, and yet he couldn’t stop reaching out to touch her. How many times had he placed his hand on her back? How many times had he stopped himself from brushing away the wispy red curls that seemed drawn to her lips?

  The same lips he was desperate to claim as he had so many times long ago.

  There was no doubt in his mind, the next thirty-six hours were going to be the hardest of his life. But he wouldn’t cry uncle and punt to Derrick on this. He was determined to land Munro as a tenant and flagship department store for Fifth and Fifth.

  After that, he’d take a few days off and fall apart in private, but for now, this was business.

  If he had to keep reminding his body and heart of those dark moments in his life, that’s what he would do.

  Everything is different. What did that mean?

  “No, asshole. Don’t read into shit that isn’t there.” Brett grumbled as he walked around the back of the car.

  Sliding into the driver’s seat, he caught Regan’s eyes as they traveled over his body. Caught in his gaze, Regan’s lips parted, like a deer trapped in headlights. She cleared her throat. “This is a really nice car. Smells new.”

  Brett also cleared his throat, the car suddenly feeling tight and entirely too hot. He adjusted the thermostat, using the dual control to lower his side to sixty-five degrees. The idea she’s attracted to him after all these years set his blood on fire.