Big Bad Fake Groom: A Billionaire's Virgin Romance Page 7

  Jessica’s door was closed when she made it up to her floor. Unlocking her door, Paige slipped out of the heels Shannon had insisted she wear with a relieved sigh. She managed to unzip herself out of the dress as well while pulling out a pair of black leggings and a T-shirt. She was done trying to impress Luke with clothes that she didn’t even own herself.

  Paige glanced out the window to find the SUV still there, but the sidewalk was empty. She pulled on the pair of leggings and had barely slipped into her T-shirt when the door to her dorm room crashed open, followed by loud voices. Startled, Paige fell into her bed in surprise as Jessica slammed the door shut.

  “Jessica? What the hell is—”

  “You need to hear this,” Jessica said, panting as she flourished a hand in front of Paige’s surprised face. “I’m serious. You need to hear this shit.”

  She caught sight of Jessica’s phone clutched tightly in her fingers. “Okay, if it’s that serious. Tell me what is going on.”

  “Don’t trust Shannon, Luke, and the other guy that’s with them,” Jessica said hurriedly. Her fingers danced along her cell phone screen. “I was walking back to the apartment when I overheard them talking. This whole thing has been a setup.”

  Paige’s heart dropped. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a reason why Shannon picked you as a freshman sister. It has everything to do with Luke. He’s trying to—” She pulled up a video on her phone. “Here, listen to it.”

  “Just remember she’s a virgin, Luke.” Shannon’s voice echoed in the room from the recording. “I mean, I know it’s props right now for you because it’ll look good to your father’s lawyer.”

  “This has been too much of a headache for me,” Luke said. “It’s fucking bullshit that I have to do this just to get my damn inheritance from my father’s lawyer. Who the hell is that recording us?”

  The video cut out. Paige’s heart thudded hard against her ribcage, but this time it was out of sheer anger. She looked over at Jessica, who nodded grimly.

  “I heard them talking about it. The only reason Luke is trying to get you is so he can get his money.”

  It made perfect sense, every single bit of it.

  Tears filled Paige’s eyes as footsteps and a hushed conversation approach her dorm door. She stared at it while someone knocked on it a few times before slowly rising to her feet.

  “Don’t answer it if you don’t want to,” Jessica said, rising from the bed as well. “Seriously, don’t answer it, Paige.”

  She opened the door to see Luke standing there with a hand propped on the doorframe. Gone was his kind expression. It was cool and calculating, similar to the one she had seen at the lounge on Friday night.

  “I know what you probably think,” he said, sweeping an angry glance at Jessica, who stood resolutely behind Paige. “Just let me explain it first.”

  “Is it true?” Paige asked. Her fingers tightened on the doorknob. “Just tell me the actual truth, because that video says a lot.”

  Luke sighed in irritation. “Fine. Yes, it’s true. I won’t try to lie to you anymore about it.”

  “That’s a first,” she said coldly. “This whole thing was a setup for you to get an inheritance. Right?”

  “It was to a degree,” Luke said. “I’m in a bit of a situation right now, and Shannon mentioned you to me. I didn’t think any harm would come of it.”

  “Well, you harmed me in the process.”

  “Then name your price for this to work,” Luke said. He glanced at his wrist watch. “Look, I’ve got some place to be in an hour. If this isn’t going to work, then—”

  Anger ripped through Paige. It left her dizzy and breathless as she grabbed ahold of the door.

  “You’re out of your fucking mind,” she cried, and she slammed the door directly in his face. “Go away. I never want to see the three of you again.”

  She collapsed on her bed with an aggravated sigh. “I knew it was too good to be true, Jess. I knew it like you did.”

  “I know,” Jessica said. She locked the door for good measure despite the retreating steps. “I didn’t want to think Shannon was in on it, but it makes sense, though, seeing that her brother is close to Luke.”

  “It makes tons of sense now. Every single bit of it does since last weekend.”

  “I wonder if they are getting a cut of money out of this,” Jessica said, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Paige’s feet. “What do you think?”

  “Most likely,” Paige said, rubbing a hand over her face in exhaustion. “I just can’t believe I convinced myself to kiss that man.”

  “You kissed him?”

  “Yes, at the restaurant and garden today. He kissed me, but it was all an act, Jess. Don’t look too thrilled about it.”

  Jessica immediately wiped the ecstatic expression from her face. “Sorry. I was just excited for a moment. Even if the guy is a jackass, you have to admit he’s hot.”

  “The only thing I’m going to agree with is that he’s a jackass.”

  “I’m sorry they took advantage of you,” Jessica said, patting Paige’s knee in the same spot Luke’s hand had been. “It’s over though. You won’t have to worry about it now.”

  “Right, thankfully.”

  It wasn’t until Monday morning that Paige realized it wasn’t over, though, even though she wanted it to be.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Harry Scott said, sighing into the phone. “We just can’t afford it. Everything is slow around the farm. We can barely make the mortgage payments.”

  “There has to be something that can be done,” Paige said, rubbing a hand over her face. “I love it here, Dad. I don’t want to go to school in Wyoming.”

  “Well, honey, talk with NYU. See what they say, or if they have options for this sort of situation.”

  He hung up after telling her that he loved her. Paige stared down at the phone as tears filled her eyes. There weren’t any options for a situation like theirs. They were broke compared to some of the other students who went to school there. She couldn’t shake the feeling that while her parents had done all they could to make sure she went to NYU, it felt a bit perfect in timing for them. Not once had they verbally vocalized their support about her going to NYU.

  There was only one option that Paige could think off, and it involved Luke Turner.

  Chapter Six

  Luke

  “Mr. Turner.”

  Luke glanced up from the email he had been reading through regarding one of his rigs drilling up in Canada. Annoyance filled him when his secretary, JoAnne Collins, poked her head through his office door apologetically.

  “I know you don’t want to be disturbed—”

  “That’s why the phone is unplugged,” Luke snapped, flourishing a hand at the handset he had unplugged to find some quiet. “What is it?”

  “I’m sorry, but there’s a woman on the phone for you,” JoAnne said. “She won’t let me go until I tell you to pick it up.”

  He tensed. “If it’s Alicia—”

  “It’s not. She says her name is Paige Scott.”

  He stared at her in disbelief. “You’re shitting me. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. She said it’s urgent, and that the two of you know each other.”

  “Thank you, Jo,” he said. He plugged the phone line back in. He couldn’t deny his curiosity over what Paige wanted after what had happened thanks to that damn freshman friend of hers. He picked up the phone after hitting the flashing line one.

  “This is Luke Turner speaking.”

  “It’s Paige.”

  “I’m surprised to hear from you,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Something change your mind?”

  She ignored the coyness in his question. “Yes. Something did come up that I need to talk to you about.”

  The distress in her voice alerted him that something had happened over the past few days. Something that had changed her mind and would hopefully benefit the both of them.

 
“All right,” he said. “I’m interested in hearing what you have to say.”

  “I’m sure you will be,” Paige said. “Is there anywhere I can meet you? I’m not going to arrange this on the phone.”

  Arrange? Hope and relief filled Luke. Still, he was cautious. He had no idea what had changed Paige’s mind. “I’m thirty minutes away from NYU at my father’s office. I’ll have one of my drivers pick you up if you give me the address of where you are at.”

  “I’m at the only Starbucks around NYU. I don’t know the streets yet.”

  “Just stay out on the sidewalk. He’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  He hung up the phone with a smirk tugging at his lips. This little twist worked out in his favor, no matter what Paige wanted to talk about. He had no intention of staying with her beyond the thirty days.

  Luke got up to pace around his office after sending one of his drivers to pick up Paige. He called Toby next while he waited for her.

  “I don’t know what she wants to talk about,” he told Toby eagerly. “I don’t care either. You realize that this will work out no matter what she says, right?”

  “I wonder who gave you this brilliant idea of a fake marriage,” Toby said sarcastically. “They should get a nice hefty bonus for thinking of it.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Money is always such a big deal to your greedy ass.”

  “No more than for you,” Toby shot back, chuckling. “I’ll be over to your office with the lawyer just in case. I know Shannon said not to underestimate how smart Paige is.”

  “I have no doubts about that either.”

  He tried to keep his giddiness under control when Paige arrived with Toby and his lawyer, Adam King, in tow. Even dressed in paint-splattered leggings, a pair of flip-flops, and a ripped white shirt, he still found her incredibly attractive. Her brown locks were pulled up in a messy bun that was pinned with what appeared to be the broken handle of a paintbrush. There was a blue smudge of paint above her right eyebrow.

  Despite all that bravery on the phone, Paige took a seat nervously in front of his desk when Luke motioned for her to sit down. She chewed on the pad of her thumb while Toby shut the office door behind them to block out the sounds of phones ringing and unwanted eavesdroppers.

  “So,” Paige started, bouncing her legs anxiously. “I’m here because of what you proposed to me on Saturday.”

  Luke arched an eyebrow at her as he took a seat in his chair. He folded his hands over his stomach while he studied Paige intently.

  “I have a feeling there is something you want out of what I proposed,” he said.

  She nodded. “Yes. There are some conditions I have thought of if you’re still desperate to get your inheritance.”

  The insult dripped off Paige’s words, but he let it slide. He didn’t care what she thought of him at the moment. It didn’t matter in the long run.

  “What are your conditions?” he asked, but he already had a gut feeling what she wanted. Money. There was a conflicted look on Paige’s face, and he waited for her to lay everything out.

  “My parents called me today to tell me that they are struggling with money,” Paige said. Guilt laced her voice. “They had taken out a second mortgage on their house to help pay for my college, but it’s not enough. If I don’t come up with the money by January, I will be kicked out of NYU.”

  “Touching story,” Luke said dryly. “How much are you going to ask of me?”

  Paige set her jaw. Anger glittered in her eyes as she gazed at him.

  “I need at least three hundred thousand dollars from this arrangement,” she said. “Two hundred thousand of it needs to go directly to NYU. The other one hundred I want to give to my parents.”

  He snorted indelicately. “You want to give my money to your parents?”

  “It’d be mine if you want me to do this,” she pointed out. “You are the one who is desperate for money too, remember?”

  “I already have money, sweetheart,” he drawled out, but he considered her amounts. It was chunk change in all reality compared to how much his inheritance was. “What other conditions are there?”

  “Because you’re actually well-known where I’m from, I want you to meet my parents.”

  “Fine,” he said, but he had no intention of ever meeting Paige’s parents. Thirty days went by fast, faster than what he suspected Paige thought. “What else?”

  “No sex before the date we set,” Paige said firmly. “I promised myself at seventeen that I wouldn’t give in before marriage, and I have no intention of going back on my word.”

  Toby coughed in the corner to hide his laugh at the scowl on Luke’s face. He stared at Paige in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t believe in that type of shit, do you?”

  “I happen to, yes,” she said, frowning at him. “What’s so wrong with waiting for marriage?”

  “Nothing I suppose,” Luke replied warily. “If this is going to appear real, there needs to be that physical contact to make it look real.”

  Paige tensed. “Take it for what it is,” she said. “I’m not going to hop into your bed despite your best efforts.”

  “Is that a challenge?”

  Toby stepped in before Paige could reply. He rested a hand on Luke’s shoulder and gave him a warning look.

  “I think what she is saying is fair,” he said. “After all, we do owe it to her after everything we did. She knows now that Shannon only picked her as a freshman sister for this reason. We did fuck up her experience in that regard.”

  “After everything you did,” Luke corrected sourly. He couldn’t get over how trapped he was between his father’s expectation from beyond the grave and the virgin who was holding the fate of his father’s business and inheritance in her tiny little hand.

  He craved a strong drink. A real fucking strong drink.

  “If you tell Paige no, that’s it for everything,” Toby said as reasonably as possible. “Think about it, bro. This is your ticket, and you need to take it while you can.”

  Luke looked over at Paige as she continued to bounce her legs anxiously while waiting for his answer. If she wanted to set these conditions, that was fine by him. He only had one condition he planned to honor. The rest of those conditions were only a matter of time.

  “I guess we have an agreement then,” he said eventually. Looking over at Adam, he nodded his consent to the conditions. “Go ahead and draft up the documents for me, Adam. We’ll sign them here and now.”

  “Just give me a minute to type it all up,” Adam said. He excused himself from the office to borrow a computer.

  “I’ll leave you two to talk,” Toby said, glancing down at his phone. “I have to make some quick phone calls, start the whole publicity tour for you two.”

  Paige visibly blanched. “I just thought this was going to be for his father’s lawyer. There’s going to be press involved?”

  “It won’t be a problem, will it?” Toby asked.

  “No, of course not,” she said. She added sheepishly, “I’m just not used to cameras like you two probably are.”

  “You don’t ever get used to them,” Luke said darkly. He hated those damn reporters that followed him around the city, documenting whoever came and went from his apartment.

  Toby shot him a dirty look. “It won’t be anything major. Just a few events here in New York that Luke will be expected to be at.”

  He squeezed Paige on the shoulder in passing. For some reason, Luke’s chest burned hotly at the soft smile she gave Toby before he stepped out. He shook the feeling away before he could think about it.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked. “Once we sign that document, you’re stuck with me for thirty days.”

  “As long as I get what I asked for,” Paige said. “It seems we both need each other more than we want to admit.”

  “So it seems,” Luke replied.

  They sat in tense silence for a few minutes while they waited for Adam and Toby to return to the office. It was Paige who br
oke the silence with a question.

  “I know you said before that your father’s office is here in New York, but why? Why not somewhere where there is an abundance of oil?”

  “My father came to New York when he was a teenager,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders. “He loved the rich and the parties here. My grandfather started Turner Oil by himself. When he passed away, it went to my father, and he did return to Bismarck until he married. Once I was old enough to work on an oil rig, he came back here to the office to do the overseas business.”

  Paige’s eyes widened. “Overseas?”

  “Overseas,” Luke confirmed with a tense smile. “We have oil rigs all over the world, and in the oceans as well.”

  “Wow,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “I didn’t realize this business was that well-accomplished.”

  Pride filled Luke just thinking about it. For the past few years, he had navigated through the rocky market and international ties. His father had been far too drunk and beligerent to deal with anyone.

  The door to his office opened. Adam stepped in with the freshly printed document. He handed it over to Luke to glance over. He signed it after skimming it quickly and then scooted it across the desk.

  His heart pounded, much to his surprise, as Paige picked up the pen with a shaky breath. She looked up at him then, a vulnerable tinge in her eyes.

  “You aren’t going to screw me over, are you?”

  That question added to the small ball of guilt in his stomach. Not with the money portion of it. Ignoring that thought, Luke reached over to lay a consoling hand on her trembling one. Her skin felt clammy and sweaty against his dry fingers.

  “I don’t plan on it,” he said. “I can’t anyway, but don’t sign this unless you are confident in what you are about to do.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “My future is on the line too. I don’t want to lose sight of what I want either.”

  She picked the pen up again, and this time she signed her name neatly on the line.