Page 5 of Date The Billionaire

Laney

I watched the other girls descend the stairs and clasped my hands in my lap. I sat still, the yellow silk of my dress quiet in a sea of rustling noises. I was nervous but calm. I’d somehow let Tony talk me into this farce. He’d even arranged with my boss at the library to allow me time off over the Thanksgiving break to film the show. We had two weeks to prove we were the one to whichever man we chose.

One of them was a very rich man, and we wouldn’t know which it was until the last day, when the men made their choice. I felt like a zoo animal on parade and a fool for agreeing to the whole charade. I was here now, nothing I could do about it, so I sat and waited, my eyes darting between the man with the haunting eyes and the staircase.

I’d seen him first and hadn’t been able to look away as I came down the stairs. I almost tripped at the bottom, which had broken the spell, and I’d realized I’d stared at the gorgeous man far too long. He was tall, handsome, and his eyes. Dear God, his eyes were powerful. A light green rimmed with black lashes, they looked deep into my soul and I wanted to drown in them. His hair was short but it was still long enough to make my fingers twitch to touch it! It looked so silky.

I gave myself a mental shake as I realized I was ogling the man and looked down at my hands clenched together in white satin gloves. We’d all been given the same costume, though our dresses were in different jewel-tones, and our hair was all done in an upsweep, except for the girl with short hair. I think we were supposed to look like genteel and demure southern belles. I wanted to laugh but stopped myself.

I watched the girls who had been laughing and giggling, daring each other into silly antics only an hour before, and realized that this might be just a game but quite a few of them were taking it seriously. I saw Abby take a very pointed deep breath as she stared at Trent, the expansion of her lungs swelling her chest until I was certain her large breasts were going to spill out of the sweetheart neckline of her gown. Unfortunately for her, Trent’s attention was on Skip.

Something was odd there, but I let it go as the last of my competition came down the stairs and settled onto a couch.

“There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a full cast of beautiful players. Let’s learn a little more about each, shall we?” Skip gave us all a wink as someone shouted out the words ‘relax for five’.

We all took a deep breath and I watched the green-eyed devil try to make his way over to us. I wanted him to come and say hello. I wanted to see if those eyes were just as spellbinding up close. A producer blocked him as we ladies were all led out of the room.

We’d already been filming for two days, interviews that I knew would be cut up to show whatever the producers wanted to show, reels of us interacting with each other and speculating about the men. Another producer came to us and led us into a dining room where we found our names written on small labels.

I took a seat in mine, close to the man named Jake, and tried not to grin. I might not be into this kind of thing, but Jake was a man unlike any I’d ever seen before. His hair was silky and dark, cut short but I noticed how he kept touching it. He must have cut it recently, and I smiled at the idea of long hair. That would have made the civility of that tuxedo a lie. Something about the man screamed feral, wild, and untamed despite the appearance of being just that. I wanted to growl but smothered it down.

I knew the whole thing was silly and I really, really hated these kinds of shows, but he took my breath away. I just hoped the intelligence I’d seen in those eyes was true. If he was beautiful but stupid my heart would break!

“I think it’s Trent, he’s the rich one. Look at that smile, it’s like a shark that’s ready to attack. “That Jake guy is hot, but he just doesn’t have that air about him wealthy men should have.” I noticed it was the dark-haired beauty, Arabella. We all knew by now she was here only for the fame and the money. She’d made it clear to all of us that when she made her choice we were to back off. But then, why had she set her sights on Jake? Was she playing some game to throw the others off?

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the thought. She was worried about money and I was worried about intelligence, sheesh! I was a law student, independent, and I didn’t believe in true love, not really, yet there I was thinking about how my heart would break if Jake turned out to be as thick as a plank. I took a deep breath and picked up a glass filled with red wine. I took a sip and inhaled slowly. I would not make a fool of myself, I repeated as a mantra in my mind.

And then he was in the room, his beautiful full lips smiling for only me. I knew it was for only me because he didn’t take his eyes off me though the others around me perked up and tried to catch his eye.

We all sat down for an elegant dinner, all of us talked excitedly, but I couldn’t hold the conversation well. I was too engrossed in looking at Jake to really hold the threads. I glanced at the other two men, both fine examples of manhood, but they didn’t have the hold over me Jake had. I watched his fingers as he picked up his wineglass, clean short nails tipped long, strong fingers.

I watched him take the glass to his mouth and caught his eyes once more. His lips pursed as he took a slow sip of wine, our eyes caught in a game I’d never played before. His eyebrow quirked as he set the glass down on the table, his fingers stroking the stem. I felt my breath halt in my chest, the way his fingers stroked the glass sent a not so subtle message to my brain and I felt my eyes go wide.

I looked away, confused. Was this that infamous eye sex game I’d heard so much about?

I sent a quick glance back to his eyes and saw a satisfied smile on his face. That smile changed to one of challenge and I smiled boldly, giving him a look of my own. Two could play that game.

“How are you doing, Laney?” he asked me, his voice a stroke of a finger down my spine. I smothered a shudder of pleasure and looked him in the eye.

“I’m alright, and you?”

Polite chitchat, right. I stroked my own finger up the stem of my wineglass, far more suggestive than his own move was, even if it was the same thing.

“I’m a bit warm... But I think I like it.” He took a strawberry from a plate and bit into it, his lips tight around the fruit.

Damn, why was that so hot? Was it because he stared directly at me as he did it?

I imagined the way he’d look at me as I came near, his light eyes burning just as I straddled his lap.

Down girl, down! I told myself as my cheeks flushed with heat. It was desire that made them burn. I could feel my nostrils flaring as he took another bite, and I knew I was in trouble. I glanced at the fruit platter and saw a variety of berries and slices of orange.

I picked up a slice of orange and bit into half of it. The juices ran down my chin so I had to wipe at them. My tongue darted out to lick away the tangy juice on my lips, and his gaze fastened onto the movement. I hadn’t done it to be sensual, just to clean my mouth, but he found it to be just that, all the same. I could see it in the way he stared.

Two could play this teasing game, I decided, and gave him a cocky grin, my eyebrow arched. He was just leaning forward, about to carry on, when Skip came in to draw our attention once more.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I hate to interrupt but the men have a decision to make. Tonight, three of you will be going home.”

There were gasps around the room. We hadn’t realized there would be an elimination so quickly. I shot a glance at Jake and saw him give me a subtle wink. I looked back down at my hands once more, somehow reassured.