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It clicked just as she turned and reached for the door handle, and I quickly rushed up behind her, pressing my chest against her back and slamming my palm against the door so she couldn’t open it.
She laughed softly, but her breathing was uneven and heavy as I pressed her forward, grinding my hips against her ass. “We’re going to be late, Mr. Lawson,” she teased breathlessly.
“Girl, you are playing with fire,” I murmured in her ear as I took the panties from her hand, scrunched them up, and slipped them into my own pocket.
“Thankfully, I like it hot.”
Fuck.
Chapter Eighteen
VALEN
“This really is something else,” I said for about the fifth time, my mouth still practically hanging open as we made another loop through the first floor of the building. Something was to be said about the contrast of thick blocks of concrete and brick mixed with sparkling fairy lights and some pastel-colored balloons.
Add in the delicious aroma of the food vendors who all had stores in the next block and the small four-person orchestra—a local family from down the street—the ambiance of this event was unlike anything I think anyone could have imagined.
“We never would have thought of it,” Reed said with his hand against my back, moving us through the crowd. “This way, we can take interested parties up to see the actual layout, have them stand in it, and get a feel for the space. That will increase buyers tenfold over trying to explain what it will be like using a model and some slides on a projector.”
It felt good.
To have been able to give something positive to Reed, especially after everything he’d done for me. I couldn’t stop smiling—it really was special. “You’ll think you’ll do something like this in the future?”
Reed chuckled, leaning in. “I don’t think we’ll do things any other way in the future. Look at the smiles on people’s faces and how they’re enjoying the atmosphere. A lot of these people are real estate agents whose clients live overseas or out of state. Usually, they come, grab a pamphlet, have a drink, get the information needed, and then they leave.”
We watched the mixture of people mingling, Bronson deep within the crowd, turning from one person to the next, using his hands a lot like he was explaining things to them. “They’ve never been this eager or excited before. They want to know everything. They want their clients to be a part of it. Not just because the project is stunning but because they can see how we’ve included the community and more often than not, developers don’t. They take over, and that causes problems later on.”
It was easy to tell by the way Reed kept talking and talking that he was excited about the prospect of what might happen.
From what I could tell, tonight would be the first night investors or buyers would be able to purchase or make deposits to secure apartments or spaces within the building, and just how important it was to at least get a handful on board so Reed and Bronson weren’t footing the bill for everything and draining their funds.
It really was fascinating, the entire process—something Reed went through, from what I could tell, maybe once or twice a year, depending on size—but was brand new for me to experience.
“Lawson! Get over, and let’s talk,” an older man called, waving Reed and me toward the far end of the room. It was a little amusing to see all these men and women dressed in cocktail dresses and three-piece suits, with their looks topped off with a yellow hard hat, but that was a requirement of stepping inside this party.
This was a construction site, after all.
“Good to see you all here,” Reed greeted the large group before slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me into his side. “This is my wife, Valen. Valen, this is…” Reed’s voice melted into the distance as he listed the handful of gentlemen.
Bill, Greg, Samuel, Curt… maybe it was Burt.
I simply nodded and smiled. “Thank you all for coming. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Now Reed,” Bill—I think—started. “Bronson has promised me first option on one of the large offices upstairs. I’m expanding the firm, and this could be a nice place to do just that.”
The noise of their discussions faded into the background as I watched Reed step into himself and own the conversation. It was pretty damn hot, if I was being honest, the way he controlled the direction everything went and how he didn’t allow their slight jabs about his age to do anything but spur him along.
Reed was young, and he hadn’t been in the business for long, but there was no questioning how fucking good he was at what he did. Hell, all you needed to do was look up exactly what he and his company were worth.
Not millions.
But billions of dollars.
Reed himself is on many of Forbes lists—youngest CEOs, fastest growing companies, self-made billionaires.
I was proud.
Was that weird?
