Page 55 of The Reluctant Billionaire

‘Ugh, of course you did,’ she groans. ‘Judy and Gaz told me that. But what was I doing at the dinner?’

I pause, choosing my words again. ‘Lotta, you wouldn’t have been interested in me. First, I was babbling about software as a service all night, which I doubt did anything for you. Second, I wasn’t your type.’

‘You’re everyone’s type,’ she counters, but I shake my head.

‘Nope. Not yours. I was this young guy who was scared shitless of being in your palatial home, and even more fucking terrified of blowing this massive chance your dad was giving me. I was totally intimidated. I wouldn’t have been on your radar at all. You were in the middle of your GCSEs, so I think you were preoccupied with those, too.’

I slide a hand around her neck, under that mass of hair, and stroke her skin with my thumb. ‘I was dazzled by you, you know.’

She smiles, embarrassed. ‘I’m sure I was an entitled little shit.’

‘You definitely were,’ I say teasingly, ‘but I think that was part of the impression you made on me. You were four years younger than me and so fucking confident. I’d never seen that kind of confidence. You sat there and talked about your studies and your friends and your social life, which sounded glittering, even then. Oh, and you were going to St Tropez after your GCSEs were done—I remember that very clearly, because I’d never even heard of the place.’

The memory is clear. The gulf I felt between myself and that beautiful, wealthy princess that evening was as wide as the Atlantic. She may as well have been a creature from another planet.

‘Clearly, I haven’t known how to read the room for a very long time,’ she says.

’Don’t say that. I told you, you were dazzling. And so fucking beautiful. But you didn’t give me the time of day, and even if you had, I wouldn’t have gone within a mile of Paul’s innocent, barely legal daughter.’

She smirks. ‘I was far from innocent. I popped my cherry that summer in France, actually, with some rich Parisian dude who was on holiday with his parents. And that kind of opened the floodgates.’

I groan. ‘I really didn’t need to know that. But basically, you can’t blame me for not introducing myself when I know your entire family and I’ve sat across a fucking dinner table from you. I couldn’t believe you didn’t know who I was when you rocked up last week—I kept waiting for you to put two and two together.’

‘As my brother tells me, I can be incredibly obtuse,’ she sighs.

I drag my thumb over her soft skin. ‘When did you work it out? Did Gabe spill the beans?’

She stiffens in my arms.

‘Lotta.’

‘In the pub on Friday night,’ she admits, meeting my eyes. ‘When Judy said your full name, bells started ringing, and I ran outside and googled you.’

I frown. That doesn’t make sense. ‘But we?—’

‘Fucked? Yep.’

‘You didn’t say anything,’ I tell her.

‘Nor did you,’ she points out. ‘I let you inside my body and you still didn’t come clean, so I wasn’t about to. I was really, really fucked off, Aide. I was so fucking furious with you for lying to me, and I think I was even more furious that you’d just ruined the hot builder sex I had planned for the night.’ She shrugs. ‘So I ignored it and went ahead and dragged you home anyway.’

I stare at her in disbelief. This fucking woman. She was so unbelievably hot for me the other night, but she knew the truth and kept it to herself?

‘Are you saying you used me?’ I ask her, raising my eyebrows in a way I hope is intimidating.

‘Absolutely,’ she says decisively. ‘And you railed the living daylights out of me, and I considered it the least you could do.’

I let the hand on her waist slide lower to grab her arse. ‘Is that why you kicked me out afterwards?’ I ask in a low, ominous voice.

She doesn’t flinch. ‘Yep. I may have enjoyed your body, but I wasn’t about to let you get intimate with me up here’—she taps her temple—‘when you had no intention of telling me who you were.’

‘You should have come clean,’ I tell her.

I swear her dark eyes have ignited with anger. ‘You should have come cleanis not a line you get to say to me, dickhead.’

I can’t help the grin that breaks out. ‘Touché.’ I cup her arse harder and press her against my thickening cock as I tighten my hold on her neck, my mouth lowering to her ear. ‘So, are you telling me you’re only attracted to me if you convince yourself I’m some sort of rough ’n’ ready builder? You’re not attracted to me now you see the full picture?’

‘Nope,’ she says breathily against me, her hands flexing against my pecs. ‘No interest whatsoever. I told you, I’m sick of rich pricks. I only want the animal version of you.’