She didn’t want to make any deals with this man who made her react in ways she didn’t want. Too much already. Enough to distract her from her work, from her passion. She didn’t want to make deals, full stop. She’d made one with Peter and had been let down. ‘Is the runway show conditional on my accepting this… proposal? Is that it? You give with one hand and take with the other?’
‘Not at all. The runway will happen regardless of your decision. I want to help your students.’ Oliver frowned. His eyes darkened but there was a hint of humour there too. ‘Is the idea of spending a day with me so repulsive?’
‘No. Not at all. It’s just totally ridiculous. We’re living in the twenty-first century, not Regency times.’
‘Unfortunately, my parents very firmly live in the past.’ Oliver shrugged. ‘I’m trying to make them – my mother, mainly, I suppose – happy. Which in turn gets her off my back and stops her parading every single woman she knows in front of me. I don’t want or need dating help.’
‘Tell her that. Tell her to get off your back.’
‘Believe me, I have. Over and over. But she doesn’t listen.’
‘It’s just so… old-fashioned.’
‘Yes.’ He groaned and came away from the window, sitting down opposite her. ‘She’s very old school and traditional. They had me late in life and I’m their only child. It can be suffocating, but I know it comes from a good place. Now Dad’s sick she wants him to feel he needn’t worry about me anymore. That the business is going to move into a stable, steady and capable pair of hands. To someone a lot like him. Someone who is reliable, who has a partner and is settled. No drama on the horizon. And then he can relax.’ He looked sad.
And that made her heart twist in sympathy. Her parents had been distraught after the accident and it had been hard to deal with their emotions along with focusing on her own recovery, but Zoe’s parents had been over-the-top suffocating and Victoria had seen first-hand how the weight of that was carried by her friend – how Zoe had felt restricted and tied and eventually had flown as far away as possible from them, just to be able to breathe. Now Oliver was in the same boat. And a single child too, so the weight of every expectation, every hope was on him. ‘I’m sorry he’s sick.’
There was a moment when Oliver’s eyes didn’t meet hers and something dark flickered across his features. Sadness? Regret? Oliver’s dad wasn’t just a bit sick, she didn’t think. Finally, he raised his eyes and looked at her, with a half-smile that seemed to be taking some effort.
‘It’s one of those things, you know? You expect your parents to be around for ever and then you realize they’re fallible. He can’t do this job for much longer…’ The rest of his sentence was left hanging and she wondered if he really meant his father wouldn’t be around much longer. ‘That’s why I’m here. Stepping up, taking my place at the helm.’
She got the impression he didn’t exactly love his job. ‘What would you prefer to be doing?’
‘Instead of working here? I don’t know. This is all I’ve ever known, to be honest. I can do this easily. But I want… more.’ He shook his head. ‘More than a billion-dollar empire? More than being my own boss? More? God, that sounds entitled, right?’
‘It’s honest.’
‘But it’s not about me right now. I need my father to rest and maybe – just maybe – we’ll have some more time. But the only way he’ll agree to that is if a Russell takes his place. I can’t entrust it to Andrew or we’ll be bankrupt by Christmas. Andrew’s parents are retired, so it’s me. I’m the only one left.’
‘You’re doing all this for your dad?’ She pointed to the walls bedecked with accolades and awards, Oliver Russell MBA, Oliver Russell First Class degree, Oliver Russell CEO. ‘All this?’
He followed her gaze to the certificates. ‘Wouldn’t you?’
Would she? Sure, her parents had been her biggest supporters, especially after the accident that had threatened to take her away from them for ever. They had put her before everything. They had loved her unconditionally and she’d do anything for them, but would she take a job she didn’t want? Live a life for them instead of for herself? Would they expect her to?
But Oliver moved in a very different sphere to her, she didn’t know or understand his life. The Russells were traditional, they were off-the-scale rich, they knew people she read about in the media. Heck, they were the people she read about in the media. Their expectations were probably very different from her family’s. She couldn’t understand them, but she could help them.
What harm would it do to make his parents stop worrying for a while? What harm would it do to make a deal with him? To swap a runway show for a few well-meant little white lies to his over-doting parents to give them the space to heal? What harm would it do? As far as she could see it was a win all round. She put out her hand. ‘OK. You have a deal. I will be your fake girlfriend.’
His hand fit into hers, strong and warm and steady as he shook. ‘Fake fiancée would be preferable.’
‘Fiancée. Right.’ Her throat worked and a slow creep of heat flushed her neck and cheeks. She felt the burn and the warmth of his eyes on her face and a tightening in her gut that was surprising and disarming. And sensual.
Was she completely mad? Not if she kept this strictly what it was – a business deal. ‘Oliver Russell, I will play your fiancée on opening day, but not a moment longer.’
Chapter Six
‘WHAT DID YOU SAY? He wants you to be his pretend girlfriend?’ Lily’s pretty face, on the laptop screen, was incredulous. She gaped at Victoria as if she thought she was completely out of her mind.
She was probably right. Victoria couldn’t stop her hands from trembling as she propped the laptop next to an empty dishwasher basket on the bar, all the better to speak to her friend in Devon. She’d come straight back from Oliver’s second proposal and known exactly who she needed to talk to about this. ‘I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s just for the opening of his store. Basically, his mother is determined to marry him off and keeps foisting dates on him with all her friends’ single daughters.’
Lily was walking along the beach at Hawke’s Cove, the wind whipping her hair. Her eyes were as dark as the sullen wintry sky. ‘I don’t know about this, V. It’s very sudden.’
‘It’s not like it’s a real engagement. I barely know the guy.’
‘Which is not convincing me that it’s a great thing to do.’ Lily shook her head, then scraped her wayward hair back from her face. Her cheeks were pink and flushed from the notoriously biting sea-salt wind down there. ‘It seems like a risky game to play. Even if it is for a good cause.’
‘And for his parents.’
Eric Russell was famous for being a hearty and dynamic retail mogul. He was often in the media, and there was often speculation about his business and slick take-over manoeuvres. Was his illness in the public domain too? She didn’t know, but it wasn’t for her to tell Lily.
But her friend’s shock was now morphing into real concern. ‘Please be careful, V. They’re a powerful family.’
‘It’s for one night. That’s all. It’s just a few little white lies for everyone’s benefit.’ But Lily’s caution was making Victoria even more nervous. She wished she hadn’t agreed, but she couldn’t exactly change her mind now. She wished – for the first time in a while – she was back at the home she couldn’t wait to leave and walking with Lily on the beach, living a simple life. Instead of being here walking herself into difficult situations with men she didn’t know. A billionaire, for God’s sake.
‘How will you get to know enough about him before the store opening? Are you going to meet up beforehand and swap stories or something?’
‘We didn’t discuss details. I don’t know. I thought…’ What had she thought? Exactly nothing beyond will you pretend to be my fiancée? Truth was, she’d been so surprised by his request that she’d turned a bright shade of beetroot and backed out of his room. She’d needed to process it. Like this, with her frie
nd. She’d agreed to lie to a powerful businessman who had contacts in high places in return for her students to get a step up the design ladder. What could possibly go wrong?
Just about everything.
So yes, she probably was quite as crazy as Lily thought she was. ‘I’m going to look him up on the internet.’
Lily shook her head. ‘There are some things you can only find out by face-to-face contact. What if he isn’t a nice person?’
Her values were very close to Victoria’s. For them life wasn’t about the money, it was about spending time with good people and doing something positive in the world, helping others. Having both been on the receiving end of help after the accident – not physical but psychological, in Lily’s case – they wanted to give back.
‘I think he is. He seems OK.’ Victoria had a bad feeling she knew enough about him to keep her interest well piqued. But knowing he had gorgeous guns, mesmerizing eyes and a smile that did something strange to her tummy possibly wouldn’t be enough to convince his mother that she was adequately acquainted to be marrying her son. Otherwise, she might come over as a gold digger, interested only in his bank account and nothing else, and that was not the impression she wanted to give of herself, fake fiancée or otherwise. ‘You’re right though. We probably need to get together to get our facts straight.’
‘If you’re going to impress his mother… which, if I’m honest, seems like a weird excuse to me.’
‘You know, she does sound like a meddling over-smotherer but the way he looked when he talked about her made me think he doesn’t believe that. He cares that his parents are happy. That’s got to be a good sign, right? And the best thing is that my students will get to showcase their designs on the runway in front of invited guests, VIPs, people of influence, people who could change their lives.’
‘People like you, V. You’ve changed their lives already. You care, you believe in them.’
‘But I can’t make their dreams come true, Lils. I can only help them formulate them and take a few shaky steps towards them. That’s why I’ve sold my soul to the devil.’ A fake engagement. Honestly. Looking back it seemed ludicrous. But it had all made perfect and reasonable sense at the time. ‘I can’t wait to tell them about the catwalk.’
‘Are you sure, honey? I know how much those kids mean to you, but don’t go getting hurt in the process.’
‘As if. This is purely business and I have no intention of getting involved with any man, not least Oliver Russell.’ Victoria took out her phone and tapped on his name. She’d managed to stutter out a request for his contact details before she’d left, and he’d put them into her phone. ‘I’m going to message him right now.’
She typed:
I guess we need to catch up at some point before I meet your parents. Get our stories straight, that kind of thing. And to plan the runway. V.
She hesitated at the V. What was texting etiquette with a man you barely knew and yet with whom you had to play intimate? Certainly not a kiss. Or should it be a kiss? Would she have sent a kiss to any other friends? Yes. To business associates? No. Sighing at her own damned insecurities she kept the full stop and pressed send.
After a few minutes of checking and rechecking she got a message back:
Dinner? Thursday night? I’ll pick you up at 7 p.m., O.
‘Help!’ She tried to control her shaking hands. She would not be intimidated by this situation, or him. ‘He wants to meet me on Thursday. Dinner.’ How the heck was she going to pull this off? They, she reminded herself. They’d agreed to do this together. How were they going to pull this off?
Lily smiled. ‘You look scared as well as just a teeny bit excited at the prospect. Are you sure there isn’t something more you’d like to tell me?’
‘Like what?’ Victoria’s heart rate had trebled since the text arrived. Yes, she was scared. It was going to be a huge undertaking. She’d definitely need to know things about him that his mother might ask. They’d need to write a list. She’d need to write a list.
‘Clearly he’s available and on the market.’ The smile grew just a little curious. ‘Is he hot?’
Those arms. That smile. That mouth. ‘Maybe… just a little bit.’
‘V, come on. Would you have gone on a date if he’d just asked you, without the proposal?’
‘I don’t know. I just don’t know. After Peter. I don’t want to go there again. I can’t do serious. I don’t even want to start.’
‘You deserve someone a lot better than Peter.’ Her friend almost spat the name out. ‘Who knows where this might go?’
‘To prison, for fraud?’ OK, so Victoria was definitely having second thoughts.
‘At least if you see him on Thursday, you’ll have time to decide if it’s going to work or not. So maybe the sooner the better. Get it over with… or? Wow.’ Her eyes glittered. ‘Victoria Scott, you look excited.’
She wasn’t. She was? ‘I’m not. What if it goes badly wrong?’
‘You’re beautiful and funny and amazing. His parents will love you.’
‘And then I’ll break their hearts when they find out it isn’t real.’
‘Who knows? It might get real?’
‘I can’t. You know that.’ For all the physical reasons, sure. But she just couldn’t bear having her heart stomped on again. She had to keep her distance, if not physically then emotionally.
But Lily was looking at her the way she had so many times when Victoria was recovering from her life-changing injuries; as if she wished she could somehow bestow all the hope and positivity in the universe into Victoria. Make her believe and trust in good things happening. ‘You can do anything you want, V. Just be safe. Say yes to the date. And message me when it’s over. I want to know every minute detail.’
‘It’s not a date, it’s a meeting.’
‘Whatever.’ Lily winked. ‘Meeting schmeeting.’
Once bitten twice sure she wasn’t going to do it again. She had to keep it in the professional realm. ‘And please don’t tell anyone else about this, Lily. Please. I’m going to look like a right idiot if it all goes wrong.’
‘Of course not.’ Lily did a zipping motion with her thumb and forefinger across her lip. ‘I won’t say a word.’
‘Not even to Malie and Zoe.’ This was a big ask. They shared a lot of secrets.
‘OK, I promise. Now text the man back. He’s waiting on your answer.’
‘You’re enjoying watching me squirm, aren’t you?’ Victoria managed to laugh. It was a ridiculous situation. But whatever happened next this had to be faced head on. She texted:
Thursday. Yes. OK.
He came straight back: See you at 7 p.m.
No kiss. Good. Right. They were on the same page. He wouldn’t want to kiss her and she definitely didn’t want to kiss him.
She thought about his mouth, the half-smile he’d given her that had made her heart squeeze. The unbidden fizz in her stomach when he’d smiled at her passion for fabric which everyone else thought was a little weird. Kissing might not be such a bad thing to do… just once, to try it?
No. You don’t kiss your work colleagues.
‘Hello? Victoria?’ Lily was watching her with a curious smile on her face. ‘I said, don’t forget to ask him for a rock the size of the Shard.’
Victoria slid her phone back in her back trouser pocket, all the better not to reread his texts and try to decipher any other deeper meaning there. ‘What do you mean?’
‘For your pretend engagement ring. You’ll need a huge diamond. Or three.’
Hot damn. Victoria glanced down at her left hand and tried to imagine a ring there. Tried to control the panic roiling in her stomach. ‘I hadn’t even thought of that.’
It seemed silly to be nervous. Heck, she’d met him twice and had been completely herself both times. But now they were meeting on official fiancée business Victoria felt anxiety spiralling through her. What if she didn’t pass the test? What if, once he got to know her, he thought she was totally
inappropriate to meet his parents’ expectations?
But then, what should it matter? It was just research for one night of acting, that was all. But knowing it and feeling it weren’t the same thing, she realized as the bar door swung open and he strode in. ‘Victoria. You look amazing.’
She looked down at her navy polka dot dress, a relic from the fifties that she’d updated with a more modern neckline. It was quirky, she loved it and felt amazing in it, but she hadn’t expected him to say anything.
‘It’s OK, Oliver, you don’t have to start pretending now. These two know we’re just in rehearsal mode.’ She pointed at Sara and Paul.
Victoria had tried to pass this off as a business meeting but somehow Sara had managed to wrangle the truth out of her.
Oliver waved to her work colleagues as if he knew them personally and as if playing fiancé was a daily occurrence. ‘I’m not pretending. You do look amazing.’
‘Oh?’ She didn’t know what to do with that. He looked pretty hot himself. No sharp suit today, just an open-collared white shirt, a charcoal cashmere jumper and a slate grey unbuttoned coat. And battered jeans. Jeans that hugged his legs like a gift.
Whoa. She was the pretend girlfriend, not a real one. She dragged her thoughts from his legs. But they wouldn’t budge, choosing to stay fixed on him. On the way the light in the bar picked out golden strands in his dark hair. The way his eyes glittered. Today they were blue like the Hawke’s Cove sea on a sunny autumn morning. His hair looked as if he’d pushed his fingers through it more times than he could count today. He was stressed. Stressed by Andrew and his parents and taking a girlfriend to meet them.
Fake. It was fake, she reminded herself.
He wasn’t in work attire, so had he been home to change? Where was home? She’d need to add that to her list. She stepped awkwardly towards him, her hands stretched out like a shop mannequin. Relax. ‘Hi. Er… what’s the etiquette? Do we kiss now?’
He grinned, his face alight with the reflection of tinsel that hung low over the bar. ‘Tempting, but I think it’s better if we get to know each other first.’
Meet Me in London: The sparkling new and bestselling romance for 2020. Perfect escapism, for fans of Lindsey Kelk and Heidi Swain. Page 7