She gave him a grateful, though still a little dubious, look and came with him to the car. He got the door open and ushered her in, shut the door, and then hurried around to the back to put in her oversized suitcase. What a woman would need for a few days to a week that could take up such a huge amount of space he didn’t know. He just knew he could barely believe he’d closed the deal and gotten her to come with him.
Now came the hard part.
A world of tech negotiations and million-dollar business deals still hadn’t given him much experience with women. Sure, a few beautiful women here and there at parties or coming on to him after business meetings, but no one that had ever given him the instant, hungry attraction he’d had when he saw Janna.
When he saw her, he knew it was forever. If he could win her, that is.
But he still didn’t forgive his father, he thought as he swung up into his seat and closed his door against a whoosh of air. When his father had demanded in his will that his sons come back and find mates in the tiny town where they’d grown up, he couldn’t have known there’d be a beautiful, feisty woman like Janna waiting for him.
Even now, she was sitting with a backpack on her lap, back rod straight, red lips pursed stubbornly. This was a woman who wouldn’t make things easy, and Ryder already liked that about her. Hell, maybe that’s why he’d been drawn to her in the first place.
“Anywhere you need to stop before we head up into the mountains?” he asked.
“No,” she said, pouting slightly.
“Not having second thoughts, are you?” he asked. He’d prefer if his future mate didn’t feel he was being too pushy about this. He didn’t want her looking back with any regrets. Then again, he had a feeling he couldn’t give her a lot of time before claiming her. He’d seen the man in the store that had been here before him. The confusion and hurt in Janna’s eyes. This was the bastard who’d put all that doubt there, and the bastard clearly wasn’t done causing the damage he intended.
But Ryder intended to insure he didn’t get the chance to finish what he’d started. The man wanted Janna, but Ryder would make sure he never got her. Even if she didn’t choose him. He could sense the other man was the type who actually saw women as acquisitions, which is something Ryder found disgusting. Anything between him and Janna would have to be more of a merger.
He grinned at the thought of it and put the car into gear, enjoying the way Janna eyed the luxurious interior. He didn’t need a lot of money or nice things himself, but he thought he wouldn’t mind if Janna could benefit from some of the hard work he’d been doing.
But he hadn’t done it for the money. He’d done it for the same reason he’d done many things. The control. The power. The pursuit. The rush. The competition.
And sure, seeing that jerk in Janna’s store had fired that innate sense of competition within him, but Ryder had been set on Janna since the night he came to her table. Maybe he wasn’t that experienced with women, but he could tell by the way she blushed, the way she tried to hide her squirm when he locked eyes with her, that she was affected too. Now he had her for a week. He just needed to woo her.
But how did one do that? He was grateful he’d have Riley, the gross playboy, to give him some tips. He could always toss out the distasteful ones. He was sure Riley, as a celebrity, had a different way of getting women and a different taste for them than he, Ryder, did.
“You okay?” she asked. “You’re awfully quiet. Something you haven’t really been with me.”
Ryder cleared his throat. Damn, he had a habit of getting lost in his mind when he was nervous and trying not to be. But she was just so beautiful, and now that he’d gotten her to agree to come with him, his mind was racing on how to move forward without screwing it up. “Fine, just concentrating on the storm. These roads can be dangerous. I want you to feel safe with me.”
She grinned. “That’s sweet of you. But I’ve been up these roads many times in much less safe cars. We like to have girls’ night at the lodge, remember?”
He growled. “I don’t like the sound of that. What if you got hurt? We’ve had accidents on this road, you know. People were killed.”
She sighed. “Not all of us have fancy cars, Mister Billionaire. And I’m not giving up my girls’ nights for anything. It’s all I have in this little town.”
“Yeah, I can’t imagine living here really,” he replied. Even though he could. In a little cabin, just the two of them, until cubs came along. He wet his lips and focused on the road, as he was supposed to be doing. “So who was the guy that came in before me?”