Page 19 of Billionaire’s Game

I made myself look at him. “No. I’ve actually never seen it.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “It’s like America’s favorite summer show.”

I shook my head. “I don’t watch much TV.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?” he said, leaning lazily back in his chair. He crossed his arms in front of him and I tried not to notice how muscular his arms were. Even his forearms were ripped. Apparently, he was chiseled in all the right places.

I bet he’d give me heart palpitations if I ever saw him naked. Yum, the idea of a naked Magnus sounded wonderful.

He gave me a knowing smile. “You plan to answer me or are you just going to stare at me?”

I could tell from his eyes that he was teasing me. Magnus was surprisingly easy to read. To me, that’s what made him different from most guys I knew in school. Magnus came across as very authentic. There was never any guile. He was like an open book and I liked that about him. He wasn’t a mystery and he didn’t attempt to hide his emotions and pretend to be indifferent or stoic to be “manlier”.

I answered his question about TV, saying “I just don’t have time for it.”

He nodded. “I get that. So tell me, what do you have time for? What are your interests? Hobbies?”

I didn’t want to admit that I was absolutely boring and didn’t have any hobbies besides sleeping and eating. Most of the women he dated probably did yoga, modeled on the side and most likely had excellent calligraphy skills. Or maybe I was just being ridiculous.

“Just, you know, watching reruns of old sci-fi shows and reading.” I changed the subject. I didn’t want to bore him to tears by telling him that eating and sleeping were what I considered a good time. “So tell me about Brain Pain.”

“How about I just show you?”

To my surprise, he got up and came around the conference table and sat next to me.

We were seated so closely I could smell his aftershave. It had a woodsy scent that I tried not to inhale too deeply. When I was a teenager, I loved reading silly, dirty romance novels. And so many of the romances I read talked about a man smelling intoxicatingly good and I always considered description to be a writer’s creative license to exaggerate, but Magnus’s smell was intoxicating. I just wanted to lean into him and let him have his way with me.

Woah, girl, I said to myself, startled by my own thoughts. Where had that thought come from? I wasn’t exactly the type of girl that threw all caution to the wind. But yet, here I was, less than five minutes alone with Magnus, I thought to myself in amusement, and I was already not even thinking like myself.

I moved a little closer to him, basking in the scent of him and sitting close enough to feel the heat coming from his body. He held his phone in his right hand so I could view it. He laughed easily at the challenges depicted on the screen. I found myself relaxing and letting down my guard.

It was then that I looked up and caught him staring at me. “You have a really pretty smile, you know.”

I blushed. “Thanks. You do too.” I immediately clamped my mouth shut. What the heck was I thinking complimenting him? Now he would know that I totally checked him out… which I did.

“What do you think of the challenges?” I asked.

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. “The challenges are ridiculous, but they look like fun.”

“Really? That looks like fun? Hanging from a bridge, suspended twenty feet up by our ankles over a body of water looks like fun to you?”

He nodded.

“If that’s your idea of fun, you need to get out more.”

He looked down at me with an amused look. “Yeah, you’re right.” I returned his smile and he caught me off guard saying, “If you think I need to get out more, maybe you should consider going out with me.”

I quickly backtracked. “I meant going out more and experiencing new things. That doesn’t have to include me...”

He smiled. “I think it would be more interesting if I did include you. What’s the point of new experiences if you don’t have anyone to share them with? Have dinner with me tonight. We can try somewhere exotic. This city has lots of restaurants. We can try a little bit of everything if you want.”

I shook my head, but I was tempted to just say yes and see where it led me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that bold yet. “No... I’m busy. With stuff. With things.”

“What things?”

“Important things and stuff.”

I was an intelligent woman but couldn’t even figure out a good excuse to escape having dinner with a beautiful man. There were so many things wrong with this scenario, I knew a therapist would love to hear about it. Too bad I didn’t believe in therapy. Talking about emotions just wasn’t my thing.