The Billionaire's Fake Marriage (A Romance Collection Boxed Set)

by Amanda Horton

  “Whatever happened to that guy, you know, what was his name? Joseph? Jonathan?” Barb asked.

  “Do you mean Jeffrey?” Lila asked and shrugged. Jeffrey had been nice enough, a high school teacher she had met in a bar. But on their next date Rosie had a cough and she cancelled. She could hear he was miffed about that and after that, it felt like too much trouble.

  “You need to move on,” Barb reminded her. “You could also get remarried, you know, find someone to help you look after Rosie. You’re still a good-looking woman, Lila.”

  “Please,” Lila laughed. “Guys with money don’t look at women like me, with a daughter to boot.”

  “Well, you could try going out more,” Barb said.

  Lila ignored her and noticed a couple came past, walking their dog on a lead. She had an idea.

  “How much money do you think a dog walker makes?”

  Barb laughed. “Depends whose dog you walk. Those Fifth Avenue types will pay anything not having to scoop their own dog’s poop.”

  Lila’s mind was racing. “They like those dog whisperer people too, don’t they?”

  Barb was eyeing her suspiciously. “Why do you ask?”

  But Lila was thinking how she used to work in an animal clinic as a teenager. She volunteered for the weekend shifts to get away from her mother and her new step dad. She fed and petted the sick animals and often sat with them through the night. The straggly cats and weak dogs often looked better in the morning. The nurses said she had the touch. Perhaps she could make a bit of money this way while she looked for another job in an office in the city.

  She thought about printing flyers and handing them out. She could walk down all the expensive streets and put them in letterboxes. There was an Internet café and print shop down the road. Lila decided she would call in sick the next day and hand out as many as she could. When she mentioned her plan, Barb immediately offered to help.

  “Mind you, my back isn’t what it used to be. But why don’t you ask Desiree from upstairs? She’s not working at the moment and she owes you for babysitting her kid, doesn’t she?”

  She’s right, Lila thought. Desiree might also have other friends who could join them.

  Maybe she could put an ad in the newspaper too.

  Barb patted her on the back. “Don’t you worry,” she reassured Lila. “You’re not going to lose Rosie.”

  But Lila wasn’t so sure.

  Bjorn had sounded very sure of himself on the phone. She needed to call her lawyer and Mr. Levinson didn’t come cheap. Barb was right about Bjorn. He had been cut from a bad piece of fabric. He had shown her his good side to impress her initially, but he couldn’t hide his true nature. She found out later that he had been lying to her about many things. And even though he had a good job now and was making lots of money, Lila knew it was all a front. He was the kind of man who always needed more and for whom nothing was ever good enough. He would never forgive her for rejecting him. He blamed her for his own bad behavior, always saying that she had pushed him to far. He didn’t really want Rosie, Lila knew. He had always said he’d make her pay. Now, he finally had his chance.

  But Lila was not going to give up her daughter without a fight.

  ***

  The lunch rush was over and most of the patrons had left. Only a few people were sitting back over dessert. The waiters were less stressed, some of them actually managing to chat to one another. It was one of the top restaurants in the city and lunch was always one of the busiest times of the day.

  “Should we get some coffee?” Kyle Nillson asked his colleague and friend, John St. Chalfont. But John was watching the last of their lunch party leave the restaurant.

  “John?” Kyle asked again, trying to get his friend’s attention.

  “They are trying to get rid of me,” John suddenly said. “I built this bloody company and now they’re trying to push me out of the way.”

  “That’s not true,” Kyle said quickly. “They are merely concerned.”

  “About what?” John angrily turned to Kyle. “I am the CEO of Chalfont Corporation. Nobody knows better than I do what is going on. And everything is going well. Profits are up, we have more projects that we can fit into a year!” John crossed his arms. A waiter who approached their table to ask if they needed anything else, abruptly walked away.

  Kyle waited for John to calm down. As the company’s Executive Director, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations. The fact that he was also John’s friend meant that he was often placed in very uncomfortable positions. He was the one who had to be straight with John, the only one really, John would listen to.

  “Everything isn’t good. We’ve been losing contracts,” Kyle said softly. “The Group Six tender would’ve set us up for years. This is going to hurt us.”

  When John didn’t respond, he went on. “It’s not the only business that we had to write off. There was the deal with the hotel group, Mimic. That would have been a good addition to the portfolio.”

  “They weren’t really serious about committing,” John said, still looking away.

  “No,” Kyle said. “They were serious, all right. You were the one who scuppered that agreement. The comments you made in the magazine article….”

  “Were misconstrued!” John interrupted. “I never said I hated children! Or that I despised working families! The journalist turned my words around.”

  Kyle waited again. “The point is that you come across bombastic and rude. Your image in the media is terrible.” He didn’t have to remind John about the incident earlier that year, when he had spoken to a journalist after a couple of drinks at a museum opening. He had called the board “a bunch of farts” and had to do a lot of explaining to do once the article appeared in a business newspaper.

  “What you need, is to have your image polished a bit,” mused Kyle.

  “What?” John looked at him like he was crazy.

  “Think about it. You need some positive press, some nice photographs of you, to put you in a good light, get the public’s support again. Business is not just about making money,” Kyle reminded him. “It is also about convincing people to give you their money, that you are the right person to lead their project.”

  Kyle saw that he had John’s attention. “The best thing, actually, would be for you to get married.”

  “Married?” John looked at Kyle like he was crazy. “Need I remind you that I’ve been married before? Twice?”

  “I’m not talking about some big society wedding. I am talking about warm, fuzzy pictures of you with some woman, not too beautiful or glamorous, but a real normal woman. People would love that.”

  John thought about his last marriage to Kristen. That had ended spectacularly badly. She was overseas somewhere now, he thought maybe in Switzerland, seeking a cure for one of her many imagined illnesses. She had left him the apartment and her annoying dog. She said she’d come back for it after her treatment but this had never happened. He had not had much success in love. Now it seemed, he was losing his golden touch at work too.

  “I don’t know, Kyle,” he said, unconvinced.

  They got up from the table, walked slowly to the front of the restaurant.

  “Where do you even find that kind of woman? The only women I meet are models and heiresses.”

  “We could look online,” Kyle said but John shook his head.

  “You need someone ordinary, someone completely normal.” Kyle looked around and spotted a woman walking past them in the street. “Someone like that.”

  John looked at the woman Kyle had pointed to. She was quite attractive, but not in the glamorous way of the models he had been dating since his divorce. Instead, hers was a natural beauty. Long hair and a curvaceous body, but no high heels, no flashy designer handbag. But there was something about her that immediately caught his eye. Perhaps it was her sexy butt in those jeans.

  Kyle got into his car, a convertible Mercedes and called out to John, “Think about it, will you?” before driving o
ff.

  Instead of waiting for his car, John walked off, following the woman into a printing shop. What do ordinary women do? He wondered. The women in his life had never gone to a printing shop. They usually had PAs who handled their business. What little business they had. Carolyn, his first wife, had done a lot of charity work, organizing fundraisers and the like. He never saw her in flat shoes, John thought—or without make-up.

  In the printing shop, the woman stood at the counter, talking to someone about printing flyers. He liked the sound of her voice. It was deep and sensual. She laughed easily, tossing her head back when she did so. John moved closer, hoping that she wouldn’t notice. He could smell her hair, the exotic scent of her perfume and found himself attracted.

  But then she suddenly moved and he had to step aside to keep her from bumping in to him. She dropped one of her flyers and he picked it up. It was for a dog walker and animal behaviorist, Lila Deal.

  He went back to his office but he thought about Lila all afternoon. There was something about her that intrigued him.

  Perhaps he could give her a call and she could come over and walk that dog of Kirsten’s. He never took the thing out. It was probably dying for a walk. John remembered how Kirsten used to carry the Maltese Poodle around like a handbag. He knew what Paulina would say. She was the woman he occasionally took to dinner parties. He could hardly call her a girlfriend. She was in fashion and always looked fabulous, but he couldn’t imagine spending more than a few hours in her company.

  His life was not complicated and he knew what people said about him. That he was a bully and a drinker, a bit of a party animal. He pretended not to care but deep down, he knew that they were right. He wondered about Kyle’s suggestion.

  Was a marriage to someone like Lila all that was necessary to get the board back on his side again? It sounded absurd. But there was something else too.

  He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had really turned him on the way Lila had in the printing shop. He wondered what she looked like without her clothes, how she would feel in his arms. John was forty-five years old. He had everything money could buy. More clothes than he could wear, gadgets to play with. But it had been a while since he had really wanted something—the way he was beginning to want Lila.

  ***

  Lila was surprised to find John St. Chalfont to be an attractive man. On the phone he had sounded older and a bit boring. But there was nothing dull about the man who welcomed her to his penthouse apartment. She was glad that she had decided to come across town to walk his dog.

  His apartment was amazing. The views across the city were fantastic, with a stunning skyline of skyscrapers. Inside, the apartment was all steel and leather couches, glass tables and modern art. It looked like it had been professionally designed. No comfy chair or children’s drawing in sight.

  The dog she was supposed to walk was a sad little Maltese Poodle called Missy. She was a yapper, which obviously annoyed Mr. St. Chalfont.

  She agreed to take Missy for a walk that evening, then come back and the next day to groom her. She mentioned a huge fee but John barely blinked. As she left his apartment, her phone rang. It was Mr. Levinson the lawyer, finally calling her back. She explained to the lawyer that Bjorn could under no circumstances be allowed the custody of Rosie. The lawyer agreed, but clearly stated that to start work he will need a deposit from her.

  “How much?” Lila was unaware that John was standing behind her in the front door, listening to her conversation as she was waited for the elevator.

  “But…but…could I perhaps pay you later?” Lila sounded desperate. “It’s just that…. I’m a bit cash strapped at the moment.”

  The lawyer did not mince words. Until he had the deposit, he would not be able to help her. The elevator door opened but Lila just stood outside. The dog pulled on the lead and she finally walked forward. Then John saw how she went down to the dog, patting her head and talking to her in a low voice. “There, there, we’ll be off soon.”

  As the doors closed, he saw Lila’s face, pale and drawn and realized that she had a lot on her plate. It sounded like deep financial trouble.

  He went out onto his balcony and watched as Lila walked across the street with Missy. A plan started to form in his head and Kyle’s words came back to him.

  A proper marriage was risky given his track record, but what about a marriage of convenience? He would pay her, handsomely, for a few years of her life. He would help her with her financial problem and she would come live with him to take care of his image. The board members could get off his back and things could go back to normal at work.

  That could work, right? John thought to himself.

  The only problem was that Lila didn’t seem to like him—or so he thought.

  “Thank you for taking Missy out Lila. You look tired. Would you like to stay back for a drink?” asked John as he looked at a visibly distraught Lila.

  “No, I can’t. I got to get back to my daughter,” said Lila in an almost rude manner without making any eye contact with John and heading straight for the door.

  Now there was another complication.

  “Oh, you’re married?” he asked, downcast.

  She shook her head and said she was divorced. Before he could say anything, she was out the door.

  He would have to come up with something.

  A while later, Kyle called to invite him to a dinner party.

  “I have some ladies, I’d like you to meet,” he said.

  “No, thanks,” John said. “I am taking care of this myself.”

  “Really?” Kyle didn’t sound like he believed him. “Are you sure you don’t need a little help?”

  Kyle had a point, thought John.

  Paulina had told him once before that he had no way with women. She said he needed to show more vulnerability.

  So John came up with a little ruse.

  ***

  When Lila came back with Missy later the next day, she found him sitting outside his flat.

  “I’m so embarrassed,” he said with a smile. “I have locked myself out of the flat.”

  “Oh,” said Lila, surprised. The housekeeper had let her in earlier in the day but she had already left for the day. John said he didn’t want to call her. “She lives across town and it would take her so long to get back. Besides, she deserves an evening off from me.”

  Lila sat down next to him. “So what will you do? Camp out here all night?”

  She noticed that Missy went over to sit on his lap and that he stroked her head. She loved the softer side to John.

  He shrugged. “Ah well, might do me good to sit out here a while. Think about my sins.”

  Lila smiled. “Do you have many sins to think about?”

  “Oh God,” groaned John. “I have so many sins, I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  She laughed and felt something of a spark between them. But this was surely her imagination, she thought.

  They started talking outside his front door. John told her about his previous marriages and his troubles at work. “I have always worked too hard,” he admitted. “Then I also have this problem of not caring enough what people think.”

  Lila smiled, “I’ve always cared too much about what people think.”

  He told her about his mother dying young and being left alone with his workaholic father. Lila admitted that she didn’t have too much of a childhood either. “But I don’t let that keep me from having some fun now,” she said. They kept on talking until John heard the elevator stop at the flat below. “I think my neighbor is back,” he said, asking her to wait while he fetched the spare key.

  When he got back, he invited her inside. “I’d invite you to stay for dinner but I can’t cook to save my life,” he said. “How about we order in some Chinese food?”

  Lila pulled a face. “Lets see what we have here.” She opened his fridge and marveled at what she saw there. There was fresh salmon, asparagus, a range of cheeses and meats and delicious deli foo
ds she could never afford.

  “The housekeeper must have been to the shops,” John said, modestly. “I wouldn’t know what to do with most of this. ”

  Lila thought about Rosie being with Barb at home and figured, why not? “I could throw something together for us if you like.” Missy had curled up in her basket and had fallen asleep.

  While John opened wine, Lila baked the fish with butter and made a mushroom sauce. They ate outside and the wine quickly went to her head. Lila was enjoying John’s company. He was easy to talk to and the way he was looking at her made her feel rather hot and fluttery. It had been a while since she’d had that butterflies feeling in the stomach. You’re being daft, she told herself, he is just being friendly.

  Yet, her heart beat faster when he came to take her plate.

  “I should probably get home,” she said, getting unsteadily to her feet.

  John helped her up. “Why don’t you stay a while?” he asked, his voice low. He was so close to her, she could smell his cologne and for a moment, she didn’t want to move. Being so close to him felt good, really good. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him. She looked up and met his eyes. His eyes were fixed on hers, staring at her with such intensity that she felt breathless. His face came closer and she could hardly wait for his lips to meet hers.

  His kiss was hungry, his arms pressing her against him in a tight embrace. His hands ran up and down her body, feeling every inch and she felt her breath quicken. There was no way she was going to be able to resist this man, she thought.

  Before she knew it, she was in his bed. He pushed her down into the sheets and leaned over her. Lila couldn’t remember the last time she had wanted a man like this. She longed to take off her clothes and feel his skin against hers. She took off her sweater and he rushed forward to cup her breasts in his hands.

  “No bra?” he asked, his voice husky with desire.

  She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

  He caressed her breasts, rubbing her nipples with his thumbs until they went hard and tight. She closed her eyes in delicious agony, arching her lower body to his.