I Married a Billionaire (3 page)

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Sure enough, the town car was there at seven a.m. sharp. I'd been waiting out on the curb, not wanting to be rude and make the driver wait. He seemed surprised when he saw me.

"Good morning," he said. "I would have called up for you, there's no need to wait."

"Oh, sorry." Of course. A couple days into this fake relationship, and I was already bungling things. "I'm not really familiar with...this whole thing."

"No, no, it's all right," he insisted. "I just thought you should know, for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I looked up at his face reflected in the rearview. "I only asked for a ride today." But come to think of it, I hadn't considered how I'd get to work for the rest of the week.

"Mr. Thorne said you would require my services at least until Friday," he replied. "Is that not right?"

"Oh, no, that's...that's fine."

I stared out the window as he pulled away. Daniel was already making an effort to anticipate my needs. It was rather sweet of him, although I could see the potential for it to get pretty creepy and controlling. Then again, the contract pretty much spelled out that he wasn't allowed to dictate most parts of my life...I chuckled a little, wishing I'd signed a contract at the beginning of my relationship with all my boyfriends. Probably would have eliminated the worst ones right off the bat.

I stopped by my desk briefly when I got into work, to drop off my coat and purse before I headed to Daniel's office. Florence, my cubicle mate, was already there.

"Where are you off to so early?" she asked, seeing me puttering around with no obvious intention of settling in.

"Oh, I have to see Mr. Thorne," I replied, trying to keep my face neutral. I'd probably look like I was hiding something, but that would fit in nicely with the fictional progression of our relationship.

"You've been spending a lot of time in his office lately," Florence observed, her eyes glued on her computer screen. "I swear to God, if GreatReads doesn't stop sending me these notification emails...how many times do I have to turn them off?"

"See you," I called over my shoulder as I hurried off, convincingly playing the part of a woman who's embarrassed to be carrying on with her boss. It wasn't too much of a stretch.

Daniel was smiling when I walked into his office. Well, that was a first.

His lawyer was in the corner, looking put-upon as usual. There was no doubt in my mind that he objected to every part of this plan - but he was objecting all the way to the bank, it seemed. I knew how he felt.

"Good morning, Maddy. Please, have a seat." He gestured to a chair that was facing his desk. There was a rather nice fountain pen sitting conspicuously on the polished wood, waiting for me. I sat down and picked it up. It could have been a fifty dollar pen or a five thousand dollar pen - what was the difference, really? - but considering its owner, I had a pretty good idea which one was more likely.

"You like it?" Daniel wanted to know, noticing me studying the pen. I looked up, startled.

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I...yeah, I do." Really, I had been focusing on absolutely anything except the reality of what I was about to do, but sure, the pen was nice.

"Keep it," he said. "It's yours."

"Oh, no, I couldn't. I'll lose it."

"What's mine is yours, Maddy. You'd better get used to that idea."

I swallowed with difficulty. I felt like my throat was closing up, but I forced myself to take a deep breath as he pushed a series of papers towards me and pointed to the spots where I was meant to sign. He signed after me, with an elegant flourish, and then handed the whole thing over to his lawyer.

"Thank you," he said, reaching across the desk to shake my hand. Which seemed like an odd gesture, considering the intimacy of our arrangement, but I took it. "You won't regret your decision, I promise."

"You can't possibly promise that," I replied, smiling. "But you're welcome."

I was useless for the rest of the day, flitting from project to project and accomplishing nothing. I could tell that Florence noticed, but she managed to restrain herself from commenting on it until after lunch.

"What's up with you? You look like you're a million miles away."

"I'm fine," I replied quickly. Too quickly. My ears were burning. Good. "Just feeling a little under the weather today, I guess."

"Sure," said Florence. She wasn't convinced, which was fine by me. I tried to imagine her knowing smile when the news "got out." Ugh. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to me until now that I was going to have to endure inane congratulations from everyone in the office - about half of which, I knew, would be coming through gritted teeth. Every woman in the company carried at least a little torch for Daniel, if only because of his bank account. Oh God, what if they wanted to throw me an engagement party? I didn't think I could handle hours of their eyes staring into me like daggers, and their faces contorting into forced smiles every time I looked at them. There was so much about this arrangement that I hadn't even considered. How was I going to tell my parents? 
Was
 I going to tell my parents?

I sighed. My relationship with my parents was complicated. I preferred not to think about it too much, but this situation was forcing me to consider things I'd been ignoring for a long time. Like - who was I going to invite to the wedding? Or would we just have a small ceremony at City Hall? He probably wanted to get things over with as quickly as possible. Which was fine with me, as long as he provided the witnesses. Aside from my casual acquaintances at work, I hadn't really made any friends since I'd moved here. All of my close friends from college and high school were off living their own lives, and aside from the occasional online chat, I never spoke to them anymore.

My head was swimming when I climbed into the town car at the end of the day, and I barely answered the driver when he spoke to me. Realistically, I knew Daniel would help me figure out a way to deal with any issues that came up. He was highly motivated to ensure the success of our little scheme. But I was still going to worry.

I felt like a zombie for the rest of the night, but of course I couldn't sleep when I finally crawled into bed. When I finally drifted off to sleep, it happened so gradually that I shifted seamlessly from meandering thoughts into a dream.

I was thinking about Daniel, naturally, imagining a conversation we'd have in his office when we next met. But as my brain slowly drifted from sleeping to waking, there was an almost-imperceptible shift in the feeling of the room. I could feel that something was about to happen - something important. He stood up and walked out from behind his desk, coming towards me. I thought he was speaking - something about my "marital duties," with a wicked smile on his face. Every nerve in my body was tingling with anticipation by the time he touched me. His fingers burned a trail down the side of my face, to my neck, to my chest, and suddenly I was laid out on the top of his desk with my blouse unbuttoned and my skirt riding up my thighs.

This being a dream - which I knew somehow, even as I sighed and parted my legs for him - he knew exactly how to touch me, knew all of the secret places that made me shudder and bite my lip. I could feel my nipples pucker and tighten as two of his fingers travelled down the valley between my breasts, pausing to dip into my navel before sliding down my lower stomach and stopping, teasingly, just above my mound.

He smiled.

He leaned over me, resting his elbow on the desk and brushing his lips against mine - an almost-but-not-quite kiss. I could feel my face burning, my chest heaving with every breath; I'd completely fallen to pieces and he'd hardly touched me at all. Yet.

The part of my brain that was aware I was dreaming drifted further and further away, allowing me to lose myself in the fantasy. No one in real life, not even Daniel himself, could possibly live up to this. But I might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

I arched my back, signaling that I was more than ready for him. Then and only then, he grabbed me by the hips and pulled me to the edge of the desk, pulling my legs apart further until my skirt was bunched up around my waist. He leaned down and pressed a burning kiss on the inside of my thigh -

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

My arm flailed vaguely in the direction of my bedside table, grasping for my vibrating phone, my spastic movements sending it flying across the room. It sat on the carpet, still buzzing away, until I dragged myself out from under the covers to shut the alarm up.

Oh, God. How was I going to look Daniel in the eye now?

The memory of the dream was still vivid in the back of my mind as I walked through the doors into the office. I kept my head down, hurrying to my desk to settle in before anyone tried to strike up a conversation with me. And God forbid I should run into Daniel. Come to think of it, though, I'd never actually witnessed him coming or going. As far as I knew, he slept here.

Okay, no, that wasn’t the ideal way to take my mind off of my dream. I forced myself to focus on the work that was on my screen, blocking out any thoughts or feelings that weren't directly related to this booklet design. It didn't have a firm deadline, so I'd been tinkering around with it for weeks. I wondered what would happen to it, after I "quit." As mind-numbing as my work could sometimes be, I still took a tiny bit of creative pride in what I did for the company. It felt strange to know that I'd be saying goodbye to all of that.

"Maddy."

I felt a hot flush spread across the back of my neck at the sound of his voice. Turning around slowly, I forced myself to meet his gaze. He was standing there casually, like it was the most natural thing in the world, his arm resting on the top of the cubicle wall.

"Good morning, sir," I said. Everyone in neighborhood cubicles had slowly rotated their chairs around to stare at us, and anyone passing through the vicinity had stopped a little distance away, pretending to be interested in a yellowed newspaper cartoon pinned to someone's wall while they listened to our conversation.

I knew this was exactly what Daniel wanted, but I still couldn't stop myself from blushing. "I'm glad to see you here so early," he said. "Do you have any plans for lunch today?"

I swallowed hard and shook my head.

"Excellent," he said. "I hope you'll join me in my office at eleven-thirty. We'll order in. Whatever you like. I want to discuss some new ideas I have about the project."

"Of course," I said, a little louder than necessary. "I'll see you then."

"Very good." He nodded, smiled, hesitated for a moment, and then walked away. Everyone's eyes followed him until he disappeared behind his office door, and then they all turned to me.

I hunched over my keyboard, pretending I couldn't feel their eyes drilling holes in my back. I spent the next half hour nudging the same block of text back and forth, and when I finally looked up, everyone had returned to their rightful places. But I knew what they were thinking.

Now, I had to spend my whole lunch break sitting across the desk from him. How was I going to avoid blushing and giggling the whole time? Or worse, just staring at him like a deer in the headlights? I hated being reduced to an airheaded schoolgirl by one stupid dream, but it felt so real.

The next few hours flew by. Before long, I found myself walking down the thickly carpeted hallway that led to Daniel's office. His door was open a crack, and his assistant was standing by his desk with a notepad open.

"Ah, Ms. Wainright," he said, gesturing for me to sit. "I was just about to give Alice my lunch order. I was thinking of takeout from Vivian's - how does that sound?"

"Great, it sounds great," I replied, after I managed to find my voice. Vivian's was one of the most expensive steak houses in town. I'd never dreamed of setting foot in the place. But to Daniel, it was probably like going to a sub shop for lunch. No big deal. This lifestyle was going to take some adjusting-to.

"Alice, I'll have a twelve-ounce Porterhouse with mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Medium rare. Ms. Wainright, what about you?"

"Oh, I don't really…I don't really know what they have." Daniel and Alice were both staring at my expectantly, and I felt like I was being tested somehow.

"All the usual," said Daniel, waving his hand vaguely. "They'll make you anything. What do you like, steak? Chicken? Seafood? I think I've had everything there at least once, I could recommend you something."

 "I'm not picky," I said, truthfully. "I was going to have mostly-smashed energy bar from the bottom of my purse, so pretty much anything would be a step up from that."

Daniel laughed, but Alice shot me a haughty look. "Would you rather have something light, then?" said Daniel. "A salad, maybe? Their Caesar with grilled shrimp is really excellent; the dressing is a special in-house recipe."

"Sure, that sounds fantastic." I cleared my throat as Alice hurried out of the room with her notepad. "Do you get lunch at Vivian's often?"

"Just a few times a week." He was smiling at me, knowingly. "I promise you, my life isn't all that strange. You'll get used to it. Which brings me to my next point - I feel we ought to go out on our first official dinner date sooner rather than later. I'm sure the office gossip mill is going to start soon."

"My cube-mate asked me yesterday why I was spending so much time in your office," I supplied, trying not to fidget in my seat. But I couldn't stop myself from staring at his lips, trying to remember if the recreation from my dream was accurate to real life. I could feel a prickling heat travel up the skin on my chest as my eyes travelled along the sleek, polished surface of his desk, remembering how it had "felt" under my body. Almost subconsciously, I had worn a knee-length skirt and blouse very similar to the outfit my brain had conjured up. I still couldn't really explain why. Did I think it was going to make him notice me? Did I 
want
 him to notice me?

The last thing I needed was to harbor a one-sided crush on my fake husband.

"Is it going to be somewhere fancy?" I blurted out, trying to disrupt my very dangerous thought patterns. He blinked at me. "I mean, the dinner date. I don't really think I have anything to wear."