Billionaire Unchallenged

by Scott, J. S.

  Mason cocked a brow. “How do you know she gets to you if you don’t know her?”

  “Remember the two women we saw at the benefit?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” he answered, sounding confused.

  I let out a sigh and leaned back in my desk chair. “It was her. I found out that she lives in the same building I do.”

  “The dark-haired woman?” he questioned.

  I nodded unhappily. “Turns out she’s even more beautiful and irresistible closer up.”

  Brynn Davis had grabbed me by the balls the second her beautiful dark eyes had connected with mine, and I’d completely lost it.

  “What happened after that?” Jett asked.

  I shrugged. “She blew me off.”

  I heard Mason chuckle—which was odd for him—right before he answered, “So she turned you down?”

  “I asked her out for dinner, and she refused.”

  “Whoa. What did it feel like to actually suffer rejection?” Jett joked. “I think it’s probably been a while for you.”

  I shot my little brother a dirty look. “Probably high school, and it sucked.”

  Women generally were falling all over themselves to meet me. And I’m not saying that because I’m arrogant. It was just…the truth.

  When a guy is single and ultra-wealthy, females generally want to take a shot at getting that man to commit.

  Problem was, commitment was something I avoided like a poisonous snake. No woman was ever going to get me into that kind of relationship. I was pretty sure I’d feel suffocated.

  “What’s she like?” Mason asked curiously. “And what’s the deal with her blonde friend?”

  “She’s a supermodel. Brynn Davis. She did a shoot for one of our ads several years ago. But we could never get her agent to pin her down with a contract, and we eventually headed in another direction. She’s beautiful, and she’s smart.”

  She also hates me! I purposely didn’t tell my brothers that part.

  “And the blonde?” Mason repeated, sounding irritated.

  Ah, interesting. Mason hadn’t forgotten the pretty blonde.

  “I assume she’s a model, too. I’m not sure, actually. Brynn and I didn’t exactly trade life stories,” I grumbled. “She was pissed.”

  “Who did you not trade life stories with? And who was mad at you?” my brother Jett’s fiancée asked as she breezed through the open door of my office, apparently in search of her fiancé.

  I cringed just a little as I looked at Ruby’s cheerful expression. I still felt guilty about the shitty things I’d done to her in the past.

  Now, Ruby was my biggest supporter, and I had to admit that I pretty much adored her like she was one of my sisters. I was certain that nobody could dislike Ruby for an extended period of time. She was young, but intelligent. And probably the sweetest woman on the planet, regardless of the hard life she’d lived before she’d met Jett.

  And bonus…she’d forgiven me for being such an asshole.

  “Some woman dissed him today after he kissed her in the elevator of his condo complex,” my younger brother explained.

  “She did?” Ruby said as she glanced at me with concern. “Did you really do that?”

  I nodded.

  She smacked Jett on the arm as she sat in the chair next to him. “Stop teasing Carter. Being rejected isn’t funny.” She moved her gaze to me. “Are you okay?”

  I was starting to feel uncomfortable. Spilling my guts about anything wasn’t normal for me. “I’ll live,” I told Ruby with a grin. “Every guy gets rejected occasionally.”

  Damned if my spirits didn’t lift a little as she gave me a sunny smile.

  Ruby had a way of making me talk. I think it was because she cared so much, and asked a lot of questions. So I wasn’t surprised when she asked, “Why did you kiss her? And how did you meet?”

  Surprisingly, Mason was the one who explained that Brynn and I had seen each other at a charity benefit, and that we really hadn’t met until after I’d kissed her.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have trapped her in an elevator,” Ruby finally said. “You could have scared her off. And honestly, Carter, you had no business touching her like that.”

  She was right, and I still felt pretty damn guilty about just taking what I wanted without thinking about how my actions might have caused unnecessary hostility between myself and Brynn.

  The only thing I could do was plead temporary insanity, which kind of sounded like the truth anyway.

  “I don’t even know why I did that,” I confessed. “One minute I was fantasizing about getting her into my bed, and the next I was kissing her. I have no idea what the hell happened.”

  I wasn’t the type of man to accost women in an elevator.

  Women came to me.

  I didn’t chase them.

  “Sometimes you just know when you find the right person,” Ruby said whimsically as she shot her fiancé an adoring look.

  Since I didn’t want to burst Ruby’s bubble, and see disappointment on her face, I kept silent.

  I wanted to fuck the beautiful model; I didn’t exactly want a romance.

  Somehow, I needed to get Brynn Davis out of my system. I’d been thinking about her all damn day, and it was distracting me from my work. And that was something that never happened.

  I usually just got laid, and my fuck buddy was promptly forgotten. They never took my attention away from my company.

  Granted, I’d temporarily lost my mind this morning, but there was something different about Brynn. I just couldn’t put a finger on exactly what that something was.

  Mason snorted before he said, “I don’t think he’s looking for love, Ruby.”

  She glared at my older brother. “You don’t know that, Mason. And love isn’t something anybody plans. It just…happens. In all honesty, I think you and Carter could both use a woman who isn’t going to let you push them around.”

  I snickered as I glanced at Mason and noticed that he was actually squirming.

  “I just had to kiss her. It wasn’t a planned-out idea. And I regretted the impulse when she sprinted out of the elevator like I was some kind of damn monster.”

  “You could apologize for being a jerk,” Ruby suggested.

  “I never apologize for being an asshole,” I informed her.

  Okay. Yeah. I had said a quick, impulsive I’m sorry to Brynn, but I hadn’t sincerely apologized the way I could have. Being contrite wasn’t really in my nature.

  Ruby folded her arms in front of her. “You could start. You obviously like her, and kissing her while she was pretty much defenseless was crossing the line.”

  I wasn’t about to inform my sister-in-law-to-be that I’d actually stopped said elevator before I’d kissed Brynn. She didn’t really need to know that. “What I really need is to forget about it.”

  Unlike Jett, I wasn’t cut out to be monogamous. It wasn’t that I felt like I needed a different woman all the time. It was a case of me not having the time or the desire to keep one female happy.

  Building Lawson Technologies had been my life for most of my adult years, and I didn’t know how to do anything else. So, in some ways, I could relate to Mason. Any other priorities were always a distant second place for me, and I had no idea how to change that, either. Until now, I’d never had the desire to do anything except play the business game.

  Ruby shot me a disappointed look as she stood up. “Jett and I have dinner plans, so we have to go. We’re trying out a new restaurant. But I think you should think about apologizing, Carter. I’ve never seen you have this kind of interest in a woman before, and I don’t think you should blow it with her.”

  News flash: I’d already blown it. Ruby hadn’t seen the obstinate look on Brynn’s face when we’d parted this morning.

  But Ruby was probably never going to und
erstand that I didn’t covet a relationship like she had with Jett.

  I liked my freedom.

  “I’ll think about it,” I agreed vaguely.

  I watched as Ruby, Jett, and Mason departed, and then leaned back in my comfortable office chair with a sigh.

  Apologize? Oh, hell no. I was Carter Lawson, a man known for playing the game better than everyone else. I was never sorry, and I sure as fuck wasn’t asking anybody to forgive me.

  But God, Brynn Davis was tempting enough to make me flirt with the idea.

  Would it help? Probably not.

  She’d been pretty adamant about not wanting to go to dinner.

  For fuck’s sake, Lawson, forget about it!

  Problem was, the memory of her stubborn expression, her fearless stance when she’d finally spoken to me, and her beautiful, dark, exotic eyes had haunted me all day.

  She’s a supermodel. She’s attractive. That’s it.

  Strangely, I didn’t like the fact that men were probably ogling her all the time. Brynn Davis was probably the star player in a large number of men’s fantasies, and that irritated the hell out of me, too.

  Leaning forward again, I opened the merger file on my desk.

  “Fuck!” I said to myself in a disgusted voice. “What in the hell am I doing?”

  I had a ton of work to get done before I could leave the office.

  I’d spilled about what I’d done this morning to my brothers and Ruby, hoping for some kind of damn advice.

  And I was actually thinking about sincerely apologizing to Brynn.

  I told her I was sorry. That should be enough, right? She knew.

  I specifically remembered that I’d blurted out those two little words as soon as I’d caught up with her after she’d bolted from the elevator.

  It was unusual for me to say I was sorry at all. In fact, I couldn’t remember a time that I had since I’d become a grown adult.

  As I focused on the paperwork I had to review, I tried to push her out of my brain completely.

  There were other women.

  Plenty of them.

  I didn’t need to obsess over a single female who just wasn’t interested in me. That would make me pretty damn pathetic.

  I finished my work several hours later, and realized that I hadn’t been completely successful at writing Brynn Davis off.

  Maybe because I wanted her way too much.

  Brynn

  I decided to take a jog the next morning instead of sticking with my usual exercise routine.

  I might not be a fast runner, but I enjoyed being outside in the early morning.

  After I’d walked to Myrtle Edwards Park, I’d started a slow but steady pace along the waterfront. There were already people out biking, walking, and jogging, but it wasn’t as crowded as it probably would be later in the day.

  I pulled down the brim of my baseball cap. I’d put my hair in a ponytail and stuck it through the back of the hat. The hat had a dual purpose: it kept the sun off my face, and it hid my identity.

  If I didn’t want to be recognized, I usually wasn’t. People saw what they wanted to see. If I wasn’t in full makeup, nobody really paid attention. I looked just like any other person jogging on a nice day in Seattle.

  It was funny to live in the city, yet have so many places to take a peaceful run.

  Really, I needed to chill out. I hadn’t relaxed since my run-in with Carter yesterday.

  Why in the hell had he just…kissed me like that?

  In all the articles I’d read about him in the past, I’d never seen a word about him being pushy with women, or assaulting one when she wasn’t expecting it.

  I’d wanted it as much as he did.

  Not that I was making excuses for him, but I had a feeling that my eyes had been begging him to touch me. And he had.

  If it had been any other guy, I would have kneed him in the balls for touching me, but for some reason, with Carter, it had come so naturally that I hadn’t questioned it until it was over.

  I tried to get my breathing under control as I increased my pace. But the sound of my own footsteps rhythmically hitting the pavement didn’t drown out my thoughts about the man who had rocked my world with a simple embrace.

  Don’t, Brynn. Don’t romanticize it. You know better. You’re a practical woman.

  I felt my phone vibrate on my ass. I pulled it from the small back pocket of my exercise pants, happy for any kind of distraction.

  I smiled as I saw that the text was from Laura. She’d found a new Korean restaurant, and wanted to meet up for lunch to talk about one of her designs.

  Last night, I’d found myself straying from our typical clothing, and started to plan out a handbag design that actually made sense. For me, designer bags weren’t the least bit functional, so I’d drawn up a purse that I thought would be amazing for women who wanted a bag that worked. I’d gotten caught up in designing a purse that was actually perfect for a woman who traveled.

  Stylish and functional could go together. Women didn’t need to sacrifice one for the other.

  But I had a whole closet full of mistakes because I’d been looking for just that.

  I wanted to talk to Laura about what I’d designed.

  It was during the moment I tried to text back to her that I realized that jogging and texting might be as dangerous as driving and texting.

  My message never got sent.

  Instead, I found myself colliding with a very solid wall, and I let out a yelp of pain as I bounced backward and landed flat on my ass several paces back from where I’d had my mishap.

  My hands went behind me to brace my fall, but my head still slammed into the pavement.

  “Dammit,” I hissed as I tried to sit up while I was still dizzy from the impact.

  I rolled into the dirt as I saw the approach of a bicycle that looked determined to run over me.

  “Brynn, are you hurt?” I heard a familiar baritone ask in a gruff tone.

  I closed my eyes to rub the back of my head, but I opened them again, and saw Carter Lawson crouching down beside me.

  I blinked several times, but the image didn’t go away.

  He was dressed in a pair of jogging pants and a t-shirt. Apparently, judging by his disheveled appearance, he’d been doing the same thing I was in the park.

  I moaned. “What happened?”

  He gingerly touched the back of my head. “It was you versus me. I won by a pretty large margin. Why in the hell were you using your phone? I moved to avoid you, but you came right across the path so quickly that I couldn’t avoid you. Are you okay?”

  I looked around me, realizing that I had definitely crossed to the opposite side as I was trying to text. I was embarrassed. “I’ll live,” I answered as I struggled to get to my feet.

  I’d finally figured out that Carter was the solid brick wall I’d collided with.

  My ankle gave out on me as I rose, and I would have hit the ground again if Carter hadn’t wrapped a powerful arm around my waist. “You’re hurt. Your head is bleeding, and you’re limping. Your ankle?”

  I nodded. “I think I sprained it. It hurts.”

  “You injured your head, too. I saw you hit the ground,” he said grimly. “We need to get you checked out.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said hurriedly.

  “You’re not fine,” he said, the look in his eyes stubborn.

  I felt like an idiot. Not only had I managed to slam into Carter Lawson—literally—but I’d injured myself, too.

  “I’ll get it checked out later,” I promised.

  I knew I had to find a way to look like I wasn’t hurting as I made my way very ungracefully down the side of the bike and walking path.

  I could walk, but it hurt to do it.

  “What in the hell do you think you’re doi
ng?” Carter growled as he easily caught up to me.

  “I need to get home,” I replied.

  “You can’t walk on that ankle. Don’t be stubborn, Brynn. You’ll just make it worse.”

  I stopped and faced him. “What do you propose that I do? I have to get back somehow.”

  He crouched in front of me. “Climb up.”

  “You can’t carry me,” I argued.

  “Do it,” he demanded.

  “Carter, it’s too far back to our building.”

  “We aren’t going far. There’s a clinic just outside the park.”

  I didn’t have much choice. I wasn’t about to bring an ambulance to the park for minor injuries, and it was really hard to walk.

  Carefully, I climbed up on Carter’s body, and he put a strong hold on my legs as he straightened up.

  I might be hurting, but I couldn’t help but notice how powerful his body was, his muscles flexing as he easily bore the strain of holding my entire body. And I was no lightweight. I might be fit, but I was tall.

  “I’m sorry,” I said unhappily as he moved at a pretty fast pace for a guy who was carrying both of our body weights. “I should have stopped to use my phone.”

  “I guess we all make mistakes,” he said, not even sounding winded.

  I knew he was talking about what had happened in the elevator the day before. “My mistake was different.”

  “How so?” he questioned. “You invaded my space just like I invaded yours.”

  “It wasn’t…intimate.”

  “The hell it wasn’t,” he answered. “Your leg connected with my nuts.”

  I closed my eyes in mortification. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

  “I’d feel better if you said you forgive me for yesterday,” he suggested.

  He was loading on the charm, and it was annoying that I wasn’t completely immune to it.

  I rolled my eyes as I clung to his muscular shoulders. “Blackmail?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all.”

  “I forgive you,” I said with a smile. “So does this make us even now?”