His Beauty: The Cohan Billionaire Brothers Book Three (An Office Romance) Read online

  HIS BEAUTY

  THE COHAN BILLIONAIRE BROTHERS

  BOOK THREE

  ***

  LAYLA HOLT

  Copyright ©LaylaHolt, 2020. The author has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Get a Free Book!

  Author’s Note

  ABOUT

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  EPILOGUE | One Year Later

  A SNEAK PEAK

  Chapter One

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Get a Free Book!

  ***

  Her Wedding

  THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION to The Cohan family and if you haven’t read Megan’s story, Download it here for free.

  Author’s Note

  THE COHAN BILLIONAIRE Brothers is a series of books that begin with Her wedding, a free Novella that introduces readers to The Cohan family. You can DOWNLOAD IT HERE for free!

  Every book in this series can be read as a standalone as each book focuses on a couple’s love story to their Happy Ever After. However, to get the most out of each book, I recommend that you read them in chronological order.

  HER WEDDING

  HIS SECRET BABY

  HIS EX

  HIS BEAUTY

  ABOUT

  ***

  HE’S THE KIND OF MAN she knows to stay away from—Rich, arrogant, self-obsessed and sexy.

  In other words, a carbon copy of her ex. The one who took one look at her scarred face and broke their engagement.

  Luckily, there’s no chance that her boss Lance Cohan would be interested in someone like her. Men take one look at her face and take off in the opposite direction.

  Corrine is fine with that. She’s in Lockwood to take care of her eccentric Aunt and to regroup after a horrible accident that leaves her face badly scarred.

  Lance has met his share of loud-mouthed rude women. But he’s never had one in his office. His first instinct is to fire her but he has enough on his plate trying to convince his brothers that Candin Inc, needs to expand and grow with the times.

  Corrine is not his type at all and more importantly, he’s been burned before and has no intention of getting involved in an office romance.

  Then why is he drawn to her? Why does he find her laugh cute and why does he want to protect her from harm? Why can’t he stop dreaming about her?

  And why, when she’s in his arms, does he feel as if his wandering spirit has finally reached home?

  Chapter One

  CORRINE HAD LEARNED that if she chewed fast and swallowed without giving thought to what was in her mouth, she could manage to finish most of her dinner. In her social media profiles, she described herself as a ‘foodie’.

  Not so now. She’d lost the joy for food and now ate to live. Two months earlier, she had been a different person. Definitely happier and excited for the future with a career she loved and a fiancé who loved her. Everything had been perfect.

  One thoughtless act had changed life and all she had known and taken for granted had been snatched from her. In the long weeks she’d spent in the hospital, she had replayed that horrible day in her mind, and no matter how many times she changed the ending, the reality was that she was in a hospital bed with half her face destroyed.

  Even now, all she had to do was close her eyes momentarily and she saw herself as she had been that day. She’d just said goodbye to her colleagues in the staff room and strolled to the parking lot. It was Friday and she’d been looking forward to the evening and the weekend.

  Giddy excitement had coursed through her veins as she thought about the evening ahead. Mark was taking her somewhere special for dinner. He’d told her to wear her sexy red dress. She’d thank him later for his insistence, he said.

  She’d known immediately that he was going to propose. He had been hinting at it all month and she’d been more than ready for it. The plan was to go straight to the salon, get her hair and nails done, leaving her just enough time to go home, shower and get ready.

  Corrine had slipped into her beloved old Buick inherited from her grandpa when he passed on and inserted the key into the ignition. It had sputtered and cranked but the engine would not start.

  It had never let her down before and she couldn’t believe it was misbehaving on one of the most important days of her life. Desperately, she’d opened the hood even though she knew very little about the mechanics behind cars. As soon as she’d lifted the hood, a hissing sound, like a rattle snake about to strike, filled the air.

  She’d traced it to the source, a giant version of a hip flask. She touched the cap and drew her hand back. It was hot. She’d grabbed a cloth from the inside of the car, gripped the cap with it and twisted it open.

  The next thing she knew, hot searing liquid rose like a volcano and splashed her face. Searing pain had come from her cheek as though a hot ember had landed on it. Her screams had brought her colleagues running from the building just as her legs gave way and buckled under her.

  “Are you sleeping at the dinner table Corrine?”

  She snapped back to attention and shook her head to dislodge the memories. “I’m sorry mom, what did you say?”

  Her mother sighed deeply. Corrine knew that her mother’s patience with her was wearing thin. Her own patience with herself was wearing thin. It was three weeks since she had come home from the hospital and though the physical scars had healed as best as they ever would, her emotional scars were another issue.

  “Your father was talking,” her mother said in her serious teacher voice. She was retired now but her no-nonsense tone was instilled in her.

  Corrine turned to her dad and shot him an apologetic smile. “Sorry dad. Please repeat what you were saying. I’m all ears.”

  “It’s about your Aunt Maureen. I’m worried about her. She slipped and broke her leg and she’s all alone in that town that she loves so much. I tried talking her into coming to stay with us until she was back on her feet.”

  It was sweet the way her dad worried about his only sister when she was almost ten years older than he, and a grown woman.

  “Maureen has always been trouble,” her mother snapped.

  She’d never liked her husband’s older sister. She wasn’t the only one. Aunt Maureen lived life to her own beat without a care what anyone thought of her.

  Corrine remembered what a scandal it had been when she had moved to Lockwood in
California to live with her painter boyfriend who was fifteen years younger than she was.

  She intrigued Corrine and whenever they met at family functions, Corrine liked to sit near her and listen to her wild stories.

  “Does she live alone?” Corrine said and moved the fork around to give her mother the impression that she was eating.

  She’d forgotten how exhausting it was to live at home as an adult. After her hospital stay, her mother had insisted that she move back home. It hadn’t taken a lot of convincing. Corrine had been emotionally and physically battered and all she’d wanted was somewhere to hibernate and ponder her future.

  What she’d not bargained on was that her mother would view her as a ten-year-old child. Finish your dinner. Vegetables are good for you. You’ve slept half the day, wake up. Plan for the future. What’s done is done.

  It was driving her insane. Corrine knew her mother cared but she also knew that they were two different people and dealt with challenges differently.

  Her mother was one of those strong women who were never fazed by anything in life. She never paused to take a deep breath even when life dealt her a hard hand. She believed in barraging through problems.

  It is what it is, she liked to say. She couldn’t understand why Corrine had not immediately gone back to her job as a special needs teacher. How could she, when the left side of her face resembled a monster’s?

  Maybe a little foundation, her mother had suggested. No amount of foundation was going to cover the thick, discolored and gnarled skin on her face. Children could be cruel in their honesty. More so her sweet students who had not developed the social skills of knowing what to say aloud and what not to. She wasn’t ready to face that yet.

  There was another reason why she rarely left the house. She couldn’t bear the thought of running into Mark, her almost fiancé. Theirs was a small town and the chances of running into him were very high.

  As her father was speaking, an idea came to Corrine’s mind.

  “I could go and stay with Aunt Maureen until her leg heals,” Corrine said, her voice louder than she intended.

  Her mother frowned. “I don’t know Corrine.”

  She’d expected that reaction from her mother but it didn’t worry her. What she was sorry about was that the accident had reduced her mother to worrying about her constantly. Leaving Utah would do her mother some good as well.

  Maybe she’d start enjoying her retirement again and they could go on that cruise that they were planning on cancelling, on her account.

  “Let her go Edith. It’ll be good for her,” her father said.

  “Your sister is a bad influence,” Corrine’s mom says.

  Corrine and her father laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement.

  “Maureen is sixty-three years old. What can she possibly influence Corrine to do?” her father said.

  Her mother’s face reddened.

  “Mom, you and dad won’t have to cancel that cruise,” Corrine said. “Please go. You’ve planned it for years.”

  They had waited for her dad to retire from his work as the college campus president and now that he’d retired, it was their time to do all the things they’d been planning.

  “But you still need us,” her mother said.

  Corrine rested her hand on her mother’s. “No, I don’t. This is the jolt I need to get out of this rut. A new start with new people and new experiences.”

  Her mother covered Corrine’s hand with hers. “If you change your mind at any moment, all you have to do is say and we’ll cancel everything and stay home.”

  “You’re our priority,” her father said.

  Tears sprung to her eyes. In the last few weeks, she’d focused on the things she had lost and forgot to be appreciative of what she did have. Her parents were at the top of that list. “Thank you for everything. I love you so much.”

  “We love you too,” her mother said and her father echoed the words.

  A seed of hope grew in her chest. She was going to begin her life afresh where no one knew about the horrible freaky accident and the humiliation of being dumped.

  “Maybe you’ll meet a special someone in California,” her mother said with a chuckle.

  Corrine shook her head. That part of her life was over. No man would look at her twice with the horrible scarring on her face. She was not expecting or hoping to find love. All she wanted was to have a semblance of normality.

  She smiled at her mom. “I don’t care about that anymore. I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. In real life, ugly ducklings don’t find love.”

  A fierce look came over her mother’s features. “Don’t say that! You’re not ugly and for your information, someone who cannot see beyond a few scars to the beautiful person you are inside, doesn’t deserve you.”

  Corrine bit her lower lip to contain the sob threatening to burst from her mouth.

  Chapter Two

  LANCE GLANCED AT THE people around the boardroom and from their expressions, he could tell that he was losing them. He was being too aggressive but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

  He couldn’t understand why they didn’t see it. Candin Inc was losing a huge slice of the pie in the confectionary industry. Four major sectors served that industry and Candin Inc was only in the production of chocolate. There was sugar, chewing gum and cereal bars.

  “There’s an opportunity here for us to enter the chewing gum market,” Lance continued. "We are vulnerable to the chocolate business. If anything happened to that market, we would be adversely affected. We need to diversify."

  He had to stop. He had been speaking for the last twenty minutes, listing all the facts and why it was imperative that they move forward. He suddenly wished that his father was there.

  He’d had a stroke two years earlier and though he was on the road to full recovery, he wasn’t there yet and he definitely could not come in to work or make decisions. He spoke in halting sentences and he could only walk unaided for a few minutes.

  The senior Cohan understood the value of moving forward as a company. Unfortunately for Lance, his father was not in the boardroom. This was one battle he needed to fight alone. His heart pounding, he waited for them to speak.

  Adrian, his older brother cleared his throat. Lance's hopes dropped. He and Adrian had taken over the role of CEO when their father got sick. The trouble was that Adrian was too cautious. He should have been a banker not the CEO of a chocolate manufacturing company.

  His cautious nature meant that he would not support Lance's idea. He'd hoped that Dean, his other brother who was the company secretary of Candin Inc, would speak first. Or even the rest of his brothers. Anyone but Adrian.

  The other non-family board members were usually non-committal until the siblings aired their views.

  "We understand your views," Adrian said. "But so much has happened in the last two years. Employee morale at Candin Inc is at an all-time low. This is not the time to make major changes."

  Lance fought to keep the disappointment from showing on his face.

  His twin brother Sean, spoke up next. "I agree with Lance. The snack industry is worth at least eighty billion dollars. We're leaving money on the table by sticking to chocolate production only."

  Lance was impressed. Who knew that Sean was that interested in the overall industry? He was the head of IT in Candin Inc and his nose was always buried behind a computer. Lance was surprised that he'd lifted it long enough to keep up with industry news.

  Jaime spoke next. They all knew that if it were up to Jaime, he would give away all the company profits to charitable organizations. He and their father had clashed the most, with their father accusing Jaime of wanting to give away what he had not earned.

  In this instance, Jaime would support an expansion. In return, he would expect Lance to support him when he wanted more money directed to the CSR department.

  "I second Lance too," Jaime said. "Cocoa prices are rising and though it seems farfetched now, no one k
nows whether the chocolate industry will survive if the prices keep rising as they are. Expansion is the logical route to insulate ourselves from industry upheavals."

  Even though he'd been expecting Jaime’s support, Lance was pleased. He had articulated Lance's own thoughts so well.

  "None of that is new," Adrian said. "And you're correct about planning for the future and protecting ourselves. The problem is the timing. It's too soon."

  Lance fought down his frustration. Everything was too soon with Adrian.

  "I agree with Adrian in this instance," Dean said and Lance's heart fell.

  If Dean did not support the expansion plans, they would not go through. Everyone listened to Dean. In addition to being the company secretary, he was also the calmest and the think tank of Candin Inc and the family.

  As expected, the three other members of the board, echoed Dean’s thoughts. Lance slumped in his chair. He’d laid down all the groundwork and even had a proposal ready to acquire Vista Gums in a merger transaction.

  Dean turned to Lance and held his gaze. "Perhaps we can reach a compromise. The trouble as I see it, is morale within the company. Lance, we'll task you with the responsibility of raising employee morale and if things have improved in three months, we can discuss your proposal."

  Everyone nodded, relieved that they could meet halfway. Lance was not relieved. He was furious. He'd thought and planned for it for months and all that had come to naught.

  When the meeting was over, he was the first to leave.

  "Hey, take it easy," Dean said, catching up with him in the stairway.

  He'd opted to take the stairs up to his office to give himself time to cool down. Lance stopped and turned to face his brother. "You know it's important for us to expand. It’s crucial for our continued survival."

  "True," Dean said and rested his hand on the rail. "But you have to take it slow and steady. We all have to be on the same page. It’s your job to convince all the board members that’s it’s the best direction for the company to take."