How To Marry A Billionaire

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As Cara watched in mortified silence, it finally occurred to her that she was once again in the vicinity of the man she had been looking forward to never seeing again.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ she asked under her breath.

‘You’re the one who needed the leaning post,’ he said from right behind her.

‘Not here. But here, in the hotel.’

At that moment Joe the security guard came up with something jingling in his hand. It was not a mobile phone. It was a card. It had a huge ‘CONGRATULATIONS!’ scrawled across the front. And when the guard opened it the card played a very good imitation of a mobile phone ring tone.

Cara, Adam, and a good number of those in line craned over the guard’s shoulder for a closer look, to find the long gushy note Gracie had written and hidden in her case before Cara had left.

Every one of the big burly men turned to Cara with mushy looks on their faces. Cara just tapped her foot and held out a hand. Blushing, Joe handed over her private mail.

‘I am terribly sorry, Ms Marlowe.’

‘That’s OK, Joe,’ she said, swallowing down her indignation and embarrassment. There was no reason to make him feel bad. He hadn’t done anything wrong, though Gracie would receive a tongue-lashing along with a hug for this particular stunt. Cara gave the guard a pat on the back and smiled until she sensed him relaxing. ‘You were doing your job. And with impressive thoroughness. You are a credit to your post.’

Joe blushed and scuffed his toe on the carpet.

‘Can I have my case now?’ Cara asked.

‘Sure. Of course.’ Joe returned to his packing with extra special care.

Cara cleared her throat. ‘Thanks, Joe, but I can look after it from here.’

Joe stood up, his blush growing by the second. While he went back to checking the bags of the growing line of guests, Cara continued to repack her case. But of course she could no longer get it closed. She looked about her for help. Joe was going through Adam’s bag and naturally everything seemed to be going swimmingly for him.

Adam glanced her way. She bit back her pride and waved him over. ‘If I sit, can you zip?’

A knowing smile lifted his mouth and she wanted nothing more than to slap it away. ‘Of course,’ he said.

She sat, having to lift her legs when he rounded the front, so that he could duck beneath them. Would there never be an end to her humiliation when he was about?

‘Come on, say it,’ she insisted.

‘What?’

‘Whatever it is you’re thinking.’ Some smartypants comment about my backside, or falling into your arms, or about my white cotton underwear.

‘I was thinking you handled Joe’s embarrassment brilliantly. You are one very nice lady, Ms Marlowe.’

‘Oh.’

Adam tugged the zip through the last few centimetres. Taking a hold of her ankles, he pulled her feet back to the ground. ‘There. All done.’

He kept a hold of her bare ankles for several long moments before releasing his grip with a final soft pat. Cara had to swallow to wet her suddenly parched throat.

‘Adam, you never did say what you were doing here?’

‘Not surprisingly, considering the floor show was a heck of a lot more interesting than anything I had to say.’

Cara felt a growl growing in her chest but Adam got there first.

‘Revolution Wireless is sponsoring the show.’

Now that statement deserved a hesitant blink.

‘Wow. That’s some turn-round. At lunch I could have sworn you thought the show the most ludicrous idea you had ever come across.’

‘I did. And I still do. But, nevertheless, people who know more about these sorts of things than I do tell me that it will be the biggest thing on television bar the Aussie Rules Grand Final. So I am here as Revolution Wireless’s representative.’

‘For the whole two weeks?’ Cara asked, trying to rein in her hysterical voice.

He nodded.

‘Mr Tyler,’ the security guard called out. ‘Mobile phone, laptop, printer, all on the list. You’re right to go through.’

Adam watched her for a few moments longer before standing and returning to his bags without another word.

Seeing her chance to retire as gracefully as possible, Cara stood, and dragged her suitcase to the lift as quickly as she could.

Adam watched her walk away.

The woman was good entertainment value if nothing else. He watched her shuffle from one foot to the other as though the floor were covered in hot coals, and then as the lift doors slowly opened she bolted like a cat with her tail on fire.

Joe the security guard cleared Adam to go on through into the hotel proper. Adam sauntered to the lift recalling what a cute tail it was, squeezed into pale denim cut-offs that had been washed so many times they fit her like second skin. Though she was a slim woman, she certainly curved just where she ought. He had been well aware of that when walking up to the front door of the hotel and seeing those very curves wiggling so engagingly at him.

The moment he had realised just whose curves they were, he had instantly jumped in to help. Or, if he was honest with himself, he had instantly leapt to shield her considerable temptations from appreciative eyes other than his own.