Adrianne Byrd - Lovers Premiere

Jacob sucked in a frustrated breath. “I’m not going to keep going around and around with you on this. This merger is a done deal. I know in my heart that this would’ve been something that even your father would’ve approved of.”

“Like hell he would have.”

“Sofia!”

“What? I’m just being honest here. You used to appreciate my honesty. Has that changed, too? Just let me know and I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”

Jacob slammed his hand on her desk. “How about you just keep the attitude?”

Stunned, Sofia was momentarily unable to respond.

“Now I appreciate and respect your opinion on this matter, but I’m still president of this company, and our merging with A.F.I. makes sound financial sense. Plus, Ramell can go a long way in helping to lighten your load around here and you need to take advantage of it.”

“I don’t need Ramell Jordan’s help with anything.”

“Use him anyway. In fact, I’m ordering you to delegate some of your workload to him. No more ninety-plus hour work weeks, Sofia. You need to start taking better care of yourself.”

Sofia opened her mouth to protest, but her uncle cut her off.

“You fight me on this then I’ll have no choice but to fire you.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Since you’re too hardheaded to take care of yourself then it looks like I’m going to have to force you to do it.”

With her mouth still hanging open, he turned and started to march out the door.

“By the way, Ramell Jordan is waiting for you in the conference room. You have five minutes to get in there.”

Ramell glanced at his watch and then resumed pacing back and forth in the conference room. He was more than a little annoyed about wasting a whole hour to meet with Sofia to discuss the transition between the two companies. This was a power move, plain and simple. He knew Sofia well and he knew that she was still fighting this merger tooth and nail.

He, like her Uncle Jacob, saw the financial advantage in merging their two companies together. Together they would be able to give some of the big-name agencies some real competition in this town. When his father and the Wellesleys started their family agencies back in the day they were more like boutique operations serving a niche market for African-American actors. For Limelight, it was Sofia who expanded their clientele to include other artists in the entertainment field, but now it was time to expand their scope to include all actors, musicians, models and directors, no matter their race, in order to compete in today’s mainstream market.

On top of that, merging their Los Angeles and New York offices would also free up capital to open new offices in Paris and London. As far as Ramell was concerned this was a no-brainer. Sofia—not so much. In fact, the only thing she’d said to everything proposed so far was a steadfast no. Limelight was a family company and she wanted to keep it that way. End of story.

By now he shouldn’t be surprised. He’d been running into the same brick wall with Sofia for the past twenty-five years. He would’ve thought by now that he would be used to the pain, but he wasn’t. The main reason being that he was still in love with Sofia, despite the fact that she made it clear that she couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him.

The reason? That was one thing he didn’t know. One day they were best friends, talking in her backyard about marriage, and the next she was avoiding him like the plague. Thinking she was just playing games again, he’d gone through with his promise to date Connie Woods, only for it not to faze her. Or if it did, she sure as hell didn’t let it show.

Before he could get to the bottom of it, John and Vivian Wellesley were killed in a plane crash. They were flying into Aspen, Colorado, on their private jet. Their death sent a shockwave through the Black Hollywood community and even caught the attention of the rabid mainstream paparazzi.

The whole thing came as a shock to the Jordan family, as well. Ram remembered his father being distraught over the whole incident because there had been some kind of falling out a couple of days before their death. Ramell tried to get to the bottom of what happened but whenever he tried to discuss the matter, his father would clam up, even to this day, which was odd considering how close he was to his father. If Ram didn’t know any better, he would’ve sworn that his father blamed himself for what went down and that just didn’t make any sense.

Regardless, he thought that eventually the whole situation would settle down after some time had passed and Sofia and her sister Rachel moved in with her aunt and uncle. That never happened. Whatever the story was, Ram suspected that Sofia knew what really happened and she was equally determined to keep him in the dark as everyone else.

Still, his love for her remained true. If anything it only grew. From a distance Ram watched as Sofia transformed from a pretty young girl into a gorgeous woman. A tall, willowy woman who looked more like the models that graced glossy fashion magazines than a woman who represented them. Sofia stunned everyone who met her because she was as smart as she was beautiful.

The only balm for his broken heart was the fact that he hadn’t been forced to watch her settle down with another man and bear a house load of children. He didn’t know whether he could survive something like that. Still, he did have to watch her turn herself into a workaholic in order to carry on what she perceived as her father’s dream. Of course, that was a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black since Ram also put in long hours since he took control of A.F.I. But he still managed to squeeze in some time off and even the occasional vacation.

Sofia did not. She lived and breathed Limelight. It was her husband, her children—her life.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” Sofia said, breezing into the conference room and not even bothering to glance in his direction.

Ram’s head swiveled toward the tall hurricane that just blew into the room. His eyes immediately landed on her long, cinnamon-brown legs streaming from a short dark blue mini skirt. He quickly placed a hand over his mouth as if he just had a thought, but in truth it was just a sly way to do a hidden drool check. As Sofia dropped down into a chair, Ram’s gaze was forced to take in her small waist, her flat stomach and her in-your-face D-size breasts that if he didn’t know any better would swear they were calling his name. Just her being in the room erased his previous annoyance, but it didn’t mean that he was just going to let her blatant lie slip past him.

“Somehow I doubt inconveniencing me troubles you in the slightest,” he said, returning to his chair.

She smiled as if to validate his assessment. “Let’s just get down to business, shall we?” She flipped open a fat folder and started reading the contents as if it was the first time she’d seen the documents. He doubted that, since it was well known that she went over everything with a fine tooth comb. But while she pretended to be engrossed with what was written on the page, Ram took a brief moment to mentally photograph her flawless face. Her long lashes looked like two perfect black fans and her strong cheekbones and long flowing black hair hinted at the American-Indian heritage that was buried somewhere in her family tree. He could sit there for the rest of the day admiring individual parts of her just as he could sit back and appreciate the entire package. Most of the time, he liked to do as much of both as he could.

Sofia drew a deep breath. “I guess the best way to tackle this is to decide who is ultimately in charge of which department in order to avoid overlap in duties.”