Page 16 of Billion-Dollar Dating Game

‘I saw you this morning. In Manhattan. At that health club.’

He was visibly taken aback. ‘You saw me with Cade and Adam?’ His jaw tightened. ‘Were you spying on me?’

‘Of course not.’ She was offended. ‘I was getting a coffee on my way to work. The cafe isn’t far from the office.’

‘TheHelbergoffice? Don’t tell me you’restillinvolved with them?’ He gaped at her. ‘Do they actually pay you now or are you still one of their interns?’

‘Of course they pay me now,’ she said stiffly, outraged.

‘Well, I hope they it’s a lot given you were headed there first thing on a Saturday.’

‘There’s a lot to be done.’

‘Certainly is.’ He frowned at her. ‘Have you ever worked anywhere else?’

She glared at him, not seeing the relevance.

‘Loyalty at the cost of your own career?’ He shook his head dolefully. ‘You really are far too much of a pleaser.’

‘So what are your plans?’ she asked determinedly. ‘I don’t think you three were there talking about that article inBlush.’

‘You’ve seenthat?’ He was taken aback all over again.

‘Hard to miss if you have a phone,’ she said.

He leaned back against the bench and folded his arms, watching her acutely. ‘Why don’t you think we were talking about that?’

‘Because you don’t care what anyone says or does or thinks about you.’

There was a moment of total silence. A moment in which the world seemed to shrink as he stared right into her soul with those ice blue eyes.

‘You think you know me, Skylar?’ he asked softly.

‘You’re saying you do give a damn?’ she countered.

He stared at her a second longer than released a pent-up breath. ‘I like being my own person. It’s liberating. It enables me to make the decisions I want to make. I’m not held back by obligations to others. Unlike you.’

‘You think I’ve been held back?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Caring—giving a damn about others and what they may or may not think has never held me back. And fulfilling a duty—repaying a debt—is important.’

‘It’s stifling,’ he dismissed her.

She stepped up to him, toe-to-toe, in her bare feet. ‘Helberg shouldn’t be ripped apart by a bunch of sharks.’

‘A management buy-out isn’t going to happen,’ he said bluntly. ‘Is that what you’re hoping for?’

It was exactly what she would have hoped for once, but the current management had proven themselves incompetent and it wasn’t going to happen. She needed a better buyer.

‘You’re right, of course,’ Zane suddenly said. ‘We’re all interested in acquiring Helberg. Which is why you came to this party. Why you sought me out tonight. Are youthatconcerned about your job that you offered yourself as a virgin sacrifice?’ His smile wasn’t kind. ‘Should have negotiated terms first, darling.’

‘I was no sacrifice and I didn’t tangle myself in that tree deliberately.’

‘So what was your original plan in coming here tonight?’

She didn’t know. She was an idiot. She’d never really had the confidence nor skill to pull this off. It had been the most ill-conceived plan ever. Employment contracts she could do, but taking on Zane deMarco?

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