ROMANCE: SPORTS ROMANCE: Scored by the Billionaire (Alpha Billionaire Secret Baby Football Romance) (Alpha Male Sports Romantic Comedy) by Mia Taylor Page B

to the real estate investments to the franchise restaurants and the insurance groups. Everything I've ever touched, you touched to make sure it was one hundred percent clean. You spoke to people I didn't even remember meeting to make sure that they didn't remember me ever touching anything dirty."
    She nodded. "It was my responsibility to make sure that you were an appropriate candidate for owning a team in the most prestigious and profitable sports league in North America. We had a lot of old creeps and kooks owning teams. We have no interest in letting any new ones buy their way in."
    He laughed. "I have the same approach to my own businesses. When I owned that first comic store, I hired a kid to cover me on Wednesdays so I could catch the occasional break and work on my other projects. Well, I found out from one of my customers that he was swiping product. He was taking about forty dollars' worth of comics a week. I didn't do my due diligence to find out if he was a creep or a kook, to use your words. Well, the stakes are a little higher now. This is a damn-near billion dollar investment. I've staked my entire fortune, every part of my portfolio, on the success of this team. I need someone like you to help me stock my business-side team with only the best people. No creeps. No kooks."
    She smiled and nodded. "That is what I'm best at."
    "Look," he said, sitting forward and resting his elbows on the table. "Let's be straightforward with each other. You're a forensic accountant. You look at business information and you can learn everything about a person. You know me better than my mother knows me. You've know everything about me. Hell, you even interviewed my ex-girlfriends."
    Liona laughed. "Yes, quite a few of them actually."
    "Right," he nodded. "And I know what you're capable of. You're here, so I know there's some interest in the job. So let me ask you: what would it take to bring you on board?"
    She raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about terms?"
    They spent some time discussing money, benefits, perks, vacation time, travel allowances, and bonuses, all without Liona making a commitment. They talked about Carlson's vision for the team, the type of culture he wanted to build both in the office and on the field. They talked about the city. They talked about the facilities. They even began talking about players, which would be outside of either of their profile of responsibility.
    Liona found herself laughing at Carlson's jokes. He had an easy charm about him when he spoke. She was reminded why she'd been attracted to him in the first place. Their night at the Marquis Hotel was not something that just came about because of too many drinks and a spur of the moment whim; she'd spent a year interacting with him on a regular basis, and her attraction to him had steadily grown. Yes, he was attractive and funny, but he could also be surprisingly humble and self-deprecating. He was a serial dater, and usually had a movie star or super model on his arm. He was trouble, and she knew it. But he was also irresistible.
    Eventually Carlson looked at his phone. "We've been here for two and a half hours," he said. "What are you doing for lunch?"
    She smiled. "I don't have any plans."
    "Shall we go? You're here until tomorrow, right? Your afternoon is open?"
    "It is."
    Carlson called for his car to pick them up, and they made their way down and out of the stadium, finding his Lincoln waiting for them. Carlson's driver, a thirty-something man in a suit, was holding the back door open for them. "Hello, sir, madam," he said, as they slide into the car.
    "Hey, Ken," Carlson said. "You can relax. This is Miss Gregory. Um, we don't have reservations anywhere, but can you find us somewhere half decent for lunch?"
    "Sure," he said, and as they pulled onto the road, Ken pushed a button on a phone and started speaking into his headset, asking for directions to a restaurant.
    "He'll find something for us," Carlson said to Liona.
    She caught him