Her lips brushed against his, so feather-light he wasn’t totally sure that their lips had actually met. A loud knock on the front door made Bethany jump away from him, breaking the kiss before it had even begun.
Kirk cleared his throat. “I’ll get it.”
When he opened the door he found his butler, Rathbone, standing in the threshold.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir, but you have a call waiting for you on the private telephone line in your study,” Rathbone informed him.
He frowned. “I’m not expecting a call at this hour.” Usually, calls on his private number were scheduled well in advance because he only took his most important business calls on that number. In fact, the number was so private it wasn’t included on his business card. Only the most sensitive conversations about SIB were ever discussed on that line, to prevent anyone listening in.
“It’s a long-distance call from your father,” Rathbone said, in his clipped British accent.
Kirk’s entire body tensed up. A call from his father was almost never good news. Especially when they were unexpected. “Tell him I’ll be out in a minute.”
Rathbone nodded. “Certainly, sir,” he murmured as he walked away.
He headed back into the living room and found Bethany flipping through her sketchbook. Discussing the almost-kiss wasn’t an option now, but he didn’t want to just leave without saying goodnight to her.
“I’ve got a call from my father that I have to take,” he said.
She looked up from her sketchbook. Right now, despite the fact that they had nearly kissed, she appeared totally unfazed. As if things had stayed strictly professional while she measured him. But he still felt the touch of her hand as it roamed all over his body as she measured him. There had been an unspoken heat between them while she had measured him, but now, the only telltale sign of that was the slight blush in her cheeks.
“All right,” she said.
“I’ll have my assistant wire the first half of your payment to you.” For some reason, simply walking away and leaving her behind for the night seemed like an impossible task. He liked her company, for starters. Plus, dealing with his formidable father was the last thing he wanted to endure.
“Thanks.” She smiled. “I can go fabric shopping after that.”
There was nothing left to say, despite his best efforts to wrack his brain for an excuse to stick around. With a nod of his head, he wished her goodnight and stepped out of the guesthouse.
WHEN HE GOT TO HIS study, he made sure to lock the door behind him. The Sterlings hadn’t held on to power by being careless. His study was the most secure room in the mansion because of all the business conducted in it.
Kirk sank down in the leather chair at his desk and grabbed the cordless phone receiver. “Dad.”
“Kirk.” His father’s deep rumble boomed in his ear. “I just got off the phone with your mother. She mentioned that she owed you some sort of favor and informed me that you want to share some of your ideas.”
That was surprising. He thought he’d have to nudge his mother into keeping her end of the bargain for weeks. “That’s right.” Kirk’s shoulders tensed. This was the moment he had been waiting for all this time. His mother had actually kept her end of their deal, and now was his chance to demand a bigger stake of SIB. “I want more responsibilities so I can prove that I’m the right man to take over as president of the bank someday.”
“Being vice president isn’t good enough?” his father asked.
As the vice president, Kirk was in charge of all the West Coast branches, while his younger brother managed the East Coast. But he wanted more than a rivalry with his younger brother. Wanted more than being a chess piece his parents maneuvered for their own glory. He wasn’t just the lucky son of two very ambitious people. While he might have only been twenty-two when his parents had taken the bank from the Livingstons, he had done his part to help them get the company.
“I don’t want good enough,” Kirk said firmly. “You and Mom took over the bank with my help. I haven’t ended up where I am because of some fluke. Yes, you and Mom led the takeover, but I was there every step of the way. The bank will be in the best hands when I become president.”
“Well, you’ve got grit. I’ll give you that.” His father paused. “But you still need to prove yourself. This expansion into Latin America still doesn’t sit well with me. I think we’ve bitten off more than we can chew.”
“Respectfully, I disagree with your assessment,” Kirk said. “Besides, I want to prove myself. Not get the job by telling you what you want to hear.”
Dad chuckled. “You might be a pain in my ass sometimes, Kirk, but I can always count on you to give it to me straight. You don’t bullshit me even though you want something from me, and that’s a sign of leadership.”
Relaxing a little, he leaned back in his chair. “So, are you ready to hear my ideas?”
“I’m ready to tell you what you need to do to succeed me as president.” His dad paused for a long moment, and Kirk could hear him chewing on a cigar. “Now, don’t take this as a sign of my early retirement, but I’m ready to name a successor.”
His heart started to pound. Finally, after all these years, Kirk was now close to taking his birthright. “Who are you naming?”
“I don’t know yet,” Dad replied. “Which is the purpose of my call. You say you want to prove that you’re the right person to take over after me. So, I’m going to give you that chance. This isn’t about your ideas. Even if I don’t always agree with your ideas, I know you think them through. This is about whether you have what it takes.”
Kirk frowned. “How else am I supposed to prove myself?”
“Kirk, we might be rich, but in this town that’s not enough,” his father started. “If we want any real, long-lasting power, the old-money families must accept us. Take us on as their bank of choice.”
“We already have a lot of clients,” he reminded his father. “We keep expanding outside of the bank’s usual markets.”
“True. SIB has a lot of clients. Big corporations, small businesses, newly-minted billionaires. That’s all well and good, but we need something that outlasts even money. We need ties. Alliances. Prestige. None of our corporate clients have been in their businesses for longer than thirty years. We need companies that can stand the test of time. If we can get old corporations and families in our pocket, that will seal our legitimacy.”
He mulled over his father’s words. “We wouldn’t be upstarts anymore. The business world would take us a hell of a lot more seriously.”
“Exactly.” His dad cleared his throat. “Lloyd Livingston just got out of prison. His release is only going to remind the old-money types that we’re the ones who snatched the company from him.”
As corrupt as Lloyd Livingston had been, many old-money families resented the fact that his financial empire had been taken over by nobodies. Worse, Kirk’s parents had forced Lloyd Livingston out before his arrest. Which meant that Kirk’s family owned the bank, making it impossible for the government to seize it when they had started to take away Livingston’s assets. The old-money families were so obsessed with status that they’d rather the Livingston family bank ended up in ruins than in the hands of the working-class Sterlings.
“They still can’t bring themselves to admit that our actions saved the bank from going down with Livingston,” Kirk said bitterly.
“And they will never admit the truth if we don’t show them that we can be like them,” his father said. “They don’t trust us because they think we’re too different. We can change that perception if we prove that we belong.”
“You want us to act like those privileged snobs?” Kirk shook his head. “I’m not spending my time going to polo matches and making small talk with tedious old men.”
“You will if you want to be my successor,” his father warned. “You might pride yourself on all the wealth you’ve acquired in your young life, but getting rich from good investments doesn’t impress these old families. Wealth is the bare minimum for them. We have to do more.”
He suspected this was heading down a road he wasn’t going to like. “So, I have to go to polo matches. That’s what you’re saying?”
“I’m saying you have to treat our family like the dynasty that you want it to be,” his dad answered. “Families at this level of the game rely on heirs. You need heirs. Stability. A long-lasting marriage like the one your mother and I have.”
Stunned at his father’s statement, Kirk got to his feet to start pacing up and down the study. His parents’ marriage had been something to behold. Two iron-willed, formidable people had gotten married and then clawed their way out of poverty. They had stuck it out through the worst times imaginable. Neither of his parents was the warm, fuzzy type, but they made their marriage work.
If he was being honest with himself, if he was going to be married he wanted his marriage to be just as strong. While he didn’t want a woman as cold as his mother, or as mercenary as his father, he definitely wanted a woman he could build a life with. The only problem with that was that he still hadn’t found the right girl. Not that he had worked hard to find her.
An image of Bethany flashed in his mind. He’d known her for less than a week. And yet he found himself thinking of her at the strangest moments. When he woke up. Before he drifted off to sleep. During intense meetings.
Sexual frustration had to be the reason he was so fixated on her. She was sensual, charming, and so very tempting. Plus, she was off limits. Of course, he was infatuated with a sexy woman he couldn’t have. That’s all this was. Nothing more.
“So, you expect me to get married…” Kirk frowned. The thought of being forced into a marriage didn’t sit well with him. He might not be the most sentimental man in the world, but if he ended up married he was going to marry a woman of his choosing. A woman he loved. Anything less was unacceptable. “I’m sorry, Dad, but I can’t just marry whoever it is you’ve chosen.”
“I haven’t chosen anyone,” his father muttered. “Not that I know what your type of woman is, beyond beautiful and money-hungry.”
“A lot of the women I date have their own money,” Kirk said with a heavy sigh.
“Yes, well, there seems to be a different woman every week in these tabloids your mother shows me,” his dad said.
“The tabloids exaggerate.” Annoyance made him speed up his pacing.
Sure, he dated a lot, but he was more of a serial monogamist than anything else. The problem was that his relationships fizzled out fast. He had always had a problem with finding a woman who was not only right for the professional life he was trying to build, but also right for him in his personal life. Problem was, most women understood the rigors of his work just fine. What they didn’t seem to understand was him. A lot of the time women saw dollar signs, his bank account, and nothing else.
Not that he could blame them entirely. After all, he was trying to get the old-money families to accept him, which was just as mercenary as anything women did to get at him. Because of the vicious cycle women were no longer a priority to him, if they ever were.
It was easy to get cynical and suspicious about dating, but his parents’ marriage served as a reminder. They had stayed together through everything life had thrown at them, and their marriage was as solid as ever.
“Maybe so, but you still need to project an image of stability,” his father explained. “Not only that, but you need to fit in with these old families. You can dine in the best restaurants, live in a mansion, and still not be enough. You’ve got to speak their language. Understand their tastes. If that means going to polo matches and understanding fine wine, that’s what you’re going to have to do.”
“You want us to turn into the Livingstons,” Kirk accused.
“That’s exactly what I want and I won’t apologize for it,” his dad said in a stern tone. “I want us to become an old family. I want us to talk like them, marry like them, get invited to their events, and have them come to us when it’s time to invest their money.”
He groaned. “There has to be another way—”
“There isn’t,” his father said flatly. “Don’t think you’ll be able to negotiate your way out of this. Your cousin’s wedding is in a few weeks. I take it you have a date for the occasion?”
His jaw clenched. Years of hard work were now being parlayed into him turning into some out-of-touch jerk like the rest of the blue bloods in town. “I don’t.”
“Well, get one,” his dad commanded. “Showing up with a date shows you’ve got a steady girlfriend. That’s what the focus needs to be on. Stability. A family that’s ready to create a new generation to take over. Understood?”
Like his father had said, there was no negotiating his way out of this. He was going to have to start to blend in with the old families no matter how much he despised the idea. “Yes. Understood,” he answered through gritted teeth.
“I probably won’t make it to the wedding, but your mother most certainly will. She’ll report back to me, so you will be following my instructions. Goodnight.” His father hung up before he could get in another word.
Cursing loudly, Kirk set the phone back down on his desk. His annoyance was turning into indignation and anger at the task his father had set out for him. He had gone to business school, negotiated impossible deals, and now his father expected him to secure his position by dragging a woman to a wedding.
Who the hell was he going to ask on such short notice? At this moment, the only woman he was interested in was Bethany.
