The Billionaire's Allure Read Free Page A

number? “This is Kate,” I said, into the phone.
    “Good evening.” It was him! I’d know that sexy accent anywhere. “We have reservations at Citronelle at eight.”
    Citronelle? Reservations? “What?”
    “Dinner reservations. I’ll pick you up.”
    “But how do you know my number?”
    “See you at seven, Kate. Dress appropriately.”
    The phone went dead. I stared at it, dumbfounded. Dress appropriately? How did we go from fooling around in the stairwell to reservations at the nicest restaurant in town? I flicked a clump of bubbles off my elbow and turned a circle in the middle of the living room. Then the most important question hit me: What am I going to wear?
    I raced to the bathroom and grabbed a towel. I had an hour to get ready before I left with a man whose name I didn’t even know.
    Time screamed past and I was just zipping my nicest dress when the phone rang. The number was unlisted again, so I assumed it was my stranger.
    “Hello,” I said, as I answered it.
    “I’m outside your building.”
    “I don’t even know your name. I don’t know how comfortable I am with this. And how do you know my number? I didn’t give it to you.”
    “Shouldn’t you be asking how I know where you live?” He laughed. “My name is Adamson, Aaron Adamson. Until around noon today, you worked for me.”
    My hand covered the O of my mouth. “Holy crap,” I mouthed. “I see,” I said, aloud.
    “Hurry along. I’m in the limo.” The phone shut off.
    I steadied myself on the side of my sofa, trying to get my bearings. I knew he had to be powerful. The company didn’t let just anyone go eat on the executives’ balcony, but the CEO?
    Should I even go? That was the real question. I didn’t know what a man like Aaron Adamson wanted with a girl like me. Well, if I was honest with myself, I was afraid I knew all too well what he wanted. The thought of it made my stomach tighten. The devil on my shoulder spoke up: If his hands were that talented, what about the rest of him?
    I stuffed my phone into my nicest clutch and started for the door. Halfway there I stopped, and went to my bedroom instead. I grabbed a tube of lipstick and added it to the purse, just in case.
    ***
    “Thank you for joining me this evening,” Mr. Adamson said, as he opened the door to the limo.
    “It was quite a surprise,” I said. I glanced around the inside of the limo as I entered. The smoke colored windows didn’t let much light through from the outside, but the recessed interior lights revealed pale gray leather seats. I made myself comfortable as Adamson sat back at some sort of command center. He had a monitor on one hand and a wet bar at the other.
    “Forgive me for not introducing myself before. I assumed you knew who I was.”
    I shook my head. “You’re not that famous.” Oh, crap. I just insulted him.
    He smiled. “Perhaps not, though after working for the company for six months, you can see why I would make such an assumption.”
    I nodded. God, I should have known who he was. It wasn’t like he was just some vice-president. “So how did you know where I live?”
    “I looked it up on the company HR software.”
    “The HR software that decided to let me go?”
    “Sadly, that wasn’t a software decision. We chose to reorganize the legal department about a month ago.”
    “Oh.” I wasn’t sure if I felt better or worse knowing that an actual person decided I wasn’t worth keeping at the company. “So why did you invite me to dinner?”
    Mr. Adamson toyed with a pen as he watched me. “Do you mean ‘why did I invite you to dinner after laying you off?’ or ‘why did I invite a beautiful woman to dinner?’”
    “Both, I guess.”
    “I didn’t know who you were until you told me your name this morning. As for the beautiful part, it’s true. I’ve seen you watching me for the last few months. The way you tried to be so coy made me think you were hiding something. When you weren’t…” He shrugged. “Kate,