Page 38 of Dirty Rival
“No,” she says. “Never. I’m not beyond seeing his beauty, but I’m not into arrogant alpha assholes. I have enough of those I call family, but that’s also why I get him, and why we work well together.” She lifts her wrists and shows me the dainty diamond watch on her wrist. “And he buys me gifts.”
My eyes go wide. “He does?”
“Well, I buy me gifts after he works me to death, blows a date I might have enjoyed, or he’s a big ass in a larger than normal way. I have his AmEx. I use it.”
I laugh. “You must get gifts all the time. He’s such a big ass.”
The elevator dings and she sobers, “You can handle him. I can tell. So can he, and that’s a good thing. It’s why he respects me. I can handle him.” She catches the door. “So can you,” she repeats. “I’ll be back soon.” She heads out of the car and takes off. I follow her, repeating her words: There is what he lets you see and what he doesn’t let you see. Reid didn’t accidentally tell me that I was in his head. He wanted me to know.
I set the thought aside out of necessity and walk to security. After fifteen minutes of coordination, I’m just about to get on the elevator back upstairs when my cellphone rings with a new number that has my eyes going wide. Elijah Woodson is calling me. Elijah, who is a billionaire that I’ve all but groveled to, to get to invest with us. I step to the side of the elevator to avoid service interruption and answer. “Elijah,” I say. “How are you?”
“I hear you’re the future CEO over there.”
“That’s the buzz,” I say.
“That works for me.”
My heart starts to race. “As in, you’ll invest?”
“In you, yes. For the right project. Find it and make sure it’s really right, Carrie.”
“How much money are we talking?”
“How much are you going to convince me to give you?”
“It’s going to be a large sum.”
“That I better not lose. Send me a contract. I’ll be waiting.”
“Wait,” I say quickly. “Why now?”
“Because your father is gone.” He disconnects and my stomach knots. What was happening with my father that other people knew and I did not?
My stomach knots and I punch the elevator button. I need to set the personal part of this aside. I was just given a gift that makes that financial goal Reid set possible. I need to get the team working on prospects before I consider the implications of the negativity surrounding my father. The elevator doors open and I wait impatiently to arrive back on our floor. My destination is not left toward the lobby and my office, but right, where I enter the offices that house our sales team. Walking down a path between cubicles, I waste no time gathering my best half-dozen to the edge of their cubicles.
“I need your biggest plays for Elijah Woodson and I need them by tomorrow. The bigger, the better, and if you aren’t sure it’s the right project, get me facts and let me decide. Call the investors that know you. Get them interested in whatever we do with Elijah.”
“Hold the name back,” Reid says, stepping to my side, and glancing down at me, those blue eyes piercing mine. “There’s a development we need to discuss first.”
Anger boils inside me but I manage to contain it. I glance at the group. “Get to work. Get me your proposals by tomorrow.” I rotate and start walking.
Reid is instantly by my side, keeping pace but neither of us speak. I’m too angry. He’s too in control. We exit to the elevator banks. “Let’s go to my office,” he orders tightly.
“I’ll meet you there,” I reply without looking at him, aware that I need to cool off before I talk to this man. I cut to the stairwell and exit. I’ve barely made it inside and Reid is there, pressing me into a corner, his big body framing mine.
“Running again?”
I press my hand to his chest. “I’m not running. I’m sparing your life. You do not want to fight with me when I’m this angry. You say I have the chance to be CEO and yet you pull the rug out from under a huge deal I brought to the table. Me. Not you.”
“If you’d hear me out, you’d know your anger is misplaced.”
“My anger? Or my attraction to you that is completely misplaced? I must be a sadist.”
He tangles fingers in my hair. “Let me remind you what keeps you coming back for more.”
“Do not even think about kissing me.”
“Too late,” he says. “I’m always thinking about kissing you. I can’t change that. I’m done trying.”