The Billionaire Dating Game: A Romance Novel Page 7

  But then I saw the camera crew behind him.

  “Uh, what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Hello, Mr. Letocci!” Clarence boomed from behind me. “Please come in! Ah—would you like to sit down?”

  Piers didn’t even bother to reply to him.

  “Hi, Lisa,” he said, smiling broadly.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “What are all those cameras doing here?”

  “I wanted to personally congratulate you.”

  It wasn’t his normal voice. I recognized that in an instant. It was Piers, the performer. Piers, the TV host. He came into Clarence’s office and shoved the bouquet of pink roses into my hands. I stared down at them.

  “What is this, Lisa?” Clarence was asking from behind me.

  “I—I don’t know,” I said. The whole camera crew had followed Piers into the small office. A microphone hung over our heads.

  “You made it! We’d love to have you join us on the brand new show, The Billionaire Dating Game!”

  “Oh my God!”

  Jessica was jumping up and down outside of Clarence’s office. Behind her, I could see people poking their heads up to see what was going on. Piers Letocci was here, and a camera crew, and I could already see some of the writers touching up their makeup in case they got to be on TV. The thought passed through my mind that it was lucky I was wearing my only skirt today.

  The camera swept back to catch Jessica as she ran into the office and hugged me tightly. The bouquet of roses was between us, and I could smell the scent of crushed rose petals.

  “Oh my God, Lisa, you never told me you were auditioning!”

  “I—I didn’t—”

  “You’re on the show?” Clarence was asking, in a confused voice. “Why wasn’t this in the article?”

  “You didn’t tell your boss about the audition?”

  “It wasn’t a real audition!”

  I glared at Piers, who only smiled back at me even brighter.

  “The producers loved you so much that they had to have you on the show,” Piers said. The cameras swung toward him, and I saw that he was wearing a wireless microphone on his shirt.

  “You’re going to be on TV!” Jessica squealed. She hugged me again, and then hugged Piers, jumping up and down. Well, I was glad at least one of us was excited about this.

  “No, I’m not!”

  The cameras swung back to me. There was a silence in the office as everyone waited for me to speak. The light on the camera blinked red at me. I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane.

  “I can’t—I can’t take weeks off of work to be on a reality TV show. I have work to do here. I… Clarence…”

  I turned around to my boss and gestured helplessly.

  “Lisa,” Clarence said, “I can’t believe you would go and do something like this without telling me.”

  I gulped. Was I about to be fired? Would this go on national television?

  “Because I think that this is a great idea!” he said, his face breaking into a smile.

  Jessica squealed again, so high-pitched that I was sure the dog kennel across the street was going nuts.

  “You do?” I breathed.

  “Of course! What an article this will make! You have to write down everything! I expect a full report!”

  There was a hard glint in Clarence’s eye. I knew exactly what that look meant—don’t fuck this up. He clapped me on the back so hard that my teeth clacked together.

  “Congratulations, Lisa!”

  “This is going to be the best!” Jessica shrieked. “You’re going to date a billionaire!” She stuck her head out into the main office. “Hey, everybody! Lisa is going to be on The Billionaire Dating Game!”

  The noise in the office was tremendous, but it all dimmed in my ears at the realization that I wasn’t going to be writing any more articles for the next few weeks. I wasn’t going to be doing any graphics, or helping Jessica pick out the next fashion model to shoot. If Clarence had decided to pick out the worst possible punishment for me, I would never have imagined something as awful as this.

  I was going on reality TV… to date a billionaire.

  “Well, this is just terrific,” I said, staring at Piers and holding the crumpled bouquet of pink roses. He winked, and for a second there I saw the real Piers under the polished persona in the suit.

  “Gotcha,” he whispered, as the camera swung over the celebration in the magazine’s office.

  Chapter Nine

  “No, please,” I said, with forced politeness in my voice. “Allow me to escort you out.”

  I shoved Piers into the office elevator. The cameramen started to follow us in.

  “Sorry,” I said, blocking their way. “This elevator has a strict weight limit, and I haven’t been following my diet.”

  “I’ll meet you downstairs,” Piers called out to them as the elevator doors closed.

  As soon as the elevator started to drop, I spun around.

  “What in the everloving fuck were you thinking, coming here like this?”

  Piers was already laughing at me, and it made me furious. He had embarrassed me in front of the whole office, and for what? I swatted him with the bouquet of roses.

  “Ouch! Wait one second,” he said, fumbling with his microphone. “Let me turn this off first.”

  “No, you wait one second!” I said, punctuating my sentences with swats of the bouquet. “You! Are! Insane!”

  Rose petals flew into the air and Piers warded off my blows with his hand.

  “Cut it out,” he said, still laughing.

  “You cut it out! I am not going on your stupid TV show!”

  “Your boss wants you to.”

  “And that, too! Why the hell did you ask me in front of my boss? In front of the whole office of Moi?”

  “Because I knew you would say no if I asked you privately.”

  The elevator doors opened at the next floor, and a group of people from Accounting tried to step in. I turned around, a bouquet-wielding maniac, and they paused at the threshold. Pink rose petals littered the floor of the elevator.

  “You’ll have to take the next one,” I said. “This is a private elevator reserved for asshole TV hosts and their unsuspecting victims.”

  As the doors closed again, I could hear one of the women whispering loudly: “Was that Piers Letocci?”

  “Great,” I said, turning back to Piers and stabbing him in the chest with the roses. “You’re going to have every floor talking about this.”

  “Welcome to television.”

  “No! Not welcome to television! I never agreed to be on television!”

  “You agreed to an audition.”

  “I never agreed! You coerced me! This—this is entrapment!”

  “I thought you were desperate to meet a good guy, Lisa.” His eyes twinkled. And the way he said my name—so smoothly, like it was honey dripping from his lips—made my body twist into something half between desire and rage.

  “Desperate?! I’ll show you desperate!” I shrieked, lifting the bouquet over my head to smash it across his shoulder one last time. What an arrogant, impossible man—

  His hand caught my wrist mid-air, and before I could pull away, he had shoved me back against the elevator doors, pinning my hands above my head with one hand. With the other, he hit the Emergency Stop button. The elevator jarred to a halt.

  “What are you—”

  He kissed me. Not gently, this time. There was no hesitation, no pause. Only a hard need that shocked my whole body as he pushed himself against me, pressing me back against the doors. I gasped as his lips seized mine, and my body arched instinctively into his body with desire curling up through me, igniting my nerves like wildfire. The bouquet of roses fell to the floor.

  “Piers—”

  “Lisa.” His voice was a low groan, and I could feel him hard against me, his cock already growing hard through the fabric of his pants. He kissed me again and again. His tongue skimmed my bottom lip and my
mouth parted, letting him invade me. Letting him take me.

  My hands were pinned against the wall of the elevator. I twisted weakly, but he only pressed his body against me harder. His free hand cupped the curve of my ass, lifting me. I cried out softly as his legs forced mine apart and he showed me the evidence of his desire. I was on tiptoe, and every move I made only served to tighten his hold on me.

  He let go of my hands, but before I could push him away, he had lifted me up to his waist. Kissing me again, he leaned me into the wall. My legs wrapped around his waist as though it was the hundredth time doing this, and not the first. His fingers clutched my thigh, kneading the soft flesh there, and his lips pressed hot and wanting into my neck. My skirt was shoved up mid-thigh and I didn’t even care. I tilted my head back against the wall of the elevator and moaned as he licked me from the collarbone to just behind the ear, pressing a kiss there for good measure.

  “Piers… Piers…” I didn’t know if I was protesting or encouraging him, but then my fingers were in his hair and I was pulling him in for another kiss. His face was smooth and smelled of aftershave. As he spun pleasure out from my lips, I nuzzled into his cheek, letting my bangs fall softly across his skin.

  Then he pulled back. I ached as his lips left mine, my legs trembling as he set me back down on my feet.

  “What was that?” I whispered.

  “Just a kiss,” he said. He smiled at me, and it was a real smile, not a fake TV smile.

  “Right,” I said, nodding as I caught my breath. “Just a kiss.”

  “We should get back.”

  He leaned forward and punched the elevator button again. Nothing happened. He frowned and punched the emergency button. Then the floor button again. The elevator stayed still.

  “Hmm,” he said.

  “Hmm?” What does that mean?”

  “I—hmm.” He started pressing every button on the panel. None of them did anything. “That’s interesting.”

  “Are we stuck here?” I asked. Panic started to rise in my throat.

  “Of course not,” Piers said. “Just—wait one second.”

  He pried at the elevator doors, but they didn’t move.

  “I don’t think you can open elevator doors like that,” I said.

  “Well, what do you suggest?”

  I examined the elevator panel.

  “There’s a button for emergency radio,” I said. It said Push to Speak. “Did you try that?”

  “This isn’t an emergency,” Piers said, crossing his arms in irritation.

  “Funny,” I said. “Because you pushed the Emergency Stop button just a minute ago.”

  We glared at each other.

  “I’m going to try it,” I said. I hit the emergency radio button. “Hello? Anybody there?”

  I let go of the button. After a moment, the panel crackled with static. Then a voice.

  “Hello, this is security.”

  “Hi, this is Lisa Forrester,” I said. “From Moi.”

  “They don’t need to know your credentials,” Piers interrupted. I ignored him, still keeping the button pressed.

  “Uh, my elevator got stuck on the—looks like the eleventh floor? Could you—um—start it again?”

  “Oh, are you in elevator B?” the voice asked.

  I glanced up at the panel.

  “Yep, looks like it,” I said.

  “Okay,” the guy from security said. “I’ll be able to get you restarted.”

  “Great,” I said, giving Piers a satisfied look.

  “Should only be… oh, a half hour or so.”

  “What?” Both Piers and I said it at the same time.

  “Elevator B’s a finicky one. Has to be restarted manually. Don’t worry, it won’t be long.”

  “A half hour?!”

  “Do you need to use the restroom or something?” the security guy asked. My gut twisted.

  “I didn’t before you asked!”

  “Let me talk to him,” Piers said, pushing me aside.

  “By all means,” I grumbled.

  “Hello?” Piers said. “This is Piers Letocci.”

  He waited for some acknowledgment from the security guard, but there was only static.

  “I need to get out of here,” Piers continued. “I have a very important appointment this morning, and I have to get back to the TV studio as soon as possible.”

  “Huh,” the voice said. “Very important, huh?”

  “Yes,” Piers said firmly.

  “Well,” the security guard said. “In that case, I’ll be able to get you out in about… oh, a half hour or so.”

  I almost laughed aloud as Piers’ mouth dropped open. The static from the panel clicked off. Piers slammed his hand against the panel. Then he slumped back against the wall of the elevator, sinking down onto the floor covered in rose petals.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” he said. He shook his head in disbelief.

  “Just one kiss,” I said.

  “Just one kiss,” he echoed.

  “Hope it was worth it.”

  He looked up at me, and I could almost see the cogs turning in his brain. A half hour. He grinned.

  “Well,” he said. “Since we’re not going anywhere for a while…”

  “No,” I said. I put my hands up and backed away to the other side of the elevator. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”

  “You’re absolutely right, though,” Piers said. He didn’t make a move to stand up, but his hand went up to his shirt and he began to unbutton the top. “We’re going to be stuck here for the next half hour. And just one kiss… well, it wouldn’t really be worth the trouble if we stopped there, would it?”

  No. He wasn’t really thinking what I thought he was thinking. No way.

  “I think that kiss was absolutely worth it,” I said, blood rushing to my cheeks. Were we running out of air in the elevator already? I was starting to have trouble getting enough oxygen into my lungs.

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Piers Letocci was a troublemaker. He was a reckless playboy, a rogue who got any girl he wanted just because he was famous. And here I was, letting him walk all over me. Kiss all over me.

  Oh, God. At that thought, I imagined his mouth moving down my neck, past my shirt…

  “No,” I said.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “I can hear you thinking it.”

  I bit my lip, and Piers grinned a wickedly mischievous grin.

  “That means you’re thinking it, too.”

  “I am not thinking it. I am not thinking about anything. My brain is absolutely empty of things. Especially those kinds of things.”

  That was a total lie. My brain was imagining Piers stripping down naked in this elevator. Imagining his muscles gleaming with sweat as he pressed himself against me, thrusting deep, relieving the ache inside me—

  I clenched my eyes shut, willing away the thoughts.

  “You’re definitely not thinking about anything,” Piers teased.

  “That’s right.”

  “Just a silly airhead who likes red Ferraris. Not a thought in the world but mindless fun.”

  I opened my eyes. His hands were resting casually on his knees, and his light eyes were twinkling at me.

  “That’s right,” I said, my willpower cracking.

  “So? Let’s have some fun.”

  He smiled, and my arms were covered in goosebumps.

  “I don’t—I don’t want—”

  “Of course you do. There’s even a song about it. Girls just wanna have fun. Right?”

  He was still sitting over on the other side of the elevator. The air between us seemed to spark with the possibility of—whatever it was that he was offering. And was I really going to pass that up?

  Stop, Lisa. What was I thinking? Sure, he was handsome. Sure, he was famous. But that was no reason to melt inside as soon as he made a pass at me.

  I put my hands on
my hips and stood up straight. Jessica had told me that this was a power stance, and that men would respect me more if I stood like that, not slouched over. And against Piers Letocci, I needed every bit of power I could get.

  “Listen to me, Piers,” I said.

  “I’m listening,” he said, all politeness.

  “I am not some silly fangirl, and I know exactly what you want from me.”

  “Do you?”

  Piers stood up slowly, his top button undone. I swallowed. My hands fell down away from my hips. I quickly put them back. Power stance. Don’t give in.

  “I do.”

  He stepped one step closer to me. The air in the elevator was redolent with the scent of crushed rose petals.

  “Stop right there,” I said. He stopped, his smile fading only slightly.

  “What do you think I want from you?” he asked softly.

  God, that voice. That accent. His words whispered down my spine, sliding through my limbs. I trembled, but managed to keep my hands planted on my hips.

  “Pleasure,” I said. It was meant to come out boldly, but as I looked up into those aquamarine eyes, my voice lost its power on my tongue.

  “Pleasure?” The word plucked at my nerves, sending my core into a fluttered vibration.

  “You… you just want to use me for your pleasure.” And as nice as that sounds… “You think you can get anything you want because you’re you.”

  He tilted his head. One more step, and he would be against my body. He looked me up and down, his gaze like a touch.

  “You’re completely wrong,” he said.

  “Am I?”

  He put one hand up, resting it on the elevator wall over my head. He leaned toward me. I was pressed back as far as I could, glued to the wall. His mouth was at my ear, and I could feel his breath hot against my skin.

  “I only want to give you pleasure.” It was a whisper, but it echoed in my head as loudly as if he had screamed it. “Lisa…”

  My throat had closed up completely, and I ached to reach out to him. He wasn’t touching me, but it was just as bad as if he had his hands pressed to my waist. My whole body was throbbing with desire.