The Billionaire's Disgraced Virgin (Billionaire Knights Book 2) by Nic Saint Read Free Book Online

as she had to work with. Even though she had managed a small nest egg after all this time of living as frugally as she could, she still would never spend her money on the kind of clothes these stores were justly famous for. The money she’d tucked away had a different purpose, but she’d be damned if she would ever confide in Mike Knight. It was yet another secret she would never share with a living soul. Her own private project that offered her a glimmer of hope that at some point in the future she might be a whole person again, healed from the trauma of her past. She knew exactly where she wanted to buy a house, and kept a keen eye on mortgage rates and housing prices. Once she had enough saved for a down payment, she’d take out a loan and buy her dream house. But only if she survived this weekend with Mike, of course.
    The door swung open, and she was surprised to find that Mike stood on the sidewalk. She hadn’t noticed him getting out. Suddenly the image of debonair chivalry, he was extending his hand to help her alight from the car. After a moment’s hesitation she took his hand, placing her own delicate fingers in his lean and strong ones, and as she did so, it was as if an electric current slashed through her, sending a stream of highly charged voltage rushing through her already highly taxed nervous system. She would have retracted her hand, but Mike had closed his fingers around hers, and was applying gentle pressure, effectively trapping her hand in his. Her eyes swept up to his and her breath caught in her lungs as they met his mocking gaze.
    “Don’t tell me that the mere sight of me is making you feel unwell, Miss Ross,” he drawled. “I am a man, you know, not a monster.”
    Her heart made a small leap inside her chest as he gave her hand a gentle tug and she was pulled to her feet, ending up standing toe to toe with him on the sidewalk. She had to fight an involuntary urge to place her other hand on his chest, to feel the expanse of muscle stretched taut, to experience his heartbeat beneath her touch, and the soft caress of his body hair, which she imagined covered his skin. She quickly clamped down on these unwanted urges and replied, “I’m just a little nervous about these negotiations, that’s all.”
    “Afraid to disappoint me?” he taunted as he escorted her into the store, his hand outrageously lingering on hers, extending the sensation of slight tremors undulating beneath her skin at his touch—the touch of this powerful, imposing, impossible man.
    She nodded. “I guess I am,” she confessed. “You seem to have attributed a lot to my powers of analysis, and I’m afraid of letting you down terribly.”
    Once again, there was a marked darkening of his eyes as they pierced the protective layers she’d erected around herself, and the realization hit her that he disliked her thoroughly. Or perhaps not disliked her, but was simply dismissive of the kind of person she was: an underling—a mere serf who he had forced to do his bidding or else. His next words confirmed this perception.
    “If you disappoint me, Miss Ross,” he growled menacingly, “you’ll be the first to know—and to experience the full scope of my displeasure.”
    She suppressed a shiver. It was obvious he was extending a warning to her. Disappoint me and suffer the consequences. He was, after all, one of the most powerful businessmen in the country, and not for the first time she realized she was entering the lion’s den. Not simply because very soon now she’d be face to face with Roderick Holmes, but because she’d be working directly with a man who was as ruthless as Holmes himself. She suddenly felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter, about to be devoured not by one but two bloodthirsty lions.

Chapter 7
    C hloe was soon led to a private dressing room, where an assistant joined her. After Mike had given his instructions he left, directing an inscrutable glance in Chloe’s direction. It told her that she