Page 17 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

“You want to date me?” she asked.

Air could hardly pass through my throat. I muscled down another swallow.

Time to play it cool. Again.

“Why not? Everyone already thinks we are.” I threw a hand toward the closed door currently facilitating the gossip that undoubtedly circled the cubicles.

It was a cowardly response, and I knew it.

Her lips pinched tighter. She placed her hands on her hips as though ready to rip into me.

I hurried to convince her before she got the chance.

“Come home with me to Arkansas. Let me introduce you to my family and placate my grandma at what could be her last birthday.”

The final comment was a little low, even for me.

I rolled with it.

Rosabel didn’t miss a beat. “Slather on a dose of manipulation, why don’t you?”

I lifted my hands in mock surrender. “I’m not manipulating you.”

Who was I kidding? I was totally manipulating her.

“No?”

“It was—” I released an irritated sigh. I didn’t usually have to work this hard to secure new clients or contracts. She was the master of hard-to-get. “Not a guilt trip.”

“No.” Rosabel’s tone was flat.

“No?”

She took a step forward. “No, I don’t want to date you. It’s hard enough working for you and having to deal with your problems and demands. I think a relationship would ruin any kind of professional interaction we have if we were to involve a more intimate knowledge of each other.”

My lips quirked upward. I couldn’t help it.

“Who said we would be intimate?”

Rosabel’s face turned a deeper shade of red. She was blushing again? Good.

“Datingimplies something like that. Especially if we’re going to convince your family there’s more than animosity between us.”

This grew more interesting by the minute.

“Isthere more than animosity between us?”

Her eyes were reduced to dagger slits. “What do you think?”

This time, I took a step forward. My voice sank to a grinding pitch. “I think I wouldn’t mind finding out.”

Rosabel inhaled. Her eyes widened, and she retreated.

Not the reaction I was going for. I agonized, waiting to hear what she would say next.

“My answer is still no.”

“Any particular reason?”

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