He laughed, his hands resting on her hips. “You’re going to need a place to entertain. Why wouldn’t you…”
What? Entertain? As in dinner parties and things like that? “I don’t entertain!” she huffed, pushing his hands away, but they came right back, even pulling her against him.
“You will. You’re in management now. You’re going to need the space. Entertaining and networking are part of your job. And besides,” he pointed out with a wink down at her, “Denver is a more social place than Northern Virginia. People actually know their neighbors here. You need room to entertain, Selena.”
She gritted her teeth, both to keep herself from shouting at him as well as to not moan at her need to press herself against him. Goodness, his hands felt wonderful! She could imagine pressing against him, feeling his taut abs against her stomach, letting his hand slide up her back and…
Shaking her head, she mentally banished the distracting images. “Reid, you’re interrupting.”
“There are resident areas in which you can entertain,” the receptionist offered.
Twisting out of Reid’s arms, Selena moved away and turned back to the woman. “Ignore him. He’s not the one renting the apartment. I am and I only need a one bedroom.”
The woman smiled, but it was a nervous effort. Obviously, she wasn’t sure who to answer, but Selena smiled confidently as she nodded. “One bedroom, please. If I need to entertain,” she glanced behind her, “then I’ll figure that out when I get there.”
She could have sworn he was growling. Maybe he was trying to say something and…she had no idea. The man was a mystery. Her gratitude for his assistance was disappearing now that he was doing that alpha male thing. Yeah, she liked it on a date or when she was interested in a guy. It was very rare to find a man who was confident and powerful, but didn’t veer off into the self-centered, arrogant, irritating realm.
Right now, Reid was losing that battle.
The woman gathered up several brochures and spread them out.
“We’ll just look at the apartments,” Reid interrupted. “No need to give us brochures when we’re already here.”
His comment threw off the receptionist again, who was just trying to do her job. “Ignore him,” advised Selena steadily.
The receptionist stood up, trying to appear confident, but she couldn’t look Selena in the eye. “How about if we go look around and if you are interested, we can discuss the benefits of living here afterwards?”
One thing was good, Selena thought. This was the first woman she’d seen wearing heels. It was good to know that not everyone wore hiking boots or Birkenstocks. Which wasn’t really fair, she thought as she followed the woman, ignoring Reid as he brought up the rear. The women she’d been working with at the office wore professional clothes. It was only her ill-informed perception of the people in Denver that had made her assume that everyone around here wore hiking boots. Looking back, she checked Reid’s feet. Sure enough, he was wearing a nice pair of shoes. No hiking boots but from his disparaging remarks about the Appalachian Mountains, she suspected that he had at least one pair of hiking boots in his closet.
“Do you own hiking boots?” Selena asked the receptionist leading them into a ground floor apartment.
She looked back, startled. “Of course!” she grinned. “I have Monday and Tuesday off and I head up into the mountains just about every chance I get. It’s gorgeous up there.” She unlocked the door. “I take it you’re not from around here?”
Selena’s eyes narrowed. “I’m from the East Coast. We hike around the Appalachian Trails.”
“Oh, those aren’t mountains!” she laughed, waving away the possibility. “Wait until you get up into the upper elevations of the Rockies! The views are incredible! And discovering all of the different flora and fauna that somehow survive in those rugged areas? It’s amazing!”
Selena kept her mouth shut, but she couldn’t avoid a glance at Reid. Sure enough, his look said, “Told ya!”
She simply rolled her eyes and followed the woman into the apartment. It was a demo apartment, obviously set up by a decorator to show an ideal look.