The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée

by L. Steele

  Silver sparks flare. "I never underestimate my opponent."

  He has no idea what I'm capable of.

  "Besides, it's only for a few days, and I'm making it worth your while, aren't I?"

  Yeah, and I'm paying a big enough price for it. But I don't say that aloud.

  In a daze, I turn toward the door, making to leave when his voice calls out, "You'll need the right clothes, won't you? I'll arrange for a credit card."

  Right. Credit card. I half turn, sure this time I look plain baffled.

  "You'll be fine, Sienna," he says in a gruff voice.

  The sound of my name on his lips feels strangely intimate.

  What have I gotten myself into?

  3

  Jace

  * * *

  Later that evening

  "Fuck." Jace swears as the barbell almost slips from his hands. His muscles are tired after an hour of intense exercise. Yet, the workout session has not cleared his mind. Gleaming amber eyes haunt him, along with images of lush auburn hair rippling down her back, making him want to curl the thick strands around his palm.

  The photographs the PI had shown Jace had not done Sienna justice.

  For one thing, they hadn't hinted at that black coffee and vanilla scent of her. Or that curvy waist, or the hips that flared so seductively that his attention had gone right there and stayed. Part angry, part innocent, she was all liquid fire. An intense urge to lean in and taste the skin at the hollow of her neck had gripped him. The force of his desire taking him by surprise.

  And when his eyes had traveled back to her face, he'd found her cheeks flushed. The rapid rise and fall of her chest showing that he'd been affecting her, too.

  The force of the attraction was so strong; he'd almost withdrawn his proposition. If he spent time with her, he'd end up sleeping with her. It's inevitable. Perhaps that's all it is. Lust. He must take her to bed and get it over with. Jace plans to do that at the first possible opportunity.

  His mind made up, Jace places the barbell with the weights back on the rack, and then sits up.

  Reaching for the towel, he wipes away the sweat running down his forehead. As he glugs down water from his bottle, his eyes take in the men around him in the small, sweaty gym not far from The 99.

  A few blocks away from his penthouse and it's a different reality. A slightly rundown area of the city. Jace had specifically chosen this gym for its no-frills feel. An honest-to-goodness workout space, with a boxing ring at the center where two of his friends are going a few rounds. He winces when Eric gets in a punch at Damian.

  Damian's upper body snaps back from the force of the blow. He springs right back, holding up his fists to guard his face. Damian takes the hammering, but Jace knows it's unwise to underestimate him. Damian's as mean in the ring as on stage, able to hold his own against his fighting opponent as ably as he holds the attention of crowds at his concert.

  "Ouch, that must hurt."

  Jace looks up as his friend Arpad walks up to him, wearing a cut off T-shirt with blotches of sweat on the chest.

  "Nice color," Jace smirks. "Brings out the blue of your eyes."

  "Oh." Arpad looks down at the light blue of his shirt. "One of my team-members may have gifted it to me."

  "Do they always do that? Give you little tokens in the hope of winning your affection?"

  Arpad's name had recently appeared on the top 40-under-40 list of bankers in the country. He's no less famous than Damian in his own field.

  "Girls," Arpad cuts the air with the underside of his palm. The gesture's elegant, and would have looked feminine coming from anyone else. From Arpad it seems eloquent, and as European as the country he comes from.

  “Those two don't like each other, do they?" asks a husky voice as Karina swaggers over to join them.

  She wears stretch pants and a low cut sports-bra that shows off her sculpted abs. The sweat on her forehead makes her skin glow.

  "Au contraire." Arpad grins. "Eric and Damian are best buddies. Trust each other enough to go at it whenever they meet in the ring. Eric and Jace here have more fights as business partners and ones far more vicious than what you see there."

  Jace stiffens at the description of his and Eric's business relationship. It's true they often have differing points of view on how to expand the business. That's also the reason Jace had taken Eric on as his business partner, hoping their opinions would balance each other out.

  Now Jace wonders if he had miscalculated. Perhaps he and Eric are too different to work together.

  "Men!" Karina snorts. Her almond shaped eyes narrowed at the edges, lending an air of exotica to her face.

  "But what would you do without us, darling?" Arpad slips his arm around Karina, in a 'we are just friends' fashion, only to have her raise an eyebrow at him.

  "Your banker-wanker charms don’t work on me." Her voice is casual. Too casual.

  "Careful, Arpad," Jace chuckles. "She's the most lethal of all of us and you know that."

  It's true, Jace realizes, even as he says it. Karina had trained with her father in the martial arts since she was five. At eighteen, she'd started her own security business. Now she provided bodyguards for some of the biggest names in Hollywood and in the corporate world.

  "Hey." Arpad rubs the place over his heart, in mock pain, widening his eyes, "I wasn't flirting, honest."

  "Yeah." Karina snorts again. "You can't help but pounce on anything in a skirt. At least Jace here is more discerning."

  "Am I?" Jace asks, surprised.

  Is that why he's never been in a long-term relationship even though he's almost thirty? All the more reason Jace's reaction to Sienna is so surprising. The intensity of the attraction has shaken him more than he'll care to admit.

  "Hey, you." Jace starts as Karina ruffles his hair, her gesture affectionate. "Where did you go to?"

  "Not fair," Arpad protests. "He gets his hair fluffed, and I don't even get a hello."

  "You, Mr. Money Bags, are an out-and-out shark. You should be grateful that, despite being a banker, you still have friends," Karina replies.

  "Ouch." Jace laughs aloud as he gets to his feet.

  "You don't laugh." She turns on him. "You, Mr. Angel Investor like control too much. You think you can control your destiny and the people in your life, you think wrong. You never know when fate has a surprise right around the corner."

  Jace blinks, puts up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You're right, of course."

  "Ha," Karina snorts. "You charmer, you."

  Sliding an arm around Karina, Jace slaps Arpad on the back. "We men have to stick together sometimes too." Jace tells Arpad. "We're here for you, you know that."

  When Karina speaks next, her tone is serious, "In this town where only money speaks, here in this gym, we're all equal. It’s why we hang out here, right?"

  Jace nods, his features solemn, remembering how they'd met. A few years ago, it had been only the five of them working out late one night at this gym.

  A loud argument from the gym-manager's office had attracted Arpad and Jace.

  Turned out Bosco, who ran the gym, didn't have money to meet his rent. His landlord had arrived with his team, threatened to evict him.

  On the spot, Arpad had offered to pay off his dues.

  But even that had no effect. The landlord wanted Bosco out so he could sell up to a developer.

  Things had gotten ugly when the landlord's man attacked the two of them. Eric, Damian and Karina had helped fight the thugs off.

  The five had pooled in money, helped Bosco buy the gym outright, making them all part-owners.

  Now they hung out here, a close friendship having sprung up between them.

  Karina's right. In this gym, it doesn't matter who they are, or how much money they have. Here it's about working out. Honest sweat that strips each of them of the veneer they often have to present to the world.

  In the boxing ring, Eric throws a final punch and Damian hits the floor with a thud. Stays stil
l.

  Too still.

  Eric strips off his gloves and his head guard, dropping down to check on his friend.

  At the same time, Karina breaks out in a run toward the ring, followed closely by Jace.

  Ahead, Arpad has already reached the ring, leaping up. He and Eric turn Damian over.

  Silence.

  "Fuck, is he okay?" Eric asks, worry lacing his voice.

  "Dammit, he's bleeding," Karina snarls.

  The worry in her voice pushes Jace to clamber up into the raised platform of the ring, hauling Karina up after him. By that time Damian's shoulders are shaking.

  "What the fuck—?" Jace exclaims, wondering if Damian is going into cardiac arrest.

  Eyes springing open, Damian sits up. "Just checking what you guys would have done if I'd actually been really hurt." He grins, the lazy Texas drawl evident in his laughing voice.

  "What the—"

  "Bastard."

  Eric and Arpad leap on Damian, the three going down in a tangle of arms and legs. Jace folds his hands over his chest, his gaze meeting Karina's in a shared look of amusement. She raises her eyebrows, taps her finger to her forehead, an indication of exactly how ridiculous she thought the men on the ground were.

  Skirting the men still play-fighting, she walks over to Jace. "How is the start-up investment business these days?" She asks.

  Jace stays silent, his expression non-committal. While he's close to all four of the group, Karina and he had bonded almost instantly. She regards him as a sibling, a younger brother. She's the only one of the group to whom he's hinted a little about his financial setbacks.

  "Have you and Eric agreed to a plan on what to do next?" Karina asks.

  4

  Jace

  * * *

  Jace looks to the boxing-ring in the little gym. To where Eric is sprawled on the floor. His body almost hidden under the combined bulk of Arpad and a still-bleeding Damian. All three are locked in a tangle of arms and legs.

  "No, I haven't mentioned my plan to Eric yet," he finally replies to Karina's question.

  Guilt threads through Jace.

  As his business partner, Eric deserves to know the plan he's put into place to rescue their business.

  Jace comes from one of the most moneyed families in the UK, a fact he neither hides nor flaunts.

  Unlike Eric, who came from a humble background, his father an immigrant from Mexico. But that only makes Eric more determined to succeed.

  Jace had made a series of risky investments in the past year. Eric had protested each decision, but given in at Jace's vehement belief that they would succeed.

  After all, Jace had a track record of being able to pull off long shots. Besides, Jace had invested his money in the business. Eric had invested his time. And Jace had paid him for it. Technically that made Eric his employee, but they'd always functioned as business partners.

  Eric was right, though. This time he'd overstretched. Not one of the start-ups had broken even.

  Now they stand to lose all they had invested.

  It's Jace's fault they're in this mess.

  And Jace is determined to put it right.

  As the scion of the Walker empire, Jace's father owned a huge chunk of media interests around the world. And now Jace must get the first installment of his inheritance from his father, and invest it in the business. It’s the only way to save his and Eric's future―whether Eric agrees with his approach or not.

  "Things are bound to get ugly before they get better. Besides, I have a plan." Jace's grin is cocky. Too quick.

  "Hmm." Karina's eyes snap onto his and hold, a worried look in hers.

  "You'll tell me if you need money? We'd all help, you know that?" she says.

  At that, Jace drops the uncaring look he's been trying so hard to feign. His heart melts a little. He's unused to having a circle of friends to fall back on. He'd grown up isolated, first in his father's country mansion near London, then at boarding school.

  No, he hadn't expected to forge such strong friendships in this little gym in a seedy part of one of the most commercially minded cities in the world.

  Leaning down, he brushes Karina's cheek with his lips. An affectionate kiss.

  Before he can say anything further, Eric's on his feet. He limps over to them. Sweat drips down his forehead. His shorts are dirty, his T-shirt torn from the fight.

  "Leg bothering you?" Jace asks before he can stop himself.

  "No more than usual." Eric's reply is short.

  Jace knows Eric hates being reminded of his impediment. Growing up in the slums of Mexico City had resulted in Eric being in a gang fight that left him with a permanent limp. His family had been unable to afford the medical care required to heal him then.

  His parents had migrated to the US when Eric was ten. It's been a hard climb up for Eric to get to where he is now, Jace knows that.

  But his physical impairment has only left Eric with an iron-willed work ethic and a need to excel at anything he takes up, including feats of physical prowess. Eric now trains for marathons, determined to show that not even his slight physical disability can stop him. His single-mindedness is much the same when it comes to succeeding at business.

  It's what makes Eric a valuable business partner.

  "You look like you've been in a cat-fight," Karina tells Eric in a tone that drips ice―a tone that's subdued many a celebrity into following her orders.

  Just then Damian stalks toward their group. His gait―one that tends to drive the women at his rock concerts wild with lust―is familiar to fans around the world. "Good fight." Damian slaps Eric on the back.

  The two clasp hands.

  "Sorry about that pretty face," Eric needles the other guy.

  "You don't look so good yourself, hotshot," Damian shoots right back.

  "You two are in better shape than him." Karina points to Arpad still sprawled in the center of the ring. "And he didn't even fight."

  Walking to Arpad, Jace hauls the banker to his feet. "Come on, moneybags. To the showers."

  "We're going to the bar. You coming?" Arpad calls out to Karina as they jump down from the ring.

  "You mean your favorite dive bar, up the block?" Karina asks.

  At Arpad's nod, Karina shudders. "Not a chance," she exclaims. "Wild animals can't drag me in there."

  "Can wild men?" Arpad calls out.

  “You're looking at the wrong person to kiss your wounds better," Karina smirks. "Besides, I have a date to head to."

  She jumps down from the ring on the other side, flounces off toward the female changing room, to whistles from the men.

  "Who's the lucky guy?" Arpad snaps, his tone angry.

  But Karina doesn't notice. "None of you, that's for sure." She grins. Pausing at the entrance to the changing room, she waves. "Don't wait for me. I'm heading home first to get pretty." Her smile is wicked.

  Arpad makes as if to follow her, his face twisting with emotion. He's jealous of Karina's date. Jace holds Arpad back, shakes his head. "You go after Karina now, you lose her forever."

  "So I stand by and watch as she fucks half the men in this town?" Arpad snarls, but beneath that anger, pain is evident.

  Jace grips his friend's shoulder. "Sometimes you have to explore what's outside to recognize what you have right in front of you."

  Right. He's giving Arpad advice on how to handle his love life, when Jace's own is about to get more complicated than it's ever been.

  Eric calls out to them from the entrance of the changing room, "You guys coming or do you want to spend all evening gossiping like old ladies?"

  That breaks the somber mood of their conversation. Arpad pulls out of Jace's grasp to follow Eric into the changing room.

  * * *

  Half an hour later Eric and Jace are seated at a small table at the far corner of the 'dive bar' that Karina so hates. It's more rundown than the gym, and filled with the kind of people Jace would never meet on a daily basis.

  Sheer proximi
ty to the gym had the four men veering toward the bar the same night they had met―the only time so far that Karina had accompanied them. Heading here once a week had become a habit.

  They had an unspoken agreement to leave the high profile of their daily lives behind on these evenings.

  It's a cover of sorts, Jace supposed. In here, they didn't have to pretend. They could just be a group of friends catching up on each other's lives.

  The smack of a pool ball cuts through his thoughts, and Jace knows he can't put off talking to Eric any longer.

  Chugging down a healthy swallow of the whiskey, Eric grimaces. "What is this?"

  Jace barks out a laugh. "Laphroaig. Jerry keeps a bottle behind the bar, only for us."

  Eric's eyes dart to the bartender, "Ah. One for the big billionaire boys who grace his establishment, is it?"

  A hint of the bitterness slips through, giving away that Eric is very aware that he doesn't belong to that club. Yet.

  Jace wants to protest that Eric is putting himself down too much.

  Eric may not have Damian's talent, or Jace's moneyed background or even Arpad's choice of profession that had catapulted him onto the rich list very quickly. But he has grit and determination in plenty.

  Sure, Jace grew up the son of a media magnate, but Darren, his father, was self-made. He'd never allowed his only son to forget that. It's why Jace is here in Silicon Valley, trying to make it on his own. Darren owns a clutch of newspapers and TV channels, but has no interest in breaking into Silicon Valley. Jace wants it to stay that way.

  "I'm going to London to get the first installment of my inheritance," Jace says. "I'll put it right back into the business."

  Eric's eyes widen, "Thought you weren't on speaking terms with your father? Besides, aren't there conditions attached to getting the first installment?"

  "Yeah." Jace's fingers tighten around his glass. "The old man's gone senile. He wants me to show I'm serious about settling down and producing an heir before he releases it."

  "And how are you going to convince him? The last I knew, you were single. Unless you've managed to grow a girlfriend in the last twenty-four hours?"