Utterly Yours (Book One) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Alexa Brookes Page A

again, and he chose to ignore it.  He definitely was going to have to disappoint his mother later by vetoing her choice in potential daughter-in-law.  This woman was a joke.  At the very least, she was boring.  She was a daddy’s girl who had been spoiled her whole life and was now looking for a substitute man to continue to spoil her, and Nathaniel wasn’t buying it.
                  At long last, the entrees arrived, and he rolled his eyes to see that she had ordered this petite little dish; she might as well have just eaten a larger salad.  She picked at her plate, while Nathaniel dug into his food, just so his mouth would be full and he would not have to talk too much –it wasn’t like he was getting a word in edge-wise.  She was just getting started on a tale about when her father took her sailing as a kid, and she had apparently loved it and this was why she had gotten her own boat on her thirteenth birthday.  “So, can you sail?” Nathaniel asked, thinking that that would at least be a more interesting topic of conversation –plus he thought that perhaps if they went sailing together it would be a much more interesting date than this.
                  “Oh, no, of course not.  My daddy hired someone to take me sailing when I wanted to go out on the bay,” she said, and Nathaniel had to open his eyes wide and stare to avoid rolling them at her.  One of her fingers pointed down at his phone.  “Your phone is blinking.”
                  Yes, to her, not immediately answering a text message probably seemed like absolute madness.  He looked at his phone, and he saw that it was not his mother who had texted him, but it was instead Tony Ramirez, his youthful intern turned assistant.  Tony had been an intern at Lynch Industries, and he had killed it.  Nathaniel hired the kid his junior year of college as a part-time assistant and the kid went to full-time after graduating two years before.  The text read: Do you need a rescue?
                  Nathaniel smiled.  He liked this kid.  He quickly texted back: Save me if you can.
                  Tony responded: Make sure your phone’s turned up so she can hear you –this is going to be good.
                  Nathaniel bit his tongue to keep from laughing, but he did as he was told and turned the call volume up so that his date could hear Tony; if there weren’t other people at the five-star restaurant having dinner as well, he would just put it on speaker phone, but he wasn’t quite sure what Tony had in mind.  The phone started ringing.  “I’m sorry, that’s my assistant calling, do you mind?” he asked, cutting Eliza off mid-sentence.
                  “Oh, no, go ahead,” she said with a casual hand wave.
                  Nathaniel answered the phone, and immediately a hysterical sounding Tony began sobbing in his ear.  “Oh my God, Mr. Lynch!  Mr. Lynch, we need you at the office right away!”
                  “Calm down, Tony, what’s going on?” Nathaniel asked, trying hard not to smile –Tony sounded incredibly sincere in his tone, and Nathaniel could see Eliza perking up slightly to eavesdrop.
                  “I just –I don’t- “ Tony stammers.  “This man showed up… he says we stole an app idea from him.  He’s losing his mind and causing a huge scene.  Oh, God, he’s calling the police right now!  He says he’s going to hire a team of lawyers; he says he’s going to sue!  Mr. Lynch, I don’t know what to do!”
                  “All right, calm down, Tony.  Let the man know the CEO is on his way.  Take a breath. I’ll be there soon,” Nathaniel said and hung up the phone.  He looked over at Eliza sadly.  “I am so sorry, but there seems to be some sort of crisis at work.”
                  “I understand,” Eliza said, “your assistant seemed pretty