Page 39 of Dating the Billionaire
CHAPTER TWELVE
BLAIRSATATher desk, staring into the computer monitor that had gone dark because it had been so long since she’d touched the keyboard—because she was so lost in her thoughts, in her daydreams. In that dark screen, she could see Teo’s handsome face, his jaw clenched as passion overwhelmed him. Would she see him like that again? Or would they just continue to nod at each other when he poked his head into the cockpit to thank Bill for a smooth flight?
“You have to come clean.”
Blair jumped at her brother’s pronouncement and nearly toppled her chair over onto the polished concrete floor of their shared office space. Not only did they share it with each other but also with the hangar for their biggest planes. This building in London was the headquarters for Private Flights. She grasped the edge of her desk and steadied herself, but her hands trembled. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
And how the hell did he know?
Had Miranda told him?
“Your little masquerade is going to come back and bite us on the ass,” Grant continued as he stalked into the room from the hall that ran between the exterior door and the area of the hangar with the planes.
She released a slight sigh of relief when she realized that her brother didn’t know that she’d slept with their new biggest client. He was talking about her pretending to be a man.
That was even worse given that she was sleeping with Teo. If the Italian businessman ever learned that she had purposely tricked him into thinking that she was a man, he would be so furious with her. He wouldn’t forgive her. What the hell had she done?
“It’s only a problem if he figures it out,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him. And he damn well couldn’t figure it out.
Ever...
“You think you’re going to be able to keep up the charade forever?” he asked as he dropped into the chair behind his messy desk. Before she could answer, he shook his head. “You’re not. Hell, I’m surprised you’ve gotten away with it for as long as you have.”
She was, too. But Teo only ever stuck his head in the cockpit, and she never turned fully toward him. He saw only her back and shoulders, which she disguised with heavy padding, and when she turned slightly toward him to acknowledge his presence, that beard. She touched her face, which was chafed from the glue used to hold that damn thing in place.
“And when he figures out you’ve duped him,” Grant continued his lecture, “it’s going to be a hell of a problem. Not only will we lose him as a client, but he might be pissed enough to sue us.”
She shook her head. “Sue us? How? He’ll make himself look like such a chauvinist pig if he publicly objects to a woman pilot.”
“I really think you overreacted about that whole thing,” Grant said. “It didn’t sound like he doesn’t think women can fly. It sounded more like he didn’t want to have to deal with another female.” He wriggled his brows at her. “And I can totally relate to that. I had made an exception for you—until your recent wacko behavior.”
She flipped him off.
“Exactly.”
Had that been Teo’s issue? He seemed to dread dealing with his sister. And he’d turned to a dating service because the women he’d dated on his own hadn’t been honest with him.
A twinge of guilt struck her heart so hard that she sucked in a breath over the stabbing pain. She should have been honest with him from the start instead of calling herself Savannah. What the hell had she been thinking?
She needed to be honest with him now. “You’re right,” she agreed with her brother.
Grant opened his mouth wide as if totally shocked that she’d conceded. “What?” he asked. “I don’t understand. You’re actually admitting I’m right about something.” Then he tensed and narrowed his eyes, staring at her with suspicion. “What exactly are you saying that I’m right about?”
She drew in a deep, steadying breath. “That I need to tell him the truth.”
Moving surprisingly fast for such a big man, Grant jumped up from his chair. “Hell, no! You can’t do that!”
“You just told me to come clean,” she reminded him.
“That was before it occurred to me that he might sue us,” he said. “No. It’s better that he never learns that you’ve been the one actually flying him.”
She touched her chafed face. “You expect me to wear that beard forever?”
“No,” he said. “I expect you to stop flying him.”
Another twinge—of panic—struck her heart. Even though they barely spoke, she had come to enjoy those flights, knowing where he was going—what he was doing. It made her feel close to him albeit not as close as she would like to be.
Oh, God, she’d become a stalker. She wasn’t much better than those other women he’d regretted dating—the women who’d wanted him for his money or for connections he’d made through his business. He would probably think her motives were the same.
