Melissa Mcclone - Dream Date with the Millionaire

Too bad she was more interested in checking her e-mail every five minutes to see if Bigbrother had replied. She’d never been like this before, waiting for some strange guy to e-mail her, disappointed when he hadn’t.

Pathetic.

That was what she was.

And distracted ever since she’d checked out Bigbrother’s profile. Talk about making a big mistake with a single click.

He lived in San Francisco and was cute in a geeky sort of way. In his picture, he wore a San Francisco Giants baseball cap pulled low on his brow. Dark hair stuck out from the sides. He was dressed casually in a Boston Red Sox shirt and a pair of faded jeans. The photo wasn’t a close-up, but she caught a hint of a smile on his face. He almost looked…shy. She liked that.

A beep sounded. Dani checked her e-mail again.

Jackpot.

Bigbrother had replied. Anticipation unleashed the butterflies in her stomach. She couldn’t wait to see what he’d written. She opened the message.

To: “Sanfrandani”

From: “Bigbrother”

Subject: Colonel Brandon

You’re searching for a dull old guy who wears a

uniform?

The oh-so-romantic-loves-unconditionally Colonel was near perfect in her mind, but she could see how some might see him as a dull old guy. Especially a man who, based on his attire in his profile picture, preferred baseball to Jane Austen. Dani laughed.

“Care to share the joke?” James asked.

She turned in her chair. Her boss stood at the entrance to her cubicle.

Her cheeks warmed, but then she realized she had nothing to be embarrassed about. James was the one who wanted her checking out the site. “It’s an e-mail from someone on Blinddatebrides.com.”

James’s eyes narrowed. “A male someone?”

She nodded. “Just doing my job.”

“A good job at that.” He beamed. “So when are you going out with him?”

“I’m not,” Dani said with a twinge of regret. Bigbrother was the only one of the men who had contacted her that she wanted to meet.

“Too many other fish to fry?”

Oh, boy. He had that all wrong. “Uh…no.”

“So he must be a loser, then. How many other guys have you met from bdb?” James never called their local competitor by their full name. He seemed to have it in for them, but she didn’t know why and was too afraid to ask.

“None,” she admitted.

He gave her the once-over. “It can’t be from a lack of offers. None of them meet your standards?”

“Nothing like that.” She peered over the cubicle walls to see if anyone was around or listening. “I can’t accept any dates,” she whispered.

“Why not?” he asked. “And why are you whispering?”

“Because of the…you know.”

“I don’t know.”

She lowered her voice more. “The spying.”

James sighed. “It’s called market research, Danica. Every company does it, so please get over your aversion to your job responsibilities.”

Checking out a competitor was one thing, but market research had never made her feel so tacky or dirty, as if she were doing something she wouldn’t want her mother to know about. In fact she hadn’t told her mother about it. Or her sisters. The only people who knew besides James were Marissa and Grace. Dani wanted to keep it that way.

“I need to know everything about bdb,” he continued. “That includes their clients.”

The expectant look in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. “You’re not suggesting I—”

“Go out with them,” he said at the same time. “Meet whoever contacts you. Dates are the perfect opportunity to check out whether bdb customer expectations are being met or not. You can put together a profile of their users for me, too.”

Her shoulders slumped.

When James had told her she would have to get her hands dirty with all facets of Internet marketing she had no idea this was what he meant.

“I can’t do this,” she said. “I won’t lead guys on.”

James grinned. “They won’t mind. Any guy would be thrilled to date a woman like you. Trust me.”

Her boss was the last person she trusted, but she knew what he meant. Most men never saw past her curves to her personality. Or even the color of her eyes. But this felt… “It’s still wrong.”

“What’s the big deal, Danica?” James sounded irritated, as if she’d told him the Web site needed to be patched again to work on Internet Explorer 6. “Meet them for coffee. Cupcakes. Conversation. You don’t have to sleep with them unless you want to.”

Dani’s stomach roiled. “This is a—”

“Start with the guy who made you laugh,” he interrupted.

Excitement shot through her. Okay, she liked the idea of meeting Bigbrother, especially with her boss giving her permission, but that wouldn’t be fair. “I really don’t think—”

“It’s not your call.” James read the e-mail on her screen. “Bigbrother, huh? I wonder what’s big about him.”

She cringed. The guy did not look like a player. Far from it. She was worried she might hurt him.

“Hit ‘reply’,” James ordered.

Dani didn’t. She couldn’t.

A part of her wanted to quit. Right now. But, with her student loans and family obligations, she couldn’t afford to be without a decent paycheck. That was the one thing she had to say about her boss—he paid well.

James reached around and hit “reply”. “Tell him you want to meet him for coffee.”

“But I don’t want to meet him for coffee. I have no idea who he is. I know absolutely nothing about him.”

Nothing except he intrigued her. The way he’d approached her. His brief e-mail. His quick reply. His picture.

“If you don’t ask him out,” James said with a steely glint in his eyes, “I will.”

Dani gulped. She knew he would follow through on the threat. “I’ll do it myself.”

James didn’t move. A muscle flicked at his jaw.

“I can reply right now,” she added.

Dani started typing an invite to coffee, aware and annoyed that James was peering over her shoulder.

“Make sure you tell him the meeting is your treat,” he said. “That can make a difference to some guys.”

Darn James anyway. Her exchanges with Bigbrother had been fun and flirty, but her boss was ruining it. “Do I get to expense it?”

James tossed a twenty on her desk. “No expense form needed.”

Dani hit the “send” button, lobbing the ball back over the net to Bigbrother’s side of the court. The next move was up to him. She was torn over how she wanted him to respond. She hoped he ignored her request or said no because she didn’t want to mislead him, but a part—a large part—wanted him to agree to meet her.

Just then another e-mail from Blinddatebrides.com appeared in her in-box. Maybe she’d lucked out and the system had kicked her reply for some reason. And then she saw the sender’s name. Gymguy. Oh, no. Not another one. She shook her head.

“Woo-hoo,” James said. “Looks like you’re Miss Popular. Want some help replying to Gymguy?”

Dani sighed. “I know what to do.”

Unfortunately.

“Thanks, Danica,” James said, backing out of the cubicle, much to her relief. “I won’t forget all that you’re doing for the site.”

She stared at the twenty. Neither would she.

“How’s it going?” Joelle entered Bryce’s office carrying a pizza box with a paper bag sitting on top.

The scents of oregano and freshly baked crust made his stomach growl. He glanced at the clock. Eight o’clock? He’d lost track of time, but wasn’t surprised with everything going on.

“Trying to stay a step ahead of the scammers isn’t easy. They may have found a hole, but they couldn’t crack the encrypted format.” That unfortunately wouldn’t stop them from trying to steal information again. Every time Bryce’s engineers changed something, the hackers would modify their programs to try and get around the new security. It didn’t help matters that they used stolen credit cards to register and pay for membership. If only he could run background checks on everyone who wanted to join, not just U.S. citizens. That would crack down on foreign scammers. “Talk about a cat and mouse game. It’s never ending.”