Page 23 of Dating the Billionaire
She shrugged. “Whatever. What’s his name?”
“Matteo Rinaldi.”
She gasped as a sharp pain jabbed her heart. It wasn’t possible. Matteo could not be a sexist pig, not after all the sweet things he’d said about admiring strong, independent women. Had he been lying? Or was Grant?
She narrowed her eyes and studied her brother’s face. “Did Miranda put you up to this?”
“Miranda?” he asked. Too innocently? An accomplished gambler, Grant’s face was too hard to read. But there was a twinkle in his dark blue eyes. It wasn’t of amusement, though, because he angrily asked, “What does that damn troublemaker have to do with Matteo Rinaldi?”
Too damn much.
Blair shook her head. “She didn’t refer him?”
“I sure as hell hope not,” he said. “We sure don’t need Miranda Fox doing us anyfavors.”
“He didn’t mention her?” Blair asked.
Grant shook his head. “I wouldn’t have booked him a flight if he had anything to do with Miranda.” He’d had a problem with her best friend for years. “But he didn’t say how he heard about us, just that he needs a pilot.”
“Amalepilot,” she remarked resentfully. So he was a chauvinist pig. She’d been right to trust her instincts to run; he had seemed too good to be true. That night had just been an act; he wasn’t the charming man he’d pretended to be.
“I looked the guy up,” Grant said. “He’s an Italian billionaire. We could use his business and his referrals. So don’t blow this for us.”
Blair had already blown him. And now she was so damn angry about that, about that entire night...
She’d bought his act, that he was this charming man. That he was considerate and had seemed to care about her pleasure, about her. She’d been worried that he was so great that she would act like her mom and lose herself in him.
But he’d fooled her. He was a chauvinist pig just like all the other guys she’d dated.
How had she lost control so completely with him?
She was going to damn well take that control back. Now.
Teo leaned into the open door of the cockpit, waiting for the pilot to turn around and acknowledge him. Surely the man had heard him walk up the stairs to board the plane. He cleared his throat.
The guy turned to peer back over one shoulder. A reddish beard covered most of the guy’s face but for the sunglasses shielding his eyes.
“I’m Matteo Rinaldi,” he introduced himself.
The guy just nodded.
“And you are?”
“Bill,” he replied curtly, his voice so gruff his name sounded more like a croak than a word.
“You should take your seat, sir,” a male flight attendant advised as he pulled in the stairs. “We are cleared for takeoff.”
Grant Snyder had taken his directive a little far with having all male staff on board the plane. But Teo was relieved. The last thing he needed was another distraction like Savannah, another strong, independent woman. Savannah took up entirely too many of his thoughts as he continued to relive that night over and over again.
He must have built it up in his mind, though; it couldn’t have been as good as he remembered. It hadn’t really been like that...
It wasn’t possible to feel as much pleasure as he kept imagining he’d felt that night, with her.
“Sir,” the attendant prodded him, gesturing back at the big seats in the passenger area.
This plane was actually a bit smaller than his private jet, but it was luxurious and fully equipped. And the pilot seemed incredibly confident in the cockpit and so focused on flying that he’d barely noticed Teo at all. Apparently Blair Snyder had vetted her pilots better than he’d vetted his or than Liaisons International had vetted his date.
Unless he’d done something that night that had upset her?
