Page 34 of Her Billion Dollar Groom

“No problem. I’ve always got time for my fans.” She giggles girlishly and it amazes me that nobody else can see what an amazing acting job this is. Eliza is not like this, not really. She’s unpredictable and untidy. She couldn’t be further away from some middle-aged man’s dream girl if she tried.

I don’t think Eliza even knows how to cook.

I definitely don’t want to know what kind of thoughts people like Fisher have about her.

But she does know how to win people over. She knows exactly how to adapt like a chameleon, how to change her smile to suit the mood and how much she needs to pout or act like a dumb child to get people to fall for the act.

“You know my husband, don’t you?” she says, gesturing at me. Awkwardly, I nod at him. “This is Jason. He owns the most amazing company.”

“Oh, really?” Fisher asks, and that’s how I know he’s sunk. When I talked to him, he turned off right away. Talking to Eliza though, his eyes are sharp, glittering.

I can’t believe Eliza is doing this. I have had four meetings with this man, and he clearly doesn’t remember a single thing about me.

“Yes. It’s called Handshake. You might have heard of it - it’s gotten really popular lately.”

Fisher furrows his brow. “You know, to my shame, I don’t think I have. And I’m supposed to know all about these things.” He lets out a chesty laugh, and we laugh with him. Then he leans in and says, “Tell me more, Miss Eliza.”

And just like that, she launches into a captivating spiel about Handshake. I haven’t said a word, but somehow, here she is tricking this guy into wanting some part of my company. Well, it’s not tricking, there’s no deception here. She’s just winning him over in a way that I’ve never been able to. She has this magnetic charm, something so powerful you can’t look away from it.

I can barely hear the deal they’re making over the rushing in my head, but it doesn’t matter.

I know that Eliza has my best interests understood. I trust her without hesitation.

When Fisher reaches out to shake my hand to agree to a deal, I take his and don’t even question what Eliza has been saying to him. “Thank you,” I croak.

Fisher excuses himself, and I turn to Eliza. “You’re a wonder,” I say. “You’re a miracle.”

“I’m just helping my husband out. You would do the same for me.”

“I would,” I say. “But you have no idea how long I’ve been trying to get a deal with Fisher. I’ve met him so many times, and he didn’t remember me at all. And yet after ten minutes of conversation with you, you’ve struck me a better deal than I could ever have imagined. How do you do that?”

“Magic,” she says with a quick raise of her eyebrows.

There’s nothing I can do but agree. “You are magic,” I say, taking her hands. “Thank you for everything. For all of this. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“Stop it,” she says, flapping her hand at me as if to tell me that it’s not a big deal.

But it is a big deal to me, and I need her to understand that. “You really have no idea how much you’ve done for me, do you? You’ve given me so much more than I could ever give you.”

“You’ve changed my life,” she says softly, staring deep into my eyes, her own wide and bright blue drawing me in like a void I can’t escape from.

“And you’ve changed mine,” I whisper back.

Suddenly my heart starts racing and my head spins dizzily, like the world is turning upside down around me. I snatch my hands away from her, realizing that perhaps this is a little too intimate for out in public.

Her face falls, so I try to smile again. “Come on, then,” I say. “Let’s go and use my secret weapon to charm some of the other people around here.”

“I’m your secret weapon?” she says, her eyes wide and a hand over her heart.

She’s so adorable. I think my heart stops beating seeing the look in her eyes. “Of course you are! You’re brilliant with people. I couldn’t do this without you,” I say.

What I don’t say is that I want her to be my secret weapon for the rest of time.

CHAPTER 20

ELIZA

As always, Jason is working. I guess it’s good that he’s so passionate and driven. Of all the traits your fake husband could have, passion is one of the better ones. But that passion almost always comes at the cost of him being fun.

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