Five Dates with the Billionaire - Alyssa J. Montgomery Page 0,7
do with my grandmother. If you haven’t been angling for a date with me…’
Mia gulped.
‘Are you hoping to be included in her will?’ ‘I can’t believe you said that!’
‘Be warned.’ His words were a deadly promise. ‘If there’s anything you’re hiding, I’ll find out and you’ll be sorry.’
Dread streamed through every cell.
All she could do was pray he wouldn’t dig too deeply.
Chapter Three
Connor seethed all the way back to his office.
Emotions no longer played a huge part in his life and he generally prided himself on his control. But ever since Gran’s butler had called him last night with the news that she was in the back of an ambulance on her way to hospital, his feelings had see-sawed from one extreme to the other.
Even though he’d thought it was safely buried, all the damped down trauma from his childhood had bubbled back to the surface. Flashbacks of the day he’d been told his father had died in a car crash. His shocked helplessness as his mother—a passenger in the car—fought for her life. Catapulted forward in time, he recalled the anguish of finding his grandfather slumped in his wheelchair from a fatal stroke.
This morning he’d managed to cloak his anxiety from his grandmother as he’d sat by her hospital bed. He’d been able to disguise his inner panic when the specialist had outlined her medical condition and the very real threat of heart attack or stroke. But when Gran had denied treatment and made her unreasonable demand, his frustration and anger had made him want to punch something.
Now he was furious with himself because he’d taken his anger out on an employee in her office. It didn’t matter if she’d been behind this scheme of Gran’s; he should’ve pulled himself together before he’d confronted her.
He strode past Grace, his assistant, with only an abrupt, ‘Hold all my calls,’ before he entered his own office and closed the door firmly behind him.
Shit. He had to calm down before he tore someone else’s head off.
Mia Simms.
He’d behaved like an obnoxious, overbearing bully during their explosive encounter and he needed to apologise for his behaviour. She was correct; it had been harassment. As her employer, it’d been an unequal playing field.
Even had she somehow persuaded Gran to arrange the dates, he shouldn’t have confronted her in her office. He should’ve had the showdown with her outside work hours.
Emotions had got the better of him.
‘Ticking bomb.’
The cardiologist’s words had been foremost in his mind.
Still, even though he was extremely worried about Gran and furious at being emotionally blackmailed, there was no excuse for directing his frustrations at Miss Simms when he had no solid proof she was to blame.
Miss Mouse from marketing.
Bloody hell! There’d been nothing mouse-like or timid about her.
She hadn’t squeaked or stammered. She’d roared like a lioness using words no one else had ever dared say to his face. And he’d given her good reason.
He shook his head at his behaviour.
God, the woman might dress blandly, but she had spirit and magnificent eyes that had showered him in outraged sparks of fury.
Something unidentifiable shifted in him now as he replayed their sparring. There’d been something incredibly stimulating about the way she’d launched at him in a blistering no-holds-barred attack. And he had to admire that she’d turned his argument on its ear when he’d suggested she was using her friendship with Gran to attract his attention. It was a valid, and very obvious, point that there had been countless professional opportunities for her to get his attention if she’d wanted to.
An unknown sensation coiled in the pit of his stomach.
Guilt.
It had to be guilt.
The demons of his conscience were berating him for letting his emotions get the better of him.
That was one of the problems with emotion—it overrode logic.
It made asses of people.
Logic compelled him to acknowledge that Mia Simms would hardly dress the way she did if she was trying to attract his attention—unless she was totally clueless about how a woman should go about attracting a man.
No woman could be so ignorant.
But even if she hadn’t planted any seeds in Gran’s mind about the dates, Mia’s close friendship with Gran was strange. Perhaps Mia didn’t have any sinister motivation. If she was the social misfit he’d always pegged her as, Miss Simms might be more comfortable with elderly people than she was with people closer to her own age.
But, hang on… What the hell was with her usual apparent lack of confidence?