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“The usual, George.”
“All right,” George said, taking the menu from Riley.
Riley glanced over at Alpha and saw she was absorbed in the beauty of the mountains that could be seen through the windows. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, studying her more so than the mountains he’d seen all his life.
“Yes.”
Sitting this close to her, he could see just how beautiful, how stunning, she was. That wasn’t a good thing. How was he supposed to concentrate on whatever presentation she was giving when he wanted to concentrate on her?
She broke eye contact while reaching for her coffee to take a sip and he did likewise. “So, other than the cold weather, how do you enjoy living in Denver so far?” he asked her.
“I like it. I’m grateful that the people here have been so kind. I didn’t expect my business to take off like it has.”
“I understand your work speaks for itself. My sister-in-law was definitely impressed.”
She smiled. “Pam is super nice.”
Their conversation was interrupted when George returned with their appetizers, still wearing that smirk on his face.
Alpha drew in a deep breath. She had done presentations quite a few times and knew there wasn’t a shy bone in her body, but standing in front of Riley had butterflies floating around in her stomach.
She looked over at him to find him looking back at her. She forced a smile. “I promise to have you out in fifteen minutes.”
“Take your time.”
He would say that, she thought. Their waiter had cleared the table and filled their cups.
“The first thing we need to decide on is a theme for that night. These are the ones I came up with while trying to stay away from holiday themes. Because of diversity in the workplace, the last thing you want to do is offend anyone.”
“So what do you suggest?” he asked her.
“A winter theme always works. These are a few that I’ve come up with,” she said, clicking the remote in her hand to bring the screen alive. “As you can see, I have Winter Wonderland, Winter Delight, One Winter’s Night and Winter Around the World.”
She watched him study each suggestion. He shifted his eyes back to her, and she felt her stomach stir from the intensity of his gaze. “What’s your favorite?”
“It’s really your decision.”
He nodded. “I know, but which one do you like the best?”
She glanced up at the screen. “Based on the fact that this year there will be a nighttime party in the ballroom of the Pavilion Hotel, instead of the daytime party you usually hold at the office, I like One Winter’s Night. There’s a sort of magical ring. I like it.”
A smile curved his lips. “So do I. Let’s go with it.”
Alpha nodded, excited that he’d liked the same theme that she did. “All right. And as far as the ballroom at the Pavilion Hotel, I took a tour a few days ago. It will hold up to two thousand people,” she said, showing an aerial view of the huge hotel, which was located midway between downtown and the airport.
“And it’s a definite we have it for that night?”
“Yes,” she said, smiling. “They were happy to accommodate us. The Westmoreland name carries a lot of weight.”
Deciding to move on to the next point, she said, “I thought it would be nice to set the mood by having it be a dressy affair.”
He lifted a brow. “How dressy?”
“Black tie.” At the grimace on his face, she smiled and quickly said, “Not as bad as all that, Riley. I think your employees will appreciate it. It will make them feel special. Other than your family’s annual charity ball, your employees probably never have anyplace to go where they can dress up and feel as if they’re stepping out on the town.”
He nodded slowly, and she knew he was thinking about the idea. She just wished she didn’t feel that sexual chemistry between them even while discussing business. “Let’s table that for at least a week,” he suggested.
“All right,” she said. “But I’ll need a decision on the attire in order to determine what sort of decorations will be appropriate.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Last but not least,” she said, switching off the screen, “is the discussion of the budget. That handout I’ve given you breaks everything down. I inflated the expenses to allow for decorations. I’d rather operate on the high end versus a low one.”
She paused a moment and then said, “Those are all of my ideas and suggestions. Is there anything you want to add or change?”
He shook his head. “No, I think you did a thorough job explaining things.”
“Thank you,” she said, crossing the room to place the remote near the television screen. That’s when she dropped her ink pen and leaned down to pick it up.
For the second time that day Riley was slapped with a case of lust so thick he wondered how in the hell he was going to stand without giving away his body’s reaction. She had leaned down to pick up her pen, and the way the material of her dress stretched snug across that gorgeous backside, he’d almost swallowed his tongue. Drawing in a deep breath, he used his hand to wipe away the perspiration forming on his forehead.
“Need help with anything?”
“No, thanks,” she said, flicking a quick glance in his direction before returning to what she was doing. He continued to sit there, almost willing her to glance back at him, hold his gaze, feel his heat and not deny the potent chemistry flowing between them.
At that moment, he made a decision. “We’ll need to meet again next week, after I’ve reached a decision about the attire for the event.”
He knew she was probably wondering why they needed to meet to discuss that when it was something they could cover over the phone. Instead of questioning him about anything, though, she simply said, “That’s fine. Do you know when and where?”
“I’ll call you.”
She met his gaze and held it. He knew at that moment that if she hadn’t felt the strong undercurrents flowing between them before, she did now. “All right.”
Now that was where he disagreed with her. It wasn’t all right, but he didn’t know a way to change the path he seemed determined to take where she was concerned.
He watched as she re-dressed in her two heavy sweaters, scarf, huge overcoat and gloves. Was all that necessary? Evidently to her they were. If she wanted to stay warm the best thing she needed was body heat. Namely, his.
“I’m ready to go.”
Glad he had gotten his body under control and that there was no sign of the lust that had overtaken it earlier, he stood. “Do I need to carry you out?” he teased.
Her eyes rounded and it amused him that she’d assumed he was serious. “No, and I’m sorry you felt the need to do so before. I’m usually not clumsy,” she said apologetically.
“You weren’t clumsy, Alpha. You aren’t used to walking on icy, slippery surfaces and that’s understandable. Will you do me a favor?”
She tilted up her head to look at him. “What?”
“Stop apologizing. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Thanks.”
“Doing that must drive your boyfriend crazy,” he said, deliberately fishing for information.
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Oh.” He placed his hand in the center of her back as he led her out of the room. So she didn’t have a boyfriend. Hmm.
An hour or so later Alpha entered her home and immediately shrugged off her heavy coat and began peeling off her sweaters and gloves. It was then that she missed her scarf and figured she must have left it in Riley’s truck.
During their ride back to her car she’d noticed he no longer seemed to be on guard with her, the way he had been at the restaurant earlier, and she took advantage by keeping the conversation going about the holiday party—One Winter’s Night. The more she talked about it the more excited she got.
Once they reached her car, she saw her tire was fixed and her car keys were back where she’d left them. He wouldn’t accept any money for having her tire taken care of, so she thanked him for lunch. After assuring him she would follow up with him in a week to discuss the attire for the party, she hurried off to her car. He had sat in his truck, watching her drive off.
Now she was home, inside the house she’d fallen in love with the first time she’d seen it. The last house in the cul-de-sac of a street where all the backyards faced the mountains, it was smaller than her place in Daytona but she’d always thought her condo on the beach had been too large for her anyway. Now she didn’t have any wasted space, and the windows facing her backyard provided a gorgeous view of the mountains. However, there were days she missed the beach, until she remembered she had given up the beach for a reason.
Sitting down on the sofa, she began removing her boots. The first thing she’d done after buying the house was carpet the majority of the tile floors. The thought of getting out of bed and letting her feet touch cold tile had sent chills up her body. Other than that she hadn’t changed a thing. Definitely not the extensive woodwork trim or the custom cabinets.
Moments later, taking her shoes in her hand, she walked in bare feet to her bedroom while thinking about what had driven her here to Denver.
Eddie Swisher.
At one time, she had thought he was everything she had wanted in a man. In the end, she’d discovered he was nothing more than a puppet with his parents pulling the strings. She would never forget the day, a mere week before her wedding, when he had shown up at her place and dropped the bomb. A family meeting had been called and his family had voted. It had been decided that he couldn’t marry her unless she vowed to disown Omega, her twin sister—the former porn star. After all, he had pointed out, her own parents had turned their backs on Omega. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t do the same. It had meant nothing to him that Omega was no longer in the business or that she had met a man who’d adored her regardless of her past. It was a past her parents and Eddie just couldn’t get beyond.
At least he hadn’t stooped to the same level as LeBron Roberts, the guy she’d dated before Eddie. When LeBron had learned of her twin’s occupation, he’d assumed Alpha would miraculously transform into Omega in the bedroom. When she had dashed those hopes, he hadn’t wasted any time in dropping her.
Her thoughts shifted back to Riley. He was a fine specimen of a man, definitely a threat to the peace she was trying to find. It didn’t take much for her to remember those beautiful dark eyes, long lashes and the way his jaw curved whenever he smiled. She’d never been drawn to any male with such intensity. He took the word sexy to all new heights. She had been attracted to LeBron and Eddie but not to the same degree. It was something about his voice, the way he looked at her, his entire presence that made her think of long winter nights—with him.
She tossed the hair from her face, thinking she had truly gotten her drool-on today, whether he knew it or not. And it was best that he didn’t know since it couldn’t lead anywhere. She had definitely learned her lesson. When her relationship with Eddie ended she had vowed not to get seriously involved with another man. It wasn’t worth the pain and hassle.
She dropped her boots in the closet and, leaving her bedroom, moved on to her family room. It was small and cozy. At the moment, she wanted cozy. She would curl up on her sofa and find something interesting on television. Or better yet, she could just relive her time with Riley. For just a little while, she would wallow in fantasies and then, later, she would get up and try getting some work done.
Riley sat on the sofa in his living room in front of his fireplace, drinking a cold beer while replaying in his mind his encounter with Alpha. Now that he had satisfied his curiosity about her, knew she was competent and could handle what Dillon had hired her to do, he could easily delegate any one of his supervisors to work with her. But he didn’t want to do that, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why, especially when it was obvious the woman posed a lot of problems for him.
He knew that she had the ability to drive any man to distraction, which was the last thing he needed. No other woman had been capable of doing such a thing to him, but after meeting her today, he believed that she could, physically and mentally. The thought that he was even considering mixing business with pleasure was the first sign that he had messed up somewhere. He’d allowed her to get under his skin. But with single-minded determination, he intended to get her out.
He had learned his lesson by watching how obsessed his youngest brother, Bane, had been with Crystal Newsome and the heartbreak Bane had suffered when the teenage lovers had been forced apart.
Riley released a deep sigh. Bane had been the last child born to his parents, and everyone had assumed Bane would be a girl, the daughter their parents didn’t have. Things didn’t turn out that way. They’d gotten Bane. Personally, Riley had been happy about it. Who wanted a sister anyway? He had his girl cousins, Megan and Gemma, and as far as he was concerned, they were enough. So he’d become Bane’s protector while growing up, or at least he’d tried. But he hadn’t been able to foresee the pain Bane would suffer when, at eighteen, he fell in love with sixteen-year-old Crystal. Her parents had been against the match from the start and had separated the teens by sending Crystal away to parts unknown.
Riley would never forget that day for as long as he lived. A heartbroken Bane had ridden his horse out alone. When he hadn’t returned at a reasonable hour, Dillon had gotten worried and sent Riley looking for him.
He had found Bane in an old abandoned shack that had been on the Westmoreland property for years. The moment Riley had entered the place he’d known it had been Crystal and Bane’s love nest. But what had really gripped Riley’s insides was the sound of Bane howling like a tormented and wounded animal.
Riley had actually felt his brother’s pain and heartbreak that day. The sound had pierced something deep within him, and he’d wondered what there was about love that could torture and torment even a badass dude like Bane. On that day he’d vowed never to find out.
Without letting Bane know he was there, Riley had backed out of the shack and left, allowing his brother to grieve privately for the love he’d lost. That had been several years ago, but Riley’s vow to never fall for a woman hadn’t changed. That’s when he had implemented Riley’s Rule.
Reaching out, he picked up the wool scarf Alpha had left in his truck and brought it to his nose. It smelled like her. Sweet. Womanly. Enticing … so damn enticing. And the scent reminded him of all the heated desire that had warped his senses during the time he’d been with her. It was heated desire that was still slowly driving him insane.
He placed the scarf aside and picked up his cell phone to redial the number that had come through that morning. He felt his stomach tighten when he heard her soft voice.
“Hello?”
“Alpha? This is Riley. You left your scarf in my truck, and I want to get it back to you. Will you be home tomorrow?”
There was a slight hesitation and then she said, “Yes, but you don’t have to come out of your way to return it, Riley. I have several of them.”
“No problem. I want to make sure you get this one back. You live in the Arlington Heights area, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be out that way tomorrow around two. Is it okay for me to drop by?”
Another slight hesitation. “Yes, I’ll be home.”
“Fine, I’ll see you then.”
Riley clicked off the phone. He was doing the decent thing by returning the scarf and nothing more. The thought that he was itching to see her again had nothing to do with it.
He brought the scarf to his nose once more. Yes, he definitely wanted to see her again.
Four
“I should have been more forceful about him not returning that darn scarf,” Alpha muttered as she glanced at herself again in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. “I guess, considering the layers of clothes I was wearing to keep warm yesterday, he figured I must need every piece.”
Drawing in a deep breath, she licked her lips, wondering if she should put on lipstick. If she did, he might assume she’d gotten pretty just for him. She frowned, knowing that, in essence, she had. Wednesday was the day she usually did housework and seldom put anything on other than her sweats. But not today.
She had awakened and quickly straightened up, eaten lunch, baked her favorite cinnamon rolls, showered and dressed in a canary-yellow buttoned shirt that tied at the waist and a denim skirt that hit above the knee. A pair of striped, black-and-white ballet flats that she had purchased before leaving Daytona were on her feet.
“I look cute, if I have to say so myself,” she said softly and then threw her head back and laughed. When was the last time she had gone to a lot of trouble to look good for a man? Why was she doing so now?
Okay, she thought, deciding to put on lipstick after all, she would answer the first question. The last time had been for her parents’ anniversary party a year or so ago and the man had been Eddie. In all honesty, she had stopped thinking of her and Eddie as a couple long before he’d given her that ultimatum about Omega. They had begun drifting apart. Once she had gotten serious about becoming an event planner they had found excuse after excuse to not spend time together. It hadn’t bothered her, and she had a feeling it hadn’t bothered him, either. Yet neither of them had made a move to call off their wedding for those reasons.
Her thoughts drifted back to the second half of the question she’d asked herself. Why was she going out of her way to look good for Riley? It could be that a part of her wanted to feel like a woman—a woman any man could be interested in, a woman a man could and would notice.
He had noticed the other day, which surprised her when she’d caught him staring. She hadn’t expected him to display as strong a reaction to her as she had to him. And she was certain she hadn’t imagined it. It had been there in his eyes when she’d turned around. Although it had been quickly replaced with a guarded look, it had been there.
“Okay, for the first time in a long time I feel like a desirable woman, and I like it,” she said, after applying her lipstick and pursing her lips to see the effect.
Even before they’d broken up, Eddie had stopped going out of his way to make her feel like she could rock his world. But with Riley the sparks had been there, and they were sparks that sizzled. They had both tried to downplay it, but hadn’t been successful. And that was one of the things that concerned her. Would the sparks be there when she saw him again today?
She was about to take the comb and work with her hair some more when she heard the doorbell. Riley was early. A good five minutes early. Looking at herself in the mirror one last time, she tied her hair back from her face before quickly leaving her bedroom. She headed for the door, not sure if those five minutes were a good thing or a bad thing.
Riley glanced around. Nice house. The stucco structure with an A-line roof and carved columns on the porch suited her. The Arlington Heights area was one of the oldest in Denver, but he could tell her home had been added within the past ten years or so. She had a pretty nice neighborhood. Quiet. Serene. Mountains as a backdrop and snow-covered yard. It had snowed again overnight and was slow in melting.
On the drive over, he kept asking himself what he was doing. He could easily mail the scarf to her, return it when they met again next week or keep it for a souvenir. But here he was, standing on her doorstep like a lust-craved addict eager for one glimpse of her.
Okay, who was he kidding? He wanted more than a glimpse. He wanted her. In his bed. There was no reason for him to deny it because it was true. He had tried talking himself out of wanting her all through the night but had failed miserably. In the end, he’d figured that as long as he applied Riley’s Rule he would be safe. And as for mixing business with pleasure, technically, she was on contract and not a real employee of Blue Ridge. Now, if he could get her to go along with his proposition, then an affair would be a surefire way of taking care of this desire before she had a chance to get deeper into his system.
