His comment threw off the receptionist again, who was just trying to do her job. “Ignore him,” advised Selena steadily.
The receptionist stood up, trying to appear confident, but she couldn’t look Selena in the eye. “How about if we go look around and if you are interested, we can discuss the benefits of living here afterwards?”
One thing was good, Selena thought. This was the first woman she’d seen wearing heels. It was good to know that not everyone wore hiking boots or Birkenstocks. Which wasn’t really fair, she thought as she followed the woman, ignoring Reid as he brought up the rear. The women she’d been working with at the office wore professional clothes. It was only her ill-informed perception of the people in Denver that had made her assume that everyone around here wore hiking boots. Looking back, she checked Reid’s feet. Sure enough, he was wearing a nice pair of shoes. No hiking boots but from his disparaging remarks about the Appalachian Mountains, she suspected that he had at least one pair of hiking boots in his closet.
“Do you own hiking boots?” Selena asked the receptionist leading them into a ground floor apartment.
She looked back, startled. “Of course!” she grinned. “I have Monday and Tuesday off and I head up into the mountains just about every chance I get. It’s gorgeous up there.” She unlocked the door. “I take it you’re not from around here?”
Selena’s eyes narrowed. “I’m from the East Coast. We hike around the Appalachian Trails.”
“Oh, those aren’t mountains!” she laughed, waving away the possibility. “Wait until you get up into the upper elevations of the Rockies! The views are incredible! And discovering all of the different flora and fauna that somehow survive in those rugged areas? It’s amazing!”
Selena kept her mouth shut, but she couldn’t avoid a glance at Reid. Sure enough, his look said, “Told ya!”
She simply rolled her eyes and followed the woman into the apartment. It was a demo apartment, obviously set up by a decorator to show an ideal look.
“This is the best you’ve got?” Reid demanded, hands fisted on his hips as he looked around. “It’s too small. Selena…”
“Don’t say it!” she snapped, then was shocked that she’d spoken so firmly to the man. He was her boss, after all.
The woman hovered awkwardly by the doorway. “We have a fitness area, pool, and a fire pit where the residents gather on Friday nights for happy hour. Everyone brings their own drinks and gets to know one another.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Sounds cheesy.”
Selena swung around, her mouth hanging open. “What’s cheesy about people getting to know their neighbors?”
He moved closer. “First of all, you work hard all week. I’ve seen you over the past few days. You’re exhausted every night. And secondly, Friday nights sound like a hookup time. I don’t like it.”
She thought about that for a moment and acknowledged that he might be right. Then again, he might be wrong. “I don’t know. It sounds pretty nice. I come from an area where I never knew the person who lived across the hall from me. Never even saw them enter their apartment although I know someone lived there because there was occasionally music coming through the door. So, I think it might be nice to get to know my neighbors.”
He moved closer, towering over her and his expression darkened. “You don’t need to do it in a singles environment.”
Selena agreed, but she was just being stubborn now. “And what if I want to meet single men?” she challenged him.
His eyes narrowed even more. “If you want to date someone then…” he stopped short, not finishing his sentence. Instead, he looked over at the receptionist. “She doesn’t want the apartment,” he announced, then took Selena’s elbow, ushering her out of the apartment.
Reid was livid, so angry with Selena and the world that he felt like his head was going to explode. Opening the Jeep’s passenger side door, he waited for her to get in. “You can’t really want to meet a bunch of sleazy, single men.”
She humphed a bit, but he relaxed when she slid onto the seat. “I might.”
He couldn’t stop the laugh, because he knew her well enough to know that she was just talking out of her ear now. “No, you don’t. And if you want to date, I’ll take you out.”
With that, he closed the door and walked around the car.
He took a moment to wonder what the hell he’d just said. Selena was a goddess, no doubt about that, but she was sweet and nice. Completely unlike the women he normally dated. She was the kind of woman that a guy married. Not the kind that had relationships like what he normally had with women.
Hell, he couldn’t even call his interactions with women “relationships”. They were mutually satisfying liaisons that ended when he grew bored. Granted, most of the women he met and took out to the various social functions around town were a bit air headed. They looked nice, smelled nice, and knew the score. They were fully aware that whatever they did together would not end in anything that could be defined as a relationship and he preferred his affairs exactly that way.
So why was he getting all bent out of shape at the idea of Selena finding a guy that might give her what she most likely needed? She was a marriage and kids, two cats and a dog kind of woman. She wasn’t the fool-around-with kind of female. She was hearts and roses. She’d probably expect her man to take her out for Valentine’s Day dinners and snuggle on the couch watching a movie on the weekends.
The idea…well, it used to make his skin crawl but… he could imagine that with Selena. She was stunningly gorgeous with an incredible body. Definitely more toned than the other women of his acquaintance. From what he’d seen from the women he’d taken out to dinner, they starved themselves. Selena’s legs…those muscles could only come from exercise, and hard exercise at that.
No, Selena definitely wasn’t his type. But that didn’t mean he wanted her to find some jerk who would have sex with her on a Friday night after happy hour and forget her name when he saw her poolside on Saturday.
How disgusting was that?!
“Where is the next place?” he asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
She folded her hands on her knees, drawing his attention to her hands. Delicate hands, he thought. Pretty nails. Not long and dagger-like, but neat and pretty. Hands he could easily imagine as they wrapped around…don’t go there!
“I’m not telling you where the next place is, Reid.”
“Good. We’re done. You can stay at the hotel or–”
She laughed, interrupting his next suggestion. “I’m not staying at the hotel. And I’m not going apartment shopping with you anymore.”
“Fine. That’s settled.”
She looked over at him and he could have sworn that her glance eased some of the tension he was feeling. He liked having her look at him. Was that weird? Yeah, probably kind of weird. He didn’t care. She had beautiful blue eyes. The kind of eyes a butterfly might envy. He smiled slightly, thinking of Selena as a pretty, blue butterfly with stiletto heels.
“What’s so funny?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. So you’re done for the weekend. Good. Let’s…”
“No. I’m not done. You’re going to drive me back to the hotel. I’m going to get my rental car and go off to find an apartment alone. You’re a liability.” She turned those baby blues on him and he laughed.
Damn, she was cute when she wanted to be firm. “You’re not going apartment shopping alone,” he told her. “Where’s the next one?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “No. Take me back to my hotel. I’m going on my own. You’ll just mess up the next visit and I don’t want that. I’m giving each of these places a fair shake and will choose one that works for me.”
His smile broadened. No one ever challenged him when he gave an order. The fact that Selena thought she could…well, it was hot. And he kind of liked it. Not that he was going to let her get away with it, but he still liked that she wasn’t intimidated
by him.
“What’s the next address?”
She pressed her lips together and he chuckled. “Okay, you think you’re more stubborn than I am? Fine! We’ll just head back to my place. We can go swimming this afternoon. It’s going to be hot once the sun comes out and has burned off the evening chill.”
Her mouth fell open as he put the Jeep in gear, ignoring her sound of disgust.
“Fine!” she grumbled and pulled out her phone. As soon as they pulled into the parking lot of the next apartment complex, he knew he wasn’t going to like it. But instead of pointing out the flaws, he followed her into the rental office.
She told the sales person what she was looking for, still hanging onto the idea that she wanted only a one bedroom. He then followed them to the unit, enjoying the view of Selena’s pert butt in the cute shorts and those long, sexy legs. He wondered what she would look like in shorts and heels instead of the flat sandals she was wearing. He could see her in heels that would make her shorts look even shorter. Yeah, he liked that image. Of course, if she’d worn heels, he never would have taken her to a place like this. Even now, some guy exiting the building couldn’t help noticing Selena’s legs. The idiot just about broke his neck twisting around to watch her, then almost ran into Reid. The bald guy stumbled backwards and Reid did nothing to help him as he adjusted his glasses.
“Keep your eyes to yourself,” Reid grumbled, stepping around the man, following the two ladies into the empty apartment.
This one was just like the last one. A kitchen and den area barely large enough to fit a love seat and table with two chairs. The bedroom was so small, he doubted that a king sized bed would fit. And she was definitely going to need a king sized bed. He wasn’t going to hold back, he realized as he watched her walk through the apartment. There was an obvious attraction between the two of them. It was powerful and she was beautiful.
Maybe he could change. For Selena, he could contemplate a relationship. Not marriage. Hell no, he wasn’t doing marriage, but he’d love to see her when he walked into his house every night. He knew that her smile would light up the night in a way nothing else ever could.
Yeah, this was going to be okay. A plan was slowly forming in his mind. A plan to get her into his house. No apartment would be good enough, or safe enough, for Selena. The guy ogling her a few minutes ago was a perfect example of what he needed to protect her from.
Looking at the muscles gently flexing in her arms, he suspected that the woman was perfectly capable of protecting herself, but still…what kind of gentleman leaves a woman to protect herself?
Not a good one, he told himself.
“I’m not even going to ask,” Selena said as she led him out of the apartment and back to the car, her hands clenching the brochures.
He laughed softly, still thinking about his plan. Opening the car, he took pleasure in watching her long legs flex as she stepped into his Jeep. “Why aren’t you going to ask?”
She slipped into the passenger seat. “Because you’ll just point out all of the bad things.”
He stared at her for a long, hard moment. He hadn’t noticed any bad things, other than the ass who had ogled her legs. Reid dismissed the fact that he’d also been looking at her legs. And her butt. And now that he thought about it, her breasts were pretty amazing too. Hell, every part of her was beautiful! Including her eyes. And her smile. Yeah, her lips were perfect!
Focusing back on the conversation, he put the Jeep in gear. “And you want to put your head in the sand and pretend as if the bad things aren’t there?”
She grinned up at him, feeling cheeky and confident. “Yep!”
He glared at her. “So the fact that you’d have a tiny washer and dryer instead of a full sized one doesn’t bother you?”
He watched, almost laughing when her smile dimmed slightly. “I’ll just do laundry more often.”
“The sales person said that the only available apartments are on the second and third floors. And there’s no elevator, so you’ll be hauling your groceries up three flights of stairs.” He paused, watching her enthusiasm dim further. “That’s a problem during the months with good weather. But we get snow here in Denver. Imagine hauling your groceries along those pathways when they’re covered with snow.” The management company most likely cleared the snow with a plow, but he wasn’t telling her that.
He could see her thinking about it. “Groceries get heavy when you’re hauling them up that many stairs.”
She huffed, blowing a wisp of hair off of her forehead. “Next place.”
With a spurt of victory that he hid from her, he nodded his head with approval. “Where to now?” he asked as he backed up again.
Selena looked down at her phone. “The next place is in Thornton.”
“No. Too far from the city. You’ll spend too much time in traffic on Highway Twenty-Five.”
She looked over at him as if he’d gone crazy.
“What?” he asked as he turned left instead of right to head back into the city. No way was he letting her live all the way out in Thornton. Nice place, but too far from him.
“You remember where I used to live just a week ago, right?”
“Okay, so Washington, D.C. has the worst traffic in the country, but you also lived in Arlington, which is very close to the city. You didn’t get the full brunt of living outside of where everything was happening.”
“True, the people who live in the outer suburbs had it worse. But you have to understand. People who live in Las Vegas learn to deal with the heat. People in Alaska figure out how to handle snow and cold. People in Florida…well, I’m not sure any of them really learn to deal with alligators or the pythons but…my point is, the traffic here in Denver is nothing compared to what people in DC have to go through every day.”
He conceded that she had a point, but that didn’t mean he was giving in. “You’re going to need a place closer to the heart of Denver, Selena. You can’t live in Thornton or further out.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Her laughter should have irritated him. So, why did the sound make him smile? Even Reid had to acknowledge that it really had been a lame response. In this case though, he didn’t give a damn. “I’m the boss,” he told her, thinking that was a better reason.
Another laugh and he vowed that he’d say stupid things all day long if only she’d keep laughing like that.
“All the more reason to live further outside of the city.”
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged and shifted in the passenger seat. “Because I’m going to need to get away from you. I can imagine you being a real pain in the neck to work with. The further away, the better.” She grinned back at him. “Besides, if I live further outside of Denver, I won’t have to come into the city when it snows. I can simply stay home and revel in the…” her eyes widened when he laughed.
“What?”
He glanced at her as he maneuvered around several cars that were turning onto Speer Boulevard. “When it snows in Washington, D.C., the city shuts down.”
Well, duh! Where was he going with this? It snowed in Denver. She’d seen pictures! “Right. Even the federal government shuts down sometimes.”
He shook his head, chuckling a bit more. “That city shuts down if there’s even the threat of snow.” He looked over at her, a smug smile on his handsome features. “Here in Denver, we sweep it away and keep on going.”
She shifted in her seat and he glanced at her. The smile on her pretty lips made him ache to kiss her, to feel her soft lips under his.
“Or get out the skis, right?”
He laughed outright at that. “Exactly.”
He noticed her head tilt slightly. “I suppose I should get a different car.”
He thought about the cute red roadster she’d been driving while living in Virginia. “That might be a good idea.” Reid thought she’d look perfect in a car just like this one. “We’ll go shopping for cars tomorrow.”
>
Her eyes widened, but he noticed she didn’t turn him down. Not that he was giving her any chance to say no. “Also, I know of the perfect place for you to live. The rent is reasonable, two bedrooms with twenty-five hundred square feet, pool access, fitness area with state of the art equipment, closer to downtown than anything you’ve looked at so far, has a full washer and dryer, and free maid and dinner service.”
Selena frowned at him, not sure he hadn’t just lost it. “I already looked at the apartments closer to headquarters. They are well out of my price range.”
His lips curled slightly but he didn’t look at her. “The rent on this place is reasonable.”
He turned onto Alameda and, a few blocks later, pulled into the driveway of a gorgeous, huge house. “What’s this?” she asked, thinking it was an apartment complex that she hadn’t seen before.
“Come with me,” he parked under a portico. He stepped out of the car, then waited for her to come around. “How’s this?” he asked a moment later. They’d walked around a beautiful pool with a pergola covering one end to give it a bit of shade.
“This is beautiful.” She looked around, swiveling her head. “Where are the other residents?”
He took her hand and led her through a sliding glass door. “Here. Combined kitchen and living room area. There are two bedrooms through there. One is larger than the other, but both have private bathrooms and walk in closets. Washer and dryer are off the kitchen pantry area,” he said, leading her through the kitchen to a closed door where a utility room had a modern washer and dryer complete with just about everything she could need.
Turning around, she took in the gorgeous furniture, the elaborate lighting and the gourmet kitchen. Something occurred to her and she looked directly at him. “Who lives here?” she demanded, suspiciously.
“No one lives here. It is yours if you want it. Put your furniture in storage and use this furniture, or move this out and move your own in. Up to you.”
She peered around him at the huge house on the other side of the pool. “Okay then, who lives there?” she asked.
The Billionaire's Challenge Page 4