The Billionaire's Challenging Beauty (Bold, Alaskan Men Book 2)
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Authors: Elizabeth Lennox
The Billionaire’s Challenging Beauty
Bold Alaskan Men Series
By Elizabeth Lennox
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Copyright 2016
ISBN13: 9781944078232
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Any duplication of this material, either electronic or any other format, either currently in use or a future invention, is strictly prohibited unless you have the direct consent of the author.
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Table of Contents
Wednesday!
Saeger stared out through the windows of his mountain retreat, his body instantly reacting to what this day would bring. What every Wednesday brought.
“Tyla,” he grimaced, and downed the rest of his coffee in one swallow. Anticipation, lust, and guilt surged through him as he contemplated the night ahead.
The lovely, sexy, sassy Tyla Griffin waited tables at The Rotten Apple on Wednesdays. With her dark blond hair and her sparkling blue eyes, Tyla was the kind of woman a man would die for, he thought. She was unconsciously sensual, irreverently funny, unnervingly smart, and…completely off limits.
“Damn,” he muttered, as he moved towards the shower.
Saeger had been working since before dawn but he still had a long day ahead of him. A long, boring day of meetings, listening to the tedious explanations of quarterly earnings even though he already knew the statistics. He needed to get moving, but just the thought of seeing Tyla tonight made his body ache with a lust so intense, it burned him from the inside out.
Tyla’s brother, Matt, would be furious if he knew the kinds of fantasies slipping through his mind, Saeger thought with self-disgust. But in his defense, Tyla, Matt’s younger sister, was…gorgeous! She was like the voluptuous goddess that every man dreamed about with her long, blond hair and those flashing, blue eyes. Not to mention the longest legs possible on a human being, legs that were always encased in a pair of jeans that clung lovingly to her curves.
She wasn’t very tall, but somehow her legs seemed to go on forever! Why did the damn woman always have to wear jeans? It was like she didn’t own anything else. He prayed every day that she would walk into The Rotten Apple, the town’s local bar and of which he was part owner, in something other than jeans that hugged her adorable butt like loving hands. Her bottom was perfectly round, gloriously pert, and taunted him in ways he hadn’t thought possible.
Every Wednesday night, and sometimes on the weekend when they both worked, he had a hard time keeping his eyes off of her figure while she waited tables and he tended the bar which was, unfortunately, a perfect vantage point to always keep an eye on her…and her butt…and every movement of her gorgeous figure.
Saeger sighed as frustration surged through him yet again.
Everything about her made his body ache with desire. She was lust personified.
Matt was a Marine, dedicated to protecting his country. Before he’d shipped off, he’d asked if Saeger could watch out for his little sister, Tyla. Of course Saeger had agreed. Matt was a good guy who had raised his little sister when their parents had died ten years ago.
At the time, Saeger hadn’t realized what he was getting into. He hadn’t seen Tyla since she’d joined the Peace Corps. The day she’d come back, sauntering into The Rotten Apple, it had felt like Saeger had been slammed sideways. The cute teenager that had run around driving the local boys crazy as a cheerleader had turned into a sultry woman with flashing blue eyes that could drive a man insane and a body that made his mouth go dry every time he looked at her.
And since his friend Tucker had given her a job at The Rotten Apple, he saw her a lot!
Why the hell had Tucker scheduled Tyla to work all of the nights when Saeger helped out? Why hadn’t Tucker put Tyla on his own shifts?
Then again, Saeger didn’t really want Tyla on anyone else’s shifts, he thought grimly. Every time he covered as bartender, he endured hours of torture watching Tyla move in between the tables, serving the beer and drinks, squeezing behind him at the bar when he was pouring drinks…
He shifted the shower controls to cold since his body had reacted in anticipation of some of those tight squeezes tonight, her soft body pressing against him, her breasts....
Hell, thinking like that just felt wrong even though he was only thirty-six and Tyla was now twenty-four years old. He should be protecting her, watching out for her. Not lusting after her! He’d promised Matt that he would watch out for his kid sister and Saeger was pretty sure that Matt hadn’t meant watching her legs and butt during all that time.
He slammed off the cold water since it wasn’t helping. So far, nothing had helped! He’d lived in an almost constant state of arousal ever since the damn woman had walked into the bar several months ago! He’d fire her, but she was one of the best waitresses on staff, joking with the customers, helping with speedy service and just smiling with whoever walked through the doors. The locals loved her and word had spread about the lovely Tyla’s smiles and cheeriness, now others were coming in just to bask in her glow, so she was great for business as well!
He needed to find a woman. Maybe he’d fly down to Seattle tomorrow. He had been looking at several promising, up and coming computer companies, considering adding them to his portfolio. He’d been putting off travel for a while because…oh hell! Saeger leaned against his desk as the reason for his travel had been delayed. It was simply because he didn’t want to miss any nights with Tyla.
He needed to stop thinking about her, he told himself as he pulled on jeans and a sweater. She was off limits and he should just accept that. He should call one of the other bartenders and get them to work tonight. There was no reason for him to work. He was one of the owners and even that was just for entertainment. His real business was in the computer and technology field, mostly making gaming software but he had a wide range of companies developing software for various industries.
As founder of Rollins Technologies, he should be focusing more of his attention on his businesses, and putting less attention on Tyla’s adorable butt. Or the way her full breasts pressed against whatever sweater she’d chosen to wear. And he sure as hell shouldn’t be thinking about her long, sexy legs or that tiny waist that made her hips….
Maybe she’d wear that red sweater again tonight, he thought. Or the blue one. Yeah, he liked the blue one. It matched her eyes almost perfectly. And it was a bit smaller than the others, making her breasts more pronounced.
Damn, he was in trouble, he thought as he sat down at his desk. Pressing a few buttons on his keyboard, all the screens came alive, including a pinging noise that indicated he was late for his morning board meeting. Sitting down in the leather chair, he pushed all thoughts of Tyla out of his mind.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, when the monitor came alive, “tell me what you’ve got.” Ten men and seven women were looking at the screen. Each person represented one of his divisions, basically entire companies in themselves.
Unfortunately, even as he listened to his division directors discuss the profits that had been made over the last quarter and the new developments in their areas, his mind was still on Tyla’s blond hair and laughing blue eyes. He handed out instructions to each of his directors as they spoke, pushing them in one direction or another when their descriptions of the next quarter’s plans sounded as if they might be shifting off focus. But in reality, he could probably do this in his sleep. He’d created a multi-billion dollar empire based off of computers and other growing technologies, including a completely separate division for innovation, the newest inventions which were parceled out to his various companies to market and integrate into their current product lines.
Saeger loved this business, thrived on the challenge of coming up with new inventions and getting them to market faster than any other company in the world. He loved the competitive edge that was required to keep innovations secret and then spring them on the world as new products. It was in his blood, and he thrived on the competitiveness of the industry.
Then again, he also thrived on views of the lovely Tyla.
Tyla walked into the bar that same afternoon and looked around, sighing with relief when she didn’t see Saeger anywhere around. She refused to acknowledge the other feeling as disappointment. This was just a job, she reminded herself, a way to pay the rent until she could build up her graphic art business, trying to help websites with their graphics.
Saeger Rollins was not for her. He had proven over and over again that he had absolutely no interest in her as anything other than an employee. She was like a kid sister to the gorgeous man who towered over her, those navy blue eyes glaring at her when she teased him. Oh and his jeans! Goodness, she hadn’t ever known of another man who looked better in jeans. Not to mention his shoulders in either flannel shirts or those soft sweaters that he wore, the white tee-shirt poking out of the top as if taunting her with secrets of what might be underneath.
As she restocked the bar, preparing for the evening ahead, she half-wished they all lived in a small town near a warm beach so that she could watch him when he was only half dressed. She could easily picture him in a short bathing suit, his long, muscular legs running as he jumped into the surf. He’d probably carry a surfboard too, showing off all of those amazing muscles in his arms, back and stomach.
“I think the pourer is on now, Tyla,” Saeger said as he snatched the bottle out of her hand.
Tyla blinked, looking down at her hands where the bottle of whiskey had been only moments ago. She’d been pushing the majugy that helped pour the liquor without it spilling, and it also measured out a specific amount for each shot.
Glancing behind her, she realized that Saeger had taken it away and was putting it on the shelf. “Hey!” she snapped.
“Here,” he said and plunked another one down in front of her. “Do this one,” and he squeezed behind her to get to the other side of the bar.
Tyla gasped as his strong hands grabbed her hips and the rest of his body pressed hers against the counter in front of her. Surely there was enough room for both of them to pass without this kind of distraction, wasn’t there?
But the bar had been built with only one bartender in mind. And most nights, only one bartender was needed. The Rotten Apple wasn’t like the places in a big city where patrons were lined up around the bar, impatiently waiting for drinks. This was Winthrop, Alaska. Most of the clientele were fishermen or laborers, several of them working the oilrigs. It wasn’t a big city and most of the drinks served were beer.
But it was a good place to hang out where the locals could drink excellent alcohol and superior beer for a much lower price than in other areas of the country. All due to the benevolence and generosity of Tucker, Knox, Creek and Saeger. Normally, she’d leave off the last one because he drove her nuts, but she couldn’t deny that the man was generous. He might have billions in the bank and own his own mountain with a gorgeous, elaborate house perched at the top, but he truly was generous. At least to the locals. And he knew all of them. They had fresh milk as well as fruit and vegetables all year round because of the creativity and generosity of those four men.
One by one, they’d come into town, bought their own mountain so they could live alone. All of them had their reasons for wanting so much land, but none of the locals really knew those reasons. The locals just accepted the newcomers, adding them to the town’s quirky personality and moving on with their days.
Along with their enormous houses, they’d also built a greenhouse that grew vegetables and fruit as well as an indoor warehouse-like building that housed the cows that produced milk. Both the greenhouse and the milk warehouse were now profitable because of the ingenuity of those four men, but they didn’t keep the profits. The money was pushed back into the community for improvements. And everything was kept very hush-hush. Just as those four guys looked out for the locals, the locals maintained the secrecy and anonymity of the men. The symbiotic relationship had worked well for years.
But it also proved to Tyla that she could never have Saeger. She hadn’t gone to college, deciding to join the Peace Corps after high school. She’d wanted to do something good with her life, to help other people. Saeger had only been a guy she’d seen from a distance before her departure. He’d been one of those mountain men, a benevolent man who had occasionally shown up at the basketball games where she’d cheered with the rest of her squad, or maybe came to watch one of the high school plays.
Upon her return, well, she’d seen him again and had been floored by his presence. Before, she’d only been a teenager, thinking the four men who had adopted her town were nice men with great bodies. Now she knew them to be wonderful human beings. No, she wasn’t in love with Saeger. She refused to be that foolish. She definitely wasn’t in love with him, even though her heart raced every time she was close to him, or when she woke up in the morning and thought about him, or especially when she knew that she would be working with him that night! No, she sighed as she watched him walk into the storage room, she wasn’t in love with him. She had a small bit of sense in her head, no matter what her brother might say otherwise.
“Staring at it won’t get the bottle fixed,” Saeger taunted her as he walked back into the bar area carrying a heavy case of beer.
Tyla jerked upright again, glancing at the man and those sexy, navy blue eyes, then down at the counter. “Right,” she said when she realized that she hadn’t done anything with the almost-empty bottle that he’d handed her several minutes ago. She had no idea how much time had passed but she suspected that she’d looked like a fool long enough.
She hurried to pull the pourer out of the old bottle and grabbed a full one, stuffing the pourer into the neck of the new one and shelving it. The whole time, she was trying to talk herself out of the latest prank she’d thought up after his sarcastic taunts about her efficiency.
