Page 5 of The Billionaire's Obsession

“There’s a draft.” I waved away his reply and feasted my eyes on the woman who’d taken up a little intriguing corner of my mind since last night.

She shook hands with a man and sat opposite him. He smiled widely at her and passed her an individually wrapped rose.Was she on a date?Another couple joined them just then, and I lost sight of her.A double date?

“Cole, what do you think?” The sound of my name pulled my attention back to my table. I turned my gaze on the man who’d spoken. Christ, had he still been speaking?

“I think–I need to visit the restroom,” I blurted, as I spied my mystery woman standing up, and gesturing in the general direction of the bathrooms. Pushing back my chair so quickly, the men sitting with me looked on curiously as I strode away from the table. Let them wonder, I didn’t care. There had been so little of excitement in my life since I’d moved to the city, I wasn’t letting the one intriguing person I’d met get away a second time.

She was nowhere to be seen when I reached the corridor outside the bathrooms, so I settled against the wall to wait for her. Was she on another date as Ella Clarke, or was she herself tonight? What was her real name, and why was she going on other people’s dates, anyway?

After a few minutes, she stepped out of the bathroom, brushing her long curtain of glorious hair back, and starting toward me. As soon as she looked up, my eyes locked on hers. She stopped, her petal pink mouth falling open as she stared.

“Miss Clarke? What a pleasant surprise,” I called to her. She visibly pulled herself together, tightening her hands into little fists and straightening her spine in a way that threatened to drag my eyes to her chest. She looked stunning in the emerald velvet, and my hands longed to feel the supple curve of her waist in my grip.

“Is it? I’m afraid it’s a little awkward,” she said finally.

“Awkward because you’re here on a date? I take it I’m not to call you, in that case?” I prompted her.

She flushed delicately, but her eyes remain unflinching on mine. She had grit, and I liked that. I liked it a lot. “Yes, I suppose not. I thought after last night, you wouldn’t want to. We didn’t exactly hit it off,” she demurred.

“I beg to differ.” I approached her slowly, not wanting her to feel cornered. She looked flighty as hell and I had already decided I wasn’t leaving here without her real name. “I thought we hit it off just fine. Great, actually.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I disagree,” she maintained.

“So, you haven’t thought of me since running out of here last night? Not even once? Not even when I sent you those flowers earlier?” My question startled her, and I knew my bluff had paid off. There had been no flowers sent to Ella Clarke from me, but this little minx clearly didn’t know that.

“I -I have to get back to my date,” she said quickly, clearly expecting that the conversation was spiraling out of control.

“Did you like them? The flowers?” I stepped toward her as she approached, only enough to make her hesitate.

She stopped and looked up at me, swallowing hard. “Yes.”

“Liar,” I murmured to her, unable to resist the urge to reach out and move a stray lock of blazing hair that was hanging in her eye and making her blink. “Do you make a habit out of lying?”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“I think you do. Let me cut to the chase. I never go on a date my uncle presses me into without researching the woman first. I knew you weren’t Ella the second you walked in the door… so stop lying.”

She paled, and a pulse started up in her neck. I wondered what it would feel like beating against my lips.

“What’s your real name?” I pressed when she failed to speak.

Her eyes jumped to mine. “Why? It’s not illegal to impersonate someone on a date they didn’t want to go on.”

“That’s right, it isn’t. However, you’ve made me curious, and I’m a man who satisfies his curiosity, without fail. Tell me your name, or I’ll go out there and ask your date.”

She scoffed. “He wouldn’t know, anyway.”

Those words settled over me, and an inkling of understanding trickled in. “So, this is a regular occurrence for you? What is it… a service? A job? Do you get paid for acting terribly on dates and fooling them?”

“Sometimes fooling someone is kinder than flat out rejecting them, and besides, there’s nothing fair to some women about having to go on a date with a stranger because someone else tells you to,” she said, raising her chin, her conviction giving her strength. “But no, I don’t do it often. It was a favor. Tonight a gay man needs to show his judgemental boss that he’s straight, and I’m his beard. Is that ok with you?”

Relief filled me. It wasn’t a proper date. Good. “I won’t judge you for being enterprising, not in the slightest. However, I will know your name,” I said firmly.

“Why? We’ll never see each other again if I can help it, so why bother knowing my name? Are you going to sue me or something?” she demanded, her vivid eyes bright.

“Or something,” I murmured, barely resisting the urge to step closer. She was truly stunning when agitated, bolts of green fire shooting from her eyes.

“Cole? I’d thought I’d lost you,” an unwanted voice called from along the corridor, jolting us both. I turned to look toward the dining room, as Garth, the potential new client, approached. The woman beside me pulled away, and hardly able to grab her, she slipped down the corridor, heading for the dining room.

---