The Billionaire's Challenge - Final Google

Chapter 14

“Selena, here are the…” Gianna stopped in the doorway to Selena’s office, a startled expression on her face.

Selena turned around to face her friend, unaware of the smile already on her features.

“You made up!” Gianna exclaimed, clapping her hands. “What happened? Did he apologize? Was he contrite? Did you make him beg?” She dropped into a chair. “Oh, men should always beg when they’ve done something wrong!”

“Gianna!”

Both women jumped when they heard the deep voice call out. But while Selena’s shoulders jerked with surprise, Gianna’s slumped as if she’d just been denied a treat.

“Master calls,” she whispered.

In other circumstances, or if Gianna had been talking about someone other than Brant Jones, Selena might have laughed. But since it was Brant Jones, Reid’s brother and the second owner of the company, Selena kept her mouth shut, stunned that the gentle, vivacious and, apparently, fearless Gianna would poke the bear in such a way.

The bear in question was furious. A moment after his bellow, the handsome and furious chief operating officer appeared in Selena’s doorway.

“How can I help you today?” Gianna asked, standing up and turning to face her boss. “Do you have yet another pointless report you need me to build for you? Or perhaps I could do a bit of data entry? God forbid, you actually use my brain for something important!” she snapped. And with that, she swept out of Selena’s office with a flip of her hair.

Watching from the sidelines, Selena realized that Brant looked just as stunned as Selena felt, but both of them remained silent. Selena watched carefully though, noticing that the man didn’t take his eyes off Gianna until she turned the corner.

That’s when he turned back to Selena, fury twisting his normally handsome features. “I apologize, Selena. Gianna isn’t usually so…” he glanced back down the hallway, shaking his head. “Just…I apologize.”

Selena took pity on him. “You know she has a master’s degree in international business, right? Her undergraduate work was a double major in economics and finance. She really can do a lot more.”

There was no change to his features but, for some reason, Selena suspected that he was startled by her news.

“Right. Well, she won’t bother you again.”

“Gianna isn’t a bother in any way. In fact, she’s helped me figure out several problems, recreating the marketing budget to help us find different ways to work in the extra features we want for this new campaign.”

Again, there was no change in the man’s features, but Selena knew that he was absorbing that information.

“Right.” Without another word, he walked away, barely taking the time to nod in her direction.

Selena turned back to her computer and sent a message to Gianna. “Lunch?” was all it said.

The reply was immediate. “Yes!”

Selena felt bad that she was struggling with the tedious tasks that Brant assigned. Her friend was stuck generating low-level reports that didn’t challenge her intelligence in any way. And most of the tasks took about an hour out of the eight hours she spent at work. The rest of the time, she moved from department to department, asking others how she could help them. She’d even done some legal work and found candidates for open positions for the human resources department.

Gianna might appear flighty and sexy, but she was intelligent and ambitious.

Unfortunately, Gianna hadn’t had time to help with Selena’s personal issue. And that was Reid. They’d spent the night together again, making up for lost time. But by the time her alarm had gone off this morning, he was gone, although he’d left a note on her fridge asking her if she was free for dinner tonight.

They’d talk and, hopefully, work things out.

Chapter 15

Reid froze, staring at the big man sitting in his leather chair. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

The man swiveled around, tipping his sheriff’s hat back slightly. “A little birdie told me that you were messing up your love life big time,” Mack said. “I thought I’d come watch the show.”