“No!” Gianna announced, slicing her hand through the air in that way only Italians could. “We dine at the special place.”
No arguments this time. There was a good chance that Gianna was right. So far, every man groveled at her feet. She had the eyes and the figure that made men drool, so who was she to tell the vivacious woman that they wouldn’t be allowed to dine at the exclusive place?
“Let’s go. I have heard about your effect on men. I want to see it in action.” Selena hoisted her tote onto her shoulder and followed Gianna out of her office.
They were at the elevator when she spotted Reid coming out of an office further down the hallway. For a moment, she paused to admire him. He was so tall and handsome, so amazingly virile.
And angry, she thought. Interesting. She hadn’t heard about any new issues lately.
Their eyes locked and her heart stopped for a long moment. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Vaguely, she heard the elevator ping, indicating that the elevator had arrived, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
And then he was gone. An icy fear entered her heart as she watched him talk to someone on the floor.
“Ready?” Gianna asked.
Selena pulled her eyes away, blinking as she tried to re-orient herself. Elevator. Lunch. “Right!” she gasped and stepped into the waiting elevator. Gianna pressed the button that would take them both down to the lobby level, but Selena couldn’t think about lunch.
What was going on? Reid had glared at her as if she’d done something horrible. Thinking through the morning, she couldn’t think of anything that had gone wrong. The campaign’s schedule was ahead of where they were supposed to be. There hadn’t been any contentious meetings…what had gone wrong?
Or was she reading too much into the look? It had been only moments and in a crowded hallway. Was she imagining the anger in his eyes? He’d hidden the look quickly, then walked away. But…?
“Forget men!” Gianna said as soon as the door opened.
Selena blinked and looked at the shorter woman. “I’m sorry?”
Gianna laughed, the sound filled with the absolute joy of life. It was a sound Selena had only learned to make over the past week.
“Men aren’t worth it, Selena.”
“I’m not…”
“Reid Jones? The nicer brother to Brant Jones, my boss?”
Selena laughed but it sounded a bit too self-conscious. “Reid and I aren’t…”
“Of course you are and it’s wonderful that you are experimenting. Especially since you’re doing it with the nicer of the two brothers.”
“Three,” Selena corrected without thinking about it.
Gianna stopped and glanced at Selena. “Three? There are three of them? Where’s the third? I’ll have be sure to avoid him too!”
Selena sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Um…I think that the third brother, Mick or Mack or Mike, something like that…lives out in the mountains somewhere.”
“I’ve never seen this person!” she said with another wave that seemed to dismiss the man simply because she’d never met him.
Gianna continued, ranting about Brant and how serious he was, how emotionally uptight and annoying the man seemed to be. Selena listened with only half an ear while she tried to sift through possibilities for why Reid was so angry.
They arrived at the beautiful restaurant and Selena cringed. “Name on the reservation?” a blond woman asked, obviously not impressed with Gianna’s wild curls or luscious figure.
“We don’t have a reservation, but we’ll take a table near the window.”
Selena almost laughed along with the hostess. The window tables were usually the best in the house and reserved for the high rollers.
“I’m sorry, but those tables are all reserved. Perhaps…”
“Hello!” Gianna beamed, moving over to a man in a business suit.
Selena cringed, not sure who he was. Nor could she hear what Gianna was saying to him, but a moment later, the man threw back his head and laughed. A moment later, he lifted Gianna’s hand to his lips, kissing her fingers in a very old-world manner.
“I think we can squeeze in two beautiful ladies for lunch,” the man announced, glancing over Gianna’s shoulder at Selena.