The Billionaire's Disgraced Virgin (Billionaire Knights Book 2) by Nic Saint Page B

savvy. Now was not the time to get all hot and bothered about Chloe Ross. Now was the time to let cool calculation rule his decisions for the next few days, until the deal was signed and then they’d go their separate ways once again.
    They’d left the motorway and were traveling along smaller country lanes. Chloe was excited to see the lush greenery stretching out for miles and miles, occasionally interspersed with sleepy little villages. This was the English countryside at its finest and most enchanting, and she wasn’t surprised to find that being away from her cramped living quarters and the bustling metropolis was lifting her spirits all of its own accord. She’d rolled down the window and let her eyes roam freely across the fields with their dandelions, poppies and buttercups, the delicious scents of summer reaching her nostrils as the car slowed down its pace. For a brief moment she was back in Poole, long before the drama was to derail her life, and she felt a definite joy in her heart that mitigated to some extent the dread she’d been feeling ever since she’d been forced to accept this assignment.
    “This part of the country brings back fond memories,” Mike suddenly supplied. She threw him a quick look and saw that a slight smile had curled up the corners of his mouth. A thrill of anticipatory pleasure raced through her, and an image of Mike and herself entwined on the backseat of this very car, his lips brushing hers flitted across her mind’s eye. She squashed it immediately.
    “Did you grown up here?” she ventured.
    “Yes, I did. The whole family lived here for quite a long time, actually. My parents, my two brothers and I, and even my father’s parents, who had their own rooms in a separate wing of the house. Father traveled up to London for work but he found it essential his three sons would grow up here, where he’d enjoyed such a happy childhood himself. We went to school around here, and in the summer the rest of the family would come up and join us.”
    “That must have been wonderful.” She couldn’t keep the sigh from her voice. She herself had grown up in a small town and often longed for those halcyon days.
    “It was,” he confirmed. “Until mother died and…” His voice betrayed his distress, and she quickly glanced at him, only to see his face darkening with a scowl, the shadows of his past apparently deep and troubled. “But let’s not talk about that,” he finally said, and proceeded to hand her a file folder. “These are the latest numbers I’ve managed to finagle from the Press Corp accounting department. If you would take a look and offer me your conclusions?”
    His tone had become clipped. She took the file folder. “I’ll do it right now.”
    “Please do. Imagine we’re going into battle and we need all the ammunition we can find to come out victorious, Miss Ross.”
    He was directing an odd look at her, Chloe saw, and for a moment she had the impression he was trying to convey something, but then the moment passed and he was engrossed in his laptop once again, and she in the documents he’d handed her. When the car finally turned off the road and zoomed beneath an arched gateway, she’d already drawn her conclusions from the new material and closed the file folder.
    Press Corp was essentially a company that had overstretched itself when it had expanded into the Chinese market and now found itself in troubled financial waters. They urgently needed refinancing or might have to start selling off parts of their empire. It made them vulnerable to a takeover, which was probably why Roderick Holmes, who was in his seventh decade now, was interested in the deal with Knight. Instead of being a sitting duck for a hostile takeover he could set his own terms and retain a large measure of control. One of the stipulations was that his daughter Eileen would take over as CEO of the Press Corp Group. She would likely be present this weekend.
    Chloe glanced out the window as