The Billionaire Who Bought Me

By Kristen James

“Looking for a female companion; not what you think but it pays very well.”

Could I do it? I needed A LOT of money to help my sister stay alive until she could get a heart transplant. Maybe this was the answer.

Zoe Montgomery is intrigued by the ad that promises a lot of money for a few weeks of her time--if she makes it to the end. She’s desperate, but the ad is vague. What will he want from her? His ad mentions travel and "no touching" so what else does he want? She finds the billionaire behind the words just as mysterious and confusing, breaking all her conceived ideas and toying with her emotions. She also discovers the rules in their ruse are made to be broken. Will she make it the full two weeks and get her big payday? And will it be enough money to save her little sister?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristen James
• Release date: Feb 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005899448

Book preview

The Billionaire Who Bought Me

Book One

My Fake Billionaire Boyfriend Trilogy

by Kristen James

Copyright 2022 Kristen James

All Rights Reserved

http://www.writerkristenjames.com

Looking for a female companion; not what you think but it pays very well.

Could I do it? I needed A LOT of money to help my sister stay alive until she could get a heart transplant. Maybe this was the answer.

Why did he choose ME when he could hire any woman?

Zoe Montgomery is intrigued by the ad that promises a lot of money for a few weeks of her time--if she makes it to the end. She’s desperate, but the ad is vague. What will he want from her? His ad mentions travel and no touching so what else does he want? She finds the billionaire behind the words just as mysterious and confusing, breaking all her conceived ideas and toying with her emotions. She also discovers the rules in their ruse are made to be broken. Will she make it the full two weeks and get her big payday? And will it be enough money to save her 14 year old sister?

The Billionaire Who Bought Me © 2022 Kristen James

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Also by Kristen James:

Sarah’s Song – New Adult Music Romance (2022 release)

Talk to Me – New Adult College Romance

The Enemy’s Son – New Adult Romantic Suspense

More Than Memories, Book 1

A Wedding to Remember, Book 2

Embers of Hope, Book 1

More Than a Promise, Book 2

Point Hope

Costa Rica

In A Field of Oranges

A Cowboy for Christmas

The Cowboy Kiss

1. Just a sleazy fake girlfriend for sale over here...

Of course I didn’t want to, but did I have any choice?

I glanced at the text from my friend Jenna that read, Zoe, are you sure you want to do this?

She knew I needed a LOT of money to save my sister’s life and get my family out of financial trouble. Jenna was even the one who told me about this site in the first place. It was called Pay to Play and it allowed men to buy video time with women.

At first I was shocked she’d do something like that, but we had both struggled the last couple of years, and Jenna had two small kiddos to think about. She video chatted with men at night after her kids went to bed. She had a waitressing job in the mornings, but it wasn’t cutting it.

I had tried not to judge her. Actually, I was more worried than anything else. Then my little sister got sick. My parents put all their earthly assets into getting her the best care, trying to keep her alive until she could get a heart transplant. She was only fourteen. The stress got to my dad, and ironically, he had a heart attack. Then my grandfather died. We were drowning.

So, yeah, I asked her about the site.

I needed a way to make money while still having time to be with my family and help them. She showed me the ins and outs of the site, how to avoid things I wouldn’t want to do, and then we noticed the ad.

It was listed under In person, extended projects so I shouldn’t have been looking there in the first place. The title read, Fake GF for a few weeks.

That didn’t sound that bad. The ad read:

Looking for a female companion, someone with little or no online presence or a high profile job. Not what you think but it pays very well. Six figures. Must be willing to travel, sign an NDA, and take on an assigned persona. Reply with your photo and current job.

I just had to go on a trip with this man? Pretty easy for one hundred thousand dollars. Not what you think. It could be a really old guy who wanted a nurse or a pretty lady by his side. I could be changing diapers or living it up like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Who knew why he was doing this. I didn’t care. And I wouldn’t want to get to know him ‘for reals’—just for the job.

And besides, I could keep Jenna updated on my whereabouts to stay safe, if I actually secured a job like this. Maybe I could also download an app that would track my location and report it to Jenna and my family.

I clicked a link to see more about the man behind the ad. His level said Billionaire, but I wasn’t sure if they had to prove their income level. However, I knew he had enough extra money to pay for this project. That wasn’t a small chunk of change to just hand over.

He hadn’t included a photo or any personal information in the bio section, just a sentence: You won’t need to get to know me, just the character sheets for myself and you.

Hmm. Maybe he liked mystery and the power it gave him. This could be about a power rush, something outrageous that he could do simply because he had the money. Would he be mean?

I sent a text back to Jenna: It’s not always about what we want, is it?

Then I sent another text promising to put safeguards in place. My fingers shook, but I hit ‘reply’ to the ad and wrote:

My name is Zoe Montgomery and I’m a home health nurse, although I also work a few hours in my family’s bookstore when I can. My last client recently died so I’m awaiting a new assignment. Attached please find my photo. I just joined this site so I'm still learning how it all works. Thank you for your consideration.

Seriously? It sounded like I was applying for a librarian job, not some fake girlfriend ad.

It’s just an application, Zoe, I told myself, questioning if I had the looks and body for a job like this. I was a nurse who liked helping other people, and a bookworm who collected old fairy tales. This billionaire would read my response and laugh, unless he wanted a naughty librarian?

But I had to look into every way possible to make money to keep Belina alive.

Every time I doubted if I could do this, a memory flashed in my mind in a series of images. It was almost a year ago now. At first I would see Bel smiling at me, tall oaks behind her with loads of green leaves shading the park.

Belina looks so much like me, just as I look like our mother: the same long dark hair, same long body, same long legs. We all share a wide smile and dark eyes that get shiny with happiness or anger.

A flash, and the picture changed. Her smile fell. Her face went blank.

Another flash. She looked at me, her expression both blank and full of dread. I could see something was very wrong.

Another flash, her eyes rolled back, showing white.

And then she fell.

I raced to her, checking for breathing and a pulse. I’d been trained in CPR when I worked at the pool as a teenager, and then again in nursing school. Half of me screamed in panic, but that half was inside. On the outside, I went into action with chest compressions and breaths.

An ambulance came with squad cars and the fire truck, a normal response I guess.

Belina’s heart stopped three times that we know of. The doctor at the hospital said I’d saved her life but it wasn’t over. I just helped her fight for another day. We didn’t know that at the time, of course. But now I had a real chance to do something that would matter, that would make a real difference.

I shook myself from the memory, and shook off the acidic fear it always brought. When it happened, I took action. But when the memory comes, it stops me cold.

My hand hovered over the keyboard. Then, I closed my eyes and tapped a fingernail on the enter key. Message Sent.

2. A billionaire but not what you’d expect

So, I have to admit I got a little rush from sending a response. It was naughty. So unlike me, at least in real life. Normally I only read about people doing things like this.

A message came back in minutes. My heart hammered, but I quickly discovered it looked like an auto-reply full of additional questions. Some were normal, asking for my age. A few were odd:

How tall are you? Did you send a photo at your current weight?

Send 3 full body photos from this year. No nudes.

Send links to ALL social accounts under your personal name or linked to you.

Do you have reasonable literary knowledge and/or any experience in writing and/or publishing?

Strange. The question about writing seemed related to my experience working in my family’s bookstore, so it was possible this wasn’t a general reply. Unless the job needed someone who knew about books and publishing, and everyone received that question?

Either way, it might give me an advantage, but I couldn’t imagine how anything literary was needed for a traveling companion. Whatever. I typed out my answers to all the questions:

Yes, I can leave for several weeks on very short notice as I’m not working right now.

I’m 28 years old, 5’6", and the photo is only a week old.

I’m well versed in American literature and have knowledge of the publishing world. My family loves to read and has run our bookstore for three generations.

I included links to my social profiles, which didn’t amount to much, along with a few more photos. They were all from a recent family dinner in Belina’s hospital room when my mom had taken photos. There was also a lengthy NDA that I read and signed. I sent it all off and started to get up when my laptop beeped. That quickly?

It read, Can you join me on Zoom now? Here’s the link.

Really? He wanted to talk to me?

Maybe he did need someone who knew about publishing. It couldn’t really be my photos.

I panicked in place, paced, then worried I’d lose the opportunity if I didn’t talk to him now. So I hit the link and a few seconds later I was staring at a well-dressed man, but I blinked, worried that I had ended up in the wrong Zoom meeting.

Wow. Not what I expected at all.

For starters, he looked around 30. He was much closer to my age than what I’d expected. He was stunningly handsome with thick hair, a chiseled face, and brown eyes that looked curious and full of energy. It wasn’t until that second that I realized I had been picturing an older man who wasn’t handsome at all. It unsettled me. Was this better? Worse? Calm as cold steel, he openly studied me.

Again I wondered, why did he choose me to interview? He was young, hot, and rich, and he wanted to talk to me.

Wait a sec, why did he need to hire someone? He was gorgeous. Was he a complete jerk or something?

Hello Zoe. Call me Zack.

That wasn’t his real name, was it? I got the feeling he made it up simply because my name started with Z.

Nice to meet you, Zack, I said, although it wasn’t. He could be looking for what amounted to a prostitute for all I knew. Or a scapegoat for his con—wasn’t that how the movies always went? He would use my attraction to him to con me into doing something illegal.

Thank you for answering all of my questions. I know they seem shallow, but I need to find someone with a certain look for this position.

He didn’t want nudes, but he wanted to make sure I was hot enough?

Even weirder, he actually thought I was hot enough. Maybe.

"I’d like to know more about the position." My face reddened. I kept telling myself I was gathering information and I could bail at any time if this ended up being too kinky. Or could I? I really needed something like this.

Yes, of course, he said smoothly. But the first thing I’d like to establish is that you won’t be asking a lot of questions unless they pertain to what you need to know to complete the task.

This was getting weird, but not kinky weird. Just weird. What on earth was he looking for?

Sure . . .

I see that you don’t have an official online presence. That’s good. Are you able to step away from your life, in two days, without being missed? And by that, I mean you can easily give a cover story so people won’t ask too many questions?

So he could murder me out in the mountains? This was turning into that 90s movie Surviving the Game, not anything like Pretty Woman. I promised myself I’d look into ways to keep myself safe, but I didn’t have the extra brain power to think about it while he was watching me.

Yes, that’s all true. I could say I’m on a retreat or something.

He paused. Hopefully I didn’t lose his interest that easily.

Great. Now, are you comfortable playing a part? Saying you’re someone else and having a fake history?

Like witness protection? I asked, biting off my laugh. Yes, I am. I could think of it as playing a character in one of my favorite novels.

Yes, like that. I’ll provide the character but allow for feedback so we can create someone you’re comfortable with. And of course there is an NDA so you can’t discuss this with anyone. There will also be stipulations that if you ever reveal this project, you’ll be financially liable.

That stopped me. Finally I asked, Is this illegal? Could I go to jail?

"No, nothing illegal or dangerous. It will be similar to a vacation but you’ll be a different person. Once we return, you’ll go back to your