Pelican Bay Billionaires

MARI

I fumbled with the hem of my skirt, trying to get the sides to line up just right and give my hands something to do as I followed Pierce's housekeeper through his mansion. She wore a pair of jeans and a baggy t-shirt, but the small apron and duster gave her away. The large home sat on the beach in the little town of Pelican Bay, Maine—a lifetime away from the Central American country I left yesterday.

The last two years of my life were spent in a tiny farming village in the southern part of Guatemala, helping provide fresh water to a community. My life now was so far from the one I left back in San Francisco where I was a high-powered business associate with a handsome boyfriend and run of the town and money. A few really shitty choices and my life completely changed.

It also seemed a lifetime away. I'd forgotten what it's like to live in the lap of luxury. My walk through Pierce's home had me fidgeting, something I hadn't done in years. My mother nagged it out of me by age ten. I was Mari Chambers, the girl who once held the world at her fingertips. Few people saw me as that woman anymore, not even me. The last thing they remembered about Mari was my spectacular downfall from society.

Life was different now, and I needed to get in Pierce Kensington's good graces in order to secure the funding our water project required to keep going. With his help, we'd finally bring fresh water to the last thirty percent of our village.

When I lived in San Francisco I'd donated to more charities than I remembered, but after spending time among the people in Guatemala, I realized their plight couldn't be fixed by throwing money in their direction. They needed help, real help from people willing to dig holes in the ground and do the work to remedy their lacking infrastructure.

It took moving to a third-world country for me to learn that money didn't solve all problems. And that wasn't the only lesson I learned. I'd hoped moving so far away would get me over serious heartbreak, but the distance didn't do it for me. The people did. I had better connections and friendships with the volunteers and villagers on my site than I had in a lifetime of living in San Francisco. These people were genuine.

My mother told me running from my problems wouldn't help and I needed to reclaim my seat in San Francisco, but I had no plans to go back to a place I no longer considered home. I'd run as long as possible.

Melissa, the housekeeper, knocked on a large wooden door at the top of the staircase and waited for a masculine voice to call, "Come in."

She turned back with a smile on her face and nodded at me once, giving me the signal it was okay to enter.

Showtime.

Pierce, the resident bachelor billionaire of Pelican Bay, greeted me from behind his desk with a smile. His dirty blond hair swept back from his forehead and his eyes held kindness, but they were guarded. Like most rich men, he understood my visit involved getting my hands on his money.

Practiced steps, which seemed confident but were anything but, guided me across his office, and I stopped in front of his desk to shake his hand. His skin was soft but his shake firm. Practiced. Pierce Kensington turned out exactly like I pictured—a man of money.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mari. My father said your aunt insisted we meet. Something how she wouldn't take no for an answer."

I smiled and took a seat in the chair across from his desk. I love my Aunt Dorothy. If anyone was a godsend to me, it's her. As the only family member still talking to me after my scandal, she became my lifeline. I ran to her home when my family disowned me, and she helped me decide to volunteer in Guatemala. Two years later and she's actively working the rich people circuit—one she floated in with grace—to get me the funding we needed.

"Thank you. It's good to see people believe in the work I've spent the last two years doing." Hopefully Pierce would be one of them as well.

At a different point in my life, I ran one of the most successful companies in San Francisco and planned to marry the love of my life, Trey Good. I believed together we would take over the city. The dreams I built eroded when Trey met the love of his life. No one told me earlier that our relationship was one-sided. The news hit me like a bullet straight to my heart. Everything I envisioned for us was ruined from one brief vacation. In my heartbreak, I didn't make great choices. Turns out controversy doesn't bring out the best side of my personality.

I'd sold a few truths and a bunch of lies about my ex to the San Francisco gossip rags. At the time, I wanted justice for my broken heart. My family feared the backlash and negative publicity I'd brought on the Chambers' family name. They forced me to step down from my position in the company while I reconsidered my actions and then cast me aside completely when I didn't meet their demands.

Talk about an eye-opening quarter-life crisis.

Pierce cleared his throat, and I smiled, taking a large breath to gather my courage. It had been a long time since I'd asked someone for money or discussed business plans.

"Let's hear what you have to say," Pierce prompted as I sat quietly staring at him with my heart beating out of my chest with nerves.

Even sitting in a crowded board room, I'd never been as nervous as right then. Possibly because so many counted on this presentation going well. This time lining the pockets of stockholders wasn't a concern, but rather the welfare of people. I saw their faces and those of their children every day. They needed clean water to drink, cook, and clean their clothes. Water brought life and my village needed it desperately.

As fast as possible, I laid out the ideas of how we planned to bring water to the last portion of our village. The plans were extensive, but nobody besides us had ever cared to hear the details. Hand-dug wells outside of established homes would be completed by a team, and then we'd add another larger multi-use well to the middle of the city where people who lived on the outskirts of town could gather to collect what they needed. Compared to what we had in America, the dynamics were archaic, but it would be more than they'd ever had in the remote area of Central America.

As my pièce de résistance at the end, I included pictures from a few of the families we'd helped during the past two years. There were dirt-caked faces of small children, smiling parents, and the aging relatives they'd taken in to their homes. They had no nursing homes for the elderly to live in paid for by their government funded retirement money. If the elderly didn't have family to take them in, they were often left to roam and meet worse fates alone on the streets.

I passed the pictures across the desk to Pierce and let him stare at each one on his own. "Your team has done excellent work. I'm impressed, but two million is a lot of money to drill forty wells."

"Not when you're digging them by hand and you lack the experienced labor and equipment to test the water. Our area lacks a centralized government, so we often do the work alone without help or official oversight. They have no irrigation, no water treatment, no base infrastructure to provide irrigation or other water control means." It was like climbing up a hill while pushing a fifty-pound rock.

Pierce nodded his head in agreement. "I'm purchasing the historic bed-and-breakfast in Pelican Bay. It upsets… a few of the locals." He said the words with a tilt of his lips, as if he was smiling at his own word choice. "The city council isn't happy with the gossip the Kensington family has brought recently, and they'd like me to calm the naysayers before I begin renovations. Most people here would prefer everything to stay the same, but that's not how life works."

What did a bed-and-breakfast in Maine have to do with fresh water in Guatemala? I pulled my hair off my shoulder and smiled, hoping he'd get to the point soon. My foot bounced against the carpeted floor.

"What I mean to say is… we both have issues we're dealing with, Mari."

"Yes," I jerked my head in agreement, slightly irritated. "Mine involves providing clean water to a village of people, and yours is not upsetting the old ladies at city hall." Once the words were out of my mouth, I cringed. Not a great way to start our meeting, but he couldn't compare our two situations.

He lifted an eyebrow and smirked, letting me breathe a sigh of relief I hadn't ticked him off too much. "We both have issues, but I think we can help one another. I'm proposing a bargain."

"What kind of bargain?" I had nothing a man like Pierce needed.

He smiled and something in my gut told me to run. I'd never been great at listening to gut instincts, so I kept my butt in the chair. "You help me win over the town and you can have the money."

What? "Oh?"

Did he expect me to give a presentation in City Hall at the next town meeting? Winning over locals wasn't exactly my forte, but if it meant getting water for my village, I'd do whatever it took.

Pierce smiled, but something was off about it. "My father believes if I came across more as a family man, I could quiet the dissenters."

"It makes logical sense." Statistically speaking people—voters—see married men as less threatening than their counterparts. One of those weird facts you learn while running a large company.

"Pretend to be my doting fiancée for one year and the money is yours."

"What?" I asked as I blinked repeatedly. Did I pass out on my way into the room? Surely he didn't say what I heard him say. The idea was crazy. Ludicrous, even.

Pierce shrugged as if he expected my reaction. "People see me as a villain in town. You ease their fears and let me successfully take over the bed-and-breakfast. Once I've transitioned and they see I don't plan to change anything major to the façade, your job will be finished."

"You want to pretend we're getting married?"

He nodded as if what he was asking me wasn't crazy. He looked sane when I walked in, so what the hell happened? "For a year."

"Six months," I blurted out in a quick counteroffer. Fuck. I hadn't used my negotiation business muscle in so long the retort popped out. Half of the original asking price is usually a good starting negotiation, but I should have taken time to stop and think what my words meant.

Pierce's grin grew into a full-out smile. "Deal."

Oh no. What did I just do?

Pierce stood from his chair and leaned across the desk, holding his hand out for me to shake. My palms were sweaty as I took his and sealed my fate on a sunny afternoon in Pelican Bay.

I swallowed thickly as he sat and pulled a checkbook from the top drawer of his desk, hastily scratching on the top one before he ripped it out with a flourish and passed it to me.

Two million dollars paid to the order of WaterWays Organization. The date on the check read six months in the future.

I folded at the substantial check with the weight of our townspeople's expectations and slipped it into my portfolio. When it came to getting fresh water for those families, I would do whatever it took—even play the fake fiancée to a town billionaire so he could fleece its citizens.

Pierce dusted off his hands on his pants and walked around his desk. "Let's get lunch. The bakery has a wonderful sandwich, and I can't wait to introduce my new fiancée to the town."