Page 20 of Dating the Billionaire
Miranda shook her head. “I don’t need anyone else to make me happy.”
“Same,” Blair said. “I have my business, and I need to focus all my attention on that.”
Miranda sighed again but nodded. “So I’ll tell Matteo Rinaldi that you don’t want to see him again.”
A twinge of pain struck Blair’s heart, stealing her breath away for a moment. She wanted—very badly—to see him again, which was why she couldn’t risk it, just as she hadn’t been able to risk staying with him. She was not going to get attached and all needy and weak like her mother had with her dad.
Miranda should have understood that; she’d learned to not get attached to any of her stepfathers because they never stuck around. Just as none of Blair’s boyfriends had ever stuck around—because their fragile egos hadn’t been able to deal with who and what she was.
Matteo Rinaldi hadn’t appeared to have a fragile ego, though. But maybe that made him more dangerous—because it would have made it easier for her to fall for him.
Blair forced herself to nod in agreement. “Yes, yes, tell him that I don’t want to see him again.”
Her friend stepped closer, narrowed her pale blue eyes and peered up in her face. Skepticism in her voice, she prodded, “And he really did nothing wrong?”
Blair shook her head. On the contrary, he’d done everything right—too damn right. She’d never had orgasms as intense or as easily as he’d given them to her. He’d given her so much pleasure.
Miranda sighed. “That’s good. I should have no problem finding someone else for him then.”
Another twinge struck Blair, this time of jealousy. The thought of Matteo with someone else the way he’d been with her had anger coursing through her.
Miranda was still staring at her and must have caught her reaction because she chuckled and mused, “You’re not okay with that.”
“It’s fine,” Blair insisted. “I just met him last night. We don’t even know each other. So it’s not like I’m attached to him or anything.” But she could get used to the pleasure he’d given her, too used to it; that was why she couldn’t risk seeing him again.
But as Miranda had pointed out, their paths were unlikely to have ever crossed without Liaisons International. So there was next to no chance of them ever running into each other again.
Teo had spent too long in Milan, waiting on Savannah to call him back. The ball was in her court now, was what the service had told him.
He wasn’t playing tennis, though. He didn’t want to play any damn games with Savannah. He just wanted her. But it had been a few days now, so he had to accept that she was not going to call him back.
Still, when his phone began to vibrate across the desk in the hotel suite, he grabbed for it and clicked the accept button. “Rinaldi,” he spoke into the cell.
“Matteo Rinaldi?” a deep—very male—voice asked.
He sighed. “Yes.”
“This is Grant Snyder returning your call,” the man said, and he sounded annoyed. “Although if you just want to book a flight, our answering service could have already handled that for you.”
“I am not about to book a flight with anyone until I speak directly to the pilot or one of the owners of the company,” Teo informed the man. Flying unnerved him enough without putting his life into the hands of a stranger. But even after an in-depth interview with the pilot he’d hired to fly his private jet, he’d been unpleasantly surprised—when the man had shown up drunk at the airport. Anger coursed through him. That hadn’t been his only recent unpleasant surprise, though.
Savannah.
While the night with her had given him a lot of pleasure, not hearing from her frustrated the hell out of him.
“I’m one of the owners,” Grant said. “But my sister is really the pilot.”
“The only pilot?” Teo asked. If so, she was unlikely to leave her brother’s company to fly his plane for him, and that was ultimately his goal, to find someone to fly his plane. Or he would have wasted money on it.
“No, of course not,” the man replied. “We have several planes and several pilots.”
“I have my own plane,” Teo said. “I just need to hire a pilot to fly it.” One who didn’t have a drinking problem.
“Then you should talk to my sister,” Grant said, “although she doesn’t like flying anyone else’s plane but her own. She needs to make sure it’s as meticulously maintained as our fleet is.”
Given what a drunk his pilot had been, Teo had his doubts about every aspect of the man’s work, which had included servicing the plane. “I am not opposed to using one of your planes,” Teo said. In fact, it would probably be for the best. But after putting up with his sister’s games at the gallery opening and with having Savannah ghost him, he needed a sabbatical from women, especially to women he would find too tempting. This female pilot sounded just like the kind of strong, independent woman he lost his head over, like he’d lost his head with Savannah. “I would prefer to not have a female pilot, however.”
Grant snorted. “You better not talk to my sister then. She will kick your sexist ass for saying that.”
