THE BILLIONAIRE’S BARGAIN

The foreclosure notice was pink. Maya stared at it, taped to the glass door of Bloom & Wild, and decided she hated the color pink. Three days. Pay $47,000 or vacate. She had $312 in her checking account. A bucket of dying peonies. And a landlord who wouldn't return her calls. Maya flipped the sign to OPEN. Turned on the string lights her mother had hung twelve years ago. One bulb flickered. Dead. "Perfect," she muttered. At 11 AM, the bell chimed. Maya looked up, smile ready please buy something, I need to eat and froze. The man in her doorway did not belong in Brooklyn flower shops. Black wool coat. Hair dark and sharp. Jawline that could cut glass. Eyes the color of storm clouds the kind that warned you to stay inside. He looked at her shop like he'd never seen a daisy before. "Can I help you?" Maya asked. "You're Maya Chen." Not a question. "You're in my shop. So I guess that makes us even." Something flickered in his eyes. Almost amusement. "Julian Voss." The name hit her like a brick. Julian Voss. The developer who'd bought half of Brooklyn. The billionaire who'd never been photographed smiling. Maya's hand tightened around the watering can. "You're my landlord." "My company owns the building." "Then you're the man evicting me." Julian tilted his head. "The notice went out this morning. You're aware." "I'm aware that you're throwing a twenty-four-year-old woman into the street because she missed three months of rent." Maya's voice shook. She hated that it shook. "I'm aware that you have four billion dollars and I have dying roses." Julian reached into his coat. Pulled out a folded paper. Set it on the counter. "What's this?" Maya asked. "A proposal." Maya didn't touch it. "I'm not that kind of girl." Julian's mouth twitched. "Not that kind of proposal." She unfolded it. CONTRACT OF ENGAGEMENT She read it twice. "You want me to marry you?" "Fake marry," Julian said. "Thirty days. Public appearances. One gala. After that, a 'mutual split.' You get two hundred thousand dollars. I get the Tanaka merger." "You're insane." "Probably." Julian's eyes dropped to her paint-stained hands. "But I'm your only option. You need forty-seven thousand by Friday. I need a fiancée by Friday. This solves both." "Why me? You could hire a model." "Because you're the opposite of everything I am." His voice was quiet. "Tanaka's people checked three women I considered. Two had scandals. One had a drug arrest. You have a flower shop, a dead mother, and a library card. You're clean. You're ordinary. You're perfect." Ordinary. The word stung. Maya set the contract down. "I don't like you." "I don't need you to like me. I need you to pretend." "And if I say no?" "Then you lose the shop." No cruelty. Just fact. "And I find someone else. Probably less charming. Definitely less stubborn." Maya looked around Bloom & Wild. The fairy lights. The dried lavender. The photo of her mother behind the register, smiling in her apron. She looked at the pink notice. "Two hundred thousand?" she asked. "Plus rent paid for two years. New location if you want." Maya's breath caught. "Why are you doing this? Really?" Julian was quiet. The storm in his eyes softened just a fraction. "Because I built an empire on being untouchable," he said. "And Tanaka wants to know I can be touched." Maya didn't understand that. But she understood eviction. She understood hunger. She understood her mother's legacy, wilting in buckets around her. "One month," she said. "One month." "Separate bedrooms." "Obviously." "No kissing." Julian paused. "Public displays may require—" "Minimal," Maya cut in. "Handshake level." Julian almost smiled. "You're negotiating." "I'm a small business owner. I always negotiate." He pulled out a pen. Heavy. Silver. Probably cost more than her rent. "Sign," he said. Maya took it. Her hand shook. She thought of her mother. She thought of the pink notice. She thought of Julian Voss, standing in her flower shop, offering her a deal with the devil. She signed. Julian folded the contract away. "Car tomorrow. Nine AM. Pack light." "Wait," Maya said. "What do I tell people?" Julian stopped at the door. Turned back. Rain framed him in the doorway. "Tell them you're in love," he said. "That's what everyone wants to hear." The bell chimed as he left. Maya stood alone in her flower shop, surrounded by roses and regret, and wondered what the hell she'd just done.