BUSINESS TRILOGY

Chapter 5

"You need to pretend to be my fiancé so that I can secure a deal with the Italian company," he said slowly and clearly.

"What about the Japanese one?" I asked, hoping there was a way out of this.

"They found a different company to collaborate with," he said, shattering my little hope. "And the Italian company will not give me a contract if I'm a bachelor so I told them I'm engaged. They believe that me 'sleeping around' is not a good thing and it will rub off in a negative way for their company."

"They're not wrong." I snort and he shoots me a deadly glare.

I get back on topic "Why me sir? I'm sure there are plenty of women who would jump at the chance of being your fiancé." I reason

"I trust you to keep this completely professional," he said.

"Ugh, fine I'll be your fiancé, just for tonight though," I say sternly. He nods.

How bad could it be?

The rest of the drive was in silence. After about 20 minutes Xavier parked the car in a private parking where there were many other expensive cars.

"Here," Xavier breaks the silence, he hands me a ring. I gasped at how beautiful it was. It was a thin platinum band lined with diamonds and in the middle sat a large square diamond.

"Oh my god..." I breathed out "I can't take this, it must have been very expensive. Couldn't you get a smaller, simpler ring?" I said.

"You have to look the part, Lia" He simply shrugs. I slip it onto my ring finger and we begin walking into the venue.

I don't know why but I liked it when he called me Lia, despite it being the more more obvious nickname for me no one called me Lia.

When we arrive at the entrance, a doorman opens the huge double doors for us. We walk into a large room with marble floor and huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. There were waiters scattered everywhere with champagne flutes and snacks on the trays in their hands.

As we walk in I see many famous businessmen from all over the globe. I looked around, knowing that this is what I wanted for my own future. I wanted to stand in that room as a successful businesswoman, not as a 'fiancé’ for a man.

Xavier notices a man walking toward us, "This is the Australian company's CEO," he whispers in my ear, his minty breath made me freeze so I just nodded. Without any warning, he takes my hand into his.

"Good evening Mr King." the man says in an Australian accent.

"Mr Walker," he greets, "This is my fiancé, Lia" he introduced me to Mr Walker, who was looking at me in a weird way as if he was checking me out.

I'm guessing that Xavier saw it too as he snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. Mr Walker's eyes shifted back to Xavier and they continued talking.

Throughout the night we met with many business moguls and I was introduced over and over. Luckily, no one paid much attention to me and just talked to Xavier about work.

Soon, Xavier and I were alone when he started talking. "Over there is the richest and most successful business man, Mr Russo, he's the Italian company's CEO. " he looked at an older guy, maybe 50 years old. "If I want any success with him we're gonna have to really sell this fiancé thing."

"How? I barely know you." I whisper yelled back.

At this point we were awfully close, my nose an inch or so away from his. I analysed his face and understood why women loved him so much. It was undeniable that he was breathtakingly handsome.

"Lover's quarrel?" An Australian accent interrupts our conversation, it was Mr Walker.

"Hello again," I smile at him and Xavier does the same, minus the smiling part.

"I'll go get some us champagne, you guys want anything?" Xavier breaks the brief silence.

"I'll have one too," I take a deep breath "Babe..." Xavier looks at me with amusement in his eyes and Mr Walker gestures to say that didn't want a drink.

Unexpectedly, Xavier lightly kissed my cheek before walking off. I pretend to smile and fidget with my engagement ring.

"I must say, Mrs King you do look ravishing tonight." Mr Walker smirks at me.

"Thank you Mr Walker, but I'm not Mrs King yet." I laugh, hiding how uncomfortable he made me.

"Please, call me Bradley." He says, brushing his hand against my arm.

"Don't touch my fiancé." Xavier's voice booms from behind me as he hands me a glass of champagne. A breath of relief escapes me, as Xavier's arm finds its place around my waist, his hand resting his hand on my hip, his face stern and any trace of a smile was washed off.

Bradley puts his hands up in surrender and walks off. "What was that about?" He asked me quietly.

"He just said I looked ravishing." I mimic his Australian accent, it was no big deal. His jaw clenches and he leads me to a corner of the room.

"People are going to try and figure out if we are really engaged or not since I made no public announcement. Try not to blow our cover." He says coldly, his voice all of a sudden sinister. I just nod in agreement.

He grabs a hold of my hand and was about to take me to Mr Russo. "Hold on, can I go to the bathroom first?" I ask sheepishly. He looked irritated but nodded yes.

After I was finished with my business in the bathroom, I came out to see Mr. Walker standing by the entrance, almost as if he was waiting for me to come. I just flashed him a small smile.

"I know your engagement is fake Mrs King." He says, stopping me in my tracks.

I turn around and face him, "Excuse me," I say, raising my eyebrows.

An ugly smirk emerged onto his face "Your engagement with Xavier is fake Amelia." he snarls.

I continue walking, knowing that his eyes were following me. I walk up to Xavier, who's drinking wine by the snack bar.

"Baby," I saw to him placing my hand onto his chest and he has an quizzical expression on his face, soon masked by humour when he realised Mr Walker is watching us. "Mr Walker really thinks that our engagement is not real, that we aren't in love."

"Oh really?" He plays along "What are we going to do about that?" he smiles, his devilish smile.

As soon as he said that I placed my lips onto his.

He stiffened for a moment before placing his arms onto my hips and pulling me closer, deepening the kiss, which lasted longer than I expected. After we pulled away, I hear Mr Walker or Bradley walked away, but my eyes were lost in Xavier's. His chocolate eyes were fixated onto mine, as if trying to decipher me.

"I see you've moved on Xavier." A feminine voice calls out.

Her voice makes Xavier turn away from me and face a beautiful woman. She has crystal blue eyes, plump lips and golden blonde hair. A blood red dress, with a high slit, clung to her body showing off her curves.

"What do you want Vanessa?" His jaw clenched as he threw his head back in annoyance.

"Nothing, just happy to see you with your w***e of the day." She snarled, I could already tell that her beautiful body caged a despicable personality.

I frowned and looked at Xavier, he glanced me a reassuring look before speaking again. "You of all people should know that I wouldn't just bring anyone here." He starts and takes my hand in his "This is my fiancé, Lia." He introduced me.

Her face instantly dropped and her eyes went down to my hands where they widened upon seeing the ring on my finger. She cursed under her breath before stomping away.

"Oh my god who is that?" I asked Xavier, laughing.

"Ex-girlfriend." He muttered. "Now can we go to meet Mr Russo?" He asked like a little kid.

"Fine fine!" I throw my hands up in exasperation. "Let's go."

He snakes his arm around my waist and we walk up to Mr Russo, who is standing by himself sipping on a drink.

"Good evening Mr. Russo." Xavier greets.

"Mr King," he nods.

"This is my fiancé, Amelia." he introduces me and I shake Mr Russo's hand.

"How are you enjoying yourself." Xavier asks.

"I must say you have thrown a very good fundraiser Mr King. Although I'm quite surprised you kept the fact that you have a fiancé hidden." He had a slight Italian accent but it was only noticeable if you listened closely.

He was silent. Now it was my turn to speak up.

"Well, Mr Russo we wanted to keep our engagement under wraps for as long as we could. As soon as the media finds out it will not be as peaceful as it is now." I laugh.

"I'm very happy for you Xavier and Amelia, marriage is a beautiful thing and I can tell you two are very much in love." he smiles.

If only you knew...

"Thank you sir," I reply.

"I must leave now, but Xavier I look forward to discuss the shipping of my products with you soon," he shakes our hands before rushing off.

"Well you got the deal with him," I say happily.

"Yes we did," he has a victory smile on his face.

Chapter 7

AMELIA POV

At about midnight Xavier decided that it was time to leave. Since I didn't do much talking, I passed the time by drinking champagne and he didn't want me to embarrass him by being drunk.

We got back into his car and he drove me back home in silence. When we arrived I got out the car and so did he. He walked me to my door, looking like he wanted to say something.

"Thanks for driving me," I say.

"And thank you for being my fiancé," he says quietly.

I gasp loudly, "Is the Xavier King saying thank you to a measly assistant." I joke. A hint of a smile appears on his face, but he ruins it by talking.

"I understand you must be tired so you can have tomorrow off, but Wednesday I need you back at work, to secure the Australian deal." he orders.

"What if someone asks at the office?"

"Try to deny it. Say that it's someone else, I didn't tell anyone your surname, and there was no paparazzi allowed at the event." He says.

"Yeah, I already bitched a lot about you to so no one's going to believe it anyway." He gives me a look, by which I instantly regret telling her that, but then nods. He walks back to his car but doesn't get in and I ask him why.

"I'm a gentleman, Miss Davis." he smirks "I will wait till your inside, safely." I just roll my eyes and knock on the door. I wait for a few minutes but Jasmine hasn't opened it.

She didn't let me take my keys since then I would have to have carry a purse which would 'ruin the look'.

I knock again, louder, but to no avail. I peek through the glass part of the door to see that Jasmine has passed out on the couch and groaned. She slept like a pig and there was no chance she was going to wake up.

"Just one second," I say to Xavier, who's looking at me with amusement. I see that a window by the door was open and sighed, knowing what I had to do.

I took my heels off and threw them through the window, wincing as the gravel pricked my toes. Xavier just looked at me like I was some alien.