How To Catch A Billionaire (The Full Series) (7 page)

"But you're going as my fiancée."

"I don't want them to think we have sex."

"Uh, ok." He grinned at her. "And you think they are going to believe that?"

"Yes." I grinned and twirled around. "Because I am a Princess from Europe and everyone knows we are chaste." I spoke in an Eastern European accent and he groaned.

"Sarah!"

"What, kind sir?" I looked down my nose haughtily at him, my voice sounding decidedly English this time.

"Sarah, you are not going to be using your acting skills," he snorted, "this weekend. My whole family is going to be there and they are going to be asking you a million questions."   

"I'll just pretend I don't understand what they are saying." I grinned. "I can be Princess Sarah of Latvia."

"Latvia?" His voice held disbelief.

"Or England if you want, but if they’re familiar with the British Royal Family at all, they may know that that's not true. So we better go with Latvia."

"Sarah, you are not going to pretend you are the Princess of Latvia," Harry’s voice was stern and he groaned. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. You were right. Our age difference is too much."

"What's that meant to mean?" I protested angrily. It was all right for me to think he was too old for me but he shouldn't be thinking I'm too young for him. Not at all.

"Sarah, you are twenty-two and immature." He sighed. "My family is going to think I lost my mind bringing you home."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm nearly in my forties, I'm a billionaire. Millions of women all over the world want to be with me. I don't think they will believe I fell for a kook."

"A
KOOK
?" My voice rose.

"Yes, Sarah. You are kooky." He looked me in the eyes. "And that's nicer than calling you a liar."

"You're an asshole and you can leave now." I sat on my bed and lay down staring at the ceiling, trying to not let tears fall from my eyes. "I wasn't too much of a liar that you didn't want to sleep with me though."

"Ah Sarah." He sat down next to me on the bed. "Look, I'm sorry. I've never known someone like you before. Maybe it's because I'm an old fart." He paused. "You could say, no Harry, you're not an old fart, you know."

I laughed as he looked down at me with a sad face. "No Harry, you're not a completely old fart." I smiled up at him and felt tingles in my stomach as he gazed down at me. We stared at each other for about a minute and I felt a current of electricity flow through us. His blue eyes were wide and happy, gazing at me with no shadows or secrets. I felt like I could see into his heart and soul and it made me very uncomfortable. His hand found mine and stroked my palm. I felt my body flush and I shifted my gaze away. He let go of my hand and jumped off the bed.

“Ready to go?” he said gruffly.

“Fine.” My voice was exasperated and my body was disappointed. I didn’t want to go anywhere other than under the sheets.

Chapter 7

“So, Jane seems sweet.” Harry escorted me to his car. It was an Audi A4 and I sunk into the leather seats surprised. I would have thought that he’d drive a Porsche or a Mercedes.

“Yeah, Jane is great.” I smiled. “We’ve been best friends for ages. We moved here from Florida together to go to school.”

“Did she study drama as well?” Harry’s eyes remained on the road as he spoke and I studied his profile.

“No. Just me.” I paused. “I was the crazy one.”

“Why crazy?”

“Have you seen me in any movies or on Broadway?” I laughed.

“Not yet but I wouldn’t be surprised if you made it soon.”

“Yeah right.” I laughed.

“Don’t be so down on yourself, Sarah. I mean, you were able to fool the people at Zoom.”

“Yeah.” I quickly decided to change the subject as I was hoping that he would give me another job in his company. “So, where are we going?”

“To dinner.”

“Duh, where?”

“Just wait and see, Sarah.”

“Fine.” I turned and looked out of the window watching the commuters walk to their apartments from their jobs in Manhattan. I loved how alive and real Brooklyn was, even though I was anxious to move to the city as soon as possible. “So tell me why we are fooling your family again?” I turned back to face him, curious why such a good-looking and rich man would need to fool his family.

“Have you ever watched Home Alone?”

“Hello. Of course I have. Kevin!” I screamed. “Arrgh.”

“Uhm, ok. Thanks for that, Sarah.” Harry laughed. “Well the family in Home Alone is just a scratch on my family.”

“Ok.”

“And their biggest wish for me is to get married and to have kids.”

“So why don’t you?” I questioned.

“I don’t want to.” His voice was abrupt.

“Why not?” I was curious as to why he never wanted to get married. I was also strangely disappointed.

“I find that marriage just constrains people. I don’t want to be constrained. Plus, I don’t believe in love and most women want that in a marriage.”

“You don’t believe in love?” I was shocked and sad.

“No, not really. I mean, I believe in love of family, love of friends, love of sex.” He turned and grinned at me. “But one true love? Soulmates? Nope.”

“Wow, ok.” I bit my lip wanting to ask more but not wanting him to think that I cared about his answers. “Is there a reason why you don’t believe in those things?”

He laughed and his voice had a bitter tinge in it when he spoke. “I’ve had models, actresses, teachers, nurses all tell me how much they loved me, how much they wanted to be with me, when all they really cared about was the money. My billions. And my image. They liked the glitz and the glamour. I’m secondary to what I can provide. If I had nothing, they would be long gone.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” My voice was earnest. He was hot. Women would want to be with him no matter if he was a pauper.

“Come on Sarah, even you are only with me now because you want your job back.” He laughed. “Let’s be real here. Women just latch on to men that can provide something to them. Which is fine. But let’s not say its love.”

I sat back and thought for a second. What he said wasn’t untrue. I had told myself and him that I was going along for the weekend because I needed the money and because I wanted my job back but that wasn’t really the only reason I was going. I was going because I thought he was ridiculously hot and because I enjoyed sparring with him. I liked the way he made me feel. And that had nothing to do with his money. “I guess you’ll think whatever you want to,” I replied. There was no way that I wanted him to know that I was more into him than I was letting on.

“See, even you have nothing to say to that.” His voice sounded sad and then he turned on the radio. “Want to listen to some Miles Davis?”

“Say what?” I frowned at him as Jazz music reverberated through the car. “Who’s this?”

“You don’t know Miles David?” Harry looked at me and shook his head.

“Is he related to Larry David?” I thought of the bald guy from the TV show ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’

“No.” He laughed. “So what kind of music do you listen to?”

“Katy Perry, Rihanna, fun., Coldplay, The Verve.”

“The Verve?” He smiled. “Aren’t they kinda old for you?”

“I love them.” I reached over to the radio and starting changing the channels.

“Hey hey.” He swat my hands away. “Don’t you know you can’t just change radio stations like that?”

“What?”

“You never heard the saying ‘don’t ever touch a man’s radio.’”

I laughed. “Do you mean the line from Rush Hour where he says ‘don’t you ever touch a black man’s radio?’?” I burst out laughing. “You’re funny.” I had tears running out of my eyes from all my laughter and I just couldn’t stop myself.

“I’m glad you think that’s funny.”

“Oh Harry.” I stopped on a Top 40 radio and sang along to the Lil Wayne song that was playing.

“I’m thinking I should take you to a club instead of a nice dinner.”

“Yeah right.” I looked at him with a smirk. “I could not see you in a club, Harry Green.”

“Well, there are many things you couldn’t see me doing but I do them.” He licked his lips and I shivered.

***

“So, how’d you like it?” Harry smiled at me paternally as I licked the residue of chocolate off my spoon. My stomach was full and I was completely satisfied. Every course had been delicious and the chocolate cake had been the most divine and silky cake I’d ever had.

“Hmm, this meal was
so
good.” I beamed at him. “Thanks.” I smiled into his eyes as I remembered my manners.

“Good.” He called the waiter over to the table. “Two glasses of Champagne, please.”             

“Oh I don’t know,” I protested.

“But we have to celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?”

“Our new partnership.”

“What new partnership?” I looked at him in confusion.

“The one we are about to make.”

“Uh ok.” I felt a chill run through my spine. Oh no, I thought. Here it comes. He’s going to tell me that he wants me to be his submissive. I’d read ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ along with everyone else. I knew what this was about. I bit my lip and thought hard. I’d never done anything that kinky before but there was a first time for everything, right? Though I didn’t think I’d make a very good sub. And I didn’t particularly want to get beaten.

“So I figured the partnership would last for the next two months.”

“Oh.” I’d never heard of a Dom/sub relationship lasting two months, but I guess I didn’t really know much.

“It would start this weekend. Then you would accompany me to a family reunion next month and then to a family wedding in two months.”

“So three trips?” I looked at him suspiciously. “And what do I have to do on the trips?”

“All I will require from you is that you will pretend to be my girlfriend. Kiss me and hug me when appropriate; anything extra is up to you.”

“Hmm.” I was slightly disappointed that he didn’t seem to be begging me for anything extra.

“I’ll pay you $50,000 to play the role. $25,000 up-front and $25,000 when we break up.”

I sat there with my mouth wide open, that was a hell of a lot of money. “Whoa, what?”

“Think of it as your first real paying acting gig.” He smiled at me. “And if it goes well I will recommend you to a producer I know in Hollywood and see if we can get you an audition.”

“Omg, really?” I knew my eyes were popping out but I couldn’t control my excitement. “Wait, how are we going to break up?”

“I’m going to be overcome with excitement at my cousin’s wedding and propose to you.” Harry grins. “And then you are going to say no and leave me broken hearted as young girls always do to older men.”

“What?” I squirmed in my seat. “That’s going to be so embarrassing. Your family is going to hate me.”

“Sarah, you don’t know them, do you really care how they feel about you?”

“I guess not.” I paused. “$25,000 up-front and sex won’t be required?”

“No required sex, though it is an optional add-on.” He grinned. “Though I won’t be paying for that, of course.”

“Of course.” I growled at him. “I’m not a hooker.”

“You could play one for a night, if you wanted.” He smirked.

“I don’t want.” I retorted but I felt my body flush. That could be kind of exciting. I’d always wanted to role-play but had never been brave enough to bring it up to any of the guys I had dated.

“Let me know if you change your mind.” Harry grinned at me and thanked the waiter for the two flutes of champagne. I grabbed my flute and chugged down half of the glass.

“So, do we have a deal?” he questioned me. All of a sudden, he looked very serious and his eyes looked at me intently. “It goes without saying that you cannot tell my family the truth and you cannot act like an idiot and pretend you are being possessed by ghosts at any point.”

“I wasn’t acting,” I lied, thinking back to the encounter in his office.

“One good thing is I know you have the lying part down.”

“Excuse me?” I said offended. “I don’t lie.”

“What’s that?” He started counting on his fingers. “Lie number one hundred and five?”

“Whatever.” I finished my champagne and chided myself for having downed it so quickly. I could feel my head get light. “But yes, we have a deal.”

He grinned at me. “Great.” I stared at his teeth and wondered about the fact that this man would want to hire me to pretend to be his fiancée. He must be really messed up in the head.

“No problem.” I grinned back at him, leaning towards him and licking my lips. “I’d like the first $25k tomorrow, please.”

He burst out laughing then. “Well then, there you go. A woman who is not afraid to admit she is only after the money.”

I frowned at him then and took his hand. “You know, not all women are gold diggers and after your money. I mean, really what can you do with oodles and oodles of money? Only so much.”

“There are shoes and clothes and jewelry.” Harry allowed me to stroke the palms of his hands as I spoke to him earnestly.