Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Millie was no novice in the dating department, and yet he had still succeeded in fucking her life up for good.
With Ms. Jones, things were only likely to get much worse, and if he had any bit of conscience left, he would walk away from her now.
It was the right and sensible thing to do.
But for some fucking reason, he just couldn't.
She had made it clear multiple times that she wasn't interested in having an affair with him, and yet he still couldn't leave her alone. He had never wasted time going after a woman, but this girl already had him running in circles without saying a word. Virgins had always been fair game with him, but despite every chance to seduce her into submission, he hadn't been able to make himself claim her.
She had become both an enigma and obsession, someone like no other woman he had ever met.
She was...different.
And Acheron - the man whom Wall Street Journal had once described as an entrepreneur whose knowledge was almost prescient in his ability to size up situations with razor-sharp accuracy - had no fucking idea why that was so.
Six
IT WAS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE for Pippi not to gawk like a hick at her surroundings, and she could only mentally shake her head in disbelief when Acheron led her to the beautifully set table at his balcony. It boasted of the most beautiful views from just about every side - the cityscape in front, his private cocktail lounge on the right, and his rooftop pool on the left.
A pool, at several hundred feet off the ground!
Whatever was she doing here, having dinner with a man who lived in a world so vastly different from hers?
Acheron had pulled out a chair for her, but somehow she couldn't make herself move an inch. This was wrong. This was just so -
Wickham came in then, bearing a tray laden with several familiar-looking boxes.
Oh!
A startled squeak escaped her, and Acheron's eyes gleamed at the adorable sound of it. Her eyes followed Wickham's every move, widening with every dish the older man unveiled. Spring rolls. Baked pork buns. Prawn dumplings. Leaf-wrapped rice. And when Wickham opened a box containing two orders of xiao long bao, Acheron swiftly pressed his lips together to contain his smile, having seen Pippi unconsciously lick her lips at the sight.
"I take it I've made the right choice?"
Pippi nodded, almost gushing 'oh yes' when a thought occurred to her, and she glanced at him suspiciously. Maybe she was thinking too much of this, but wasn't it too great a coincidence for Wickham to serve Chinese cuisine, and everything happened to be her favorites, too?
Pippi cleared her throat.
Knowing what she was planning to ask, Acheron responded with an unrepentant grin, "I had my assistant stalk your foodstagram."
Oh. Okay. At least...he hadn't lied?
Acheron noticed the way she was still frowning. "It bothers you?"
"I'm just trying to make up my mind if you going to such lengths make you thoughtful...or manipulative."
Acheron threw his head back with a laugh.
"And I really appreciate all this, but...do all your stay-at-home dates normally involve Chinese takeout?"
"Do you want an honest answer?"
"Umm, yes?" Why in the world would anyone want differently?
He named a place that she recognized as one of the city's oldest fine dining restaurants, and she wasn't surprised when he told her the establishment was on call to provide him with catered dinners at home.
"But I had a feeling doing so would only make you more uncomfortable with me."
And he was right, Pippi thought, but the realization made her far from happy. Acheron Simonides seemed to find it too easy to read her mind, and that was not a good thing at all.
Seeing her forehead start to furrow anew, Acheron changed the subject to divert her attention, and because this was Pippi, he only knew of one thing that was certain to distract his eternally resisting prey.
"Have you read the report on Excalibur Park?"
Pippi relaxed. This, she had no trouble talking about. "I have, yes." Work-related discussions were something she never had to feel self-conscious about, and it helped that Acheron appeared genuinely interested in her ideas about the project.
The combination of lovely food and shop talk had effectively loosened Pippi's tongue even without her knowing it, and in between bites and sips of hot black tea, Acheron was able to subtly extricate information he had a feeling the ever-wary Ms. Jones would normally withhold.
Weekends spent helping out at her mother's bed and breakfast, vague dreams about retiring in her own beach house, and - most importantly of all - a romantic history that only involved a summer fling with a local boy back when she was in high school...
"Does that mean what it means then?" he asked with studied casualness.
Pippi was genuinely confused. "Does what mean what?"
"Your charming story of first love, Ms. Jones. May I also take it as confirmation of your innocence?"