The Billionaire Cinderella Test Read online

  The Billionaire Cinderella Test

  BILLIONaire Online Dating Service Book #2

  ELLE JAMES

  TWISTED PAGE INC

  Contents

  The Billionaire Cinderella Test

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Tarzan & Janine

  Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Also by Elle James

  The Billionaire Cinderella Test

  Billionaire Online Dating Service BOOK #2

  New York Times & USA Today

  Bestselling Author

  * * *

  ELLE JAMES

  Copyright © 2015 Twisted Page Inc

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62695-017-7

  Print ISBN: 978-1-62695-018-4

  Hearts can heal and dreams can come true, if you open yourself to the possibilities…

  * * *

  Elle James

  Author’s Note

  Enjoy other books by Elle James

  * * *

  Billionaire Online Dating Service

  The Billionaire Husband Test (#1)

  The Billionaire Cinderella Test (#2)

  The Billionaire Bride Test (#3)

  The Billionaire Daddy Test (#4)

  The Billionaire Matchmaker Test (#5)

  * * *

  Texas Billionaire Club

  Tarzan & Janine (#1)

  Something To Talk About (#2)

  Who’s Your Daddy (#3)

  Love & War (#4)

  Visit ellejames.com for more titles and release dates

  For hot cowboys, visit her alter ego Myla Jackson at mylajackson.com

  and join Elle James and Myla Jackson's Newsletter at http://ellejames.com/ElleContact.htm

  Chapter 1

  “We got a problem, boss.”

  Gage Tate clenched his teeth and held his temper. “What now?”

  “The replacement boom we contracted didn’t show up this morning.”

  Not good. Of all days for work on the Platinum Towers to grind to a halt, now was not a good one. “Did you call and find out why?”

  Marcus Shipley nodded. “Yup. He said he didn’t have one available until a week from today.”

  “And when was he going to tell us?”

  Marcus’s lips twisted around the toothpick that had replaced cigarettes in his mouth. “A week from today.”

  “We can’t come to a complete halt for an entire week. The delay on materials acquisition already set us two weeks behind schedule. Every day we go past our completion date costs us money.”

  “I have a call into another boom company; they think they can get one to us in two days. My contact said he'd let us know by the end of the day.”

  “Great. I have a meeting with Mr. Langley in exactly,” he glanced at his watch, “ten minutes. Here. To show him what we’re capable of. On a work site where no work is being done.” Gage raked a hand through his hair.

  “William Langley? The man who owns half of downtown Dallas?”

  “Yes. That Langley. I want that property on the corner of Elm and Griffin Streets.”

  “I thought he didn’t want to sell it to you on account of you hadn’t paid your dues.”

  “I have to convince him I wasn’t handed my money. I earned every last damn cent, unlike so many of his cronies.” He glanced at the parking area, wishing he had time to call in a crew to at least look like they were busy making progress on the multi-million-dollar project slipping further and further behind.

  Marcus's eyes widened. “Ain’t that the lady you hired to improve your image?”

  Gage followed his nod toward the woman in a pencil skirt marching toward him with purpose in her stride, even if she couldn’t quite lengthen her stride in that ridiculous skirt.

  Marcus tipped his head down, hiding his grin from the woman advancing on them. “How’s that going for you?’

  “What?” Gaged stalled, hating that he’d had to hire an image consultant in order to secure the desired property. “She thinks I’m too unapproachable. That I need to soften up and or get laid.”

  Marcus grinned. “That’s my kind of consultant. Think she’d go for someone like me?”

  “No.” Gage braced himself for Haddie Madison, the fifty-year-old image consultant he'd hired out of desperation. Pasting on his most congenial face, he greeted her with a forced smile. "What brings you out to the job site, Ms. Madison?"

  Her brows twisted. "Wow. That's the best you can do? I can see straight through that pathetic attempt at pleasantries. And, please, call me Haddie."

  Gage abandoned the fake smile. "Haddie. What are you doing here?"

  "You said you had a meeting with Mr. Langley today, in ten minutes, if I'm not mistaken."

  "Eight."

  She nodded. "I'm here for moral support and to observe your interaction with the man."

  Marcus coughed to hide his snort of laughter.

  Gage glared at him. "Get your crew busy on something, even if it's only cleaning up the work site."

  Marcus let loose his grin and clapped a hand to Gage's back, nearly knocking him over. "And that's why you're paid the big bucks, my friend." The site foreman strolled away whistling. Not a care in the world, other than finding a boom to replace the one that had crapped out on them on the tenth floor of a ninety-story project.

  "Ah, that must be Mr. Langley now." Haddie turned toward the limousine easing into the job site.

  "If you're going to be here, you need to wear a hard hat." Gage reached into his work truck where he kept spares and handed her a scuffed, yellow hard hat.

  Haddie sighed. "And I just had my hair done." Despite the damage to her hair, she settled the hat on her head and waited for the passenger of the limousine to alight.

  Gage sucked in a deep breath. Nothing had gone right that morning. The boom hadn't arrived, Haddie had descended on him without warning and Langley had showed up on time. What more could go wrong?

  The chauffeur parked, got out and opened the back door of the limousine and a bright turquoise blue stiletto emerged, followed by a long slender leg.

  Gage groaned as Priscilla Langley unfolded her body from the back of the limo, flinging her long black hair back over her shoulder. Her father followed.

  And that was what more could go wrong.

  He'd invited Langley to the job site hoping to prove to the man he knew what he was doing and was capable of converting the man's eyesore of a building in downtown Dallas into a modern, designer structure that would bring more jobs and revenue to the city center. If only he'd leave his pain-in-the-ass daughter out of the equation.

  Priscilla wobbled across the uneven gravel in her spike heels. "Gage, darling, I hope you don't mind, but Daddy insisted I come along." She held out her hand, her wrist limp like a queen expecting her subject to kiss her hand.

  William Langley shook his head. "That's not how I remember it."

  Gage gripped her hand and gave it a quick, firm shake. "Ms. Langley," he said, his lips stiff. He didn't need the drama of Langley's daughter distracting William from the reason he’d been invited there. When he released his hold on Priscilla's hand, she didn't let go of his.

  Forced to peel her fingers off his, Gage finally shook loose and held out his hand to William Langley. "Mr. Langley, thank, you for coming out to the job site."

  Haddie cleared her throat, a slight frown pinching her brow for a second before she extended her hand. "Hello, Mr. Langley, Haddie Madison. I'm Mr. Tate's consultant."

  William smiled and shook her hand. "What kind of consultant might that be?"

  Gage held his breath, waiting for Haddie to spill the beans about his attempt to woo the great William Langley.

  "Design consultant.," she said, her brows rising as she stared across at Gage. "I want this project to be the best it can be."

  "This place is amazing." Priscilla walked toward the construction site. "Do you go up on those steel beams?"

  Gage grabbed two hard hats from the back seat of his truck, handing one to William and hurrying after Priscilla with the other. "Ms. Langley, you have to wear a hard hat on the site."

  She waved her manicured nails at him. "I don't need that. I never wear them on my father's work sites, do I, Daddy?" She smiled and blew a kiss at her father.

  William Langley sighed. "I can't get her to do anything she doesn't want to do."

  Gage held out the hat to the spoiled socialite. "Wear the hat or you'll have to stay in the limousine while we tour the site. I lose my liability insurance if anyone on the job site isn't wearing a hard hat."

  Priscilla's pretty brow dented and her red painted lips pursed. "Daddy?"

  Her father shrugged. "You can wait in the car if you don't want to mess up your hair."

  "But I wanted to see what Gage is working on." She leaned into Gage and ran her fingers up the front of hi
s shirt. "And to see if he has a date to his charity ball." She winked up at him, curling her fingers around his neck. "Do you?"

  Anger burned a path from Gage's gut all the way up into his cheeks and threatened to explode out of the top of his head.

  Haddie touched his arm and whispered, "Remember our project?"

  The older woman's reminder clamped a lid on Gage's temper and he drew in a deep breath, untangled Priscilla's hands from around his neck and he said, "I'm sorry, I have a date to the charity ball. And since you don't want to wear your hat, I’m asking that you stay in the car while your father and I discuss business." There. He'd been as polite as he could be with a woman whose type he knew all too well and wanted none of.

  Been to that rodeo, didn't want to ride that bull again.

  Priscilla pouted and stared at the hard hat. "I'll wait in the car." She spun on her stilettos and stalked across the gravel, wobbling as she went.

  Gage breathed in and out through his nostrils before turning to Mr. Langley. "Would you like to see what we're working on?" He fully expected the man to follow his daughter off the site and that would mean kissing goodbye Gage’s chance to purchase the downtown property he'd been after for over a year.

  Langley's gaze followed his daughter all the way to the limousine. When he turned, he smiled. "Yes. I'm here to see what you're capable of, and so far, I'm impressed."

  Gage led Mr. Langley and Haddie through the site, showed them the drawings and talked about what he was most passionate about, building beautiful buildings that touched the sky.

  When Langley departed, Haddie stood beside Gage, her eyes narrowing. "Yup. You have a long way to go on your manners with the ladies, Mr. Tate."

  "I can't allow anyone on my site without a hard hat." Period. Gage crossed his arms. "If the hat wasn't a rule, I would have had to ban her from the site because of her open-toed shoes."

  Haddie stared at Gage. "What is it about women you don't like, Mr. Tate?"

  Everything, he wanted to say, but opted for, "Nothing." Other than they were gold-diggers, looking for the best deal in husband material.

  For a long moment, Haddie paused, her gaze raking over him, making him want to squirm like a kid caught smoking in the restroom at school. "Well, Mr. Tate, you have to work with me if you want to shake the image of a cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch the media has labeled you as."

  "I'm not cold-hearted," he grumbled, wishing the woman would leave and let him get back to what he did best—making something of nothing.

  "The charity ball you’ll be throwing will be the place you can change public opinion." Haddie crossed her arms. "But only if you treat women with respect and soften some of those rough edges."

  "Why do I even have to go? The goal is to raise money for the charity. The rich and ridiculous will be there spending their money. I don't need to be there."

  Haddie poked a finger at his chest. "If you want to sway Mr. Langley to sell you that property, you have to appear, even if you aren't, like a reasonable, caring man. You can't do that by hiding in your penthouse apartment."

  He disliked parading in front of a bunch of society men and women who couldn't care less about him but were very interested in the money he could donate to all their causes. Where were the real people? "I hate wearing a damn tux."

  "Tough." Haddie poked her finger at his chest again. "You just told a whopping lie to a woman who could convince her daddy that he shouldn’t sell his property to you. And unless you want her to call you out on your lie, I suggest you find a suitable date for the charity ball and do it soon." Haddie handed him the hardhat and left.

  Gage groaned. Where was he going to find a date for the ball that was only a couple weeks away? He absolutely refused to date a money-hungry socialite. Haddie was right, he did have a problem with women. Especially the kind that strung you along, claiming to love you when all they were interested in was being with the man with the most money. In Gage's book, they were all like that.

  His cell phone beeped in his back pocket. He yanked it out and glanced down, groaning again at the text from his friend Tag Bronson.

  Billionaires Anonymous Club. Thirty minutes. Be there.

  Gage texted, Too busy.

  Sick? Tag responded.

  No

  Dying?

  Gage sighed and keyed, No.

  No excuses. We made a promise. Be there!

  * * *

  Thirty minutes later...

  * * *

  If he’d thought his morning couldn't get worse, it most certainly could.

  "Don't leave love up to luck. Like I told you the first time we met, with the help of my firm and heavily tested computer algorithms, you have a ninety-nine point nine percent chance of finding your perfect match. So, who's next?"

  Leslie Lamb, the woman dressed in a soft gray suit, her blond, shoulder-length hair swinging, turned from the video screen to face the group of men seated around the conference table. On the screen was a picture of the first couple to find success through the Billionaire Online Dating System, or BODS as it was shortened to. Frank Cooper Johnson and his BODS match, Emma Jacobs.

  Gage tapped his fingertips against the conference table surrounded by members of the Billionaires Anonymous Club, frankly amazed at how the first test of BODS had turned out. Who knew a computer program could pick the perfect match for one of their own? It had to be a lucky coincidence. Computers couldn't account for all the human traits and personality quirks.

  But Cooper sat back with the biggest grin on his face, happier than a pig in mud.

  So happy, Gage shifted in his seat, an itch crawling across his skin. No man could be that in love. Could he? Didn't he know what would eventually happen? No union lasted these days.

  The men had formed the club back when they were five broke college students struggling to get an education at Texas A&M. On their last dime, and facing the distinct possibility of expulsion for various reasons—the most pressing reason having to do with money—they'd made a pact that they'd all become millionaires by the time they turned thirty. They'd formed a plan, stuck with it, finished college, each becoming, not millionaires, but billionaires by age thirty and achieving all their goals.

  All except one. The one about getting married and raising a family. They'd all struggled with that one.

  A year ago, Gage thought he'd be the first out the chute for the marriage goal. He'd been dating Lacy Welch, a beautiful blond who claimed to be crazy about him. She’d told him she loved him and he'd believed her. In the back of his mind he had images of the family-life some of his friends had grown up with—kids running around the yard, mothers kissing their babies goodnight. For a brief moment in his ambitious drive to the top, he'd paused, thinking this was his chance. Until he'd proposed to Lacy, asking her to marry him and start a family together.

  Boy had he been wrong.

  She'd been horrified he'd wanted her to actually bear children. Lacy wanted the marriage without the family, afraid having children would destroy her figure and keep her from traveling the world. If he could promise her no children and an unlimited expense account, she'd marry him.

  His ideal shattered, Gage ultimately figured he'd dodged a bullet. He retracted his proposal and went back to work, marriage no longer part of his equation for success.

  "Ah, come on guys. It's not that bad." Cooper pulled Emma into his lap. "You heard the lady, I found my perfect match using BODS."

  Gage shifted in his seat, ready for this meeting to be over. He had real issues to work through, like finding a date for the charity ball.. "Leslie, you have to change the acronym. BODS might send the wrong signals."