Page 28 of The Mysterious Billionaire
“At the ball, you said you didn’t know who I was. But when you came into this boardroom, there was no surprise in your eyes. You knew I was going to be here, which meant you knew my real identity. Why did you lie to me?”
She lowers her lashes and fiddles with the pocket square in her lap. Then she lifts her gaze to mine again. “Of course I recognized you,” she admits, startling me with her frankness. “You’re the patron of the Ashford Foundation. You’re splashed across the internet. Everyone we passed turned to talk to you. I would have known who you were even if you’d been wearing a Victorian diving suit. You’re very… distinctive.”
I’m flattered, but I don’t admit it. Instead I frown and demand, “So why lie?”
She hesitates. Then she says, “Because I knew you wouldn’t talk to me if you knew my surname.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t have.” Resentment bubbles up inside me. “Did he send you?”
“Who?”
“Your grandfather. Did he send you to seduce me?”
“No,” she says. Her eyes flare. “And I resent the implication that I’m some kind of Mata Hari who’d use her body in that way. Why on earth would I have done that? So I could blackmail you by saying, ‘If you don’t agree to this partnership, I’ll tell everyone that we had a one-night stand, and you were absolutely amazing in bed?’ Well, on the floor. I can’t imagine you’d be devastated to have that rumor spreading through polite society. In fact I’m sure you’d positively encourage it.”
Her compliment shocks me. She thought I was amazing?
She huffs through her nose. “I’d never had a one-night stand before, and I didn’t go to the ball looking for one. I don’t have men falling at my feet the way Brielle does. I’m always the one who does the falling. Literally, most of the time.” She looks me in the eyes. “I lied to you because I knew you wouldn’t stayif you knew I was a Rutherford… and I wanted you to stay.” Her cheeks flush. “Fool that I was.”
Clearly, she regrets our time together. That stings.
She shrugs. “Anyway, it’s done now. I don’t really care what you think of me. I do care, though, that you think I’m interested in anything other than the science. I truly believe in what we could achieve if we work together. That’s what you need to focus on. Not on how I came on your face and soaked your shirt.”
I think she was trying to lighten the tension, but as I lift an eyebrow, she turns completely scarlet.
Leaning back in my chair, I stretch out my legs, and we study each other. I don’t know whether to be cross or amused. Her expression remains wary.
Do I believe that she wasn’t sent to seduce me? I don’t want to, but nothing about her that night felt calculated. And that’s the problem.
“So,” I say. “Cupcake.”
She pokes her tongue out at me.
“Is Brioche waiting for you in the lobby?”
She frowns. “You mean Brielle?”
“Sorry. I thought of madeleines and cupcakes and naturally jumped to brioche.”
Her eyes widen. “How did you know madeleines are cakes?”
“I know stuff. Are all your brothers named after French baked goods too?”
“Iain wasn’t, but I think Tarte Tatin might have been.”
That makes me give a reluctant laugh, and her lips curve up, just a little.
“I’m going to call youMon Petit Gâteaufrom now on,” I tell her, somewhat grumpily.
“I’m a girl,” she says. “Shouldn’t it beMa Petite?”
“I don’t think it works like that. Gâteau is a masculine noun.”
“Oh, so now you’re an expert in the French language, as well as French kissing?” She sounds exasperated, but there’s heat in her eyes.
My heart speeds up as I remember our hot kisses and the way our tongues tangled… but then I remember what family she belongs to, and like a fire in the hearth, the flames die down to embers. She’s beautiful, unusual, and fascinating, but I will not allow Tom Rutherford or any member of his family to get within a country mile of Ashford AgriTech. She might not have set out to seduce me, but I’ll never be a hundred percent sure she’s not trying to soften me up before he goes in for the kill.
I clear my throat and take out my phone. “So… Blackridge Station. Next Saturday?”
