Page 12 of Summoned by the CEO (Curvy for Keeps)

I frown as I see the color drain from her face and then return in a flush of heat. It takes me a moment, but when I see her close her eyes and bite her lip, I know. I just know.

A moment later I yank her down to my bed, and she kisses me on the few places she can on my face. She doesn’t need to say it. I know it. I knew it when I claimed her. I knew it would happen.

“It had to happen this way,” I whisper as joy lights me up from the inside, the thought of my baby growing inside this strong, beautiful woman’s womb filling me with energy, bringing me back to life, breaking me from death’s cold clutches. “Hell, Angie. Ithadto happen this way! I can’t explain it, but this is part of our fate, part of our story, part of our journey. Youdidneed that time. And I . . . I . . . needed this to happen. I needed to understand that I’m human, vulnerable, breakable.” I blink as I think back to what my lawyer had said over the phone. “I also needed to understand that my idea of dissolving the company when I die might in fact be a symptom of an obsession with control that’s a little extreme.”

“Maybe a little,” she says with a giggle and an eye-roll. “But it’s moot, since you’re not going to die. It might be a while before you’re back behind your desk, but your desk will be there when you do get back.”

“There’s still the deal, though,” I say through a grimace as I remember where I was headed. “It has to get done before the markets open on Monday.”

She looks at me like I’m crazy, but I’m used to that by now.

“Um, the deal can wait, Archer,” she says softly.

“Not this deal,” I say, the realization that I’m not gonna die reminding me that I’ve got a business to run, still got an empire to extend, still got lands to conquer. That’s part of my DNA, and if this woman understands me, then she’ll understand that. “I’ve been trying to buy this company for years, take over its territory. But the owner never even took a meeting with me. Pissed me off, but I hung back and watched, waited for my chance. And finally it happened earlier this year. The owner got too aggressive. Expanded into territory where he didn’t have an advantage. Had a couple of rough quarters and so his company’s stock took a hit. So I started buying shares of his company over the months, and now I own a sizable percentage of his company. Not a majority, of course, but enough to make him nervous because if I sell all those shares at once, it would drive his stock price even lower. I have him backed up against the wall, Angie. This meeting was gonna seal the deal. I made him an offer for the company that makes him rich, makes his shareholders rich, and makes me even more dominant in the industry.”

“Makesyoumore dominant?” Angie says with a raised eyebrow. “Or makes the company more dominant?”

But before I can answer she smiles and shakes her head with an understanding that almost makes me cry. She gets me, doesn’t she. Damn, she gets me. She knows who I am, that Iamthat fucking vulture, waiting to swoop in and finish a kill. Iamthat dragon counting his gold—not because I love money but because I love winning, love outscoring my opponent, love being the king, the man, the goddamn boss.

Of course, it’s hard to finish off even a weakened opponent when I’m strapped and tied to a hospital bed, tubes and wires coiling through me like snakes. I take a breath as I wonder how this deal can work. Then I frown when I think back to what I saw in Angie when she spoke sharply to my lawyer—who’s actually a bad-ass motherfucker himself, a man who doesn’t take shit from anyone, sometimes not even me. But he stood down to Angie, didn’t he.

Yeah, I think as I shake my head at the wonderful way things work out. It had to happen this way, I think again. Growth. Discomfort. Pain. It’s all part of the puzzle. Part of our story.

“There’s a flight that’ll get you there tonight,” I say without even bothering to explain. She’ll get it. She’s already getting it. She knows she’s my equal, my partner, the only person in the world for whom I’d give up control. “You’ll close the deal, Angie.”

She blinks and tenses up. But then she swallows and takes a breath. “Archer,” she says. “I don’t know the first thing about negotiation!”

I snort. “Honey, you know the most important thing about negotiation.”

“What’s that?” she says.

I smile as I think back to one month ago, when she walked out of my office, out of my life, exposing my vulnerability in a way that almost wrecked me. “The person who has the guts to walk away from the table always wins. Always, Angie. Always. You’ll win, Angie. I have faith in you, and you need to find that faith in yourself if you haven’t yet. You won’t bend. You won’t break. All you need to know is the offer price for his company, and you don’t budge from that price. Not even one cent. If he says he can’t accept the price, you shrug, stand up, and walk away from the table. Then you’ll see him fold like a deck of cards. And you’ll know what it feels like to win. You’ll know what it feels like to be a fucking boss.”

She snorts at how excited I’m getting. Then she swallows hard and finally nods. “All right,” she says. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but all right. I’ll close your damned deal for you.”

I frown again as I think about some of the legalities of the situation. Then I laugh out loud and shake my head when I remember that all that shit doesn’t matter. Angie’s here, she’s mine, and she’s going to have my child.

“Call my lawyer back in,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I realize what needs to happen now. Right now.

She does it, and I look up at him and nod. “I want a city judge and a witness in here within the next thirty minutes,” I tell him matter-of-factly. “Do it now, please.”

My lawyer’s gone before the second hand on the clock moves, and Angie’s looking at me like she’s wonderingnowwhat.

“I’m going to close out the biggest deal of my life right now,” I mutter. “Before you walk away from the table again.”

“I’m never walking away again, Archer,” she says, her breath catching when she realizes what I mean. “I’m yours. I said I was yours, and I’m yours. Your woman, your girl, your floozy, your—”

“Wife,” I say firmly. “My wife.”

9

ANGIE

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” says the city judge as I hold Archer’s hand and blink at the surreal scene.

The hospital room is pristine white, and one of the nurses brought in all the flowers she could find before standing up as a witness. I kiss Archer once, gently because I don’t want to hurt him. And then we’re married, and even though it’s the world’s smallest, least-planned wedding, I’m the happiest bride on Earth when I see the look of pure love on Archer’s bandaged face.

“And I now pronounce you the interim CEO of Archer Industries,” says the lawyer after the room clears and he reads through some papers.

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