Five Dates with the Billionaire - Alyssa J. Montgomery Page 0,4

ever seen. There was something about his sheer aura of command that appealed to every feminine cell in her body.

Connor Stewart was a man people turned to when there was a crisis.

It made no sense that he stood in her office being hostile and suspicious.

Their gazes locked before he took a step around the desk and looked her up and down.

She barely resisted raising her hand defensively to touch the dark hair she’d curled tightly into a bun.

‘I am not attracted to you in any way, Miss Simms. Nor will I ever be.’

Mia’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open as she gawped at him.

Had he really said that?

Under her high collared blouse, her chest prickled with mortification. Still, she jumped to her feet. ‘Your arrogance is incredible. And, just for the record, you’re not my type either!’ He had been, but he wasn’t any more. No matter how handsome he was, nothing could excuse this insulting behaviour.

‘I have no interest in dating you,’ he said baldly.

Dating?

Oh my God!

All she could do was deny her secret crush. ‘I don’t remember asking you to.’

‘I’ve underestimated you.’ He ran his fingers along his slightly stubbled jaw. ‘I had no idea you’d be such a firebrand. What else are you hiding beneath your buttoned-up exterior?’

Her stomach went into freefall and she took a step backward.

He mustn’t guess I’m hiding something.

‘I’m not hiding anything.’ Fighting against the waves of animosity and suspicion that pounded at her, she forced a tight smile. ‘I don’t know what your problem is, but this is workplace harassment.’

‘Harassment? You befriended my grandmother in the hope of dating me.’

What? ‘If you’re serious, you have a far bigger ego than I’d imagined.’

‘Cut the crap, Miss Simms.’ Restless fingertips beat an angry tattoo against the surface of a filing cabinet. ‘You’re not the first woman who’s gone to extraordinary lengths to get my attention.’

Oh Lord. She might’ve dreamt of getting his attention, but now she had it she didn’t want it.

Wait a minute…

Her hands flew to her hips. ‘If I wanted your attention I didn’t need to be friends with Violet. I work for you, for heaven’s sake!’

He didn’t look any happier now she’d poked a huge hole in his theory.

‘You think I’ve been at a soup kitchen and playing mahjong every Saturday all these years on the off-chance you’d drop by? I’ve never heard anything so arrogant.’

‘Oh, you’re original.’ His lip curled. ‘I’ve met the poor female employee who feels horribly faint when she’s in the elevator with me and happens to fall my way. I’ve had the one whose car is parked in an executive car space that doesn’t belong to her with the bonnet up and an engine that won’t start—just as I am about to head home. One former staff member even approached me in the car park having conveniently locked her keys in the car.’

‘It happens!’

‘Her keys were in her handbag.’

Really? ‘I’ve never tried to get your attention.’

While Mia tried to calm her breathing, he regarded her in silence.

Fire and ice raged in an epic battle.

If he stayed in her office another second she was bound to say something that would make it too difficult to remain in the job she loved. ‘I suggest you leave now.’

His hand ran through the luxuriously thick pelt of his dark hair. ‘I wish I could, Mia.’

Mia.

If she’d ever secretly wondered how her name would sound on his lips, the contempt he managed to inject into the two syllables didn’t even come close to her imaginings. He may be a raven-haired version of Adonis who merely had to speak in his rich, chocolate-coated baritone voice to hold the majority of the female population in his thrall, but he was clearly not in the mood to waste any of his reputed charm on her and she couldn’t care less.

Liar. Liar. Liar.

The blood pulsed through her veins establishing a rhythmic litany that challenged her denial. Her gaze flew to his angular jaw line and the strong column of his throat.

How many times had she fought to keep her gaze from straying to him when they’d been in the same room, even though she knew she was torturing herself with dreams that would never become reality?

Not any more, she assured herself.

‘Sit down.’ Pushing away from the filing cabinet, he turned his back on her and paced towards the door.

Mia refused to sit like an obedient dog following its master’s command and she drew herself up even straighter, making the most of every inch of