The Reluctant Cinderella Read Online Free PDF Page B

Poughkeepsie, if that’s where you’re headed from here.”
    â€œOh, I couldn’t….”
    He caught her hand. Heat sizzled up his arm. “Yes, you could.”
    She swallowed, pressed those sweet lips together—and then broke into a smile. “Well, okay then. I’ll take the limo gladly. And thank you.” Since he still held her hand firmly in his, she shook it, pumping her arm up and down with great enthusiasm.
    He finally got the message and reluctantly let her go. “You’re welcome.” He opened the limo door for her. She ducked inside. He shut the door. She rolled down the window and smiled up at him.
    He passed her his card, the one with all his numbers on it—office, cell and home. “Next Monday.”
    She took the card. “Ten o’clock.” Those lips of hers seemed to beg for a kiss.
    â€œGotcha.” He tore his gaze from her mouth to keep himself from doing something completely unacceptable. “Till then…”
    She nodded and rolled up the window. He tapped on the passenger window. Jerry rolled it down. Greg passed the chauffeur another big tip. “Take Megan upstate. She’ll tell you where.”
    â€œWill do, Mr. Banning.”
    Greg stepped back from the car. The limo rolled away from the curb. He stood staring after it until it turned the corner.
    Â 
    As the hot afternoon faded into a muggy evening, Greg began to wonder what the hell had gotten into him. Damned if he hadn’t gone completely gaga over Angela Schumacher’s sister. He’d come that close to dragging Megan out of that limousine and into his arms. That close to kissing her—a hard, long, wet kiss—right there on the street.
    Maybe it was the wine….
    But he knew it wasn’t. He’d been long-gone over the woman from the moment he’d glanced up from his computer and found her standing in the doorway to his office. There’d been no wine then. He’d been stone-cold sober.
    Unbelievable. Unacceptable. And impossible.
    He was never going to go out with Megan Schumacher. She was from the neighborhood, for pity’s sake. She lived three houses up from Carly….
    No way. Couldn’t happen. If he and Megan started seeing each other, there would be talk. And Carly would be hurt even more than he’d already hurt her.
    Greg would never go back to Carly. It was over between them and had been for a long time. He did, however, feel a certain…tenderness toward her. A certain responsibility. She was a good woman, just not the woman for him. Somehow, sweet Carly Alderson had turned out to be the perfect wife. Gregdidn’t want perfect. He’d never wanted perfect. He’d grown up with perfect and it was a cold, sterile way to live.
    He knew that Carly had yet to accept that it was over. But in time, she would. Until then, though, he owed it to her to stay away, to keep himself the hell out of her life—which meant not dating someone she considered her friend. Whatever had happened to him at the sight of sexy Megan Schumacher, it couldn’t be allowed to happen again.
    Greg stood in the darkness of his apartment and stared out at the Manhattan night and considered calling Megan to tell her he’d changed his mind about using Design Solutions.
    But no. That would not only be a bad business decision for Banning’s, it wouldn’t be right. Her work was top-notch. Her ideas were brilliant. She’d never been anything but strictly professional during the meeting and the lunch that followed. He was the one who’d come within an inch of stepping over the line.
    Megan deserved this opportunity. And he had zero doubt that once his father and the others saw what she could do, she would get the contract. They’d be lucky to have her.
    Uh-uh. It wasn’t Megan Schumacher’s fault that Greg Banning had gone crazy over her. It was Greg’s problem and he would handle it.
    From now on, when