She lifted up on her toes, trying to see what he was doing. “Okay, well, what about those three? Are they in neighborhoods that might…?”
“We’ll see,” he interrupted, handing her the phone back. “Let’s go take a look at them.”
His hand on her elbow got her moving, but her mind definitely wasn’t. She actually walked beside him for several steps before she realized what she was doing. Or not doing, which was walking gracefully. “Um…Mr. Jones…”
He swung around, stepping in front of her as he frowned down at her. “You’re supposed to call me Reid.”
Licking her dry lips, she tried to think. It wasn’t easy. “Yes. Reid. Well, I don’t…” She tried to step back but his hand shot out, stopping her. Her head whipped to the side and she realized that she’d almost stepped back into a family of four trying to hail a cab. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
The family smiled and moved on, but Selena watched their teenage daughter glance wistfully at Reid. Selena empathized with the girl. It was hard to look away from him.
Shifting around, she moved so that she wasn’t in the family’s way, but she wasn’t so close to Reid either. “Reid,” she started again, but as she opened her mouth to say the words, he interrupted her again.
“Selena, if you think I’m going to dump you into a strange city and leave you to fend for yourself, think again. I’m not that kind of man,” he said and took her elbow again, leading her over to a Jeep Wrangler.
“Of course,” she muttered.
“What is ‘of course’?” he asked as he pulled open the door for her.
She glanced up at him, then quickly pulled her eyes away before her mind started doing those silly fantasy-things again. “It seems like more than half the population of Denver drives either a Jeep or a Subaru. Everyone here seems to be super-sporty and outdoorsy.”
He laughed softly and she tried to pretend that the sensual shiver wasn’t hitting her. Again.
“Yeah, you’ll get hiking fever before long. Tomorrow, I’ll take you up into the Rockies so you can experience a real mountain.”
She pulled back, frowning at him. “I’ve been hiking in the Appalachian Mountains, Reid.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “That’s not a real mountain.” He leaned in slightly. “It’s not a real mountain until you’ve got snow in July. Does the Appalachian Trail have snow?”
Snow? In July? Huh? “No but…”
He pulled back, shaking his head. “Not a real mountain,” he announced and shut the door.
Selena burst out laughing, glad that he couldn’t hear her since he was walking around the front of the Jeep. When he stepped into the driver’s seat, she turned slightly. “I’ve heard of Grill-Envy and Car-Envy. But I never knew that there was really such a thing as Mountain-Envy.”
He pressed the button to start the Jeep. “There’s no ‘envy’ involved when we’re talking about mountains. What you guys have on the East Coast is a series of hills. We’ve got mountains,” he told her firmly, pointing a thumb at the western skyline. “That’s a mountain!” he admonished.
Another chuckle as he pulled away from the curb, her eyes caught by the sight of his hands gripping the wheel. And forearms. Goodness, he was hot! There was a light sprinkling of hair on his forearms that enticed, teased. She wondered what his chest looked like. Was it covered with hair? Or was there just a light sprinkling? The hair on his forearms was light brown while the hair on his head was dark. She suspected that this man spent a lot of time in the sun and she sighed.
“What was that?” he asked as he pulled to a stop at a red light.
“Hmm?” she asked, trying to keep her eyes forward but it was hard. His jeans were soft and the muscles in his thighs pressed against the material.
“That was a big sigh. What were you thinking about?”
She cringed. “Um…just thinking about all of the apartments to see,” she lied.
“Right,” he replied, obviously not believing her.
“Turn right ahead,” she directed, tapping her phone to find the directions to the first place.