He waited until he’d been measured, every bit as skilfully and thoroughly as by his gentleman’s tailor in Boston, and been asked to return later in the afternoon for his first fitting. There would be two more the next morning.
Eloise escorted him downstairs. She paused at the entrance to the citadel of girliness. ‘We’ll see you in two hours. I’ve got half the team working on your tux.’ She looked up at him, her blue eyes warm and sincere, fringed with those outrageously fake black lashes that were fun and glamorous on her but he’d think over-the-top on anyone else. ‘Thank you again, Josh. The paparazzi actually played right into our hands. Hopefully there’ll be some buzz ahead of us by the time we go to the wedding together on Saturday.’
He lowered his voice to be heard only by her. ‘I’ve thought of a way to get even more buzz and to knock the wind right out of your detractor’s sails.’
Her brow pleated into a frown. ‘And that would be?’
‘What if I pretended to be your fiancé for the weekend?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You...you’d be my fake fiancé?’
‘In terms of business strategy, it’s an excellent idea. If you turn up to the wedding with a fiancé on your arm, it negates everything the influencer says about your attitude to marriage.’
‘That’s true.’ She paused. ‘It’s drastic though, isn’t it? I’d have to give the idea some thought.’
He had a sudden inspiration. ‘It would help me out too. Lately I’ve been put on a number of ludicrous “most eligible bachelors” lists and that really bugs me. Gossip of an engagement will put those lists immediately out of date.’
‘So it could work for both of us,’ she said slowly.
‘It could,’ he said.
She looked up at him. ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’ Although her words were bold, the accompanying smile was a tad shaky.
‘Then, after the wedding, you can take your real revenge.’
‘What do you mean?’ she said.
‘This is how I would handle it if she were my opponent. You will already have weakened her by showing she was wrong about you not wanting to marry. Next, I would get my business analysts to go through her site looking for any inconsistencies and weaknesses in her enterprises. Presumably, she gets her income from advertisers who pay her for her endorsements of their products. I would look for even the slightest instance where she might have crossed the line that I could use against her. Then I would use my muscle to ensure the advertisers did not see her as being the best spokesperson or brand for their products any longer. Ultimately I would bring her down. As she intended to bring you down.’
Her eyes widened. ‘That’s really ruthless. And not very ethical.’
He shrugged. ‘That’s how the world works.’ He’d learned from the best when it came to stone-hearted ruthlessness: his ex-father.
Eloise stayed silent for a long moment and he could see by the expressions flashing across her face that she was reassessing her opinion of him. And it was definitely downward. For the best, perhaps. He didn’t want her building any expectations of him.
Finally she spoke. ‘I don’t know that I would want to go that far, regardless of what you might do in the same situation. However, the fake fiancé idea is a good one, if we can carry it off.’
‘You’ll have to guide me there. I know nothing about being engaged.’
‘I would have to have a doting fiancé on my arm. What I mean is, we’ll have to make it look believable. You know, that we...er...were actually in love with each other.’
‘That’s a point,’ he said. ‘We might get our first chance now. Don’t turn around, but your friend Vinh is peeking around the door upstairs.’
Eloise smiled. ‘Is she, now? Let’s start how we mean to continue. Give her something to take back to the workroom, and get the gossip started, shall we?’ She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him, her mouth sweet and warm under his.
Almost immediately Josh forgot that the kiss was staged as he pulled her close and kissed her back.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BY EARLY FRIDAY afternoon Josh’s tuxedo was fitted and finished, the trouser hems breaking perfectly on the new dress shoes he’d bought the day before at a Double Bay boutique. The jacket had a whimsical blue-and-white-spotted silk lining, which had been a surprise to him.
‘If I’d known you a little better I could have fitted the design to your interests, even had the lining custom-printed if there’d been time,’ Eloise murmured so no one else could hear. ‘After all, tuxedos can be a tad on the stuffy side for a young guy.’
He stood in his new tux at the front of the workroom for a final check. Eloise and her delightful friend Vinh then circled him, while he stood there captive in his new suit. The two women snipped loose threads, tucked, pulled, and prodded the fabric into place, laughing as they did so until it dawned on him they were making a game of it. Finally, laughing himself, he told them to cease and desist. Eloise’s touch, no matter how light and playful, was altogether too distracting. Again he wondered what he might have unwittingly got himself into.
She looked sexy as hell in citrus-yellow hip-hugging retro-style cut-off trousers and a short swing top that gave a tantalising hint of the creamy skin of her waist when she turned. High heels gave her a delightful wiggle when she walked. She wore her clothes like a theatrical costume, he realised. Did she hide her real self behind the drama of vintage style? Or was the dressing up just part of her creative nature? It was no matter. It was fun. She was fun. He couldn’t remember when he’d last felt more relaxed.
Again he thought how much Tori would like Eloise. He wished Tori would contact her twin soon. The longer Tori left it, the deeper Josh got into this friendship with Eloise—which was more than a friendship but less than a relationship or even an affair—the more difficult it would be to explain his role in their reunion when it ultimately all came out.
In the interests of transparency, he had called Tori that morning, Sydney time, to tell her his business dealings had taken him back to Sydney. It was stretching the truth somewhat, as, while he had actually made business appointments, the primary purpose had been that inexplicable and compelling urge to see Eloise again.
He’d told Tori about the lunch. Then casually mentioned he was acting as plus-one for a wedding on the upcoming weekend.
Immediately Tori had pounced. ‘Are you sure you’re not getting in a little too deep, Josh? I asked you to get a close look at her. Not to get close to her.’ She’d paused. ‘You’re not developing a thing for her, are you?’
‘Of course not,’ he’d denied, knowing he was blustering, knowing he was not quite telling the entire truth.
Whatever Tori defined as a thing, he wasn’t feeling it for Eloise. He found her undeniably hot, beautiful, smart. He liked her. She made him laugh, loosened him up, made him relax. Inspired him to do crazy things like pretend to be her fiancé to help her vanquish a business threat. But it wasn’t a thing. He wasn’t falling for her, definitely not. Tori needed to be absolutely clear about that.
So did he.
Now Eloise pulled him aside so they could speak without being overhead. ‘Are you free for practice after work tonight?’
‘Practice?’
‘Fiancé practice.’
His thoughts ran in one rather exciting direction but he suspected she didn’t mean that. ‘Run that by me again?’
‘We’re meant to be an engaged couple and we have to be convincing at the wedding. That influencer woman will pick a phony couple a mile off. We have to seem genuine. That means we have to get our stories straight—you know, how we met, how long we’ve been together, that kind of stuff.’
‘I didn’t realise it would involve all that.’
‘I didn’t either until I started to think about it. I’ve never been a fake fiancée before. Or any kind of fiancée actually. Do you want to back out
? You can at any time, you know. I won’t hold you to it.’
‘No, not at all. I gave my word.’ He frowned. ‘But I didn’t realise it would involve so much lying.’
‘Might be wise not to think of it as lying. Rather...’ She thought about it for a moment ‘Not a lie as such, but rather a targeted business strategy of purposeful evasion.’
He laughed. ‘Where did you get that from?’
‘I did a business course when I knew I’d be setting up on my own,’ she said. ‘I can talk the talk when I need to.’
‘Well, I guess that’s something I should know about you. There must be more.’
‘Exactly. That’s why we need to practise our stories.’
‘Okay. Count me in.’
‘Why don’t I pop round to your hotel after I finish work? It’s only around the corner. We could maybe get a pizza or something.’ She put up her hand. ‘No. Wait. As my fiancé, you would be expected to be familiar with my apartment. Do you mind coming round to mine? I’ll give you the address.’
‘Sure.’
‘In the meantime, you think of a few questions to ask me, and I’ll think of a few questions to ask you. I’ll pick up some Thai take-out on my way home.’
* * *
Eloise was only too aware that Josh, charming as he might appear, was a tough, driven businessman. No one got to be a billionaire before the age of thirty without a finely honed edge of ruthlessness. His comments on her business revealed a shrewd eye for potential profit. That was verified in the many news and finance pages she’d delved into online to find out more about him.
Yet his revenge strategy for @lindytheblonde had shocked her. His eyes had narrowed and his face set hard as he’d outlined his plan. His fluency made her think he had exacted such a revenge before against someone who had crossed him. Perhaps more than one opponent. She realised she would have to keep her wits about her in any dealings with him. Who knew how ruthless he might be towards people in his personal life?
And yet she’d seen a different side to billionaire Josh. A man kind to a scruffy little dog. A man with a sense of humour who had completely won over her fiercely protective best friend, Vinh—not to mention everyone else in the atelier. Then there was the man who’d offered that whacky solution to her problem with @lindytheblonde. She considered herself to be a creative thinker but a fake engagement wouldn’t have crossed her mind in a million years.
Accepting his off-the-wall offer had kicked her relationship with Josh up to a different level that taking him as a plus-one to the wedding would not have. He was no longer a stranger, yet not quite a friend—she was way too attracted to him to put him in the friend category. She didn’t have lustful thoughts as she did for Josh with her male friends. Yet their situations meant he couldn’t be a potential boyfriend either.
They were co-conspirators in a fake engagement and that would involve a disconcerting level of fake intimacy. But it really was a good idea. If only she—they—could carry it off. Because if they didn’t, if she and Josh were revealed as frauds, she’d be a laughing stock. And what that meant for her business could only be bad.
Now she sat opposite Josh, the coffee table between them, each on one of the two squashy cream sofas that formed the focal point of her living room. A half-empty bottle of white wine and their two glasses sat on the coffee table.
She’d inherited this spacious nineteen-thirties apartment from her grandmother—the same one who had taught her to sew—and it was her haven. That grandmother had loved her unconditionally, and had helped her understand the reasons her mother had kept her adoption from her. Still, she’d never been quite able to shake off the knowledge that her grandmother had known and been part of the conspiracy. Even someone as close and doting as her grandmother had lied to her.
She knew how fortunate she was; the price of real estate in this suburb was astronomical. In fact, Double Bay was the wealthiest area in the state with this adjoining area coming in second. The bow-fronted windows looked out over Rushcutters Bay Park and beyond to the waters of the harbour. She could actually see the spot where Daisy had so fortuitously redirected her ball to Josh.
Josh had changed into black jeans and a black cashmere sweater. He looked comfortable, relaxed and super-hot. Not only was he handsome, but he also exuded a male virility that she could not help but respond to with thoughts bordering on the sinful. She wouldn’t have any trouble pretending to be attracted to him as his fake fiancée. Keeping her hands off him might be the problem.
They’d chatted generalities as they’d polished off the Thai dinner but, the meal cleared, it was time to get down to the business of prepping themselves to be a believable couple.
‘Okay, let’s start our preparation for operation fake engagement,’ she said. ‘Have you ever done any acting? Theatre? Drama studies at school?’
‘No.’ His expression told her he found the very idea disdainful.
‘Me neither,’ she said. ‘I freeze with nerves the second anyone so much points me in the direction of a stage.’
‘I find that hard to believe,’ he said. ‘You seem so confident.’
‘On a one-to-one level maybe,’ she said. ‘But that does nothing for me when stage fright hits. So when it comes to playing our roles as an engaged couple, we’re going to have to wing it.’
‘Improvisation is what they call it,’ he said.
She nodded. ‘We have to think about what a real engaged couple would do and then improvise accordingly. Heaven knows I see enough of them around me.’
‘My friends are starting to succumb to the lure of matrimony, so I know a few,’ he said. He said succumb as if they were being felled by some noxious disease. With her own opinions on marriage being blasted all over the internet, she could hardly be critical of his.
‘They’re super-sweet to each other,’ she said. ‘Most have cutesie pet names.’
Josh shuddered. ‘Can we please not go there?’
‘I agree. I don’t think I could do the pet names with a straight face. But some of my close friends call me Ellie. I won’t mind if you drop the occasional “Ellie” in the interests of authenticity.’
‘“Ellie”. I like that. It suits you. But please, don’t even think of calling me “Joshy”.’ The pained expression on his face made her laugh.
‘Okay, no calling you J—No, I can’t even say it in jest.’
She paused, not sure how to bring up the next subject. ‘Engaged couples are usually very affectionate towards each other. Physically affectionate, I mean. Dropping little kisses on their beloved, lots of snuggling and smooching. You know.’
He looked at her for a long moment, and again she had that heady sense of connection. She realised she was leaning towards him, as if straining to be in his arms, and he was leaning towards her. He cleared his throat. ‘I don’t think we’ll have any trouble doing that,’ he said.
She sat back on her sofa. ‘Me neither. In fact I... I...well, I think we—that is to say I—might have the opposite problem. Being too enthusiastic perhaps.’
‘Yes,’ he said slowly.
‘So only public displays of affection. We need to turn down the dial in private. It’s not that I don’t trust myself... Well, it is, actually. But we’ve agreed that neither of us is ready for a relationship and I don’t want—’
‘I know,’ he said hoarsely.
‘So that’s agreed?’
He nodded. ‘Hands off in private.’
Eloise tucked her feet up under her on the sofa. She’d changed into skinny, cuffed nineteen-fifties-style jeans and a red-and-white-checked shirt. ‘I’m thinking of the questions people might ask us at the wedding.’
‘You go first,’ he said.
‘Where did we meet?’
He indicated the front window with a wave. ‘The dog park out there.’
‘Correct. And that would mean we
were presenting as an engaged couple just a week after we really did meet. Not very believable in my opinion.’
‘You’re right. This takes a bit of getting used to,’ he said. ‘Let me think. How about we first met in the US, say a few months ago?’
‘Did you happen to be in Los Angeles at the time of Roxee’s wedding?’
‘So happens I did.’
‘I was there too. Perhaps we met in LA. At a party. There were a number of parties leading up to the wedding.’
‘To which, sadly, I was not invited,’ he said with a mock-mournful expression.
‘Shame. There was a party at a waterfront venue in Santa Monica. I went outside for a breath of fresh air. You were outside—’
‘Taking a break from a particularly boring business dinner.’ He paused. ‘And I saw this dark-haired girl leaning against a palm tree. I was struck by her beauty.’
Eloise giggled. ‘I like that. So what happened?
‘I opened a conversation with a witty remark.’
‘I responded with something equally witty.’
‘We struck up a conversation. You hung on to my every word.’
‘Huh! How about I made you laugh?’
‘You do that in real life, so that could work. Then you said you had to get back to the party.’
‘No! I’m sure I would have wanted to stay with you.’
‘Would you?’ he said.
‘Yes.’ Her gaze connected again with his in that surprisingly intimate way.
‘Really?’ he said, his voice husky.
‘Really,’ she said. Just as she had found an excuse to have coffee with him at the park. Deny it to herself all she liked, she’d been attracted to him from the start.
She snapped her eyes away. This was just a game. A game the success of which was important to her business, but a game just the same. She mustn’t get carried away.
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