Page 27 of Billionaire In Vegas

“I’ll give you half of everything.”

I almost fell off the sofa. “What? What are you talking about?” I shook my head as if to clear it.

“If you stay married to me, I’ll give you half of my trust fund.”

“Let me get this right, you want me to condemn myself to a living hell—”

“More like purgatory.”

“Okay then. So, you want me to live in purgatory indefinitely for a lousy inheritance.”

“Not indefinitely. Just six months. And I’m set to inherit two billion dollars.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it. I opened it again and then closed it.

“I think I feel sick. Who has that kind of money? How’d your dad make that much money? Steal it from God?” I leaned my head against the back of the couch. One billion dollars. He was going to give me one billion dollars. Now I began to feel a little ripped off that Oliver had only given me five grand for the trip. To a billionaire, five thousand dollars was probably like fifty cents to us regular people.

“So you’re offering to give me a billion dollars if I stay married to you?”

“Yes, exactly—but I mean, in name only. You can still lead your life. Have your freedom. I just… well we just need to convince Dad that we’re a couple.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. I can be civil when I need to be.”

Jude chuckled dryly. “Yes, you can be quite charming when you need to be.”

I didn’t like his tone, but I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of my lips. “You’re mocking me.”

“I sure am,” he sat down next to me and placed a hand over mine.

“So what do you say, Lacey? One billion dollars and all you have to do is pretend to like me.”

“Hmmm... that’ll be a stretch worth more than a billion dollars.”

“Ouch,” he joked.

I laughed and then quickly became serious. “You know, we’ll need ground rules. And what if I, I don’t know, want to date someone—”

“Are you serious? From what I understand you’re perpetually single.”

“Hey!”

“That’s what Misha said.”

“Misha has a big mouth.”

“I think she’s charming,” he said with a small smile.

“She’s married,” I snapped.

He smiled widely then, “Jealous?”

I opened my mouth to deliver a stinging reply and decided to actually act my age. I knew he was ribbing me, trying to get a rise out of me. I felt like I’d been arguing with him since we’d first met. Somehow he brought out my passionate side, which I didn’t even know I had. A lot had changed in the span of 24 hours. I’d changed, or maybe I’d always been like this and never gave myself a chance to live a little. Yes, that was it. I was repressed. Leave it to Vegas to bring out my wild, passionate and promiscuous side.

I sighed. “I’m not jealous. It’s just that if we’re going to fake a marriage, the least you can do is not point out how hot my friends are.”

“Does that mean you’re in?” He looked resplendent.

“Like I said, I’m leaning towards yes, but I have a few rules I would like to cover first.”