The Billionaire’s Christmas Fiancée (Christmas with the Denton Billionaires Book 1)
Christmas with the Denton Billionaires
The Billionaire’s Christmas Fiancée
The Billionaire’s Sudden Christmas Baby
The Billionaire’s Second Chance Christmas
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, DECEMBER 2019
Copyright © 2019 Relay Publishing Ltd.
(no alignment) All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Leslie North is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.
Cover design by Cover Art by Mayhem Cover creations
www.relaypub.com
Blurb
All his life, billoinaire hotelier Josh Denton loved only one woman—his mother, who died a few years back. So when the Cedar Grove Resort and Spa, a place where he’d spent the last Christmas with her, comes on the market, he allows a bit of sentimentality into his heart and sets out to purchase it. Sure, the place is a bit shabby, but he wants it. Problem is, the current owner is a family man, who won’t take kindly to his hotel being sold to a slick, single New York billionaire. When Amelia MacTaggart, his efficient and effervescent assistant, who just so happens to come from Cedar Grove, walks into his office, a plan starts forming. Amelia can act the part of his fake fiancée over the Christmas weekend at the hotel, and in return, she’ll get that promotion she’s been angling for. Seems like a win-win. And it is, until the ‘fake’ relationship between them starts getting a little too real, too fast. What’s a hot hotelier to do?
While Amelia readily agrees to participate in the farce, she feels guilty lying not only to the hotel’s grandfatherly owner, but also to her own family. Still, it’s not such a difficult task pretending to be in love with her sexy boss. If only she’d known that one kiss would turn their platonic ruse into the real deal. If only Josh weren’t being so nice, so fiancé-like. Sexy bed time aside, Amelia finally reminds herself of the brutal truth: This is all about business, about Josh’s obsessive need to win at any cost. She knows that. But as Christmas approaches and their hot romance turns decidedly frosty, Amelia begins to wonder if the only Christmas gift she is going to receive is a broken heart.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
End of The Billionaire’s Christmas Fiancée
Thank You!
About Leslie
Sneak Peek: The Billionaire’s Sudden Christmas Baby
Also by Leslie
1
“Amelia, you got a minute?”
Joshua Denton ran his thumb along the curve of his chin as he awaited the throaty voice of his assistant, Amelia, over the speaker phone.
“Yeah, boss, what’s up?”
He smiled without meaning to—the natural side effect of hearing her happy-go-lucky rasp—and leaned forward to sit closer to the speakerphone. She was his right-hand woman and had been for the past two years.
“I need you to help me plan an upcoming trip.”
“Sure thing.” He could hear papers rustling, and then what sounded like a pull on a straw. She always had an iced tea from her favorite burger joint on her desk. The line went dead, and Josh leaned back in his chair. He and Amelia spoke probably fifty times a day, five days a week. It was the other two days per week that always left him curious about her—what she did, who she saw, whether she was still sucking on that iced tea in the comfort of her own home.
But Amelia was any Chief Development Officer’s dream, and he knew better than to mess things up by probing too far into her personal life.
Still, when she breezed into his office, strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a loose braid hanging to the top of her shoulders, her blouse the perfect shade of sky blue to complement her eyes, he heard that familiar whisper in his head.
God damn, she’s beautiful.
But he knew better than to let that whisper turn into a roar.
“That was fast,” he remarked, turning toward his computer. If there was anything he excelled at, it was focus. And the quickest way to ignore how attractive his extremely effective assistant was came through hyper-focus on the task at hand.
“You act like you forget that my desk is right outside your door.”
He smirked as she settled into the chair facing his desk, notebook at the ready.
“So what’s on deck?” She set her iced tea down, clicking at the top of her pen. “Hit me.”
“Cedar Grove Hotel and Spa,” he said, pulling up the open tab on his browser with the realty listing. He stalked these things daily, sometimes hourly. It was the only way to get the jump on exciting new business properties to help expand his family’s empire. And this one was particularly exciting. “Upstate New York. One of the oldest luxury hotels in the state. My personal favorite Christmas destination as a child. And currently on the market.”
She blinked and cocked her head. “I know that place. I grew up down the street.”
This tidbit forced Josh to turn her way again. “What?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged, reaching for her iced tea again. “It’s so beautiful, especially in the winter.”
“You’re from Cedar Grove?”
She nodded, giving him a duh look. Josh frowned, turning back to his computer. This little tidbit would have been nice to know weeks ago when he’d started his research and plan of attack. Because all along, he’d had one crucial piece of his arsenal missing. His in to Cedar Grove.
Because Cedar Grove Hotel and Spa wasn’t just any regular hotel property going up for grabs. No, this place was family-owned and operated. It had generations worth of history, and the owners—a married couple set to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary this Christmas season—were very clearly searching for the right buyer. Which meant price, or the thickness of the wad of money Josh was prepared to offer, didn’t matter. At all.
They wanted a family-oriented buyer, and Josh was the farthest thing from it.
He must have spent too much time staring at his computer screen in thought, because Amelia finally said, “Uh, Josh?”
“Hm?” He clicked through a few screens as a new idea occurred to him. He went into the search engine
to type in “wives for hire.” This seemed like one of those searches that could only end poorly, but he had to try.
“Are we going to plan your trip?” Amelia asked.
“Right.” He sighed as the results showed exactly what he feared, all sorts of barely-legal international stuff. The IT department would get a kick out of this if they ever searched his browser history. “Dammit.”
“Sooo…” Amelia clicked the top of her pen. “Are we trip planning or not?”
Josh worked his jaw back and forth, swinging to face Amelia. He studied the top of his desk, lost in thought.
“You look like a mad genius right now,” Amelia said.
“Do you know the owners of the Cedar Grove Hotel?” he blurted.
She knit her brows together. She’d recently begun filling in her eyebrows, per the recent makeup trends. She was the only woman he thought could pull it off with flair. “Not personally, no…But I think their youngest might have been a few grades above me in high school.”
Prickles spread through his gut. He was on to something here.
“And you’re, uh, single, right?” He hated that the words hadn’t flowed easily for him. When she’d started at Denton Hotels, she’d had a boyfriend, but along the way he’d caught wind that situation had dissolved. He made it a point to not inquire into her love life. Deep down, a part of him worried he’d get jealous.
Her brows formed a ridge. “Yes…”
He drew a fortifying breath as the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The plans he’d wanted Amelia to make were for him to visit Cedar Grove and woo the owners himself. But what if he included her in the mix, and they just happened to think she was his doting fiancée?
“I need you to hear me out,” he began.
“I really hate it when you start sentences like that,” she said.
“When have I ever started a sentence like that?”
She lifted her hand, counting off each finger as she spoke. “First, there was the prank you wanted me to pull on your brother when I first started. Next, you had me rearrange the seats for the annual gala, which almost caused the accounting department to withhold my paycheck. Then, there was the—”
“Okay.” He raised a palm. “I get it.”
“Harebrained schemes, I think they’re called,” she added.
He fought a smile. “I’ve got one more scheme.”
She sighed exaggeratedly, cocking her head. As she shifted in the chair, the front slit of her blouse opened, and he caught a glimpse of the fascinating landscape beneath, pure cleavage and creamy skin. His gut tightened.
“I wanted you to come in here and help me plan a business trip to go woo the owners.” He paused, wetting his bottom lip as he raked his gaze over her. She had to agree to the plan. He’d make sure she couldn’t say no. “Now I want you to come with me and pretend to be my fiancée.”
Amelia’s eyes went saucer-wide. “What?”
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
She scoffed. “Josh. I can’t do that. That’s my hometown, everyone there knows me.”
“Except the Cedar Grove owners.”
She paused.
“It’s not like I’m going to ask you to do this without compensation,” he went on. “What do you think—time and a half for the duration of the trip?”
She blinked. “Like…for every hour we’re gone?”
He nodded.
“How long will the trip be?”
“Probably a week,” Josh said, his heart rate picking up. Just say yes. “I promise, it won’t eat into your Christmas vacation time. We’ll finish up right before you’d be heading home for the holidays anyway.”
Her crystal blue eyes went wider, cheeks stained pink. “You’re kidding me.”
“I’m not. I need you to do this.”
She deflated slightly. “But, Josh, you want me to lie. It’s true I don’t know the owners, but I know everybody else. The people in my hometown have known me since I was a baby.”
“If money won’t convince you, then what will?”
Amelia nibbled at her bottom lip, the lip that he had imagined kissing only in his weakest moments. He looked away. He knew better than to mix business and pleasure, which was why this idea felt safe to him. Amelia posing as his fiancée was pure business. And he’d make sure to keep it that way.
“Honestly? A promotion.”
Her words fell with a thud. He frowned, letting the idea percolate through him.
“You’re sick of being my assistant?” He tried to joke it off, but the fear was real.
“No, not sick of it. I just want to move up the ladder.” She softened a moment later, like maybe she’d noticed that he was worried. “Trust me, I love working with you. But I want to be a location scout. I want to take the trips to find the new properties…and then I want to move up from there. Maybe so high that I’ll be sitting on the same tree limb as you someday.”
He couldn’t fight the grin. “Yeah, well, it’s not as great up here as it might seem.”
“You’ve got power and prestige.”
“And no time for a personal life.”
She shrugged, not even flinching. “I already don’t have one of those, so no big deal.”
He hesitated. “I really hate the thought of losing you as my assistant. But…” He shook his head, allowing the truth to settle into him. “I knew this day would have to come.”
She batted her eyelashes at him, an infectious grin overtaking her face. “So? You’ll do it?”
“If you’ll come on this trip with me and help me secure the hotel,” he said, the words coming out heavy, “then yes. You’ll get your promotion.”
Amelia squealed and leapt out of the chair, pumping her fist in the air. “Then you have a deal!”
2
Amelia could barely think for how anxious she was for Josh to get there.
Unknown emotions swirled inside her, making her trip up her own steps and forget what she was doing mid-task. She’d packed eighteen pairs of underwear, mindlessly stuffing her panties into the suitcase before realizing just how many she planned to take. She could pee her pants twice a day and still be fine. Not that she planned on it.
All she could think about was this getaway and how she was supposed to spend a full week up in Josh’s business without losing her cool. Being in Josh’s business suddenly was her business.
As it was, staying normal around the man required a fair degree of compartmentalization. The guy was sex on legs and didn’t even know it. It was like he had no interest in exploiting his sex appeal via flirtation or dating or anything. Least of all with her.
She would know. She’d been waiting for even the slightest hint of interest since the day she’d been hired, and nada.
It was for the better, though. Dating her boss wasn’t wise, and besides, if things got ugly? She didn’t want to lose her position within Denton Hotels. Her job was cushy, and she was gunning for the upper echelon. She hadn’t been lying when she negotiated this deal. She wanted the location scout position yesterday, and from there, she would only keep climbing.
Besides, if she got out from under the penetrating, stormy blue gaze of Josh, she might be able to find any other man attractive again and maybe even find a boyfriend. Like she had once, pre-Josh.
Until then, though, she’d continue beating back her attraction via any method necessary—and staring at him in the quiet moments, wondering what lurked beneath his work suits.
As Amelia did a final sweep of the apartment, making sure she packed her good heels and her best dresses and every single pair of earrings she owned, a horn honked from outside. It had to be Josh. She scurried toward the window facing the street, a gasp rocketing out of her once she saw what awaited her on the street.
A limo.
An honest-to-God stretch limousine.
“Oh, hell no,” she groaned, pushing the window up so she could lean out and shout at him from the third story. Josh exited the back of the car, and she bark
ed out, “Hey! Up here.”
His grin was a mile wide. “What do you think?”
“Uh, how about no?” she asked, her teeth chattering a little from the cold December air. “Josh, do you know where we’re going?”
He narrowed his eyes, shutting the door gently. His dark waves were looser than he normally kept them at the office, and without his nicely pressed suit, his weekend vibes were strong. His jeans were just the perfect amount of distressed, and his sexy black leather jacket reeked of money.
“Cedar Grove, obviously,” he said, heading toward the apartment building.
“Yes, and Cedar Grove is a small town, a family-oriented place. It’s like, secretly the set of every Hallmark Christmas movie ever made.”
“Really?”
“Not really, but I’m just saying, it’s not the place to bring a limo, unless you want to prove to everyone you’re some rich jerk from the city who can barely turn down the side street to get to Dax’s Bakery.”
He sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Okay. You have a point.”
“I know I do. We’ll take my car.”
Josh looked annoyed, but he didn’t fight her on it. She popped back inside the window and shut it tight, then shrugged on her heavy fur-trimmed wool coat. Only the best for Cedar Grove this time around. After all, if anybody asked her why she looked so dolled up, she had an arsenal of excuses at the ready. First and foremost: she was a big-city girl now and had access to all the latest trends with her big-city paychecks.