The Bet (2 page)

Used
being the key word. He hadn’t even texted her since graduation.

“Heartless billionaire…,” Kacey mumbled. The guy had no shame whatsoever. What sucked was that she really did need to finish school, and she was about to default on her loans. All the money her parents left her had gone into the house and retirement, and well, it wasn’t as if Seattle University was a cheap school.

“Billionaire? Not yet, babe. Heartless?” Jake reached out and touched her face with his hand. “I think we both know the answer to that.”

Memories of his touch flooded her senses until Kacey felt like she couldn’t breathe. She had traveled that road one too many times with the man. First in high school and then again in college. She hadn’t thought that life would get in the way of the only man she had ever given her heart to. But Jake changed, and for that she would never forgive him. Kacey looked down at her lap and closed her eyes. How did he still have so much power over her? One touch and a bribe and she was ready to do exactly as he said.

True, she had always had a weakness for his grandmother, no matter how scary she was or was not. Plus, Grandma Nadine had been the only one to help Kacey get through the time in her life when she didn’t care if she died in her sleep or went on living. The dark years were just that. Dark. Kacey shuddered to think of how bad things had gotten. If Grandma Nadine was sick, and he was really trying to help her, and if Jake followed through and paid for her remaining credits. It would be worth it.

“Only the weekend?” Kacey asked in a small voice. “And you say Grandma’s been all sentimental and not feeling well?”

Jake nodded. “She says she wants to see you, and I need my parents off my back about this whole press fiasco with that stripper. If I bring you home with a ring on your finger, all will be forgiven. Dad won’t think he needs to jump back out of retirement, and Grandma won’t shoot me. It’s a win-win. Besides, like I said, image is everything and I still want to have full control of my grandmother’s company at the end of the month. The board won’t go for it if I keep getting bad press. I need everyone on board. We’ll go our separate ways and I’ll fake a breakup, cry on TV and well, then at least the board members who hate me will feel sorry for me.”

He didn’t wait for her to agree. Instead, he reached into his pocket. “It’s for more than just me. It’s for Grandma, Kace. She isn’t doing well. This may be the one thing that makes her want to keep on living.”

Kacey narrowed her eyes. Lying bastard. In his twenty-one years Jake hadn’t learned to lie better than that? His smile was tense, his breathing a bit ragged. But he did mention Grandma.

Kacey suddenly felt ill. She wanted to hop on the plane right now, but Jake didn’t know she and his grandma still talked. Nor did she want him to. “Fine, but Grandma can’t know about the student loans. Deal?” Kacey held out her hand, hoping Jake wouldn’t notice the slight tremble.

Exhaling, Jake smiled. “Thanks for doing this for me.”

Kacey looked into his crystal green eyes. “For Grandma. I’m doing it for Grandma and for me.”
Not for you, never again for you, Jake.
The rest of the thought hung in the air. Suddenly the coffee shop seemed a much-too-small arena for digging up past demons. Kacey gave a shaky laugh and rubbed her sweaty hands on her jeans. Worried that he was going to somehow make it worse by smiling or offering a pity hug, she took a big gulp of coffee.

Jake pushed away from the table. “Right, okay. Well, thanks for being my fake
fiancée
.” He pulled out a three-karat ring and confidently slipped it onto her finger.

“B-but…” she stuttered. “How did you know my size?”

He smiled and rose from his seat. “A man could never forget those hands, Kacey.”

“No matter how many hands the man-whore has held?” Kacey asked sweetly.

Jake chuckled. “Absolutely. I’ll see you Friday morning, okay?”

Kacey sighed. “Okay.”

“Thanks, Kace…”

“Don’t mention it.”

Kacey watched in agony as the man who still held her heart whistled, thrust his hands into his pockets, and walked out of the coffee shop. Seattle’s most famous bachelor had just proposed marriage. Albeit a fake marriage, it was still a proposal. She should be thrilled.

But it was hard to be thrilled when the love of her life, the boy who used to make mud pies with her and kiss her knees when she fell, thought of her as nothing but a way out of a crappy situation.

She suddenly wished she was at a bar instead of downtown Pike Place Market.

Chapter Two

Jake Titus thrust his hands in his pockets. Damn, she looked good. He hadn’t expected his response to be so strong. After only a few months, he had expected everything to feel exactly the same. Unfortunately, it didn’t. It felt damn difficult. The woman was walking sin, curvy where guys loved it the most. Her outfit had only enhanced her curves and made lust shoot straight to the wrong places for any man sitting in a coffee shop.

Kacey’s long brown hair boasted honey blonde highlights, and her deep brown eyes seemed to set everything off beautifully. Add to that the cutest two dimples on God’s green earth, and he was ready to throw her onto the table and have his way with her.

If anyone could take him off the market it would have been Kacey, not that he would ever let her. He’d traveled that road with Kacey one too many times. They dated in high school, but soon figured they were better friends. Or maybe it was that he couldn’t keep it in his pants? It was probably a mixture of both, but who really dates only one person in high school?

The final nail in their relationship coffin happened after a drunken night in college. They had slept together. It had been a good night except for the fact that he would never forgive himself for the pain he caused her the next day. But what was he supposed to do? Say “thank you”? Screwing his best friend hadn’t been the wisest of choices. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize it until it was too late. He was her first.

Leaving Kacey had been one of the stupidest and yet most necessary things he had ever done. They were still kind to one another, but the friendship was never the same once they slept together. What had always been rumored as a way to increase the bond between two people ended up being the catalyst that ruined a lifetime of friendship.

They avoided each other as much as possible for the next few years. At his graduation he gave her a quick hug and never looked back.

Nor had he ever apologized.

Not that it was entirely his fault, but still.

Just seeing her again haunted him, but it was a necessary evil.

The board of directors had insisted that if he didn’t clean up his image, the company would suffer. According to them, it already had. But how was he supposed to know that the girl he was sleeping with just happened to be a prostitute? It was Seattle, after all, and she was beautiful. He hadn’t thought she would go to the media, or that photographers would be conveniently outside the W Hotel downtown after a late night escapade that he still couldn’t fully remember. The real kicker had happened when his mother called and said his grandma had suffered a stroke because of Jake’s whoring around. Clearly it wasn’t his fault his grandmother had a blood clot, but still.

A week later his grandmother had called him and given him an ultimatum. Bring Kacey to see her before she died — her words not his — and all would be forgiven. She was so insistent that Kacey come home for Labor Day weekend that Jake couldn’t say no. It just happened to work out that a photographer from the Seattle Times would be visiting family in Portland as well. She promised to take some pictures of the two of them together in the plane, as well as some great shots of the giant rock on Kacey’s finger.

Jake grinned. Sometimes he was so brilliant he scared himself. What could possibly go wrong? He was next in line to be CEO of Titus Enterprises. It was worth a pretty penny, and once he cleaned up his image, his grandmother would not only back him but would give the board the extra push they needed to make him one of the youngest CEOs in the world.

Kacey would understand. She was just that type of girl. All he needed to do was logically explain to her why it was in her best interest. After all, not only would it help business for her to be seen with him, but he was practically investing in her future.

If anything, she should thank him!

His cell phone rang and he checked his watch. Jake shook his head. He’d spent way too long convincing that gorgeous girl to be his
fiancée
. Now he’d have to stay at the office longer than necessary.

With a shrug he walked to his Range Rover and jumped in. Finally, he could stop stressing about his grandmother and the business.

****

“I’m sorry. Could you please repeat what you just said? It sounded like you said you were engaged.” Char sat across from Kacey at their favorite restaurant in Belltown.

“Yup.” Kacey sipped her wine, though she briefly contemplated just taking the whole bottle and downing it. “That’s what I said.”

“To Jake?”

“Yup.”

“Jake Titus?” Char clarified, taking a healthy gulp of her wine.

“That very person.” Why couldn’t Kacey stop shaking? It was one weekend. She could do one weekend. Geez, it wasn’t as if she had to do anything but pretend to be in love, and attracted to him, and excited, and…

So basically she wasn’t going to act at all. She just had to make sure her heart didn’t get broken into a bazillion pieces by the billionaire himself.

“I can’t do this.”

“Of course you can’t do this,” Char repeated, her voice rose a few octaves. “Do you have any idea what that man did to you in college? Are the memories still fuzzy? Because I’m pretty sure he slept with you and then pretended like it didn’t happen.”

“I know.” Kacey’s voice was shaky. “But in his defense, I never tried to talk to him either…”

“Don’t defend the devil, Kace. Seriously. You guys were best friends your whole lives! Remember? I was the third wheel. I saw your love drama play out quite nicely and then get run over by a truck that night. Don’t do it.”

Kacey knew what Char was saying made sense, but… “I already told him I would.”

“Then get out of it!”

Kacey shook her head and said in a small voice, “I can’t.”

Char’s eyes narrowed. She took three deep breaths then motioned for the waitress.

“Yes?” the waitress asked.

“We’re going to need tequila, stat.”

“Char, this is hardly the time for tequila,” Kacey protested.

“Really? You just got engaged to the most famous bachelor in Seattle in order to play nice and do him a favor. Again, Exhibit A: HE LEFT YOU!”

“Keep your voice down!” Kacey hushed her friend and offered apologetic smiles to the people staring at them from their booths. “It’s only the weekend.” Besides, Char had no idea Kacey was still in so much debt from school. She had pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes about her graduation claiming she was only a class short, not seven.

“Right.” Char snorted. “If I know Jake, and I think I do, this isn’t just for the weekend. He has something up his sleeve. The more handsome they are, the more manipulative. Believe me.”

The tequila was placed on the table, and Char took a shot before saying anything more. “Besides, just because you agreed to this farce of an engagement, he’s going to be thinking he can put his hands all over your hot body.”

Kacey rolled her eyes. “He dates models and, apparently, strippers. Look at me, Char. Do I look like either? I’m not a whore. I’m not going to let him take advantage of me.”

Char grunted. “Hmph! Haven’t let
anyone
take advantage of you since that night and you know it. You’re still hung up on him and it’s taken you all of college to get over it! And now you’ll be back to square one.”

Ignoring Char’s obvious slight to her inability to trap down a man, Kacey looked away and huffed. Her fingers touched the edge of the tequila bottle, and thoughts of Jake poured in on their own accord.

“What the hell am I doing?”

“Now, she says it.” Char shook her head and took another shot.

“I mean…” Kacey looked down at her hands. “I have to be alone with him for more than three days, and even then I have to lie to his entire family!”

“And let’s be honest,” Char interjected, her speech slightly louder than normal. “You’re like the worst liar on the planet.”

“Am not.” Travis, Jake’s spawn of a brother was. But Kacey refused to think about Travis. The last time she saw him, he yelled at her for running over their mailbox during Christmas break. She cried, he yelled some more, and then refused to speak to her the rest of the time she was visiting. That was three years ago.

“Are too!” Char poked her manicured finger across the table. “Remember that one time we tried to sneak out of the house and go to Jake’s birthday party in high school?”

“No,” Kacey lied, trying desperately to swallow the giant lump of guilt in her throat.

“Really? Out of all the times during this day that you would say no, you choose now? Seriously? What happened to no when you were talking to Jake? Or no when he was propositioning you for—”

“Totally different and you know it. Besides, I would like to point out that I didn’t tell my mom a terrible lie. If the dog had stopped barking, then…”

Char threw her head back and laughed. “Let’s not blame the dog. Even if the dog had stopped barking, you used that as an excuse to admit all to your mom. And later told me it was a sign from God that you were sinning.”

Kacey looked away. Just because her friend was totally right didn’t mean she had to actually acknowledge the fact. So what? Yeah, she was a little bit of a prude, but the one time,
the one time
she had decided in her life to go for it…

She was royally screwed.

In more ways than one.

Kacey let out a large sigh and motioned for Char to pour her a shot. “Regardless, I said yes, and you know how I am with commitment.”

Char swore. “You’re more loyal than my dog, and he’s blind, meaning he depends on me for everything, including when and where to go pee.”