Bowles, Jan - Bought for the Billionaire's Bed [Guilty Pleasures 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) by Jan Bowles Page A

started to walk with him out of the shop.
    “Good, I’m glad you’ve quit. I would have fired you if you hadn’t. You stupid girl.”
    Mia stopped in her tracks. “Excuse me for a moment, Trent. There’s something I need to do.” She turned and walked back toward Monica. Standing very close to her, she said, “Call me a stupid girl again, Monica.”
    The woman sneered. “You stupid, girl. I should have fired you a long time ago.”
    Mia wiped the smile off the shop owner’s lips with a stinging slap to her cheek. Face powder billowed into the air in a huge cloud. The woman looked shocked, and for once, remained speechless.
    Mia turned back to Trent. “I’m ready to leave now.”
    He tucked her hand in his and proceeded to the door. For the despicable way she’d treated Mia, Trent decided to leave his own cutting remark. “Madam, for someone dealing with designer fashion on a daily basis, you really have absolutely no dress sense. Has anyone ever told you your clothes don’t fit? The phrase mutton dressed as lamb springs to mind.” He just heard her strangled outrage as the door finally closed behind them.

    * * * *

    Once outside the shop, Trent hailed a cab. Mia stole a glance in his direction. She knew disappointment when she saw it. Her perfect fantasy had turned into a complete nightmare. Now the dream had truly crashed and burned. Trent thought she was nothing more than a common thief.
    He didn’t speak until they were seated in the cab, and when he did, he couldn’t hide the derision. “I take it you live in New York. Or is there something else you’re not telling me?”
    Her voice came out rather thin and reedy. “I live in the Bronx.” She told him the address. “I can find my own way home.”
    “Oh, no.” He held onto her arm and then gave the address to the cab driver. “You’re staying right here, where I can keep an eye on you. I don’t want another disappearing act.”
    Mia cleared her throat. “Trent, I am truly sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to deceive you. It just happened.”
    “Really?”
    “Yes, really.” Mia clasped her hands tightly together, making the knuckles bare white. “It just…” she shrugged, “all got out of hand.”
    “Then you didn’t mean to deceive me?”
    “No.” She shook her head and bit down onto her bottom lip. It threatened to quiver at any moment. His eyes looked hard as they scanned over her. Now he knew the real Mia Johansson. He was annoyed.
    “So wearing someone else’s dress all happened by mistake.” She could hear the sarcasm in his voice, and it hurt. They’d had such a wonderful evening together. She hadn’t wanted it to end. Now it had. Badly.
    “It was the only way I could go to the event.”
    “Why was it so important?”
    “You wouldn’t understand.”
    “Try me.”
    She breathed in. “I wanted to see the painting.”
    “So you thought you’d steal a dress just to see it.” He sounded incredulous.
    “I borrowed the dress,” she countered indignantly.
    “Mia, much as I dislike your boss, she certainly had the right to be angry. The dress belonged to someone else, and it was no ordinary dress. It was a designer piece by Bellini, a one off. Worth about fifty thousand dollars, possibly more.”
    “What are you going to do? About the money, I mean.”
    He leaned back against the seat and stared out of the cab window. When he turned to her, she saw intense disappointment in his eyes. “I haven’t decided yet.” His gaze raked over her, assessing everything about her in an instant. Her student clothes were threadbare and dull. Mia wanted to crawl under a stone and die. “I suppose everything you told me about yourself was a lie, too.”
    “I didn’t lie to you, Trent. You just assumed things about me because of the way I was dressed. Everyone’s prejudiced one way or another. You thought I was wealthy, so you decided to talk to me. If I’d been dressed as I am now, you probably wouldn’t have given me a