Page 1 of My Possessive Billionaire: Our Fake Marriage

Chapter 1

Amanda

Suddenly, 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 liketo 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.

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