Billionaire's Fake Fiancee Page 7

  I liked having Harper lying on my chest, fast asleep and without a care in the world. It was almost like she really was my girlfriend. It was probably the closest I would ever get to having something like this. Best enjoy it while I had the chance. I’d never had a real girlfriend. I’d had flings in school and plenty of women that hunted me down, but I hadn’t dated anyone long-term. The commitment never made sense to me. But if it felt anything like it did with Harper, maybe it was worth a shot.

  Harper shifted and sighed before she opened her eyes and looked up at me.

  “We were squashed in this little bed all night,” she said.

  “I don’t mind,” I said, grinning down at her.

  Harper sat up, taking the sheets with her. Her red hair hung in a waterfall down her back, a beautiful contrast against her milky skin.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” she announced. Harper climbed out of bed, walking naked to the bathroom with confidence and grace. She was the most self-assured woman I had ever seen.

  Only when she closed the door and the water ran, did I realize that I wanted to be in there with her, fucking her again. It’s not like it’d been with previous girls, where I couldn’t imagine wanting to fuck them again. One and done has always been my philosophy, but this was different.

  Like a gentleman, I waited for Harper to finish and dress before I jumped into the shower as well. When we were dressed and ready, Harper and I headed out in search of breakfast. The hotel offered a breakfast buffet, but I wanted to get out on the town and explore a little and Harper agreed.

  We walked the streets of LA, enjoying the sun we saw so little of in Seattle, and came across a tiny bistro that served breakfast. It looked out over a promenade that wound along the beaches.

  Harper ordered eggs and bacon. I ordered the breakfast burger and we both ordered orange juice.

  “How’s your head?” I asked.

  “I’m not suffering, actually,” Harper said.

  “Me either,” I confessed. Usually, I died the day after I drank so much wine.

  “Maybe it was because of our extra-curricular activities,” I said. Harper blushed and I smiled. I loved seeing her blush. It was a rare and beautiful sight and it made me want to do everything in my power to make it happen again.

  “How do you think they’re holding up at the restaurant?” Harper asked.

  “I was wondering the same thing,” I said. “But I think they have it under control for now. I was thinking of calling Zach and asking him to help me out for a few days.”

  Harper nodded. She had met Zach a few times. Zach was the one that had helped me start up the restaurant and even though he was a lumberjack, I knew he could help me run the place for a few days.

  “That’s a good idea,” Harper said.

  After breakfast, we returned to the hotel. We still had a few hours to kill before we had to see Danbury again. I could think of a way we could spend those hours but I had promised myself I wouldn’t sleep with a girl twice, and Harper wasn’t just any girl. So, instead of making a move on her the way I so desperately wanted to, I left the hotel room and made my way to the lobby and out onto the street. I dialed Zach’s number.

  “How are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’m good, all good.”

  “Rumor has it you’re in Cali with a girl,” Zach said.

  I chuckled. “Yeah, rumor would be right. She’s quite something, too.”

  “Engaged?”

  “Word travels fast.”

  Zach laughed. “I talked to Greyson. He seems to think you’re in trouble.”

  I snorted. “The only trouble I get in with women is when they get clingy on me. You know how it goes.”

  “All too well,” Zach said. “You should enjoy your time off, though. It’s not often you get a break. Not since you opened the Cow.”

  Zach loved ripping off the name of my restaurant. I had nearly called it Hoppin’ Hoppers, but luckily had come to my senses before I’d registered it. The Spiced Cow was much classier.

  “So, why are you calling?” Zach asked.

  “Can’t I just call to say hi and catch up?” I asked.

  “Not usually,” Zach said.

  I shook my head. “Yeah, okay. I need a favor.”

  “Of course you do.”

  “Fuck you,” I said, but I was laughing. “I’m out of town, as you know, and I don’t want the restaurant without management for so long. Greyson is great but he’s just one guy. He can’t cover three people’s shifts.”

  “I gotcha,” Zach said.

  “Will you keep an eye for me?”

  “You’ll be lucky if you get back and the place is still the same as you left it. I might just redecorate.”

  “Touch my shit and you die,” I threatened.

  Zach laughed. “I’ll keep you posted, don’t sweat.”

  It was a relief knowing Zach would take care of my restaurant while I was gone. I trusted the guy with my life. He would ensure everything ran smoothly until Harper and I returned. A part of me hoped it wouldn’t be too long, I was anxious to get back. Another part wanted it to be as long as possible, so I could spend more time with Harper. But that was just looking for trouble. Or maybe it was my dick talking.

  “So, tell me about her,” Zach said. “How is she doing?”

  “Really well,” I said. “You should see her in action. If she wasn’t pretending to be my fiancée I bet she could have charmed the pants of Danbury.”

  “What about you? Has she charmed the pants off you yet?”

  I wasn’t going to tell Zach that it was exactly what she’d done. “We’re here for business,” I said. “Not pleasure.”

  “You can’t tell the difference,” Zach teased.

  I laughed, “Jealousy makes you nasty.”

  “Fuck off,” Zach said. “But seriously though, Harper isn’t the dating kind. Don’t go that route.”

  I shook my head. “Why does everyone think I need to be warned about her? I’m the player, the one that walks out every time. If anything, she should be warned about me.”

  “You know what the difference is between you and Harper?” Zach asked.

  “What?” I asked. What the hell did Zach know about a woman he had only met a handful of times?

  “You might hit and run, doing one-night stands but you still need it. Harper doesn’t need anyone to define her.”

  I wanted to argue, but Zach was right. Even if I hated it, I needed the quick fucks to make me feel like a man.

  “So?” I asked.

  “So, who do you think draws the short straw when only one of you needs something?”

  “Fuck, I hate your logic,” I said.

  Zach chuckled. “It’s why you keep me around. Without me, you’re screwed.”

  “Don’t bet on that,” I said. “I’m not getting into trouble with this woman, I swear. It’s for the money, for God’s sake.”

  “The money seems like a small thing compared to the price of a broken heart.”

  “The fuck is that supposed to mean? Don’t spew some Confucius shit here, man.”

  Zach was silent and I could imagine him shrugging.

  “I’m just saying,” he finally said. “Be careful.”

  “No. I’ll be fine. You watch, I’m coming home with the cash and an appetite for more women because I’m not doing Harper or falling for her.”

  Zach laughed, “Do you want to emphasize how you didn’t fuck her again?”

  I wasn’t going to give Zach the pleasure. The asshole knew me far too well.

  “I have to get going,” I said. “The appointment is soon.”

  “Go on, make your millions,” Zach said. “I’ll keep you posted on the restaurant. Take care of yourself.”

  “Yes, dad,” I said and hung up. I was pissed off that Zach figured I couldn’t get a handle on my heart. Harper was just another woman. I could fuck her and forget about her like everyone else.

  Except that was a lie. Harper was more than anyone
else. She worked for me and we were friends.

  I walked back through the lobby and rode the elevator up to our floor. When I opened the door, Harper lay on her bed with a magazine, kicking her legs in the air like a teenager.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Zach will take care of the restaurant while we’re here.”

  Harper smiled and her smile was enough to drive it all away—the doubts and the questions, and the irritation that everyone else thought I didn’t know what I was doing. Harper was a ray of sunshine. She was beautiful and I would enjoy her company and everything else she had to offer while we were here. We would head back to reality eventually and I would stick my heart right back in its little cage. For now, I could afford to relax. It was just Harper. Everyone acted like she was such a heartbreaker, but I didn’t believe it. I was getting to know her better and I was willing to bet that she wasn’t anywhere close to being the queen of shredding men’s hearts that Zach and Greyson said she was.

  “Are you ready for our appointment?” I asked, sitting on the edge of her bed. She closed the magazine and sat up, nodding.

  “I think so. I don’t think there’s much more to do than what we already set up yesterday. Danbury won’t have any questions about us, so you’ll only have to sign and then we’re home free.”

  I smiled. I wanted to kiss her. I had recently realized that her mouth was mesmerizing when she spoke, and it made me want to kiss her every time she said something. What the fuck was wrong with me? I was thinking grossly romantic things about her.

  But Harper was magnetic. Everyone knew it. She was just using her charm on me, the way I sometimes did on her.

  It didn’t help my cause that we had slept together, but I pushed away the feelings and thoughts of her and stood up from the bed to put distance between us. Zach was wrong, I wasn’t in danger around her. I could distance myself and not feel a thing.

  Besides, Harper wasn’t a man-eater. She was caring and beautiful and kind and funny and she was doing all this because she cared for me as a person. She wasn’t here to shred my heart any more than I was here to shred hers. We were just two friends on an adventure together. A very sexy, taunting adventure.

  “Ready to go?” I asked, distracting myself from the thoughts that formed in my mind.

  “I just want to run a brush through my hair again and put on my jewelry,” Harper said.

  I nodded and walked to the bathroom. I closed the door and splashed cold water on my face, patting it dry with a towel.

  “You’ve got this,” I said to myself in the mirror, but for the first time since I’d started saying that to myself years ago, I was starting to doubt if it was true.

  Chapter 12

  Harper

  We arrived at the law offices again and Danbury received us with a broad smile. We followed him to his office after we all shook hands. The offices weren’t spectacular. Everything was decorated in shades of brown. I hadn’t noticed it before—I had been too focused on what we had been trying to do. It looked pretty dull to me. I didn’t know how long I would last if I was surrounded by this all day.

  “He wasn’t nearly this friendly when it was me and Camden,” Caden whispered.

  “Maybe he likes you,” I offered.

  Caden shook his head. “I think he likes you.”

  I smiled. Danbury had been very agreeable when I had come with Caden yesterday. He had bought our story and he seemed to like us as a ‘couple.’ Our plan was working. Caden could get his money, and I felt pretty good about myself and the whole plan.

  “Please, sit down,” Danbury said, when we were in the office. Caden and I sat down in the same chairs we had used before and I did the same thing, shifting my chair a little closer to Caden. I wanted to sell it. Danbury smiled when I moved the chair and sat down. Score.

  “I must confess, the two of you are a great couple,” Danbury said, walking to his file cabinet in the corner. He unlocked the top drawer and opened it. “It’s not every day I come across couples that are so in love. It’s rare to see people who tolerate each other at all these days.”

  I had to agree with Danbury on that. Relationships didn’t seem to mean as much as they used to. When I watched old movies from time to time it seemed that love used to be a novelty. Now it was synonymous with lust.

  My mind flashed to the sex Caden and I enjoyed last night. But that wasn’t the same thing, I told myself. We had fucked but I hadn’t told him I loved him when all I’d really wanted was to have someone that would give it to me whenever I needed it.

  I looked around the office. Danbury had no photos of family or plants or ornaments. This office could belong to anyone, or no one.

  “You should see some of the couples that come in here,” Danbury continued, and I forced myself to pay attention to him. “I’m not allowed to discuss client details but it gets bad.”

  Caden and I nodded, patiently listening to Danbury ramble while he retrieved the necessary paperwork for us. I didn’t care for his small talk, but it was all part of the game and if we had to sit here listening to Danbury’s chatter to get the cash, it was what we would do.

  Caden glanced at me and I was sure he was thinking the same thing.

  Danbury finally found his files and took them out of the cabinet, locking up the drawer again before he walked to the desk.

  “I had this drawn up for you yesterday,” Danbury said. “You’re welcome to go through it at your leisure before you sign it, but I must ask that you don’t leave the office with the papers.”

  We both nodded and Danbury handed the papers to me, first.

  I started reading through the contract. A lot of it was legal jargon that I didn’t understand per se, but I could guess from the context what it meant. Once or twice I asked Danbury what a concept meant and he took the time to explain it to me in simple terms.

  I flipped to the second page and started reading. When I reached the second paragraph, I frowned. I read it another time, to be sure.

  The contract stipulated that in order to receive the money, we had to get married within thirty days.

  Married.

  My stomach dropped and I felt like I was going to vomit.

  “Is everything alright?” Danbury asked. Maybe I was transparent.

  “Perfectly fine,” I said, but my voice was breathy and I had a feeling Danbury didn’t believe me. And he would be right, I wasn’t alright at all. The plan had been to pretend to be engaged. There had been nothing about marriage and the time frame was ridiculous.

  “Is this what Caden’s grandmother asked for in her will?” I asked Danbury.

  He nodded. “We have taken the liberty to put it into legal terms, of course, but technically it is.”

  I wondered how accurate that was but the contract had been drawn up. There was nothing I could say to argue.

  “What’s wrong?” Caden asked me.

  I swallowed hard, trying to keep it together. I wanted to run screaming from the room. I wanted to take back everything I had said about being Caden’s fake fiancée. Why the hell had we done this? But there wasn’t a way to get out of it now.

  “Can I talk to you outside, please?” I asked.

  Caden looked at me, his blue eyes icy and he looked worried. He had reason to be.

  “We need a moment to talk,” Caden said to Danbury.

  “Of course,” Danbury said. “Take all the time you need.”

  I put the contract down on the desk in front of me and stood up, making a beeline for the door. When I was out in the corridor I tried to take deep breaths but that sinking feeling in my gut wouldn’t go away. I folded my arms across my chest. Caden joined me, closing the office door behind him.

  “What’s wrong?” he said.

  I shook my head. “This was a big mistake.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  I looked at him. I was about to tell him that I couldn’t do this, that I had allowed him to dream and now I was ripping that fantasy a
way from him again. But I couldn’t do this.

  “The contract says we have to get married in thirty days if you’re going to get the money.”

  Caden blinked at me and I watched the information sink in.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  Caden shook his head. “That’s not how I understood it.”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  We stood in silence for a moment.

  “What now?” Caden asked.

  I pulled up my shoulders. “I can’t do this. I can’t do marriage, Caden. I’m not ready for it and I definitely don’t want it to be like this. It’s supposed to be special.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Caden said, putting his hand on my arms, but I didn’t want him to touch me. I felt trapped, pushed into a corner and it was ridiculous because I was the one that had suggested this trip. I shook my head and stepped to the side trying to get away from Caden. When I was out of arm’s reach, Caden dropped his arms to his side and looked at me.

  “We can’t figure it out. I thought it was about being engaged. Marriage is something else and I just can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

  I turned around and walked away from Caden, leaving him to face Danbury by himself, to pick up the pieces. It was wrong of me but I felt like I was being crushed, like the walls of the building were closing in on me. I had to get out of there and out where I could breathe.

  When I stepped outside the building I sucked air into my lungs as if I had been drowning. My stomach still turned and I felt horrible about what had happened, that I had come this far for it to be a dead end, and that I had walked out on Caden. But I didn’t do relationships and I sure as shit wasn’t going to do marriage. There was no way I would be able to go through with this. What the hell had I been thinking? I should have thought it through, should have found out more. But I had been keen for a change, something risky, a game.

  I wondered if I should go back inside, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to. Danbury believed we were this amazing couple and if we told him now that it was all fake, I didn’t want to be there to see the look on his face. I didn’t want to hear him tell Caden that his cousin was going to get the money.