The Pretend Girlfriend (A Billionaire Love Story #1)(56)

The kitchen was nice, with stainless steel appliances and a marble-topped island. Spacious, too, with a small, round table tucked away in one corner with two chairs. Gwen wondered how often Aiden actually needed both chairs.

There was also an array of saucepans, skillets, and other cooking implements hanging above the island.

"You cook?" she said.

Aiden shrugged, "I always find food tastes better if you put the meal together yourself. Don't you cook?"

She made a face and then slapped him lightly on the arm. "That's pretty sexist. Just because I'm a woman you think I know how to cook?"

That got her a look in return. "No. But aren't you being sexist when you think it's strange that I do know how to? You seem pretty surprised to know."

He had her there, she admitted. It was just as bad for her to assume that he didn't know his way around a kitchen as it was for him to assume that she did.

"I guess I am surprised," Gwen said, "If only because it still feels like I know so little about you. I mean, I pictured this whole place pretty differently..."

"Really? Come on, let's continue. There's not much more to see," Aiden replied, leading her out of the kitchen and down another short hallway. This one had three doors: one on each wall, and one at the end.

"So how did you picture it?" Aiden said, leading her towards the door on their left.

This was getting uncomfortable. Why did he want to know how she thought it would look? What next, she wondered, is he going to ask what made me think about it? Already, she could feel some heat in her cheeks. And was it just her, or was the whole world just too hot that day?

The first room he showed was the bedroom-turned-office. Bookcases lined the walls, sparing only the sliding doors of the closet. A corner desk sat in the far corner, the computer monitor on top of it turned off.

"Have you actually read all these?" Gwen said, letting her arm slip out of his. She didn't notice the oval rug on the floor until she stepped on it. It felt warm on the soles of her feet compared to the hardwood.

"Yes. Many of them are from school, of course. I picked up others as I needed them. Running an international business isn't as easy as it looks."

There had to be close to a thousand books sitting on all those cases. If not more. Large volumes and thin ones, paperbacks and hard covers. Many of them didn't have dust jackets, instead simply the gold lettering on the spine showing. Gwen moved closer to one of the cases and, making sure Aiden couldn't see, squinted to try and read.

"The Dichotomy of Capitalism and Democracy," Gwen read off the first title she could make out, "Sounds like some heavy reading." It sounded like the type of thing she would read during a late night bout of insomnia to put herself to sleep. Also, the thick book just looked heavy. You'd need some good forearms to hold that old tome up.

The books around it were all on similar subjects, business, philosophy, economics.

And, despite a bit of dust floating around in the air, the only "mess" she could see were a couple books lying open on his desk.

"Believe it or not, it's not the densest material I've had to read," Aiden said.

"And here I was, pegging you for a diehard romance fan," Gwen joked.

"I have a few of those out in the living room, actually. I keep the stuff I read for entertainment separate from the things I read for the business and the charities."

Gwen made a mental note to check out some of the books out in the living room, if and when the tour ended and they settled in out there. You could tell a lot about a person based on what they chose to read over what they needed to read.

She couldn't keep from feeling excited. This was going far better than she'd expected, and she was learning so much about him. She also got the feeling that Aiden rarely let other people into these spaces, and it felt nice to know that she'd somehow managed to earn that trust.

"So what's behind door number 2?" she asked.

Back in the hallway, he opened the second door. The bedroom, it turned out. As in the rest of the apartment, the furniture looked of good quality, but understated. A king-size bed took up much of the space, flanked by a pair of matching night tables with lamps on them.

The bed was made, too. Showoff, she thought. Of course his bed would be made. She bet it was the first thing he did every morning.

"I guess the prize is behind lucky number 3?" Gwen said. That feeling of heat kept building the longer they stood together in his bedroom. Her dream had ended in his bedroom. She caught herself wondering what sort of mattress he had. She bet it was a pillow top. She loved pillow tops. And with that thought, she knew it was time to get out of there.

"Let's go and find out, shall we?" Aiden said. Things got a little cooler back out in the hall, with the door to the bedroom safely shut.

The opening of the final door revealed the bathroom. No roiling clouds of steam rolled out to greet them, and the door to the shower stall was closed. For a guy's bathroom it actually looked pretty serviceable. Good-sized vanity, all three bulbs over the large mirror (which, unlike hers, wasn't flecked with little water and toothpaste stains) matched.

Once more, Gwen's fantasies started pushing their way into her conscious mind. She could imagine Aiden stepping out of the shower, pulling the navy blue towel off the bar over there... She swallowed heavily.