BILLIONAIRE SERIES: HIS AMBER

Chapter 7: Dinner with Oldies

SIMOUN'S POV

She looked like an angel dressed in her designer white gown. The second she came walking out of her room with her beautiful brown hair piled high on her head, I couldn't take my eyes off her. The silken fabric of her dress flowed around her body, hugging her in places that beckoned for the swell of my muscles. I wanted her so much, I was almost afraid to touch her, afraid to smudge part of myself onto her white gown and forever soil her. Her heels clicked against the marbled floor as she held her perfectly patterned clutch in her hand, and those crimson red lips of hers were quickly becoming somewhat of a trademark of hers.

"Ready?" I asked.

"After you, hon"

I had to mentally talk myself down off the ledge. As the two of us waited for the elevator to open in the penthouse, I had to physically jam my hands into my pockets to keep from tossing her against the wall and smudging that lipstick all over my c**k. Ever since she'd stepped onto that plane, I'd been obsessed with her. The way she looked, the way she smiled, her scent, all of it, swirling around me in a salacious dance of want and lust.

Stepping into the elevator with her was pure and utter torture.

Standing so close to her with that light perfume of hers tainting her skin made me want to take a bite out of her curves.

She was a drug. And I was her willing host.

We made our way to the car in silence, and I forced myself to focus on the job at hand. I had to escort my "escort" to dinner. We had to put on a face. Play a game. Dance around one another and put on an act. None of it was real, and none of it came with any perks I needed to indulge. My focus had to be on one thing and one thing only: sealing the deal with Onel Satoh.

But my c**k wanted to seal the deal with Amber.

I expected some sort of reaction out of her when we walked into the restaurant-some sort of awe that would rush over her face. I planted my hand on the small of her back and felt her warmth penetrating the fabric of the dress. But instead of having to speak with her lowly about keeping her shock and awe to herself, Amber slipped into a role that left me wondering exactly who she was and where she had come from.

Because she didn't seem uneasy at all. In fact, she seemed more at ease with the scenario than I did.

"Mr. Cardenas! Welcome to my part of the world."

Onel got out of his chair and came at me with his arms outstretched. I slipped my hand away from Amber's back and clapped the man tightly. I didn't usually hug my prospective clients and partners, but for a traditionalist, Onel really enjoyed the intimate interaction. He always held me a little too long and breathed on me a little too heavily. But it was par for the course with him. Signing him on for a multimillion-dollar contract was worth whatever hoops I had to jump through in order to get him there.

But he really was a character.

"And this must be your lovely fiancée," he said.

"Amber soon-to-be Cardenass," she said with a smile. "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Satoh."

"You have fine taste in fiancées," Onel said.

"And I have fine taste in men," she said.

"Shall we sit and get some food?" I asked.

"Allow me," Onel said.

He pulled out Amber's chair, and she sat with her back straight and her head held high. It was as if she was bred for this kind of role. I sat down beside her and slipped my arm around her chair, pulling her just the slightest bit toward me. Every little interaction between the two of us had to look genuine, from eye contact all the way down to constantly having her as close as I could get her. Which wouldn't be an issue.

I wanted her to close I could slip my body into hers.

Onel was a very old-world aristocrat whose ideals fancied someone out of the 1930s. He was happily stuck in the past despite his advisors insisting he diversify his accounts and take on modern-day investments. That was what I was attempting to get him to do: invest in my company, take a small slice for himself, and urge him into the twenty-first century while furthering my own financial gain. But dealing with someone like Onel meant playing a game of chess, not checkers. With his gray hair, rosy red cheeks, and very round stomach, he boasted of an arrogance that was shrouded in the niceties men bestowed upon people around them on a daily basis.

But Amber didn't flinch one ounce.

The three of us were not alone at dinner, despite what I imagined. Onel was surrounded by four of his friends, people he trusted more than anything else. And it felt as if I was sitting in front of a firing squad. I expected Onel's wife, possibly. But not people who looked eager to rake Amber and me over the coals.

"So, Amber. Where are you from?" one of them asked.

"Born and raised in the Philippines," she said.

"How long have you and Simoun been together now?" another asked.

"About three years, give or take. Honestly? Some months seem much longer than others," she said.

A chuckle permeated across the table, but I became nervous.

I didn't think about a cover story between the two of us. I didn't think about the fact that people would question the couple about their life together. s**t. What kind of i***t was I?

Yet another reason why Amber was a poor choice in the long run. I wasn't thinking about the simplest of things.

"I don't care about any of that," Onel said. "I want to hear how the two of you met. Simoun? I always enjoy the man's perspective. It's always so different from a woman's."

Amber looked over at me with a kind stare, but I felt like I had swallowed my tongue. How did we meet? What the f**k was I supposed to say to that question?

"Well, it's sort of an intricate story," I said. "But the gist of it is I saw her and knew I had to have her. The moment I saw her, I knew she was the one for me. Even if she didn't know it at the time."

"See? That's a true man," Onel said. "Take note, everyone. Because a true man knows what he wants the second he sees it. I knew I saw something in you."

"I appreciate the compliment," I said.

"Where did you two meet?" one of his friends asked.

"We, uh... well. Initially?" I asked.

"Simoun, don't be so embarrassed," Amber said.

She slid her hand along my knee and squeezed before she took the reins of the conversation. And I was glad for it. Because I sure as hell wasn't adept to lying on the fly. In fact, I made it a paramount requirement to never lie to those I wanted to do business with.

Fuck. What had I gotten myself into?

"It's really nothing fancy," Amber said. "Contrary to what Simoun shows, he's really a romantic man. He wants to have that story where he saw me across the street before running up to me and taking me in his arms, but the truth is we met in a jewelry store."

"That sounds romantic," Onel said. "How is that not romantic?"

"The only reason he noticed me was because I tripped over my own two feet and went crashing against the display case," she said with a giggle.

"Oh my gosh, were you hurt?" one of his friends asked.

"Only my pride," Amber said. "I caught myself, but not before I knocked my elbow against the case. I was bleeding all over myself by the time Simoun got to me. Cleaned me right up in the middle of the jewelry store."

"A knight in shining armor is always a romantic story waiting to be told," Onel said.

"Trust me, it gets better," she said with a smile. "He took me out to his car because he said he had a first aid kit there. You know, Band-Aids and stuff. And before I knew it, I had a napkin pressed to my elbow and we were riding back to his place in order to find something to ease the pain."

"You sly dog, you," Onel said with a grin.

"He was an absolute gentleman," Amber said. "Despite the fun we might have had."

She tossed me a playful wink as another chuckle ricocheted among the crowd around us. I had been so entranced with her story that even I started to believe it had been true. Her kind smile settled me down a little bit and eased me into the evening, and I couldn't help but feel like she was coaching me instead of the other way around.

Who the hell was this woman?

"Well, despite the two of you meeting in a jewelry store, you are woefully lacking in jewels, Miss Amber."

"I don't see your engagement ring?" someone asked.

I felt myself tense again, and Amber squeezed my knee.

"I'm not comfortable traveling with a lot of my jewelry. Simoun took me to Hawaii a little over a year ago, and some of my jewelry was stolen in between the flight and the arrival to our private cabana. I've been wary about it ever since. I'm thinking about purchasing a small rose gold wedding band to wear on my finger whenever I travel because I feel so naked without it."

"See, this is why I keep some of the royal jewelry that was passed to myself under lock and key," Onel said. "There are greedy people in this world that believe they are entitled to the possession of others, and I can't stand it. The jewel that was handed down to me has been in my family for ages, and the idea of someone taking it from me makes my heart rate shoot through the roof!"

He went on and on about some stupid rubies or whatever it was he had sitting in a vault somewhere, but my focus was no longer on him. It was the woman next to me-the woman who had just saved my ass in the middle of the most important dinner of my career. She was charming, elegant, and completely in her element. And my hand fell into hers on my knee before wrapping around it. She looked over at me and smiled, her hazel eyes sparkling underneath the lighting of the decadent restaurant.

And for a split second, I wondered what life would be like if our engagement wasn't pretended.