Page 80 of The Billionaire Invitation

“I thought I was early.” She hung her purse on the hidden hook beneath the bar and slid onto the leather seat.

The bartender took her order and poured the cabernet sauvignon, then left her and Dante to themselves.

“Thank you for meeting me,” she told him.

“Is that what this is? A meeting?”

“Well…”

His hand was wrapped around a short glass of brown liquid. He lifted it to take a drink. “Makes sense. Our assistants arranged it. If it was a date, I assume you would have texted me yourself.”

“I was busy today.”

He grunted.

Butterflies took wing in her stomach, so she took a deep guzzle of wine to calm them. No sense in pretending she didn’t have an agenda. “I invited you here to talk about the future. Our future.”

“Okay.” He leaned away from her, as if she had been roped off with caution tape.

“After you return to California next week, do you plan on keeping in touch?”

He blinked. She’d caught him off guard. “Of course.”

“Do you plan on seeing me in person again?”

“You mean…ever? Probably.”

Not the definitive she’d hoped to hear.

“You’re in a sweet spot with me, Dante. I have been willing to share your bed and I have offered you mine. I am easygoing and congenial. I am patient. I have attended two meaningful family events with you. A birth and a wedding.”

His eyebrows slammed down. “I know. I was there.”

“In part,” she said.

“Where are you going with this?”

“We haven’t just been sleeping together. That’s where I’m going with this. What we’ve been doing is outside the parameters of a fling.” She should know. She’d dated Boyd Humphrey, after all. That was a fling mistaken for a relationship. What she and Dante had was the opposite—a relationship mistaken for a fling.

“You don’t think I’ve noticed things have changed? I stepped in to introduce you around at a party and now our businesses are intertwined. I didn’t expect to make headlines with you or be on the cover of a magazine together. And I sure as hell didn’t plan on bringing you to a birth and a wedding. It’s a lot of pressure when we’re just…” He trailed off, seeming unable to find the words. “Just…”

“Temporary?”

He opened his mouth but closed it again.

In her mind, a door slammed. She wouldn’t beg him to profess his feelings for her. If he wasn’t ready, that was on him. She knew how she felt. And now she knew how he felt.

“I didn’t come here to fight,” she said. “I came here for answers. Answers you just gave me. Although I had my answer this morning when I walked out of your penthouse for the last time.”

“Zander was needling me for information today. He said you talked to Chloe but he didn’t know anything.”

It was nice to hear that Chloe had kept her promise.

“Would you like to tell me what you talked about?” he asked.

Tell Dante she was in love with him? Sure, and after that she’d set fire to her eyebrows. “No, I wouldn’t.” No good could come from a one-sided profession. “Look, I had fun⁠—”

“You had fun?” His voice was machete-sharp. “Don’t water this down. We reconnected over these last few weeks. This was about more than fun.”