Page 4 of Seduced by Her Billionaire Fake Fiancé

“None with quite the same motivation as you,” she said quietly. “You’ve been trying to swipe Acto out from under their noses anyway. I’m just making that easier for you.”

“I also want a controlling stake,” he said quietly.

“I have no doubt,” she murmured. “But I think you might enjoy thwarting the Santoros almost as much.”

“You’re counting on that, aren’t you?”

“Frankly, yes.”

His laugh was the last thing she expected: a dark, rumbling sound.

“Let us discuss this further,” he said quietly, moving back to his desk and bracing his palms against it. “You want us to get engaged,” he nodded once, as if mentally wrapping his head around the necessity of that.

“Fake engaged,” she added quickly. “And in exchange, you’ll get to buy almost half of the company.”

“No.”

Her eyes widened.

“I want fifty percent.”

Her eyes swept shut. It was something she told herself she wouldn’t relax on. “That’s too messy. There has to be one partner with a greater vote. Otherwise, we’ll just get head-locked all the time.”

“What if we agree more than you anticipate?”

“I don’t think that’s likely.”

His smile was more of a smirk.

“In addition,” he continued, as if she’d somehow agreed to his stipulation regarding percentages. “Your concept of our engagement needs work.”

“Oh?”

“You live in New York, I live here.”

“So?”

“There is not a person on earth who’ll believe I’m engaged to someone I don’t live with.”

Something shivered down Andie’s spine. That was a hurdle she hadn’t anticipated.

“I don’t think there’s a way around that.”

“Don’t you?” He was teasing her. Mocking. Heat flushed her cheeks, and she bitterly resented her inexperience with men then. But between Carlisle’s alcoholism and her mother’s deteriorating health, the last few years hadn’t really left Andie with much time to form relationships.

“You’ll have to move here,” he said with a shrug, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

Scandalised, her lips parted. “I can’t do that.”

“Relax. It’s a huge house and you can have your own apartment. We could continue to live separate lives but to the rest of the world, the engagement would seem more legitimate.”

“I can’t move to Italy. Acto’s headquartered in New York. I want to build the company, not hide myself away overseas and watch from the sidelines as it goes down the drain.”

He considered her for a moment. “We’ll split our time,” he said, decisively. “I’ll come to New York, stay with you, but we will also have to spend time here. Acto isn’t the only company I oversee.”

Her eyes swept shut. He was making it sound so reasonable but also, so intimate, somehow. The use of the word ‘we’ made her feel as though she’d taken a step she couldn’t possibly wind back.

“Can’t we just…say I’m old-fashioned or something?”

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