Page 18 of My Possessive Billionaire: Our Fake Marriage

All three of them turned their gazes on me. I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable under their sustained scrutiny. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Their gazes remained inscrutable. I feared that either Jenna would say something cutting, or Evan would snap about me keeping my mouth shut. I was even worried Fitz would smirk and adjust his glasses like he did when he felt contempt.

Then Evan turned to look at Fitz. Fitz took a deep breath, his brows arching high under his balding pate.

“It could work, sir. A Cinderella story. Rags to riches.”

“Beauty and the Beast,” Jenna offered.

“Ha ha, Jenna,” Evan said. I wasn’t even sure she had made a joke. “Is this something that you really think is going to work, Fitz? Or are you just grasping at straws to save your seven-figure salary and corner office?”

Fitz opened his mouth, closed it, then shrugged.

“Can it be both?”

“I don’t know, Fitz…”

“All I’m saying, sir, is that there are worse ideas. If it’s a nobody, someone with zero public recognition factor, then they won’t have a reputation to manage or tarnish. Not to mention that when it’s time to terminate the agreement, it will be so much easier. Much easier than it would be if the woman were a celebrity, don’t you agree?”

Evan took a long breath, then let it out through his nose, making his nostrils flare. He looked at Fitz like a predator crouched in a tree.

“I don’t know about this idea, Fitz. What good is it going to do for my reputation if the woman I wind up fake marrying isn’t famous?”

“That’s the beauty of it, sir. The one place your Q ratings are lagging behind is in middle America. You know, the whole mom, apple pie, working the plow kind of people. They’ve been turned off by your wild antics and playboy tendencies. If you settle down with a nice, normal person instead of a celebrity, well, they’re going to think you’re, you’re…”

Fitz snapped his fingers as he struggled to come up with the right word. Jenna sprang into the gap.

“Down to earth?” she said.

“Down to earth,” Fitz repeated gratefully, bobbing his head in agreement.

Evan steepled his hands together and considered his marketing director. For a long moment, no one dared speak while he weighed Fitz’s fate.

Then he rose from his seat and walked around to my side of the table. I gasped as he took my hand and looked me in the eyes.

“Amanda,” he said, holding me hypnotized with his stalwart gaze, “will you marry me?”

Chapter 7

Amanda

Istood there, my mouth gaping open wider than the Lincoln Tunnel. Time seemed to stretch out into infinity. No one dared to speak and shatter the pristine illusion that everything was hunky-dory and normal.

Only it wasn’t normal. Eccentric hunky billionaires are not supposed to take your hand and propose marriage. Even if you have slept with them on a plane with clear walls and floors. It just doesn’t seem like a logical trajectory.

I kept waiting for someone to laugh. If someone laughed, then it would all be a big fat joke and we could move on. Only nobody laughed. I started trying to will people into laughing so I could escape that endless moment.

Come on, laugh. Somebody laugh! Now’s the time, Evan. Look at me and say, ‘just kidding’ and let me off the hook already.

Nobody laughed, and it started to sink in that maybe, just maybe, this was for real. That had me reeling even more. I mean, on the one hand, hearing a marriage proposal—even a fake one—from a man who was a literal dream sent my body and soul into heaven. It was surreal, the best kind of surreality in fact. The dream come true variety.

On the other hand, the logical part of my brain knew that it was just a business deal. Nothing personal. Just business. That phrase had never been truer than it was at that moment.

“You know,” Fritz said, stroking his weak little chin. “I think I kind of like this idea, sir. Well played.”

Fritz gestured at me.

“I mean, look at her. You couldn’t ask for a more self-made woman. She started off as a literal waitress and now she’s an event manager for one of the biggest charity organizations in the entire world. You don’t get more rags to riches than that.”

Jenna shrugged.

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