Somehow, he’d have to show her how he felt and hope that she might feel the same.
Chapter 13
“Andrea, I don’t care anymore,” Reid said as he walked down the hallway.
He wondered if the blond woman next to him ever ran out of energy.
“Well, for now, she’s stopped. But we’ll continue to monitor her case filings. If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know.”
Reid pressed the button for the elevator. “I want you to sue her for the money she’s caused me to spend on all of her frivolous lawsuits,” he decided. He suddenly realized that Andrea was an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
But she left him cold. He had no interest in the woman other than for her brilliant legal mind.
She smiled, nodding her head. “A suit for abuse of process was filed at nine-thirty this morning. We’re asking for my entire team’s legal fees, plus punitive damages of five million dollars. We won’t get that much, but I put in an amount that should dissuade her from using her family’s money on someone else without the resources that you have. She’s abusive, Reid. And I’m going to stop her.”
Reid laughed, shaking his head. “I should have known you’d be on top of it already.”
Andrea grinned and, in a rare moment when the lawyer let her guard down, she flung her hip out, her hand fisted on top and smiled. “Yes, you should have!” He was shocked to see that her smile literally transformed her features. The shark went from a stunning beauty to almost a lovely, impish elf.
He threw back his head, laughing as the elevator opened up and he stepped inside. “Sorry for doubting you, Andrea.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the last few details.”
“Good. Call me if anything else comes up.”
She was already turning away, heading back to her office by the time the elevator doors closed. Reid suspected that Andrea was already thinking about the next issue. Did the woman ever sleep? He doubted it. She seemed to exist on coffee and…work. The woman didn’t have anything else going on in her life.
Glancing at his watch, he muttered a curse. It was after midnight. Damn it! He’d texted Selena earlier in the evening, letting her know that he was still planning on talking to her. But at the time, he’d thought he’d be done five hours ago.
He drove back to his house and parked the car. As soon as the lights turned off, Cat raced around the corner of the guesthouse, rubbing up against Reid’s ankles. Bending down, he scratched the little guy’s back, hearing him purr. “Hey buddy. Were you all snuggled up with the lady?”
Cat didn’t reply, too happy to have attention.
“Yeah, you’re a sucker.” With one more pat, he stood up and headed for his back door. But at the last minute, he heard the door to the guesthouse open.
There she was! Selena looked…hot! The tee shirt fluttered around her upper thighs. There were no lights on in the guest house and her hair was mussed. Had she been asleep?
Walking over to her, he had a thousand things he wanted to tell her. But as soon as he reached her, all he could do was pull her into his arms and kiss her. Just one kiss, he thought. One kiss and he’d tell her what she meant to him, how he wanted to define their relationship. But that one kiss led to another. And then another.
He lifted her into his arms, carrying her back to her bedroom. He was vaguely aware of Cat curling up on the chair.
Clothes were torn off. Bare skin. His hands cupped her breasts and it wasn’t enough. Their breath mingled together as they strained, frantic to make up for the past three nights apart.
“Hurry!” Selena gasped, handing him a condom. “Reid, hurry!”
He would have laughed if he could have slowed down. But he couldn’t. Not even a little!
“Bedroom,” he groaned as he rolled the condom down his painfully throbbing erection. He hadn’t even taken off his clothes. Selena had just unzipped him and released his shaft.
“No time!” she told him.
He agreed. With a flash of brilliance, he lifted her into his arms. Pressing her against the wall behind her, he wrapped her legs around his waist. “Hold on, Selena. Just…” he closed his eyes and tried to be gentle, but three days without her was three too many.
“Now!” she gasped, wiggling against him as she tried for the same goal.
So instead of slowing down, which he didn’t think he could accomplish, he lowered her down, impaling her on his shaft. As soon as her tight, wet heat surrounded him, he groaned, burying his face against her neck.
“Move!” she ordered, grinding her hips as her fingers tightened in his hair. “Move, please move!”
He might have responded. Reid wasn’t sure. In his mind, he laughed, but his body was too close to the edge and he needed to feel her climax. He wanted that more than he wanted his own release. So he moved, shifting his body and using the wall behind her for leverage. Thrusting in and out, he pushed her closer and closer. Normally, he would use his hands and fingers to help her to the edge, but his hands were busy holding her butt liked where they were. Besides, he could feel her body tightening, getting closer and closer. She looked wild and beautiful and…then she shifted again, her body frantically reaching for that release.
When it came, he knew and tried to make it better for her. But the way she was moving against him, plus her inner muscles clamping down around his shaft, he couldn’t hold back. The release was powerful and it took only two more thrusts before she was screaming his name.
Silence. He moved slightly but her already relaxed body stiffened with outrage that he would dare to move after such a perfect experience.
“Just a moment longer,” she whispered, her lips grazing his ear. Just that touch and he hardened again, ready for another round. What was it about Selena that just got to him so intensely?
She felt his reaction as well and pulled back, a soft, lazy smile to her beautiful features.
“Aren’t you exhausted?” she asked softly.
He could smell the mint on her breath and the subtle perfume that was all Selena.
“Obviously not,” he replied, shifting to nuzzle her neck.
With that, he carried her to her bedroom and started the whole process over again, but much slower this time. And more thoroughly.
Chapter 14
“Selena, here are the…” Gianna stopped in the doorway to Selena’s office, a startled expression on her face.
Selena turned around to face her friend, unaware of the smile already on her features.
“You made up!” Gianna exclaimed, clapping her hands. “What happened? Did he apologize? Was he contrite? Did you make him beg?” She dropped into a chair. “Oh, men should always beg when they’ve done something wrong!”
“Gianna!”
Both women jumped when they heard the deep voice call out. But while Selena’s shoulders jerked with surprise, Gianna’s slumped as if she’d just been denied a treat.
“Master calls,” she whispered.
In other circumstances, or if Gianna had been talking about someone other than Brant Jones, Selena might have laughed. But since it was Brant Jones, Reid’s brother and the second owner of the company, Selena kept her mouth shut, stunned that the gentle, vivacious and, apparently, fearless Gianna would poke the bear in such a way.
The bear in question was furious. A moment after his bellow, the handsome and furious chief operating officer appeared in Selena’s doorway.
“How can I help you today?” Gianna asked, standing up and turning to face her boss. “Do you have yet another pointless report you need me to build for you? Or perhaps I could do a bit of data entry? God forbid, you actually use my brain for something important!” she snapped. And with that, she swept out of Selena’s office with a flip of her hair.
Watching from the sidelines, Selena realized that Brant looked just as stunned as Selena felt, but both of them remained silent. Selena watched carefully though, noticing that the man didn’t take his eyes off Gianna until she turned the corner.
Selena took pity on him. “You know she has a master’s degree in international business, right? Her undergraduate work was a double major in economics and finance. She really can do a lot more.”
There was no change to his features but, for some reason, Selena suspected that he was startled by her news.
“Right. Well, she won’t bother you again.”
“Gianna isn’t a bother in any way. In fact, she’s helped me figure out several problems, recreating the marketing budget to help us find different ways to work in the extra features we want for this new campaign.”
Again, there was no change in the man’s features, but Selena knew that he was absorbing that information.
“Right.” Without another word, he walked away, barely taking the time to nod in her direction.
Selena turned back to her computer and sent a message to Gianna. “Lunch?” was all it said.
The reply was immediate. “Yes!”
Selena felt bad that she was struggling with the tedious tasks that Brant assigned. Her friend was stuck generating low-level reports that didn’t challenge her intelligence in any way. And most of the tasks took about an hour out of the eight hours she spent at work. The rest of the time, she moved from department to department, asking others how she could help them. She’d even done some legal work and found candidates for open positions for the human resources department.
Gianna might appear flighty and sexy, but she was intelligent and ambitious.
Unfortunately, Gianna hadn’t had time to help with Selena’s personal issue. And that was Reid. They’d spent the night together again, making up for lost time. But by the time her alarm had gone off this morning, he was gone, although he’d left a note on her fridge asking her if she was free for dinner tonight.
They’d talk and, hopefully, work things out.
Chapter 15
Reid froze, staring at the big man sitting in his leather chair. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
The man swiveled around, tipping his sheriff’s hat back slightly. “A little birdie told me that you were messing up your love life big time,” Mack said. “I thought I’d come watch the show.”
Reid rolled his eyes and moved closer. “Brant needs to mind his own business,” he grumbled, then enveloped the gruff sheriff in a bear hug. “How have you been little brother?” There was nothing “little” about Mack Jones. He topped both Reid and Brant by about an inch, but the three brothers were about the same in the muscle department. Reid and Brant honed their muscles in the gym during the weekdays while Mack worked out in the mountains, doing activities that would make most people shudder. Repelling down mountains, then climbing up seemingly sheer cliffs and over boulders.
Mack laughed at his brother, returning the hug with interest before moving over to the hidden fridge and grabbing two beers. “Better than you, apparently.”
Reid texted a message on his phone, then accepted the bottle of beer Mack had opened. “I’m doing just fine. No need to worry.”
“Not according to Brant. He mentioned you’d...”
Brant burst into the room. “Damn! Did hell freeze over?” he asked, then hugged his brother.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Mack teased. “So obviously, it’s frozen solid.”
They always teased their youngest brother that hell would freeze over before he’d venture into the city. Mack was the sheriff of a small town up in the Rocky Mountains. He loved his town and its quirky characters, and he protected them as if they were his bear cubs. He was equally protective of his mountain, helping the park rangers enforce the rules with the tourists that flocked to the woods every year. Didn’t matter what the season, there seemed to be someone getting lost or doing something stupid in the mountains.
Mack didn’t have to work. If he wanted, the man could sit back and relax while living off of the massive income he earned from the dividends from his stocks in Rembrandt Cosmetics. Mack had given his brothers his life savings to help them finance the company years ago. But he loved his job and enjoyed protecting his town and his mountain.
“So who is going to save your mountain when someone decides to camp in the wrong place while you’re here?” Brant laughed, grabbing another beer from Reid’s fridge and popping the top.
“They’ll have to fend for themselves for a while. I heard that my big brother was screwing up a good thing.”
Reid turned to look at Brant, an eyebrow going up, silently asking, “What the hell did you tell him?”
Of the three men, Reid was the most outspoken, Brant was the coldly controlled one, and Mack was laid back and relaxed. But people who knew the three of them understood to never underestimate any of them. They were all powerful in their own ways. Reid manipulated the business world. Brant controlled a financial empire by not just running the financials for Rembrandt Cosmetics, but also investing the brothers’ money and making them all disgustingly wealthy men. And Mack controlled his town and his mountain. No one messed with any of the Jones brothers, except for their sister, Giselle. That woman could give as good as she got. And the brothers teased her unmercifully whenever she and her husband visited. Well, whenever she wasn’t around her new husband, the Crown Prince of Altair.
Reid didn’t want to think about what their baby sister and her husband did at night. Because she might be furious with their taunting and teasing each evening, but by the following morning, she was all smiles and happiness again. Whatever Jaffri was doing, Reid didn’t want details, but accepted that the big brute made his sister happy, so…whatever.
“I’m not the one you should worry about,” Reid announced.
Brant tensed and Mack, always observant, turned his laser focus on his brother. “What’s going on in your world?”
“Not a damn thing,” Brant grumbled. “Mind your own business.”
“Ah, now that sounds interesting,” Mack replied, leaning back. The more relaxed Mack became, the more one needed to worry. “So, what’s her name?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Brant replied. “Don’t you have a bear to save or a hippy to arrest?”
“All in good time. Hippies don’t move that fast and the bears are out catching fish and fattening up. I have time to hear about whatever is making you angrier than your normally bitchy self.”
“I don’t…”
“Her name is Gianna and she’s an Italian spitfire that pisses him off every time he walks down the hallway,” Reid filled in.
Mack chuckled while Brant glared.
“Really, big bro? We’re going there? Should we bring up the lovely Selena?” He turned to Mack. “He flew this woman out from Washington, D.C. to start a new marketing campaign. It’s brilliant, but she had trouble finding a place to live. So, guess where she’s staying?” he said.
Mack chuckled. “I’ve already swung by the house. Apparently, there’s a woman who loves shoes sleeping in my bed.”
That got Reid’s attention. “You didn’t…!”
“Relax, big brother,” Mack replied. “I’m an intelligent fellow and figured out what was going on. My stuff is in the room down the hall from yours. And I fed your cat too. What’s up with that? I thought you hated animals.”
Reid relaxed now that his brother had assured him that Selena’s privacy was intact. “The cat sort of…well, he showed up last winter and looked starving and pathetic. I fed him.”
Mack threw back his head laughing. “And he never left, did he?”
Reid shrugged, trying to brush off his brother’s amusement. “He and I coexist. And besides, Selena likes him.”
“Who is this Selena I keep hearing about and how did you mess things up?”
Reid shook his head, taking a long swallow of his beer. “I didn’t mess anything up
. I’m going to marry her.”
There was a long silence after that announcement as both brothers stared at their oldest.
“You’re kidding!” Mack finally said, breaking the silence.
“Not even a little,” Reid told both of them. Six months ago, the mere mention of marriage or love would have had Reid ending the relationship. But with Selena, he couldn’t wait to get his ring on her finger. “I love her. She’s…” he thought about last night and all of the nights he’d spent with her snuggled in his arms. Their early morning runs. The way she made him smile. Or the way she could walk into a room and make the world seem…right. Brighter. More interesting. “Amazing,” he finally finished.
Mack and Brant continued to stare, but their attitude didn’t bother him at all.
“Well, I’ll be damned!” Mack said, then shook his head. “Congratulations! When do I get to meet her?”
“Not for a while. You’re going to have to stay with Brant this visit.”
“Too noisy at your place?” Mack teased.
“Don’t go there. Not…”
Mack lifted his hands in defense. “Sorry, Reid. I understand.”
After that, the brothers decided to change the subject, talking about their sister and what she might be up to, the number of times she’d been in the news lately for a project she was sponsoring in Altair. The women married to the men of Altair were vocal proponents of many worthy causes, their sister included.
Chapter 16
Selena stretched happily and slipped out of bed. They’d come back from the office last night and he’d immediately taken her into his arms. That had been the end of any discussion. But they’d gotten the most urgent lust out of their systems and he’d already gone downstairs to start making something for breakfast. She wanted to exercise before they ate, needing to stretch her muscles a bit. A swim sounded like the perfect solution, especially since Reid was throwing a big party for the media blitz this afternoon.
The Billionaire's Challenge (Sinful Nights Book 1) Page 14
