Big Bad Fake Groom: A Billionaire's Virgin Romance Page 13

  “Portland, Oregon. We moved to Wyoming when my grandpa passed away when I was two years old to take care of the farm.”

  “What do your parents do on the farm?” Luke asked. It wasn’t a question on the paper; he was genuinely curious. He didn’t plan on meeting them, though, despite what Paige thought.

  “They raise cows to be shipped out for meat,” Paige replied, flipping through the packet. “Do you have any siblings?”

  “No. You?”

  “No. What are your goals for the next five years?”

  “I’m tapping into the gold mining business,” Luke said, folding his hands behind his head. “Or at least, I hope to if I can get my inheritance.”

  “That’s what you plan to do with your money? Make more of it?”

  He tensed at her baffled tone. “What’s wrong with making more money?”

  “You already have an abundance of it,” Paige said. “Do you honestly need more?”

  “Everyone always needs money, sweetheart.” He ignored the cynical look she shot him. “What about you? What are your goals? Be a famous painter in New York City?”

  “That’s the plan,” she said. “I’d like to have my own exhibit.”

  Luke’s eyes landed on her sketchbook on the airplane tray next to him. “I still haven’t seen any of your work.”

  “That’s because I won’t show you anything yet,” she said, grabbing and holding her sketchbook possessively when she followed his line of sight. “If you’re that curious, you can see my finished pieces by the end of the spring semester.”

  “Right.”

  “Favorite food?”

  “Italian or Greek.” His head throbbed painfully. He needed another drink to curtail the headache. “Can I order a drink before we continue?”

  “You said you were going to slow it down,” Paige said harshly. “What’s the problem?”

  “I have a headache,” he said, and, miffed by her attitude, he grabbed her sketchbook from her hands to flip through it despite her protests. “I want to see where two hundred thousand dollars of my money is going.”

  “Don’t look at them,” Paige said, clawing at her sketchbook. “Nothing is finished.”

  He easily stretched out an arm to keep her back as he glanced through the sketchbook with interest. She had talent. He would give Paige that credit. Many of her sketches appeared to be done. They were mostly of Wyoming’s rugged landscape and what he assumed was her childhood home. She was close to her parents, too, judging from the tender sketch of them holding hands.

  Envy rushed through him. At the end of their arrangement, she would go back to a loving family in Wyoming while he would return to a business. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had been embraced with love.

  His attention shifted to where Paige’s hand rested on his upper thigh from her trying to retrieve her sketchbook. Realizing where it was, Paige quickly withdrew it before he could comment on it.

  “You’re talented,” Luke said, closing the sketchbook. He handed it back to her. “You’re going to do well in this area if you stick to it.”

  “I have two hundred thousand dollars of your money,” she said, tucking her sketchbook back in her satchel. “You’d hope that I’d stick to it now.”

  “Good point,” Luke said, chuckling.

  On of impulse, he reached his hand out to rest on Paige’s, which was on the armrest between them. She tensed, but she didn’t pull away as their plane descended for their approach into New York.

  They landed twenty minutes later to much warmer fall weather. The trees and shrubbery around the city had started to change, but it didn’t compare to the cold and early snowfall of North Dakota. The sound of usual traffic filled Luke’s ears as they waited in the airport terminal for his driver to pull up.

  It wasn’t until they were piled into the SUV that Toby turned to look at them with a frown.

  “What is going on between you two?” he asked.

  Paige looked up from her phone in surprise at the question. She looked over at Luke, who shrugged his shoulders.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Something has shifted between you two,” Toby said, looking back and forth between them. “I don’t know how to explain it, but something has shifted. I can see it.”

  “How so?” Paige asked.

  Toby’s eyes went to where their hands were clasped loosely between them. “Because you’re holding hands without any cameras around to prove your point.”

  Luke let go of Paige’s hand just as quickly as she let go of his. He ran a hand through his hair in agitation when he realized that Toby was right. Something had shifted between them over the weekend.

  He mentally flicked over the past weekend. What changed? He couldn’t pick a certain event with confidence. There was no, “That’s it!” type of moment that had happened over the weekend.

  Although, having Paige’s hands on him intimately was still a vivid memory he planned on acting upon again.

  “Nothing has changed,” Luke said, giving Toby a warning glare when he looked at them skeptically. “Don’t make shit into a big deal like you always do.”

  Toby snorted indelicately. “When do I ever do that?”

  “All the time. You do it all the damn time.”

  They pulled up to the curb of Paige’s freshman apartment. Luke immediately spotted two reporters, the same two who followed him all the time, standing on the corner. He glowered at them. “How did they figure out where Paige’s apartment is?”

  “What?” Paige asked, glancing over her shoulder to where Luke’s gaze was directed. Her face paled at the sight of them. “Are they are seriously waiting for me?”

  Their cameras were pointed at the SUV, poised and ready for her to get out with Luke.

  “She said she was an NYU student at that first event,” Toby said. “It was only a matter of time before they figured it out. I’m sure someone said that Paige’s apartment is here.”

  “I have to get out,” Paige said, sighing. “I honestly have so much work to get caught up on. What are we going to do?”

  “You get out,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’ll give you a good-bye kiss, and they can talk about it in the papers. It’s all publicity.”

  It was also an excuse for him to kiss her again without Toby questioning any of it. Paige chewed on the inside of her cheek as she weighed out the suggestion. Finally, she grabbed her satchel from the floorboard of the SUV.

  “I suppose I don’t have much a choice,” she said. “Let’s just get this over with. I hope they don’t follow me around wanting information.”

  “If they ask questions, don’t reply,” Toby said. “They’ll eventually come find Luke to harass if they don’t get a story out of you.”

  Luke climbed out of the SUV and into the warm morning. The flash of the camera immediately followed. He reached out a hand to help Paige out of the SUV.

  “Please tell me they won’t follow me around,” Paige muttered, shouldering her satchel with an irritated sigh. “I really don’t want any more drama to deal with while I play catch-up with my schoolwork.”

  Luke didn’t bother turning around to face them. He knew their cameras were poised on them, ready to get the perfect shot. Which would be of them kissing.

  “If they bother you,” he said, “call me. I will phone in a couple of threats to their boss if they follow you around too much.”

  “Thanks, I suppose.”

  They stood in front of each other while a stream of people went by them without paying them any attention. He didn’t care that the reporters were watching them, along with Toby. Unable to resist it any longer, he cupped Paige’s cheeks in the palms of his hands.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her eyelids fluttering.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” he said. “Not because of the publicity, but because I want to kiss you.”

  “Luke—”

  He pressed his lips against hers in a passionate kiss that effectiv
ely silenced whatever she had been going to say. Her lips were soft and tasted of vanilla lip balm. Pulling back, Luke grinned down at her stunned expression.

  “I’ll call you soon,” he said. “I imagine Peter is going to want to talk with us soon.”

  “Right,” she said. She cleared her throat. “I’ll see you when I see you.”

  Slipping out of his hands, Paige disappeared through the door that led to the freshman apartments. She peeked through the glass window before he caught sight of her retreating from going up the stairs.

  “Luke!” one of the reporters yelled at him. “Is it true that—”

  Luke slipped into the SUV and slammed the door shut with an aggravated sigh. He turned to look at Toby, who was gazing at him with a frown.

  “I can’t wait until the day they forget who I am,” Luke said. “You know what I mean? Find another person to follow around for a story.”

  “Your life is one hell of a story,” Toby said. “That’s why they follow you. I was serious before, though, Luke. What has changed between you two?”

  The SUV pulled away from the curb. Luke kept his face fixated on the traffic around them as he tried to think of a reasonable explanation. He didn’t have any answers for the shift.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t tell you what it is. I’ve never felt it before.”

  “I’m not going to tell you what to do, but keep your eyes focused on what you really want here. Don’t step all over that poor girl to get to it.”

  “What makes you think I’d do that?” Luke asked angrily. “I’m not that big of a prick.”

  “You can be,” Toby said, shaking his head. “I’m just saying that you know she’s saving herself for someone special. Don’t masquerade yourself as that special person.”

  Bristling, Luke reached into the pocket of his jacket to grab one of the flasks he had found in his father’s office before they’d left. He ignored the exasperated glance Toby gave him.

  “Maybe I happen to like her,” he said defensively. “Did it ever occur to you that I might like some love every once and a while?”

  The second that word slipped out, Luke grimaced while realization filled Toby’s face.

  “It makes sense now,” Toby said, and he grinned. “You’re falling in love with her. That’s why you’re having such a hard time. You are falling in love with her.”

  “I’m not falling in love,” Luke snapped, taking a long and angry drink to contain the part of him that agreed with Toby. “I’m not a good person to love anyway. This is just a business deal. She knows that.”

  “I know she knows that,” Toby said. “I’m just wondering, crazily, if you are the one remembering that this whole thing is a business deal.”

  “I just want my inheritance,” Luke said, repeating that inside his head. “That’s all I want from this entire situation—my money. That’s it. I don’t want anything else.”

  Even if he did, it wasn’t possible. Being around him had already complicated Paige’s life, what with the damn reporters already following her around in search of a good story to put in the tabloids.

  He wasn’t even confident he could remain in love with one person for the rest of his life.

  And someone like Paige, a soft and innocent type of woman, didn’t deserve to be tied to a prick like him.

  Keep your eyes on the prize, Turner. You’re only in this for the money. That’s it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Paige

  She wasn’t surprised when she found Jessica camped out in front of her dorm door.

  “I knew you’d be back today,” Jessica said, rising from where she had been sitting on the floor with her laptop. “I didn’t want to risk missing you before you holed yourself up somewhere.”

  “The library is where I plan to go,” Paige said tiredly. “How long have you been sitting out here?”

  She unlocked her door. Grateful to be back in her private space, Paige collapsed on her bed with a long and relieved sigh. The past few days had exhausted her in a lot of ways, but it had also elicited a lot of confusion and guilt. She had caved a bit into her desires, something Luke had taken advantage of gladly. If Toby hadn’t walked in when he had, there was no telling what would’ve happened.

  “Just for a few minutes,” Jessica said, closing the door behind her. “So, how did this weekend go?”

  Paige lifted her head from where it was buried in her pillow. “I don’t even know how to explain how this weekend went.”

  “Why is that?” Jessica asked, frowning.

  “Because we—” She cut herself off, not even sure how she could describe what had happened over the weekend. If there was one thing she did know, it was that Toby had been right: something had changed between them. Neither one of them wanted to think about it either.

  Jessica took a seat next to her on the bed. A frown tugged at her lips as took in the uncertain expression Paige’s face.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “We almost, you know…” Paige trailed off with heated cheeks while Jessica’s eyes widened in realization. “It didn’t happen, but it almost did. Things were just different this weekend.”

  “So you’re telling me that you almost slept with him this weekend?”

  “Almost, yes.”

  “And you think something changed this weekend?”

  “I don’t know if it did. It just—”

  “I don’t want to ruin this for you, Paige, but you need to remember that Luke is going to leave you after he gets his inheritance.” Jessica shook her head while pushing back a strand of her hair. “I don’t want to see you get your heart broken here. Luke’s older. He’s got experience on you. He could be making you feel these things on purpose because it has to feel real to his father’s lawyer.”

  “I don’t think so though,” Paige said, sitting up to look down at the engagement ring on her finger. She toyed with the gold band. “I don’t know how to describe it, Jess. It just felt so real.” She looked up at Jessica. “People can’t be that cruel when giving someone an engagement ring, right?”

  Jessica smiled grimly. “I’m not a good person to ask that question. I don’t think you’d like the answer if I told you the honest truth.”

  “You’re probably right. I don’t want to think any of this is fake. It feels so real now.”

  Tears filled her eyes. There was no denying it. The arrangement between them had transformed into something else entirely. Paige slipped the ring off her finger and placed it on the table next to her bed. Keep it off as a reminder that it’s only a business deal.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Jessica asked, patting her shoulder and giving her a sympathetic smile. “At the end of this, it’s only going to be you. Just try to remember that over the next few weeks, or else it’s only going to get more complicated.”

  Paige wiped at her eyes with an irritated sigh. “I know. It’s already complicated enough. Did you see the reporters out there? They took pictures of Luke and me kissing good-bye.”

  “It’s only going to get worse,” Jessica said. “And you should tone the kissing down if you aren’t sure what is real or not.”

  Paige opened her mouth to reply, but her phone went off from inside of her bag. She slid off the bed to dig through her bag, grimacing when she found it and recognized her parents’ house number. She had completely forgotten about calling them the previous night when she had been upset.

  “Shit,” Paige muttered, briefly debating letting it go to voice mail. “I forgot I called my parents last night because I was upset with Luke. They’re probably freaking out from trying to get ahold of me all day.”

  “You better answer it then,” Jessica said. She got up from the bed. “Be honest with them too. Like I said, it’s only going to get more complicated the more you let this continue. Come find me when you’re ready to get something to eat, and we’ll talk more about it as we do homework.”

  “Thanks,” Paige said, smiling at her in appreciation. She
hit the answer button. “Hi, Mom, Dad. Let me—”

  “Is everything okay, sweetheart?” Harry asked curtly. “We got this unsettling message from you last night. Your phone has also been off a good majority of the day.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. It was just a stupid fight that Luke and I had is all.” She grimaced at the memory of it. “Everything is fine now. I’m back in New York in my room.”

  “I don’t know if I approve of you traveling all the time,” Harry said. “You’re only nineteen years old. You shouldn’t be just jumping on a plane whenever he beckons.”

  “Oh, I think it’s okay, Harry,” her mother said with a sigh. “Flying is the safest form of traveling these days, but a heads-up would be nice, Paige.”

  “Right,” she said. “I will let you know.”

  “And what was this fight about?” Harry asked suspiciously. “This Luke Turner is ten years older than you, Paige. His grandfather and father are oil tycoons, too, from what I’ve read on the Internet.”

  “And we are hearing rumors that you two are engaged,” Marie said. “We saw the pictures of you two at an event when visiting Bismarck. Don’t you think this is moving too fast?”

  “The press is making it seem like that. Nothing is going fast.” She hesitated before saying the next part. It was the only thing she could think of that would appease them aside from being honest. “You can meet him if you want. Come down to the city on family weekend.”

  Not that they planned to be together still by then, but a part of her hoped that maybe the change she felt was a sign of something else brewing between them.

  “That would be a good idea,” Marie said. “Don’t you think, Harry?”

  Paige let out a relieved breath. “Yeah, Dad. Let’s plan for you two coming out here in two weeks.”

  “I suppose,” Harry said slowly. “I just hope you remember what we talked, about sticking to those values you were raised with. Men like Luke Turner have a tendency to be a bit fast.”

  No kidding. She swallowed thickly. “Yes, I know. Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’ll talk to you guys next weekend. I have a lot of homework to do.”