Page 3 of The Billionaire's Temptation

Stalking out of the “break” room, inaccurately named since no one was allowed breaks here, she shoved the hard hat back onto her head. What a jerk! The noise and heat were at peak levels today. She hurried across the cement floor and plucked the electronic package-tracking device from the holster on her hip. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the ass, envelope and keys still in hand.

What a jerk! Tease the woman with hopes and dreams! Tell her she has a father. Okay, a dead father, she corrected as she made her way towards the shipping area. “I don’t have time for cruel pranks,” she muttered. Giving the man one last glance, she ignored his stare and got back to work.

An hour later, Levi was ready to throw something. Frustration built inside of him as he watched the cute, if rather sweaty, woman step out of the warehouse at the end of her shift. It was eight o’clock at night and she looked completely worn out. She was still sweaty, but the temperatures outside had cooled to a “chilly” ninety degrees. It was probably a hundred and twenty degrees inside the warehouse.

She wasn’t wearing the baggy, blue coveralls anymore. Apparently, she’d had on a baggy pair of cargo shorts and a loose tee shirt underneath the overalls. The steel-toed boots were still on, but the lack of the overalls revealed that she had a nice figure. An extremely nice figure! She was on the short side, but with well-muscled arms and firm, shapely calves.

Stepping out of his sports sedan, he walked over to her.

“You again?” she snapped, obviously too tired for tact. “I’m not playing your sick little games.”

She looked tired, but there was something more, something he couldn’t quite identify. Then he realized what it must be. “You didn’t get the promotion?”

Clarissa glanced over her shoulder in time to see a group of men high fiving and congratulating a guy. He was younger than Clarissa and, from what Levi had seen, not nearly as effective at his job. Levi had been waiting for Clarissa for the past hour and he’d watched the other man step out of the warehouse for three smoke breaks.

She turned away and sighed deeply, pulling her keys out of her pocket. “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered.

He eyed the group of men. “They are heading out to celebrate, aren’t they?”

“Yep,” she answered flatly, her pace increasing. She was heading towards a multicolored hatchback. The vehicle had been in several accidents and the replacement parts didn’t match the original color.

“They didn’t invite you to join them?”

She snorted. “Of course they invited me.” She flipped her keys around and stabbed the lock with it, adding over her shoulder. “But I wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate someone taking the promotion that I’d applied for.”

“I get that,” he replied, feeling a similar sense of betrayal.

“Do you?” she asked, yanking at the door. It took several hard tugs before the driver’s side door yielded. She stepped into the V formed by the hatchback and the open door, leaning on it as she stared up at him. Clarissa’s gaze moved over him, noting the tailored suit and the very shiny loafers. “I seriously doubt you do, Mr. Harris. But more importantly, I don’t have time to discussmy feelings,” she sneered the last word, “with you. I have more important things to do.”

“You don’t want to even look at what your father left you?”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine. Give me the damn envelope.”

Levi handed it over and she tossed it onto the passenger seat. “Good enough?”

Levi extended his business card. “You’re going to need my help. Once you’ve read through the documents, call me and I’ll walk you through the next steps.”

She took the card and stuffed it into her back pocket, then glared up at him, daring Levi to detain her further.

“Anything else?”

He chuckled, eagerly anticipating her reaction when she read through the documents. “Call me.”

Then he turned and walked away, heading to his own vehicle. Once inside with the engine turned on, the cool air going full blast, Levi looked up, watching as she drove away. He wondered how that thoroughly beaten up hatchback was still running. He glanced over at the Mercedes sitting in the space beside him and picked up his cell phone to make a call. “Take the car over to the address I gave you earlier. She won’t be needing it tonight.”

Then he drove away, running through the list of everything he needed to accomplish tonight. But Levi couldn’t stop imagining the shock on Clarissa’s face when she realized what she’d inherited.

“Ms. Fried?” Clarissa called out. She tapped on the door, then reached down to test the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, so she slowly pushed it open. “Ms. Fried?” she called again.

A moment later, an elderly lady came out of the bedroom, patting her new curls. “Hello dear!” she greeted Clarissa before striking a pose. “How do I look?”

Clarissa smiled at the elderly woman. “Like you have a hot date,” Clarissa teased. “Here’s your ice cream. They didn’t have hot fudge this week so I got you cookies and cream. Is that okay?”

Nora Fried beamed eagerly as her arthritic hand reached out for the treat. “Yes!” she gasped. “Oh my, what a pleasure!” she whispered. “Hold on while I get you some money.”

Clarissa smothered a smile. “I’ll come back to get it later,” she fibbed. Nora lived off of her social security income and it wasn’t much, which was why the elderly woman was living here in this hovel. Plus, her lack of income is also why she spent most of Friday carefully washing and drying her hair, then curling it and putting on makeup, so she could declare Friday night a “date night”. Nora would sit down in front of the television with her quart of ice cream and watch “Law and Order, Special Victim’s Unit” and pretend that she was married to the male lead.

“Gotta go!” Clarissa said and pulled out a box of frozen pizza. “I’ve got a hot date tonight too.”

---