Page 19 of Meet Jon, the Billionaire

I grinned. “Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep that in mind for the next match. I’m Jonathon by the way.”

“Oh yes, I’ve heard of you. The legendary Tiger of Wall Street. I’m Lucille Madden, and I’m on the zoning board but you already know that, don’t you?”

I was as disarmed by her smile as I was by her knowledge. I chuckled helplessly. “It seems as if you have me at a disadvantage, Ms. Madden.”

“Indeed. You just bought Acme Bread, and Acme Bread has a bid in for a certain corner lot in Greenwich Village.” She laughed. “Pity you can’t bribe me with some of your wares, right? Me being gluten allergic and all.”

“Ah, but Acme Bread has three times as many gluten-free options on our menu as the next closest competitor. In fact, the AntiGluten Society named Acme Bread as one of their top ten safe havens in New York City.”

“You’re good,” she said with a laugh. “I’m afraid that the discussion about who gets the corner lot is still ongoing. I really wish I could tell you more. Excuse me.”

She smiled a little wider than was needed and took her leave. I knew that I had made an impression. I just had to hope it was a good one, but I was feeling good. Confident. Lucky.

And speaking of getting lucky… I gazed across the tea room at Amy. She stood by the window, one hand on the glass while her red lips moved in a frenzy. Whoever was on the other end of the line must have been getting an earful. She was nothing short of adorable in her white tennis gear, and I found myself following the lines of her toned legs up to where they disappeared under her short, flared skirt.

Maybe later we can play ‘tennis instructor,’ and I can show you how to move with the proper form…

I saw her conclude the call and moved up to join her. I cocked my eyebrow in query.

“Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, mostly… the vendor shorted us a box of flour, and Pedro didn’t know the name of our sales rep. We got it sorted out now. There’ll be a special delivery made to the bakery by the end of day.”

“You know how to take care of business.”

She tilted her head to the side, eyes twinkling with delight. “You like that about me, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I said as she laughed. “Why is that so strange?”

“It’s just… look, it doesn’t seem to matter how ‘alpha’ a man is deemed by society. They always seem to feel the need to trash everything I say and make out like I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“On behalf of the men who aren’t dicks like that, allow me to apologize.”

She chuckled softly. “It’s nice to be appreciated for my competence. I guess that’s what I’m trying to get at.”

I put my hand on her shoulder and slid my fingers down the smooth skin of her arm. “Amy… I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with small, minded men who didn’t see your value for what it truly is. But I see it…”

Little goosebumps rose on her bare flesh as I caressed her arm. I felt a little bit of disappointment as my fingertips reached the end of her forearm and dropped away to my side.

“Um, yeah,” Amelia said, her cheeks flushing red. She was so adorable when she did that. I was betting that despite all of her innocent playfulness, she was a real demon in bed. I longed to find out, and I felt my hunter’s instinct stir once again.

The game is afoot, my dear Amy. You don’t even know that you’re in the crosshairs of the alpha predator of this concrete jungle…

I think, had the loudspeaker not interrupted us and demanded we return to the court, that I could have kissed her right then. The chemistry was perfect, and she was ready for it. I was fighting myself at that point. The Tiger wanted his conquest to be stripped and mounted like a trophy kill, but the Man was starting to wonder if Amelia might be more than just another hunt.

I took Amelia’s hand as we headed toward the courts. She smiled, blushed, and couldn’t quite look at me, but she didn’t pull away.

“Look.” I pointed at the tallies for the day’s matches so far. “We’re neck and neck with the Jacksons. If they lose their next match, and we win ours, then we win the entire tournament.”

Amelia started laughing. “Wouldn’t that be a trip? I mean, one of the prizes is gift certificates to Breadcetera. I’d be giving them to myself.”

I laughed, but I didn’t want to mention that Acme Bread had donated nearly ten times the amount in gift certs to the winners than Breadcetera.

We faced off against our final opponents, who were a bit on the, shall we say, haggard side. Most of the people in the tournament were strictly amateurs, however, and these two had both played professionally at some point.

I mean, I’d never heard of them, but the loudspeaker guy announced them like they were a big deal. I couldn’t possibly have pronounced their names, so I thought of them as Swede One and Swede two. Both husband and wife had short blonde hair and wore the same outfit, making them sort of hard to tell apart.

As I said, they were haggard from playing hard all day—they had swept their previous foes without losing a single match—but they still had the advantage.

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