Page 1 of Dating the Billionaire
CHAPTER ONE
“IDON’TNEEDa matchmaking service,” Blair Snyder said, throwing up her hands to ward off her friend’s efforts to convince her.
Since they had been little kids, Miranda Fox had always been able to talk Blair into things that weren’t good for her...like eating the cupcakes her mother had made for her book club meeting. Or starting a pet-sitting business even though she was allergic to dogs. Or ditching school to stake out the arena where a boy band was performing.
Even today, many years since they’d been little kids, Miranda had talked her into flying, on a moment’s notice, to Milan, Italy, to meet her for drinks on Hotel Galles’s rooftop. Fortunately Blair was a pilot with access to her company’s fleet of private planes, so she wouldn’t have any repercussions from this excursion like she had all those other times Miranda had talked her into things. Blair wasn’t going to get in trouble for using the plane...unless her business partner, who was also her older brother, found out she’d used the Cessna to meet Miranda. He’d always considered her school friend a bad influence on her, which was pretty damn ironic coming from him.
But maybe it was easier for one bad influence to recognize another...because Miranda had never been a huge fan of his, either.
As far as things Miranda had talked her into doing went, this was one of the better ones. Blair had already taken in the view of the steeples of the Duomo and, in the distance, the golden mounds of the Alps. Now she lifted her face to the warmth of the sun shining down on them and raised her glass of pinot grigio to her mouth for a long sip. A sigh of contentment slipped out of her lips.
The contentment didn’t last—not when Miranda tapped her long, manicured nails against the glass tabletop and asked, “So who are you seeing?”
With the waiter hovering nearby, Blair fought the temptation to flip off her friend and instead just glared at her. “You know I’m not seeing anyone.”
As well as her partner in past crimes, Miranda was—as always—her confidante. She told her everything. Unfortunately. They were more than best friends; they were like sisters. Actually, Blair with her blond hair and blue eyes looked more like Miranda than either of the matchmaker’s biological sisters did.
Miranda smiled. “I can fix that for you. I can find you your soul mate.”
“The last thing I want is a husband.” She shuddered at the thought of some man trying to control her, to pin her down, to keep her in one place...
It was too horrible a thought to even allow into her mind. Especially here on this beautiful rooftop, with these beautiful views.
“I didn’t say husband,” Miranda said with a shudder of her own as she uttered the word like it was a curse. “You don’t have to marry the guy. You can justenjoyhim.”
Blair hadn’tenjoyeda guy in a long time, which her friend damn well knew. “But you said soul mate.” Another tremor ran through her at the hopelessly romantic term. “That sounds like something our mothers would say.”
“Liaisons International is not your mother’s matchmaking service,” Miranda continued defensively. “Well, it’s notmymother’s matchmaking service, not anymore, not since my sisters and I took over the company and changed the entire business model for it.”
A smile tugged at Blair’s lips, and she shook her head. Even though it had been a few months, she was still in shock over what her friend had done. “I can’t believe you went into the family business—not with the way you always felt about it.”
She had listened to Miranda and her sisters, but especially Miranda, rant and rave so many times over their mother’s company, over everything about their mother. Catarina was the hopeless romantic who’d started the matchmaking business, and with five marriages in her fifty-five years of life, she really was hopeless. So Blair had always supported and understood her friend’s frustration with her mother, just as Miranda had understood Blair’s frustration with hers.
Miranda raised her wineglass to her lips and tipped back what was left of her red, as if she needed it to brace herself. “Me neither,” she murmured. “But I saw a need for an overhaul in that old system and for more security in the new system that men and women use to meet and date.”
“Apps are the new system,” Blair said with a sigh of resignation. She’d tried them herself.
“Apps,” Miranda said, her voice sharp with disgust, “make it too easy for people to lie about themselves and about their true intentions. At Liaisons International, we vet every single member, so that there are no unwelcome surprises. It’s the safest way to date worldwide.”
Blair chuckled now at what must have been their company’s marketing slogan. “You are good, my friend. You’ve nearly sucked me in.”
“I’m not trying to suck you in,” Miranda said. “I’m trying to get you back out there, dating, safely.”
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” Blair asked. A former fighter pilot, she was tough, but there had been times dating had scared her, when the men had gotten too aggressive, too clingy and too stalkerish. She’d been able to handle them, but she’d been reluctant to put herself into that situation again.
“I promise you won’t be harassed,” Miranda persisted. “And that all of our members are exceptionally attractive.”
“Isn’t that discrimination?” Blair asked. When trying to become a fighter pilot, she’d been subjected to way too much of that as well.
Miranda shrugged and smiled. “I just call it good fortune...” She inclined her head toward the attractive young waiter. “Like the male members make him look homely.”
“Yeah, right,” Blair remarked with a chuckle. But temptation pulled at her, drawing her in.
To what?
Possibilities? She didn’t want marriage, but she actually wouldn’t mind enjoying a man again. Really, really enjoying him...
Trying not to appear too intrigued, she studied her wineglass with the setting sun glowing within the pale amber liquid. Then she oh-so-casually asked, “So who are some of these male members?”
