THE BILLIONAIRE DADDY'S ADDICTION

Chapter 6

Wednesday

Ariella was walking to work when a familiar black Mercedes pulled up beside her.

She didn't stop. She kept walking, her heels clicking against the pavement, her eyes fixed straight ahead.

"Ariella."

"Noah," she said, not looking at him. "You're stalking me now?"

"I'm offering you a ride."

"I'm fine."

"It's going to rain."

She glanced up at the sky. Clear blue. Not a cloud in sight. "It's not going to rain."

"It might."

She stopped and turned to face him. He was leaning out the window, his gray eyes sparkling with mischief. He looked unfairly good, like he'd stepped out of a magazine instead of a restless night.

"What do you want, Noah?"

"I told you. I want to help you."

"I don't need help."

"Everyone needs help."

"I'm not everyone."

He considered this. "No. You're not."

She started walking again, and he drove slowly beside her.

"I looked into your situation," he said. "Your debts. Your jobs. Your,"

Ariella stopped dead. "You did what?"

"I know it was an invasion of privacy. I apologize. But I wanted to understand."

She turned on him, her eyes blazing. "Understand what? That I'm poor? That I'm struggling? That I'm exactly the kind of girl you can swoop in and save?"

"No. That you're exactly the kind of woman who doesn't need saving."

She blinked, thrown off by his response.

"I want to pay off your student loans," he said.

"No."

"Ariella, "

"No." She stepped closer to the car, her voice low and furious. "I am not a charity case. I am not your project. I am not something you can fix with your money."

"I don't think you're a project."

"Then what am I?"

He looked at her for a long moment. "A woman I can't stop thinking about."

She stared at him, her heart pounding, her anger warring with something else, something dangerous and warm.

"I don't want your money," she said finally. "I don't want your help. I just want to get to work."

She turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the pavement.

Noah watched her go, a small smile playing at his lips.

She was the most infuriating, frustrating, magnificent woman he'd ever met.

And he was going to win her over.

Even if it killed him.