Alex Reid (Rich & Single #1) (5 page)

Chapter 5

Maybe it was the sex, or maybe it was just that it was the weekend and the workload was a little lighter, but Alex found getting through the day easier than most of them had been lately. Or, easier to get through aside from the way his thoughts kept going back to that morning and the night before, which made it difficult to concentrate. There were a lot of images to be distracted by. All of them more than tempting. Alex forced himself not to let his attention wander back to them.

He had Laura’s number in his phone, and he couldn’t deny that the idea of calling her was tempting. But she had work, and so did he, so he left it alone and tried to focus on next week’s investment schedule.

When the clock hit six, he stood and gathered up his things. The rest of the work could be done from home. Most of the other employees had already left for the day, or didn’t come in at all on the weekend. He didn’t ask them to work weekends most of the time. It kept them happier. Plus, it wasn’t really necessary for everyone to spend the weekend in the office. Those who wanted to climb the ladder didn’t argue or complain. He took that into account and screened a lot of the new employees based on being single, driven, and willing to commit. Success didn’t come to those who wait

On the way home, he reminded himself that he was supposed to start calling around about renovations for the downstairs room that was going to become the gym. He could, and did, use the gym at work, but his preference was for privacy, and having a gym at the house would mean far more convenience, and a place that he could go to be alone. Monday, he promised himself, he would start making the calls.

In the meantime, he had more paperwork to go through, and still had to send the gift for Mark’s wedding. He sighed as he considered the options. It was unlikely there was anything his brother and the new wife were desperately in need of. Their family wasn’t incredibly wealthy, but they had enough money to be comfortable, and Alex had been generous enough with his other gifts over the years.

Some kind of luxury good, then. Or maybe not a good at all. He could pay for some kind of vacation. A cruise. A stay in a resort. They undoubtedly already had honeymoon plans, but some extra time away probably wouldn’t hurt in his brother’s eyes. Alex was aware that not everyone shared his views on vacation and the productivity incited by the lack thereof. While he would have liked to have the gift sent already, he hadn’t exactly been given a lot of notice, so as much as Alex himself disliked being late to anything, Mark would just have to deal with it being less than punctual.

He turned onto his own street, and wondered what he might find in the fridge for dinner. His stomach reminded him rather loudly that he hadn’t eaten anything but a sandwich, and that had been hours ago. He moved a little quicker through the door into the house.

MacBane was in the kitchen. Alex stopped cold just inside, then caught himself and took another step. It was very rare that he actually saw his chef. Or any other member of the staff for that matter. Usually he had the house—at least to all appearances—to himself.

“Evenin’, Mr. Reid.” the chef said, looking up from the shepherd’s pie he was just pulling out of the oven.

“Evening, MacBane.” The smell of the food was enough to have his stomach growling again.

MacBane looked amused by the sudden loud growl. “Yer gonna find yerself in trouble, you keep forgettin’ to eat.” His Scottish accent seemed to give the effect that he was singing or saying a poem.

“I’m aware,” Alex answered.

MacBane shook his head, but he didn’t attempt to press the issue, just dished up a huge serving of food onto a plate and set it in front of Alex at the island. “An’ you’ll find yer counter will be safe to eat on agin,” he said as Alex picked up his fork. “I had it disinfected.”

Alex couldn’t quite stop the laugh that escaped him. “I’m sorry, MacBane. Truly. It won’t happen again.”

The older man squinted at him, but seemed to accept the promise. “I guess if me wife wanted to do that, I would’na argue either.” He set the dish three-quarters full of shepherd’s pie on the counter. “There’s more, if ya want it, Mr. Reid. I’ll just be goin’ home now.”

“Of course. Have a good night, MacBane.”

He nodded, and disappeared out the door. Alex started in on his food, wolfing it down and then serving himself a second helping. As he ate, he wondered if Laura might be as interested in a repeat performance as he was. He took his phone out of his pocket and ran his fingers thoughtfully along the edges of it. It was probably too soon to call. He didn’t want to make her think he was desperate, after all. He wasn’t.

After he finished eating, he went upstairs to shower and then settled down with the paperwork he hadn’t finished from the afternoon. It was as tedious as it had been two hours before, but he didn’t let his mind wander. It was one of the reasons for his success; when he started something, he finished it. And he finished it promptly. Stalling never served anyone.

The paperwork was finished, or as close to finished as it was going to get for the day, a few hours later. Alex glanced at his phone, but it was already getting late. He plugged it in to charge and got ready for bed.

Without another body next to his own, the bed seemed bigger than it had on the previous night. Alex turned restlessly for a while, glancing over to watch the numbers on the clock crawl toward midnight. He got up and had a drink of water. Back in bed, he punched his pillow into a more comfortable form, and closed his eyes.

Naked images of hot women filled his head.

Finally, he slept.

*  *

Sunday passed much like Saturday had. Alex filled out more paperwork, went over more records. He packed up around six again and headed home to work from his kitchen over leftover shepherd’s pie. The stress relief of his night with Laura didn’t seem to have extended for another day; it wasn’t as easy as it had been the afternoon before to convince himself that he didn’t hate the forms he had to fill out in triplicate. A new investors’ group was interested in working with him. Exciting as it was to make more money, the tediousness of the work didn’t keep his interest spiked. Days weren’t supposed to be monotonous for the up and coming young CEO of a promising investment company, but lately his had been. Laura had shaken them up.

On his way home, he dialed her number.

“Hello,” her smooth voice answered on the third ring.

“Laura. It’s Alex.” He didn’t bother reminding her where she’d met him. If she couldn’t remember, there probably wasn’t much point in talking to her at all.

“Alex,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was thinking I have this empty Sunday evening stretching out in front of me and thought you might have a similar problem.”

On the other end of the line, she laughed. “Don’t I wish. Unfortunately, my Sunday evening is completely booked.”

“What about next?”

“That will depend on how much Dad manages to find for us all to do between now and then. But I’m not sure I’d count on it.”

She was, Alex realized with a shock, letting him down easy. She wasn’t interested in a repeat performance. That had… It had really never happened before.

“If you’re not interested, Laura, just say so. You’re not going to hurt my feelings. Though, if you want to share a reason I wouldn’t mind knowing why. It’s not as though the sex was bad.”

He heard her sigh. “No,” she said. “The sex wasn’t bad. It was really far from bad. In fact, the whole night was wonderful. But I’ve been really thinking about it over the last couple of days, and I’ve decided that maybe it’s best to break it off before it starts. I’m not looking for commitment right now. I’m focused on my career. And…” for a moment there was silence, “to be honest with you, Alex, I’m a little afraid that if I kept seeing you I would become far too invested in the relationship.”

Alex almost laughed, but she sounded completely sincere and he was sure it would be rude. “Well, I have to say that’s probably the most flattering reason I’ve ever heard for refusing a second date.”

“Yeah, well, don’t let it go to your head.”

“I’ll do my best to stay humble.”

“Goodbye, Alex. Who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind sometime.”

“Goodbye, Laura.” He hung up the phone.

Lying in bed later that night, he turned the conversation over in his head. Despite the occasional bout of loneliness he experienced, Laura was right. He wasn’t ready for commitment either. The business was the most important thing in his life, and right now he needed to keep it that way. Besides, it was far better to have options than to be constrained to one woman. He was young. He could have his pick. There would always be time to look for something more at some later date, when he was settled in his business and ready to settle down. Laura had done them both a favor. If, occasionally, he wished he had someone to share his bed for more than just a night, it would pass. And if she did indeed change her mind one day, well, there was always the chance he’d have changed his, too.

In the meantime… his hand slipped down to his cock and he gave it a squeeze and a jerk. It responded as he thought about Laura’s mouth around the head.

He worked himself quickly, coming fast and hard. He preferred a woman, but this would do for tonight.

Then Alex closed his eyes, and he slept.

Chapter 6

“So what I’m looking for,” Alex explained, “is someone to help plan the renovations I’m about to undertake in order to make one of the downstairs rooms of my house into a gym. It’s about three-thousand-square-feet. I need someone knowledgeable, who’ll be able to report back to me, and the renovation team, the best changes to make in order to provide an aesthetically pleasing and practical space for my purposes.”

“I can definitely help you with that,” the man on the other end replied. “I’ve supervised more than my share of gym renovations, from scratch to finish. I’ve never had a client unhappy with the result. If you’re looking for someone who knows the business and can tell you exactly what you need, I’m your guy.” Alex thought he could hear a smile in the man’s voice. “It’s in the tagline; I can get anyone fit.”

So the website had said, and few other businessmen he’d spoken with regarding his plans. Alex would have to see it to believe it, but what he had seen so far was convincing enough that he decided to give the chairman of Fitness and Sport Club a call. There were plenty of well-composed before and after shots, obviously done by a professional photographer, of the fitness instructor’s clients. He had also seen a few of the home gyms they’d been working in. It looked like this guy could do exactly what he wanted on his lower floor. So after going through the long list of prospects, it was Parker he had decided to call.

“When can you come out and take a look at the space?”

There was a moment of silence, probably Parker checking his schedule.

“Looks like Wednesday has some time, if you’re available then.”

Alex glanced down at his own schedule. Wednesday wasn’t exactly open, but he didn’t have open days. In this business, free time meant time being wasted. There were a few tasks he could move around to give himself some room, though. “What time on Wednesday?”

“Any time between two and five, I’m available. If you aren’t open during the work day, we can work something else out, but it’ll have to be a different day. Probably a couple weeks from now unless someone cancels. I don’t mind coming out in the evenings, but they’re usually busier for me because that’s when most of my clients are also available, as you can imagine. I’m trying to get a few new instructors certified for the personal training, but between my own work, opening the fitness clubs, and building gyms, it’s a bit crazy. However, Mr. Alex Reid, I want to personally take care of what you’re looking for. Great article in
R&S
by the way.”

He’d forgotten about the article. “Glad it got your attention.” At least the guy would go over the top to make his place perfect. Alex checked the schedule again. "Between three and four would be ideal, then. I can carve some time out of my day for that. How long should the consult take?”

“An hour’s plenty of time. We’ll just check out the space you want to renovate, I’ll help you draw up initial plans, and if you like them I’ll go home and draft more complete ones, which you can use to show the people doing the actual renovation work what you’re looking for.” Parker paused a moment, probably to type the appointment into his phone. “I’ll watch over some of the renos as well. Make sure it’s going exactly as we want it to.”

Alex added the appointment in his calendar. “We’ll say Wednesday at three, then.”

“Were you interested in setting up a fitness regime as well?”

Was he? He’d planned on waiting until the gym was set up, though there was one down in the basement of the office. He’d had it built for his employees. He didn’t want to use it regularly, as he felt he was their boss, not their work-out buddy. However, he wasn’t exactly in need of a lot of change in his routine. Alex knew exactly how good he looked. Although, if he kept eating MacBane’s recent offerings he was going to need to start a more strenuous workout routine, or he was going to start looking like he sat behind a desk for a living. It
was
what he did, but that didn’t mean he wanted to look like it.

“We'll talk about it on Wednesday. I might wait until the gym in the house is finished before I start something more involved.”

“Fair enough. Text me the address, and I’ll see you Wednesday. Have a good one.”

“And you. Thanks again, Parker. Looking forward to working with you.” Alex hung up, and texted the address. Then he called his secretary to have a meeting on Wednesday moved slightly forward, and went back to the work he’d been doing before he’d taken a break for the gym.

*  *

The week wore on. Monday and Tuesday weren’t terrible, but there wasn’t anything particularly exciting about them either, which seemed to be the case with most things lately. He’d been a lot more enthusiastic about this back when he’d started, but the burned-out feeling he’d started to notice in the last few weeks had been getting worse. Laura had been a brief pick-me-up, but he didn’t have the time to go looking for another lay every time he was feeling a little less than thrilled about his work.

Maybe he actually did need a vacation. The thought almost made Alex laugh. He knew whether he needed one or not he wasn’t going to take it. There was too much to do. The clients were coming in almost faster than they could take them, and money was constantly moving. He needed to keep on top of it. There was no one else in the company who knew its inner workings as well as he did.

Besides, it wasn’t as though he hated his job. He had a position most people would be incredibly jealous of – owner of a billion-dollar company with a steadily improving profit margin and a good reputation. It wasn’t exactly something to scoff at. Everyone had moments where they wished they were doing something else, or at least could take a break from what they were doing. He wasn’t dissatisfied with his work, just with the amount of daily tedium it seemed to entail recently. Other CEOs had families, or girlfriends, or high- end call girls to distract. His family didn’t deserve the time of day, he had no time for girlfriend or the interest for starting a family of his own, and paying for sex? That was out of the question.

Maybe he would get a personal assistant. Most of the people in his line of work had them, and some of his peers had told him how invaluable they found theirs. Having someone else to help organize his schedule and take care of the little things that he didn’t really need to handle on his own would free up time for dealing with the more important parts of running the company. It couldn’t hurt to look, at least. He could probably find a handful of worthy candidates with minimal effort in a city as big as this one.

Over dinner, which turned out to be grilled chicken and vegetables, Alex scrolled through various job sites for listings of available personal assistants. MacBane was obviously making up for the heavier fare of the last couple days.

There were, as he had expected, no shortage of PAs in the area. He made notes on a few of the ones who seemed most likely to work for his purposes, and put a reminder in his phone that he would need to make calls and set up interviews at some point. Maybe he would also put out an ad of his own with the announcement that he was looking for a personal assistant. It might bring in more options. But it might also, he realized, bring in a lot of people who weren’t what he was looking for, and he would have to sift through all of them himself, because he wasn’t going to let anyone else at the company make any decisions about a person that he would have to interact with directly on a daily basis. Maybe nix that plan to send out an ad.

Alex set his laptop aside and finished his dinner. If he was going to have a PA, he was going to need them to live close by. He wasn’t going to be waiting for half an hour in an emergency while they ran out from wherever it was they were based. While he was doing renovations on the gym, it might not be a bad idea to start doing a few other renovations as well. It could be one of the perks that came with the job; most prospective employees would be more than happy to jump at a chance like that. Of course, it would mean hiring someone single, or at least without children, but if he was going to have a PA he wanted one who was able to be on-call at most hours of the day, to match the hours he worked. Children weren’t exactly conducive to that.

There was a set of rooms on the back of the house that could be repurposed for an apartment suite. He would have to get someone in to knock out the walls, and hire a decorator, but it shouldn’t be too involved a process. At least it was something someone else could do, and not one more thing he had to add to the ever growing list of things that he had to take care of himself.

His phone buzzed.

Alex glanced down at it, sliding his finger across the screen to open the text that had appeared. His eyebrows lifted.

Guess where we R 2nite?
the message read. It was accompanied by a picture of two dark-haired young women in clubbing dresses against a background of colored lights and blurred bodies. Both of them were grinning widely at the camera. Alex laughed. Maybe there would be something to break the routine this week after all.

How long are you in town?

The response came almost immediately back:
Just for 2nite. U want 2 invite us over?

As though that was even a question. Alex hit send on the ‘yes’ he’d answered with. A moment later, there was another reply.

15 min

He stood, rinsing his plate off and sliding it into the dishwasher, and considered going upstairs to change. The clothes he was wearing were fine if he wanted to take Amanda and Danni out, but Alex didn’t exactly have plans that involved that. He considered the options, and then went upstairs to change into his swim trunks. He didn’t expect the swim suit to stay on all that long, but there was such a thing as subtlety; answering the door naked might make his intentions clear, but it wasn’t exactly classy. Just because it was Amanda and Danni didn’t mean they only had sex on their minds, though Alex was quite sure that was one of the things on the top of their list. He chuckled. There might be other things involved in their plans. It was likely those things also somehow involved sex.

He’d met Amanda and Danni on a business trip to the west coast. They’d been more than happy to spend the weekend with him, and he’d hosted them when they visited the city before. It was really a win-win arrangement. Everyone had fun, and none of them had to worry about the pitfalls of a relationship, because they were never in the same place long enough. Truth be told, more than a few days at a time with them started to get more annoying than not, but he never spent more than a few, so it all worked out.

He threw on a t-shirt and headed back downstairs to clear away his laptop and make sure nothing else needed to be cleaned up. Nothing did, of course. He had excellent staff.

A car pulled into the drive. He heard the rumble of it, followed by doors opening and closing, and then soft, feminine laughter. A moment later the knock came on the door.

Alex, suddenly looking forward to the night, pulled it open.

Danni waved brightly at him as it swung wide, and Amanda smiled.

“Welcome, ladies,” Alex said, stepping back to let them move past him. “Great to have you two in town. Glad you could make it to my humble abode.”

Two pairs of eyes – one set green and the other brown – looked him up and down. Slowly.

“We didn’t bring swimsuits,” Amanda said, in a tone that suggested she didn’t exactly consider it a problem. She toyed with one of her curls as she spoke, winding it around and around her finger in a way that she probably thought was alluring. It wasn’t unattractive, and Alex wasn’t complaining.

Alex grinned at her, his thoughts clear on his face. “Do you need them?”

Both girls laughed. It answered his question well enough.

He led them down the hall to the door that opened on the backyard and escorted both women out onto the patio.

“Drinks, ladies?”

They looked at him, then at each other and laughed.

“A glass of wine might not be a bad idea,” Danni said. “Amanda, what about you?” She waggled her eyebrows and Alex was dying to know what the two of them had been doing together that might make them thirsty. The images in his head made him want a drink as well.

“I wouldn’t say no to one.”

“I’ll be right back, then.” Alex ducked back into the house to get a bottle of wine and glasses for all of them, and to grab a few towels.

When he came back out onto the patio, the girls had apparently taken his question about bathing suits to heart, because both of them had stripped down to their panties and were lying on the pool chairs. He set the bottle of wine in its ice bucket on the table between them. As he popped the cork, he took a moment to admire all the skin on display.

They were both dark haired, but the similarities ended there. Amanda was tall, with a leggy, slender build and a scatter of freckles across her nose and cheekbones. Her hair was a riot of curls. Danni, brown-eyed and olive-skinned, was shorter. Her full hips weren’t exactly L.A.-standard, but Alex had no complaints about her figure. Absolutely none at all. Their lacey bras covered most of their breasts, but Alex knew what waiting for him underneath them. Danni’s nipples were full and round like her lips while Amanda’s perky little tits begged to be bitten.

“So,” he said, ignoring hardening of his cock and pouring three glasses of wine and passing them around. “What brings you girls east?”