Five Dates with the Billionaire - Alyssa J. Montgomery Page 0,5

her six feet.

When he turned, he pinned her with his gaze and dropped a bombshell. ‘My grandmother expects us to date.’

‘Date?’ Behind her glasses, Mia’s eyes widened so much she felt her muscles strain.

‘Yes, Mia. Date. Restaurants, theatre—the things most single twenty-six-year-old women spend their Saturday evenings doing rather than playing mahjong with elderly ladies.’ He clicked his tongue against his palate.

‘This has to be some sort of warped practical joke.’ A terrible joke. Even if Violet had realised that Connor sent Mia’s pulse rate haywire, for her to play matchmaker…

‘This was what you’ve wanted all along. What you’ve—’

‘You’re crazy if you think I’d put her up to arranging a date between us.’

‘Not one date, Mia. Five dates.’

Five dates?

Good grief.

‘Well you have nothing to worry about because I’d never date such a rude, conceited individual.’

Her heart took a few enormous leaps around her chest then proceeded to atrophy in sheer, bloody horror as his brows butted together in a fierce frown.

‘Be very careful, Miss Simms. I could list a few choice adjectives for a woman like you and none of them would be pretty.’

He may not have listed them, but he’d made her opinion of her very clear.

‘I will not, under any circumstances go out with you and I will be quite happy to tell Violet.’ She shook her head so vigorously she had to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

Connor stopped mid-stride. If she’d thought he’d given her the once over before, she’d been wrong. The intensity of his concentrated blue-eyed regard bore down on her.

Seconds dragged into what seemed like minutes and Mia stood statue-still, holding her breath.

‘You’re either a fabulous actress or you’re telling me the truth.’

‘Finally!’ She released the word on a hiss of air and pressed the heel of one hand to her forehead. ‘Listen, Mr Stewart, this can be sorted out easily. When Violet realises it’s not what either of us wants, she’ll be reasonable. And anyway, just because she says she wants something doesn’t mean we have to agree.’

‘You agree it’s a bad idea?’

‘It’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.’ She crossed her fingers behind her back. Before he’d burst into her office she would’ve been ecstatic to go out with him.

Then, holding her hands out in front of her she willed him to believe her. ‘I can understand why you’re angry, but this hasn’t come from me. Surely you know Violet’s not a woman who’d ever let anyone manipulate her.’ Mia frowned. ‘I don’t understand why she’d get it into her head to do this. It’s not like her to be so…’

‘Unreasonable?’

‘Illogical. Crazy.’ They were frightening words. Mia threaded her fingers together and wondered if her elderly friend was losing her mental faculties. ‘Does she seem off-colour?’

Connor’s shoulders lost a little of their stiffness.

Gosh. If she wasn’t mistaken, concern etched itself across his brow before he paced away from her.

Sitting on the adjacent sofa he reached out to the executive toy on the coffee table, setting the balls into motion with an almost absent-minded flick of his lean fingers.

Mia’s apprehension grew. ‘Could this be a sign of dementia?’

‘No.’ His denial was swift.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t think of any other reason—’

‘She was rushed to hospital last night with chest pain.’

Mia stumbled and sank back into her chair. ‘A heart attack?’

‘Not this time, but she needs a stent to open up a blocked artery.’

Her stomach hollowed out and she half-covered her face with her hands as she absorbed the shocking news.

Above the collar of Connor’s business shirt, the notch in his throat rose and fell as he swallowed. She felt his concern reach out and curl around her like a tangible thing.

‘This was a warning but the specialist described her as a “ticking bomb”.’

Although Connor would never know it, his grandmother had stepped into Mia’s life when she’d needed her most. It was unbearable to think of losing Violet.

‘The procedure is urgent,’ Connor said.

‘When will she have it?’

‘As soon as you and I have gone on five dates,’ he said bitterly.

‘She’s trying to blackmail us into dating?’

‘Yes.’ Resentment radiated off him in waves.

No wonder he was so upset. ‘I’ll go and talk to her. I’ll make her see that this is all wrong and convince her to have it done straight away.’

‘If you know her you’ll know that once her mind is set on something, there’s no changing it.’

‘I can try.’ Violet was the most stubborn individual Mia had ever met. But, in this case, Mia would push back