Page 59 of Dating the Billionaire
She just calmly told him, “Come into my office,” as she pushed open a door and stepped back for him to join her.
So maybe she didn’t want everyone to overhear how she’d misled him. Not that there was anyone else in the reception area but her sister, though.
He strode past her into an office that was small but beautiful appointed with brocade wallpaper and luxuriously thick carpet. Kind of like Miranda herself, small but dressed in a designer business suit. She liked nice things. How the hell had she afforded them?
How many men had she personally hoodwinked like her friend had hoodwinked him? Not that Blair had benefited financially from her subterfuge. He wasn’t certain how she’d intended to benefit at all, actually.
“You have opened yourself up for a lawsuit,” he warned her. “You made all these promises about how well you’ve vetted your members, how trustworthy everyone is, and then you help your friend deceive me.”
“How?” she asked.
Her calmness disarmed and confused him, so that he had to blink and ask, “What?”
She walked around her small antique desk and settled onto a small brocade chair behind it. Her voice mild yet, she asked, “How did I help her?”
“You didn’t tell me her real name,” he said. “You didn’t give me her contact information.”
“And I made it clear up front that I wouldn’t do that,” she said. “My members expect privacy. They don’t want to be stalked, especially the women.”
He’d been stalked himself—usually by the women with whom his sister had set him up. They had refused to take his no as an answer...until he’d brought Savannah along with him. Then they’d understood that they hadn’t had a chance. Neither had he, though. She was so damn beautiful.
So beautiful that men might not have taken no as her answer, either. Anger coursed through him at the horrific thought of anyone harassing her.
“Is that why she lied to me?” he asked. “She thought I was going to stalk her?”
“I can’t speak for Blair,” Miranda said. “When she told you her name, didn’t she explain everything to you?”
She’d wanted to but he’d been so damn mad that he’d refused. But then would she have explained anything—even if he’d given her the chance? She’d had many opportunities to tell him the truth before that day, and she hadn’t.
“She didn’t volunteer any information to me,” he said. “I figured it out when she walked into the offices of Private Flights wearing her pilot’s uniform.” Which had been a smaller, more tailored version of Bill’s.
How had he not realized that Bill wasn’t a man? Because Savannah had already had him too distracted.
“I doubt she ever would have told me who she really is if I hadn’t stumbled upon the truth,” he said.
“She was always going to tell you,” Miranda insisted. “She tried to tell you many times.”
He snorted derisively. “When? When she was dressing up as a man and flying my plane?”
“She told me about that, that when you requested a male pilot, you came across as a chauvinist,” she said. “And as a fighter pilot, Blair has dealt with more than her share of discrimination and harassment.”
He tensed with outrage against those who had dared to harass her.
His anger at her was beginning to fade as he considered how hard her life must have been. She’d fought for her country, but she’d probably had to fight her fellow officers as much for the right to do that as she’d had to fight their enemies.
“I know you’re just learning all this about her, but you need to know what she’s been through to understand her.” Miranda persisted. Her voice wasn’t mild anymore but sharp with indignation as she defended her friend. “She’s had to work so hard to become the accomplished pilot and former soldier that she is. The odds were against her. And that’s not even including the challenges of having that family she has.”
“I met her brother.” Despite losing money to him, he actually liked Grant Snyder.
Miranda’s mouth twisted into a grimace of disgust. “Then you know,” she said. “He’s a class A jerk, and theAis for asshole.”
“He speaks fondly of you, too,” Teo shared, amused that the cultured-looking woman could speak so crassly.
Her lips curved into a slight smile. “He’s actually not the worst of them. Their dad was MIA most of their lives, so much so that they probably barely noticed when he died. And their mom was constantly trying to get the father’s attention by playing the part of a Stepford wife their entire marriage. That’s why Blair is so against getting married, which is probably why she didn’t tell you who she really is. She didn’t want you trying to change her like her family and every man she’s ever dated has tried to change her.”
“I don’t understand what anyone would want to change about her,” he said. She was perfect just as she was—but, his aching heart and wounded pride reminded him, for one thing. “Except for her dishonesty.”
Miranda sighed. “She’s not a liar. I know you don’t want to believe me, but that’s why I set up the two of you. Blair is such an honest and straightforward person.”