If Reid was angry with her, then he needed to talk to her and tell her what she’d done wrong. Until then, she wasn’t taking the blame for his bad mood.
With that in mind, she got ready for bed. Cat jumped up onto her bed, purring as he curled his body around into a ball and fell asleep on her lap.
For a long time, she petted the feline, enjoying his company even if Cat wasn’t nearly as wonderful of a companion as Reid.
Unfortunately, she didn’t see Reid for the next three days. He wasn’t in the office and no one knew where he’d gone. Or if they did know, they weren’t saying anything. In fact, Selena looked at the others in the office kitchen, thinking that there was a very odd silence among the staff members.
Chapter 12
“Eeeeeh!” Selena shrieked, jumping backwards. When she realized that the…thing…in front of her car door was just a dead mouse, she sighed, putting a hand to her chest. “Cat!” she grumbled, then turned and headed back into the guest house. And for the first time in three days, she didn’t glance over her shoulder to see if there were lights on in Reid’s house.
“I’m going to find a new place,” she muttered as she pulled a piece of paper out of the garbage can and walked back outside. Carefully, she lifted the dead mouse that Cat had left her as a present. She dumped it into a plastic bag and then tied it up with a double knot.
“Meow!”
Selena shook her head as the adorable predator sidled up to her, rubbing his body against her legs.
“No!” Selena admonished the cat. “I’m not petting you. Petting you makes you happy and when you’re happy, you kill things. I don’t want you killing anything!”
“Meow!” Cat insisted.
Selena wasn’t strong enough to ignore the plea. “Fine!” she grumbled, bending down to scratch behind his ears. “You know you’re annoying, right?”
Cat’s only response was to purr louder. “By the way, how do you get out of the guest house every night? You curled up by my side when we go to sleep, but…”
“I built a cat door to the guest house as well,” Reid’s deep voice said.
Selena froze. A sexy pair of bare feet came into her line of vision. Slowly, she let her eyes move higher. Jeans. Loose, soft jeans that hung around his lean hips, low enough for her to…oh my!
Ignoring the obvious erection, she stood up and brushed the cat hair off of her hands. “You’re back,” she observed. “When did you get back?” Bare chest! Damn, he was playing dirty!
He moved closer and Selena immediately took a step away from him, lifting her hand up to stop him. “Don’t,” she whispered and turned away.
He stopped, his hands falling to his sides. “I’m sorry, Selena. I wanted to tell you where I was, but…”
“It’s fine,” she told him, pulling back and forcing her lips to curl upwards into a smile. She wasn’t feeling smiley today, but she didn’t want Reid to know how badly he’d hurt her. “I’m off to work,” she told him.
“Ruth filed a lawsuit against me for wrongful termination,” he announced.
Selena felt a chill whip through her. Turning back, she looked up into his eyes. “She…?”
“She claimed that I’d fired her because she was a woman. Unfortunately, she has a powerful family and…well…my lawyers won, but it’s been a long, difficult week. And I couldn’t contact you Selena,” he said softly.
“You couldn’t text me and tell me that…” she started to say something sappy like, “Tell me that you were okay,” but stopped herself just in time. Shaking her head slightly, she lifted her hand. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t report to me.” She took a deep breath. “I have to…” she stopped again. Unable to stop herself, she looked up into his eyes. “Are you okay? Did you really win?”
“Yes. Of course,” he replied, his eyes hard and unyielding. Selena watched him, wondering what it would feel like to live in his head, to know that the world would bow to your dictates.
“That’s good. Ruth wasn’t a nice person.”