Falling For The Wrong Twin

Kiss

Gia

It's been two weeks since that chaotic night, since I’ve last set eyes on both Mitch and Vivienne. I’d not returned to the apartment we both shared and had been staying over at my cousin’s.

I won't lie. I missed Mitch. Badly.

But at the same time, something entirely dark and dangerous had consumed my mind. Maverick.

The ghost of his lips still lingered on mine. The warmth of his hand on my jaw still burned.

It wasn't right. I should resent him for the heavy strain he had put on Mitch’s and my friendship. Of course, I did but something had changed. And it scared me.

The sharp click of fingers drumming on the keyboard echoed through the entire office space. It was another hectic morning in the Moore event planning company where deadlines waited for no one and Madame Jo wouldn't wait to send heads rolling if she found anyone slacking.

Yet in the midst of all the Monday morning madness, my mind kept circling to the one man I struggled to forget. Maverick.

And worse, that kiss. That intoxicating kiss that made me…

A soft thud on my table startled me, my heart almost leaping into my throat. “Knock. Knock,” Camille grinned, a breath of relief leaving me as I stared down at the coffee and the steam rising from the mug.

“I almost thought I needed to use a megaphone to snap you back from fantasy land,”

My cheeks pinched up with a smile. “Thank you, Camille”

“You’re welcome, my darling. So stop thinking about that kiss and get back to work,”

I froze momentarily, eyes snapping to hers as she lowered herself into the chair beside me. “What kiss!”

I had no recollection of telling her about what had happened in Massachusetts even though she wouldn't stop bugging me about it.

She rotated her chair, a leg crossed over the other as she smirked. “The one that keeps making you touch your lips when you have a deadline to meet by twelve,”

My eyes flew to the wall-clock. Eleven a.m. panic shot through me. s**t! Madame Jo would actually skin me alive. I should have been finalizing every detail of Mr. Hemsworth's retirement party so she could sign off on the plans and I could move straight to execution.

Instead, my mind kept drifting back to that arrogant asshole.

I jerked back my chair in, Camille chuckling.

No thinking. No fantasizing about that asshole who’d probably forgotten that a woman named Gia existed.

I flexed my fingers, ready to switch back into work mode when Jade walked in, balancing three cups of coffee as she squealed.

“Girls, I overheard something while leaving Madame Jo’s office. A client paid eighteen grand just for a consultation. And that client is specifically requesting one of us to manage their event,”

I sucked in a gasp, exchanging shocked glances with Camille. She mouthed, showing me both fingers. “Eighteen-thousand–fucking–dollars just for a less than an hour consultation,” she almost choked on her words.

I couldn't close my mouth.

I was sure the deal was for the big three in the office. Jade. Renee. Louisa. Moore star-planners. The highest earners. The most sought.

Jade had coordinated high-profile events in the white House. Renee helped plan the Met-Gala after-party. Louisa had planned the wedding of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.

And me?

I didn't even want to think about it.

I got the scraps from Madame Jo’s table. Prom decorations. Middle-school graduation. Church Banquets. Baby showers. Community fundraisers.

Of course, I loved my job but sometimes, I wanted more for myself. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn't just catch up to those three.

I was the lowest earner.

A sad smile slipped through my face. I had work to do and now wasn't the time to drown in self-pity.

Just as I reached for the mouse, someone gasped. “Madame Jo—” Jade set down the coffee and quickly hurried to her table.

I caught a glimpse of her through the glass walls, whispering to Camille. “Please cover me,”

Camille did that immediately and as the door opened, the office dropped into silence, the scent of floral perfume consumed the whole space

“Where is…”

I heard Louisa say. “Me?”

“Not you. Too forward…” My heart tempo increased as I put on my glasses. “Where is Gia Heidi,”

My heart stopped. Oh God. This woman was going to give me an earful.

I shot up to my feet.

“Yes. I’m almost done. I just need to go through it and—”

She cut in. “Leave that for later. You have a client. Eighteen thousand. Fifty percent goes to the company. The rest is yours,”

“Follow me,”

My jaw almost hit the floor, Camille squeezing my hands with the brightest smile on her face. The rest looked at me—too stunned to speak.

Me?

How?

I gathered my things. Laptop. Pen. Note-pad. I closed the door to the murmurs trying to decipher who the client was. I mean, who paid such an outrageous amount of money for a consultation?

Exhilaration buzzed at the base of my spine. I couldn't wait to call Mitch and tell him my career was already taking off—

No.

He blocked me already.

Outside the door, I adjusted my glasses, smoothened my hair with my hands and with my laptop and the other things hugged to my chest, I knocked on the door to the consultation room. “Come in—” Madame Jo’s voice followed.

I nodded.

This was it. This was the beginning of greatness.

I opened the door, walking towards Madame Jo who had her back turned to me, facing the client. However, my steps slowly faltered, when the scar slashing the client’s eyebrow came into view.

He tilted his head and my smile died. A slow and dangerous smirk curled his lips, a bolt of rage coursing through me.

Maverick–fucking–Delwanosky.

Madame Jo twisted in her seat. “Gia Heidi, the event planner you specifically asked for,”

Matcha sloshed in my stomach as I fought to keep my composure. She walked past me, whispering. “Don't mess this up,”

I forced a smile and as the door shut, leaving only us two in it, my chest squeezed.

I would just do the work and return to the office.

I avoided eye contact with him even though his gaze had not left mine once as they burned holes through my face.

I set down my things, flipped open my laptop, and switched to my professional smile. “Good morning. I’m Gia Heidi, an event planner with Moore. Can I get your full name,”

For a second, he didn't say anything, my fingers hovering over the keys.

“Maverick Delwanosky,” He spoke and I could swear I heard him smirk.

I blew out a slow breath as I registered it into my document, still avoiding his gaze.

“Mr. Delwanosky, is this event for you personally, family, or for a company?”

From the corner of my eyes, I watched those veiny fingers curl around the mug, my throat working.

“Me,”

“What type of event?” I asked.

“My wedding,”

I froze. Wedding! So, I hired a man who had a fianceè to act as my boyfriend. Kissed him. I also had s*x with his twin who proposed marriage to his girlfriend the next day. Could my life get even more f****d up?

“Congratulations, Mr. Delwanosky. What about the bride? I feel like her presence is also essential here. For preference's sake,”

A low dark chuckle left his mouth. “She is here,”

I glanced behind me. Maybe I’d missed the bride when I walked in.

I saw no one.

“Where?”

“Here. Sitting across from me,”

I turned back to him with a deep frown on my face, and this time I locked eyes with him, shutting down my laptop. He had that smirk on his face that screamed he wasn't here for business, he was here to mess with me.

I closed my laptop because this was obviously going nowhere. “What do you want, Maverick,” I shot him a glare.

He slanted his head. “You owe me money,”

Confusion swirled in my mind for a second before reality slammed into my chest. The fifteen hundred I had promised him if he acted as my boyfriend. s**t!

“Ah. The—”

“Keep it. I’m not here because of that,”

“If not that, then what?”

“Thirty million dollars—” he said, those intoxicating eyes digging into my face. “That is how much Robert Delwanosky” his dad. “—kept in a trust fund but with a condition that whoever got married first between his boys gets to claim sixty percent of the money,”

My breathing stalled and something shameful lit up in me.

Hope.

Could this mean that Mitch was marrying Vivienne because of that money? that I still had a chance?

Suddenly hyperaware of his burning gaze, I sat upright, face blank. “And what has that got to do with me”

Maverick leaned back in the chair with the slow calmness of a man who had all the time in the world. “If the money goes to Mitch. It goes to Vivienne too and that woman isn't exactly someone I trust,”

“So?”

“Robert is marrying his girlfriend in a month at this summerhouse in Hampton. Before the wedding, he wants to spend two weeks with his boys. As proof that I want the trust fund, I need to show up with a partner. So take two weeks off this summer and be my girlfriend,”

My brain stopped working, pupils dilating as I shifted in the seat and cleared my throat. “Excuse me?”

He crossed a leg over the other. “You heard me clearly, Gia”

I was appalled by the effrontery. But of course, he has never changed. He was still the same infuriating man who spoke as though everyone else existed to bend to his will and obey every command that left his mouth with no question.

My lips parted and for a minute, words failed me. I closed my mouth. “Let me get this straight, Mitch is a junior investment banker who has always struggled for everything. Now that he has the opportunity to be comfortable for the rest of his life, you want to sabotage that?” I was more than appalled. “You are heartless, damn”

Where others would have tried to apologize for their choice of words. He didn't. A dark chuckle rasped from his throat instead.

I was done with this.

I gathered my stuff, ready to rise to my feet when—

He slowly set down photographs that made my eyes pop wide in shock. Damning ones. The kind that ruined relationships and made them enemies forever.

My heart slammed hard against my ribcage as I stuttered over my words. “What is the meaning of this?”

His eyes slid up to mine slowly, a smile curling his lips upward. “I’m blackmailing you to be my girlfriend,”

Pictures of me dragging Mitch to the backseat of that darned taxi stared back at me. Another of me with my back pressed against the car, our lips locked in a hot kiss. And more damning ones.

“You bastard!” I blurted.

He wore that calm look on his face. “I knew you wouldn't cooperate so I prepared you a gift. If you don't want to sit on my brother’s block list forever, be my girlfriend,”

He knew the choke-hold Mitch had over me and he was weaponising it.

“Don’t worry, this arrangement comes with a lot of better perks,”

Maverick rose to his full form and I’d never felt so small, hopeless, and cornered.

“Six hundred thousand dollars, Gia,” he said my name with perfect smoothness. “However, I'm not a very patient man. For every day that you stall before getting back to me, you lose a hundred k,”

“Springfield penthouse. Sixteenth floor. Passcode. 2986.”