The Billionaire’s Girlfriend Bet - Leslie North Page 0,15

that he would give so much money to foster sports development showed a charitable side that made him even sexier.

It made him just a smidge easier to fall for, which was worrisome.

Mollie tugged at her hand. “Mommy, I want French fries.”

“No, honey, I brought our lunch, remember?”

“You brought lunch?” Blake asked.

“Yes.”

“Let me buy your lunches. I swear, it’s no problem.”

Michelle frowned as she looked over the high prices on the menu. “I don’t want to waste our food. It’s fine if we eat what I brought. You go grab something, and we’ll just eat what we have.”

Blake pursed his lips. His displeasure amused her, though she wasn’t entirely sure why.

“Fine. Go pick a seat. Are you sure I can’t get you anything?”

This time, she couldn’t fight the grin. “How about a sparkling water?”

Blake winked and wandered off to get in line while Michelle herded Mollie over to a clean table underneath a big blue umbrella. She pulled the small lunch box out of her oversized purse and set out their food.

Mollie was munching on her peanut butter sandwich when Blake arrived with his lunch tray. He had a hot dog, a side of fries, and two sparkling waters.

“Madam,” he said, offering the sparkling water bottle as if it was a fancy wine.

“Why, thank you,” she said. “Look at you. That looks good.”

“It’s the lunch of baseball-loving Americans,” Blake explained.

“That it is,” she said before taking a bite of her turkey sandwich.

“Now, don’t go giving me your fitness trainer spiel,” Blake warned jokingly as he picked up the hot dog wrapper. “I see you eating your turkey sandwich on whole grain. I know your type.”

Michelle snickered. “I wasn’t going to give you a spiel before, but now I think I will.”

“Mommy, what’s a spiel?” Mollie asked.

“It’s a…well…it’s a long-winded explanation about something,” she said.

“In your mother’s case, I think she’s going to give me a long explanation about why I should eat differently, because her job is to help people be healthy.”

Michelle grinned over at him as Mollie nodded her comprehension. He was a natural with her. She hadn’t met many men who were so comfortable engaging with children.

And maybe that was the sexiest part about him. He could just hang out with her and her daughter, and everyone had a good time.

“You wouldn’t do that to Mr. Blake, though, right?” Mollie asked a moment later.

“No, of course not. He’s a grown man, with his own metabolic understanding and access to state-of-the-art gyms. He knows what he’s doing,” Michelle said, patting her daughter’s knee.

Mollie munched on a grape, squinting at her mother. “What’s metabolic?”

Michelle laughed, tucking back some hair behind Mollie’s ear. “We’ll talk about all this later, okay? Promise.”

Blake had a sparkle in his eye as they finished lunch. Yes, it would be far too easy to fall for a man like him, especially since he’d proven himself both charitable and great with her daughter.

But after her ex, Michelle wasn’t sure she should be trusted to choose a man.

Even if Blake seemed like the right man for the job…it could still be that he wasn’t even applying for the position.

5

Three days later, Blake was running around his penthouse with a knot in his gut.

The sensation was odd. It felt a little like he was getting ready for senior prom, mixed with the sensation of heading to his last exam of grad school, sprinkled with a healthy sampling of generalized anxiety.

And he knew why, even if he didn’t entirely want to admit it.

This was date number four with Michelle. Which meant a number of things, but the worst one of all was that he was actually excited to see her.

Blake didn’t go on multiple dates with the same person. It was a fact as old as time. Yet here he was, forced into a fourth date with a woman who was gorgeous, thoughtful, well-respected, and rapidly becoming a calm source of insight for him.

He’d thought he’d be dreading this—that it would be a dull slog to meet the requirements of the bet. Was it so wrong of him to be liking it?

This date marked the first actual date, if anyone was being technical about it, where he hadn’t lured her out on the promise of anything work related. And to be honest, their sweet and fun Sunday at the youth fields had barely involved work at all. Yes, she’d given him some good tips on training options for the kids, but it had been part of an easy, free-flowing conversation in