Chapter 4
Chapter Four
LEVI
Trying to focus on an important meeting after a night like last night is like trying to get me to search for a pen in the ocean.
It’s just not happening.
I can get past the exhaustion—it was worth it, and it’s not like I haven’t stayed up all night before.
But what I can’t wrap my head around is her.
My butterfly.
The girl with the long red waves who dragged me into a wild fantasy I shouldn’t have wanted.
I don’t even know her name, and somehow, she still found a way under my skin.
The sweet little thing was exactly my kind of girl. When she danced and laughed, she didn’t care who was watching. And she was daring. The way she looked at me right before I kissed her told me she knew better, but she did it anyway.
My father's voice carries across the boardroom, every word delivered with the precision of a man who expects the world to fall in line. It always does.
Jeremiah Vale is a legend in the business world, a man who could turn anything into millions with the golden touch of his hand.
He stands at the head of the room in his charcoal Brioni, hair perfectly trimmed, looking every inch the man who built the empire he now commands as he walks us through the next quarter’s projections.
He doesn’t look like he’s almost sixty. Doesn’t look like he has five grown children, either—though to him, my nineteen-year-old sister Adeline might as well be twelve.
Dad has that cool confidence he’s carried with him year after year. It’s the same kind I inherited from him.
It put me on the Forbes list by the time I was twenty-five and listed me as one of the country’s most successful hedge fund analysts.
Around the large mahogany table, I’m sitting with my brothers: Knox and Dorian, the eldest, and Locke, a year younger than me.
I keep my posture straight, my eyes on the graph Dad is pointing to on the projector. I hope like fuck I appear to be listening. This is an important meeting. I need to pay attention. Even to keep up appearances.
If anyone in this room could see inside my head, they’d find a red-haired goddess spread across every thought I shouldn’t be having.
“Everything we do for the ten months will shape the structure I’ll leave you with once I head to England,” Dad says, his face stern but hopeful. He already knows Vale Global will be in safe hands.
My brothers and I are the next line of leadership, but we each come with skills that could take the company to the next level. That’s saying a lot considering the work my father did to establish a global presence.
He’ll be going to England to take care of the London branch, and there he’ll stay until he retires.
New York, the flagship, will be left to us.
Knox will be CEO and Dorian the COO. Both will run the company and continue managing the company’s equity division.
Locke and I will keep working hedge funds with a view to running the entire division in a year.
To say we have major changes ahead is an understatement, but we’re ready for it. We were born ready.
Raised for pressure.
Raised to perform.
Raised to win.
I’m just not on my game today.
And sleep deprivation isn’t the only problem. I’ve negotiated multimillion-dollar deals on less sleep than this.
My actual problem is waking up and realizing I actually cared that my fantasy woman disappeared.
I didn’t go to the club to hook up. Hell, I was only there to sign off on a new hire—senior staff, someone Locke insisted we needed.
I was on my way out when I just happened to see the butterfly dancing like no one was watching.
In truth, I wasn’t the only one to get pulled into her sphere.
I just happened to be the bravest. There was no way I was letting another man in my own club take her.
I took one look at her with all that luscious hair cascading down her bare shoulders and decided she was going to be mine. I just never knew I’d wake up this morning, find that she left, and want more.
Most women leave my bed and become a pleasant memory. But the butterfly flew away and somehow became a problem.
“The equity division has delivered exactly what I expect from this company.” His gaze flicks to Knox and Dorian, and my father beams with the pride of a man who knows he’s done a damn good job raising his heirs.
“Glad to hear that,” Knox replies with a smug grin, glancing at Dorian, who maintains his aloof demeanor.
“The two of you should be proud.” Dad nods. “You’ve worked hard with our clients to get everything to where it is.”
I can’t even be jealous of my brothers. Knox and Dorian worked their asses off to make the equity division what it is.
Whether that’s securing high-profile clients who are guaranteed to bring in more millions, or flying out to Europe on a whim to outsource future business.
And at thirty-three and thirty-two, they’re the youngest leaders the company has ever seen.
I look at Locke. He’s right next to me. He looks at me and rolls his eyes playfully.
We know we have our work cut out in the hedge fund division, but it’s me who’s in the hot seat. I’m the one currently holding things up.
As if Dad can read my mind, he looks right at me and gives me the sort of grimace he used to reserve for Dorian. Until Dorian got married, he was known as the villain. All that harsh exterior and his abrasive manners used to piss Dad off at every turn.
While Dorian didn’t exactly become a saint, his wife, Elodie, changed him in ways that became more appeasing to our father. Sadly, that meant Dad’s eyes were turned to me—the rebel.
That’s what people call you when you refuse to live like every decision has already been mapped out for you. It’s not.
“I want the same success across every division, Levi,” Dad says, enunciating the syllables in my name. As if there’s another Levi in the room.
He points and taps the empty line item three rows down on the spreadsheet he’s had up on the projector.
That space is for the Lockwood contract, a multimillion-dollar contract entrusted to me. It’s one of the most solid contracts the hedge fund division has seen in years.
The space sits there, unassigned.
Why?
Arthur Lockwood is a particular man.
He doesn’t care that I can outperform the market.
He doesn’t care that I can turn risk into profit.
He doesn’t care that I can double the capital of his wine empire in a year and make him more money than anyone else he’s ever worked with.
He cares about stability. About longevity.
To him, that happens to mean putting his business in the hands of someone in a long-term relationship. In all my years, I’ve never heard such bullshit. Clients jump at the chance to work with me. I even have a fucking waiting list.
But with Arthur Lockwood, billions of dollars and years of experience still aren’t enough unless a woman is standing beside me smiling for the cameras.
That bastard with his my-way-or-I’ll-take-my-business-elsewhere mantra has become a situational pain in my ass.
“What’s going on with the Lockwood contract, Levi? We were supposed to close the deal weeks ago.” Dad stares back at me, brows drawn tight.
“I’m handling it.” Yeah, barely—and I know my father can tell. So can my brothers.
I’m not surprised when Dorian shoots me a sharp look. He has no filter.
It probably doesn’t help my case that I told my brothers what was going on the other week, and that my solution was to find a woman.
“What exactly does handling it mean? The contract just needs to be signed off and moved forward.” Dad grimaces.
“Arthur has a few matters he needs to be comfortable with first. I’m giving him the space to think about it.”
Dad’s frown deepens. “What isn’t he comfortable with?”
Knox glances at me now.
“He needs time to review the contract and proposal I designed.” That’s a bold-faced lie, but it buys me time.
“Very well. But if any problems arise, deal with him as quickly as possible. The hedge fund division needs that contract. It’s the kind of breakthrough deal that opens doors. Arthur Lockwood is renowned worldwide.”
“I have it covered. Don’t worry.”
Fuck, he looks worried.
“We need stability, Levi. Don’t give Lockwood an excuse to go somewhere else. With everything that’s happened recently, our efforts will be focused on restructuring London.”
A shadow crosses his expression. We all know what he’s thinking.
The mole. The scandals. The damage that almost ruined us.
All crafted by my uncle and cousin—people he should’ve been able to trust. It left its mark. London was weakened because of it. That’s why he needs us all on board.
After what happened, trust won’t come easily in this family anymore, but my father still trusts us.
At the same time every decision will get scrutinized twice as hard now, and every weakness stands out. So I have to find a way to come up with something that secures Arthur Lockwood. I will not be the weakest member in this empire.
“Like I said, Dad, don’t worry.” I sound way more certain than I have any right to.
Knox and Dorian glance at me again, the same doubts written all over their faces. I can’t blame them. While I explained my solution, I didn’t tell them how I bought myself time with Arthur Lockwood.
“Alright.” Dad nods. “Let’s have coffee and continue for another hour.”
I loathe the relief I feel at not having my father’s attention on me. This kind of shit shouldn’t even be happening. I’m the one who’s supposed to be calling the shots, not my client. If Arthur wasn’t so important to us, I’d kick his ass to the curb.
Dad buzzes his secretary to ask for coffee, then looks through the next batch of documents we need to discuss.
While paper shifts across the table, I glance out the floor-to-ceiling glass wall and try to get lost in the surrounding buildings. But I can’t. Arthur Lockwood has created a genuine problem I don’t want to deal with.
The door opens. I turn at the sound.
A tray with five large coffee mugs appears first, before the person carrying it, then a shock of red hair that instantly catches my attention.
More red hair comes into view, and a young woman steps in, dressed in black. She lifts her head, and I freeze.
Holy fucking hell. No way.
My pulse trips.
It’s her.
The girl from last night.
My butterfly.
For a moment, I wonder if I conjured her from my mind. I’ve been thinking about her so much, anything feels possible. But then she sees me, too, and her skin pales.
Her hands tremble and she drops the tray. Coffee goes everywhere, but those bright hazel eyes are fixed on me.
The same lips I kissed for hours last night part and tremble.
The same eyes that melted every time I touched her widen on me now in utter mortification.
Fuck, it really is her.
The butterfly has flown right into my lair again, with her perfect body and that gorgeous hair.
I can’t resist the smile that tugs at my lips.