The Bashful Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  “It’s…fake.” He could trust Jasper.

  “Fake? Tyler, come on.”

  “It’s a long story, and you were up all night with Belgium.”

  Jasper laughed. “Fine. I know how you like your privacy.”

  Tyler did like his privacy. It was why he’d flown six hours west of where he’d grown up, where he’d made his money, where his family lived. His jaw tightened. “I just—can you help me with the ring?”

  “I’m sure I can.”

  “Today?”

  “Can I sleep for a few hours?”

  “Sure, how about later this afternoon? Four or five?”

  Jasper yawned and confirmed for later that day, and Tyler hung up. He should probably tell the other members of the Nine-0 club about the fake engagement, but he liked to lay low during meetings. They were business meetings, not personal problem meetings. Still, he was a bit surprised neither Marshall nor Fisher had called yet.

  But they probably didn’t pay attention to the gossip headlines the way some people did. Tyler himself wouldn’t have seen anything on the Internet if not for his mother.

  He dialed Tawny next, his heart doing a little hop, skip, and jump when she answered in that sweet voice of hers.

  “So I’ve spoken to a friend, and we can go pick up your ring this afternoon.”

  “Is that so?” The fun, flirty tone of her voice was a welcome addition to Tyler’s life, and a pang of regret lanced through him when he reminded himself he wouldn’t be able to keep her forever. Or even past Christmas.

  “That is so,” he said. “Maybe we could grab some lunch and take our afternoon siesta together. We can’t go to the jeweler until later, around five tonight.”

  “Oh, a man after my own heart.” She giggled, the sound worming its way straight into Tyler’s heart. “An afternoon siesta sounds amazing.”

  Tyler agreed but as he did, he worried about sharing his hammock and his beach with Tawny. It was simply a foreign concept for him to allow someone too far into his life. At the same time, it felt good to have her only a phone call away.

  “You realize it’s almost lunch time right now,” she said. “Don’t you?”

  Tyler didn’t want to admit he hadn’t known that. “Yeah, um, yeah. Where do you want to meet?”

  “You so did not know it was lunchtime.” She laughed, and he wished they were in the same space so he could hear her voice as it lifted into the sky.

  He chuckled too. “Fine. I don’t know what time it is.”

  “It’s almost noon,” she said. “And I’m feeling like American fare today.”

  “Because you ate a dozen tuna rolls yesterday.”

  “A dozen? Come on.” She obviously wore a smile because it carried in her tone. “The Breezeway? Twenty minutes?”

  Tyler enjoyed the restaurant on the first floor of Fisher’s hotel. “Sure,” he said. “See you there.”

  He arrived at The Breezeway nineteen minutes later to find her perched on a barstool, a glass of clear liquid in front of her. She wore a flowing pale pink cover-up with bright yellow straps going over her shoulders. Beach wear.

  Tyler smiled as she tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced around. Watching her like this, he could see the vulnerability on her face that she normally kept masked. He could admire her beauty without her being able to see it, without having to hide it.

  He became aware of someone standing next to him, and he cut a look out of the corner of his eye to see the same dark-haired reporter who’d been hanging around the island.

  “Don’t you have something better to do?” Tyler couldn’t help the bite in his voice. “I’m not even anyone special.”

  “Do you know the percentage of the population who are billionaires?” He gave Tyler a look that wasn’t malicious. “It’s like one out of every four million. Whatever this is.” He gestured between Tyler and Tawny. “It’s something.”

  Not for the first time, Tyler cursed his money. And he kept his mouth shut about the eight other people—and potentially three more—people who had nine zeroes in their bank accounts who lived right here on the island.

  “This is nothing,” Tyler said, wishing he wasn’t speaking quite so true. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to eat lunch with my fiancée.” He paused and turned back, taking in the man’s features. Brown eyes. Dark hair. Tan. Perfectly symmetrical face. He had the perfect face for those tiny pictures next to by-lines.

  “Can I ask you something?” he asked.

  “Sure,” the guy said.

  “What if I needed some information on someone? An owner of a couple of avocado farms here on the island.”

  A light entered the man’s dark eyes. “Well, you might hire someone.”

  “How much for you to find out everything you can about someone for me?” Tyler glanced over his shoulder to see if Tawny had spotted him yet. She drank from her glass, still unaware of his presence. She probably thought he was late, maybe thinking he wouldn’t come at all.

  “Depends on who it is.”

  “Okay, well, how about you give me your name and number, and we can talk about it.”

  The man narrowed his eyes, and Tyler simply stared back, easily slipping into his poker face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “Jason Barnes, from Aces High.”

  Tyler’s heart catapulted around his chest, but he took the card without so much as blinking. “The poker magazine? Why are you here?”

  “There’re a lot of people who’d love to see you come back to the pro circuit.”

  “Never gonna happen.”

  “No?” Jason’s eyebrows lifted. “Don’t you miss it?”

  “Not even a little bit.” He waved the card. “Thanks.” He walked away, shoving the card in his pocket so Tawny wouldn’t know he was considering hiring a reporter to find the dirt on Omar Velasquez.

  “Hey.” He bent down and pressed his lips to her cheek. “Sorry I’m late.” One arm slipped effortlessly around her waist as he added, “Don’t look, but there’s a reporter watching.”

  She giggled, her acting absolutely flawless. One hand came up and touched his face, sending sparks through his jaw and down the right side of his neck.

  Their eyes locked, and Tyler felt a measure of craziness move through him. Because he found himself leaning closer, his eyes drifting closed in tandem with hers. His mouth touched hers a moment later, and a moan slipped up his throat.

  Tawny’s other hand came up and curled around the back of his neck, holding him close as the kiss dragged on, deepened, drew him toward the edge of madness.

  She seemed utterly in control of herself, but Tyler’s every nerve went wild. When she finally had the wherewithal to pull away, she kept her face close to his, and he was pleased that her breathing was as ragged as his.

  What that meant, he didn’t know. What he did know was that this was no longer an act for him. He wanted to kiss her like that every morning, every evening, and every minute in between.

  “What were you drinking?” he whispered.

  “Just water.” She leaned back, breaking the bubble that had formed around them. Tyler couldn’t help it; he glanced toward where Jason had been standing. He remained there, his phone out and pointed in Tyler’s direction.

  When he caught Tyler looking, he raised his hand in acknowledgement, turned, and walked away.

  “Is he gone?” Tawny asked, her body still leaning into his.

  Tyler sighed as he sat on the stool next to her. “Yeah.” He touched his lips, which felt a bit slick from her lip gloss. A smile stole across his face, and thankfully, a waitress appeared and asked if they’d like a table.

  “Yes,” he said with relief. “Yes, we’d like a table.” Then he could hide behind a menu while he relived the best kiss of his life.

  A skin of tension hovered over him during lunch. Finally, he said, “I hope that wasn’t too awkward.”

  She hadn’t said a whole lot of anything, and that was unusual for her. She was flirty,
and chatty, and usually had this vibrant energy about her.

  “The kiss?”

  “Yeah.” Tyler looked her right in the eyes, trying to figure out if he was the only one feeling like this relationship could be real if one of them would just admit it. He wasn’t going to though, because he couldn’t decipher anything in her gaze.

  “It was fine.”

  “Ouch.” Tyler chuckled. “I mean, it’s been a while for me, but I was hoping it would be better than fine.”

  A blush crawled into her cheeks, and Tyler finally got the first hint that his kiss was more than fine. But was it welcome?

  “It’s been a while for you?”

  “Almost a decade,” he admitted.

  Her eyes rounded. “Since you kissed someone?”

  “Since any relationship,” he said. “Even a fake one.”

  She blinked, her mouth hanging open slightly. After a moment she seemed to recover and she pulled her fruity soda closer and took a long drink. “I find that hard to believe.”

  He shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

  “Why? Did something happen? You don’t want to get married?” Did he imagine the interest in her voice? The earnestness in her face?

  Tyler had not told anyone why he didn’t date. He hadn’t had to, because people left him alone in Hawaii. And for the few years before he sold his half of PokerPlayNow.com, he’d been so busy getting the world’s first online poker website up and running, he hadn’t had time for women.

  Plus, there was Holly….

  “I’d marry the right person,” he said carefully, trying to find his way through this landmine of conversation.

  “But you don’t date.”

  “I didn’t, no.”

  Tawny cocked her head, as if trying to hear more behind the words. Tyler lifted his own soda to his lips, realizing he’d just implied that he didn’t date before he met her. Before them, like maybe they were dating.

  “I….” He set his glass down and schooled his emotions behind his poker face. “My last girlfriend wasn’t really a girlfriend.” Embarrassed heat filled him. “More like a one-night stand who got pregnant.”

  Tawny sucked in a breath and said, “Oh.”

  Tyler leaned onto his forearms and tried to convey to her that this was serious, this was real. “I haven’t told anyone this. Not even Jasper, or Fisher. I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Of course I won’t.”

  “Even after we ‘break up’.” He used air quotes around the last two words.

  “Why did you tell me at all?”

  Why had he? Tyler sighed and leaned back in the booth. “I wanted you to know,” he said simply. And he did want her to know. It felt like something he’d have to tell someone he was getting serious with—and they were supposed to be engaged.

  Or did he just feel like things between them were ten times more serious now that he’d kissed her?

  “So, did you get married? You’ve got a kid in New York or something?” Tawny fiddled with her discarded straw wrapper.

  Tyler shook his head, the memories, the lights, the glitz, the glam streaming through his head though he studied the tabletop. “No.”

  “No?”

  He glanced up. “I tried to do the right thing. I said I’d marry her and all that. We weren’t quite to the announcement phase yet, and she didn’t have a ring, before she lost the pregnancy.” And he’d never been so relieved. He and Holly weren’t a match, and he’d known it the night he’d met her.

  But she was exotic, and beautiful, and he’d been high off another world championship win. That, combined with too much alcohol…had led him here to Getaway Bay.

  “I quit the pro circuit after that championship,” he said as if he’d filled in all the details he kept in his head. “Started the online game site with my brother Wayne.” He exhaled and waited while the waitress arrived with their food. “Haven’t dated since.”

  She picked up her crispy chicken sandwich and paused before taking a bite. “Do you miss poker?”

  “No.”

  “Not even a little?”

  “Not even a little.”

  “You won a lot, didn’t you?”

  “I did.” It was refreshing to give the details he wanted to give about his past, and a rush of affection for Tawny had his face heating again. “I was the fastest-rising poker player in the world. I made the most too, for about three years. Then Holly happened, and I quit, and Wayne and I focused on the website.”

  She wiped her lips and swallowed. “Were you a billionaire before the website?”

  “Not quite.” He started eating his burger, glad the atmosphere between them had relaxed. “So enough about me. What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Past relationships? Seems like something your fiancé would know.”

  “Yes, it does.” But she continued eating. When she finished her sandwich, she began pushing around her fruit. “So you know about Omar.”

  “A little,” Tyler hedged, the card in his pocket suddenly burning against his skin.

  “Since coming to the island, I’ve dated a few men. Nobody special.”

  “No? Why not?”

  “Unlucky in love.” She pointed to herself. “My last name fits me so well.”

  Tyler had no idea when the words entered his mind, or why he let them out of his mouth. But when he said, “Maybe that’s about to change,” he was as shocked as Tawny looked.

  Chapter Ten

  Maybe that’s about to change.

  Tawny couldn’t get the words out of her head. What had he meant by that? The way he held her hand as they walked into the jewelry store felt real. And that kiss…. Fireworks popped through her bloodstream just thinking about it. She really hoped she’d get to experience another kiss from him, because she hadn’t quite been prepared for the first one.

  A tall, sandy-haired man stood behind the counter, wearing an expensive suit and a smile. “Tyler.”

  “Jasper.” Tyler and Jasper did quick patting of backs, and Tyler stepped back. “This is my fiancée, Tawny Loveless. Tawny, this is a good friend of mine, Jasper Rosequist.”

  “Nice to meet you.” She cut a glance at Tyler as she stepped forward and shook Jasper’s hand. “Doesn’t he know?” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

  Tyler brought her close, his hand along her waist like fire, and leaned down as if they were going to share an intimate secret. “He does, yes. But you never know who’s watching or listening.”

  Of course. She reminded herself that he was continuing this ruse for her, because he was a nice guy. Not because he liked her. Not because the heated passion in that kiss had been real.

  “I’ve got your ring right here.” Jasper brought out a velvet tray which held a diamond ring that Tawny couldn’t help gawking at.

  “This is it?”

  “It’s okay?” Tyler searched her face, and Tawny didn’t hate the way he probed with his eyes to find information. But what she was really feeling—I wish this wasn’t a fake diamond ring—she kept carefully masked. She had to. This was his life. He was a celebrity, no matter how much he tried to tell her he wasn’t. The three reporters who’d joined her class that morning were proof of that.

  She would not lose her heart to a lie. “Yes, it’s fine.” She swallowed and held out her left hand so Jasper could slip the ring on. It was more than fine, and she felt like it would weigh down her whole arm. But it didn’t, and she tilted her hand to admire the glittering gem. She grinned as she looked at Tyler. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

  It felt like a moment she’d tip up on her toes, wrap her arms around his neck, and kiss him. Her body flinched toward his, but she stopped herself from making a fool of herself.

  Tyler knocked twice on the glass case, and said, “Thanks, Jasper.”

  “Anytime.” The man looked back and forth between Tyler and Tawny, his eyes alight and his smile wide. “And just so you know, the same two guys have walke
d by three times. So be on your game when you go.”

  Tawny’s stomach twisted, but Tyler took her hand in his, calming her, comforting her. He seemed strong and in control as they moved toward the door and pushed out into the Hawaiian heat.

  “So you like it?” he asked, maybe a bit too loud.

  Tawny squealed, most of the enthusiasm in the sound absolutely real. “I love it.” She did throw herself into his arms now, glad when he laughed and drew her right against his chest. “Thank you,” she said again, unsure of why she felt the need to keep expressing her gratitude to him.

  He bent down and she lifted up, and this second kiss felt like magic in her veins. He certainly knew how to kiss a woman like he felt something for her, and she couldn’t believe he hadn’t dated anyone in almost a decade.

  You’re not dating him either, she told herself. But the words were very easy to silence with Tyler’s lips moving so deliciously against hers.

  She didn’t want the kiss to end, but he eventually pulled back, flushed and breathless, the same as her. He tucked her into his side and they walked toward the two men staring open-mouthed at them. As they passed, Tawny lifted her left hand to show them her diamond, a giggle trickling from her throat.

  And honestly, she was happier than she’d been in a long, long time. She just hoped that when this ended in a couple of months, she hadn’t given him her heart.

  The engagement ring shone in the light from her phone as both rested on her nightstand. She lay in bed, feeling like a fraud. Omar hadn’t even tried to contact her. She hadn’t seen any of his goons hanging around her classes, the hotel, or her house. This whole fake engagement was ridiculous.

  And yet she couldn’t get herself to call it off. To call Tyler and tell him they could just break up now. His family didn’t need to come for the holidays to meet her. It all seemed like such a waste.

  But he said nothing the next day, nor the next. Days became a week, which became a month, and before she knew it, she was making macaroni salad to go with Stacey’s kalua turkey and traditional Hawaiian sides of sticky rice, poi, and roasted potatoes. The Thanksgiving feast at her bed and breakfast was legendary, and she sold twenty extra seats.