Claimed for the Billionaire's Convenience Page 5

  He’d tried ordering more flowers for his office staff but Holly must have blocked his email. He’d picked up his phone to call her when he saw a message from a mate from another law firm.

  Since when are you engaged?

  He stared at the message, wondering if it was from a wrong number, but his mate’s name, Rob, was on the top of the screen. Another message came in from a person at work mentioning something about his ‘engagement’ announced on Twitter. Zack checked his newsfeed, his eyes widening when he saw the Tweet from Kendra, accompanied by the photo she had taken of him and Holly the other night at the divorce party.

  London’s favourite wedding florist’s third time lucky engagement to celebrity divorce lawyer Zack Knight.

  Zack’s heart banged like a bell against his breastbone. A warning bell. A what-the-hell-is-going-on? bell. Who had cooked up such a fantastical scheme? Was it Kendra? His scalp prickled, his pulse thumping like someone was coming towards him with a noose. Or had Holly had something to do with this? Was she deliberately setting him up for standing her up the other night? He was all for a bit of fun, but engaged? No way was he going to buy anyone a ring, only to have them screw him over when they fancied someone else.

  Not even hot little Holly Frost.

  But then he recalled his dad’s words about his lifestyle. Maybe there was a way he could work this to his advantage. He wanted Holly and if he had to jump through a few tricky hoops to have her, then so be it. An engagement between them wouldn’t be the real deal. He would make that absolutely clear. As far as he was concerned, commitment was a curse word he had cut from his vocabulary.

  But a temporary ‘engagement’ could be just the thing to convince his father he wasn’t permanently scarred from his parents’ divorce and it might just help his dad finally move on with his life. He felt a little uneasy lying to his dad, but he figured it would be forgivable if it made his father feel less guilty about him. He would prove to his dad he wasn’t shying away from commitment and he would enjoy a fling with the most fascinating woman he’d ever met.

  If that wasn’t a win-win, he didn’t know what was.

  Zack walked into Holly’s shop later in the day to find her behind the counter, looking at something on the computer. She looked up when the bell on the door tinkled and her smile of greeting faded. ‘Oh, it’s you. Sorry. I’m just about to close.’ Her voice was as arctic as her gaze, taking the temperature of the room down ten degrees.

  ‘Have you heard about our engagement?’

  Her cheeks went the same shade of pink as the peonies on display in the window. ‘I had nothing to do with that Tweet. Kendra sent it before I could stop her.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry if it’s embarrassed you. If we ignore it, hopefully it will go away.’

  ‘What if I told you I didn’t want it to go away?’

  Her big brown eyes rounded. ‘What?’

  Zack leaned down to smell the vase of roses sitting on the counter. He straightened and gave her a winning smile. ‘What if it suited me to be engaged for a while?’

  She stood as stiffly as a sunflower stalk. ‘It might suit you but it doesn’t suit me.’

  ‘You’ve been engaged before. Two times, wasn’t it? What’s one more time?’

  Her eyes narrowed to hairpin slits and she pointed a rigid finger towards the door. ‘Get. Out.’

  Zack wasn’t easily daunted, especially by someone who so clearly was at war with herself rather than him. Commitment might be a word he disliked but the word challenge was his all-time favourite. ‘I’ve been trying to order flowers from your website but can’t seem to get through. Don’t you want the business?’

  ‘I don’t want your business, Mr Knight. And I don’t want your stupid chocolates either.’

  ‘Look, I know we got off to a bad start, but—’

  ‘Did you not hear me?’ Her toffee-brown eyes flashed like daggers. ‘Please get out of my shop before I call the police.’

  Zack blew out a long breath. ‘I suppose I deserve that.’

  ‘Yes.’ She folded her arms and glared at him. ‘You do.’

  He glanced at her tightly compressed lips. He’d spent the last seven days dreaming about her mouth, wondering what it would feel like, what it would taste like beneath his own. He’d never been so fixated on a woman before. Was it because she’d rebuffed him? Maybe he was more like his dad than he realised. Scary thought. ‘Can I buy some flowers before I go?’ He pointed to the glass vase of white and lemon-coloured freesias on the display in the window. ‘They look nice.’

  Holly’s neat eyebrows lifted. ‘Are they for your father by any chance?’

  ‘One of my secretaries,’ Zack said. ‘She’s in hospital with pneumonia.’

  She chewed one side of her mouth as if deciding whether to process the sale or not. ‘Do you want them delivered?’

  ‘No, I’ll take them. I promised I’d pop in after work.’

  Holly moved from behind the counter like she was approaching a dangerous animal. ‘Just the one bunch? Or would you like me to make up a bouquet with a couple more?’

  ‘Whatever you think.’ Zack gave a crooked smile. ‘You’re the expert.’

  She gave him the sort of look a hardened sceptic would give a snake oil salesman. She went to the display and took out four bunches of the freesias and took them out the back to her workroom. He watched her from the shopfront as she snipped the stems and arranged the flowers into one bunch, artfully adding a few pieces of greenery and wrapping the bunch into white and scarlet layers of tissue wrap and tying a wide scarlet satin ribbon around it.

  She came back out and handed it to him. ‘There you go.’

  ‘Beautiful.’ Zack didn’t even glance at the flowers but kept looking at Holly. Her cheeks were still a soft pink and he wondered if he had ever seen a more naturally gorgeous-looking woman. He knew it was going to take some convincing to get her to pretend to be in a relationship with him, but he wasn’t a quitter. He knew she was attracted to him. Knew it in his blood and his bones. Felt it thrumming in the air when their gazes locked. She was fighting it out of pride or a pert desire to put him in his place.

  But he would win her over or die of lust trying.

  She took his credit card and processed the payment and passed him the receipt. Her fingers brushed his and he felt the same electric tingle shoot up his arm and straight to his groin. She blinked and pulled her hand back and used it to push some strands of her hair back behind her ears, her gaze moving away from his.

  There was a silence so intense you could have heard a rose petal drop.

  ‘So what are we going to do about our engagement?’ Zack asked.

  Holly’s slim throat moved up and down as if she were trying to swallow something large and distasteful. ‘You have to tell Kendra to retract her Tweet. I tried to but she wouldn’t listen. Apparently she shared some of my negative posts about men on social media. She has more followers than stars in the sky. No wonder my business has hit a rough patch recently. I’ve had four big weddings cancelled for this summer. Kendra has this weird idea she’s helping me by setting me up with you but I can do without that sort of help.’ Her gaze narrowed to an accusing glare. ‘Anyway, I thought you said when we first met at her divorce party that no one would believe it if you got engaged. Well, newsflash. Everyone’s flipping well believing it.’

  ‘If your business is suffering a low point, then running with our engagement is one way to turn things around.’ Zack was a little shocked at how keen he was on going with this engagement charade but he had his own issues to address. Important issues that could no longer be ignored. ‘Do you need some help financially to tide you—’

  ‘No.’ Pride flashed in her gaze. ‘I’m fine.’

  Zack drummed his fingers on the counter. ‘We’ll have to get you a ring.’

  Holly reared back from him as if he’d breathed tong
ues of fire. ‘Are you out of your mind? We do not need a ring because we’re not engaged.’

  ‘Think about it, Holly.’ He locked his gaze on her feisty one. ‘This could work for both of us. Your business will get a much-needed boost and I’ll improve my reputation as a reformed love-them-and-leave-them playboy. It’s a win for both of us.’

  She chewed at the side of her mouth, her gaze still sceptical. ‘But why do you want to improve your reputation? I thought you weren’t the settling-down type?’

  ‘I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend to be engaged for a while.’

  ‘How long is a while?’

  He shrugged. ‘Who knows? A few weeks? A few months?’

  Her mouth fell open. ‘A few months?’

  He grinned. ‘Okay, so maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but how long do you think it will take to improve things here?’

  She gnawed at her lip again. ‘It’s April so we usually get bookings steadily from now on for spring and summer next year. Sometimes we get them at short notice for the current year—or at least I hope we will to make up for the four we’ve lost.’ Her forehead creased into another tight frown. ‘But you didn’t tell me why you’re willing to do this. It’s not just about your reputation, surely?’

  He held her gaze. ‘You can’t guess?’

  She moistened her lips. ‘Pretending to be engaged to you doesn’t mean I’ll sleep with you.’

  ‘But you want to.’

  Her cheeks pinked up again. ‘I need to think about this for a day or two. By the way, thank you for the chocolates.’

  ‘I was going to send you flowers, but thought it might be a bit weird.’

  She met his gaze, her shoulders dropping on a sigh. ‘No one ever buys me flowers and yet they’re my favourite thing in the world.’

  ‘Really? No one? Ever?’

  She shook her head. ‘Nope.’

  Zack pointed to the peonies in the window. ‘Can I buy five bunches of those?’

  ‘Five?’ She stepped from behind the counter, her expression wary.

  ‘They remind me of the colour of your cheeks when I make you blush.’

  ‘I do not blush,’ she said and promptly did so. ‘Do you want them delivered?’

  ‘No. I’ll deliver them myself.’

  Holly went back to the workroom and wrapped the peonies in tissue wrap and tied them with a different coloured ribbon this time—a lime-green one. She brought the bunch out to him and laid it on the counter while she processed the transaction. She handed him the receipt and the flowers. ‘I hope your secretary feels better soon.’

  Zack slipped the receipt into his trouser pocket and picked up the peonies and the freesias. ‘Thanks. I’m sure these will cheer her up.’ He flashed a smile. ‘Have a good evening.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She paused for a beat and added with the ghost of a smirk, ‘Say hello to your father for me.’

  ‘Maybe I’ll introduce you to him one day.’ Zack had never introduced any of his lovers to his dad before. There had never been time because he didn’t stay with a lover long enough. Nor had he ever wanted to. But he had a feeling his dad would approve of Holly. She had a girl-next-door appeal that was utterly enchanting.

  ‘That would be...interesting.’ Her eyes drifted to his mouth and then back to his eyes, the hint of peony pink still glowing in her creamy, soft cheeks. ‘Just saying I did agree to this charade...would you be willing to come to my sister’s engagement party with me?’

  Zack read people’s faces all the time in his line of work and something about Holly’s expression told him there was a lot riding on her request even though it seemed reluctant at first.

  ‘I’ve never been to an engagement party before.’

  ‘Really?’

  He gave a lopsided grin. ‘I’m an engagement party virgin. Divorce parties? Well, that’s another story.’

  Doubt flickered across her features. ‘So...will you go with me?’

  ‘Where’s it being held?’

  ‘At my parents’ house just outside Bath.’ She blew out a breath. ‘And I apologise in advance for my family. They can be a bit overpowering.’

  ‘I’m sure I’ll survive. When is it?’

  ‘Next month.’

  ‘Sure, I’ll take you,’ Zack said. ‘But that means you’ll have to attend some functions with me too. Agreed?’

  The tip of her tongue swept over her lips. ‘Okay...’

  ‘Cool.’ Zack thought he’d better leave before he was tempted to lean across the counter and plant a kiss on her beautiful lips.

  Man, oh, man, did he have the lust bug bad.

  * * *

  Not long after Zack left her shop, Holly got a phone call from her mother and two of her sisters. They were on a five-way merged call and there was no escaping their interrogation. ‘Is it true?’ Her mother’s voice couldn’t have sounded more excited. ‘Are you engaged to the Zack Knight?’

  Holly hated lying to her mother, but she couldn’t see any way out of it. She couldn’t attend another family gathering without a partner and, since Zack was strangely willing to be her plus-one, she decided to run with the charade for the time being. She had to do something about her business and her sister’s engagement party. Two birds, one very handsome and very tempting stone. ‘We met through a mutual friend. I know it’s very sudden but I’ve never felt like this before.’ That much was true. She had never felt the delicious buzz of electricity his touch evoked from anyone else. ‘And I’m sorry you found out about it on Twitter. I didn’t realise Kendra would announce it before I’d told my family and close friends.’

  ‘I did wonder why you hadn’t told us, but we’re so delighted you’ve found someone, darling,’ her mother said. ‘I’ve been so worried about you being so unhappy for so long.’

  Unhappy wasn’t quite how Holly would have described herself over the last few years. Pissed off. Cynical. Resentful, maybe. ‘Thanks, Mum. I’m really happy. You’re going to love Zack.’ There isn’t a woman alive who doesn’t.

  ‘You go, girl,’ Katie chimed in. ‘He’s traffic-stopping gorgeous. No wonder you’ve fallen so quickly. When are you getting married?’

  ‘We’re not rushing to get married just yet,’ Holly said. ‘We want to enjoy each other before we start planning a wedding. Besides, I don’t want to steal Belinda’s thunder. Her wedding should be the focus for now.’ Who knew she was so good at lying? Even she was starting to believe she was actually engaged to Zack.

  ‘Aw, thanks, Holly,’ Belinda said. ‘You’re always thinking of others. But don’t have a long engagement, will you? Not like the other two.’

  ‘Zack’s nothing like Peter or Owen,’ Katie said. ‘You can tell that just by looking at him.’

  ‘I’m thrilled for you, darling,’ her mother said. ‘You’ll be bringing him to Belinda’s party next month, won’t you? I can’t wait to meet him. Dad and I have been so worried about you not meeting anyone and here you are, engaged to London’s most eligible bachelor.’

  ‘Yes, well, it has been a bit of a whirlwind but when you know, you know,’ Holly said.

  ‘True,’ her mother said. ‘Which was what worried me about Owen and Peter. I always thought you weren’t absolutely sure about either of them. There didn’t seem to be the right chemistry between you.’

  Holly had been subjected to her mother’s views on good chemistry for most of her adult life. Even her father, on occasion, expressed his opinion on the subject. She had always blamed herself for not being a sensual person but, since meeting Zack, she wondered if that was strictly true. Her senses went wild when he was around. He only had to look at her with those ink-blue eyes and she melted. How was she going to resist him when he seemed so determined to seduce her?

  Damn it. She wanted to be seduced. She wanted to be wooed and kissed and caressed and pleasured like
she’d never been pleasured before. But she was worried if she got involved with him physically it would change the power dynamic between them. She would be just another one of his lovers, someone he got involved with for a short time before he moved on. She had never been a casual dater. It was all or nothing for her. That was why she’d ended up engaged twice to men who, in hindsight, were not the best matches for her.

  But was Zack, with his fast-living lifestyle, any better?

  Holly had barely ended her call with her mother and sisters when Sabrina came into the shop. ‘I just saw this thing on Twitter that said...’ She peered at Holly’s pink cheeks. ‘You’re not... Are you?’

  Holly let out a long breath. ‘No, but you have to pretend I am engaged to him. I can’t let anyone know it isn’t real.’

  ‘But...why?’

  ‘I want to improve my image. To not be known as such a man-hater. It’ll be good for business.’

  Sabrina opened and closed her mouth. ‘I can think of heaps of ways you could do that without pretending to be engaged to a man who only a week ago you said you hated with a passion. Are you nuts? And why would he agree to that?’

  ‘I’m not sure but I’m not looking this gift horse in the mouth.’ Although she was pretty keen on kissing that mouth. Way too keen.

  ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Holly?’

  ‘Stop worrying,’ Holly said. ‘I’ve got it in hand. He’s agreed to come to Belinda’s engagement party with me next month. If nothing else it will ward off my mother’s matchmaking attempts.’

  ‘Yes, well, there is that, I suppose.’ Sabrina’s brow furrowed. ‘I have to suffer the same whenever my parents invite Max Firbank over. I don’t know why they insist Max and I would be an ideal match. They’ve been trying to set us up for years. But neither of us can bear the sight of each other. He thinks I’m immature and disorganised and I think he’s a stuck-up control freak.’

  Max Firbank had been a constant presence in Sabrina’s life, being the godson of her parents and Sabrina being the goddaughter of his. He was a handsome and successful architect and travelled the world designing properties for the equally rich and famous.