The Billionaire Needs a Wife - Rachael Eliker Page 0,1

Luke. He rarely cracked a smile and didn’t seem particularly pleased with anyone. And Luke wasn’t wasting his life. He was running a billion-dollar company for a living. That had to count for something.

Slamming his fist against the console, Luke resisted the urge to curse. His mom hated it when he used foul language, so he could at least honor her by not saying anything that would make him get his mouth scrubbed out with soap when he was younger.

“This is never going to work.” Luke chuckled bitterly. Wrapping his hands around the steering wheel, he gripped it tight enough that his knuckles turned white. Where the clouds hadn’t yet reached, thousands of glistening stars gleamed in the night sky. It almost felt wrong that something so lively and beautiful could exist in the world while Luke felt so lost and broken.

Still, never one to be deterred from a challenge, Luke worked the muscles of his jaw and fished his phone from his suit coat pocket. This isn’t the way he imagined it happening, but he’d at least thought about proposing to his girlfriend, Gemma, a time or two. They’d been dating for a solid ten months, so it wasn’t like it’d be totally out of the blue if he asked.

Scrolling through his phone, he landed on Gemma’s number. If she hadn’t been out of town to Boston on a work trip, he might’ve driven over to her penthouse apartment and knocked on her door, even if it was late. Instead, he pushed the call button and jiggled his leg, hoping she’d pick up.

“Luke?” There was a hint of worry in her voice. “Is everything alright?”

Rubbing his hand across his eyes, he said, “Yeah. I just got back.”

“I figured. How was it?”

“As good as could be expected,” Luke said. “You know how Grandfather likes to pull surprises.”

“Oh, Luke.” Gemma chuckled softly. “Don’t be too hard on him. He puts on a front, but everything he does for you is in your best interest.”

He could visualize her as she spoke. Her eyebrows would be pushed together and her full lips tugged down in a slight frown as she concentrated on what Luke was saying and how she would answer. She was a beautiful woman with copper hair and golden eyes, slender and tall enough that in heels, they were almost the same height. She came from the Applegates, a wealthy family the Dorrances had run together with in social circles for years. Luke and Gemma’s match made sense. Not only did she come from good stock, she was funny, sophisticated, compassionate…but Luke wasn’t sure there was a spark there. So far as Luke knew, he’d only felt that feeling with one other person and she was long gone.

Luke scoffed at her comment. “You and I must know two entirely different people because my grandfather only does what’s in the best interest of his company.”

“Which is good for you.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Luke took a minute to let his simmering annoyance die back. He wasn’t angry with Gemma, but her taking Grandfather’s side wasn’t helping the situation.

Luke grunted, “Yeah. I guess so.”

His palms started to sweat as he thought about what he was about to say to Gemma to convince her to say yes. Wiping his free hand on his slacks, he drew in a calming breath and coached himself that proposing was no more intimidating than overseeing a merger and acquisitions meeting. Trying to stifle a laugh, Luke thought how ironic it was that he was comparing proposing to Gemma like it was little more than a business transaction.

“What’s so funny?” Gemma asked through a yawn.

“I was…” Luke scrubbed his hand across the stubble growing from his cheeks. “I was thinking about you and me.”

“What about us?”

“We’ve been dating for ten months, right?”

“About,” Gemma agreed. “You know how bad I am about keeping track of dates like that. We’ve known each other a lot longer than that.”

“True. But ten months of exclusively dating is a lot. I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s time to take it up a notch.”

Silence.

“Gemma?”

When she spoke, her tone was full of hesitation. “I thought I made it clear that moving in together was never going to be a possibility. Call me old-fashioned, but I want a wedding ring on my finger first.”

“I know. Moving in together isn’t what I meant.”

“Then what are you implying?”

Luke drummed his fingers on his thigh and willed his heart rate to slow, so he could quit dancing around the