The Billionaire's Fake Marriage: A Single Dad Next Door Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  My cheeks flushed at the thought, but it wasn’t a bad idea. Desire nipped at the pit of my stomach.

  Before I could answer him, I heard the elevator ding. I turned to see the doors open.

  Blonde hair that curled perfectly every time. Her bright pink lips curved into a wide smile as she stepped off the elevator. Today she wore a dress that hugged every curve of her body she wanted seen—but despite that she didn’t have too much boob, and she wouldn’t be told it was too much for an office. With Gucci flats and a designer handbag in her hand, she looked around.

  “Alyssa.” I forced a smile over my lips, but the truth was my heart sank into the pit of my stomach.

  “Hi!” she beamed, her eyes locking on Garth.

  “Alyssa.” I was sure I could hear the disappointment in his voice. “Are you back so soon?”

  “Well, I’m feeling all better. I thought I could come in and see how everyone is doing.” She closed the distance between them and touched his arm. “I heard what happened. You poor thing, it must have been so hard on you.”

  I couldn’t quite read the look that passed across his face, but he smiled stepping away from her. “I’ll recover. Thankfully, I’ve got a lot of great girls here who will stay late if I need their help. But you, I mean you don’t look like you’re one hundred percent.” I wasn’t sure if he saw the look that flashed across her face, but she clearly hadn’t seen that as a compliment. “You should go home and rest; I wouldn’t want you overworking yourself on my account.”

  Alyssa stared at him. A wide smile spread across her face. “You’re worried about me. That is so sweet.”

  Garth looked taken aback. He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. I felt the jealousy nip harder at the pit of my stomach and wanted nothing more than to go over there, grab her and drag her out of the building. Or better yet go over there and place a kiss on his lips. I knew that wasn’t much better than a dog marking what was his, but part of me didn’t care. I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.

  “Of course, I worry about you.” Okay, that did not help keep me calm. “I worry about all the girls that work for me. I mean, one cold in the office, and the next thing you know, boom, you’re all sick. I can’t have my girls getting sick on me.”

  He reached out and touched her shoulder gently before turning around. His eye caught mine, and I smirked.

  Alyssa stood there, frozen. Her mouth hanging open. Garth turned back to her before stepping into his office.

  “Head on home, get some rest. Really, it’s okay. You’ve still got lots of vacation time to use up.”

  Alyssa looked far from pleased as Garth closed the office door behind him.

  My heart skipped a beat. That left the two of us sitting here together—alone. Was she going to lash out at me? I took a deep breath and turned my computer on.

  “He ... he ... just sent me home,” she whispered, turning to me. “He’s worried about me.” A broad smile spread over her face. “And now he thinks I’m some amazing worker because I tried to come into work while I was still sick.” Her grin widened as she turned to me, and her eyes sparkled. “Everything went according to plan.”

  I stared at her with wide eyes. “So ... this was all just a plan? You knew he was going to react that way so you came in so he would tell you to go home?”

  “No, I came in to see if he actually does care about me, and I think he does. He might not realize it, but he cares about me, which means that I am one step closer to being the queen behind this company.” She looked so pleased with herself as she spoke.

  I just stared at her, trying to take everything in and unable to believe someone was this crappy of a person. I forced a smile over my face. It took everything I had not to spill the beans about Garth and I right then and there.

  “And the girls said they thought he had taken a liking to you.” Her eyes locked on me. She froze, taking everything in. “You ... look different.”

  “New hair, new clothes.” I forced a tight smile over my face.

  “Cute ... nice try, but it’s not going to work. You said it, he cares about me, and he’s not going to be presided into falling for some girl like you.” Her hand waved over me carelessly. “Trust me sweetheart, you’re not even close to being his type.”

  She sounded so confident in herself that I stood there staring at her, trying to decide what to say. I settled on nothing. I put on a wide smile and let out a soft laugh. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of trying to compete with you.” I’ve already won. Not that she realized that. She still thought she had a chance at getting Garth. I knew better. I knew she would never be able to get him.

  She wasn’t his type—he’d said it himself.

  “I’m so glad we cleared that up so we can be friends.” She beamed. I couldn’t tell if she was being fake or not. She came over to me and pulled me into a hug.

  I stood there frozen as she hugged me tightly and pulled away. “I’ll see you around! Tell the girls I said hi!”

  I nodded as she headed for the elevator without another word. Part of me felt like I wanted to puke. I couldn’t believe she’d just hugged me. Was she trying to be my friend or threaten me? Was this like high school all over again?

  I don’t want to play catty games, I thought, watching her step onto the elevator and the door close. I took a deep breath, turned and headed for Garth’s office.

  I didn’t bother knocking before entering. He glanced up at me.

  “What did she want?”

  “To make you like her more,” I said bitterly. “She knew you were going to send her home, so she wants you to think she’s oh so amazing for trying to come into work.”

  “Really?” Garth tilted his head to the left. “Well, maybe I could find some work for her to do—you know, from home so the other girls don’t get sick.” His eyes sparkled.

  I stared at him. I hadn’t realized he was catty. He caught me staring.

  “What?”

  “I just ... didn’t realize ...” I wasn’t going to say it out loud.

  He shrugged. “I don’t like people taking advantage of me. What did she want from you?”

  “Oh, just to let me know I was nothing like her and didn’t stand a chance at trying to get at you.” I leaned against the doorway crossing my arms over my chest with a grin.

  “What did you tell her?” He sounded worried.

  “Don’t worry,” I scoffed. “I didn’t tell her I was fucking you. I told her that I had no intention of trying to compete for your affection.”

  Garth raised an eyebrow. “And here I was thinking I was worth fighting for.”

  I shrugged. It wasn’t that. But I wasn’t going to tell him I would send Alyssa to the hospital if she looked at him wrong again. “I thought you were the one who said if something was meant to be, it would be.”

  Garth stared at me. “Yes, I might have said something like that.”

  “If we’re meant to be together, then I won’t need to fight for you.” I gave him a soft smile. “At least, that’s the way I see it. Maybe I’m wrong, though.”

  “I like that view on things.”

  “So, are you going to send her work to do?”

  “Yes. Nothing too hard on her in case she is actually sick, but I don’t want her thinking she can take advantage of myself or my company.”

  Oh, so this was about teaching her a lesson? I didn’t say it. I just nodded. I can’t say I felt very bad for her after the way she had just acted towards me. On the surface, it didn’t seem bad; if I told someone about it, they would think I was crazy, but high school had taught me all about mean girls.

  My head snapped towards the elevator as it dinged. I straightened myself, taking a deep breath. “So, is there anything you need from me?”

  “No, thank you. You can get to work until I come get you. We’re showing a house today.”

  We were? I opened my mouth to say something, then closed it and nodded. That would have been nice to know. My heart skipped a beat, an
d for a split second, I thought I might be sick. The mental image of that body wouldn’t leave my mind. I took a deep breath, trying to relax as three girls stepped off the elevator. They all gave me a wide smile as I turned towards my desk, closing Garth’s door behind me.

  “Good morning! Alyssa said she stopped in, did you see her?”

  “Yes.”

  “And? How does she look? She said Garth sent her home to make sure she gets more rest, but do you think she actually looks that sick?”

  “She looks like she could use some rest, but she looked really good for being sick,” I said. I hadn’t really thought about it all that much, but it never hurt to be nice.

  “She said it seemed like he was really into her, did you notice? What do you think?”

  Mine. I took a deep breath, trying not to get jealous. “I didn’t notice,” I lied. He hadn’t been into her because he was into me. Me. I wasn’t going to say it. I wasn’t going to start drama, and showing that I was jealous would do just that. I forced a smile over my lips. “But I wasn’t paying much attention. You know, getting work done.”

  Without another word, I dropped into my desk and started work—ignoring them as they talked about Alyssa and Garth. They actually thought she stood a chance with him. They actually thought he was into her. My brow furrowed. Sometimes—as I listened to them—it took effort for me not to laugh at what they said. I tried to focus on my work without getting distracted, but it didn’t do much good. I couldn’t help listening in on them as they talked and talked and talked.

  Chapter Nine

  I pulled into the parking lot. We hadn’t shown a house since we found the body, and I wasn’t stupid. She looked nervous. She looked like she might be sick or faint—or both.

  “You know, if you can’t do this yet, it’s okay,” I said, turning to face her. I took her hand in mine.

  “No,” she snapped. “I’ll be fine. I am fine.”

  I hadn’t told her, but I had made sure to have someone check the house before we showed up. I didn’t want her to think I was crazy. But Brent was freaked out by it. I was freaked out about it, and so was she. I thought us having someone check the place out might be a good idea.

  Brent had actually decided to stick around a little longer than he’d planned, just so he could be here in case anything else happened. It wasn’t like him to stick around if he had other commitments, but it was nice to have him around.

  We’d spoken over the phone today and agreed to meet for dinner tonight. I was just hoping Ally was going to be okay with spending some of the night alone. I would love to catch up with my best friend alone. We still hadn’t been able to have dinner.

  I miss him. We spent so much time talking, but it was always business. It was always to the point, and then we were done. We didn’t get a chance to talk about life anymore. Last night when he caught Ally and I was the first time in a very long time that we actually talked about our personal lives.

  I squeezed her hand gently. I’ll tell her later. I didn’t want to get her freaked out and could already tell she was nervous. “Come on, let’s get this done and over with.” She gave me a soft smile.

  I let go of her hand, unbuckled myself and popped the door open. I stepped out of the car and heard her do the same. Our doors closed at the same time as we headed towards the house.

  It was one that we’d just put on the market—actually, it was one that we did the listing for last night.

  A gorgeous house in the country—but still close enough to town that you could walk. A modest home with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, counter tops made with diamond flakes and an outside spa featuring a salt pool and hot tub.

  That was the first paragraph, and it had seemed to be selling. I’d already had four people contact me about the place. That was better than most places that we listed within 24 hours.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the keys as we made our way up the perfect garden.

  Ally came to a stop beside me as I unlocked the door and pushed it open. I glanced over at her and gave her a smile. “It’s going to be okay. It’s just going to take a little while until you feel ... alright with it again.” And until then, we could go get the houses ready together. I still wanted to bring up the idea of therapy but didn’t want to fight with her right now. Not with everything she was going through—and the fact it was my fault.

  Together, Ally and I headed into the house, looking around. I think both of us were keeping an eye out for anything ... strange, or dead. I hated admitting it, but even I was. I chewed the inside of my cheek. There is nothing here. It’s why you sent someone to look before you came here, I reminded myself as I headed into the kitchen.

  The place was nice. It would catch a good price for the sellers and us. If we could sell it.

  The truth was since the news went live about a dead body in one of our houses, we’d had a few dozen potential clients contact us. That was business. No attention was bad.

  My gut twisted. That was one of the few things I hated about this kind of business. It was all about money to the majority of people. Everyone would want to buy a house from the realtor who had a dead body in one of the houses he was showing.

  “I’m going to give the place a quick wash,” she said, snapping me back to reality.

  “That sounds perfect. I’ll make sure the bedrooms are set up well enough. I had someone come in and do it for me; I want to make sure they set up the way I told them.”

  “You should have sent me.” She sounded hurt. I caught her eye. She looked it too.

  “I ... wanted to give you an easy day of work. I’ll start sending you out again,” I told her. It wasn’t a lie; I’d just make sure she wasn’t alone. Was that such a bad thing?

  A smile touched her lips.

  “Thank you. I don’t want to be useless to you.”

  Without another word, she walked away from me. I stared after her. How could she ever think she’d be useless to me?

  It had only been a couple days, but she’d come to mean a lot to me. Not just in a sexual way, and not just in a work way. She was an amazing worker, and an even better lover. But that wasn’t it ... I actually cared about her.

  That was not something I normally said. I did not normally care about women—it had been a long time since I did.

  Not because of any traumatic experience when I was younger, or even because I wasn’t loved enough growing up. I just didn’t have the time. I’d tried dating a little when the company first got up and going, but it was too much work. Of course, it hadn’t been a good idea to tell the girl I was breaking up with that. I smirked, heading upstairs.

  In the kitchen, I pulled the vanilla and almond extract out of my purse. It felt odd to be in a house again. I didn’t like knowing that I would have to do it for the rest of my life. Well, you’re not quitting your job, I told myself. I wasn’t going to do that to myself or Garth. Right now, he needed me.

  He might not admit it, but I could see how freaked out he was by the idea of showing houses too. I poured a little of the extracts into a small pot and set it on the stove before I looked around. Wow.

  It was sad, I’d never be able to afford one of these houses, even though I would spend my entire life showing them. I couldn’t help laughing a little. I’d make my money off the houses I’d never be able to own, and I’d still be stuck in crappy little houses. Was that the life I had waiting for me?

  Is it really a bad life, though? I wondered.

  I mean, it could be ten times worse, right? I could be homeless.

  Anyways, I don’t need counter tops with diamond in them.

  In truth, I thought that was a little stupid, not that I was going to tell anyone that. The more we sold the house for, the bigger the commission we got. And since I was helping sell the houses, I was hoping I was going to get a bigger percentage.

  My mind drifted to Alyssa. She wanted to be his assistant so she could get close to him. I wanted to be his assistant so I could make more money. I smir
ked, padding through the kitchen. It put things into perspective when you said it that way. Not that I was going to say it to anyone by myself.

  By the time Garth came back downstairs, the house smelt like I’d been baking for a week. He took a deep breath. “You know, I’m going to steal that trick from you.” He grinned widely, looking me up and down and taking my hand in his. “I think we could do really well together. I mean, selling houses.”

  My heart skipped a beat. I stared at him, waiting for him to say something else.

  “I mean, think about it. You’ve got the look now; so do I. We’ve both got the vision, you’ve got the creativity. You do things most people wouldn’t do. You pinpoint what people want and use it to sell the home.”

  Oh that didn’t make me sound like a bad person at all. I opened my mouth to say something—anything to cut him off.

  “And it works. The first rule of marketing is that if you give people what they want, they will buy it. I’ve been trying to do it for years, and it’s like you take one look at them and figure it out.” He paused, looking out the window. “They’re here. Ready?”

  Didn’t really matter if I was. But I nodded, thinking about his words. Way to put pressure on me now, I thought as we headed towards the door. As Garth went out to greet them, I padded over to my work bag and pulled out the folder on the house.

  The people who were coming to look at the place stepped inside. It was two women. I tried to get a good read on them. Were they friends? Or more? I bit my lip. They stood very close together. The one looked familiar—I just couldn’t place her.

  I stepped forward.

  “Hi,” I reached out to shake their hands.” Ally.”

  The first woman to reach for my hand had short black hair. Her lips curved into a smile, a lip ring glinting in the light. Her eyes sparkled. “Katie.”

  My heart skipped a beat as I realized where I knew her from.

  She let go of my hand and the other girl, a redhead, stepped forward. We shook hands as my eyes drifted over her body quickly, trying to take everything in. Tattoos, jean cutoffs and a leather jacket.