Right Billionaire, Wrong Wedding (Sexy Billionaires)(61)
“You could always marry rich,” he quipped.
She laughed at the suggestion, the sound rolling over him. He loved to hear it.
“If I ever get married, Mr. King, you can be assured it will be for love, not a checkbook.”
He didn’t doubt it. Allison was a woman who never did things halfway. When she loved, it would be forever. Nothing as common as money would get in her way.
Whereas he had never tried to cultivate such relationships. He thought back to the women who had preceded her. Women like Sasha who had been perfectly happy to accept his gifts as their due. It wasn’t ego that he knew any of them would have leaped at the chance to marry him. But they would have been at his side for his money, and before Ali, he wouldn’t have minded.
Those relationships were an easy equation to solve. A few trinkets or expensive dinners translated into emotionless sex whenever he needed it. An easy life filled with pleasure, without responsibility. They were there when he wanted and gone when he didn’t.
The woman in front of him was another creature entirely. He could just imagine her outrage should he offer such an arrangement to her. The thought brought a grin to his face. No, he never needed to worry about such mercenary reasons with Allison.
She was with him because she liked the man behind the empire.
“What?” she asked. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
He stepped away, shaking his head. “Nothing,” he said. “Got lost in my thoughts.”
“Okay.” She sounded less than convinced. Luckily, her next words were suitably benign. “Are you sure Jenny will be happy with this dress when she sees it? Maybe we should take pictures.”
“Good idea. Pose like a happy bride,” he said while fishing his phone from his pocket.
“How exactly?” she asked. “Should I throw my bouquet at you and give you a saccharine sweet smile?”
“You don’t have a bouquet, but I’ll take the sweet part.”
The look in her eyes said she’d easily throw something at him if she had any ammunition. Still, when he turned the camera on his phone toward her, she smiled obligingly.
He snapped a few more shots and sent them off to Jenny.
“All set,” he said.
“Us, too,” the seamstress added. “You can change out of the dress.”
Allison ran a hand over the dress one more time. “All right,” she said.
Before she stepped down, another worker appeared at his side.
“Mr. King,” she said. “We held the dress based on your sister’s credit card, but she asked us not to charge anything until you got here. We will need proof of purchase before we do any alternations.”
“I understand.” He took his credit card from his wallet and held it out with two fingers. “Charge what she reserved to this.”
The woman accepted his card. “There are shoes and the veil and—”
He waved her off. “I don’t care. Charge whatever Jenny raked up.”
She bowed her head and disappeared with his card.
He glanced back at Allison to find her eyes on him.
“Come along,” the seamstress said. “Let’s get this off you.”
“Of course,” she said.
He stepped forward, offering his hand as she prepared to step off the pedestal.
Her fingers curled around his, a familiar feeling, yet wholly different when she made eye contact and stepped down in her rustling dress.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Not a problem.”
He watched her walk back to her changing room, shaking out his hand. Within minutes she’d be back to being the Allison he knew. A wedding dress changed nothing.
Except he looked back at the dais she’d departed, remembering the picture of her smiling in white satin.
Chapter Sixteen
The coffee shop bustled around her.
Allison stared down at her drink, knowing she should be leaving. She needed to get back to King Enterprises before Darian noticed she was gone. Every minute counted.
And yet here she sat, her mind in chaos.
Fifteen minutes ago she’d left her interview and walked into the first coffee shop she’d seen. Ordering her drink, she’d picked a table nestled in one corner, as private as one could get in such a place.
There she’d sat as her coffee cooled, trying to decide what to do next.
Because as of a few minutes ago she officially had a job offer that would take her away from Darian.
She closed her eyes. The interview hadn’t just gone well, it had been perfect. She’d clicked with her would-be boss, and the more she’d learned about the work the organization did, the more excited she became. She’d be a part of something that mattered.
Her new boss had been so impressed with her background she’d offered her the job on the spot. Apparently she’d been the last interviewee, and to hear her interviewer describe it, she was light years better than the other candidates.