Page 23 of Undercover Billionaire

He checked his watch and turned back toward his office.

The stairwell at the far end was empty, and the sounds of my footsteps down the concrete stairs echoed against the cement walls. Descending floor by floor, I reached the ground floor exit door, took a deep breath, and swiped my keycard.

It flashed red.

Fuck.

I swiped again, and the green light came on and the lock clicked open. With shaky fingers, I entered my override code and set the combo to four ones. Then I froze. Ghost hadn’t told me how many entries or what time to program it for. The mechanism could handle anywhere from one to ninety-nine openings over a period of one to twenty-four hours.

The lights went yellow and red, then red. I hadn’t finished the programming soon enough for it to take.

I heard the sounds of shoes on the stairs, and then a conversation started just above me.

I quickly swiped again and reprogrammed the code. I set it for one entry over twenty-four hours.

The bright sunlight of the street blinded me for a second as I exited and shut the door behind me. The Ghost didn’t know how the locks worked. He knew I could set a temporary code, but he didn’t know the details. That didn’t tell me much about him, but it was a start.

Blinking in the light, I turned left toward Maryland Avenue. At the corner, I looked left. All the metered spaces in front of our building were full, and no gray Lexus, so I walked to the intersection by the entrance and leaned against the stoplight pole. My watch said I was three minutes early and no Adam, so now I knew something about him as well.

The light turned, the crowd surged past me to cross, and my fake boyfriend’s car magically appeared in front of me.

I let myself in and closed the door.

Before I could get the seatbelt around me, he pointed discreetly toward the Metro entrance. “Who’s the girl watching you?”

When I glanced over, she waved. “Kirby. I work with her.” She had obviously staked out the street to get a look at my new boyfriend.

Adam pulled me toward him, his hand behind my neck, and his lips crashed down on mine.

I pushed against him in surprise, but his hands held me in place.

We traded breath, and I gave in as the tingles returned. Running my hands up to his shoulders, I let myself relax and savored the feel of him, the taste of him, the smell of him. The feel of his stubble was a new sensation for me.

His grip loosened, but then, as suddenly as it had begun, he broke the kiss. “Did you get the door?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

He let me go.

Settling back in my seat, I didn’t know what to think of what had just happened. Instinctively, I fastened my seatbelt.

Kirby smiled at me as we pulled into traffic.

At the next light, Adam turned left and looked over. “Don’t do that again.” His tone was cold, bordering on angry.

“Do what?”

“I told you anytime people are around, you have to sell them on the idea that we’re together. Anything less is dangerous.”

The gall.

I crossed my arms. “You could have warned me.”

“Have you made all your boyfriends ask before kissing you?”

“Have you always been this rude?”

A block later, he offered his hand as the light turned green. “Truce?”

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