Lie to Me: A Contemporary Billionaire BWWM Romance by Mia Caldwell

and Nick never questioned any of Adam’s appointments.
    “Zoe Blanchard, Mr. Rothberger. Sir,” mumbled Zoe meekly.
    “Zoe…” A succession of expressions marched with comic speed across Adam Rothberger’s face. First recognition of the name, then confusion at how the name did not match the face, then realization at why there was this change in Zoe and then horror at how thorough and effective that change had been, and finally he was back on anger, still at his brother but now with a new reason and a new focus. “Tidy yourself up!”
    With this barked command delivered, Adam Rothberger strode back across to his own office, secretaries and PA’s hastily getting out of his way as he passed. The office door slammed.
    “You know, you do look different today,” Eddie was not swift on the uptake. “Nice though.”
    “Thanks,” said Zoe. It was good that her transformation was noticeable, it meant that they were on the right track, but it also reinforced some of the doubts in her head. Now she would have to have a difficult conversation with Nick, and he was bound to be in a bad mood after arguing with his brother. Oh goody.
    “I’ll just see if Mr. Rothberger – Mr. N – is free,” said Eddie, reaching for the intercom with trepidation.
    “I’ll just go in,” said Zoe, noting with pleasure the look of relief on Eddie’s face – if her own day seemed unlikely to get any better, she could at least improve someone else’s.
    Nick looked stressed when Zoe entered, but not angry – at least not yet. Zoe took a deep breath.
    “Morning.”
    Nick glanced up. “Morning. I…” He paused in thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, what is it we were going to do today?”
    “We were going to,” Zoe tried not to grind her teeth as she spoke the words, “try to fix my walk.”
    “Right,” said Nick.
    “You said I walked like John Wayne.”
    “Did I? Yeah, that sounds like something I would say.” He was obviously distracted. Zoe would have had considerably more sympathy if he had not compared her gait to that of ‘the Duke’, on the other hand she was a sympathetic person (or ‘doormat’ as Alisha put it).
    “Is anything wrong?”
    “Something’s always wrong,” said Nick. “Why is life never easy?”
    “I guess some people are just born to suffer,” said Zoe, hoping that she did not sound too sarcastic. Which wasn’t easy when she was listening to the wealthy CEO of a company, who did damn-all but draw a salary, complain about his lot in life.
    “I mean, there are probably people who are worse off,” admitted Nick – it was nice to know he had that much self-awareness. “But that doesn’t make your own problems seem any less to you – you know.”
    Zoe nodded; she did know. We all know. One of the major annoyances of life is that there is always someone worse off than you – nothing makes stubbing your toe on the same day as getting a massive tax bill worse than the knowledge that there is someone out there worse off, and the temptation is to think that that person is only being worse off to spite you.
    “Did you want to talk about it?” Just because , Zoe thought, in the big scheme of things, your problems don’t really matter, doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve a sympathetic ear.
    Nick shook his head. “My shit – I’ll deal with it. Let’s get back to your walk. I thought I could demonstrate to you how a woman is supposed to move, but it turns out I’m a bit too good at walking like a lady and it started to freak me out, so instead I’ve put together some video clips that I think demonstrate elegant, ladylike movement. Then I’ll film you walking, and when you see the difference I think you’ll see how my way is better. Right let’s…”
    “No,” said Zoe.
    Nick stopped and frowned. “No? You think there’s a better way for you to learn this stuff?”
    “No,” said Zoe. “I just…”
    “Then what?”
    “Just not today.”
    Nick shook his head. “Walking’s too