by Janice Lynn
Jane Millionaire by Janice Lynn
JANE MILLIONAIRE
Janice Lynn
Copyright 2011 Janice Lynn
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the author’s imagination, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown by the author, and all the incidences are pure invention.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by the law.
This book is dedicated to my wonderful children whom I love very much. Grab hold of your dreams and hold on tight. J
Other books by Janice Lynn:
REVENGE FOR HIRE
CAUSING A COMMOTION (Jill Davidson’s story)
THE GLASS SLIPPER
And from Harlequin Mills & Boon:
The Doctor’s Pregnancy Bombshell
The Heart Surgeon’s Secret Son
Surgeon Boss, Surprise Dad
The Doctor’s Meant-to-be Marriage
The Playboy Doctor Claims His Bride
The Nurse’s Baby Miracle
Officer, Surgeon…Gentleman!
Playboy Surgeon, Top-notch Dad
Dr. DiAngelo’s Baby Bombshell
The Nurse Who Saved Christmas
The Doctor’s Damsel in Distress
Flirting with the Society Doctor
JANE MILLIONAIRE
Uh-oh, the tall, raven-haired God circling Jill Davidson already knew she was an imposter.
“You look different from your photos.” The sexy executive producer scowled. His voice seemed to echo around the stone walls of the 14th century European castle the film crew had leased.
“Uhm.” Jill stalled by glancing around the large, high-ceilinged room that had been converted into a studio. Her gaze landed on the cluttered far corner where expensive computer equipment screamed that this was a first-rate operation.
And she was a first-rate fraud.
Her heart raced, pounding so loud it wouldn’t surprise her if he could hear the thunderous beat. She’d known no one would take her for her drop-dead beautiful sister. Okay, so they looked a lot alike in some ways, but when it came down to it, they were as different as Madonna and Mother Teresa. She’d told Jessie. But would her sister listen? Did she ever listen?
“I darkened my hair.” Brilliant. That should convince him. Ugh. She mentally cringed at her lack of finesse.
Rob Lancaster continued to stare, threatening her composure with his intense scrutiny. Scarier men had tried to intimidate her and failed. Jill did not squirm. At least, not under normal circumstances--not that this was in any way. Besides, she had a feeling the sweat beads popping out on the back of her neck had little to do with her supposed identity and everything to do with the velvety gaze sliding over her body.
“You, well,” his forehead crinkled, “you appear to be a little heavier than in your pictures.”
Great, just what every woman wanted to hear. This gorgeous man who stole her breath with his honey-colored eyes and Latino good looks would comment on the extra ten pounds she carried in comparison to her model slim sister.
“I can lose it.” Could she? She hated dieting and usually ate like a--well, she wouldn’t go there.
Gorgeous eyes studied her some more. “No, you’ll do just as you are.”
“Yes, sir.” Jill resisted the urge to salute. It wouldn’t do to get off on the wrong foot with the sexiest man she’d ever met. Especially since she’d be working closely with him. His spicy scent filled her nostrils. Close was good.
For the next six weeks she was in Rob’s hands—too bad not literally. She bit back a grin, then remembered the cold, hard facts of why she was here. Six weeks. How had Jessie talked her into a reality show? How did her sister ever talk her into anything? It was easy enough to figure out. Jessie asked, and Jill did. Just like always.
With each second that passed, Jill questioned her motives for agreeing to her sister’s pleas so readily. Part of it had been an excuse to avoid seeing Dan, which Jill couldn’t do in San Padres. And why shouldn’t she enjoy these next few weeks? For once, she’d be the center of male attention, treated as a desirable woman. She could look at this as a holiday. She wouldn’t really fall for any of the bachelors. Past relationships, including the one with Dan, had taught her better, but she could enjoy herself. After all, it had been years since she’d had a holiday. Being JANE MILLIONAIRE could be the vacation of a lifetime--a vacation away from reality.
“Have you read the materials you were sent?”
She ran her gaze over his strong facial features and six-foot, jean and t-shirt clad frame. When he wasn’t scowling he looked more like a movie star than a behind-the-scenes man.
“Yes, I read it on the plane.” Now that she thought of it, he had done a few acting stints early in his career. A former actor. He ought to have this reality thing down pat.
“What! You waited until when?” He threw his hands up in apparent disbelief—or was it disgust? Several of the crew milling around the studio turned to look in their direction.
“Uhm…” How did she explain she hadn’t known she was coming until the day before she’d gotten on the plane? She hadn’t even known her sister was supposed to come. Jessie had failed to mention quite a few things in the last few months. Like having auditioned for the lead role on a reality television show.
“I’m a fast read.” Thank God it was true.
His dark brows drew together, creating an intense look on his handsome face. “This is a job, not a joke.”
A joke? It was reality television for goodness sakes. Could there be a bigger joke? “No sir.” She pressed her lips together, suppressing a smirk.
Whiskey-colored eyes narrowed. “Are you mocking me?”
Jill raised her hand to cover her twitching mouth. He was serious. “Well, it’s just television.”
“Just television she says.” He glanced around the room as if he were talking to an invisible audience. Turning back to her, he drew quotation marks in the air for emphasis. “Just television is going to make you famous, Princess.”
She didn’t want to be famous. Her flighty, attention-seeking sister did, or had right till the last minute when she had gotten engaged and just couldn’t possibly go to Europe to fulfill her contract obligations by acting like a princess.
Acting. That’s what reality TV was. A bunch of nuts acting like they weren’t acting. Jill had better things to do. Like putting criminals behind bars at her job on the San Padres police force. She loved living and working in the small southern Californian community about an hour’s drive outside LA. But here she was in a tiny, never-heard-of-before European country, pretending to be her sister for the next six weeks as the star of WOLF television’s latest idea of entertainment, JANE MILLIONAIRE. What a joke.
She blinked at the annoyed man who sort of reminded her of Benjamin Bratt from her all time favorite television show LAW & ORDER. Rob still scowled. “You’re serious.”
“To the tune of the hundred million dollars the network expects to bring in.”
The room spun, her ears roared. If Jill didn’t know better she’d think the castle was under attack or zinging through the air like Dorothy’s house on its way to Oz.
“Are you okay?”
No, she wasn’t. “Did you say a hundred million dollars?”
“Yes. And your pretty little face is how we’re supposed to do it. Millions of viewers will tune in to see which one of the bachelors you spend your all expenses paid honeymoon with.”
A honeymoon? She didn’t remember seeing anything about a honeymoon in the packet of papers Jessie had stuffed into her hands at the airport. She prided herself on her legendary knack for details. She wouldn’t have forgotten such a significant detail. And her sister sure hadn’t mentioned any honeymoon.
“I have to marry one of these wackos?”
“Wackos? I assure you none of them are crazy. They’re carefully selected bachelors from around the world.” Lines on his forehead deepened into a vee above the bridge of his nose.
“Whatever. If you ask me, anyone who’d agree to do a reality TV show has to be a bit strange.”
His lips inched upwards and Jill’s heart rate kicked up a notch at just how attractive he really was. “You agreed to do a reality show. Not only agreed, but competed for the privilege.”
“Point taken.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. Her insides turned to mush. Oh Jessie, what have you gotten me into this time?
Put her in the line of fire, and she was as cool as a cucumber, but pretending to be a princess for a reality TV show? She almost broke out in hives at the thought.
She met Rob’s eyes and wished she could tell him the truth, but he didn’t look as if he’d understand. Jessie had signed a contract and spent the advance the network had given her. Jill had no choice but to see this charade through if she wanted her sister to remain happy. The memory of just how happy Jessie looked when she’d waved her bejeweled left hand kept Jill’s mouth closed. She’d just have to think of the show as an undercover job. But as the center of twelve men’s attention?
Her gaze dropped to her bare arms to be sure big red welts weren’t popping out on her skin. “What if they all hate me?”
He scanned her from head to toe. A slow perusal that made her feel as if he could see right through her no-nonsense, khaki slacks and navy, short-sleeved blouse. She resisted the urge to shift her weight as he lingered at her chest. So she wasn’t a C cup like Jessie, but she’d never had any complaints about her generous B’s. Okay, so she hadn’t had a lot of compliments either. Still, more than a handful went to waste, right?
Jill looked up to the dark-haired hunk eyeing her. Tiny hairs on her neck stood at attention. A reaction she usually only got when confronting danger. His gaze unnerved her in ways even the toughest thug couldn’t accomplish. Rob looked as dangerous as danger got. Her breath caught.
“They won’t hate you.” His tone left no doubt. Lethal. Rob Lancaster was positively lethal. Maybe she should handcuff him to her just for safekeeping--not that he’d be safe from her if handcuffs and his body were involved.
“How can you be sure?” she asked, fighting the mental image of the man handcuffed and at her mercy.
“Just take my word for it.”
Jill’s eyes widened. This wonderfully scrumptious man saw her as a woman, a desirable woman. Having practically asked for his assessment, she felt foolish. She was a fool. Just being here proved that. Intellectual, tough as nails Jill Davidson--practical till the end.
But not for the next few weeks.
For a short while she had to be Jessie Davidson, her younger sister by ten months. Her irresponsible sister who was everything Jill wasn’t. Feminine. Flamboyant. Sexy. Jessie who had always been popular with the men and who was the center of attention no matter where she went. Jessie who would run her tongue invitingly over her lips and offer to let Rob handcuff her to the bed. Jill gulped at the mental image.
She was tired of being one of the boys.
Rob’s gaze made her feel deliciously female, and she liked the unfamiliar sensation.
“Thank you.” She smiled. If he was an example of what the bachelors would be like, the next few weeks might not be so bad, after all. Too bad he wasn’t one of the bachelors. She could make her pick right now and save the film crew a lot of hassle. “I look forward to working with you.” That had to qualify as the understatement of the year.
Her hand automatically extended, and he shook it.
“That’s some grip you’ve got there.” His eyes danced.
Heat infused her face. She wasn’t sure if it originated from his comment or from the lightening that streaked through her from where they touched. She jerked her hand away.
“I work out.” Competing in a man’s world she had to.
“Obviously, Jane.” His gaze raked over her with renewed appreciation. His lips curved.
Her heart flip-flopped.
The man had a killer smile and a tall, muscular body that probably had women dropping at his feet. She took a deep breath and shoved aside the wicked thoughts his smile filled her with. She had enough to worry about without complicating matters by lusting after the producer. She would lose her job, her reputation, possibly her freedom if she got caught and the network pressed charges. Fraud. Yep, that’s what she was and she needed to keep as much distance between she and Rob as she could. “You know Jane isn’t really my name.”
“Only JP and I know your true identity, and we both think of you as Jane. You have no other name. And, to answer your question, no, you don’t have to marry one of the bachelors.” He plowed a hand through the midnight silk on his head, then added with a thigh-melting wink, “Although, it might help the ratings if you did.”
“That’s a relief. I have no desire to get married.” Not to some guy she met while pretending to be her sister.
He looked taken aback. “That’s not what you said during your interviews. I may not have physically been there, but I did read over the transcripts.”
Transcripts? Her stomach plummeted. Had she just made a major slip?
They had recorded Jessie’s interviews.
She needed to get her hands on those so she’d know what she had said.
His eyes narrowed at her continued silence. Darn, she usually thought fast on her feet. In her line of work she had to. What was it about this guy that had her acting like some knock-kneed teenager in heat?
“You want someone to sweep you off your feet, marry you and make lots of babies,” he continued in an almost mocking tone, as if he, personally, found the prospect repulsive.
Jessie had said that? Nausea rose in Jill’s throat. Her sister better not rush into motherhood. Visions of changing baby diapers and walking the floor at all hours during the night caused Jill to shudder. She had enough responsibilities just looking after her sister without adding a little munchkin to the clan. Jessie better stay on her birth control or else.
“Don’t you remember what you said during your interviews?”
“Of course, I do.” She hadn’t said a thing. Jessie, however, had given an embellished mixture of both her and Jill’s lives. Mostly Jill’s from what her sister had admitted during her teary goodbye at the airport. “Isn’t a girl allowed to change her mind? Maybe I could read over those transcripts?”
“A woman’s prerogative and all that jazz, huh?” He stared a few moments longer with a cocky grin on his face, shook his head, then, walked across the large room with proud, confident strides. Several people scurried after him.
She sighed in relief. He’d bought it. He’d believed she was Jessie. He hadn’t offered to let her read the transcripts, but oh my God, she’d pulled it off.
“Jane?” A well-dressed thin man with a friendly face, paisley silk shirt, and too tight pants walked up the moment Rob disappeared through one of the high-arched doorways of the castle turned set.
She blinked. Twice. Jane. Oh yeah, that was her.
“I’m Gregory Bell. I’ll be doing your hair and make-up,” he explained as he stunned her by kissing both of her cheeks. “How are your accommodations?”
Her accommodations? They were staying in a castle. “Like something straight from a fairy tale.”
The dashing man winked, bowed his head, and gave a wave of his bejeweled hand. “Well, you are royalty.”
“So I’ve read.”
He clicked his tongue. “You don’t sound as if you understand the coup you’ve landed. You were chose
n out of thousands of hopeful women to play her royal highness Princess Isabella Jane Strovanik.”
“Coup,” she muttered as she followed him to a catchall room slash beauty salon. He pointed to a parlor type chair.
“You’re not cutting my hair.” She grabbed her long tresses, free from their usual clips. She hadn’t cut it for the police force. She sure wasn’t cutting it for these TV jokers.
His mouth fell in exaggerated horror. “Absolutely not. Just a little snip here and there to give you some verve.” He stepped around her. “And a few highlights.”
She didn’t release her protective hold.
“Don’t worry,” he assured. “I’m just going to take you from beautiful to absolutely breathtaking.”
“I hope you’ve got the fairy Godmother and her magic wand stashed back here some where.” She looked around in vain.
He laughed and patted the chair. “In you go.”
She sighed. What could a trim and a few highlights hurt?
# # #
Jill stared at her reflection in the antique full-length mirror set up in her suite. Gregory had taken her drab brown hair and added subtle streaks that caught in the light, making her resemblance to Jessie even stronger. He’d plucked her brows to almost nothing and performed magic with his make-up brushes. That stunning woman couldn’t be her. She was a tomboy, not a homecoming queen—or princess as the case was supposed to be.
With one last look of disbelief, she left her spacious room and descended the elaborate curved staircase. Masterpiece paintings of ‘her ancestors’ lined the walls. An intricately designed crystal labara hung from the embellished ceiling.
Three men stood in the large marble-floored foyer. Gregory, an older man she’d yet to meet, and God’s gift to women. Rob Lancaster. Her heart fluttered. Man, he was gorgeous.
Her steamy reaction to his magnetism surprised her. She’d rarely dated since her break-up with Dan two months ago. She’d thought Dan had been the one--that special someone just for her. They’d gotten along so well, perfect partners on the force, having complete trust in each other. Too bad there’d been no passion. She’d accepted mediocre sex as a small price to pay for the affections of a man like Dan. Obviously he hadn’t been willing to make the same concessions.