The Billionaire's Impulsive Lover (The Sisterhood) (4 page)

Spinning around, about to protest at whoever was pressing against her door, when her eyes took in
that
man. The one from the coffee shop a few days ago. The one from her dreams. And the one who had just zoomed by in a sleek, expensive car before storming into the coffee shop she’d been in only moments before.

He was taller than she’d thought. And bigger. Bigger everywhere, she realized. Leaning back against the car, she stared up at him, her breath catching in her throat as she realized that this was not a man to mess around with. And if her instincts were correct, she’d just messed with his employer.

“Why the rush?” his deep voice asked as he took his hand off her car, knowing she wouldn’t be going anywhere now. To give her a false sense of security, he stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest and giving her a bit of space.

Claire took a deep breath, praying her racing pulse wouldn’t give her away. Trying to appear calm, she put a hand to her throat and smiled as brightly as possible. “Goodness, you scared me.”

“I meant to scare you. I suspect that we have a bit of business to discuss.” He let that comment sink in a bit, watching the slight twitch of her eye that indicated the fear that was seeping through her aura of confidence. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Claire bluffed it out. She didn’t know this man and he didn’t know her. He couldn’t possibly know what she’d been doing. “I have to get back to work, but I’m not sure what business it is of yours.”

The man glanced over to the parking meter and shook his head. “You just got here. Only a bit over ten minutes has lapsed on your meter.”

Claire glanced in that direction, frantically trying to come up with an excuse as to why there was still fifty minutes on her parking meter. “That’s the remainder of the second hour. I’ve already been here too long.”

“Why did you put so many coins in if you knew you had to race back to work?”

Claire cursed him for being so logical. The truth was, she’d filled up the meter just to avoid any kind of suspicion if she’d loaded the meter up with less than an hour. There weren’t too many reasons in this small area that would require only ten minutes of one’s time. Ironic that the extra time was now making her look suspicious anyway. “Just to be safe,” she thought lamely.

He moved slightly, and that shift put his hand in contact with the hood of her car. “You’re engine is still warm. Admit it, you just arrived and now you’re leaving as quickly as possible. Why is that?”

Claire wasn’t sure what to say, but remembered the phrase, “The best defense is a good offense”. “Why are you stopping me? I really need to get back to work,” she said and turned to get into her car. She intended to simply drive off and leave him in the dust, but that plan didn’t really work.

“I think you’re just trying to get away from me,” he said softly behind her.

She spun around, then realized that was a mistake because he was so close. He smelled absolutely wonderful, she thought, then looked up into his grey eyes, her breathing fast for a completely different reason. Gone was her fear that he would know she’d been doing some illegal hacking. Replaced by the fear of him as a man, of someone who might know something about her that she didn’t want revealed, something she wasn’t prepared to handle and wanted to hide from for a bit longer. “Why would I want to do that?” she asked desperately, trying to focus but with him being this close, the heat and spicy, male scent of him made her brain fizzle out.

“Good, then you’ll come have lunch with me.”

He stepped back and Claire took a deep breath. “Excuse me?”

“Lunch. There’s a great sandwich restaurant right behind this building. You’ll love it,” he said and put a hand to the small of her back to lead her away from her car.

Claire looked back at her car, then up into the man’s ice grey eyes. “I really,…”

Mitch stopped and looked down into those soft, scared eyes and something stopped him from doing what he knew he should do. He couldn’t call the police, despite the fact that he was almost sure this was the woman who had been hacking into his systems.

Instead of turning her in, he needed to…he wasn’t exactly sure. But one thing was certain, she wasn’t leaving him right at the moment. “No you don’t. I would guess that you’ve already worked several hours of overtime and could easily spare the extra time to have lunch with me. My name’s Mitch, by the way,” he said as they walked up the sidewalk, the brick wall of the building to her left, the brick wall of his body to her right.

Claire considered her options. This man was dangerous on so many levels but the most urgent right now was the fact that she really needed to bluff her way out of this hacking situation. Put his mind at ease somehow, make him think he’s trapping her for no apparent reason. The only other alternative was to run, which probably wasn’t a good idea. She considered that option for maybe three seconds before discarding the possibility, assuming she’d fail as soon as she tried it. She could go forward or backwards, but this man seemed intent to catch her no matter which way she went.

“Fine. A sandwich would be okay.”

He smiled down into her angry face as they turned the corner which took them to the front of the building. He opened the door and held it open for her and she gritted her teeth as she was forced to walk under his arm, reinforcing that he was so much taller than she was since she didn’t even need to duck. Her height had never bothered her before so it must be something about this man that irked her.

They sat down at a small table by the front window and he politely handed her a menu. A waitress arrived to take their drink order and after that, Claire concentrated on reading every lunch item description available.

Mitch waited patiently while the woman sitting across from him avoided eye contact, a sure sign that she was guilty of something even if he hadn’t suspected her before now. She certainly was a gorgeous little thing, he thought. Too bad she was a criminal, otherwise, he’d go after her socially. This was completely a professional issue though so he needed to keep his mind on the target.

As she bent intently over the menu, he could see down her white linen shirt and he definitely liked what he saw. He knew she had no idea she was giving him such an enticing view though. She didn’t like him one bit, he suspected, and that only increased his confusion over his reaction to her. He almost laughed because she was such a little firebrand. If she could, he knew she’d be spitting fire across the table at him right now, turning him to smoldering cinders. Well, he was smoldering all right. Just not the way she wished.

That’s okay, he thought as he surveyed her legs which were crossed but still sticking out from the small table. She had possibly the sexiest set of legs he’d ever seen, and on such a short body, he was impressed. He wasn’t sure about the absolute sexiest though. He’d have to get a better view of them for a good comparison.

When the waitress arrived to take their order, Claire still wasn’t ready. She’d tried to read the menu, but with him staring at her like that, she couldn’t concentrate. He must have known she was still undecided because he picked up his menu and glanced down to remind himself of his own preference, then he casually told the waitress that Claire would have the cheeseburger with extra fries. Her mouth watered at the idea, but it was mighty presumptuous of him to take the decision out of her hands.

“What if I don’t eat meat?” she asked, shoving the menu back into the holder that was leaning against the wall. “That was pretty rude of you to order for me.”

“It was expeditious since you hadn’t decided. Besides, you don’t strike me as a vegetarian.” His eyes moved over her features, then down her shirt, taking it all in and making that pulse leap once more into overdrive. “Are you?” he asked softly.

Claire’s hand moved to her blouse and she pulled the edges together, feeling a bit odd and hot despite the cool air of the quaintly intimate restaurant. “No. But my point was that you don’t even know my name, so why would you assume that I wanted a cheeseburger?”

He shrugged his shoulder slightly and took a sip of his iced tea. “You do though, don’t you?”

Claire sighed and waved off the argument. “It’s fine, as good as any of the sandwiches I suppose. You’re missing the point.”

“The point being that you haven’t told me your name?”

She rolled his eyes at his intended obtuseness. “My name is Claire,” she said and almost stuck her hand out with a formal introduction, but she didn’t want to touch him. She wasn’t sure why, but the heat she could feel coming across the table from him wouldn’t be good to experience firsthand, no pun intended. “What do you do, Mitch?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“This and that.”

She shook her head. “That’s an evasive answer. Tell me specifically what you do and we’ll start this conversation over again.”

“I have my own company. What do you do?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I love to bake,” she said, adding in her own evasiveness since his response was so deliberately vague.

“Back at you, doll. Specifics.”

“Brownies. I absolutely love baking brownies!” she enthused. No change in his expression, she noticed. Leaning forward, she was intrigued despite herself. Men usually gushed all over the place trying to impress her with their careers and importance. “You don’t appear to be dazzled but you’ve got to taste my brownies before you judge. I put extra chocolate chips in them, sometimes white chocolate if I want really sweet ones, then I bake them only about half the time suggested on the box.”

He smiled slightly. “I’m guessing that, just like a recipe or cooking times, you consider most rules only suggestions or guidelines.”

She was a bit taken aback by that description, not sure if it was flattering or not. The look in his eyes suggested that he liked a slightly rebellious personality, but his body language told her a different story. “Why do you say that?”

He shrugged slightly. “You strike me as the type of person who would go charging into situations that are dangerous and figure that out too late.”

She smiled brightly, instantly complimented. “That’s a really sweet thing for you to say.”

He chuckled, the sound deep and vibrant, skimming along her skin and making her tingle with excitement. “That wasn’t’ a compliment.”

She leaned forward, her arms on the table as she considered him for a moment. “Are you the rules kind of guy or do you color outside the lines?”

“Depends on the situation. Can you give me an example?”

“At work. Do you reach for the sky and try and do things differently from all your competitors? Or do you sneak around the edges and hope no one notices you creeping up on them?” She looked at him carefully and shook her head. “I don’t think either one.”

He raised one eyebrow. “So you think you can interpret my business style simply from our short meeting.”

She shrugged and leaned back. “You thought I wanted a cheeseburger and you didn’t even know my name.”

“Ah, but that’s different.”

“How so?”

“You glanced over at the man’s plate by the doorway when we walked in and hesitated.”

She looked taken aback. “I did not!”

“You did. It was small, but you did, and that’s why I knew you wanted a cheeseburger. I didn’t need to know your name to discern your lunch preference.”

Claire turned around and looked at the man by the door. Sure enough, she remembered him and he was biting into a very juicy cheeseburger as she watched. Her mouth watered just at the sight of him biting down and she sighed. “Okay. I’ll give you that one.”

He barely moved but she noticed the amusement in his eyes. She narrowed her own brown ones and looked across the table at him. The waitress arrived at that moment with their food and Claire watched as he politely smiled at the waitress, who was definitely trying to get his attention, but then turned back to her, waiting for her to finish her thought.

Despite the warm, tingly feeling that started in her stomach when he dismissed another woman in preference for her, she still didn’t trust him. “I would wager that you’re the sneaky kind. You tend to blind side your competition and they don’t even know that you are invading their turf or business area before you’ve taken over their territory.”

He didn’t respond to her comment but instead bit into his sandwich which looked almost as delicious as her cheeseburger.

“Am I right?” she asked, wrapping her hands around the very large burger and taking a bite, savoring the burst of juice and flavor. Even the cheese was delicious, and not an ordinary cheddar or American style. This was definitely something different and she loved it. “Oh wow,” she said, wiping the edges of her mouth with her napkin. “This is incredible! I think this just became my favorite lunchtime place.”

“Which brings up the question, what were you doing in the parking lot before, if you weren’t eating lunch over here?”

She shrugged and brought her burger to her mouth once again. “Why do you assume that I don’t work around here?”

“Because you’re dressed in a sleek, red dress with a black and white checkered coat with peep toe red heels.”