His broad shoulders lift in a lazy shrug. “No judgment from me.”
“Yeah, right.” I narrow my eyes. “I wouldn’t be drunk on the clock, thank you very much.”
“But I wouldn’t blame you. This type of work must be very dull.”
“Actually, I chose this profession on purpose,” I clarify. “It’s fun for me to show off buildings, imagining the fresh potential and changes that a new owner could bring.”
“Your definition of fun doesn’t align with mine.” Landon’s shrewd gaze skewers me from his upturned nose. Pompous jerk.
A laugh trips off my tongue. “Oh, phew. You almost had me concerned.”
“Meaning?”
“For a minute there, I thought you were turning over a new leaf. Your arrogance must’ve been sleeping in. I’m glad it was a temporary glitch.” I wipe my brow for emphasis.
His expression sobers, erasing all traces of tension. “My apologies. It isn’t my intention to cause you distress.”
The air in my lungs vacates with a whoosh. I’m positive my gaping resembles a fish out of water. “Now you’re officially freaking me out.”
“How so?”
I whip a hand at him, gesturing up and down in an erratic fashion. “This whole calm and collected act. It’s unexpected.”
“I pride myself on being unpredictable.” Landon smooths a palm along his already straight tie.
His carefree attitude is making me hesitate longer than I prefer. My natural response to this man favors heavily on snarky comebacks and defensive quips. It’s difficult to be rude when he’s acting relatively polite. “Why are you being so… normal?”
The smile lifting his usually stern features effectively steals my breath. Again. What the actual fuck is he trying to pull off here? “As opposed to what, sugar?”
“Completely intolerable.” I’m becoming more convinced that an alien has taken over his body. Perhaps that’s not a terrible thing.
He’s staring straight through me with flat disregard. The grin is strictly surface level. Just when I thought I was making a dent in his steely exterior, he slams up the walls tenfold. “Would you prefer I resume with the insults? I wasn’t aware you were a glutton for being treated poorly.”
“I’m not,” I state at a slow pace while trying to dissect his scheme. “But you don’t really care either way.”
“That’s correct. Your self-esteem and integrity hold little interest for me. That doesn’t mean I should disrespect you. Habits are tough to break, and it was just too easy arguing with you.” His flippant tone dismisses my concern with a cutting edge.
I don’t take my focus off him, watching for signs of deception. “I figured you’d be pissed at me.”
Landon chuckles, but the dry sound lacks any warmth. “For what? Saying a woman broke my heart? Please, Savannah. That’s absurd. I overreacted, but I can assure you it won’t happen again.”
Who is this imposter, and what did he do with Landon? “You lashed out for a reason.”
He rocks on the heels of his loafers. “Even I have bad mornings, believe it or not. I’m allowed to be off-kilter now and then.”
His obvious brushoff is a lame attempt to dissuade me from prodding further. I’m not buying whatever cheap knockoff he’s selling. This entire exchange so far isn’t making any sense, but I haven’t interacted with him enough to call bullshit on his strange behavior. The subject can be dropped until I have a better grip on his abrupt shift in attitude. Fighting about it when he’s clearly withdrawn will defeat the purpose. I’ll save that kernel in my pocket until a later date.
While tilting my head, I squint at him from behind the protection of my oversized shades. “I’ll take the hint. You don’t want to discuss yesterday for the sake of keeping our… peace.”
“You’re too kind.” His voice suggests he’d rather throttle me. He glances from left to right, inspecting the noticeable absence of traffic in general. “I wasn’t aware we were bargain shopping.”
“It happens sometimes. Might work for the best if you’re still looking to purchase multiple warehouses.”
“True as that might be, I’m not interested in buying the scraps no one else wants.” He treats himself to another superficial glimpse, clearly assuming the worst even before we’ve assessed the entire package.
Cue the internal eye roll. Heaven forbid the great Landon Winters has to trudge through the trenches with us common folk. I don’t disguise the rigid clench in my jaw. This was his idea to begin with.
“You picked these listings from the dozens I sent over.” The reminder isn’t needed, but his snap judgment grates on my nerves.
“I wasn’t aware they were located in a ghost town.” Call me paranoid, but his act of boredom smells fishier than a rotting trout.
A huff sends stray hairs flying off my forehead. “Dramatic much?”
“Ah, there she is. I was starting to wonder if your smart mouth took a vacation.” That sounds an awful lot like what I accused him of when we first arrived. He’s trying to goad a reaction out of me, but I won’t give him the privilege.
“Nope, I’m just waiting for the opportunity to strike.”
He raises his brows, the dark blond slashes lifting in expectation. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not standing here.”
“Not everything is about you, egomaniac.”
Landon checks his phone, tapping at the screen for a few moments. “We can agree to disagree for the sake of our schedule.”
And the ruthless CEO finally makes his appearance.
“Right, of course. We should stick to the program.” Not sure who I’m trying to convince.
“By all means.” He nods for me to take the lead.
“I’m under the impression that the numerous availabilities on these neighboring blocks are due to one company going belly up. But don’t take my word for it,” I tack on at the end.
“I wouldn’t dare, I can assure you.”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t trust you either.”
“You shouldn’t.” The menacing glint in his eyes makes me shiver despite the rising heat as day breaks.
“Okay, quit stalling. We don’t need further delays.” A peek at my watch tells me we’ve already been dragging out this process for fifteen minutes.
“Quite the contrary, sugar. I’m ready to get this over with.” He motions at the entrance with a flick of his wrist.
I grab the folder with all the listing details from my purse. “If that’s the case, you could let the owners handle this menial task. Then you could vacate the premises.”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
I paste on my sweetest grin, holding the pose until my cheeks ache. “Just trying to make the customer happy. Is anyone else joining us?”
“Not unless you’re expecting a guest.” He crosses his arms, remaining firmly rooted in place even as I stride to the door. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume he’s trying to postpone us on purpose with all this back-and-forth bullshit.
I find myself, once again, wondering why this company is handing control over to him so effortlessly. “Aren’t Paul, Betty, and Riley”—yes, I remember their names—“interested to see where the money is going?”