Dangerous Deception (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series) (2 page)

“Storm, wait for me,” she called in a light, airy
voice.  “I want to come with you.”

For a fraction of a second Storm’s brows fell and a
look of annoyance passed over his face.  Then it went blank and he turned to
meet the woman who was now almost upon him.  “Lola,” he said, his deep voice quiet
and cool, “I thought you were heading for home.”

“I am,” she said with a laugh as she caught his arm
and clung to it.  “Daddy didn’t come for me as he promised so I'm hitching a
ride with you.”  She looked up at him with huge eyes full of adoration then she
added the finishing touch when she set her crimson lips in a teasing pout.

Dani almost gagged.  Christ, the things some women did
to get a man’s attention.  Then, realizing the direction of her thoughts, she
made her face bland.  It was not her place to judge or to get involved in the
affairs of these people.  Best to just focus on doing her job.

“My pleasure,” Storm said but his voice was anything
but pleasant.  He’d spoken with a formality that made it clear that he would
have preferred to travel alone.

The woman he’d called Lola didn’t seem to notice his
reticence.  “Thank you so much, darling,” she gushed.  “Now we can get a chance
to talk some more.  You know Daddy loves it when we talk.”  Then she batted her
eyes in what she must have thought was an irresistibly seductive manner.

Dani clenched her teeth to keep from uttering a
sound.  As tempted as she was to give a groan of disgust, that was a luxury she
could not afford.  But honestly, the woman’s simpering was past annoying.  She
didn’t know how Storm Hunter could stand it.

He seemed to be handling it fairly well, though. 
They’d started walking toward the car and there was a slight smile on his lips,
admittedly a somewhat sardonic-looking smile, but a smile nonetheless.  The
woman slipped a hand into the crook of his arm and he didn't seem to mind. 
They looked quite comfortable now as they strolled toward her.

But things aren’t always as they seem, as Dani soon
realized.  To her surprise, when the couple got up close she saw the glint of irritation
in the man’s eyes and then he gave her a knowing look.  For that nanosecond
Dani’s heart froze.  Storm Hunter had just exchanged a look with her, a look
that said he was pissed and he didn’t mind letting her know because she would
understand.  It was one of those looks shared between men.  Except, she wasn’t
a man.

But he didn’t know that.

He was standing right in front of her now.  Dani gave
a quick nod of greeting, the perfect excuse for her to drop her gaze and break
the hold of his stare.  “Good evening, Mr. Hunter,” she said in a low voice
then leaned forward and opened the door of the limousine.  Storm helped Lola
then he bent his tall frame and climbed in, leaving Dani to close the door
behind them.  A moment passed before she could move.  He’d been so close that
the heady fragrance of his cologne filled her nostrils.  That, combined with
his nearness, had her heart racing like she’d just done a hundred meter
sprint.  Christ, what in the world was wrong with her?

The man was just a man, after all.  True, but this was
one handsome piece of man with his thick brows, square jaw and those deep dark
eyes that seemed to bore a hole into her soul.  He was the first man who’d made
her breath catch in her throat.  She’d gone through her fair share of romance
novels and had read about heroes who stole your breath away but she’d never had
that happen to her, had never even believed it.  Until now.

She gave her head a quick shake. 
Back to reality,
Dani.  You can’t afford to go soft on a guy now.  He's the client, remember?
Her emotions again under control, she strode back to the driver's seat and slid
behind the wheel.  She was calm now, almost able to laugh at herself.  And she
had a feeling she’d need a sense of humor.

If the last few minutes were anything to go by this
was going to be an interesting journey.

CHAPTER TWO

They were less than ten minutes into the journey when
Dani heard a tap on the tinted glass separating the driver's cab from the
back.  As soon as she pressed the button to wind the glass down she heard
Lola’s petulant voice.

“Chauffeur, don’t you have any champagne in this car?  I
don’t like what you have back here.  Vodka, gin, they’re not my kind of drink.”

“You may help yourself to some wine, ma’am,” Dani
said, never taking her eyes off the road.  “We’ve got white wine and red.”

“I don’t want any wine,” Lola sulked.  “I want champagne.”

“You’ve had enough to drink, Lola.”  Storm’s voice was
imperious.  “You don’t need anything but a bed right now.”

“Ooh,” she purred, “that sounds good.”

Dani couldn’t decipher Storm’s response.  It sounded
like a cross between a grunt and a snort.  She was dying to see the expression
on his face.  Curiosity got the better of her and she glanced into the rear view
mirror.  He chose that very moment to look up and their eyes met, his dark
brown and mysterious and hers, wide and startled.  She dropped her eyes and
embarrassment washed over her.  Please don’t let him keep staring at me.  She
knew she was probably red as a lobster.

Danielle Swift, keep your eyes on the
road and mind your own business
.  Great advice, except it wasn’t so easy to do when you
kept hearing whispering behind you, whispers that kept dissolving into girlish
giggles and then a gasp.  What the heck were they doing back there? 
Don’t
look, Dani, don’t look
.  She wished she could press the button and put the
tinted glass back up.  At least she’d be able to block out the sight and
sounds.  But she knew she couldn’t do that.  It would be too obvious and
besides she couldn’t just close the window without their permission.  It was
not her choice.  She was there to serve them, after all.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the giggles died
down and she heard the tinkle of liquid being poured into a glass.  Apparently
Storm had decided to let Lola have a drink, after all.  She didn’t blame him. 
At least that would shut her up, which was a great deal more bearable than
listening to her irritating giggles the whole time.

The brief silence was broken when Storm spoke.  “Make
a detour onto Kenilworth Avenue so I can drop Lola off.”

Before Dani could respond the woman’s voice came out
in a wail.  “But Storm, I thought we were going to your place.”

“No, Lola,
I'm
going to my place.”  His brusque
tone should have been enough to cool any woman’s ardor, but apparently not
Lola’s.  Dani heard her shifting on the seat, the fabric of her dress ruffling as
if she were sliding closer to her traveling companion.

“Storm, the night’s still young and I’m not ready to
go home yet.  Don’t make me go home.  Please.”  She dragged out the last word
like a child trying to wheedle a treat from her mother.  From her, a grown
woman, it sounded desperate.

Dani gritted her teeth.  God, she felt like slapping
the woman upside the head.  All she could think was,
Have some pride, woman
. 
Don’t go begging a man for his company
.  But again, she had to catch
herself.  This was absolutely none of her business and she’d better learn to
remain unaffected and uninvolved.  Just because she’d never be a doormat to any
man didn’t mean other women didn’t enjoy that kind of thing.  Although why they
would, Dani could never understand.

Storm totally ignored the woman’s plea.  He gave Dani
the address and remained silent even when Lola commenced to sigh heavily and
lament how lonely she would be without his company.  It was only when she
dissolved into soft sobs that he spoke.

“Spare me the dramatics,” he said coolly.  “I’m tired
and I’ll be leaving on an early flight tomorrow.  You know I have a busy
schedule this week so stop acting the victim.”

“But I am, I am,” she said through her sobs.  “You
treat me so harshly even though you know I love you.  Why do you torture me so
much?”

“Save that drivel for somebody who actually believes
it,” he responded, his tone unapologetic.  “You’re drunk.  Now be quiet and
rest your head on my shoulder.  I’ll wake you when you’re home.”

“You…you don’t hate me do you, Storm?”  Lola said, her
voice wavering then ending in a hiccup.

He gave a deep, tired-sounding sigh.  “I don’t hate
you, Lola.  I just need you to get home safely.  Now come.”

Dani couldn’t resist a glance and this time,
thankfully, both her passengers were too preoccupied to look in her direction. 
She saw Lola curl up close to Storm then he put up a gentle hand and pressed
her head to his shoulder.  The woman sighed and closed her eyes and seemed to
fall asleep in seconds.

Storm’s gentleness surprised her.  Was this the same
man who had been so unmoved just minutes before?  She’d thought him a selfish
brute and had silently cursed the woman for being so weak.  Now, though, his
hushed whisper into Lola’s ear and his gentle hand supporting her against his
shoulder made Dani wonder.

It didn’t take long to get to Lola’s home.  Dani drove
up the winding driveway and went around a circular garden to pull up in front
of a stately mansion.  The place looked and smelled of money.  Dani could see
that Lola was not a woman to scoff at, which made it all the more bewildering
as to why she seemed to have so little self- esteem.  Storm Hunter might be
rich, sure, but this woman obviously had money dripping out of her pores, too. 
So why did she act like she had to take anything Storm was dishing out?  Okay,
so he was cute.  Not just cute, breathtakingly handsome with dark, enigmatic
looks.  But that didn’t make him a god on earth, did it?

All Dani knew was that she’d never take that kind of
treatment from any man, no matter how rich he was.  If that was what it took to
satisfy a man, he’d have a heck of a long wait.

She hopped out of the car and went around to open the
door for Storm.  He rested Lola back against the seat and slid out then without
so much as a flex of his muscles he slid his arms under her shoulders and legs
and lifted her out like she wasn’t the dead weight Dani knew she was in her
drunken state.

Storm turned and mounted the steps to the wide porch
then reached under her and pressed the doorbell with his thumb.  Somebody must
have been waiting up cause only seconds passed before the door was flung open
and Storm was allowed entrance.  He disappeared inside and was gone for a good fifteen
minutes, leaving Dani still standing by the limousine, wondering if he’d
changed his mind and decided to bed down with Lola.

She’d climbed back into the driver’s seat and was just
ready to call in and ask permission to leave when she saw him strolling across
the porch then down the steps toward the waiting car.  Dani rested the cell
phone back down and climbed out of the car.  She’d better hurry and get the
door for His Royal Highness, she thought cheekily, then grinned at her own
private joke.

She made it to the door just as Storm stepped up to it
and he had to wait for her to grasp the handle and pull it open.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” he said dryly then
climbed into the limousine.

That was when she realized she still had the silly
grin on her face.  So much for private jokes.  The man must think she’d been
hitting the bottle while he’d gone to put Sleeping Beauty to bed.  She wiped
the smile off her face real fast.  The last thing she needed was a report
getting back to Tony that he had a weirdo on his staff.

The journey to Storm’s place would take another twenty
minutes and Dani began to sweat.  She’d forgotten to roll up the separating
glass while Storm was away and she was dying to do it now but wouldn’t that be
too obvious?  What if he objected?  In the meanwhile he had a perfect view of
the back of her head and she could feel something tickling the back of her
neck.  Christ, had a coil of hair slipped out from under her hat and was now
hanging down, giving her disguise away?  She wanted to put her hand up to check
but she couldn’t, not while he was watching. 

And she could feel him watching.  The weight of his
eyes was on the back of her neck.  He wasn’t staring out the window, he wasn’t
relaxing with his eyes closed.  No, he was watching her.  She didn’t have to
glance in any rear view mirror to know that.  She could feel it.

Silently, angrily, Dani began to grind her teeth. 
What did this man find so fascinating about the back of her neck?  She wished
he would grab a glass of gin and drink himself into oblivion like any normal
man would.  Then she could drive in peace and not be sweating buckets like a
pig in a tanning booth.

She was so deep in her angry thoughts that she jumped
when she heard Storm’s voice.

“So how long have you been at Tony’s?  I’ve never seen
you before.”

“Uh, only a week or so,” she muttered.  She had to
remember to keep her voice deep and low.  She was supposed to be a man, after
all.

Although, thinking about it now, it seemed almost
silly to be keeping up this pretense.  She’d done it to protect herself from
weirdos but now that she would have a fairly regular customer in Storm was that
still necessary?  What if she just told him who she really was?