A Tangled Engagement - Tessa Radley Mills & Boon Desire

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turned anything up. The market had settled down. Then this past week, the stocks had fluctuated, and yesterday the share price had been especially erratic.

      “Not if we stood together—we’d still hold the controlling interest.” Georgia’s knuckles were white as she clutched the pen like a lifeline. Jay discovered that his own hands were clenched just as tightly.

      “When have the three of you ever stood together?” scoffed her father.

      At the other end of the table, Charis dropped her pencil, and the sound was loud in the large boardroom. “Daddy—”

      “So what do you intend to do?” Roberta challenged the old tyrant, talking straight over her sister. “Give everything to Charis?”

      “I have three daughters—I must take care of each,” Kingston said with breathtaking sanctimony. Jay knew the wily old codger had never done anything that didn’t serve Kingdom—and himself—best. “But naturally, I will reward my most loyal daughter.”

      “Don’t you mean your favorite daughter?” The edge to Roberta’s voice was diamond-hard.

      Across the table, the gold pen fell from Georgia’s fingers with a thud. “My loyalty to you is beyond doubt.” The glitter of hurt in her eyes caused Jay to freeze. “I put in eighty-hour work weeks—heck, I don’t have a life outside of these walls. I haven’t had a vacation in over two years.”

      “That’s your choice.” Kingston shrugged away her plea.

      Georgia’s lips parted, but she must’ve thought better of what she’d intended to say. Eyes downcast, she picked up the pen and capped it, and then set it down on the legal pad in front of her.

      “You have been unusually silent, Charis. What do you have to say, honey?” Kingston’s chilly eyes defrosted as they rested on his youngest daughter.

      Charis raised her chin and faced her father down across the length of the table. “Nothing.”

      “Nothing?” A freeze returned to the blue eyes so disconcertingly like Georgia’s in color. “You will be more enthusiastic shortly, my daughter.”

      Jay felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as, taking his time, Kingston’s gaze rested on each of his three daughters in turn. “The incentive will be straightforward,” he announced. “Whoever proves their loyalty to me first will receive twenty-six percent of the total Kingdom stock—over half my share—and that should be a big enough block to give real power. The other two of you will split the remaining twenty-five percent.”

      Murmurs broke out around the table. But the three sisters sat like stone.

      Jay couldn’t bring himself to confront the bruised hurt in Georgia’s eyes. And he knew Kingston had barely gotten started...

      Kingston should not have been permitted to torment his daughters in such a cat-and-mouse fashion. Jay forced his hands to relax, smoothing over the stack of papers that contained untold chaos.

      “Before you ask, your father has devised a way for each of you to prove your loyalty.” He spoke without inflection, not allowing his fury to boil over. “He has a plan.”

       Two

      Georgia’s throat closed. Murmurs of surprise swept through the boardroom and then subsided. Across the boardroom table, Jay watched her father through narrowed eyes.

      “Jay is correct—but then I always have a plan.” Satisfaction oozed from her father’s measured tone. “That’s how I grew Kingdom from the business my great-grandfather started in a back room into the billion-dollar brand it is today.”

      “What kind of plan?” Georgia finally found her voice.

      Her father didn’t even glance her way. “I’m concerned my daughters will be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous money-grubbing sharks that hunt the fashion waters. So I have prepared a shortlist of men able to protect—”

      Georgia’s breath caught. “A list of men?”

      “Protect? Who? Us? Why?”

      Their father ignored Georgia’s and Roberta’s squawks of outrage. “The first of my daughters to marry the candidate I have chosen for her will be deemed the most loyal and will be awarded the twenty-six percent holding in Kingdom.”

      “What?” Georgia and Roberta burst out in tandem.

      He was talking as if they weren’t even present.

      What was going on?

      Then it dawned on her. The answer must lie in the documents neatly stacked in front of Jay. He’d still barely spared her a glance.

      Georgia had had enough.

      Rising in her seat, she pushed aside the clutter of pad, pen, phone and empty take-out coffee cup, and reached across the width of the table. Her feet left the plush carpet and her skirt tickled the back of her thighs as it rode up against her pantyhose. No matter. Modesty was not a priority.

      “Georgia!” her father thundered.

      So he’d finally noticed her...

      She blocked out the familiar angry voice and, with a final heave forward, snatched the block of papers in front of Jay and then slithered back into her seat clutching her prize, her heart pounding in her ears.

      Commotion had broken out. But Georgia didn’t allow herself to be distracted; she was too busy skimming the pages.

      “What the hell is this?” Her eyes lifted to lock with Jay’s in silent challenge. He flinched. So he should! “The shares are to be transferred to me and my husband on the day of my marriage...?”

      “Marriage?” Roberta was beside her. “Let me see that! I didn’t even know you were dating, you secret sister.”

      Not for the first time, Georgia wished she shared her sister’s irreverent sense of humor. “I’m not dating anyone—and I have no intention of getting married.” Ever. Georgia’s knuckles clenched white around the pages. Not after Ridley. As always, she expertly blocked what she remembered of that disaster out of her consciousness while she did a rapid scan of the thunderstruck faces around the table. Jay’s expression was flat, closed off in a way she’d never seen.

      Then she appealed for a return to normality. “Jay, what on earth is going on?”

      Before Jay could respond, Kingston said loudly, “Georgia, I have chosen a man for you who will do a fine job running the company when I retire.”

      Panic filled her. “But—”

      He held up a hand. “I’m familiar with your dream, and the man I have chosen will match you perfectly.”

      As Georgia shook her head to clear the confusion, Roberta spoke softly into her ear. “He’s about to graft his own vision onto your dream, and then he’ll sell it back to you.”

      “What do you mean?” Georgia whispered.

      “Just watch and listen, sister. The master is at work.” Roberta sounded more cynical than usual. “Let me see those documents.”

      Georgia eased her death grip on the papers.

      “He will mentor you,” her father was saying. “Teach you what it takes.”

      “You think I need a mentor?” Georgia said faintly. “After all these years? I know the business backward. I know the products, and more importantly, I know the people. I’ll head up Kingdom when you step down one day—it’s my birthright. And that journey starts today—with the announcement of my appointment to the board.”

      But her father was shaking his head. “You may be my daughter, but you’re not getting a free ride.”

      A free ride? How could he even

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