Bachelor's Special Read Free Page B

she’d been fired.
    She attempted to shake her head, but the only motion she managed was a slight shrug.
    “So how do I go about reserving your well-honed chef skills?”
    Her knees quaked, and she pressed them together to stop them from shaking. “I’m not officially in business yet.”
    “How come?”
    She waved away his words. “Boring mumbo-jumbo stuff that I’m sure you don’t want to hear.”
    “You’re wrong. I do want to hear.” His lopsided grin spread until it was a full-fledged smile. Tiny lines fanned out from the edges of his deep-set eyes, and he raked a look over her as if she sat before him naked. Almost as potent as the look he’d given her a year ago.
    A swirling sensation filled her belly, and Jill nervously wrapped a strand of hair around one finger, twisting it so tight it cut off circulation. She slid her finger out, then repeated the motion. “I’m kind of embarrassed to say.”
    “Don’t be. We all started somewhere. Maybe I can give you some pointers.”
    “Well, I can’t ask for business advice quite yet.” She chuckled, still fidgeting with her hair. “In order to get everything rolling, I need money. It’s all boiled down to my lack of it.”
    In an instant, his entire demeanor changed from approachable to downright arctic. His jaw hardened and his body grew rigid. “Is that the reason you agreed to this date?”
    “What?” Jill leapt to her feet.
    He stood as well, resting his hands on his hips, his jacket opening to reveal the confident rise and fall of his chest. She marveled at his control, wishing some of it would attach itself to her.
    “According to my head of security, you’re about as broke as they come. I assumed you’d dumped everything into your start-up, but now I see you haven’t. How do you expect to launch a business without any type of funding?”
    “Head of— You had me checked out with security?”
    He chuckled—and not the good-time chuckle of a man having fun. “After a string of bad business deals when my father owned Castle Engineering, and then becoming engaged to a woman who had one hand on my wallet and the other in my bank account, I’d say I deserve the right to run a background check on anyone I enter into a dating contract with.”
    “Dating contra—” She waved his cold words away. She had bigger walleye to fry. “But we were set up by friends. Well, my friend and your brother. They wouldn’t intentionally set you up with someone out to—”
    “Then why didn’t you admit that we’d met before?”
    Jill stepped back. “Listen. You’re taking this all wrong. After the year I’ve had, Mel only wanted to set me up to get my mind off things. Not to help me secure a loan.”
    He forked his fingers through his hair and sighed. “What’s happened in the last year?”
    She wouldn’t sugarcoat it. “It’s been pure hell. I’ve been let go from four jobs, I can’t get a loan from any bank in town, I’m about to lose my apartment, and my best friend—”
    “Mel?”
    “That’s the one. Well, she’s offered to just give me the money to start my business, but I don’t want her charity. I want to do it on my own. And I will.” Jill grabbed her purse from the table. She didn’t want to feud with Chet Castle a moment longer. Let him think what he would. She moved to brush past him.
    He blocked her path and grabbed her wrist. “Was that the idea here? Meet a rich man and use your charms for a loan?”
    Anger boiled. She yanked out of his grasp, fighting the urge to bop him over the head with her purse and knock some sense into him. “If you’d been listening, you’d know I want to start my business on my own . Not through the help of friends, or the way you’re implying. That’s plain sick. You’re making an assumption without knowing the facts, or me.”
    “I think I got all the facts I need from Smith.”
    “Smith?”
    “Head of security.”
    Jill waved away his words with a flick of her wrist. “So you knew who I