Free The Billionaire's Elusive Lover by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

really,” she said, pulling out of his light grasp. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just wander over to that tree and wait until you’re done. It can’t be very long. I’m sure Alec will send all of his staff home early enough so they can still get in a few hours of work before you retire for the night.”
     
    Jim shook his head, laughing at her suggestion. “You can’t wander around the grounds, Helen. There are motion sensors all over the yard. If you accidentally trip one off, a pack of vicious dogs will come out and scare the living day lights out of you.” He picked up her hand and tucked it back into the elbow of his arm. “Come along. I promise we’ll stay out of my boss’s way and I’ll introduce you to the others I work with. Unfortunately, I’m not high enough on the food chain to actually know Mr. Dionysius on a very personal level yet so he won’t be in our main crush of conversations. He’ll be schmoozing with his vice presidents tonight and won’t even notice us as we partake of his excellent liquor and possibly the best food you’ll ever eat.”
     
    Helen was doubtful but she accepted that there would probably be enough people here tonight so she could at least hide in the crowds and be inconspicuous.
     
    Warily, she followed him up the stairs once again and into the house. Thankfully, they were late enough that, if there’d been a receiving line, it was gone now and they could enter the house without being greeted by the man himself.
     
    “Come on,” Jim said, leading her through the enormous foyer to the back of the house where most of the people were mingling. “You’ve got to see this place. It’s amazing.”
     
    Helen had to agree with him. Even having grown up with her father’s palace-like house, she was impressed with this one. Jim led her to an enormous living room area that had to be more than five thousand square feet and two stories high. The back wall had Palladian windows on the first level, then another set of enormous square windows on the second story. The room had honey colored hardwood floors that added warmth as well as elegance with large, comfortable looking sofas and chairs placed strategically around the room and large white columns spacing the rooms geometrically. She counted three groupings of sofas and chairs in this area with a massive fireplace at each end. The hardwood floors were softened in these groupings by large carpets that made the room look more welcoming.
     
    As she stared out one of the five sets of French doors currently opened onto the patio, she could see more white but this was of stone instead of marble. It extended out to stairs that descended into a formal garden laid out in patchwork with large oak trees framing both sides and marble statuary in the middle. Directly down the center was an Olympic sized swimming pool with floating candles surrounded by flowers dancing on the surface.
     
    “Impressive, isn’t it?” Jim mumbled to her as he took two glasses of white wine from a passing waiter. “Mr. Dionysius doesn’t scrimp on the entertainment budget, does he?”
     
    “Nor on the home heating bill,” she mumbled, trying desperately to find something about the party she didn’t like. She didn’t want to be impressed. She didn’t want to know anything about the man that might tip the scales in his favor. Already loving his home, she had to find something that was wrong – and the open doors letting the air conditioning out of the house was the best thing she could think of.
     
    Unfortunately, when she mentioned it, Jim only laughed and shook his head. “Don’t be too hard on him. I think he uses solar energy for most of the appliances and the air conditioning would be one of them. It’s my understanding that one of his smaller companies is one of those research firms and this house is a sort of test tube for their ideas. This house probably uses less energy than my two thousand square foot condominium.”
     
    Drat! Helen hated