The Billionaire's Masquerade Page 0,2

her!

She was no longer playing it safe. She was going to get out into the world and push herself out of her comfort zone. Even this little weekend adventure to search out the elusive Emerson Watson was a huge stretch for her! She pretended that her knees weren’t shaking with fear and her hands weren’t trembling. This was how successful people became more successful!

She was intrepid!

Okay, so she wanted to be fearless. Just “fake it till you make it” was her new motto.

Turning around, she looked down the driveway, gearing herself up for another long hike, biting her lip in indecision. She looked down the gravel road, trying to calculate in her mind how far she’d walked already, and how much further the main house might be.

Because her attention was diverted, she didn’t see the movement to the left of her until it was almost too late.

Emerson Jackson Watson almost fell off of the ladder on which he was working when the gorgeous woman emerged from the around the corner. Where the hell had she come from? He hadn’t heard anything a moment ago! She’d just appeared with her sexy red shoes and full, luscious lips that she was nervously mauling with her pretty, white teeth.

He steadied himself and leaned his arm against the low roof of the cottage, his eyes taking in the strikingly beautiful mystery woman with the incredible legs and impossibly high heels, teetering on her toes as she walked down the driveway. Her black suit cinched in at the waist, giving him a perfect view of her sexy figure. Did she have any idea how feminine she appeared? He suspected she’d chosen that black suit and those smoking hot, red shoes as a power play, but it had backfired because her breasts were too full, pressing against the black fabric of her suit jacket and her waist seemed tiny in comparison. Those heels only made her legs look like a stripper’s although he suspected she’d paid four or five hundred dollars for those killer shoes.

His eyes traveled back up her figure, appreciating all the delicious, appealing details until his eyes reached her face and he couldn’t stop the punch to his gut when he took in her full lips and almond shaped eyes surrounded by thick, black lashes. There was barely any gloss left to shine those lips which only allowed the beautiful, natural color to come through. And those pink, luscious lips were enticing enough but her eyes! Those green eyes were startling!

He wanted to stare into those eyes with the long, thick lashes while he filled her up. He wanted to see what those eyes looked like when she was smiling or sad or, even better, when she was….

He shook his head and tried to remove the erotic images from his mind. Women were a distraction he didn’t need. When he needed a woman’s touch, he had several lady friends in town who were more than accommodating. He definitely didn’t need a wannabe power woman.

“Can I help you?” he asked, enjoying her surprise when she saw him.

Rachel’s eyes snapped to the right and she couldn’t stop the gasp that blew from her lungs when she looked over at the man standing on the ladder by the house. As an avid gym-goer, Rachel knew what a buff, male body looked like. But this man’s physique was beyond anything she’d ever seen. She wasn’t sure how tall he was since he was standing on a ladder, but she suspected that he was taller than the average man. But what was extraordinary were the rippling, amazing muscles that covered his body. It wasn’t like he was a body builder with bulging muscles all over, although there were plenty of those. It was more that there were just muscles….everywhere! He was tall and lithe with those sumptuous, extraordinary muscles covering every part of his body. Her eyes did an inventory of all those muscles, irritated when she couldn’t see past the low riding, well-worn jeans that were just a little bit loose around his hips.

She swallowed painfully when those muscles flexed and she looked up, suddenly realizing that he was moving. Towards her! All those lovely, glistening muscles were descending that ladder, his strong hands flexing as he grasped and un-grasped the ladder while he climbed down and her eyes were drawn to the appearing and disappearing muscles along his arms and back. Everything glistened in the sunshine and she felt like she was going to pass out