Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 75(@200wpm)___ 60(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
I grit my back teeth when she gives me the fake professional smile again. “Sure.”
“I’d like to get to know you.” I’m determined to crack the ice-queen shell my little goddess has wrapped tight around her luscious body.
She stares at me silently for a few seconds before sighing. “I’ve been a lawyer for six years. I specialize in corporate law.” She reels off her experience like we’re in a fucking job interview, and that just won’t work for me.
“What do you do for fun?” Her eyes widen at my question.
“Fun?” Her mouth opens and closes silently for a few moments. “I don’t have much time for fun.”
That’s not going to work for me. I plan to change that real fucking soon. “Me neither,” I admit. “Between my hockey schedule and keeping up with my rental properties, I find myself going nonstop.” But I can see that’s going to change soon. For the first time, I finally realize what it feels like to meet the one person who will change everything in my entire world.
I spend the rest of the evening dragging every tiny bit of information from her that I possibly can. When the waiter brings the check, I realize my time is running short. Before she’s able to pay, I hand him my credit card and turn to her. “Would you have dinner with me tomorrow night? One of my teammates told me about a great little Italian place not too far from here.”
“Oh.” She frowns, and I’m tempted to kiss the tiny lines that appear between her gorgeous eyes. “Do you have more questions?”
“No.” I smile at her. “Tonight was a business dinner. Tomorrow night will be a date.” I spell it out for my goddess.
“I don’t date clients.”
“I’m your brother’s business partner, not a client,” I remind her. “And I want to take you out and get to know you.”
“Look.” Lana takes a deep breath. “I don’t really have time to date anyone right now.”
“I’m not asking you to marry me.” Not tonight at least. I’ll wait at least until our second date before I propose. I can see she’s about to refuse so I pull out the big guns. “Please,” I beg. “What could one date hurt?”
She blinks several times, and I furiously think of how to convince her. “Okay.” Shock fills her violet eyes as the word slips past her lips. “I have meetings until six, so the earliest I can be ready is seven. Where should we meet?”
“I’ll see you at Mario’s on Twelfth Street at seven tomorrow,” I quickly agree. I’d rather pick her up, but I don’t want to give my little goddess more ammunition to refuse to see me.
TWO
LANA
It feels like this day is zipping by at the speed of light. I lay my head back against my desk chair and close my eyes, hoping to wake up tomorrow. “Happy Friday Morning,” Debra, the assistant I share with my brother, comes breezing into my office and places a cup of coffee on my desk.
I open one eye and glare at her. “Please don’t remind me what day it is.” I’m not going to lie; her perpetual perkiness isn’t helping the situation.
“I won’t, but I do need to remind you to email your mother back before she freaks out.” Freaking hell. I pull up my calendar and realize it’s been three days since I received my mother’s last email, and I haven’t responded yet.
“Good God.” I pull up the email and hit reply. “She’s going to give me hell for this.”
“She already sent Zane a message, asking what’s going on with you.” Debra bites her bottom lip to keep from laughing, and I roll my eyes at the absurd situation.
When my dad arranged a three-month-long cruise for their fortieth anniversary, my mother tried to refuse to go. She was worried that Zane and I couldn’t survive three months without them.
It took a lot of promises on our part to convince her to go on the trip. In the end, I promised to keep in touch with her, no matter what, and she agreed to go. Now, I’m failing to keep my promise, and my mother isn’t going to let me forget it.
“I’ll email her right now.” At least, having something to do will help occupy my mind. I’m typing out the message when a thought occurs to me. I glance up and glare at my assistant. “Don’t you dare tell her I have a date.” We both know how that would go over. “She’ll cut out on Dad and head home right away if she even suspects I have a date.” Ever since my brother married Celine, my mother has been dying for me to find my soulmate, and she’s getting impatient to see me settled.
“Your mom just wants you to be happy like Zane and Celine are,” Debra reminds me.