Page 69 of My Possessive Billionaire: Our Fake Marriage

“Yeah, you’re right. I AM an asshole. Only these days, I’m more of hemorrhoid. I irritate assholes. Assholes like you. I’m hanging up now, Dave. Let this be a lesson on being stubborn.”

Evan ended the call and thrust both his phones back into their respective pockets. He turned his gorgeous eyes my way, and they filled with the light of affection.

“Hey, darling. You look gorgeous, though I’m not sure about that shade of lip gloss.”

“I kind of thought it was too dark, too,” I said. “But Kathy here assures me that when it’s on camera, under the bright stage lights, it’s going to look like a totally different shade of red.”

“Don’t you worry none, hon,” Kathy the make-up girl said with a big smile. “I’m going to make sure your wife looks like the most beautiful woman in the world.”

Evan cocked an eyebrow.

“But she’s already the most beautiful woman in the world.”

I melted, and Ramone rolled his eyes. I don’t know why he was being so dramatic. I’d seen Ramone with his own wife, and hewas just as sweet and bubbly with her. I guessed that most people didn’t expect that kind of behavior from my husband. Evan had been known as the iceman of wall street for a long time before we met.

Fortunately, he hadn’t really been the cold-blooded bastard the media made him out to be. To be fair, the media only portrayed him that way because Evan took so many pains to act as such. He wanted to craft a public image of the ruthless business mogul so that it would make his brand more valuable.

Evan had been shrewd from the get-go. He realized that a man with his kind of wealth and influence would have a rather large public footprint. He decided to use that footprint to his advantage. In fact, when we met it was all about creating value for the companies he owned.

I wondered what tonight’s admissions would do to his Q ratings. Probably nothing. Even so, he’d moved some of his assets around to make sure to protect our wealth in case things went badly.

I didn’t think it was going to cause problems. The tabloids had already had their field day with our original divorce and then re-marrying. They already ran us through the mud, so to speak, a couple of years back.

Now, though, we were something of the sweethearts of the world. Our work with charity and the fact that we’d remarried in such a small intimate ceremony had done wonders for the urban legends surrounding our brand. And it was our brand now.

Evan didn’t seem to mind. He knew as well as I did that our fame was only a means to an end. We didn’t get off on being famous. We wanted to use our public footprint and world-renowned fame for good. We wanted to save the planet.

“Now, if I could just get you back in my chair for a wee bit of touch-up, Mr. Jones.”

Kathy smiled, showing both rows of teeth, and pushed the chair out invitingly toward my husband. Evan looked as if he wantedto argue about it. I decided to shut him down right real quick.

“Honey, just sit down in the chair and let her have her way with you,” I said chidingly.

“Daddy gets lipstick,” Stan said, which made both him and Ramone almost fall all over themselves laughing.

“Oh, spicy,” Kathy said with a chuckle. “I didn’t know you two had an open marriage.”

“We don’t,” Evan said dryly. I caught his gaze with my own and gave a slight shake of my head. He sighed. “Of course, I’ll get back in the chair and let you finish, Kathy. Make me look like a trillion bucks.”

“You already look like a trillion bucks,” Kathy said, trying to steal his thunder but it didn’t go over so well.

“Now, dear, you know what you always say about letting a professional do their job. And about not interfering with a professional doing their job.” I gestured to Kathy. “She’s going to make you look so good that all of the women watching at home will…”

I glanced over at my son. I’d been about to say ‘cream their panties’ but I thought better of it.

“…want to go on a date with you,” I finished lamely. Sometimes being a parent really put a cramp in my acerbic comebacks and witty repartee.

“Well, they’re going to be disappointed. I’m a one-woman man these days.”

I loved it when he said things like that. It warmed my heart. I looked on adoringly as he got his makeup touched up by Kathy. I sat down in a different chair and Stan immediately came and started pulling on me.

“Leave mommy alone for a little bit, bud,” Ramone said, wrangling my child. “You don’t want to make her dress all wrinkly or smudge her lipstick before she goes out on stage, doyou?”

“Uh uh,” Stan said, shaking his head.

Evan put up with the makeup process like a champ. He knew how high the stakes were. More than a dozen different companies were fighting for the rights to chop down vast swaths of the Amazon rainforest. It was our job to shine a light on all of that and also to try to stop it.

It wasn’t like Evan could buy every company in the world engaged in deforestation. I mean, he probably had the money, but not all of them wanted to sell. Some of them were involved in local politics and even organized crime.

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