The Billionaire Date. Leigh Michaels

underneath it all,” Alison murmured. “Next thing we know, she’ll be starting up a Laundromat.”

      Kit tried not to laugh at the indignant look on Susannah’s face. I do love these two, she thought. And I can’t let them, or Tryad, down.

      

      Kit spent a restless night, and as dawn approached, dreams disturbed her. Aware enough to know she wasn’t awake but unable to pull herself from the nightmare, she lay rigid as one weird scene chased another through her mind. Finally, just as Jarrett Webster triumphantly put Tryad out of business and began to personally auction off everything from desks to copy machines to drawing boards to the calico cat who lived in the top-floor production room, Kit woke with a snap.

      She lay flat on her back, her heart pounding painfully. A couple of tears had slipped from the corners of her eyes and lost themselves in the soft brown hair at her temples. But she felt more anger than fear.

      She pushed herself upright and went to the kitchenette. While she waited for her coffee to brew, she relived the dream, analyzing each unrealistic element in the hope of banishing the emotional hangover it had left behind. She still felt half dazed.

      It was only a nightmare, after all, she told herself, the aftereffects of contact with an arrogant, insufferable, egotistical male.

      “I’d like to auction him!” she said, and the coffeemaker sighed as if in agreement.

      She started to fill her cup and stopped, holding the pot in midair. And why not? she asked herself.

      She stood frozen in place, not seeing the stream of coffee that ovenflowed her cup and pooled on the kitchen counter.

      There were women who’d love to spend an evening with Jarrett Webster. Kit recognized the attraction he posed, even though she didn’t understand it. He wasn’t to her taste, but there was no question he was devastatingly good-looking, and that aura of power was no doubt a turn-on for a lot of women. Add his money and his fame....