The Billionaire Matchmaker Test
Page 1
The Billionaire Matchmaker Test
Billionaire Online Dating Service Book #5
Elle James
Twisted Page Inc
Contents
The Billionaire Matchmaker Test
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
THE BILLIONAIRE GLITCH DATE
About The Billionaire Glitch Date
Deja Voodoo
Chapter 1
About the Author
Also by Elle James
The Billionaire Matchmaker Test
Billionaire Online Dating Service Book #5
New York Times & USA Today
Bestselling Author
* * *
ELLE JAMES
Copyright © 2020 by Elle James
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.
Dedicated to my family. I love you all so very much. You are the foundation, support and inspiration that keeps me going when times are tough.
Elle James
Author’s Note
Enjoy other military books by Elle James
* * *
Billionaire Online Dating Service
The Billionaire Husband Test (#1)
The Billionaire Cinderella Test (#2)
The Billionaire Bride Test (#3)
The Billionaire Daddy Test (#4)
The Billionaire Matchmaker Test (#5)
The Billionaire Glitch Date (#6)
The Billionaire Perfect Date (#7)
The Billionaire Replacement Date (#8)
The Billionaire Wedding Date (#9)
Visit ellejames.com for more titles and release dates
For hot cowboys, visit her alter ego Myla Jackson at mylajackson.com
and join Elle James's Newsletter at Newsletter
Chapter 1
“Who called this meeting of the Billionaires Anonymous Club?” Taggert ‘Tag’ Bronson asked, as he sat across the table from four of his closest friends at the Ugly Stick Saloon, a pitcher of cold beer being passed around.
“We did,” all four of his friends answered as one.
Tag blinked. “Okay. You gonna clue me in on why?”
Coop Johnson grinned. “We’ve all completed the next step in our life plans by finding the women of our dreams.”
“That is, all except one,” Gage Tate said, giving Tag a pointed look.
Moose Smithson jabbed a finger in Tag’s direction. “You.”
Sean O’Leary grinned. “It’s your turn to give the Billionaire Online Dating Service a shot. It’s time you found the woman of your dreams, settled down and had half a dozen children.”
Tag held up his hands. “Whoa, there. I don’t see any of you with half a dozen children.”
“It’s only a matter of time before one of our ladies gets pregnant,” Coop said. “After our wedding this weekend, Emma and I are going to work on baby number one.”
“As are Jane and I,” Moose added.
“Jane’s really going to quit the modeling business?” Tag asked. “She’s so good. I’m sure they’d hate to see her go.”
“She says she’s making room for the younger models.” Moose chuckled. “I think she just wants to stay home and cook. She’s amazing in the kitchen.” He lifted a big shoulder. “And in the bedroom. Did I mention she’s almost got the hang of horseback riding?”
Sean laughed. “Is that horse’s name Moose?”
Moose gave Sean a narrowed glance. “Keep it clean, dude.”
Sean raised his hands. “Hey, you started it with the bedroom and the horseback riding. Enquiring minds want to know.”
“When are you two gonna tie the knot?” Coop asked.
“Soon. Jane wants to be on horseback when we say our vows.” Moose grimaced. “I just hope it’s not a complete disaster.” He shrugged. “Me? I’d take her to Vegas, get married in an Elvis chapel and call it done. I know she’s the one. I don’t need all the hoopla to prove it.”
“Me either,” Coop said. “But it’s their special day. Anything they want, they can have. As long as I get a ring on my Emma’s finger.”
“I would think Emma’s four brothers would be giving you hell about now,” Tag said.
“Not at all. They did when I first showed up to date Emma. Hell, after I helped them haul hay, they seemed to like me better than their sister. I think if Emma had dumped me, they would have made me an honorary brother.” Coop winked. “Good thing Emma didn’t dump me.” He glanced at his watch and grinned. “T-minus three days. You guys are still coming, aren’t you?”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep us away,” Gage said.
“Racehorses could,” Sean said.
Coop threw a cardboard coaster at Sean. “The point is, we’re here to talk Tag into doing what we’ve all done.”
“That’s right.” Gage turned his attention to Tag. “It’s your turn to step into the world of dating.”
Tag shook his head. “I told you guys I was working on a special project.”
“And what project would that be?” Moose asked.
“Sorry,” Tag lifted his hands, “I can’t tell you. It’s top secret.”
“That’s bullshit,” Sean said. “You’re the one who conned all of us into testing Leslie’s BODS.”
Tag raised his eyebrows. “And it worked for you, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” Sean said. “It did. I might not ever have asked Ava out if not for BODS.” He shook his head. “Leslie really needs to come up with a different acronym for her online dating system.”
“Whatever the name is, the system works,” Tag said. “Sean has Ava.”
“And Mica,” Coop reminded them. “He got a bonus daughter out of that deal.”
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Sean grinned. “She’s a pistol, that one. So much like her mother. I love them.”
“Exactly,” Tag said. “You’re happy. Coop’s happy with Emma.”
“I’m happy with Fiona,” Gage said. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I thanked her stepsisters for entering her name in the database. If they hadn’t done that, I would never have met Fiona.”
“And Moose matched with Jane.” Tag crossed his arms over his chest. “I can’t think of anything more satisfying than seeing my friends happy.”
Coop’s eyes narrowed, and he glared at Tag. “He’s doing it again.”
Tag gave Coop a crooked grin. “Doing what?”
“Don’t give us that innocent look,” Gage said. “I swear you could sell ice to an Eskimo.”
“You’re avoiding the reason we’re all here.” Sean lifted his beer. “Well, besides the great beer and music.”
“We’re here to make sure you take a little of the snake oil you’ve been dealing the rest of us,” Coop said.
“I’m working on it. I promise.”
“Working on it?” Sean frowned. “Have you entered your data into BODS?”
Tag winced. “Not exactly.”
Moose smacked his empty beer mug on the table. “Then you’re not working on it.”
“I’m going to,” Tag said. “I’m just waiting for the right time.”
“You didn’t give us that option,” Gage said. “You had a friend who
needed guinea pigs to beta test her software.”
“Are you disappointed with the results?” Tag asked.
“Far from it,” Coop said and turned to Gage. “He’s doing it again.”
“We’ll give you one week,” Sean said.
“One week?” Tag frowned. “One week, and then what?”
Moose poured another beer as he spoke, “If you haven’t entered your data into the system, we’ll enter it for you.”
“You’re kidding right?” Tag looked around at his so-called friends. “There’s no telling what the system will come up with according to your input. I need to be the one to do that.”
Coop crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ve got one week to get ’er done.”
Tag glanced down at his watch. “Can’t you give me a little more time?”
“Nope,” Moose said.
“Coop’s wedding is this weekend,” Tag said. “We’re going to be tied up with that.”
“It takes less than an hour to format your data and snap a photo,” Coop said.
“But I had a plan,” Tag argued.
“Plan—you’re kidding, right?” Sean shook his head. “Love happens. You can’t plan it.”
Oh, but he was already in love, and the plan had to do with getting the lady to fall in love with him. In this case, that took careful planning. He couldn’t tell his friends. They wouldn’t understand. “Okay, then. I’ll get my data entered and start looking.”
“What do you mean, start looking?” Moose said. “Hell, it only took one date for the rest of us.”
“Yeah,” Coop said. “Trust BODS.”
Gage nodded. “It works.”
Tag couldn’t jump right into making his woman fall in love with him. He had to ease her into it. Hell, he’d have to date some poor girls to appease his buddies while he worked on his plan. Which meant playing the BODS system.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and smiled. The beginning of his strategy was just starting into motion. He glanced up at his friends. “I’ll enter my data this week. In the meantime, I have to go.”
“What?” Sean glared at him. “This is an official meeting of the Billionaires Anonymous Club. Nobody walks out on the rest of us. Especially while there’s still beer in the pitcher.”
“Sorry, but I have to help a friend with some software issues.” He pushed back from his chair. “Besides, you guys’ll finish off that beer in no time.”
Coop stood and extended his hand. “You’ll be at the wedding?”
Tag took his hand and pulled him into a hug. “I’ll be there.”
“Will you be bringing your plus one from your BODS selection?” Moose asked. He stood as well and hugged his friend.
“I promised to bring Leslie.” Tag grinned. “She feels responsible for the match and wanted to see the happy occasion brought about by BODS.”
“She needs to sign up in her own system,” Moose said. “She’s a great gal.”
“She is,” Tag said. “And yes, she does need to sign up in BODS.” That was his plan. To get Leslie thinking about dating again. Then he’d find a way to show her he was the right man for her, even if he had to hack into BODS to do it.
* * *
“I can’t believe the site is down.” Leslie Lamb paced back and forth across the office. “I’ve tried everything I could think of to get it back up. I’ve rebooted the server, rebooted the modem, reinstalled the software and nothing.”
Ava Swan patted Leslie’s arm. “Don’t worry. I called Tag. He should be here in thirty minutes.”
Leslie’s eyes widened. “You called Tag?” She shook her head. “He can’t keep bailing us out whenever I can’t figure out the system. That’s my job. I’m the software engineer.”
“And he’s better at the networking aspect of BODS. He helped set it up.”
“I know. I know.” Leslie waved an arm out to the side, her pulse pounding, a full-on panic attack building inside. “He has his own business, a billion-dollar corporation, that requires his attention.”
Ava cocked an eyebrow. “He spends an awful lot of time here, helping you, for a man who has a billion-dollar corporation.”
Leslie smiled. “Ever since Randy died, he’s been there for me. I don’t know how I could have come through all that without Tag. He, Randy and I were such close friends from the very beginning.”
Ava tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
Leslie gave her assistant and friend a soft, sad smile. “Randy, Tag and I met at a cocktail party hosted by a mutual friend, Chance Montgomery. You might have heard of him…?”
“Wow.” Ava blinked. “Chance Montgomery? The most eligible bachelor in the state of Texas?”
Leslie nodded. “Back then, he wasn’t quite the building giant he is today. He was a rising star, as were Tag and Randy. They were just hitting their stride. Anyway, we shared a ride home in a taxi.” She shrugged. “The rest was history.”
Her assistant’s brow twisted. “You became friends after sharing a ride?”
“I know. It sounds crazy. They saw me home and made sure I got into my apartment safely. Tag and Randy bonded as well. They became good friends and included me on all their outings, even when they went fishing out of Rockport.” Leslie smiled, staring out the window at the Austin night skyline. “We had so many good times together.”
“But you married Randy, not Tag,” Ava raised her hands palms upward. “Why Randy over Tag?”
Leslie chuckled. “I have to admit, it was a tough decision. Actually, Randy asked me. Tag didn’t. I was ready to get married, settle down and raise children. So was Randy. I don’t think Tag was. He was still working his way to the top.” Leslie walked around Ava’s desk and stared down at the photos her assistant kept of her daughter Mica. “We wanted children.” She hugged Ava’s shoulders. “You don’t know how lucky you are to have Mica. She’s an amazing little girl.”
Ava nodded. “I know I’m lucky. She’s the center of my universe. And now, she’s the center of Sean’s and my universe. I can’t get over how much she loves him, and he loves her.”
“Love me, love my child?” Leslie asked.
“Exactly,” Ava said, her gaze going to the picture of Sean, her and Mica at the fair. Mica held a fluffy, stuffed unicorn in one arm with her other arm wrapped around Sean’s neck as he held her up. Ava had never laughed so hard or smiled so much as she had that night. The happiness in the photo brought back all the good memories of that night. “I’m so very lucky BODS matched us.” She sighed and looked up at Leslie. “You and I have been together for four years at the Good Grief Club. Three quarters of the members of our therapy group have moved on to new relationships. Even I have taken the step with Sean. And I have a daughter, which makes it all the more difficult.”
Leslie lifted the picture of Mica and stared down at it. “We so wanted children…”
Ava touched her arm. “You can still have children. You’re still young. You just have to get back into the dating scene, find someone to love and get on with living.”
Setting the photo back on the desktop, Leslie drew in a deep breath and walked into her own office then stood in the window overlooking the city of Austin. “Why do I have to find a man? Randy and I knew what was going to happen. Just because he’s gone doesn’t mean we can’t have that family we always planned on.”
“Excuse me?” Ava came to stand beside Leslie, staring at her friend’s reflection in the glass. “It might be blunt and insensitive of me, but there is no more ‘we’ in this scenario. Randy’s gone. Now, there’s you. Just you.”
Leslie smiled sadly. “I know. What you don’t understand is that Randy banked his sperm. He knew he was going to die. We didn’t get pregnant while he was sick, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still have his child.”
Already, Ava was shaking her head. “Leslie, Leslie, Leslie. You don’t mean this.”
Leslie continued in a rush, afraid if she didn’t, she wouldn’t get the words out and that
, somehow, not speaking them would make her change her mind. “It’s called in vitro fertilization. They take my eggs and his banked sperm and combine them in a laboratory dish until the sperm fertilizes the egg. They implant the embryo in my uterus and voila!” She covered her belly with her arms. “I’ll be pregnant. Nine months later, I’ll have a child.” Tears welled in her eyes. “And the beautiful thing is that it’ll be a part of Randy.”
Ava wrapped her arms around Leslie. “Oh, sweetie. You need to think long and hard about this. It’s not so easy going into a relationship when you’re a package deal. I know. It’s not every day you find a man who’s willing to accept another man’s child as his own.”
A single tear slipped down Leslie’s cheek. “But that’s just it. I don’t have to find another man. I’ll have a child to love. That’s all I need.”
Ava shook her head. “You’re wrong. Remember how wonderful it was to share your life, your adventures and your love with Randy?”
Leslie nodded. “I do. And I’ll have another human to share with in our child.”
Again, Ava shook her head. “You’ll have a child to love, true. Eventually, that child will move out, and you’ll be alone again. And while the child is little, you won’t have an adult to share your life with. No one to confide in when you’re having a bad day. No one to lift your spirits. You have to keep the game face on all the time when you’re a single parent.”
“For my baby, I could do that. And I’ll have eighteen years to get used to the idea of being alone again,” Leslie argued.