Page 45 of Dating the Rebel
Miranda snorted. “And he wants to join Liaisons International.”
Tabitha nodded. “He wants us to find his Cinderella for him.”
“Do I look like a fairy godmother?” Miranda said. The last thing she wanted was to put someone in a situation that made them a target of the media. Even an article that was supposed to have been good, like Teo’s, had wound up doing harm.
“You should at least meet with him,” Tabitha said. “He already chartered a flight for you. Do you still have your passport on you?”
Miranda nodded. With the way Grant had been coming in and out of her life, she’d figured carrying it was smart. But meeting up with him like she had wasn’t.
Not that she was falling for him or anything. She knew better. She was just using him. That was all she was doing. Using him for incredible sex that kept her mind off her business problems.
But maybe setting a few of her female clients up with the prince would earn their forgiveness for her not setting them up with Teo—if he really was a prince. She had her doubts.
“Where am I going?” Miranda asked as she stood up from her chair. She could use a break from the phone. And there was something about the timing of this meeting that intrigued her, especially now that she knew Grant had resurfaced, at least at home.
Tabitha clapped her hands together with glee. “His private island.”
“Okay...” She grabbed her purse from the credenza. “And whom am I meeting?”
“He wouldn’t reveal his name until he meets you in person. I guess he doesn’t want you alerting the press that he has to enlist a service to find him a mate.”
“Okay.” She could certainly understand his wanting to date discreetly, if he was truly royalty. But as she headed out the door, doubts flitted through her head.
Hours later, after a helicopter, plane and limo ride, she arrived at an elaborate villa in the middle of a very beautiful island full of leafy green trees and vibrant flowers.
And she wondered...maybe she truly was going to meet a prince. She was pretty certain that this island actually belonged to one from the crests she’d seen on street signs and in the foyer of the villa. The chauffeur had opened the double entrance doors for her and escorted her inside the space that was more courtyard than receiving area. The same trees and flowers from the grounds overflowed the foyer. She drew in a deep breath of fragrant air and something else...
That scent she and Blair had called boy. That she called man now. The chauffeur had gone back out the doors he’d opened for her, but Miranda was no longer alone. She turned around, but she didn’t see him...just a dark shadow standing in another doorway, a doorway to a dark room.
Her pulse quickened with excitement and anticipation as, without ever seeing his face, she recognized theprince.
Even Grant couldn’t believe he’d pulled this scam together so fast. Fortunately the man who owned the island owed him a favor and a whole lot of money from a poker game a few weeks ago. Grant had been the one who’d come up with the royal flush instead of the prince.
Seeing her here, looking all sexy in a wrinkled blouse tucked into a pencil skirt made him feel like he’d won again.
She might not feel as lucky to find out that he’d lured her here under false pretense though. Of course if she finally relented, he would join her dating service; the problem was that she was the only woman he wanted to date, though.
She was all he wanted—which scared him more than that last mission had. But she was worth the fear—to be with her again. If for only one more night...
Was she going to give him that night, though? Or was she going to turn around and walk out once she realized he’d tricked her into coming here?
Instead of walking toward the exterior doors, though, she turned and walked toward him. “Are you hiding from me?” she asked.
“Should I?” he asked, wondering how pissed she was. He couldn’t tell from her carefully guarded expression.
Wasn’t she happy to see him again? Sure, it had only been a few days since he’d seen her last, but he’d missed her so damn much.
Too much...
How was it that she affected him like no one else ever had? It must have been the sex, which was better than any he’d ever had. He hoped that was all it was. But what if it was more?
What if he was developing feelings for her other than sexual attraction?
Hell, maybe he shouldn’t have come back so soon from that last mission. He’d been safer in a war zone than he was here—alone with her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HEWASN’TAPRINCE, but she suspected Grant Snyder was more than the playboy gambler he pretended to be. He was hiding his real identity from her just as he was hiding in the shadows of the doorway behind him.
