Bitter Rivals: a novella by Winter Renshaw

Author:Winter Renshaw [Renshaw, Winter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-04-29T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

XAVIER FOX

“SO THIS IS a trendier part of town,” I say Monday morning, showing a two-bedroom apartment to a certified Southern Belle named Savannah McClintock. “Plenty to keep you busy. Lots to do. Great social scene. Very active.”

“Oh, good,” she twangs, batting her thick lashes and twirling a strand of dark hair around her finger. Her gaze swallows me whole, and everything about the way her hips sway when she walks to the way she laughs at everything I say tells me she finds me appealing. “I love to go out. Do you go out? Where do you like to go?”

She speaks with soft vowels and extra syllables, the way Magnolia used to when she was new to the city, before her accent began to fade.

I lead Savannah from the living room to the master suite, pushing open double doors and pointing to the large windows on the far wall.

“This apartment has one master suite and a spare bedroom, which you could use as an office or a guest room or flex room.” I carefully ignore her question. It’s not the first time a client has tried to veer the conversation into a completely different direction, but I’m nothing if not professional.

“This is a really nice bedroom,” she drawls, snapping her gum.

When she smiles, there’s red lipstick on her teeth. If I knew her better, I’d tell her, but I don’t want to make her self-conscious. Magnolia once gave an entire presentation with a piece of pepper stuck to her front left tooth. I didn’t tell her because she was already elbows-deep in her exposition and everything was going well. My intention was to avoid throwing her off her game. She tore into me afterward, and from then on, we did “teeth checks” after every meal.

Savannah pouts. “I’m not sure if my king bed would fit in here.”

I’m not sure what a petite Georgian filly like her is doing with a king bed, but I don’t ask.

“Most of the apartments in this building are similarly sized. I can show you something else.”

“Well, I really like this area. I mean, if you say it’s a hot place to live . . .” She smiles, wrapping a strand of hair around her finger extra-tight. “I trust you, Xavier. You seem like a guy who knows the city really well, and I’m new here, so . . .”

“There’s another apartment two floors up.” I lead us out of the bedroom and down the hall, flipping the light on in the bathroom. “It’s slightly bigger than this one, but most of that square footage has been allocated to the main living areas. The view doesn’t compare to this one, and in my opinion, this apartment gets you more for your money.”

She giggles, batting her hand. “Money’s not an object. Daddy gave me a budget, but if I find something more to my liking, he won’t say no.”

Ah, she’s a Daddy’s girl.

Magnolia never was one of those. In fact, she didn’t trust a lot of men, and I wholeheartedly blame that on her father.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.