The Billionaire's Matchmaker(63)

“You have a problem with being in the light?”

“I have a problem with light shining directly in my eyes.”

A reasonable explanation had he not also hidden in a dark office earlier that afternoon. “Better?” she asked, lowering the light.

“Seeing how I’m no longer blinded, yes. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She noted he didn’t carry a flashlight of his own. Either he knew these paths by heart or Marney was right; he was a vampire. “Tell me, do you always skulk around the woods at night?”

“I do when I own the property. And, it’s called walking. I find the solitude helps me to think.” He shifted his position, his shoulders scraping against the bark. “I’d ask what you’re doing here but the answer’s obvious.”

Thankfully the night hid her red cheeks. “They snuck out while I was unloading the dog food.” A small lie, but she wasn’t about to admit the dogs escaped while she was thinking about him.

“Interesting how Charlie chose to come here, don’t you think? Almost as though he were being kept someplace he didn’t want to be.”

Ouch. “Except he didn’t come alone. How do you explain Lulu tagging along?”

“Maybe he thought she’d enjoy a moonlight stroll.”

“Right. Because dogs go on so many dates.”

“Do you have a better reason?”

Unfortunately, she didn’t other than Charlie’s penchant for wandering, and she didn’t want to start that conversation again. She was here to return the dog, not come up with a reason to dognap him again.

Charlie trotted over to his owner and stood on hind legs, nudging his hand. To her surprise, the man actually appeared to scratch the dog’s head. Taking advantage of the moment, Jenny pulled a pair of leashes from her pocket and clipped one of them to a distracted Lulu’s collar. Soon as Charlie made his way back to the path, she corralled him as well.

“Gotcha,” she murmured. Not that he put up much of a fight. Must have used up his energy getting here.

“If I’d known you were going to let him roam all over town after dark, I’d never have let you take him.”

“Excuse me?” She looked up from leashing Charlie. “Did you say let me take him?”

“You don’t think you would have gotten off the property otherwise, do you?”

She thought back to her departure. She’d been so annoyed, she didn’t give it a second thought, but the security guard barely gave her a second glance now that she thought about it. One would think a billionaire like Nicholas Bonaparte, with his money and access to technology, could have stopped her with the push of a button.

And here she’d been driving herself crazy for the past hour worrying he was going to call the police. She couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh.

“Something funny?”

Yeah, her. “I thought—never mind.” If the man hadn’t thought to call the police on her for taking Charlie, far be it for her to put ideas in his head.

The fact that Bonaparte didn’t do anything, however, did beget a question. “Why did you let me take him?”

He shrugged and Jenny really wished she could see his expression to know if he looked as unaffected as the shrug implied. Her gut wasn’t so certain. “I never set out to own a dog in the first place. Getting him was my fiancée’s idea.”


He had a fiancée? “She must be upset I took off with him.”

“Doubt it. She departed first.”

“I’m sorry.” Although why, she wasn’t sure. For all she knew, the man broke the engagement happily. Again, her gut said otherwise. “How come Charlie isn’t with her?”

“Simple. I kept him out of spite.”

Jenny blinked, unsure what to say. She must have made a sound though, because he gave a humorless laugh. “You believe me, don’t you?”

“I don’t—” She was confused. “Should I?”

“You can believe what you want to believe, Ms. Travolini.”

“Telling me what I can believe and what I should believe are two different things.” And she got the distinct impression, based on his tone of voice, that there was a sharp difference in this case. Despite his cavalier behavior. “Which one is the truth?”

A beat passed. “You really want to know?” he asked, pushing away from the tree. “She decided she didn’t want him anymore, so she walked away and left him.”

“Just like that?” His words stabbed very close to home. No wonder she bonded so strongly with Charlie. It was a case of one abandoned soul recognizing another. “People can be so heartless,” she murmured, giving Lulu’s neck stroke.

“Present company included, I assume.”

Jenny’s cheeks grew hot. “I—”

“Don’t worry. You aren’t the first person to make the suggestion.”

Charlie and Lulu were yanking on their leashes, eager to start moving again. Jenny felt herself being tugged forward. “I’d better—”

“Of course.” To her surprise, he fell in step beside her. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so surprising. Certainly not as surprising as her walking with him. Having found the dogs, she should be turning around instead of heading deeper into his property.