The Billionaire's Challenge - Final Google

There was a stunned silence and Reid knew that Mack was staring in frustration. Then he sighed. “Figures,” Mack grumbled. “Who is that then?”

Any other time, Reid would have turned to find out who had drawn Mack’s attention now. But Selena was approaching and he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“That’s trouble,” Brant growled. And then he was gone, probably heading towards the “trouble”, but Reid focused on Selena. Unfortunately, she veered away from him, heading towards the other guests. Probably what he should be doing right now, but he didn’t care. He wanted to lift Selena into his arms and carry her off somewhere private. Some place where he could explore that dress.

More guests arrived and the event coordinator approached him, whispering something in his ear. But he had no idea what she’d said, too focused on Selena. He must have responded with something because the coordinator moved away. So did Selena.

Looking around, he was surprised to see so many people. When had everyone arrived? He’d only been standing here for…looking down at his watch, he realized that the party had been going for a half hour. He’d been admiring Selena and her dress for thirty minutes?

With a chuckle, he shook his head and moved into the fray. Grabbing a beer, he joined a group of guests, talking about…something. He had no idea what they were discussing or even if he participated in the conversation. He was focused on Selena, watching her as she moved from one group to another. He could see the tension in her shoulders, knew that she hated events like this, but admired how gracious she appeared. Whoever she spoke with, she made them feel as if they were the center of the world. They smiled and laughed, nodded their heads at everything she said. Selena was a beautiful hostess, he realized.

Someone bumped him from behind and he turned, ready to snap at them for interrupted his enjoyment of Selena’s graciousness. But it was Brant and he looked about ready to kill someone. Looking in the direction of his glare, he realized that his brother was glaring at the lively Italian financial guru as she laughed with another man.

“You have it as bad as Reid,” Mack said, slapping Brant’s back hard enough to topple a regular man. But the Jones brothers were used to rough slaps of “affection” and the gesture didn’t even cause Brant to wobble.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brant growled.

Mack only chuckled and took another long drink of his beer. Reid didn’t care what was going on. He simply enjoyed watching Selena. A few more barbs passed between his brothers but he ignored all of it. It occurred to him that Selena was avoiding him. Every few moments, he caught her looking around and several times, she caught his eye only to look away quickly so that she could move in the opposite direction.

Fine! She wanted to avoid a confrontation while the other guests were around? He could handle that. He knew where she would be when everyone else went away. Sitting back, he relaxed in one of the chairs, appearing to be casual as the others ate the barbeque ribs that were being passed around by the waiters. Everyone was having a good time and the party was a resounding success. But Reid wanted them all gone.

Several hours later, the last of the guests waved goodbye. The catering crew were mostly packed up, the food wrapped and stored in his fridge. The flowers had been brought into the house, the vases scattered about the house and Brant and Mack were inside watching some sort of sports event on his basement television. It was a huge area with a massive television surrounded by reclining leather seats – the perfect man cave.

Selena was walking around cleaning up the last bits of the party. She was exhausted, but still looked amazing even though the killer heels she’d donned earlier in the evening had been kicked off to the side, sitting drunkenly in the grass now.

“The cleaning crew is coming back tomorrow to do all of this,” he said, the night making his voice seem louder.

“Of course,” she snapped and walked over to pick up several napkins that had fallen behind a bush.

“Selena…” her whole body stiffened.

“I’m tired,” she announced, leaving the newly retrieved napkins on one of the poolside chairs. “I’m going to sleep.”