I conclude by repeating what I told her earlier. “Two hundred million dollars to bail out your family hotel. In exchange, you become my wife for a year?—”
“Why one year?” Her eyebrows knit together. “You said the board wants to appoint a new CEO within six months.”
“We’ll raise eyebrows if we get divorced right after I’m appointed. We’ll wait it out for an extra six months to appease any suspicions. At the one-year mark of our blissful marriage, I’m willing to forget all about the bailout money you owe me. We get a quiet divorce and you get to walk away with a hotel reshaped and debt free.”
She lets out a long sigh. “I understand more than anyone on this planet your desire to want to keep control over your family business, but why not hire an actress or a model? Those women are groomed and trained to play a role. I’m not.”
She’s astute.
“Because it’s too obvious, and well, too fake.”
The more the board made it their mission to prevent me from claiming the position that’s rightfully mine, the more my mind concocted crazy scenarios. I ran down the list of possibilities of women I could approach, but none of them were suited to play the role. Most would end up becoming a headache to get rid of, and none of them had a nice piece of real estate I could hold over their heads. Desperate, I even went as far as contacting a few agents to scout an up-and-coming actress looking for the role of a lifetime. Nothing was going to stand in my way.
Niels’s demand was my golden ticket. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Could this plan backfire and explode in my face? Possibly, but I have something Michaela desperately wants. Pride runs through her veins, and I’m certain we can make this work. It’s all about leverage.
“But we’re strangers. We have nothing in common,” she says.
“I disagree. We have a lot in common.”
She lifts her chin up in defiance. “Name one thing. And us being humans doesn’t count.”
“Off the top of my head, we have five things in common.”
“This, I have to hear.” She sits back against her seat and crosses her arms over her chest, giving me an eyeful of the tempting swell of her breasts. It’s an effort to pull my gaze up to hers. “One, our fathers survived massive heart attacks.”
The edge in her expression vanishes. “Thank God for that.”
“Yes. Dad isn’t a hundred percent, but he’s alive and in many ways, he’s still the same stubborn man he always was.” I can’t help my smile.
“I can relate. Daddy is the same way.”
“Two, we have the same middle name.”
“You’re lying.”
I shake my head. “You’re Michaela Kennedy Knight Villiers and I’m Phoenix Kennedy König.”
Her eyes widen. “Seriously?”
“Your search fell short.”
“I was pressed for time. You decided at the last minute to turn dinner into a late lunch.”
“Fair enough,” I say. I keep going. “Three, our last names not only sound regal, but we can trace our roots back to royalty––yours British, on your mother’s side, and mine, German.”
She cocks an eyebrow. She’s impressed. “I’m guessing you did a background check on me.”
“I have a large box filled with all your dirty secrets, Michaela Knight.”
She shoots me a doubtful side gaze. “If that’s the case, you need to demand a refund from whoever conducted that shoddy investigation. You got robbed. And duped. My life isn’t that exciting. Some might call me a goody two shoes. Until my trip to Nepal, I was.”
Michaela’s background is impeccable. She’s as squeaky clean as they come. No bad publicity with her name on it. No drug arrests. No lewd behavior. No drunken foolishness caught on camera. No string of questionable and unsavory photos on social media with her private parts exposed. She’s not a bad business decision waiting to happen. Dean and Thana’s actions will cast a dark cloud over her name, but we can handle the punches when they come because she’s not in the wrong, therefore she won’t drag our family name to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
She’s perfect for the role of my fake-wife.
“I wanted to get a reaction out of you,” I say.
“Congratulations, König, you did. So, let’s hear the rest of the things we have in common.” She gestures with her hands, coaxing me to continue. The defiance in her tone… as present as her feistiness.
