Page 56 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

The truth was, part of me liked him. I couldn’t help it.

I turned for the door, but the thoughts had me swimming in them, and I lingered. Asking this was a risk, I knew, but it was something I’d been thinking about and hadn’t been able to figure out.

His request to date me had felt so real. It had almost felt like he’dmeantit.

The thing was, I’d never seen Duncan go out with women before. Ever. I’d assumed it was because he had no interest in a relationship at all, but after his request to not only date me but to act like we were engaged?

That wasn’t something we could just dive into, no matter how well it had worked out for Maddox and Adelie Hatter. And of all the women he could have asked—women who would have been more than willing to hang on his arm and indulge in his attention—he’d pickedme.

After peering into the hall to make sure no one was around to overhear, I was the one to step closer this time. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Pat or Nicole. I just didn’t know them that well.

“You never told me why, you know,” I said.

Duncan’s head reared back. “Why what?”

I strode to where the punching bag hung from its steel chain in the ceiling and rotated again.

“Why you wanted to date me. The rumors around the office wouldn’t be reason enough for you to give into them. I would never have put it past you.”

“What, dating? You’ve seen me date.”

“Actually, I haven’t. You’ve never been on one date at all in the time I’ve known you.”

“That you know of.”

I laughed. “Does someone else keep your schedule as well as I do? If you’d had dates, I would have known about them.”

“So your question is…”

“Why not? Why don’t you date?”

He frowned. “Never needed to before.”

“But you needed to with me, is that it?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he turned his back to me and reached for the white towel on the end of the rack of dumbbells.

“This…need to trick your family,” I said. My heart began to pound. I couldn’t figure out why, but I pushed on. “Was that…”

He scowled at me, but this time, his gaze held a different kind of intensity. It was almost as though hewantedme to ask what I was about to ask.

“Was that what?” he growled.

“Was that all there was to the request? Was there more? Was there some other reason that you picked me?”

My heart galloped, rapping against my ribs and skipping a lub here and a dub there in the process. I couldn’t believe I was essentially asking if he’d wanted to date me because…

Because…

Becausehe wanted to date me.

Did Duncan like me? Why did the prospect make my bones thrum beneath my skin?

His gaze darkened. He folded his arms over his chest.

“No. Nothing more,” he said. “That was all there was to it.”

Disappointment sank behind my sternum, and I couldn’t figure out why.

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