Worth the Challenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother was still full of doubt in regards to his abilities cut like a knife. “I’m not a kid anymore, Alex. I’m not hell bent on screwing everything up like I used to be.”
    “I know.” Alex turned solemn. “I believe you. I believe in you.” He slapped Rhett on the back. “Prove me right and someday I’ll make you president of Worth Luxury Parfum.”
    Rhett grinned as his brother left the room.
    That was just the carrot that needed to be dangled in front of him.

Chapter Three
    The room was plush, sleek and elegant with an art deco vibe. Subtle colors, bedside tables with mirrored fronts and crisp white-and-gray bedding that was somehow inviting even in its utter perfection. She couldn’t believe Rhett Worth had put her up in this hotel and didn’t expect her to pay a thing. Surely it was one of the nicest hotels Ella had ever stayed in and that said a lot. She’d traveled with her father ever since she could remember, though that had been a long time ago.
    She’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt the moment she arrived, lounging on the bed, flicking through the TV channels, all of the afternoon options boring. Deciding she’d rather have a nap, she turned off the TV and rolled over on her side, staring out the window at the New York City landscape before her.
    Just before she drifted off, there was a knock at her door. A courier stood there with a thick envelope that had her name on it, and she tore into the package the moment the man left, pulling out the contract with Worth Luxury.
    She needed a lawyer. At the very least, she should call her father. But what would he say? It might even make him angry, knowing she’d taken the job originally offered to him. She never could tell, what with his strange moods and reclusive ways. As the years passed, she’d needed to handle him carefully for fear he might erupt.
    Sighing, she glanced at each page, her gaze snagging on particular paragraphs. Her eyes crossed at all the legal terms that meant nothing to her. She’d signed contracts before with the few companies she’d worked for, but none had been so detailed, so long.
    It was almost as if she were signing her life away.
    Deciding she needed to do something before she met Rhett for dinner, she grabbed her cell phone and dialed her father’s number, shocked when he answered on the second ring and promptly asked where she was.
    “I’m in New York, remember?” Ella paused, then went for it. “I met with Rhett Worth earlier today.”
    “You went all the way to the city by yourself?” They lived in Vermont. It had been a simple train ride, yet he spoke to her as if she were a little girl embarking on a worldwide tour.
    She wanted to yell at him. Wanted to remind him that yes, indeed, she’d told him exactly where she was going last night before he went to bed. She’d woken up so early to catch the train and hadn’t wanted to disturb him. He probably hadn’t noticed she was well and truly gone. “I told you about it last night. Remember?”
    “I seem to recall.” He remained silent for a while before he finally decided to ask her a question. “So what did Rhett Worth have to say? That he wishes I would come work for him and his brothers, eh? He has hounded me for months. I tell him I’m interested, but I don’t want to go to New York and everywhere else he claims he wants to take me.” Michel Durand chuckled, sounding infinitely pleased with himself. “Tell him I am too busy with my garden to bother going there. He should come to me. I could show him my gardens, my flowers. They smell far better than anything that can be put into a bottle.”
    He spent most of his time in his garden now, tending to his flowers, coaxing the rarer, exotic ones into bloom in the greenhouse he’d built a few years ago. He claimed to have given up on synthetic scents, wanting only natural fragrances to surround him, to fill his aging nose.
    “I have something to tell you, Father.” Her voice grew small and nerves