Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

and willowy, the air around her seeming to sizzle with energy.

Talk about intimidating.

“Miss Banks?” she asked, taking another step into the office.

Willa nodded and moved forward to greet the reporter. “That’s me. Please, come in and have a seat. Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee?”

The woman shook her head and sank down gracefully into the chair facing Willa’s desk. “No, thank you.” Then she held out her hand and Willa shook it. The woman’s fingers were like ice, making Willa suck in a tiny breath at the shock of the contact. “I’m Kelly Palmer from the New York Times,” she said, reaching a perfectly manicured hand into her bag and pulling out a business card, setting it down crisply on Willa’s desk. “I report on technology, the economy, the environment, business, and investing.”

“Wow, that’s quite the portfolio,” said Willa, sitting up straighter in her chair. “Impressive.”

“Mmm. Yes.” Kelly ducked down and rummaged around in her bag, surfacing with a notebook, pen, and digital recorder. “Shall we get started?”

“Sure,” she said, folding her hands in front of her so she wouldn’t fidget. She felt like a bug under a microscope with Kelly’s icy gaze trained on her. That penetrating stare wasn’t doing anything to help her nerves. When she’d been told to expect a tech reporter, this elegant, terrifying woman hadn’t been even close to what Willa had pictured. But it was fine. She could do this. Kelly was clearly a professional, and that’s what Willa would be too.

“Great.” She spoke directly into the recorder. “Kelly Palmer speaking with Willa Banks in her office at Tapp headquarters, May 24th 9:08 AM. So, Miss Banks, tell me about the development of the Blind Date app and how you see it impacting the online dating landscape.”

For the next half hour, Kelly asked her questions about the app, about how it worked and how they saw people using it. They talked a little about Tapp, the current tech landscape, and the future of apps, especially as to how they could be used to foster personal connections, dating or otherwise. She asked Willa a few perfunctory questions about her background—her education, how long she’d worked at Tapp—and then questions about the development of the app itself, challenges they’d faced, when it might be available. The questions were all straightforward and to the point—until the very end.

Kelly sat back in her chair, her legs crossed elegantly. “I have one last question for you, and then I think I’ve got everything I need. Is it true that you started dating Tapp’s CEO Max Prescott after matching with him on the app during beta testing?”

Willa’s cheeks went hot and she ducked her head. She wasn’t sure where Kelly would’ve picked up that tidbit of information, but it also wasn’t like she’d uncovered some closely guarded secret. She cleared her throat and swallowed before speaking.

“Yes, it’s true. Max and I were both part of the beta test and were matched on the app. We messaged for a while before we started dating.”

Kelly shot her a skeptical look. “And you didn’t know who you were talking to that entire time? I mean, it’s your project. You could’ve taken a look in the back end to see who’d been assigned that username, right? It’s even possible that you could’ve manipulated the matches. You would’ve had access to all of that, no?”

Willa cocked her head to the side, studying Kelly and not at all liking what the woman was implying—that she’d somehow used the app for her own gain, to manipulate Max into dating her.

“Dating the CEO must come with perks,” she continued casually, as though she weren’t backhandedly accusing Willa of serious misconduct. “You’re doing this interview instead of Mr. Prescott, for example.”

Adrenaline jolted through her and she sat up straighter, meeting Kelly’s eyes. She plastered a smile on her face, doing her best to ignore the way her pulse had just doubled its tempo. “I didn’t know who I was talking to. I take my job seriously, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the integrity of the beta test, whether that’s finding out the identity of a user or manipulating the matching algorithm. If I did that, the entire beta test would be worthless. I wouldn’t throw away months and months of an entire team’s hard work just to try to make a play for Max.”

“So you and Max are happy, then? Things are going well?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Palmer, I really don’t want to talk about my personal life. I’d prefer if we focus on the app.”

Kelly grinned at her, a toothy smile that sent a shiver running down Willa’s spine. “Of course. Thank you so much for your time this morning.”

“You’re welcome,” Willa said, standing as Kelly gathered her things. “I look forward to reading the article.”

Something flashed in Kelly’s eyes, a kind of gleeful mischief, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared, so quickly Willa thought she must’ve imagined it. That she was just feeling paranoid because of the personal angle Kelly had taken that had left Willa feeling off-kilter.

Once Kelly had left Willa’s office, she pressed a shaking hand to her mouth, then wrapped her arms around herself, trying to calm the quaking in her stomach. Everything had been going so well until the end. Those last couple of questions had thrown her, and while she’d done her best with them, she couldn’t help but feel that things had gone off the rails a little bit.

Her stomach churned as worry gripped her. She bit her lip, replaying her answers in her mind, analyzing them, trying to pick them apart.

Maybe she was overreacting. After all, wasn’t it part of Kelly’s job to sniff out stories where she could? Granted, she’d been trying to sniff out a story that didn’t exist in this case, but it wasn’t as though Willa had done anything wrong. She certainly hadn’t manipulated the beta test in the way Kelly had implied.

She squared her shoulders, trying to shake off