The Billionaire Duke (The Billionaire Duke #1)

  "So if you think it doesn't matter how you look, the result is inevitable, think again, my darling. He claims he only wants me to sell this fairytale romance to the public. But if you want him, you're going to have to put some effort into it."

  "Why would I want him? Because he's a billionaire and a duke?" I tried not to sound as irritated as I felt. But it was almost like she'd read my mind. I did want him. And maybe his money. I wanted something. "Maybe he's not to my tastes."

  She laughed. "He's to your tastes. I read faces like a good cook reads recipes. You may not love him yet, but you're attracted to him. He can give you a lifestyle no one else can. You may look like a timid little thing on the outside. But I get the sense that you would like an adventure. The life of a duchess intrigues you.

  "Don't sell yourself short yet," she said. "Leave your options open."

  We stared at each other in silence a moment, neither of us wanting to blink first.

  Finally I sighed.

  She patted my arm. "That's what I thought. Trust me. I can help you. But first, we have to attack those pores."

  Chapter 9

  Riggins

  I got ready for my date on a high, thanks to my brilliant buddy Justin. He may have just handed me my ticket out of this mess.

  Like any duke who was hoping to avoid an arranged marriage, I had planned this date with care. I couldn't make an enemy of Haley. I needed her cooperation. Disturbingly, I was excited about seeing her. The memory of her face and her laughter made my heart race. I liked her sense of humor and her candor. I enjoyed the thought of having an ally helping me do battle with an evil duke. And pull a prank on the public. Of playing out a fairytale.

  It was late January. Which killed many of the standard outdoor first dates in my repertoire. Before anyone thinks I was a jerk, every guy who dates with regularity has a fallback list of ideas. I should have tried harder to size Haley up during our coffee date and found out what she liked to do. But I'd been busy and distracted by trying to get her to agree not to marry me.

  Winter dates in a rainy city required a man to get creative. I made reservations at one of the best seafood houses in the city and asked for a table where we could be seen. I ordered flowers, ready for me to pick up on my way to Haley's. A guy can never go wrong with flowers.

  Dinner and flowers might not have been inspired. But I had a surprise planned for her after.

  Haley

  I had never been pampered like this before in my life. Massaged until I felt like jelly. Facial. Hands dipped in wax. Manicured. Pedicured. Brows plucked. Various body parts waxed. Eyelashes extended. There was a scene in the Wizard of Oz books where Dorothy and company get all prettied up and, in the case of the Tin Man, oiled. I felt a lot like that. Either that or a contestant being prepped for the Hunger Games.

  When it came time to have my hair cut, I resisted. Milia, who'd been absent for most of my beauty application, reappeared to give instructions to the stylist and reassure me.

  She stood in front of my chair, which was spun to face away from the mirror, and bent down to get in my face. "Don't you trust me?"

  I stared back at her. The truth was, I didn't. Why should I?

  "I like my hair the way it is—colorful. I don't see what's wrong with it. It's a statement that life is short. Grab it. Take it. Live it. Be colorful if you like. Just don't be boring."

  I'd colored my hair for Sid, after her diagnosis. During early days when things looked grim.

  I stared at Milia. "You know about my sister."

  It wasn't a question. I knew she knew.

  "I used to have regular old dishwater hair. Very bland. I colored it to support Sid and make her laugh. It brightens her day and reminds her how important she is to me.

  "I won't be turned into a boring duchess clone with traditional blond or brown hair."

  Milia's expression changed only slightly, a glimmer of admiration in her eyes. "Why would I do that to you?" Milia held my gaze. "You said you wanted to be you. Only better."

  She spun my chair around to face the mirror. "Look at yourself right now. No makeup. Bad hair. Tell me, honestly, that you don't already look like a more perfect you. Like the fantasy you."

  I opened my mouth to protest. But I couldn't. She was right. I was already a more beautiful me. Not that that meant I was beautiful. But I was a step up from plain, at least. "You'll keep some color?"

  She didn't concede, not outwardly. But I thought I saw something in her eyes.

  "All right," I said. "But it better make Sid smile."

  Two hours later, my pink and lavender hair was gone. Replaced by luxurious, shiny silver hair threaded with gold and tipped with the palest pink. I looked classic, elegant, and youthful. Artsy. Like a duchess-to-be. But from the twenty-first century, not the last century.

  I'd had a makeup lesson. My eyes were heavily lined to make them look larger, fuller, and luminous. And nearly the same color. But strikingly so. My eyes seemed to change from blue to green depending on the angle you viewed me from. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to make a plain girl like me into something stunning. But Milia had done it. If I wasn't exactly gorgeous, I was, at least, intriguing. Striking. Arresting.

  She reappeared to view her handiwork and smiled a slow, smug smile. "Very good." She nodded. "What do you think? Will Sidney smile?"

  "Sidney will bow to your genius, clap her hands with delight, and never stop smiling. For myself, I'm almost speechless." I turned my head to look at myself from another angle. "I'll never be able to repeat it. The makeup artist was a magician."

  Milia smiled, almost friendly. "You will if you practice. I'll send you home with everything you need to recreate the look, including a diagram on what goes where. You decorate cakes. You can decorate yourself. Your sister can help you. She knows a makeup trick or two, I take it?" She paused. "Now to get you dressed."

  She took my arm and led me to a changing room where a tight dress, shoes, coat, and gloves waited for me.

  "If you need help with anything, just yell. But first"—she pulled a bottle of perfume out of the pocket of the beauty lab coat she had put on before coming to find me in the spa—"scent makes the woman. Lucky for you, I'm an expert at scents for seduction. And I know Riggins better than almost any woman does.

  "Picking the right scent is a science. And an art." She squirted the air and inhaled. "I think this one will mesh nicely with your body chemistry to create a scent, and a memory, Riggins can't resist."

  She grabbed my wrist and spritzed it.

  "Lift your chin." She squirted my neck. "Scent creates powerful memories. It's important on a first date to give him something he'll never forget."

  She laughed. "In this case, a nose-ful of memories of you. Always choose your date perfume carefully. And make sure the memory is positive. On your fiftieth wedding anniversary, you want to be able to waft a bottle of this beneath his nose and bring him right back to the moment he fell in love with you."

  Riggins wasn't going to fall in love with me. That wasn't part of the deal.

  Milia grabbed my wrist and blew on it to clear the alcohol. She lifted my wrist to my nose. "What do you think?"

  "It smells expensive."

  "It is. It's also seductive."

  I shrugged. "I've never smelled better."

  She laughed. "Am I a genius or what?" She dropped my wrist. "There's a bottle in your goody bag, along with a purse-sized version. In case you need to freshen up. Just go easy on it. You don't want your perfume to announce you.

  "Now change. Giselle will show you to my office when you're dressed."

  A few minutes later, I was dressed in the most expensive, most seductive dress I had ever worn. Giselle escorted me as promised. The dress Milia had picked out for me fit as if it had been made just for me. And was exactly the style I would have picked. If I'd had any real fashion sense.

  Giselle closed the door after herself when she left, leaving Milia and me alone.

  Milia studied me. She
got out of her chair and came over to me to straighten the shoulders of the dress. "What do you think?"

  "I think you weren't exaggerating. You really are a makeover genius."

  She smiled softly and returned to her chair.

  "Is this what you do at spy school?" I asked. "Make people over?"

  "I give them a fantasy." She glanced at the clock. "I'm not done with yours yet. Have a seat."

  I took a seat in the chair across from her desk.

  "Can you dance?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue.

  I shrugged. "I can move to the music when needed."

  "Which means you can't." She looked at the clock again. "We don't have much time."

  She clenched her fists and stretched her fingers out wide, like someone who'd been typing too long. "Don't ask me how I know. I have my ways. Riggins certainly didn't tell me his plans. But I happen to know that he's taking you for a private dance lesson after dinner." She rolled her eyes. "It's one of those romantic dates guys think up. Because all women like dancing, right?"

  She laughed. "We're genetically programmed for it. Even girls who can't dance have to give a guy credit for trying. It's an icebreaker. You can both laugh about it."

  I stared at her, heart pounding. I really sucked at dancing. I had been exaggerating my skills.

  "Riggins is an expert dancer. He took lessons in college." Her eyes got a misty look. Like she was remembering something pleasant. "If you can't dance, he'll pretend he can't, either. He's that kind of guy. I'm sending you to Eduardo for a quick lesson so you'll be prepared. Eduardo will also be your instructor tonight on your date with Riggins. He'll be giving you a bachata lesson.

  "I'm surprised Riggins picked such a sexy dance. Given he's trying to get rid of you, I would have expected something classic. A dance where he could hold you at arm's length. Ah well." She waved her hand. "I'm also going to give you very specific instructions on what you must do if you want to hook him."

  "You're confident in your own abilities." I watched her warily. "And in my desire to 'hook him,' as you say."

  "With good reason. I've seduced some of the world's most important men." Her eyes sparkled.

  I couldn't tell if she was teasing. She had to be, right?

  She slid off the lab coat and hung it on a coat stand in the corner.

  I was no longer an experiment, I guessed.

  "Ignore my advice at your own peril." She returned to her chair and sat straight-backed, very regal. She should have been the one in line to be a duchess. "I'm going to give you the complete dossier on Riggins. Everything from how to make Riggins' favorite drink in just the perfect way to getting him in bed. For this mission, he's your mark."

  She leaned forward. "There are three key things you need to know about Riggins. Use them properly and he'll make you his duchess and believe it was all his idea."

  I raised an eyebrow. She had more faith in me than I did.

  She ignored my skeptical look. "Number one, he likes his women confident. Don't act insecure around him. Confidence is his pheromone. It turns him on."

  "I—"

  "Shhh!" She put a finger to her lips. "You can be insecure in here." She tapped her heart. "And here." She tapped her head. "Just never let your insecurities show. Not so hard, really. If you try. You don't have to be beautiful to attract his attention. But you do have to be confident.

  "Secondly, he likes his chocolate dark with an edge of rich bitterness. With luck, someday you'll understand what this means.

  "Lastly, he values loyalty above all else, even love. Prove yourself loyal, and he'll be yours forever." She got that faraway look again.

  Was it regret? It almost looked that way.

  "Loyalty, of course, takes time to prove. You have very little. Time, that is. Don't waste it."

  She laughed again, more at herself, it seemed, than anything else. I certainly hadn't entertained her.

  "There! Don't I sound very fairy godmotherly? All I need is a wand."

  I paused. "Why are you helping me?"

  I had to wonder. Riggins certainly hadn't paid her to help me "hook him." That ran completely contrary to his plan.

  "Karma. I owe him some happiness." She inhaled deeply. Haunted by memories again? "Riggins and I go way back. I'll always have a soft spot for him. He's all alone in this world. His father abandoned him when he was a baby. His mom is dead. He has no siblings. He's the last of the Feldhem line.

  "Whether he realizes it or not, he needs someone to love. And to love him unconditionally and loyally in return." She appraised me again. "I want Riggins to be happy. I think you might be that girl who could make him happy." She got an amused look on her face. "And if not…"

  She shrugged gently. "There's an above-average chance you'll be stuck with each other anyway. You may as well be happy in the process. Make yourself that girl, Haley."

  Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn't. Maybe I couldn't. I caught my reflection in the window behind her, barely recognizing myself. "So. Do I turn into a pumpkin at midnight?"

  Her melodic laugh filled the room. "You turn into a media sensation the minute you're seen again with Riggins. And then, my darling protégé, you turn into a duchess."

  Chapter 10

  Haley

  Sid couldn't believe my transformation.

  "Your hair! Look at your hair." She ran her fingers through it. "It's fabulous! It feels like silk and looks like…like…there are no words. You look like you stepped out of a fashion spread in a magazine." She couldn't stop staring or smiling.

  I felt guilty, actually. She would have enjoyed the experience so much more than I had. And gotten so much more out of it.

  Jasmine and Liz were equally stunned by my transformation. And almost openly jealous. They grilled me mercilessly for details about everything, especially Riggins.

  Jas was a nurse, very practically minded. She was having the hardest time wrapping her head around my rags to beauty to catching the eye of a billionaire story. Neither she nor Liz knew the true story. I felt terrible for keeping it from them. But it was part of the bargain.

  "Let me get this straight—as part of your date, the billionaire paid for you to get ready?" She stared at me with wide eyes. "It's fantastical enough that you caught a billionaire's attention by breaking a plate at his feet."

  "That's not exactly correct," Sid said. In her eyes, it was plainly clear how I could capture a billionaire's attention. "She broke a plate in front of him and then saw him again at the reading of a will of a mutual long-lost rich relative. It's destiny. Fate keeps throwing them together."

  "Fate!" Jas shook her head. She didn't believe in fate, only that you controlled your own.

  Sid flashed me an insider's look. "They have common ground."

  Riggins had insisted on picking me up at the house. I'd had to rush home from downtown. It would have been easier for me to go directly from the spa to the restaurant. But whatever. He must have had his reasons. I was glad I got a chance to show Sid my new look before anything had the chance to mess it up.

  Liz sat on the sofa with her feet up, watching TV, with a bowl of popcorn and a beer in front of her. She watched us, munching on popcorn like we were the evening's entertainment. "This is better than the movies. Are any of you as nervous as I am? I've never met a billionaire before. Do you think he'll come to the door and come in? Or will he honk from the curb?"

  Jas rolled her eyes. "Come on, Liz, think! He's a duke as well as a billionaire. He'll send his valet to the door."

  Sid shook her head. "His driver. He'll send his driver to the door. His valet will have to stay home and lay out his pajamas."

  "And practice tying his cravats." Jas laughed.

  "Come on! He's just a regular guy," I said, knowing he wasn't.

  The lights from a car pulling into the driveway stopped us all short. The curtains were closed so we couldn't see his car. We were all dying to see what he drove. I would find out soon enough. The TV blared as we waited for a knock or the doorbell.


  When the doorbell rang, we all jumped. Jas made a move to get it.

  I gave her a death glare. "I'll get it." I should have insisted on meeting him at the restaurant.

  When I opened the door, Riggins took my breath away with the look he gave me. He stared at me with a depth of expression that was hard to describe. He was surprised, obviously. And intrigued? Impressed? Maybe stunned was the right word. In any case, no guy had ever stared at me like that before. And I liked it. I could have kissed Milia for doing such an amazing job.

  His gaze traveled down me, taking in everything from the top of my new hair to the tip of my designer-shoe-clad toes.

  "Did you get your money's worth?" I whispered. It just popped out. Something about looking so amazing gave me confidence.

  He gave me a grin that curled my toes and made me clench everything I owned. I was sure it was only on my side, but I felt the air crackle with sexual tension. For a fraction of a second I could picture us together forever. In the next partial second, I reminded myself that he was trying hard not to have to marry me and this was all an act.

  "You look amazing. Your hair is gorgeous." He took my hand and pulled me close. "Milia deserves every penny."

  He was dressed in jeans and a casual sports coat. He looked deliciously hot standing on my porch, holding the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I'd ever seen. Even before he handed it over, I could tell it was expensive.

  "They're beautiful." I took a deep breath of them and smiled over the bouquet at him, determined to enjoy every minute of the evening. I took his hand and pulled him into the entryway. "Come in and meet the girls while I put these in water."

  In the living room, the girls were drooling and staring at him. He should have been uncomfortable, but he seemed completely at ease. He was used to being gawked at, no doubt. And being in the company of groups of women.