Reid turned and, sure enough, Brant and Mack were talking with Jaffri at the bar, but Brant was barely paying attention. All of his focus was on Gianna.
“I wish I knew,” he finally replied.
That’s when Selena looked up and all of his attention focused on her. He lifted his hand and she took it so that he could pull her away from the crowd and back into his arms. “Have I mentioned that I love you?”
She smiled up at him, leaning against his chest. “A few times today. But I never tire of hearing the words.”
“I love you,” he said again. “And you look incredible today.”
She leaned up on her toes, kissing him lightly. “I love you too, Reid!”
“Your first wedding present,” he handed her an envelope. “Jeremy Kingsley was recently released from his job. Layoffs,” he explained, shaking his head in mock sadness.
Selena blinked, not understanding. But she opened the envelope. There was a picture of Jeremy Kingsley carrying a box out of a building, escorted by a security guard. He looked furious and his face was red with embarrassment as his co-workers gawked on the sidelines.
Selena looked up, shocked at the image. Smiling, she moved closer to Reid. “You didn’t have to do that,” she told him. But deep down, she loved him even more. “You’re amazing,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
Excerpt to “The Billionaire’s Mysterious Temptress”
Coming January 2019
Author’s Note: I received several e-mails from readers after the cover reveal on this series. Many of you hated the original titles. So at the printing of Reid’s story, I was still in flux on the titles to each of the brothers’ stories. I apologize for the slow change over in this – but wanted you ladies to have input into the names.
Anyway – here is the excerpt. Enjoy!
The soft ping of the elevator’s arrival was her only warning.
Even the sounds of footsteps were muted by the thick carpeting on the executive hallway but…she knew. Gianna knew exactly who had just stepped off of that elevator. Not because she could feel him, hear him or even because the scent of his spicy aftershave preceded his presence.
Nope. The only reason she knew who was coming down the hallway was because it was seven fourteen in the morning. At ten minutes past seven every morning, Brant Jones drove his sleek Mercedes into the parking lot. At eleven minutes past seven, he stepped through the doors of the corporate headquarters for Rembrandt Cosmetics. The elevator ride up to the executive floor absorbed the next three minutes.
Gianna knew that she could set her watch to his arrival. Every morning, no deviation from the routine.
Twisting the rubber band around with her fingers, she idly wondered what he would do if she snapped the band across the hallway and…!
NO! No, no, no, no, no! With horror, she stared at the rubber band that was now laying innocently on the thick carpet. Right next to a very expensive pair of loafers.
Darn it!
“Bored again, Gianna?”
That deep, gravelly voice did crazy things inside of her. A part of her wanted to figure out how to make the man smile. Another part of her just wanted to piss him off. Unfortunately, those opposing impulses seemed to wage a constant battle inside of her head. And equally unfortunate was the lack of a filter inside her head, which meant that she tended to act on those unwise impulses.
“Um…”
Quickly, she shoved the papers under a stack of files. When she looked up at him, his eyes were hard and angry.
Instantly, his eyes moved from the stack of files then back to her face, his gaze narrowing with suspicion.
“In my office, Gianna,” Brant Jones snapped. And those shoes continued down the hallway towards the posh executive offices.
Gianna stood up, giving him a bit of time to move further away from her. No point in creating more naughty, ill-advised temptation in her head, she told herself. And watching the man’s broad shoulders…well, the ideas that occurred to her simply weren’t professional or appropriate.
Moments later, she stepped into his office and stood there, waiting for…something.
“Close the door,” Brant ordered. Gianna considered defying that command. It might be better if there were witnesses to her murder.