Page 5 of Chosen By a Billionaire (Rags to Romance #24)

As soon as she parked her bike in front of the apartment building and grabbed the bag of food, a downpour of rain swept across the landscape and caused her to run up to the stoop.

She made it under the overhang, but not before getting drenched herself.

But before she had to search for the apartment number and ask to be buzzed into the building, a tenant came out, held the door open for her, and she thanked him and hurried inside.

The apartment was on the second floor, so she decided to walk up the stairs.

Every step was heavy because her heart was still heavy.

It wasn’t just that Kenny left her. That was a long time coming anyway.

But the words he said to her. The way he looked at her.

The way he sneered at her as if she wasn’t worth a damn to him.

And the fact that he wasn’t going to be there to pay his share of the rent just devastated her. How was she going to survive???

After ringing the doorbell, the door was finally opened by a woman who appeared already agitated.

And when Jayda attempted to hand her a plastic bag that was wet just as Jayda was, the woman frowned.

Jayda could use a smile, but she got a frown instead.

The old lady from a week ago, who gave her a cupcake, would have helped a lot in that moment.

But this woman wasn’t the cupcake type. “What do you expect me to do with that?” she asked Jayda.

Jayda was still reaching the bag out to her. “It’s your order, ma’am.”

“Wet like that? Are you serious?”

“It’s in a plastic bag. The food isn’t wet.”

“This is unacceptable.”

“But the food isn’t wet, ma’am.”

The woman took her hand and slapped the food out of Jayda’s hand. The bag fell to the floor and some of the food spilled out. “Now it is,” she said. “Return it to that diner. I am not accepting it!” Then she slammed her door shut.

Just like in that recurring dream she kept having and had again that morning, Jayda felt as if she was falling. And she wanted to scream again. But she instead picked up the spilled food, grabbed the bag, and left.

When she got outside, she tossed the entire bag in the trash bin, got on her motorized e-bike, and took off to her next delivery. The only good thing about that morning was that the rain had completely stopped and she was able to ride without the fear of another downpour.

The only thing bad about that morning, other than the downpour and that delivery, was that just as she was approaching the massive Bainbridge Capital Trust building, or BCT that was etched on the very top of it, a big black limousine sped past her and drenched her even more.

But not with rain water, but with mud water from a big puddle in the street.

She stopped her bike, stood up, and was chilled to the bone by the coldness of that muddy water.

Not to mention the heartlessness of that driver!

It angered her so much and made her feel so insignificant that when she saw that driver pull up in front of the BCT building, she quickly rode her bike in that direction ready to give whoever was in that limo a piece of her mind.

The limo driver stopped in front of the Bainbridge Capital Trust building and Vincent, the bodyguard seated on the front passenger seat, got out, went to the back passenger door, placed his hand on the door handle and looked around. Seeing nothing suspicious, he opened the back passenger door.

Harrison stepped out, buttoned his suitcoat, and then grabbed his briefcase. He, with Vincent walking lockstep with him, began to head for the building.

But as soon as he saw a young lady on an e-bike ride up yelling at him, he turned to begin walking toward the side of his building: his private entrance. It was his practice to let Vincent or his driver handle any disgruntled New York motorists because there were always some.

“Look what your driver did to me!” she yelled as she stopped her bike and stood up from the seat.

Harrison didn’t bother to stop walking. Which meant Vincent didn’t either.

“Sir?You heard me? Sir ?”

When he kept walking, ignoring her, she rode her bike just past him, cutting in front of them and forcing them to stop walking. The limo in question drove up to the threesome in case the boss needed to hop in and get away from that irate-looking woman.

Jayda stood up from her bike again. “I was talking to you,” she said to Harrison.

But Vincent made a move toward her. “Get lost kid before I knock you and that bike out of the way! The boss not interested in any snake oil you’re hawking.”

Jayda frowned. “What oil? Look what his driver did to me,” she said as she looked down at her soaked, muddy clothing.

Harrison and Vincent looked down, too, and saw the mess.

But they also saw the outline of her breasts against the wet t-shirt she wore.

Which caused Vincent to smile. But when Harrison looked into her interesting face, it was that face that instantly turned him on.

So much so that he got an erection. Which was unusual for a man like him who had more than his share of opportunities to satisfy that part of his life. But it was undeniable.

But what was even more startling was when he looked into her big, soulful, tobacco-brown eyes, he felt a jolt to his system that caught him so off guard that it alarmed him.

What was that about ?

Vincent was about to tell her to get lost again, but Harrison held up a hand to stop him from talking to or advancing on her. “What do you want?” he asked her.

“What do you think? Look what your driver did to me. He didn’t have to fly through that puddle like he was on a racetrack.He knew it had been raining. He drenched me!”

Now Harrison was upset. “You speak as if he did it on purpose. He didn’t see you. I didn’t see you!”

That did it for Jayda. “Nobody sees me,” she said with such passion in her voice and so heartfelt that it captured Harrison’s and even Vincent’s attention. “But just because you don’t see me that doesn’t mean I’m not here!”

Harrison was so thrown by her response that he couldn’t stop himself from staring at her.

She had a strong, fierce, unrelenting look about her, as if she refused to be disrespected.

But she had a somber look, too, as if life was beating her down and she was tired of it.

But it was all of it together that elevated her from just another cute biker in the streets of New York, to somebody completely different.

This lady was a fighter. And the way he responded to her physically and emotionally, as well, intrigued him.

He was so taken by her that he didn’t realize Vincent was arguing with her. “Stay out of the way and you won’t get splashed,” he said. “Now move!” Vincent pushed her aside.

When his push nearly caused her and her bike to fall, she pushed Vincent right back. “I’m not talking to you, Beefcakes,” she yelled at him.

Vincent got angrier. “But I’m talking to you, smartass! So what you got splashed? Welcome to New York lady!”

Jayda wanted to cry. She was just that outdone. She was nothing to them. They were acting as if she splashed herself. And she was tired of being dismissed every day of her life as if she didn’t matter.

But when she looked over and saw that smug look on the face of the one who undoubtedly owned the limousine, she felt so tiny.

He was staring at her with that same look Kenny had given her, as if she was a piece of trash, and her anger got the best of her.

People could treat her any kind of way they wanted to and she was supposed to just take it.

She was tired of taking it. “What are you looking at, you perv?!” she lashed out at Harrison.

Then she kicked the front side panel of his limo with her shoe, denting it, and then she rode away.

She knew what she did was wrong. But it wasn’t as if he didn’t deserve it.

And now Vincent was outdone. “You see what that little bitch just did, Boss? She dented your limo. Want me and Des to go after her ass?”

But Harrison didn’t respond. The last thing on his mind was some dent in his limo.

He was still watching her as she rode away.

Why did he find her so intriguing? Had he seen her before?

Since he never forgot a face, he knew he hadn’t.

But she certainly commanded his attention in those few moments she was in front of him.

Which was a shocker to him. That hadn’t happened in he couldn’t remember how long.

But she was gone as quickly as she had appeared. He watched until she was clean out of sight.

But Vincent was waiting for a response, and was puzzled by the boss’s reaction. “You want us to chase her down, sir?”

It was only then did Harrison even look at him. “Chase her down?”

“Yes sir. Look what she did to your car?”

Harrison saw the small dent.

“We can chase her down.”

“No. There’s no need. Desmond drenched her. The least I can do is absorb a dent.” Then he looked at Vincent. “And if you inject yourself into any conversation that is directed at me, you’re fired.”

The bodyguard swallowed hard. He knew he meant it too. “Yes sir,” he said.

But Harrison was still thinking about that woman. Just because you don’t see me, that doesn’t mean I’m not here , she’d said. Those were the words that still resonated with him. As if those words, or the woman conveying them, had touched a nerve. A very raw, unused nerve deep inside of him.

But when he saw his bodyguard glance at his driver as if they both found his behavior odd, and when Vincent mentioned didn’t he have a meeting he had to attend, he came back to himself and looked at his Rolex.

When he realized he was going to be late for his first meeting on a day filled with meetings, which would throw all the other meetings late, he forgot about her as quickly as he had considered her.

And hurried through the side door of the mammoth Bainbridge Capital Trust building where his senior VP, who was actually Harrison’s assistant, was awaiting his arrival.