The Reluctant Cinderella by Christine Rimmer Read Free Book Online Page B

hours. Greg gave his full attention to the task at hand. At the same time, he longed for it all to be over. He couldn’t wait to get busy convincing Megan that the two of them had a lot more than business to transact.
    It all went off beautifully. Design Solutions won the contract. Next, it would go to legal. Megan, her Web guy and her senior graphic artist would come down into the city on Friday to firm up all the details.
    Of course, after the meeting, his father insisted on taking everyone to lunch. But Megan was one step ahead of Gregory Banning, Sr. She had reservations at a really good seafood place right on the Hudson a few miles from her office.
    It was after two when his father and the three other executives finally climbed into the stretch limousine and headed back to Manhattan. Greg sent them off without him, explaining that he’d take the train down later, as he had a few more points to go over with Megan.
    He didn’t mention that the “points” in question had nothing at all to do with Design Solutions or the big job Megan and her team had just been hired to accomplish. Why should he? They—especially his father—didn’t need to know.
    Not yet, anyway.
    Megan had called a couple of cabs to get herpeople back to the office. He took her aside as the others climbed in.
    â€œStay. Please. I need to talk to you.”
    She looked flushed, suddenly. And bewildered. A whole other woman from the smart, savvy entrepreneur who’d just sold Banning’s, Inc. on a complete image makeover. “But I didn’t plan to—”
    He cut in—fast—before she could find a way to say no. “You really need to go back inside that terrific restaurant with me.”
    â€œUm. I do?”
    â€œYou need another cup of coffee. Or maybe a glass of wine.”
    â€œOh, no. No wine.” She looked really scared.
    And that made him smile. “Coffee it is, then.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œStay right there. Don’t even move.”
    She actually did what he’d told her to do, stood there on the sidewalk as he paid the two cabbies and sent her employees on their way. Then he took her arm—hours and hours he’d been waiting for the chance to do that, to take her arm, to clasp her hand….
    He took her arm and he turned her and led her back inside, where the hostess gave them a little table tucked away in a corner. It was quiet in the restaurant by then. Nice, in that easy time after lunch ended and before the dinner rush began. The waitress brought them cups and cream and sugar and served them from a silver pot.
    When she left them alone, Megan slanted him a look from under her lashes. “All right,” she said, both breathless and grim. “What?”
    He didn’t know how to begin. Yet surprisingly, when he spoke, he found he sounded sure. And confident. “I think you know.”
    And she did know. She sighed and looked down into her full cup of coffee as if regretting that she would never taste it. Finally, after it seemed to him he had waited forever, she met his eyes again. “Oh, Greg, I don’t think we can. I’m sorry. But Carly’s my friend and I can’t stand to hurt her.”
    â€œListen,” he began. When she started to speak, he put up a hand. “Just let me say this. Okay?”
    She swallowed. “All right.”
    â€œI told you that I was an only child.” He waited for her to nod. When, reluctantly, she did, he forged on. “What I didn’t say is that my parents are…” Damn. What was the word for them? “Cold, maybe. Distant. To everyone—including each other. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen them touch, except in passing. Never a kiss or a hug, no public displays of affection of any kind. Banning is an important name in New York. And my mother was born a Wright—one of the Philadelphia Wrights. Their wedding was the biggest social event of