Free HACKING THE BILLIONAIRE: Part 2 by Jenny Devall

her not talking about business.
    “Okay. Did you talk to Zeke?”
    “No, he was just out of surgery. I can wait until tomorrow. If they move him out of ICU,” Dirk said.
    “You’re pretty calm about that situation. Aren’t you interested in what he has to say?”
    “I am, but it’s out of my control.”
    “You’re accepting that pretty easily,” she said.
    She gathered silverware then set the table. He shrugged. “I guess I’m learning to let loose.”
    Riley laughed. “Somehow I don’t believe that. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”
    “After dinner.”
    “Huh?”
    “Let’s just talk.”
    “We would be talking. Just about business,” she said.
    He had decided on the way over that he wanted to get to know her better. “I want to talk like normal people.”
    “You are anything but normal. You own a helicopter that you can fly. And an Aston Martin, yet you use a car service wherever you go.”
    Dirk laughed. He guessed the average person didn’t do that. “Okay, well, I’m trying to be normal. I’m making food in a galley kitchen in a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn.”
    “I guess that’s close to normal. Imagine if I lived in New Jersey,” Riley said.
    He liked the mischievous smile on her face. It lit up her eyes. “New Jersey might be pushing it. Not sure I’d visit you there.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Ten
    Dirk put food in front of Riley. Whatever it was, it looked amazing. Smelled pretty good, too. She could get used to this, but she shouldn’t. He was only playing at this relationship thing. He would be gone when the job was over.
    He sat down next to her at her kitchen table. He’d said he wanted to talk? What were they going to talk about? Other than sex and this case, they had nothing in common.
    Riley tasted her food. This was good. He really could cook.
    “So tell me something about yourself that you want me to know,” Dirk said finally.
    Riley eyed him, having no idea what he was talking about. “Uh, I don’t think I have anything like that.”
    “There’s nothing you want me to know about you?”
    This wasn’t long-term. She didn’t want to be rude and point that out, but she wasn’t going to marry Dirk. He was Mr. Right Now. She knew this. Why get involved further? It would be tough enough to extricate herself from his life.
    Why get even more personal? “No, there isn’t.”
    “I know everything there is to know about you?”
    “I didn’t say that. I just don’t know that there is anything else to share.”
    “What’s your favorite color?”
    “Blue,” she said. “That isn’t earth-shattering.”
    “But I wanted to know it.”
    She shrugged and went back to eating. She had no idea what had gotten into him. She wanted to talk business. That would keep the distance between them. She needed that distance between them.
    It might save her heart from shattering when this was all over.
    She wasn’t sure why he was doing this. “What’s with you today?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re acting like a boyfriend,” she said.
    He put down his fork, then wiped his mouth. He turned his gaze to her full on. “What’s wrong with that?”
    “We both know this has a sell-by date. Let’s just go with that.”
    He blinked. “A sell-by date?”
    “An expiration date. We both know it. Let’s just talk some business.”
    He ate a few more bites, and she’d have given anything to know what he was thinking. Instead, she just devoured her food then put her plate in the dishwasher. She looked at her laptop again as he finished eating.
    “I think I have good news,” she said.
    “Other than our expiration date?”
    She ignored his comment. He would be just as eager to be rid of her when the time came. He could go back to his models and socialites. She could go back to her mundane, but safe, life.
    “Zeke can’t be the leak.”
    “Did you think he was?”
    Shit. She hadn’t told them that part. “I had him as