Chance on Love (19 page)

No, it was something deeper and far more significant. With the walls she’d built around herself, he doubted he would ever get any insight.

She released a satisfied sigh as she stared wistfully at the screen when the movie ended.

Chance raised his eyebrows. “Was it really that good?”

“Of course. It’s one of my favorites, actually. Weren’t you watching it?”

He looked at her in disbelief. “Uh, no.”

Laughing softly, she glanced at him. “Not enough blood and gratuitous violence, huh, Valentine?”

“Not even close.” Smiling, he dodged the pillow she threw at him. “What was so good about it?”

She lifted a shoulder. “It was a story about love.”

“And
you
like stories about love?”

“I love stories about love,” she corrected. “In fiction, there are soul mates and happily ever afters. In life...” She took a deep breath. “Not so much.”

“It works out for some people.”

“Not enough.” She grew quiet as she stared down at the bed.

Chance wasn’t sure why he was compelled to ask, but he had to know. “Will you ever get married, Love?”

“Never.”

He smirked. “You say that with certainty.”

“I
am
certain.” Flopping onto her back, she gazed up at the ceiling. “With my shit luck, I’d be either divorced or a widow in less than a month.”

“Yeah, because you’d either drive him fucking crazy or you’d kill him.”

She shot him a dirty look, but smiled when he chuckled. “Seriously,” she said, “it wouldn’t work, but that’s fine because I wouldn’t want marriage anyway.”

“Why not?” he asked quietly.

“I didn’t have the best role models for marriage when I was growing up, okay?”

It was clear he shouldn’t press that particular topic now. “Don’t you want kids?”

“God, no.” She shook her head and laughed. “Me with kids...  Right.” She chewed her lip for several long moments before turning to look at him. “Do you?”

Chance folded his hands under his head. “I’ve never really thought about it before. I guess it would be nice, though—a couple of little rug rats running around. I’d play ball with my son, maybe show him the ropes in the corporate world when he got older. My daughter...” He smiled. “Well,
she
would be spoiled beyond belief.”

Love watched him quietly for a while and then she simply nodded. A few seconds later, she wrinkled her brow. “Wait. Are you going to show your
daughter
the ropes in the corporate world?”

“Well, I suppose I—”

“And are you going to play sports with
her?
” She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a chauvinist, Valentine. Your son gets the good stuff and your daughter gets pampered and coddled. Nice.”

He groaned. “Shut up. I’ll spoil my little girl if I damned well want to.”

“I hope that poor child’s mother has the balls to limit that a bit.”

They shared a smile.

“Don’t worry. I won’t even entertain the notion of tying the knot until I’m at least in my mid to late forties.”

Love frowned. “You want your wife to
start
having babies in her mid to late forties?”

“Who the hell said we’d be the same age? She’s not going to be a day over twenty-five.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Pig.”

Chance winked. “Back to the movie...”

She laughed. “What about it?”

“Why is it one of your favorites?” She opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted. “Other than the ‘fact’ that it’s about love, which only exists in fiction.”

“Well, it was funny, too. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with him at first, but circumstances kind of...brought them together. She ended up having to rely on him and just when it looked like he’d screwed her over but good, it turned out he hadn’t.”

He stared at her. “They were in love.”

Nodding, she looked at him. “They just didn’t want to admit it.”

Their gazes remained locked on each other until Chewy jumped onto the bed and barked.

“What’s
his
problem?”

“Your weird taste in movies.”

She faked a laugh. “You’re hilarious.”

Grinning, he got up and put on his boxers. “He just wants to go out. Come on, boy.” He noticed the look Love was giving him. “I’m only taking him out to the balcony. He has one of those portable grass things for late night calls of nature.”

When she just stared at him, he chuckled. “Never mind.” He headed for the bedroom door and Chewy eagerly followed. Chance stopped and turned back. “You know,” he said, eyeing her necklace, “you can take that thing off any time now.”

She frowned. “I’m thinking about wearing this shit to the
gym
.” Then, she smiled. “Hurry back, Valentine. I have more plans for you.”

“Are you trying to kill me?” he asked with a smirk.

She tilted her head and gave him a sly smile. “What do you think?”

Chapter 23

They were both well and truly exhausted by the time they dragged themselves into the mansion the next morning. Love kept yawning, which in turn made Chance yawn. When she did it three times in a row, he’d had enough.

“Will you cut it out?” he asked right before yawning.

“I can’t help it. I need coffee.”

As he led them to the small conference room next to Ross Lucas’s office, Rupe turned his head in their direction. “There’s some in the conference room, Miss.”

“Hot damn.”

Chance elbowed her.

“I mean, uh...” She cleared her throat. “Very well then, chap.”

Frowning, Chance looked at her and mouthed, “What?”

“Shut up,” she muttered.

He tried to hold back his laughter at the confused look Rupe had given her, but he was failing a bit. His shoulders shook slightly.

“Shut
up
,” she repeated under her breath.

They made it to the room just as Luke rounded the corner. “You go on in and get some coffee, Love.”

She looked back as she entered the room. “Want some?”

Chance choked back a laugh. “Uh, thanks, I’ll get mine myself.”

“That was an accident.”

“And still...” He shook his head.

Her eyes shone with mischief. “Suit yourself,” she said, disappearing into the room.

Chance heard his brother’s deep chuckle behind him and he turned. “What?”

“I can’t believe you, man.” His light blue eyes crinkled in amusement. “I let you off the hook last night. You know,” he shrugged, “in honor of Gammy’s birthday. But Chance, really...you’re getting married? Say it ain’t so.”

Chance sighed. “It ain’t so.”

Luke cocked his head. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Thank God,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I thought for sure you’d lost your fucking mind.”

Not yet, but he felt like he was coming closer with each passing day.

Luke lowered his voice as he leaned forward to peek into the room. “She’s pretty damned hot, though.” He looked at Chance. “Tell me you’re getting some of that.”

He winced.

“What? We tell each other this kind of shit all the time, man.”

That was true enough, but he didn’t feel comfortable talking about Love as if she were a piece of meat. “We’re just...coworkers.”

Luke laughed, clamping his hand down on his brother’s shoulder. “Now you’re scaring me. Not wanting to share the dirty details, lying about your relationship with this woman.
Something’s
going on, that’s for sure.”

“I agree,” Ross Lucas said, coming to stand beside the two men.

Chance ran a hand over his face as he expelled a frustrated breath.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” Luke said with a wink, before sauntering off down the hallway.

Chance made a preemptive strike. “Look, Grandfather, there’s nothing between me and Love. Let’s drop it, okay?”

Ross looked at him blankly. “No, that’s not okay. I don’t like having my intelligence insulted, Chance. You dropped the better part of a hundred grand on a necklace for that woman. Then, the two of you drag in here this morning looking plum tuckered out.” He stepped closer and narrowed his eyes. “What did you do last night?”

Chance looked away from his grandfather’s shrewd gaze. There was no point in denying he and Love had slept together. And that had been crossing the line enough—no way was he acknowledging having any kind of feelings for her.

He didn’t need to acknowledge that because it simply wasn’t true. She was a brat. An intriguing, exhausting, smart-ass, gorgeous brat, but a brat nonetheless. “I’ve considered your suggestion.”

“Good,” Ross said, nodding. “And?”

Chance stole a glance into the conference room to make sure she was still a safe distance away. “I don’t feel there’s any need to fire her.”

Ross let out a husky bark of laughter. “So you’re finally admitting you have feelings for her?”

He sighed. “Of course not. It would be stupid to let her go, that’s all. Nothing matters except the bottom line, right, Grandfather? Well, she’s an asset to the station. We’d only be hurting ourselves in the long run.”

Ross gave him a hard look. “We’ll find another asset.”

He crossed his arms. “Why is it so important that she be fired? We’re not dating. I don’t have feelings for her. I’m certainly not in love with the woman so this is—”

His grandfather waved a dismissive hand. “Just get it done.”

“
You
get it done. Why do I have to fire her? Would that give you a secret thrill?”

“Secret, my ass, boy. It would prove you still have balls.” Ross chuckled. “Of course, if you’d
prefer
I do it, rest assured I’ll handle it. Right now, in fact.” He walked toward the door of the conference room.

Chance shot out his hand and placed it on his grandfather’s chest, halting him. “Fine.” Ross Lucas was one heartless bastard when he wanted to be. He didn’t doubt at all that the man would waltz into the room, blithely announce Love was fired, and then go on about his day.

She deserved better than that and, damn it, he’d make sure she got it since it seemed the choice was no longer his. It looked like she was destined to lose her job after all.

****

Stephanie listened intently as the men discussed KMLP’s market share, profit losses, and a new strategy to bring up ratings. She was fascinated. Chance’s father, Grant, was sure they should give it until the end of the year and then cut their losses by selling the station off.

Mr. Lucas wouldn’t hear of it, and Chance didn’t much care either way. It was a stalemate.

“Ross, really, there’s only so much money we should put into this. Reorganizing staff is one thing and, yes, it may have helped a bit, but that’s putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It’s just not enough.”

Mr. Lucas waved his comments away. “There’s an opportunity here, son. We can’t go in timid or half-ass, we have to go in guns blazin’.” He looked at Chance. “Do whatever’s necessary even if we may not particularly like it. Isn’t that right, boy?”

Chance sat there with his arms folded and jaw set. He grunted a response.

She frowned, wondering what had happened with him now. There wasn’t time to worry about Valentine’s precious feelings, though. She had her shot at impressing the head of the corporation. And she damned well intended to make the most of it. She cleared her throat. “Gentlemen, if I may...”

Mr. Lucas and Grant continued to argue, not paying her a bit of attention.

“Excuse me,” she said with a bit more volume.

Grant went on, not hearing her. “—that would make us the laughingstock of broadcasting companies.”

“No, but being meek and timid about making serious changes
will.
”

Screw it. There was only so much meek and timid she could stand herself. “Hey,” she said loudly.

The two men stopped talking immediately and turned to look at her.

She took a deep breath. “With all due respect,” she said calmly. “I’ve been trying to offer a suggestion and I keep being ignored.”

Grant’s features softened. “I apologize, Stephanie. Do go on.”

Mr. Lucas chuckled. “No offense, sweetie, but you’re a glorified secretary. What we’re talking about here is a bit more important than getting donuts and filing papers alphabetically.”

Stephanie tilted her head. “Excuse me?”

Groaning, Chance dropped his head into his hands. “God...”

She leaned forward. “Well, Mr. Lucas,
sweetie
, I may be a glorified secretary, thanks to your grandson, but I wasn’t always that. I was the Assistant News Director at KMLP for four years and I
was
—” She shot Chance a look. “—on the fast track to becoming News Director before you decided to buy us out. I have two degrees and one of them happens to be in business.” She threw him a tight smile. “So I know a bit more than just how to file papers and get donuts, trust me.”

Mr. Lucas gave her a bemused look. “Who in the world do you think you’re talking to, missy?”

She tapped her foot. Oh, he was pissing her off now. She glanced at Chance, giving him a slightly apologetic look. Mr. Lucas was about to meet the real Stephanie Love. She turned back to the old man. “Someone who refuses to pull his head out of his ass long enough to hear a glorified secretary’s suggestion.”

She was sure to be instantly fired, which was the last thing she wanted, but she’d be damned if she allowed anyone to speak to her the way Ross Lucas had—including Ross Lucas himself.

Chance groaned again.

Grant’s mouth dropped open before he choked back a laugh.

Stephanie braced herself for the coming termination. She stuck her chin out, leveling a steady gaze at the brash old CEO as she stood.

Leaning forward, he clasped his hands on his desk and drew his eyebrows together. “Well, girl, if this suggestion’s so damn wonderful, let’s hear it,” he snapped.

“Well, uh...” Frowning, she tried to understand what had just happened. She cleared her throat as she sat down again. “I think you could consider changing the format—the news format anyway. That could bring in some ratings. KMLP could broaden their demographics.”

Mr. Lucas tilted his head. “Change the format?”

“Yes,” Stephanie said, more animated now. “Instead of a regular old news segment, maybe we could have something more like a talk show format. There could be guests...ones that pertain to particular news stories, of course. And we’d still have on location reports, naturally, so we’d still need reporters as well as the anchors.”