My Possessive Billionaire: Our Fake Marriage (My Billionaire #2)

Chapter 1

Amanda

S uddenly, it felt like the energy in the room changed. The voices, the music, and even the clinking of glasses somehow didn’t fill the ballroom anymore. I followed the gazes of people around me and quickly discovered the source of the disturbance standing at the entrance.

Mr. Evan Jones, in the flesh.

I’d seen him on the internet before, of course. He was often discussed in the same circles as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. No matter what Evan got up to, it seemed like people were interested in it. Once, Evan was seen in a bodyboard shop in Miami. This led to a thirty-six-hour media frenzy wherein everyone speculated he was picking up boogie boarding. Boogie board sales skyrocketed.

The kind of man who generates that kind of interest is going to be surrounded by a nimbus of humanity at pretty much all times. Evan was the life and the death of the party. He brought the good times, but he drowned out all other business.

I didn’t think people would be talking much about the rainforest now that he had arrived. I took a long look at him from afar and felt a little sigh escape me before I could stop it.

It was good that I had work to do instead of dreaming about disgustingly handsome and obscenely rich billionaires .

I noticed that the crab cakes were running low. I grabbed my radio and spoke into it.

“Vanessa, I need more crab cakes at the launching station. They’re going like crazy. And tell the kitchen staff to stop making the liver pate. No one is biting, and it’s starting to pile up.”

“Should I tell them to take the pate off?”

“Might as well. I think we need maintenance to do a sweep of the trash cans. They’re overflowing again.”

“I’m on it.”

I moved around the gala, putting out small fires and preventing larger ones. My staff were on task, though, and we’d planned for the high turnout. As the evening wore on, and fewer people availed themselves of the buffet, my job got a bit easier.

And yet it seemed that wherever I went people were either talking about Evan or talking to Evan. I often noticed him moving through the crowd and whenever Evan wanted personal space, people gave it to him without him having to ask.

His square jaw and dazzling blue eyes struck me from all the way across the room. Broad shoulders tapered down to a lean waist, all evidenced by his expertly tailored tuxedo. His smile seemed genuine and warm as he worked the room. It seemed like almost everyone wanted to come up and talk to him.

I kept thinking that his pictures on the internet did not do him justice. He was so much better looking in person. I kind of wanted to go up and talk to him myself, but I kept expecting some supermodel to walk up and attach herself to him. Not to mention all of the other people who kept taking up his attention.

I knew that someone like him probably wouldn’t be interested in someone like me. Still, I couldn’t help fantasizing about how it might feel to be his girlfriend. I could picture being whisked away to exotic locales and dining at five-star restaurants every night, but most of all I daydreamed about what it would feel like to have his arms around me.

Enough daydreaming, Amanda, back to work.

Looking around, I figured I did a pretty bang-up job of turning the Soho Ballroom at the Royal Garden hotel into the Amazon rainforest. I mean, I had a river and everything. The tables were set up around a counter with platters of food that floated on about six inches of water.

The tables themselves evoked the rainforest as well. Wooden plates with a highly glossed natural grain joined similarly natural flatware. The tablecloths bore a foliage pattern. I had thought about using faux jaguar hide, but that would have clashed with the conservation message of the charity the gala benefitted.

Saving the rainforest and having a fabulous time doing it. Not that it didn’t take a ton of work, because it did.

Besides the tables, I’d had plenty of real potted trees brought in to add a fresh feel to the air. We had zookeepers with some of the more placid animals that the rainforest had to offer. Not that you could see much of the décor, what with the wall-to-wall rich people and all. Mingling next to the rich folks were a few celebrities. Like that guy who wears the eyepatch in those blockbuster superhero movies, the one with the vulgar catchphrase. He was there, along with that woman from the a capella movies who’s about four foot eleven no matter what she says.

There were press there, too, including a ton of photographers snapping pictures of the event. I’d done a good job of seeding the press for a high turnout. The media loves a feel-good story, and what’s more feel-good than saving the rainforest?

The appearance of a billionaire celebrity, of course. It seemed like the photographers forgot all about the décor and the other guests and were waiting for Evan to talk with some woman so they could capture the moment for the morning tabloids .

Evan had a certain reputation. His past was littered with many different, very beautiful women. A great number of them had been celebrities. The rumors were he was a fantastic lover, but those were probably started by the tabloids to get more clicks on their articles. Still, it made me blush to think about what he might do to me with his big, sensual hands…

The eyepatch actor made a beeline for Evan. They greeted each other like old friends and then bellied up to the bar. It seemed like everyone wanted to get a piece of Evan’s attention. I thought the bartender was going to faint when he smiled at her.

The milling throng of humanity around Evan rendered him temporarily invisible to my sight. I spent some time catching up on work matters. My team had things covered pretty well, though, so I didn’t really do much but stand around, fuss, and try to pretend I wasn’t still fantasizing about Evan.

Evan held the energy of the crowd in the palm of his hand, but I felt something else. A different kind of energy, subtle but just as potent. I turned to see Jennifer, the big cheese of the charity itself. She’d been pressing the flesh all night and working the room like a champ. I had no doubt their charity would have plenty of money in the coffers after the evening was over.

She was accompanied by her husband, Marshall. He wasn’t quite as flashy as Evan, but he spent a lot of time in the tabloids as well due to his antics. No one expected him to settle down, but then Jennifer came along, and the rest was history.

“There you are,” Jennifer said, approaching me and giving me a hug. “This has been an unmitigated success thanks to you, Mandy. You rock.”

“Can I get a hug too?” Jake appeared from the crowd and hugged me without waiting for my response. I still had no idea what exactly he was doing for the charity, but he was an old friend and I was always happy to see him. “Cool party, Amanda.”

“It’s mostly my staff. I just direct traffic and pop a lot of antacids,” I said with a laugh. “I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

“Oh, I am indeed,” Jennifer said. “I want to pet the capybara again, but the line is pretty long.”

I took a sip from my bottled water to hide my embarrassment. I had totally used my sway as organizer to skip the line and pet the adorable capybara. The gigantic water mammal was in point of fact incredibly sweet and cuddly. It had nuzzled right up next to me almost like a cat.

“Jennifer, it’s your gala,” Marshall said. “You could just skip the line.”

“No, I can’t, don’t be silly,” she said, patting his belly. I melted a little bit at how adorable the two of them were together.

“Well, I’m worried about you being around that giant rat anyway, what with your condition and all.”

I perked up.

“Condition?”

“I’m pregnant,” Jennifer said, a smile of uncontained pride stretching across her lips.

“Oh, my goodness, congratulations,” I said, beaming with joy. I turned to Jake and smiled at him. “Did you hear that, Jake?”

“All right,” he said. “You should name it Jake.”

“Your name is already Jake, and why should I name my kid after you again?” Marshall said.

“Yeah, but it’s a good name, Jake. He can be Jake II.”

“What if it’s a girl?”

“Jakina, I guess.”

“I don’t think the feminine for Jake is Jakina. I think it’s Jane.”

They all laughed, and I sighed. My own family had been more of the dysfunctional variety. I mean, nobody grew up to be an ax murderer or a stripper or what have you, so I guess we weren’t that bad. Still, it was hard not to look at what my friends and employers had and not feel jealous.

Suddenly, the energy of the room changed again. I could kind of feel a general hush fall over the crowd and the photographers perked up. And their cameras seemed to be pointed in my direction. I felt a stab of self-conscious anxiety. Then I realized they weren’t looking at me at all.

I turned around to find that Evan was standing right by me. His presence rolled over me like a breaking ocean wave. I was awash in his essence, and all of that animal magnetism created a heady mental perfume that had me feeling dizzy. His cupid’s bow lips were aggressively sensual without seeming feminine. I could imagine them pressed up against my flesh, which sent goosebumps cascading over my skin. His eyes focused on me as Ramone gestured with familiarity.

“Here she is, as promised,” Ramone said. Ramone was another old friend who worked for this charity.

Evan’s eyes swept up and down my form. I had his attention at last, but I worried that I might melt into a puddle under that steadfast gaze.

“I’m Evan Jones. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Amanda Tate,” I said, shaking his offered hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Ms. Tate is the event organizer for this little soirée. Everything that you see here, she had a direct hand in making happen.”

Evan’s eyes widened, and they now held a new note beyond the desire that had me dizzy—a droplet of respect. There’s no aphrodisiac like sincere appreciation. If Evan wasn’t sincere, he was faking it to Academy Award degrees. I really wanted to believe he wasn’t faking it. I needed something real like that to give me a boost.

“Indeed?” He loaded so much into that word. I could almost read his mind .

Indeed, you’re beautiful as well as competent. Indeed, I’m undressing you with my eyes right now. Indeed, I’m most interested in spending more time with you. Indeed…

I was so caught up in my fantasy, I almost missed the next thing he said.

“You must be quite skilled at your job. I asked Ramone if I could meet the person responsible for all of this. I’ve been to so many of these galas, and this is the most organized and smoothly run of them all.”

I blushed red at his compliments.

“Thank you. It’s been a smooth night, and I have my staff to thank for that as much as anything that I have done.”

“Oh, you sell yourself short.” His eyes bored into me. I felt as if surely he was privy to my every lascivious thought about him. I tried to be casual, to play it cool, but I was burning up on the inside.

“The thing about success in business is,” he continued, “to surround yourself with the right people. All of the hard work, luck, and gumption in the world doesn’t matter as much as that does. Obviously, you’ve surrounded yourself with the right people, hence your success.”

“We wanted to make sure that this went off without a hitch,” Marshall said. “That’s why we asked Amanda to help us out and she did a marvelous job.”

“That is high praise coming from Marshall,” Evan said, his eyes shining with meaning. “Wouldn’t you agree, Ms. Tate?”

“Yes,” I said, “and you can call me Amanda if you want.”

“Very well, Amanda. That’s a lovely name.”

That only raised my temperature about a million degrees more.

His expression changed slightly.

“I might have need of your services at some point in the future,” he said, rather cryptically.

“Oh no,” Jennifer said. “You’re not going to steal away one of our best employees. Shame on you, Evan, no way are you going to take her away from us.”

Evan smiled ear to ear, and the inscrutable gaze he gave me made me shudder like a leaf in a strong breeze.

“We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?”