Page 37 of Maid For Each Other

But then he smiled.

A slow, sliding smirk of teasing appreciation that I felt in my stomach.

He reached out a hand and touched my chin, giving it a tiny squeeze between his thumb and forefinger, and the gesture madenotsmiling back impossible.

If that man smiled more, this would be a lot of fun.

•••

I left during the first morning break.

I was surprised by how interesting the Q&A was, because as someone not into wealth because I had no money, I’d expected to be bored out of my mind. But the way Warren talked about business and investments was so simple, so evergreen, that it totally sucked me in.

Kind of made sense that people trekked to Omaha from all over the world to listen to the man speak.

I was so into it that when it was time for me to leave, I had to be reminded.

“Didn’t you say you were going to take off during the first break?” Declan asked when Warren left the stage.

“Oh. Yeah. Right,” I said, reaching for my handbag and standing. “I almost forgot.”

He’d offered to walk me out, but for some reason I didn’t want him to see my dented old Honda Civic. Not that I had anything to be embarrassed about—it was just a car and it got me where I needed to go—but it seemed like a bad idea to remind him of the vastness of our differences.

There was alreadywaytoo big a power imbalance in our situation.

When I got “home” (to his fancy house), I changed into sweatsand went onto the balcony to write. A character had formed in my head at the cocktail party last night, and I was dying to start drafting Daphne’s story.

I opened my notebook and started pinning down the details.

Daphne is a lonely, middle-aged woman who agrees to fake-date a billionaire for a weekend.

She loathes the wealthy and inwardly mocks everything going on around her at the beginning of the first night.

Gradually loathes less of it, and begins seeing the life as hers. The people are kind to her and start to feel like family.

Billionaire loves her, and they sleep together.

Burglar breaks in with gun and Daphne saves them all by killing him with his own gun; everyone gushing with love and gratitude for her bravery.

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