The Billionaire Bachelor_Clean Billionaire Romance

by Judy Corry

  It was amazing what kinds of stories could be fabricated from a handful of photos.

  The current story on the screen questioned whether Drew and Kate had been in on the whole thing together from the start: Speculations about whether Drew had become the bachelor just so Kate could get into the business; how they had been dating secretly for years; and how her marriage to Nolan had only been about the money.

  Like she even ended up with any money. Kate scoffed. All she got out of that sham of a marriage was an apartment that Nolan had pre-paid for a year. It was ridiculous how many lies had been spread in the last few days.

  When she took her phone off airplane mode for a few minutes, she had hoped to find a message or missed call from Drew. But there was nothing.

  Kate tried not to feel disheartened about it. Nothing could happen between them. They couldn't be seen together. It would ruin the show's new plans of a fake engagement. So she might as well get used to the distance now.

  Alexis had texted her about the plans for the next week, asking Kate if she could come back in that afternoon and help arrange everything that needed to be put together for the re-shoot. But oh, how she hated the idea of setting everything up for Gwen and Drew to spend more time together. She'd seen their chemistry on plenty of the episodes, and even if they hadn't gotten along perfectly after filming, they still had sparks when they kissed. And they would probably be doing more kissing if they were fake-engaged.

  The whole thing made her sick. Things had finally seemed like they might have a chance of working out between her and Drew. Drew had invited her to run away with him for a few days. He wouldn't have suggested that if he hadn't had feelings for her. Would he?

  Except, he'll be doing just that with Gwen instead.

  Kate wrapped her arms around herself, her stomach churning. This job was supposed to make her life better, not worse.

  But once again, something was in the way of her and Drew getting together. At least this time, she hadn't left her heart out there to hang for too long—only a few well-timed pictures and fake headlines that she wished were actually true.

  Because if they were, maybe all of this might have been worth it.

  31

  Drew

  Drew spent the next few days dropping by radio shows and doing TV interviews as an attempt to smother the gossip about Kate and him. He missed not having Kate along for those. Her presence had always made them easier and less awkward. But, of course, they couldn't be together anymore, especially not in front of Finding Your Soulmate fans.

  At least one good thing had come from this big mess. His motivation to help save Kate from further humiliation seemed to have finally made it easier for him to act.

  Once he'd completed all his interviews, he locked himself up to avoid the paparazzi.

  Alexis kept in contact with him over what he needed to do for next week’s filming. Everything had been arranged for him to fly out in a few days. He'd opted to use his private jet instead of flying in the first class seat the studio offered to get him. The less people around him, the better. And in the meantime, Drew was to come up with the perfect swoon-worthy proposal and practice it enough until it sounded sincere and authentic.

  He'd tried several times to write it, but days later, the sheet of paper lying on his dining room table was still blank.

  He should probably just ask Oliver or one of the other writers to write it up for him. Their version was sure to be better than anything he could come up with.

  By Friday, he had to get out of his house. He had to see Kate before he left for Antigua. He wanted to make sure everything was still fine between them. Things had been going in a great direction before the tabloids stuck their noses into their business. He was sure she had kissed him back willingly enough. Hadn't she?

  So, instead of going to bed at eleven o'clock, he put on a hoodie and went for a run. If the paparazzi wanted to follow him, they'd have to do it on foot. And he was pretty sure that at this time of night they wouldn't care to report what Drew Burrows looked like when he went out for a jog.

  32

  Kate

  Kate had just finished brushing her teeth and was about to check her front door one more time to make sure it was locked, when she heard the knob jangling. Scared that someone was breaking into her house, she did the first thing that came to her mind and started barking.

  The noise stopped, and Kate was relieved to see that the dead bolt was locked and that her impulse had seemed to work.

  But then there was a light knock.

  Bark! Bark! Kate summoned her best imitation of a little dog.

  "Kate!" called a voice from the other side of the door. "Stop pretending to be a dog and just open the door, will you?"

  It took a moment for Kate to recognize the voice.

  Drew?

  Kate saw a hooded figure through the door's peephole. It looked enough like Drew, but she still asked, "Who is it?"

  "It's me, Drew." He pulled the gray hood down for a second, so she could see his dark hair and blue eyes better.

  She undid the deadbolt to let him in, and he quickly slipped inside.

  "You could have a least acted like an intimidating dog with a low bark, not some yippy little thing." He grinned, shutting the door behind him.

  "Sorry, I was caught off guard." She turned on her heel to walk to the couch, but he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to him, wrapping her in a tight embrace that surprised her.

  Were they allowed to hug?

  "Sorry to scare you," he spoke into her neck. "I was going nuts at home and had to see you."

  He did? After the week they'd had, she had no idea where they stood, especially after watching him tell everyone about how having an affair with his childhood friend was the last thing he’d ever do.

  And when he didn’t try to even message or call her, she figured his denial must have been true. He’d never been that great of an actor before.

  But she melted against his chest despite her worries, not strong enough to push him away. She could allow herself a hug, even if it didn’t mean the same thing to him as it did to her. ”I missed seeing you, too." So much.

  Then she pulled back and glanced around to make sure her curtains were drawn closed. The last thing they needed was for someone to spot them together in her house this late on a Friday night. Thankfully, they were all shut.

  "How did you get here? Did anyone follow you?"

  Drew plopped himself on the couch, patting the seat next to him. "I went for a run, and I'm pretty sure no one was able to follow me since I cut through a few parking lots and backyards on my way over here."

  She didn't immediately sit by him, still not sure she could pretend like nothing had happened on Monday.

  "You ran all this way?" she asked instead. "You went through people's yards?"

  "Only ones without fences. Thankfully, the only time I got barked at was when I got here."

  Kate's cheeks heated. Why had she done that? Of course no one would buy that as anything close to being real.

  Oh well, it wasn't like that was the most humiliating thing to happen to her that week.

  When he patted the cushion on the couch again, she tentatively sat down. "What did you plan to do once you got here?"

  “I don’t know. I just needed to make sure everything was okay. Are the paparazzi still bugging you?" he asked, concern etched in his eyes.

  She scratched at her cuticle. "They hung out here the first few days, but I didn't notice as many today. Maybe they realized they weren't going to catch anything exciting here after all. Too bad for them they didn't wait until tonight."

  Oh crap, she just made it sound like she was expecting something exciting to happen between them.

  She was about to explain herself and clear up the innuendo when Drew's eyes locked in on hers. "Yeah, good thing."

  Oh, how she wished she could read what was going on in his mind at that moment.

  "What do you want to do now that you're here?"r />
  Drew took in her appearance, seeming to notice for the first time that she was wearing pajamas.

  "You were just going to bed, weren't you?"

  She looked down at her pink-and-gray checked pajamas. "I've actually had these on for hours, but yeah, I was about to go to bed."

  Drew was about to stand, and while she knew he should go, she didn't want him to. So she placed a hand on his arm to stop him. "I'm really not that tired anymore. I just had no reason to stay up before you came over. Now I'm wide awake."

  "Do you wanna watch a movie?" he suggested.

  "What are you in the mood for?"

  "Whatever you wanna watch…anything but Finding Your Soulmate, that is."

  Kate laughed. Yeah, she didn't feel like watching him kiss other girls anymore, either.

  "How about you pick one while I pop the popcorn?"

  A few minutes later, Kate came back with a bowl of microwaved popcorn. She set the bowl between them.

  "You can sit closer," Drew said.

  "Are you sure?" Hadn't he been telling everyone all week that nothing was going on between them?

  Drew looked confused. "I thought I made things pretty clear on Sunday night."

  "I guess I got confused with everything that happened the next day."

  "That didn't change anything for me."

  She scratched at a spot on her pajama pants. "I just wasn't sure."

  "Why?" Drew furrowed his brow as if trying to figure her out. She became uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

  Kate cleared her throat. "I watched your interviews. You said yourself nothing was going on between us. And then when you didn’t even try to contact me…” She shrugged. "I guess it just reminded me too much of what happened the last time I thought you might like me."

  His Adam’s apple shifted. "I'm not going to avoid you for seven years."

  Kate nodded, but she could see how tense he still was. His jaw was tight. His posture stiff.

  After drawing in a deep breath, Drew lifted his gaze back to her, his eyes haunted. "Leaving you after Aiden's death has only been my biggest regret for the last seven years."

  Then why was he doing it again? Leaving her behind all to save some stupid show.

  He seemed to sense that she didn't believe him.

  "You know that's why I went on Finding Your Soulmate in the first place, right?"

  Kate stared at him. "What?"

  "I'd turned them down for years, but when your wedding announcement showed up in my mailbox one day, I knew I needed to move on since you obviously had."

  "But you never even tried to date me," Kate insisted, suddenly frustrated that he'd let her go through with marrying Nolan without even trying to say anything to her. She could have avoided making the biggest mistake of her life if she thought for a second that Drew wanted her.

  "Every time I got the nerve up to contact you, you'd just made a new relationship Facebook-official. I figured I was the furthest thing from your mind."

  She had dated a lot, but if she'd known Drew was interested, she would have jumped at the chance to date him. He was Drew Burrows after all—the guy she'd daydreamed about her entire adolescence.

  "Looks like we should have gotten braver years ago. I always thought I was just some bucket-list item to you."

  "Bucket-list item?"

  "You know, gotta check off kissing my best friend's sister. Guys have those kinds of things." Kind of like how she'd just been another notch in Nolan's belt.

  Drew shook his head. "I already told you, Aiden threatened me pretty much every day that he would beat me up if I ever touched you."

  Kate grinned. "He never would have won. You were always so much bigger than him."

  Drew winked. "I didn't want to embarrass him then."

  They were quiet for a moment, thinking about the past that could have been if they hadn't made their own assumptions on so many things.

  "So you never thought I was a bad kisser?" Kate asked hesitantly.

  Drew chuckled. "Never."

  "Did you ever think about it after that day?" Kate scooted closer to him.

  Drew sat up and leaned forward as well. "All. The. Time."

  Their eyes locked as if magnetized to each other, because they both leaned in. Kate's insides melted when she saw Drew's gaze dip to her lips. She closed her eyes, touching her forehead against his, and waited. Her breathing was shallow, but she slipped her hand along his shoulder.

  And just when she felt Drew's breath on her face, the image of him down on one knee, getting engaged to Gwen, flashed through her mind.

  "Stop. Wait, wait," she choked out. "We can't."

  She felt Drew go still beneath her hand. "We can't?"

  "You're getting engaged next week." It took all of Kate's willpower to pull back.

  "It isn't a real engagement."

  "I know." Kate looked down and ran a finger across Drew's chest, smoothing the fabric of his shirt as she remembered all the women Nolan had messaged and spent time alone with. She'd foolishly been oblivious to it all. She had trusted him with her heart, and he'd tossed her aside once he'd gotten what he wanted out of her. And all of that was done in secret. Would she be able to handle watching Drew pretending to be engaged to another woman—a gorgeous woman whom he'd had feelings for at one time?

  She knew the answer. She wasn't strong enough.

  "I don't think I could handle kissing you, only to watch you ask someone to marry you a few days later. I just…" She sighed and gazed at him. "I can't do it after everything that happened with Nolan. Real or fake. I-I think it would break me."

  Drew sunk back into the couch and released a defeated sigh.

  "But if it makes you feel better," she added with a half-hearted smile. "I really, really want to kiss you."

  "And so do I." His face showed a range of emotions from frustration, to defeat, to desire. "So badly."

  Kate looked at her hands which were still on his chest. "I'm sorry."

  "But I understand." His fingers found hers, and they intertwined so perfectly. "Is this okay?"

  Kate had always wanted to just sit and hold Drew Burrows' hand—to be able to hold it anytime she wanted. "Yeah. This is fine."

  He let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side. "What about this?"

  Oh, cuddling with Drew felt right, too. She knew she couldn't give this up either if he was offering. "This is okay, too."

  "But no kissing?" He spoke into her hair. His low voice made her insides shudder.

  She shook her head, not daring to lift her face to look at him. If she did, she knew she'd lose all her resolve and end up kissing him.

  "Okay," he said softly. "I won't kiss you. Not until you ask me to."

  "Thank you for understanding." She wrapped her arms around his torso and settled in closer.

  "It's going to be really hard, though. But I guess I'll have to make do with cuddling and just reliving that kiss on Sunday for now." They were stretched out on the couch, and Kate rested her head on Drew’s chest.

  "Me too," she said with a sigh. She pushed play on the movie and tried to focus on just this moment and not on what things would be like for the next few weeks.

  33

  Drew

  Drew paced back and forth across the carpet in his hotel room in Antigua. He was getting engaged in a few hours. Engaged. To a woman he could barely stand to be around for more than an hour, let alone love.

  He and Kate had come to some kind of understanding Friday night, though he wasn't exactly sure where they stood. Were they dating? Or were they just friends who liked each other and were waiting to date? Was that the plan? They certainly weren't friends with benefits…since there would be no kissing until the whole Finding Your Soulmate mess was over with. But, boy, did he wish there was a least some kissing. It had taken all his self-control not to kiss her.

  He pushed his fingers through his hair. Why had he agreed to the fake engagement plan anyway? Couldn't he have jus
t told Gwen and Alexis no? Told them he never signed up for this? He had tried, but the process hadn't worked for him. None of those girls had been the one. None of them were Kate. Kate still had his heart after all these years. She would always have his heart.

  But she also had dreams of her own, and he didn't want to ruin her shot. A huge part of him wanted to just pay for the whole production of one of her movies himself.

  But he knew she'd never go for that.

  So instead, he was getting engaged for her. Not to her.

  This was so messed up.

  He'd always told himself he only wanted to get down on bended knee once, and here he was trying to figure out the perfect proposal for the wrong girl in order to help the right girl.

  A knock sounded on his door, breaking him out of his trance.

  He had texted Alexis a few minutes before that she should probably just have one of her writers think up the right words, since they still weren't coming to him. That was probably her coming to the rescue now.

  He swung the door open. "Hey, Alexi—"

  Not Alexis.

  Kate.

  "What are you doing here?" he managed to say after a beat. She looked beautiful in the afternoon sunlight, wearing a t-shirt and jeans that hugged her curves just right.

  "Alexis told me you needed help with something."

  "She shouldn't have sent you." Why had she sent Kate? Alexis knew how he felt about her.

  Pain reflected in Kate's eyes at his words, so he hurried to say, "It's not that. I just, uh, I'm having a hard time coming up with the perfect fake proposal, and I don't know—with the way I feel about you—it's just interesting that Alexis would send you to help me write them."

  Kate nodded and walked in. "She did say you needed my writing skills. I should've known it would be for something like this."

  Drew couldn't get a read on what she thought of the situation. Did she care? He expected she wouldn't want to help him with this, but maybe she was fine. Maybe she didn't care as much as he hoped she did.