Free Lie to Me: A Contemporary Billionaire BWWM Romance by Mia Caldwell

attracted to him and so had started making excuses for his behavior? Either way, he lost it again on the day they went sailing – Zoe was convinced she would never forgive him for that and that he had become set in stone as a jerk in her eyes. But then came the night of the ballet, and somehow (Zoe was still not altogether sure how) by the end of that night they were laughing and happy and she was once again looking at him with that pleasantly uncomfortable knot of attraction in her stomach.
    Being around Nick was a rollercoaster ride for Zoe. She never knew how she was going to feel from one day to the next. It also occurred to her that part of the reason for this must surely have been that Nick himself did not care how she saw him. If he did care then his inconsistent behavior made no sense whatsoever. She was just a project to him and when this unusual assignment was over then that would be that.
    The makeover day changed things, there was no denying that. But Zoe, once again, found herself confused – she was not sure if they had changed for better or worse. Actually she was not sure of anything.
    The hair dressing had been irritating – largely due to Steven – but you couldn’t argue with results and she had looked fabulous, even if she looked like a completely different person. But , she reminded herself, that was the point, right ? The makeover had been agonizing in more ways than one but, again, you couldn’t argue with results – she looked like a different person. She looked stunning, even to her normally critical eyes.
    The clothes shopping had been fun. Zoe had never thought of herself, nor ever wanted to think of herself as one of those girls who define themselves by the clothes they wear, but she had to admit that shopping without a budget for clothes had been a riot. The fabrics, the embroidery, the perfectly tailored cuts—the fact that one outfit was more than her monthly salary—all of it had been exhilarating. And the clothes themselves had been wonderful, and they had made her look wonderful. She knew, logically, that the clothes had not actually changed her, but they had seemed to take what already existed of her and had reorganized and redistributed her into a much better looking version. And a result like that, you couldn’t argue with.
    At the end of the day Zoe had looked into a mirror and seen this extraordinary, and frankly unfamiliar, woman looking back at her. That of course was the point – she was supposed to be a different woman, she was supposed to be Vanessa . And she admitted she was starting to do a fairly good impression of her.
    But still, the sight took Zoe’s breath away for reasons that had nothing to do with the success of Nick’s plan. This woman who stared back from the mirror had a stylish hair-do, every hair perfectly in place and complimenting the luminous glow of her sharply made-up face, her dress was professional and yet sexy, showing off the best of the body beneath whilst coyly keeping it hidden. The woman was… well maybe not quite gorgeous, but she had taken a big step towards gorgeous from what she had been at the start of the day. And Zoe found herself thinking; maybe Nick was right. Maybe a few more salads instead of Big Macs wouldn’t hurt. She could drop a bit of weight, change this, adjust that - think how she could look by the end of it!
    And in that moment Zoe found herself frightened by what she had inadvertently become.
    Like most women, she was insecure about aspects of her body and her appearance, but she had fought hard to embrace who she was without compromise. Now suddenly she was looking for things to change? And all it had taken was a makeover and a few pointed suggestions from Nick.
    More worryingly perhaps was that when she had looked into the mirror, she had also seen Nick standing behind her, and the way he looked at her now was very different to the way he had looked at her when she had been just ‘ Zoe ’. If he had not been