Page 5 of Her Lion Lover

FOUR

"Between easily avoidable project delays, plus the retirement of our main engineering contractor with no replacement in sight, you're evidently too busy posing for photos for the front cover of the newspaper to bother doing your job. You're not fit to be our CEO any more. I propose the board strip you of your status, so you can go back to tomcatting around the country, and appoint me in your place as the new CEO of Pride Holdings," Uncle Jeremy said.

Leo raised his eyebrows. "Short of bribing the council, which is illegal, I might add, I don't see how the delays to the Hea Sanctuary project could be avoided. Our main engineering contractor is and has always been Verre Electrical Engineering, and while we have been working with Roy Raiden who kindly delayed his retirement plans as a personal favour, I have it on good authority that Verre will shortly be coming off hiatus, which is why this afternoon I wished Roy well in his retirement. In fact, I've been so busy working today, I haven't seen the front cover of today's paper. Does anyone have a copy?"

Shenzi slid the folded paper across the boardroom table.

Leo made a show of shaking the paper open, before taking a good, long look at his own cheeky grin. "I remember this photoshoot. These were taken months ago, when theTimesinterviewed me about stepping up to take Dad's place as CEO. They've taken quotes from the interview, but they're completely out of context. Whoever put this together should be writing pulp fiction, not articles for theTimes." He dropped the paper into the recycling bin, forcing himself to feign a calm that belied his furiously boiling insides. "So, unless you all agree with my weird uncle and you'd prefer to see me strip and take up pole dancing, instead of dealing with the business of this board meeting, the things that actually keep Pride Holdings profitable, can we go back to the actual agenda?"

Leo maintained his professional demeanour through the meeting and all through the drive home, but it took all his remaining self control not to claw the door off its hinges when he got home.

Mother was in the dining room, reading on her tablet. "Bad day at work?" she enquired.

"It was fine until that bloody awful board meeting. Has Uncle Jeremy always been so unhinged?"

Mother sipped from her wine glass. "Jeremy has always envied your father. Anything your father had, he wanted one, too. He married his first wife less than a year after I wed your father, and he insisted on being given a job in your father's company as soon as he graduated. What did he demand this time? Your father's controlling shares in the company?"

Leo snorted. "Not yet, but I'm sure he's working up to that. No, today he tried to get the board to give him my job. When they didn't, he spent the whole board meeting making snide comments about every small thing going wrong with each of the projects we discussed. Telling them I'm unreliable. I take too many risks. I'm leading them into ruin. When we're the most profitable we've ever been, even with the delays to the Hea Sanctuary. All because the bloody newspapers decided to name me their bachelor of the year."

Mother set her glass down. "Well, you know the solution to that, don't you?"

Leo drew a blank. Maybe he'd worked too much today, or spent too much energy on his morning workout. All of Dad's careful training, all he'd learned in his business degree, none of it gave him the answer Mother evidently thought was so bleeding obvious.

Leo sighed. "No, Mum, I don't."

Her expression tightened for a moment, that he'd lapsed into using Mum instead of Mother, but she didn't mention it. "Show the board you're a family man. Find a wife and get married, like your uncle."

"I don't want to get married to some stranger. I want to wait until I meet my fated mate, like you and Dad did," Leo protested.

"Not everyone finds their fated mate, and not everyone has the fate of a huge company fall into their hands at such a young age, either. Leo, you've always been destined to step into your father's shoes, and being the boss means making the hard decisions. Your uncle has always wanted what your father has. He's been making passes at me for years, including at your own father's funeral. No matter how many times I turn him down, he keeps coming back because he believes he's entitled to everything your father had. Which includes his company. You're going to have to choose which means more to you: waiting to find your fated mate and marrying her...or forgetting about that, and choosing someone less than perfect for you, to keep control over your father's company. You're younger than we'd hoped, to have to face such responsibilities, but if you want, you can choose to walk away from the company. From your father's legacy, and all that he's built. You'll still have your shares in the company, and this house, and you could travel the world, searching for your fated mate. You might never find her, but if that's what you want..."

"Uncle Jeremy would trash the company. He's too conservative, but he's also not business minded. He takes on projects that appear perfect and low risk on the surface, but he's blind to the undercurrents that make them poor bets. He doesn't do his research. If I resign as CEO, my shares would be worthless within a year. Maybe less. And Dad's dream, the Hea Sanctuary, would never be built. I can't leave, Mum. Dad would never forgive me."

Mother sighed, her smile sad. "I knew you'd say that. You've always had so much passion, so much heart, but you're so responsible, too. Like your dad and I never were, at least until you were born and we had to consider providing for your future. The Hea Sanctuary was his vision for you, and for our grandchildren."

Leo shook his head. "I'm not having children with a woman I don't love. There's a mate out there for me somewhere, I know it. I just...haven't met her yet."

Mother's smile widened. "Well, I might be able to help you with that. I can't promise you'll find your mate, but we can improve your chances. Mirror Academy has an almost mythical reputation for matching fated mates, and it just so happens that their students will be attending a fairytale masquerade ball at Tremotino Castle on your birthday. You've been invited as the guest of honour, and I think you should attend. Who knows? You might just find yourself a wife, or, better yet, your fated mate."

Yes, he'd heard the stories. The girls from Mirror Academy were whispered about as being the most likely candidates for being fated mates, but Leo had no idea how that was even possible. Unless there was a witch, or some sort of spell cast over the girls to send them straight to their soul mates, it seemed far too far fetched for his logical brain. More like the stuff of magic and fairytales than reality.

But the ball was at Tremotino Castle...where Craig Tremotino would certainly be, and Leo would be able to ask him about his petty vendetta, and maybe even persuade him to let the matter drop so the Sanctuary could get back on track.

"All right, Mother. I will go the ball," Leo said.

Mother beamed. "I'll message Cat, to make sure she has your costume ready."

And with Cat on the case, no way would he be able to back out, even if he wanted to.

FIVE

Lily's legs ached as she dragged herself upstairs to her room, wishing for what had to be at least the hundredth time that she'd still had a room on the same floor as the other students, instead of two storeys up, in the attics where the other staff slept. The small rooms with low ceilings, along with the shared bathrooms at the end of the hall, marked the former servants' quarters for what they were, as opposed to the spacious, ensuited guest quarters that had been converted to house students. Fortunately, the headmistress had thought to install heating in the staff bedrooms, making the Scottish winters bearable, at least when the heating worked, seeing as the systems looked at least half a century old, if not older.

Even with summer approaching, she wouldn't have been able to sit at her desk most nights, like she did now, working on her project as the hours slipped past until bedtime.

There. Done.

Lily sat back, surveying her work. Everything was finished. The village, the utilities systems, even the concept elevations looked ready to go.

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