The Pretend Fiancé: A Billionaire Love Story

by Lucy Lambert

  She knows what I did to Ben, Aiden thought. He glanced to the butler, who nodded at him.

  Without asking permission, Aiden sat on the settee across from Judith. “Mister Haller...” he began.

  “Von Haller!” the butler said.

  Aiden began again, “Mister von Haller told me that you might have changed your mind regarding your feelings towards my fiancé.”

  “And who is this Mister von Haller?” Judith replied.

  “Your butler, Judith. The man who’s been tending to your every need since you got here.”

  Judith looked over at the butler, who watched from the corner, impassive as a statue, not counting his little outburst. “So that’s his name, is it? I’ve just been thinking of him as the butler. Does that offend you, butler?”

  “No, madam,” Gottfried said.

  Aiden waited a moment before continuing. “Are you ready to tell me the truth about what you and Ben did to us?”

  “Oh, Aiden, he was just a tool. A useful tool. Yes, I had him record that conversation as well as edit it. Yes, I had him go up to your room to cause another scene when he saw you return to the hotel. What of it? My point still stands. You see Gwen how she really is now, don’t you?”

  Aiden’s hand throbbed. “No, I saw her as you wanted me to see her. Not anymore, though. And, if what I’ve heard is correct, I think you see her differently, too.”

  “What nonsense,” Judith said, “My view on her hasn't changed since I first learned of you two...”

  “Then why don’t I believe you? If you believed that yourself, you wouldn’t have had to doctor evidence to try and convince me. Stop lying to me and to yourself,” Aiden said. He stood up. “Judith, if Gwen will still take me, I’m going to marry her. And then I’m completely cutting you out of our lives. I’ll get a restraining order if I have to. That ridiculous contract is evidence enough for one. You don’t have any close family left without me. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life bitter, stubborn, and alone? Because that’s how it’s going to be.”

  They stared at each other, neither willing to budge. Then Aiden shook his head and disengaged. “Goodbye, Judith.” He started for the door, the butler moving to see him out.

  “Wait, Aiden!” Judith said.

  ***

  Gwen followed Beatrice down the hall. Of all the places in the hotel, Gwen hated this part of it the most.

  “You’re sure this is it?” Beatrice said, “She’s staying down here? In one of those big apartments?”

  “Yes,” Gwen said.

  “Fancy,” Beatrice replied. They were almost at the door to Judith’s rooms. Gwen kept thinking that B had to be wrong. Aiden couldn’t be here. There was no reason for him to be there.

  Unless, Gwen thought, stopping, he thinks Judith is right and wanted to go tell her.

  “Get over here! No giving up, not now,” Beatrice said, grabbing Gwen’s wrist and hauling her forward.

  Gwen couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She didn’t want to see that look of hurt on his face again, she didn’t want to feel his anger directed towards her anymore.

  And then the door swung open before they even got there. Aiden stepped out. He stopped as soon as he saw Gwen and Beatrice bearing down on him.

  “Gwen?” he said.

  There wasn’t any anger or hurt in his voice or on his face.

  “Hah! See?” Beatrice started. Gwen ignored her.

  She wanted to run to him and jump into his arms. She didn’t though. She resisted that impulse, wary that something still might be wrong.

  “Aiden... I’m sorry. You didn’t give me the chance to explain about what you heard, and then when you saw Ben at my door...”

  “It’s okay, I understand it all now. Judith made it perfectly clear.”

  “Judith did?” Gwen said, frowning.

  “Yes. I don’t know when or exactly how it happened, or what you did, but I think she’s turned the page on how she feels about you.”

  “Are you saying Judith actually likes me now? She doesn’t think I’m a gold digger anymore?”

  Aiden spread his hands apart, flinching when moving his fingers hurt his knuckles. “I don’t know about liking you, but definitely the gold digger part.”

  “It’s over then? All the games? All of this between you and me?”

  Aiden swallowed and glanced down, suddenly nervous. “It’s over. The Judith parts of it, anyway. As for you and me, I suppose it’s up to you whether that’s over or not.”

  She ran to him then, wrapping her arms around his waist. He hesitated, but then hugged her back. “Of course it isn’t over! You think I’d let you off the hook that easily?” She had to fight to hold back the tears pushing at her eyes. These were happy tears, though. Relieved tears.

  “You still want to get married?” Aiden said.

  “Yes! And sooner rather than later, before another of your relatives pops out of the woodwork to try and screw things up again.”

  “That makes a lot of sense,” Aiden said, smoothing the hair away from her forehead so that he could kiss it. The touch of his lips to her skin electrified her. For a while there, she’d been afraid that she would never get to feel that again.

  And now it looked like she’d get to experience that the rest of her life.

  Epilogue

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Beatrice said.

  “Yes,” Gwen replied, the butterflies fluttering madly against her stomach disagreeing with that sentiment.

  “Because you can still get out of it, you know. You haven’t signed this one yet,” Beatrice continued, still struggling with a few of the billion buttons holding everything together.

  “I know.”

  “If you like, I’ll cause a distraction. You can make a run for it. I’ll go and flip all the catering tables and while everyone is looking you can just slip right out through the door.”

  “I don’t want to, B, but thanks. I’m ready for this. I think we’re both ready for this.”

  “Great! I was just checking, anyway. If you’d said you wanted to run I would have hauled you on up there anyway.”

  Beatrice did a once over to make sure everything was okay and then led her out into the corridor, where her father waited. He wore a tuxedo. When he saw her he smiled and offered her the crook of his arm, which she accepted.

  “Are you ready?” David asked.

  “Why does everyone keep asking me that? Yes, I’m ready.”

  The processional started playing and everyone began inching forward, slowly making their way down the broad carpet that led through an opened set of double doors.

  Everyone stood when Gwen came in. Cameras started flashing. She saw Aiden waiting for her at the top of a couple of stairs. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

  When their eyes met, he mouthed, “Hey,” to her.

  She mouthed, “Hey,” back, struggling to keep her tears in check lest they ruin the prolonged and expensive makeup job.

  Yes, she was definitely ready to sign this contract.

  THE END

  Did you love The Pretend Fiancé: A Billionaire Love Story? Then you should read The Pretend Girlfriend: A Billionaire Love Story by Lucy Lambert!

  If you'd have told me a week ago that I'd be a billionaire's property...

  Confident. Brilliant. Rich. Devastatingly handsome. Aiden Manning seemed to have it all. As naive as I was, when he seemed interested in me, I fell head over heels immediately.

  But Aiden Manning's life held a dark side, one that he needed to hide at any cost. That's where I would come in. My trusting nature had caused me to owe money to the wrong people, and Aiden was right there and ready to help, if only I'd help him out as well. Just one signature on a piece of paper, and suddenly I was bound to him. The ground rules I had laid out at the beginning quickly melted away, and I found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into Aiden's life.

  However, someone couldn't handle that. An even more powerful figure in Aiden's life would stop at not
hing to break the two of us apart. It soon became clear that I might have to sacrfice everything I had to keep the two of us together.

  The real question was: How long could I pretend?

  Read more at Lucy Lambert’s site.

  About the Author

  Lucy just loves to write romantic stories filled with steamy scenes. She hopes her audience enjoys reading them as much as she enjoys writing them.

  You can sign up for her newsletter to receive the latest updates on new releases and promotions here: http://mad.ly/signups/77009/join (copy and paste into your browser's address bar if you cannot click on the link).

  You can contact Lucy at: lucylambertauthor@gmail.com

  Also, check out her official blog at: https://lucylambertauthor.wordpress.com/

  Read more at Lucy Lambert’s site.

  About the Publisher

  To self-publish or not to self-publish, that is the question. The good news: whatever you decide, we’re here to support you.

  You might not want to deal with the hassle of being your own publisher. It can be hard to find a good cover designer, to deal with formatting and publishing, to decide what promotions are most cost-effective. Not everybody wants total control over every detail – you want to write, and let the publisher do the rest.

  The problem is that most traditional publishers pay out 15-25% of royalties, and even digital-only publishers only pay 35% of net royalties. Some vanity digital publishers make you pay them for “publishing packages” and then still take royalties from you. And most publishers depend on their authors to do promotion and marketing, or worse: force authors into ineffectual promotional tactics like blog tours.

  We think that sucks. We want a publisher with good royalties and author-friendly contract terms. A publisher who gives us control when we want it, and who takes the reins when we get overwhelmed with options. A publisher who knows how to sell our books and who isn’t out to screw their authors for a dime.

  Well, we couldn’t find that publisher, so we decided to do it ourselves. PubYourself has long been dedicated to helping authors self-publish – if you want to self-publish and do everything yourself, we give you the tools and support to do it! But if you don’t want to do it on your own right now, or if you decide your time is better spent writing, let us publish your book!

  Come check us out at http://www.pubyourselfpress.com