by Berri Fox
Bet You’re Mine
A Billionaire Lesbian Fake Girlfriend Romance
Berri Fox
Its Her Books
Copyright © 2019 by It’s Her Books
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Join My Facebook Group!
Contents
Description
1. Heather
2. Rafaela
3. Heather
4. Rafaela
5. Heather
6. Rafaela
7. Heather
8. Rafaela
9. Heather
10. Rafaela
11. Heather
12. Rafaela
13. Heather
14. Rafaela
15. Heather
16. Rafaela
17. Heather
18. Rafaela
19. Heather
20. Rafaela
21. Heather
Description
It started as a simple bet. It ended up costing me my heart.
I won’t deny it. The ladies love me.
I can’t help it.
But when my male cousins get dumped so their girlfriends can spend time with me, they’ve had enough.
They bet me that I can’t hold down one woman for more than thirty days.
Game on.
I find a sure thing.
Her name is Heather Cook and she’s gorgeous.
She’s way younger than me but when she looks at me she has stars in her eyes.
It’ll be easy, right?
Wrong.
Because my cousins are determined to win this bet and they’ll pull every trick in the book.
Add to it that I’m really starting to fall in love with Heather.
That I’ll do anything to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.
All of a sudden, this careless bet has become a whole lot more complicated.
Author’s Note: This romance contains steamy scenes.
One
Heather
My alarm clock flashes at me as Emma’s shrieking wakes me up. Fuck, there must have been another power cut during the night. This isn’t the first time it’s happened with the wiring in these shoddy apartments and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
I keep meaning to pick up a battery clock but there’s never time or money before the next time it happens.
My phone is beeping from the side-table and it looks like it’s barely charged, but even so I can see enough to be able to tell that I’m already late for work. Again.
I work in a small bookstore called the Cozy Nook and while my boss Rachel is one of the kindest and most maternal women I know she’s been under a lot of stress lately and she won’t be happy with me. I kick off the covers and hurry over to Emma’s bed where my baby is bawling her eyes out.
She’s usually the sweetest three year old you could want to meet, but lately she’s been having some trouble getting to sleep and that’s been making her cranky. I scoop her up in my arms and rock her a little back and forth as she babbles in my ear.
It’s mostly nonsense still but it sounds like she had a bad dream on top of everything else.
“Aw, no,” I kiss her flushed cheek. “Well mommy’s here now. Let’s get you all cleaned up and we can go to the bookstore, okay?”
“B’kstore!” she says, sounding a little happier as I tote her to the bathroom and check to see if we have hot water today. I’m behind on all my bills lately, especially since I maxed out my third credit card on our beat up old car. Every day is a roulette to see if we have power, internet or hot water.
It looks like I’m lucky today and I get baby cleaned up while making a mental note to check if the power is faulty wiring or the power company getting sick of me putting off my payment as long as I have. Emma squeals at the bubbles and tries to splash me and I wish I could laugh with her the way I used to.
But all my laughter has gone away lately. I can’t keep up with the bills and debt just keeps piling on top of me. I’m only twenty-one, and it’s been hard to raise a baby while working to keep our heads above water. It’s only getting harder lately with prices in the city going up and I’ve heard that the people buying up our apartment block are planning on raising the rent.
How am I ever going to pay for that?
While Emma chews on a piece of toast I hurriedly throw on some clothes and give my long hair a quick brush. I’m already late, it wouldn’t do to turn up looking like a fright as well. I’m the shop assistant and people do expect me to look presentable.
I’m really lucky that the Cozy Nook allows me to bring Emma with me because while my dad is great at watching her as much as he can, he can’t do it all the time. I wonder briefly if I can ask him for another loan to tide us over, but he’s already given us so much and he’s only got his pension to live off.
Maybe I should get another job?
But who else will put up with my erratic schedule? Rachel should have fired me a hundred times over if she wasn’t fond of me.
Finally I’m ready and I shoot off a quick text to Rachel before my phone dies, grab my charger and bundle us into the car. I can hear another banging noise in the engine and just hope it’s nothing important. We can’t afford another trip to the mechanic on top of everything else.
The worry about where rent and food are going to come from makes me stressed and Emma can tell. Maybe she can hear it in my voice, I don’t know. I try so hard to keep things light and cheerful for her so she doesn’t have to know that we’re in trouble.
But by the time I pull up into the parking lot near the bookshop she’s just as stressed and cranky as I am. I’m happy to see Sara already in the shop. She recently started a new job but she still comes by the Cozy Nook sometimes and I could cry with relief as she takes Emma from me and lets me get to my job.
“What time do you call this, Heather?” Rachel calls from the back of the store, and Sara makes a sympathetic face at me. I hurry over, all apologies and explanations but it looks like Rachel has been going over the store accounts again and this never leaves her in a good mood.
“This is the third time in two weeks, Heather, I’m not running a charity shop here.”
“I know, I’m sorry. There was another power cut during the night.”
“That’s been your excuse too many times. You could get a battery clock or use your phone and you know that as well as I do. I can’t keep holding these shifts for you when you’re never in on time to do them.”
I feel a rush of desperation. Sure I’ve been a little unreliable, but I’ve got reasons. She wouldn’t fire me for that surely!
“Look, I’ll cover the shift for the club tonight. I know you wanted to attend and no one else could get the night off. Would that make it up to you?”
“It would be a start,” Rachel says, softening. I let out a breath of relief to see she’s mollified. Of course now I’m going to have to get my dad to sit Emma for the evening but better that than looking for a new job.
Two
Rafaela
As we wait for our drinks to arrive I can tell my cousins are mad at me. But answer me this, is it really my fault that all women find me hot? And let’s go one step further and ask the really important question which is whether it’s my fault if those women happen to include my brother’s girlfriends?
I don’t think so. I didn’t twist anyone’s arm and it’s not m
y fault that Stefano didn’t get the memo that I’m God’s gift to women. He should take it as a compliment, he has good taste.
My father doesn’t see it that way, but he’s old school. He’s all about family loyalty and banding together and so forth. I don’t exactly disagree but what, am I not going to punch my stupid little brother in the nose for calling me names?
Of course I am.
Apollo and Daniella stare at me over their manhattans. It’s going to take a few rounds of drinks before they’re willing to talk to me again. I know that they think I’m being impulsive and out of control but all the restrictions that the family try to put on me only make me want to buck the rules even harder.
I know that my father doesn’t want someone as clueless as Stefano running the family business, and if he doesn’t have the balls to realize that means he has to give it to me then I’m not going to bend over backwards to convince him.
Although he did say that if I don’t shape up he’ll cut me out of the business altogether and that gives me a little pause. What would I do without the money or the excitement?
“You’ve got to stop with Stefano,” Daniella says finally over her second Cosmo. “It’s going to cause a war inside the Family and you know that Apollo and I will be caught in the cross fire. I don’t want to take a shot for you, Rafaela.”
“Neither do I,” Apollo adds.
“It’s your job to take bullets for me,” I say, swigging back the shot of bourbon that the cute waitress has just set in front of me and waggling my eyebrows at her. She blushes and I smirk.
Apollo smacks my hand the way he used to when we were children and I was trying to steal his cookies. “No. It’s my job to keep you out of trouble and I’m about to be fired from that job because it’s actually impossible.”
“To start with you could stop chasing every skirt you see,” Daniella adds.
“Yes. That. We’re going to end up overrun with your ex girlfriends. I know you’re chronically incapable of settling down but maybe go a week between them at least.”
I frown. No one tells me I can’t do something. “I could settle down with any girl I like, thank you.”
A look passes between them and I think if they weren’t so well trained they would burst into laughter.
“You? Go steady? The longest you ever went steady was Valentina Ridicci and that was because we were visiting her for the weekend,” Apollo says.
“I totally could,” I say firmly, eyeing him. He meets my gaze and I see the moment this becomes a competition. We’re as bad as each other in that.
“Okay, fine. Let’s make a bet. I bet you can’t make a girl…”
“One that we choose,” Daniella cuts in.
“Yes, a girl that we choose. I bet you can’t make a girl stay with you for a month.”
I consider it. A month is a lot longer than I usually stay with a partner that’s true. “What do I get if I win?”
“My motorcycle,” Apollo says immediately, knowing how much I want that beautiful beast of a thing.
Daniella inspects her nails. “I’ll give you my nonna’s limoncello recipe.”
I squeal, that recipe is like gold. “Deal! And if I loose then I’ll apologize to Stefano and let him keep his stupid girlfriends in peace.”
“Agreed,” Apollo says and we shake on it.
Daniella gets up, leaving a huge tip for the waitress. “Okay then, let’s get moving. We need to find you a girl.”
We stalk out of the club and I send a wink and an apologetic wave after the waitress who looks a little bereft to see that I’m leaving. We walk down the busy city street for a while with Apollo and Daniella debating the various pros and cons of types of women for me.
I don’t bother getting involved. I’ve had just about every kind of woman that there is so I know that I can manage whatever they decide to throw at me.
Suddenly Daniella stops still and points. “Look. A late night bookshop.”
“That’s perfect,” Apollo says. He sounds so excited that I want to remind him that he regularly kills people and see if that will help bring things back into perspective.
Mob capos can sometimes be really dramatic. Apollo, Daniella and I grew up together. My father wanted to make sure that his family was as spread out a target as possible so Stefano and I really didn’t have much to do with each other until we were in our teens at least.
I feel a lot closer to these two idiots than I have ever felt with him. Maybe that’s part of the problem. We three have shed blood together and I know that I can trust them whereas the most I’ve seen of Stefano is him falling over sick at a Christmas party.
“Who less likely to keep up with our Rafaela than someone who spends their evenings in a bookshop,” Daniella says with a smirk and I roll my eyes at her.
“Bring it on.”
They do their little fist bump thing that they will not teach me and then we walk towards the bookshop together and towards my new romance.
Three
Heather
I’m thankful that my Dad could take Emma for me for the night because this way I can work this shift, as well as have a bit of fun. Oh, I’m not going to get involved with anything and I likely won’t even watch any of the demonstrations, but at least I can enjoy the eye candy and wonder wistfully what it would be like to be daring enough to go down there.
Working the BDSM evenings here at the Cozy Nook are always fascinating, but also very frustrating for me. You see I’d love to be one of those beautiful, confident women who stride on in there to watch and maybe even get involved, but I just can’t. I’m too shy and I can’t seem to bring myself to even walk down there, let alone stay to watch anything.
Oh well, at least I can use this time to enjoy the view of the people coming and going, as well as go over my bills and try to figure out some way to make things work. I’ll probably spend some of the time day-dreaming about waltzing in there and meeting the love of my life too, but that’s about as far as I’ll get, I figure.
I can’t help but feel a bit lonely these days, especially as I see couples coming and going and looking so happy to do so. Not to mention the fact that Lucille and Sara finally got together a few months back, and while I’m really happy for them, it’s only amplified my feelings of wanting to be with someone of my own. I see them so happy with each other and I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever find that for myself.
It seems like more and more, people are pairing off with one another and I’m just stuck here, all by myself and too scared to even take the chance to change my situation. There are so many beautiful and gorgeous people that I see on a daily basis, every one a reminder of how much I long for companionship.
Speaking of beautiful people…
I perk up and stand up straight with a smile as a few people walk through the door, an absolutely stunningly gorgeous woman leading them. She’s tall and lean just a single glance from her makes me feel weak in the knees. She’s got dark hair cascading down her shoulders and a set of dark brown eyes that make me feel like I could get lost in them, and a smile that could melt hearts. I can already feel my cheeks blushing and I take a breath in an attempt to steady myself.
How pathetic is this; a beautiful woman walks in and I turn to a pile of mush before she even talks to me.
She’s got a gorgeous guy with her and another woman who looks like she belongs on the cover of Vogue, though none of them look delicate; I’m not sure what it is, but they give off a ‘don’t fuck with me’ kind of vibe that is both alluring and terrifying.
They approach the desk and I give them my best smile, nodding when they ask me if the demonstration is open to all.
“It is, and, ah,” I stammer a bit, cheeks blushing furiously as I try to focus on something other than the gorgeous woman looking at me, “Yes it’s open to everyone. It’s just downstairs there.”
“Excellent, and do we need to sign in or anything, or can we just go right in?”
The tall woman I noticed earlier l
ocks eyes with me and she smirks, and I suddenly feel a lump in my throat and everything feels warmer. I can’t seem to focus on anything else other than the fact that this woman is probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen I my entire life. She’s literally every fantasy I’ve ever had rolled into one single person, and the thought of holding her attention has taken over all other reasonable thought.
All of a sudden the guy is clearing his throat again with a chuckle and I realize that not only have I been ignoring his question but I’ve been staring at this mystery woman, who’s been giving me eyes and smirking the entire time. I’ve got a spiel that I always give that never fails me, but no matter how many times I try to open my mouth to say something, nothing comes out but a dreamy sigh as I gaze at this woman.
Fuck, I’m an idiot.
Rachel notices me floundering and she quickly comes over and gives the three of them the information that they need to go in, and I can’t help but blush and feel a deep-seated embarrassment when they all chuckle and glance at me. Well, the stunning woman isn’t laughing at me, she’s just smirking, but her little entourage is, and I hate it. Why did that beautiful woman turn me into such a blubbering idiot? All she did was look at me and it was like my entire world came careening towards me in a lust fueled haze. Pathetic.
Rachel directs them downstairs and when they leave I groan, my hand dragging down over my face as I bury nit against the counter and wish that I wasn’t such an awkward idiot.