Leo snickered.
“Mr. Chambers?”
Yeah. He’d definitely run screaming. Leo could practically hear his terror.
“Leo,” Jane urged quietly at his side.
He stiffened and looked in her direction. “What?”
“Something funny, Mr. Chambers?” Tatum Jerris asked flatly.
Leo glanced from him to Jane then toward Kat. She looked about ready to spit fire. Shoot! Had she said something? He’d laughed. It had been quiet, but still, he’d laughed, and he hadn’t been paying enough attention to find out if Kat had said something worthy of a chuckle. He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “No, sir.”
Jerris arched a silver eyebrow. Then he nodded toward Kat. “Please continue.”
If looks could kill?
Leo would be the one speared by the bull’s horn.
But he wouldn’t have gone screaming like…Chaz. No, Leo would be staring down this wild creature in all her magnificent beauty and let her pierce his heart without a second thought.
Once the meeting had ended, Mr. Jerris had insisted he wanted a private word with Noah. Jane had requested to use the restroom and Chaz, the gentleman he was, offered to show her the way.
That left Leo alone.
With the beautiful monster.
Leo had wandered across the room toward an espresso machine. He didn’t know the first thing about operating the expensive piece of equipment, so he just stared at it. His senses were on high alert.
He could smell the faint scent of mint and vanilla wafting through the room like she’d become some ethereal version of herself—a siren. Except it wasn’t her voice that drewunsuspecting cowboys to the depths of the ocean. It was her looks, her scent that snared them.
Leo swallowed hard when her heat appeared at his side. He shoved his hands into his pockets and steeled himself for the onslaught.
Just as expected, all she had to do was open her mouth and these strange sensations evaporated.
“Was that really necessary?” she seethed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered as blandly as he could.
“You laughed at my numbers.”
He cut a look toward her out of the corner of his eye. “I wasn’t laughing at you.”
“Oh? Then what was it? My curiosity on the timeline once we break ground?”
“No.”
She scoffed. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that? Tell me, what kind of credentials do you have? What sort of experience do you bring to the table, hmm?”
He bristled. Sure, she didn’t know that he had barely completed high school. He’d been working at a burger joint when his cousin had scooped his family up and offered them a different life. But Leo had worked with the animals before. He’d been told on more than one occasion that he was a natural. He was good with his hands. Before his father had died, he’d told him anything he put his mind to, he could accomplish it, and Leo had proved his father right more times than he could count.
“Because I have more than enough knowledge and experience for this sort of thing. I interned at this company from the moment I turned fourteen. I worked through high school and college. I earned my way up through the ranks to be where I am today. I graduated with honors at Harvard business college. So let me ask you again, what?—”
Leo whirled to face her. He dipped his head closer, so they were mere inches apart, and his voice lowered to an unearthly level. “Are you so small minded that you can’t accept someone like me would know the ins and outs of what we’re trying to build out in Montana? Have you considered the fact that I was chosen for this job because I might actually have a knack for it?” He gestured around them. “You in your ivory tower with more money than you know what to do with won’t ever buy you the kind of talent that comes naturally to me. I might have an attitude, but I know what I’m doing.”
Kat didn’t respond at first. She looked mildly surprised that he’d stuck up for himself. Maybe people were too scared to do that around her. Or maybe she simply didn’t think as quickly on her feet.
He opened his mouth, ready to tell her that she was lucky she didn’t have to spend even a week out in the country because she wouldn’t survive, but the doors opened and all four of the missing members of their meeting entered.
