Page 28 of Billionaire’s Game

He sat back and said, “I’m like any other person, but you know—”

“Crazy rich?”

“You guessed it. But I’m just a boring vegetarian who works out all the time and loves sci-fi shows. Nothing interesting there. Tell me more about you.”

“I’ve already told you enough.”

“All I know about you is that you’re smart, beautiful, and you talk in circles when you get nervous.”

“You were doing good up until that last description...”

“Was I wrong?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” he said with a small smile. “So I don’t make you nervous.”

“Nope,” I lied.

He pulled up in front of Lacey’s and Jude’s loft where I was still staying and said, “Well, if that’s the case, why won’t you go out with me?”

“I am out with you.”

“You know what I mean. Let me take you to dinner.”

I shook my head. “I think we should keep our relationship strictly professional.”

“Professional?”

“Yeah. You know... none of this.” I gestured in between us.

He looked at me with amusement. “What exactly is this?”

“It’s a date like situation.”

“This is your idea of date?”

“No, I’m just saying that it is sort of like a date and that’s what I’m trying to avoid. And I think you did this on purpose. You orchestrated a non-date date.” I knew I sounded ridiculous, but I had to set some boundaries or I would probably find myself in a very compromising position with Magnus Deacon on top or bottom. Oh wow, my mind was in the gutter.

“Trust me, Lesli. If I wanted to take you out on a date, I would. And you wouldn’t have any trouble figuring out if it were a date or not.”

For some reason, I didn’t like the promise his tone held. I was suddenly curious about what a date with Magnus would entail. But I couldn’t date him. I didn’t belong in his world and something told me that the type of date he would take me on would make me feel out of place and awkward. And as of today, I was done feeling that way. Maybe meeting Magnus was the catalyst I needed to get on track to finding myself, but I didn’t know anything about his lifestyle. So far, all our encounters had been on neutral territory. I couldn’t promise that I would feel the same self-assuredness I felt now if we were in his territory.

I ignored the subject at hand and gestured for him to open the door for me. He did silently with a touch of a button and stepped out to help me out of the car.

He was studying me. To avoid his searching eyes, I looked back at his perfectly white, leather seats and saw grime plastered across where my butt had been only seconds ago. Talk about embarrassing. “Sorry for dirtying your car... and umm, thank you for saving me from the ducks.”

“It was all my pleasure.”

From the way he looked at me, I could assume it was a lot more than his pleasure. Instantly, I felt shy. I mumbled a quick goodbye and walked away from the DeLorean, avoiding taking the hand he held out to assist me.

“Thanks. I guess we’ll catch up soon.” I avoided his eyes yet again and reached into my bag for keys to the loft. I found them and awkwardly stood there, not knowing what to say.

He politely said, “Have a good rest of your day. I hope to see you sooner rather than later.”

“Yeah... we’ll see each other soon.”

He gave me another sexy little smile that made my heart skip a beat and my skin flush. Dang, just his smile was arousing.

I didn’t watch him walk away. Instead, I inserted the key into the door and disappeared behind it as he pulled off. I closed my eyes and sighed. Magnus was smart, funny, sexy, and way out of my league. And the worst part? He was clearly very much into me. What in the world had I gotten myself into?