Billion-Dollar Dating Game
Author
Natalie Anderson
Reads
17.2K
Chapters
19
There can only be one winner in their dating game. Will it be business or passion? Find out in this steamy fake relationship romance. It's just business… the pleasure's a bonus! If self-made billionaire Zane deMarco can go from one-date wonder to one-woman man this summer, he'll acquire and dissolve the company that destroyed his childhood. Employee Skylar Bennet could be his final chess piece… Innocent Skylar will help Zane win his wager by faking a romance for the cameras — if he'll spare the company that saved her from destitution. Then a moment of uncontrolled passion takes them from boardroom to bedroom and Skylar can't resist indulging! Yet when it uncovers an inescapable connection, surrendering again feels like the most dangerous game of all…
CHAPTER ONE
ZANE DEMARCO INHALED DEEP, stretched out long, and let the sauna’s dry heat sharpen every sense. Their squash score was still a three-way tie after nine rounds and while they could go all day, it would make little difference.
‘Are you going to reveal why you summoned us here at the crack of dawn on a holiday?’ he asked the brooding man sitting along from him. ‘Because if it was to break the tie and take the lead, that plan sure as hell backfired.’
Adam Courtney shot him a withering glance. Zane just grinned back. His old rowing rival from his brief university stint in the UK was as laser focused and hyper-competitive as ever. The fact that wild card Cade Landry had also shown his face so early in the day underscored the significance of their meeting. While he sometimes came to their eternally equal squash sessions, the lone wolf didn’t stick round for any bro banter. But Zane knew why he’d lingered today. They all knew the reason. But he prompted Adam into the conversation anyway.
Adam pushed a button on the infrared sauna and sent the temperature soaring before answering. ‘Helberg Holdings.’
Bingo.
Helberg Holdings was an old money conglomerate—media, jewellery, retail property, hotels, everything imaginable, and—frankly because of that overreach—down on its luck. Reed Helberg, the last of the Helberg dynasty, had died seven months ago, and without its formidable, all-controlling head, the entity was now vulnerable. If changes weren’t made soon, the entire operation could implode and leave little to salvage. The best option was to break it apart and sell off the bits that still worked. Corporate raiders often got a bad rap, but Zane had overseen many successful rebuilds from the parts of previous companies he’d bought and broken up. And yes, he’d made plenty of money doing it. But this time was different. This time was personal.
‘What about it?’ Zane stretched lazily.
‘You and Cade have both been buying up shares,’ Adam gritted out.
‘Him too?’ Zane nodded towards Cade, who was taking his time to join them.
‘Yes.’
Ah well, the game was afoot. But because of Reed Helberg, Zane had spent years literally broken. So Zane would be the one to break Reed’s most treasured thing. That was fair, right?
But now he merely shrugged as Cade settled into the corner seat of the sauna. ‘Well, it’s highly leveraged, vulnerable and has lots of assets... What’s not to like?’
Adam’s gaze narrowed. ‘An overinflated purchase price.’
‘Scared it’s gonna get too much for you?’ Zane countered dryly.
Actually, that was a potential problem. Too many interested buyers meant trouble. Cade remained silent, but Zane noticed the loner’s gaze briefly drop to the scars zigzagging up Zane’s thigh. Zane stayed sprawled back and refused to cover the unsightly purple streaks. People saw damage and assumed weakness. They were wrong. Where there were scars, there was strength.
‘I need you both to back off,’ Adam said.
A frigid edge sliced into the sweltering atmosphere.
Zane didn’t do deals with guys like Adam or Cade. They were too alike, too alone, frankly too obstinate. So they fished in their own ponds and kept their battles to the squash court. It was safest for everyone that way.
‘Helberg?’ A muscle in Cade’s jaw flicked. ‘Not happening...’
Zane slowly shook his head and shot Adam a mock sad expression. ‘No can do.’
Helberg’s destruction was his alone to enjoy and he would do whatever it took to eliminate the competition. But these two were sharp and he’d have to think creatively through this one.
‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, y’all,’ Cade said.
No shit. Any other company and Zane might consider walking away, but Reed Helberg was the whole reason why Zane had scars on his skin and metal pinning his bones beneath it. Zane was going to enjoy ripping apart the thing Reed had been so vainglorious about. The thing he’d never thought Zane was good enough for. Carve and cull was the only way through.
Adam inhaled deeply. ‘Then we have a problem.’
‘Actually, we have problems. Plural.’ Cade glowered from his corner.
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Adam’s frown mushroomed.
Cade stiffened. ‘Clearly you don’t read Blush.’
‘The women’s glamour magazine?’ Adam asked incredulously. ‘You read that?’
‘No, I don’t read it, but my PR consultant does. He just texted me,’ Cade growled. ‘Did y’all know we are the star players in their latest dumb article: “The Billionaire Bachelors Least Likely to Marry”? Apparently, we three have been tagged as the One-Date Wonders...the guys with the longest odds, and they’ve already started a tally on how many dates we’ll have racked up by Labour Day.’
The what? Zane cocked his head, both disbelieving of and bamboozled by this unexpected diversion. ‘You’re kidding.’
Privacy wasn’t assured once your bank balance hit a certain threshold, so yeah, sometimes they were on those tragic ‘youngest billionaires’ lists and occasionally some appalling clickbait list involving paparazzi pictures of them poolside, but this one was even more ick. ‘Who I date is no one’s business but mine.’ Zane shook his head, brushing it off. ‘And I’m not going to stop—’ He was happily married to his work, thanks very much. And very happy to play the little time he took away from it. Work hard, play hard—balance was best, after all. ‘—I’ve no plans to settle down. Ever.’
‘Neither do I,’ Adam snapped.
Zane blinked at the identical frowns deepening on Adam’s and Cade’s faces. The intensity was interesting. And possibly useful.
‘They’re turning our sex lives into a joke,’ Cade added after a moment. ‘And getting a lot of traction. And that’s not the kind of media attention I want for my business. Do you?’
Zane didn’t give a damn if people were so bored they wanted to bash his private life for their own amusement, but it clearly bothered both Cade and Adam.
‘Exactly how much traction are we talking about?’ Zane drawled.
Cade tensed even more. ‘The hashtag “onedatewonders” is the top trending topic in the US on most of the main apps today. That much traction. And just about every American female online seems to have an opinion now about our sex lives... We’re basically the red meat at the centre of a social media feeding frenzy.’
Adam winced.
Yeah, #onedatewonders was a truly appalling hashtag.
‘My PR team is freaking out about it,’ Cade added. ‘Personally, I don’t give a damn what a bunch of clickbait junkies and their enablers think of my dating habits...but no way in hell am I letting anyone make me look like a jerk who can’t keep his junk in his pants.’
‘We need to find a way to shut it down,’ Adam muttered grimly.
Zane rubbed his hand along his jaw and considered the reactions of his rivals. Despite his protests, this article had obviously hit Cade on a visceral level, and Adam looked even moodier than usual. People made mistakes when they were emotional and both these guys were zooming towards anger and outrage.
Zane didn’t become intensely emotional about anything. On the rare occasion something slipped beneath his skin, he swiftly suppressed it, because after his father had walked out he’d had to ‘stay strong.’ After he’d realised his exhausted mother was struggling and secretly wanted him gone too, he’d learned not to ‘be a bother.’ When he was housebound recuperating for years he’d had to ‘be quiet’ so his overworked mother could rest...
He didn’t show hurt, didn’t cry, didn’t complain. When Reed Helberg had humiliated him more than once, he hadn’t so much as winced. Hell, when the first girl he’d fancied had hung him out to dry in front of her overly controlling father, he’d hid how stupidly much that had hurt him. And he’d vowed not to let anyone hurt him ever again. And besides all that, he’d spent years suppressing physical pain, which was a far tougher task than swallowing the mild embarrassment from this little internet flurry.
But perhaps he could direct Adam and Cade’s obvious discomfort to his own advantage. Indeed, the answer to the magazine slur was obvious to him. If they weren’t seen out with a series of women, then there would be no stupid tally and nothing for the trash columnists to report on. The question was whether Cade and Adam could cope with that constraint—was that, in fact, a prospect for a competition?
Zane deMarco thrived on competition. The tougher the better. It made winning all the sweeter.
‘What if we take ourselves off the market?’ he mused.
‘Forget it.’ Cade sounded horrified. ‘No way am I actually getting hitched to shut this down.’
‘Absolutely not.’ Adam was even more appalled. ‘It’s out of the question.’
Zane bit back a chuckle. Yeah, both of them were too volatile and that was good. ‘Did I say anything about getting hitched?’ he countered, oh-so-mildly. ‘This is a countdown, right? So why don’t we stop the clock before it even starts. All we have to do is each date one woman—and one woman only—from now until Labour Day. Simple.’
Cade’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re kidding. You actually want to pander to this garbage?’
‘Not particularly, but I’m betting you two will break long before I do.’ Zane watched them closely.
Cade’s blue eyes glinted. ‘I’ll take that bet, because the last time I looked, you’re a bigger serial dater than the both of us.’
Usually true, but also irrelevant. While generally sex was a healthy part of his life, more than half of his most recent dates had ended early and chastely. He was tired of the more-than-sexual expectations he didn’t have the capacity to fulfil. But Zane would endure anything to get hold of this company, and what was a little discomfort or deprivation? He’d suffered far worse pain than having to sleep with just the one woman for a while. Besides which, it was only dating her, right? Not necessarily anything more.
‘You don’t even know what the stakes are.’ Adam shot Cade an astounded look.
Zane let the moment hang. He liked playing all kinds of games because his favourite thing in the world was to win, and because he’d come from having nothing for so long, he’d never been afraid of going all in. His risks had paid off.
‘My Helberg shares,’ he said softly and watched them both stiffen.
Uh-huh. That had their attention. His amusement rippled across his face but beneath that facade he tensed. Winning Helberg Holdings was non-negotiable.
‘Hold on a minute.’ Cade leaned forward, frowning. ‘You’d bet on Helberg? Are you serious?’
Deadly, actually. But he played up his carelessness. ‘Sure. Why not?’
If Cade and Adam thought he wasn’t all that serious, they wouldn’t take him as a serious threat. He’d lull them, then strike. ‘It’s Independence Day today. What if we meet back here on Labour Day. Winner takes all accumulated shares and has an unimpeded run at Helberg.’
That gave them a couple of months. There was no way either Adam or Cade would date only one woman for all that time. Both were allergic to relationships, both exuded intensity and drive and both did not like being told what they could and couldn’t do by anyone. Put people under pressure and they made mistakes. Meanwhile, it would give Zane room to finish his due diligence and finalise divestment plans for Helberg. Plus if they all backed off for now, it would hopefully stop the share price surge.
‘Have you completely lost your mind?’ Adam shook his head.
Zane shrugged. He enjoyed doing the absolute opposite of what anyone expected of him. It made a challenge all the sweeter when he succeeded.
‘This Blush business is an annoyance, but I’m more interested in sorting out which of us gets Helberg. This is a good way to take you guys on and beat you both for once and all. Two birds, one stone.’
‘It’s nuts...’ Cade stared at him. ‘But it also makes sense.’
‘It’s ridiculous,’ Adam shot them down crisply. ‘Not only will it not work, it’s also immoral. And think of the unwitting women we’d be dragging into it. Where’s your integrity?’
Zane bit back a laugh. Apparently perfectly posh Englishman Adam was too straitlaced to think creatively. As far as Zane was concerned, there was no reason why the woman he chose to date for the duration should be either unwitting or indeed unwilling. Everything—indeed, everyone—had a price. All he had to do was find a woman savvy enough to take the deal he was going to discreetly offer her. But Zane was hardly about to point that option out to all-but-aristocratic Adam.
Zane had hauled his way to the top of his particular tree all by himself—he’d had no family money, no hand-outs from anyone else, least of all old man Helberg. He’d done everything on his own and he always would. Taking Helberg apart piece by tarnished piece all by himself would be particularly satisfying.
‘You got a better idea?’ He let a sprinkle of saltiness out. ‘Because the likelihood of us stepping out of each other’s way just because you asked nicely is...what?’
Cade’s rare low laugh sounded. ‘Afraid you’ll lose, Courtney?’
Adam dated the least of the three of them. Cade, on the other hand, was barely tamed, while Zane knew his own reputation was voracious, which meant—once he’d thought about it—Adam would believe he would win this thing. Easily.
Sure enough, a split second later Adam nodded. ‘Not at all... Quite the opposite...’
Yeah, it seemed Adam had mentally resolved his own integrity issue, while Cade simply looked wolfishly determined. Fortunately, Zane was heading home this afternoon and there’d be zero chance of encountering temptation there. After a courtesy drop-in to his neighbour’s Independence Day party, he’d take the rest of the weekend to consider who he was going to approach and how.
‘So just to clarify,’ Adam added stiffly. ‘We date one woman each between now and Labour Day. Anyone caught dating more than one woman in that time relinquishes their claim on Helberg.’
‘Right.’ Zane nodded. ‘I’m in.’
‘You’re on,’ Cade agreed.
Adam sighed as he rolled his eyes. ‘May the best man win...’
Zane smiled. The best man absolutely would.
