A Spoken-for Billionaire's Fake Fiancee

Jonas is on the verge of bankruptcy, but that’s not what keeps him up at night. He can’t let down his employees—not if he wants to keep the promise he made to his late mother. He has one chance to turn his business around, and it all depends on striking a deal with an eccentric billionaire in south Texas who’s expecting a visit from him and his fiancée.

But there’s just one problem…

Jonas’s spoiled fiancée has no intention of taking part in anything so pedestrian as a business trip. But if Jonas can’t show his potential new business partner that he’s a stable family man, everyone who depends on his company will be put in jeopardy—including his administrative assistant, Lily.

When Lily walked into her boss’s office with her resignation letter in hand, the last thing she expected was to leave the room ten minutes later with a new job description: fake fiancée. But she can’t turn down the kind of money Jonas is offering for a single day on the job—not when it could fund her dream of moving to Paris and pursuing the career of her dreams.

But what happens when a quick job turns out to be a whole lot longer than they bargained for? Will their hearts survive the strain of faking emotions that have their root in reality?

Lily O’Connor threw her shoulders back and stood tall as she strode to her desk in the executive suite. She couldn’t allow herself to back down. Not today. She was a woman on a mission—a mission to quit her job. Heat built in her rosy cheeks as she silently rehearsed the speech that was to accompany the resignation letter she held in her hand. She’d made a promise to her father, and it was time to make good on it.

After hanging her coat and stowing her purse in her private closet, she made straight for the kitchen. The wind had cut right through her wool coat and chilled her to the bone. A steaming-hot cup of coffee was just what the doctor ordered.

Her hand trembled as she poured the searing liquid into a mug that read “I’d rather be painting”. It could have been the four cups of coffee she’d already had that morning that caused her tremors, but more likely than not, it was her nerves. She’d lost count of how many times she’d planned to quit over the past year. Quitting a good job and saying goodbye to a steady income to follow her passion was something that was easier said than done.

But this was the day. There was no turning back now. She’d gotten up at five o’clock that morning to face-time an interview for a job in Paris—a job that was the perfect stepping stone on her way to realizing her dream of making a living off her art. Working as the personal assistant to one of the top artists in Paris would grant her all the connections she needed to enter the art scene with a bang when she was ready to make her debut.

Lily stood in the kitchen and held her mug, allowing the heated liquid to warm her chilled fingers. She brought the brim to her lips and muttered into it. “You’ll never learn to fly if you stay in the nest.”

Lost in thought, she sipped her drink. The hot coffee felt good the whole way down, thawing her from the inside out. What would it really be like to quit? Her interview had gone well that morning, but she hadn’t actually been offered the job. Could she really afford to walk away from a good-paying job without any guarantee of another position waiting in the wings? Maybe this wasn’t the best time to turn in her resignation after all.

No, she was doing it again—second guessing herself. She poured what was left of her coffee down the drain and marched to her desk to grab her things for her daily briefing with Mr. Weisman. She couldn’t back down again. It was now or never.

With a milestone birthday looming on the horizon, she had to take bold steps and force herself to make the changes she wanted to see in her life. She couldn’t quiet the niggling voice in the back of her mind that told her if she was still working a nine-to-five office job when she turned thirty, she could kiss her dreams goodbye. She’d never become the artist she was meant to be—the artist she’d promised her father she’d become.

Her father’s words echoed in her mind. Don’t waste your life working a job you don’t love. I lived that life so you wouldn’t have to.

It was settled. She’d turn in her two-week notice today and move to Paris after the Holidays—job or no job. She was going to break into the Paris art scene one way or another. How she was going to pay for the tickets to get there remained to be seen. But that was another worry for another day.

Lily stood at her desk and gathered her things for the meeting. She turned and looked at Jonas Weisman through the glass partition that separated them and mouthed the words, “Are you ready?”

He sat on the edge of his seat with a rigid back, all color gone from his face. A sinking feeling came over her. He knows!

Lily pushed the thought down. There was no way he could know she was about to quit. She hadn’t told a soul about her plans. Her one and only confidant had passed away nearly two years ago, and she hadn’t had the heart to replace him yet. Amazing fathers were like that; pretty much irreplaceable.

Lily walked into Jonas’s office and took her usual seat in front of his desk. She placed one ankle behind the other and clutched her envelope with a white-knuckled fist beneath the smooth leather planner she held. Offering a timid smile, she tucked a silky-straight lock of hair behind her ear.

Jonas took a deep breath and cleared his throat. He leaned forward on his elbows, his head sinking between his raised shoulders. He interlaced his fingers and clamped them down tight, stopping their fidgeting. Beads of sweat gathered on his brow. He looked positively unwell.

She couldn’t bring herself to give him the letter yet. The poor man looked like he couldn’t take another hit at the moment. But that was all right; the conversation she planned to have was one better suited for the end of a meeting rather than the beginning, anyway.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“F-fine, how are you?” Jonas’s left eye twitched as he cringed at his own words.

“I’m okay, but you look like you should be at home in bed. Are you sure you’re all right?”

A tight-lipped smile stretched across his face. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.” He gestured toward the financial reports still strewn across his desk.

Lily’s heart broke a little as she gazed into Jonas’s weary eyes. Those magnetic light-blue eyes were another reason it had been so hard to walk away from her job. Not only were they drop-dead gorgeous, but she could see his kind heart every time she gazed into them. His heart was one of the things she admired the most about Jonas. He could have taken his billions and gone off to live the high-life ten years ago, but instead, he’d chosen to use his wealth to help others. She respected him for that.

The way her heart raced whenever they were in the same room together proved that what she felt for him went a bit beyond simple respect. But she couldn’t afford to dwell on that. He was her boss, and engaged to another woman. It didn’t matter how much he made her heart go pitter-patter whenever he looked at her; he was one hundred fifty percent off limits.

“On the bright side, you’ve got that meeting with Mr. Roland tomorrow afternoon. If all goes well, that’ll take a lot of the pressure off, right?” she said.

Jonas leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his blond hair. “Funny you should mention Mr. Roland.” A nervous chuckle escaped his lips. “I was kind of wondering if you’d be interested in coming along.”

“Would there be enough room? I’m sure Sophie will be bringing a truckload of luggage.” Lily laughed to cover the fact that she had no desire to be cooped up in a cabin thirty-five thousand feet in the air with Sophie Styles.

“Sophie won’t be coming tomorrow.”

“But I thought Mr. Roland wanted to meet both of you before working out the details of the deal.”

“He did… he does.” Jonas rubbed the back of his neck as the first hint of color seeped back into his cheeks. “She suggested I bring you along instead.”

“I don’t mind coming, but I don’t see how that’s going to help anything. He seemed pretty set on meeting you and your fiancée.”

“Yes, about that,” Jonas said. “How do you feel about bonuses?”

Lily couldn’t help but laugh at the awkward expression on Jonas’s face. What kind of a question was that? Who wouldn’t love to get a bonus? The tension she’d carried ever since leaving her apartment that morning melted away. “I suppose I like them as much as the next person. Why? Are you handing out the Christmas bonuses today?”

“Not exactly. I’ve got a somewhat non-typical request to make of you. I thought that if you agreed to take on a project I have in mind, I’d offer a bonus to compensate you for the extra work.”

Lily hesitated. The idea of earning a bonus was enticing, especially when she thought about the possibility of moving to the other side of the world without a job lined up. She had a pile of stubborn student loans left over from her college days, and passion alone wasn’t enough to pay the bills. For that, she needed cold hard cash.

She glanced at the envelope she still held. This wasn’t the right time to take on a new project. It was just another excuse to maintain the status quo.

“Thanks for thinking of me, Mr. Weisman, but I don’t think—”

“Fifteen thousand dollars.” Jonas’s ears turned beet red. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I’m desperate.”

Lily’s jaw hung open for a moment. Jonas had always been generous when it came to handing out the annual bonuses, but never to the tune of fifteen thousand dollars. That kind of money could make a lot of problems go away. “How big of a project is it?” she asked.

“It’s a twenty-four-hour job.”

Lily’s brows furrowed. Something was off. For the first time since she’d met him, Jonas seemed to have trouble holding her gaze. “What could I possibly do to earn fifteen thousand dollars over the course of twenty-four hours?”

“Fly to San Antonio with me tomorrow afternoon. And we’ll be back by the next day.”

“I’ve gone on business trips with you before. What’s different about this one?”

Jonas slumped in his chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Here’s the deal. Sophie won’t come to Texas. If Mr. Roland doesn’t meet my fiancée, the sale won’t go through, the factory will go bankrupt, and two thousand hard working people will be out of a job in the new year. I need someone to stand in for her.”

Lily swallowed hard. “Are you saying that you want me to pretend to be Sophie?”

“Only for one day—that’s all.” Jonas held his hands up and flashed an apologetic smile.

“I don’t know. What would Sophie think? If I were her, there’s no way I’d go for a plan like this.”

“It was her idea. I would never have asked you, but I’m out of options.”

“Fifteen thousand dollars for pretending to be your fiancée?”

“That’s the deal.”

Lily lowered her gaze to the envelope she held. Quitting her corporate job and moving to Paris was a huge step toward keeping her promise to her father and fulfilling her dreams. But it would all be pointless if she couldn’t afford to live there. Fifteen thousand dollars would be a game changer. One day. Waiting one day to turn in her notice wasn’t selling out, was it? She tucked her envelope into her back pocket. “Throw in tickets to Paris, and I’m in.”