One Winter's Night

And the one thing he wouldn’t tolerate was someone who agreed to his terms and then decided somewhere along the way to make getting a ring on her finger her number-one goal. All it had taken was a month with Paula to see what her intentions were. For some reason, she’d assumed she would be the woman capable of changing him. It wasn’t happening. He’d wasted no time ending things and placing her on his Never Date Again list.

“Yes, please tell our server that my lunch guest and I have decided to eat before getting down to business.”

Paula tipped her head to the side as a frown creased her brow. “And I can just imagine what kind of business you intend to get down to, Riley,” she said curtly.

His gaze held hers intently. “Can you?”

“Yes. Do I need to remind you that I’ve been there with you and know just how you operate? So tell me. What does Ms. Frumpy have going for her? Good grief, Riley, I’m sure you can do better.”

Frumpy! A vision of the ultrafine body of the woman he’d left in the room floated through his mind. He doubted he could do better. “First of all, this is a business meeting, Paula. Blue Ridge has hired Alpha to handle our holiday party. Secondly, none of my affairs, business or otherwise, are any of your concern.” The only reason he’d told her the former was because he knew better than anyone about that vindictive tongue of hers. He refused to have her tarnish Alpha’s reputation in any way.

Paula placed her hands on her hips. “One day a woman is going to come along and break your heart. I hope I’m around to see it.”

Riley rubbed his hand down his face. Where was all this drama coming from? And why today? Hadn’t he woken up in a good mood? “Fine, you’ve put a curse on me. I guess that means I won’t sleep most nights worrying about it,” he said, reaching out to open the door.

She quickly reached out and grabbed his hand. “Sorry, Riley, I shouldn’t have said that, but you never returned my calls,” she said in a frustrated tone.

He stared at her. “No, I haven’t, and it’s been almost two years, right?”

“Yes.”

He nodded slowly, lifting a brow before turning to open the door, hoping she got it that time.

Alpha looked up from her laptop when she heard Riley returning. He glanced around and saw that she had set up the room for the presentation. “I thought we were going to eat first,” he said.

“We are. I thought it would save time if I had everything ready so I can move right into my presentation.”

He nodded as he sat down at the table. She was about to ask if he could see the huge screen from where he sat when the door opened and a waiter entered, carrying a pitcher of water and menus. Deciding she had wasted Riley’s time enough for one day, she moved toward the table when the waiter began filling their glasses with water.

She took the seat across from him and was glad when the waiter handed her a menu. She needed something else, anything else, other than Riley to occupy her attention. She might be wrong, but he seemed upset about something. Was he upset with her?

She placed her menu down. “I’m sorry, Riley.”

He glanced up from his own menu and arched a brow. “For what?”

“For getting off to such a bad start with you—having a flat tire, taking you out of your way to come get me, and then having our meeting place changed to accommodate me.”

He gave his head a little shake. “No apology necessary. You haven’t gotten off to a bad start with me, Alpha. I’m fully aware there are days that don’t go quite as well as you’d like. You didn’t ask for that flat tire, did you?”

“Goodness, no.”

“Then don’t worry about it. I’m just glad I was able to help. And as far as having to change our meeting place, McKay’s is a favorite of mine, and I’ll think of any excuse to get some of their chicken noodle soup. Have you had any?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ve only eaten their burgers and fries.”

He smiled. “Then you don’t know what you’re missing. You need to try it, if for nothing more than a cup as an appetizer.”

He had her curious. “Okay, thanks. I think I will.”

She picked up her glass of water to take a sip and then she said, “So you come here often?”

“Yes. Tony McKay and I were good friends all through high school. We went to different colleges and he ended up taking a job in Phoenix. When his father died, he returned to Denver to help his mother close down the restaurant, but decided to stay and run it instead. He wasn’t crazy about the job he’d landed after college and his management degree gave him plenty of ideas on how to take this place to a whole new level.”

He paused to take another sip of his water. “Old man McKay would not have approved of the changes Tony made, especially with the expansion and keeping the place open until midnight. He didn’t believe in change and fought it tooth and nail. Tony and I tried to convince him for years that the only constant was change, and so he might as well get used to it. We told him to embrace it like everyone else so he could stay competitive.”

He chuckled. “Tony not only embraces change, but he’s implemented a few precedents. Such as convincing our school board to add a culinary class to their high school curriculum and then giving students jobs to gain firsthand experiences while getting class credits.”

“Smart move.”

Riley smiled. “We thought so.”

She glanced back at her menu. “So what else would you suggest other than my usual burger and fries?”

“Umm, you can’t go wrong with their chicken. It’s covered with the best gravy you can eat and comes with mouthwatering scalloped potatoes and hot buttered yeast rolls.”

She couldn’t help frowning. “That sounds like a lot of food.”

“It is, but if the forecasters are right, you might be snowed in for the next day or two and leftovers would come in handy.”

Was that excitement she heard in his voice? “You really do like it, don’t you?”

“Like what?”

He glanced over at her, and the moment he did so she felt a zing in the pit of her stomach. Why was her body reacting so much to him? She was twenty-seven and knew all about chemistry between a man and a woman, but she’d never in her life experienced anything so potent. “The cold weather. I thought you were teasing about liking it, but apparently you weren’t. Here I was, all bundled up like I was living at the North Pole, and you were wearing a lightweight jacket as if you could barely feel the cold.”

He shrugged, and she couldn’t help but admire the undulating movement of his shoulders beneath his shirt. “I guess I’m immune. I’ve been here all my life and was told I was born during one of Denver’s worst snowstorms. I’ve always enjoyed playing in the snow.”

He chuckled and the sound floated around the room with such a rich octave it made Alpha draw in a charged breath. “February is my favorite month because that’s usually when Denver is the coldest.”

Riley leaned back in his chair and her gaze was drawn to his hands. For a quick second, she recalled how those hands had felt when he’d picked her up and carried her into the restaurant. She had felt the warmth of them through the thickness of her clothes.

“Today is nothing compared to how things will get later on,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. “Surely you understood what you were doing when you traded sunny Florida for Denver?”

Alpha drew in a deep breath. No, she hadn’t fully understood. The only thing she’d known was that she needed to put as much distance between her, Eddie and her parents as she could. “I didn’t expect it to be this cold so soon. I figured I would prepare myself for January and February, but it’s still November.”

“Yes, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Are you going back south for turkey and dressing?”

Not on her life. “No. I plan on spending Thanksgiving here since I have a couple of projects during that time.” And they were projects she could have gotten out of doing had she wanted to, but she hadn’t.

The waiter returned to take their orders, and she was glad for the interruption. She was getting too comfortable with Riley and had to admit that he made such a thing easy. He came across as a nice guy. Down-to-earth. A real gentleman, respectful. It was nice to know that for some men, sex wasn’t the only thing on their minds.

Three

Riley shifted in his seat, thinking that if Alpha knew all the things that were going through his mind, she would think he was as low as low could go. He had met her less than two hours ago and all he could think about was jumping her bones. No, jumping her bones was too quick and raunchy. He would love easing between those legs and then …

When he heard the sound of her lightly clearing her throat, he realized the waiter standing beside him had poured cups of coffee and was waiting to take his order. He glanced up at the waiter. George. The seventy-something man had worked at McKay’s for ages and had waited on him plenty of times before with many of his other dates. Was that a smirk on George’s face because the old man had finally caught him being taken with a woman?

“And what can I get for you, Mr. Westmoreland?”