Page 2 of Dating the Billionaire
“Tsk, tsk, no, no, no...” Miranda admonished her with a shake of her head. “You’re going to have to join if you want to find out.”
“And I thought we were friends,” Blair teased.
“We are,” Miranda said. “That’s why I want you to join. You work so hard all the time—first in the air force and now with your business. You need to balance all that work with some play, with some fun.”
Skeptical, Blair arched a brow. “Fun? Since when is dating fun?” It had never been that for her. Every man she’d met had tried to change her in some way, had wanted her to be more feminine, lessher.
“Dating will be fun for you now,” Miranda promised as she lifted her empty glass to clink against the rim of Blair’s. “Since you have just become the newest member of Liaisons International.”
Blair groaned in realization of what she’d done. In joining the dating service, she had let Miranda talk her into something again—something that was undoubtedly going to get her in trouble, just as she had gotten into trouble every time she’d let Miranda talk her into anything.
What the hell had Matteo Rinaldi gotten himself into? Joining a dating service was risky, but dating blindly had proved even riskier—as all the advertising for Liaisons International had pointed out.
He leaned over the sink in the bathroom of his hotel suite and stared into the mirror to adjust the black tie of his tuxedo. Matteo was about to find out if the premier dating service was actually going to deliver on the promises it had made him when he joined.
No games.
No lies.
No secret agendas.
That was what he’d been promised. Other women had made him those same promises but had, over and over again, broken their vows. They’d played games. They’d lied. They’d had their own agendas.
He was not going to be blindsided. Ever again. His eyes were wide open now. Whatever his date had told the service, he doubted that she really wasn’t looking for a husband and a rich one at that. Why else would she have signed up for the elite agency?
He made that assumption because that had been his experience with women; starting with his mom who’d used men for financial support and had taught his sister, Francesca, to do the same. They weren’t above using him either, especially now.
Hopefully tonight went well and not just with his date. He glanced at his watch, checking to see if she was late. She had better not be—because he couldn’t be late. Not tonight.
So he probably shouldn’t have set up his first date with Liaisons International for this evening of all evenings. But knowing Francesca, his attending the event solo would cause more problems for him than bringing along a stranger. She, undoubtedly, had a friend she wanted to set up with him.
As he walked out of the bathroom, he noticed a darkness at the bottom of the door to the hall. No light showed through the crack as it had earlier. Someone or something had cast a shadow against his door. Nobody had knocked, so it was probably a maid’s cleaning cart or a room service trolley. He hadn’t ordered either, though.
All he’d ordered was a date for the evening, and now it occurred to him how odd the whole process had been. He hadn’t been shown any photos. Hadn’t talked to his potential match through email or text. Was Liaisons International actually a dating service?
Or was it something else entirely?
An escort service?
No. Before signing up, he’d thoroughly checked it out. Even though its name had recently changed, the business had been active for a long time with nothing but glowing reviews and recommendations. But that had been for when it was Matchmakers International. It sounded like something else entirely now.
Not that he would have signed up for a matchmaking service; that sounded too old-fashioned and far too permanent, like finding the match for the rest of one’s damn life. Teo just wanted a date, so he could ward off amateur matchmakers and the gold diggers those amateurs often found for him.
Where the hell was his date?
Not that she was late.
Yet.
He glanced down at the crack beneath the door and noticed the shadow receding. Maybe the cart or trolley was being pushed away. Or maybe...
Curiosity compelled him to pull open the door and, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut, he sucked in a breath of shock. She had her back to him but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, since her backside was so very good.
A black silk dress clung to the sweet curves of her hips and her ass, and the short hemline of the dress exposed the longest damn legs he’d ever seen. Blond hair flowed partway down her back, falling like a deep gold curtain against the fabric that couldn’t compare to the silky look of her hair. If her face was half as attractive as her legs...
Then the dating service had done damn well. But maybe she had been walking away from some other room, not his.
She might have nothing to do with Liaisons International. But before she even turned around, he hoped like hell that she did, that she was his date.
“Ciao,” he called out to her. She didn’t stop, those long legs bringing her ever closer to the elevator and ever farther away from him. So he tried English. “Hello? Are you looking for me?” he asked.
She stopped, as if frozen, in the hall, her back to him yet.
So he continued, “I’m Matteo—” She turned around, and he was so stunned by her beauty that he momentarily forgot his own damn name.
She couldn’t be from the dating service. There was no way that a woman this stunningly beautiful was unattached. She must have been leaving some other room, some other man...
And for the first time in a long time, envy gripped Matteo. He hadn’t felt this envious in years, not since he was a hungry kid begging for change on the streets of Rome, so that he could help feed his family. In the years since then, he had worked hard and accumulated a fortune, so Teo hadn’t thought he would ever be hungry or jealous again.
He’d thought wrong.
