Billionaire Undeceived ~ Devon (Montana Billionaires #3)

Chapter 1

Reese

“D evon offered to teach you to ride on Saturday,” my boss informed me as we sat in the reception area of the office for Glam Anywhere. “I know you really want to learn to ride, so I told him it was a great idea.”

I gaped at the woman who had become not just a boss but a friend to me.

Devon Remington was Hannah’s brother-in-law, and she adored him.

I, on the other hand, did not want to spend any time I didn’t absolutely have to spend with Devon.

I did not adore him.

In fact, he was a huge pain in my ass.

“Why would he do that?” I asked her cautiously.

I was certain that Devon didn’t like me, either.

Why would he want to do me a favor?

He came to the office fairly often. He probed me constantly about my personal life and my history, something I refused to talk about with him.

My life was none of his damned business, but he tried to make it his business every time he visited Glam Anywhere.

Hannah sighed as she sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Look, I know you don’t exactly love Devon like I do, but underneath all of his bullshit, he is a good guy.”

I snorted as I closed my laptop. “I highly doubt that Devon is just trying to be a nice guy. He antagonizes me every time he stops by.”

It was closing time, and Hannah and I had just finished our business for the day.

I’d been working for the mobile beauty company for months, and the business had grown enormously since it had opened.

We were conquering Montana, but there was still a lot of work to do to make the company go national in the future.

I was the manager at Glam Anywhere, but Hannah was far from an absentee boss. She was engaged in every aspect of her business, and she spent as much time here as I did.

Hannah’s husband, Tanner, had tried to get her to work shorter days because her pregnancy was getting more advanced. But Hannah was an independent woman who wanted her new business to succeed. She insisted that she was feeling just fine, but that didn’t stop Tanner from checking up on his pregnant wife several times a day. He was a little obsessive, but it was their first child, and I couldn’t blame him for worrying about his wife.

“Please just go and let Devon teach you to ride,” Hannah insisted. “He really would be a great teacher. He’s been riding since his early childhood, and he’s a much better rider than I am. I wish I could teach you myself, but I can’t ride while I’m pregnant.”

I nodded, completely agreeing with her comment. Hannah shouldn’t be getting near a horse while she was pregnant. There was too much risk of falls or abdominal trauma. “I can wait,” I told her emphatically. “I’ve lived this long without getting on a horse.”

Yeah, I really did want to learn to ride, but it wasn’t that urgent.

“It would be so good for you,” Hannah nagged. “You’re relatively new to Montana, and I think you’d love it. You’ve done so much for me, Reese. I want to return the favor. You’ve worked so hard with me to get this business up and running, and I owe some of my success to your hard work. You took care of everything while I was on my long honeymoon in Australia. I just want to do something nice for you. What’s up between you and Devon anyway? You seem uptight every time he comes in.”

Damn! Hannah had been a great friend and boss, and it was so hard for me to refuse to do something she really wanted me to do.

However, Devon was a thorn in my side, and I really didn’t want to shove that thorn in any deeper by spending time in his company outside of work.

“Nothing is up,” I assured her. “We just don’t like each other.”

Hannah’s expression was solemn as she asked, “You do realize that all of his cynicism and obnoxiousness isn’t the real Devon, right?”

I lifted a brow as I looked at her. “It’s not? If it’s all artificial, he seems to have that act down pat.”

“He has a good heart,” Hannah replied. “He just doesn’t show that side of himself to most people.”

Ha! I’d definitely never seen that side of Devon Remington. He questioned me incessantly and never seemed satisfied with any of my answers.

He unnerved me, and that didn’t happen very often.

“For some reason, he doesn’t seem to trust me,” I confided. “He keeps digging at me about why I moved to Montana. I know that he’s protective of you, but he can’t seem to understand that I’m not here for some nefarious reason. I needed a change in my life. Devon sees that as suspicious because I made a drastic move from the city to a small town in Montana, and I didn’t know anyone here when I moved.”

Hannah shrugged. “It’s a small town. Everyone is suspicious of strangers at first.”

I nodded. “I get that, but Devon is taking this to an extreme. Nobody in town looks at me like a stranger anymore. I’ve lived here for months. I’d like to think most people actually like me.”

It was a substantial change for me to move to this small town in Montana after I’d taken the job that Hannah had offered me, but I thought I’d adjusted pretty well.

I liked my job and the people here in Crystal Fork.

Yeah, things moved at a slower pace, but that was a plus for me. It was something I’d needed in my life.

“They do like you. Before long they’ll be seeing you as one of their own and trying to fix you up with every single male in town,” Hannah answered immediately. “Honestly, I don’t know why Devon is being so stubborn. Maybe his offer to teach you to ride is his way of apologizing. Take him up on the offer, Reese. Devon doesn’t offer to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

Personally, I was sure that he had a motive behind that offer, but I didn’t want to offend Hannah by telling her what I really thought.

I also didn’t really want to admit just how uncomfortable I was in Devon’s presence.

While his older brothers Kaleb and Tanner were friendly and outgoing, Devon was…different.

He held his cards close to his chest, and he was extremely hard to read.

His dark, intriguing eyes seemed like they could see right through me, but I just couldn’t judge what emotions were in their depths.

He was sarcastic and annoying.

Unfortunately, the man also intrigued me just a little. If everything Hannah said was true, I had to wonder what had made Devon so different from his older brothers.

Also, unfortunate was the fact that he was stupidly attractive.

He was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, wrapped up in a very mysterious package.

“Please,” Hannah pleaded. “Just go this once and see how it goes. I think you’ll have fun, and something tells me you need a little fun in your life. You don’t really get out much, Reese, and that worries me. Maybe I’m a little afraid that you might be regretting your decision to come here to Crystal Fork.”

I shook my head. “I don’t. I guess I’m just more of a homebody.”

Hannah raised a brow. “Really? You live in the same small apartment building I lived in before Tanner and I got back together. There’s not much to do in those tiny apartments.”

What in the hell could I say to that comment?

Honestly, I’d always liked keeping busy and doing new things, but I had my reasons for wanting to keep to myself these days when I wasn’t working.

Unfortunately, as close as I’d gotten to Hannah, that wasn’t something I could exactly explain to her right now.

“I like my apartment,” I protested. “It’s not like I never get out. I go to The Mug And Jug, and I frequent your mom’s donut shop way too often.”

“You’ve never been to Billings, and I invite you to come every time I go with Lauren and Anna,” she reminded me. “In fact, I don’t think you’ve left Crystal Fork since you moved here so you can see more of Montana.”

I hadn’t.

Maybe that did seem odd since I’d never been to Montana before I moved here for this job.

Normally, I would be curious to visit different places, but my life was far from normal at the moment.

“The weather sucks,” I muttered as a pretty weak excuse, wondering how I could get off this particular topic. Maybe if I agreed to let Devon teach me to ride, Hannah would stop badgering me about getting out more.

“It’s spring now,” she cajoled.

“Okay,” I said, desperate to change the topic. “I’ll go once on Saturday and see how it goes.”

Hannah’s face lit up. “You’re going to love it. Devon has some incredible horses. I hope you’ll figure out that he’s harmless and a pretty nice guy once you see through his bravado.”

I highly doubted that, but I could get through an hour or two in his company to make Hannah happy.

I felt more than a little guilty because I couldn’t share everything about myself with her.

Hannah, Lauren, and Anna had become good friends to me, but I wasn’t being entirely honest with any of them.

Anna was an incredibly famous pop star who was married to Kaleb Remington.

Lauren was like a sister to Tanner.

I adored all of my new friends, but there were just things I couldn’t share with any of them, and that bothered me.

A lot.

There had never been anything mysterious about me before I’d moved to Montana.

I was honest.

I considered myself a good friend.

So my lack of truthfulness was wearing on me, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

“I really don’t hate it here,” I told her sincerely. “I don’t regret my decision to move to Crystal Fork. I was grateful when you offered me this job, and the challenge of getting a new business up and running has been good for me.”

At least that comment was entirely true.

Crystal Fork was a quirky small town, which actually appealed to me, and everyone had been so kind and genuine.

Well, except for the man who was a thorn in my side.

I’d never lived in a town as small as Crystal Fork. It had taken some time to get used to, but the longer I lived here, the more it grew on me.

“You’ve been invaluable as a manager, Reese,” Hannah said genuinely. “But as a friend, I worry about you sometimes. I’m not sure why, but you seem a little edgy and cautious at times. I understand that because I lived in Seattle for years. I guess we’re just more cautious when we’ve lived in a metro area. I’m hoping you’ll feel more relaxed as time goes by.”

“Salt Lake City isn’t as big as Seattle,” I told her. “But yeah, it’s different here.”

I’d use any excuse I could find to explain my wariness, and Hannah had given me a good one.

God, I hated my life right now, but I was hoping things wouldn’t go on like this forever.

“I’m getting out on Saturday,” I added in a lighter tone, trying to stall any further discussion about my lack of a personal life.

She beamed. “I’m overjoyed you’re going to learn to ride. You’ve been talking about it for months.”

I’d actually be happy about it as well if I didn’t have to have Devon Remington as an instructor.

I’d always loved horses, but I’d never learned to ride. The closest I’d gotten to riding was being led around on a pony as a child.

Try not to let him get to you, Reese.

I let out a long breath and wondered how I was going to accomplish that.

Devon did get to me, and his constant questions about my personal life made me squirm in my seat when he was here in the office.

Something told me that he knew how much it bothered me, which just encouraged him to keep asking more questions.

I was a terrible liar, and it didn’t come easy to me.

I was going to have to be a little less transparent and act like nothing he asked bothered me.

My parents had always told me that they could tell when I wasn’t being honest with them, and they were probably right.

Maybe I’d stop worrying about his questions and start asking a few of my own.

Devon Remington was a mystery to me, and I was a woman who liked to solve puzzles.

If I kept him busy answering my questions, he might not have as much time to start firing off his own.

Hannah looked at her watch and rose from her chair. “I’d better get home. If his girls aren’t home before he gets home from work, Tanner starts losing his mind.”

I laughed. Hannah was having a girl, and Tanner was already calling them his girls, even though the little girl hadn’t been born yet.

“Go,” I encouraged, knowing how anxious Tanner was about Hannah’s first pregnancy. “I’ll lock up.”

I watched as Hannah gathered her things and prepared to leave.

She and Tanner had experienced an exceedingly long journey to happiness, but she was glowing now.

It was obvious that Tanner and Hannah belonged together, even though it had taken them a long time to figure that out themselves.

Her pregnancy had gone smoothly so far, and she and Tanner were over the moon about becoming parents.

Hannah donned her jacket and lifted her hand to wave as she exited the office.

I sighed as I shut down my computer.

I’d always wanted to experience everything Hannah had now.

A husband who loved me…

Making a life with a partner who accepted me exactly as I was…

Having a healthy child…

But since my life had spun out of control a year ago, none of those things even felt like a remote possibility for me anymore.