Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
He had to cut her off before she got him to agree to another date. “I’ve changed my mind.”
She sputtered a moment and then said, “You can’t do that.”
He turned his face to the morning sun. “Of course I can.”
“But you agreed that if I set Gabby up on a date, you have to go out too. You have to let me matchmake for you both.”
Oh yeah, he fully intended to let her matchmake for him. She just had no idea there was only one woman she could match him with. But she’d find out soon. “Look, I’m right near your office. I’ll come up, and we can discuss this like rational human beings.”
Though he had to admit he wasn’t quite rational. Not where she was concerned.
First, he had to figure out why she didn’t date billionaires and change her mind about that. Then he had to get her to agree to date him. And finally, he had to come up with the perfect romantic montage.
The moment he stepped into her office, she pointed a finger at him. “You agreed. You have to go on this date.”
He had a strategy. He just didn’t have any tactics with which to implement it. He said the only thing he could. “I’m not going out with any other women you fix me up with.”
She jammed her hands on her shapely hips. God help him, he wished they were his hands on her. She said indignantly, “Why not?”
He told her the unvarnished truth. “Because the only woman I want to date is you.”
Chapter Ten
The only woman I want to date is you.
Had Troy really just said that?
Yes, he had, and it freaked her out. The man seemed to take up so much space, filling her office, stealing her breath. He felt so close, though he stood several feet away. He exuded animal magnetism. And her feet wanted to float right into that force field.
The worst? Michaela wanted to go on a date with him in the worst possible way. Make that the best possible way.
But, dear God, he was a billionaire. She’d never fit into his world. She needed to be with a man like herself, someone who’d had to scrabble all his life. Yes, Troy and his siblings had to work their way back from nothing after their parents’ deaths. But was that the same as never having had anything to begin with? Was it the same as watching her mother struggle to put food in the fridge? Because that’s where all her matchmaking skills had come from. As soon as she’d been old enough, she’d struggled just as hard to help her mother.
Could a man like Troy Harrington ever truly understand her world? And could she ever truly be a part of his?
Look at how blithely he’d asked her to find him a massive yacht. She would be a fish out of water in his world, no matter how nice and even admirable he seemed. No matter how tempting he was. No matter how badly she wanted to throw herself at him. Sooner or later, his family would figure out she didn’t fit in. The Mavericks would too.
Besides, he was probably playing with her to win the bet.
And she wasn’t a woman to be played with.
Hands still jammed on her hips, she ground out, “I’m never going to date you.”
He raised one eyebrow as if to mock her. “Well,” he said in an easy drawl, “we’ve already had dinner together.”
She forced her expression to stay mutinous, even as she remembered how lovely that evening had been. “That wasn’t a date.”
He gave her an oh-so-not-innocent look. “It kind of felt like one.”
Oh God, it really had. She’d felt so comfortable, she’d told him her whole freaking life story. And it had felt good.
But that didn’t mean it was a date. “It was one hundred percent not a date.”
He spread his hands, saying mildly, as if she were a terrified kitten, “All right. If that’s what you want to think.” Which obviously meant her thinking was wrong. “But I did hear a lot about how you grew up and how you started your business.”
Part of her wished she could take it all back. And yet the crazier, dazzled part of her relished having been the center of his attention for two hours.
Then he went for the throat. “I don’t get the sense that you share that much with everyone you have dinner with. Am I wrong?”
He wasn’t. But she certainly couldn’t admit it. She could only double down. “It was not a date. And you and I will never, ever go on a date.” Never, ever, ever!
She thought he muttered, “Doth she protest too much?”
He was too far away, but it was certainly the kind of cocky thing he’d say.
After going for the throat, now he went for the soft underbelly. “Is it because I’m a billionaire?” Slipping his hands into his pockets, he rocked back on his heels. “Do you have something against billionaires? I can’t understand why when you work almost exclusively with them.” His lips curled into a half-smile. “After all, you’re the billionaire matchmaker.”