Page 98 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire

In the span of one afternoon, I’d agreed to let my stepbrother—my gorgeous, impossible, infuriating stepbrother—test my matchmaking protocols on me personally, and I’d accidentally exposed my entire business model to one of the world’s most powerful and dangerously unpredictable shifter princes.

“Ada?” I said, lifting my head.

“Yes?”

“Next time you make a mistake this big, just run away and join the circus. It’ll be less complicated.”

Ada looked at me suspiciously. “Are you being sarcastic?”

“Probably.”

“Oh, good. I was worried for a second.” She bounced back to cheerful. “So! Should I start preparing for the meeting with Prince Alexei? I could make a presentation! With charts!”

“No charts, Ada.”

“Graphs?”

“No graphs.”

“What about—”

“No visual aids of any kind.”

She deflated slightly. “You’re no fun when you’re stressed.”

I laughed despite myself. Somehow, Ada always managed to do that, pull me back from the edge of total panic with her weird superpower of turning disasters into life application exercises for clueless optimism.

“Just...schedule the meeting,” I said. “And Ada?”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe double-check the recipient list this time?”

She gave me a thumbs up. “Triple-check. Got it.”

As she bounced out of my office, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.

Tomorrow, I’d face Prince Alexei and try to explain why I’d accidentally submitted classified compatibility data to his Council.

Next week, I’d subject myself to whatever twisted matchmaking trials Nicolo had designed.

And somehow, in between all of that, I had to figure out how to run a business without dying of embarrassment or spontaneous combustion.

Just another day in the life of Maryah Gray, entrepreneur extraordinaire.

What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter Three

“Shirt off, Maryah.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Nicolo didn’t even blink. He just stood there with a clipboard and an unreadable expression, like this was a perfectly normal Tuesday request in his perfectly normal life.

Which maybe it was.

For him.