by Sierra Rose
“Oh, that’s super. Well done, Marnie,” Bella said. That was basically the kind of job she wished she had, a marketing exec, not a housekeeper. She felt worse and worse about herself.
“You know,” Jade said, waving her diamond ring, a little tipsy after three drinks, “you could always go on Tinder. Don’t mention the maid thing, unless you want to dress up in the little frilly uniform for fun—” she said with a laugh.
“Maybe if you played up the maid thing on Tinder, like how you love to clean and scrub and do laundry. I’m sure you could get a man that way,” Marnie put in with another laugh. Bella felt tears prick her eyes, and she reached down for her purse to pay for her drink so she could leave.
“Listen, I can set you up with this great guy who lives right outside of Phoenix.”
“I don’t need you setting me up on a blind date.”
She saw Jade lick her lips, look someone up and down. Bella started to turn around and see who it was when she heard Harvey’s voice, “Sorry, ladies, I’m afraid I can’t let you set up Bella with anyone,” he said. She looked over her shoulder at him and turned on her stool, gratefully. She could leave with him, and those girls would think she was—oh, this was perfect!
Harvey cupped her face in his hands and gave her a Hollywood style passionate kiss. His lips were on hers, his fingers in her blonde curls, and she had to hold on to him to steady herself, so she didn’t tumble right off that barstool in front of everyone. When he drew back, she was panting. It had been a long time since she’d been kissed, and even then, she’d never been kissed like that.
Blushing, Bella ducked her head a little, aware of his arm around her, and aware of the heat of his breath against her hair, “This is—this is Harvey Carlson. Harvey, this is Marnie and her sister Jade, some girls I knew in high school.”
“Ah, and I thought from being with Bella that Arkansas only produced natural honey blondes,” he said artfully to Jade who smoothed her artificial platinum hair with less satisfaction than before, “It’s great to meet you, ladies. Has Bella told you yet? Or are you being bashful again, darling?” he practically cooed to her.
Bella couldn’t help reveling in the envious and incredulous stares of two women who were so recently tormenting her for her inferiority. Bella whispered to him, giggling prettily.
Harvey smiled. “Sorry, girls, I guess my beloved isn’t ready to share our news just yet. If it leaks out to the media, they’d be swarming all around us.”
“You’re that famous millionaire I’ve seen on all those magazines and on TMZ, that tabloid show,” Marnie said. She grabbed her sister’s arm. “Oh my gosh! It’s him!”
Jade’s jaw dropped to the floor. “You landed yourself a millionaire!”
“Billionaire, actually,” Harvey softly added.
Marnie playfully punched Bella in the arm. “No way! You go, girl.”
“But I heard he has a different woman every week. That can’t be good, Bella.”
Harvey looked at Bella. “True. But that was because I hadn’t found my true soul mate yet. None of them were Bella.”
“How sweet,” Jade said.
“The day I met Bella, I knew I found true love. I know she’s the woman I’ve been waiting for my entire life. I want to give her everything I have to offer.”
Bella stared up into his eyes. “Wow, baby. That’s so sweet.”
“And I mean every single word.” He then looked at the sisters. “Have a good night.”
“You guys are leaving?” Jade asked.
“So sorry I’m stealing her away, but we have some major things to discuss,” Harvey said with a wave to her former friends as he dropped a one hundred dollar bill on the bar nonchalantly. He pressed a hand into the small of her back and guided her away from them, and to a table for two across the room.
“Thanks for the save,” Bella said. “You made my night with that charade.”
“You’re welcome. I was glad to put them in their place.”
“So you came here so we could discuss some major things?”
“I wasn’t lying when I told your friends that.”
“You want me to take the new job offer.”
“I’d be gratefully eternal.”
She sighed. “Just hire someone.”
“I can’t trust anyone. But I trust you.”
“So you’d pay me good money to let you swoon all over me like that in public?”
“I thought we made an excellent couple. Why I was the perfect boyfriend. Complete with that dreamy eye look like a guy hopelessly in love.”
“You’re a damn good actor, that’s for sure. I had to keep from laughing when you said you found true love the day you met me.”
“You’re perfect for the job. You just proved that. Look how smooth it went. You and me click. We work wonderfully together. They believed it hook, line, and sinker.”
“I did help to sell it pretty good.”
“Me too.”
“Yeah, that kiss really helped to sell it. Will there be much of that?”
“I’m sorry. I know I stepped across the line.”
“You said everything would be platonic. With a little kissing. But that was like make out status. I thought you might rip my clothes right off.”
He winked. “Don’t tempt me.”
She laughed.
“I was just trying to help you out back there with your friends,” he said. “I knew the kiss was a major selling point. It’s what convinced them the most. Don’t you agree?”
“I never thought I’d ever say my boss is a good kisser.”
He ordered a couple of beers and grinned at her. She couldn’t help but notice that this was the first time she’d ever seen the formidable playboy executive Harvey Carlson in regular clothes. Jeans that gripped the line of his powerful legs and a blue v-neck that showed off his bronzed skin, picked up the crystal blue of his captivating eyes. He looked like a normal guy you’d meet in a club—provided that the normal guy was hella gorgeous and made your knees melt and your lady bits quiver with interest.
“Harvey,” she said, taking a long pull of her bottle for courage. “I guess I see how a charade could be helpful. You saved my bruised ego back there and I appreciate the rescue. Enough to offer to return the favor. If you still want me to pretend to be your girlfriend, I’ll do it. As long as it’s platonic.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I would have kissed you anyway, just to stick it to those two posers at the bar, but I’m glad you see things my way. A little pretense can go a long way when it matters how someone perceives you. And it matters very much to me how my stakeholders in Bellingford Finance see me.”
“Then I’ll be happy to help. Could we—set up some terms, though? Just so I know what’s expected of me?”
“Yes, I’d be happy to lay out the expectations,” Harvey said, “First of all, the PR department of Bellingford and Greta would sort you out, so you’re packaged for maximum stockholder and director approval. Then we’d have a scheduled debut as a couple and go to a few events together, possibly a weekend getaway with plenty of photo opps of us in a staged romantic embrace. This goes on for a couple of months, I get my good evaluation, then we quote-unquote break up shortly thereafter, and you receive your bonus for a job well done. You’ll be paid as an employee should, but off the books because obviously that would be a matter of record at the corporation. I was thinking something in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand dollars for two months of service. Is that reasonable?”
Bella choked on her beer, had to cover her face with her napkin as she snorted a burning mouthful of fizzing ale in shock. When she stopped coughing and her eyes cleared, she blinked furiously, trying to think of a way to accept without sounding overly excited about that amount of money. That was tuition money. That was even living money for while she finished her degree so she could really concentrate on her studies. She could even give Madison money to help with cooking school. It was a life-changing amount of money.
&
nbsp; Nodding, she struggled to find words. He shrugged, “Fine, play hardball. I underestimated you. 150, 000.”
“Yes,” she said, gaping. He had offered her more money.
“I would’ve paid up to a quarter million, you should have held out,” he teased, toasting her with his beer bottle. “Now, give me your phone. I’m going to program my number into it, and you can start messaging me and calling me.”
“Like I should text you to say, hey babe, sink’s clean!” she said.
“You won’t be cleaning my house. You’ll move out of the guest house and into the main house, a room of your own, of course, next to mine. And you can send Greta your measurements.”
“I don’t know my measurements. Who knows that stuff?”
“Then we’ll have to take care of that. I’m sure there’s a tape measure someplace at the compound.”
“You’re going to measure me?”
He smiled at her. “I’m joking. I’ll have my people handle it.”
“Mrs. Marks has one. She measures the hand towels to make sure they’re the same length when we hang them side by side over a rod, so they’re even.”
“She measures towels?”
“So they line up. She doesn’t want crooked towels in your bathrooms,” Bella explained.
“Because crooked towels would destroy my business mojo and derail my corporate career.”
“Apparently, crooked towels could do all that and more. Who knows what could happen if you saw uneven towels in the guest bath downstairs?”
“What about in the guest house? Does she measure those?”
“She hasn’t ever stormed into my room to check but I wouldn’t put it past her to measure them when I’m working in the main house.”
“Sneak in with her tape measure? I can see her doing that.”
“One thing you hadn’t considered, which Greta pointed out to me yesterday when I told her, is that if you do want to, well, marry for money, you’ll be in a good position to do so. Having been in a high profile relationship with a billionaire executive, you will be recognized as eligible and desired by other men of similar background and fortune. We tend to date the same people as a rule, a select group of women with the right social standing, the right family connections, the right look and style.”
“And now I’m part of the harem? No thanks. I’ll get my degree and make my own way.”
“That’s very noble of you. Have you considered how easy it would be, though? To find a man who could take care of you like this, to give up having to worry about all those little things like bus passes and bills.”
“Easy isn’t my goal. I’m grateful for the opportunities you’re opening up for me, but this has to be the weirdest conversation a newly engaged couple has ever had.”
“Agreed. I’m trying to convince you to marry a rich guy. One who isn’t me.”
“Are you ever going to settle down and get married?”
“Sure, but I’m thinking of the George Clooney plan. You know, be handsome and dashing for a few decades, then find a stunning woman to marry when I get bored of it all.”
“As long as you’ve got a plan,” she said.
“Oh, I always have a plan, make no mistake about that.”
“This is exciting. I’m fake engaged to a playboy billionaire. What more could a girl ask for?”
He chuckled. “You know, Bella, I think this could be fun.”
“I think you’re right,” she agreed, and they ordered another round.
Chapter 10
Harvey came out of the shower, a towel slung low around his waist, and opened his closet door to find something to put on. He dropped his towel to the floor carelessly and heard Bella scream from behind him in the vicinity of his king-size bed. The two of them had gotten trashed last night proving Jack Daniels was not their friend. Maybe they celebrated a little bit too much over their fake engagement.
“You know, that isn’t how women normally react to the majestic sight of my bare ass,” he said playfully. He looked over his shoulder and saw Bella James, sitting up in his bed, clutching the duvet up to her chin.
“What—what are you doing here? Or what am I doing here? This isn’t my room!” she stammered, eyes darting left and right as if anxious for an exit. He turned around and leaned on the doorway casually.
“Bella, don’t tell me you don’t remember last night? After all we shared?” he said it as solemnly as he could.
“Pick. Up. Your. Towel,” she hissed, pulling the duvet over her flaming face. He wrapped the towel back around his waist.
“You can uncover your eyes now. I’ve seen women less horrified by Stephen King flicks than you were by my nudity. I’m hardly an exhibitionist. I am, after all, in my own bedroom. Now that modesty is restored, and you’ve expressed your terror at my naked body, can you take that stupid blanket off your head?”
Bella meekly peeled the blanket down from her eyes and looked at him, squinting as though suspicious that he intended to disrobe again suddenly, “Why am I in your room?” she said, and he could tell she was making a big effort to speak calmly, “Did we? Did you—did you and I do—anything? Together? In—in bed?”
“You don’t remember anything, do you? This is hell for a man’s ego. We shared some of the most intimate moments a man and woman can experience together. You wept, at one point, because you said you felt transformed by the experience, like you were truly a woman now,” he said, his voice insinuating as he sat on the edge of the bed near her.
“Oh, crap. We did, didn’t we? I mean, I had sex with you. I got drunk and slept with my boss. This is horrible! I can’t believe I did something so stupid. I mean, I guess I was super grateful that you shut Marnie and Jade down at the bar, and I got too enthusiastic with the drinking. Or was it because we were celebrating our fake engagement scam. I’m not much of a drinker if you couldn’t tell, and usually three beers will have me so buzzed I could barely find a bus stop. I swear I never left a bar with a guy before! I never went home with some random dude no matter how much I had to drink.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t steal your virtue or anything. I got you on my plane to Vegas at midnight and we took our vows there.”
“What? No. No, no. I cannot be married I cannot be drunk Vegas married to you!”
“Would you rather be drunk Vegas married to someone else? No. Don’t answer that,” he said.
“No. It isn’t that. It isn’t you specifically. It’s the idea of just being so…out of my head drunk that I would get on a plane and marry somebody I barely know and wake up in his bed. It’s so sordid. So absolutely tacky. I’m so sorry, Harvey. I’ll sign anything we need to, so this goes away. We’ll get a quickie divorce. Can we do that today? Before anyone finds out? Oh my gosh, you don’t want to, like, stay drunk Vegas married for your job review do you? Please say no. Please say you’re not going to try to make me stay married to you, so you look like a family man or something!” her voice got high and squeaky. “I can do fake engaged. But really marrying you! And playing the part of happy bride, yet, having to fake it with you.”
He winked. “I promise you, you’d never have to fake it with me.”
“I didn’t mean it in a sexual context. I mean, I’d have…”
“I know what you meant. That we wouldn’t really be sharing a bed, because it wouldn’t be real. It’d just be a hoax to the public. And that’s way too big of a hoax for even me to pull off.”
She cocked a brow. “What?”
“Bella, relax,” he said with a chuckle. He couldn’t sport with her any longer. She seemed really upset. “I was joking. We didn’t do anything. If we had, I assure you it would have been unforgettable.
“We didn’t?” she said, disbelief and hope warring on her face. She pulled the covers down and saw that she was still wearing last night’s jeans and tank top. Frowning, she threw her pillow at him, “Was that supposed to be funny?”
“Yes, actually I thought it was. I would never take advantage of an intoxicat
ed woman. Besides, I prefer to be more memorable than that. I really had you going, though.”
“Yeah, you did. So is there paperwork I need to sign for this fake girlfriend thing you want me to do?”
“We can’t really have a paper trail on this deal. I’ll ask that you don’t disclose our arrangement to anyone either during or after the fact. And I expect you to be monogamous during the fake engagement. No Tinder, no OKCupid, no dating or screwing guys. I know two months is a long time to be celibate, but you’ll be financially compensated.”
“Two months is not a long time to be celibate. I literally have only slept with two people. I have been celibate for, oh, let’s see, about a year and a half.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I don’t sleep with anyone I’m not serious about. So that narrows down the prospects. You see why I was freaked out about thinking I went to bed with you. That’s not me at all.”
“I see. So unless you meet your soul mate during the next couple of months you shouldn’t even be tempted. Makes things easier.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t ever tempted. Everyone’s tempted. I just don’t act on it.”
“Then I appreciate your discretion. I’ll make sure Greta gets you set up with a shopper and PR said we should go out to dinner, someplace high profile and exclusive, but make a big deal about separate cars and going in the back entrance, only to be photographed holding hands or gazing at each other or something that creates speculation about a romantic involvement”
“Makes sense to me. I’ll go to my room and shower and get to work. I’m late and my boss, well, I hear he’s a real jerk if you show up late.”
“I think you can get by with it. You are, as of today, no longer a maid.”
“What do I do then?”
“Shop, get your hair done, go get a massage. Your credit card should be here this afternoon and I expect you to make use of it for any personal spending.”
“I guess I could use a new bus pass. I only bought the one month pass when I moved here, and it’s about to expire.”