The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée
Read The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée Online
Authors: Nadia Lee
The last thing wedding photographer Ginger Maxwell wants to do is face her high school sweetheart, who shattered her world when he disappeared after proposing. But when his powerful family wants her to bring him home or suffer utter financial ruin, she has no choice.
Amnesia left billionaire adventurer Shane Pryce with no memory of the golden beauty who claims to be his fiancée, but her gentle soul pulls at his heart. Together they create new memories to replace the ones that drove him away…but will those be enough when Shane finally remembers everything?
Note:
This edition of
The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée
is for sale on iBooks only. If you downloaded this book elsewhere, it is an illegal and/or illegitimate copy. Thank you.
The Pryce Family Series (Billionaires in Love Spin-Off) Reading Order
Book 1:
The Billionaire’s Counterfeit Girlfriend
(Mark Pryce’s Story)
Book 2:
The Billionaire’s Inconvenient Obsession
(Iain Pryce’s Story)
Book 3:
The Billionaire’s Secret Wife
(Vanessa Pryce’s Story)
Book 4:
The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée
(Shane Pryce’s Story)
Book 5:
The Billionaire’s Forbidden Desire
(Dane Pryce’s Story - coming summer 2015)
——
Billionaires in Love Series Reading Order
Book 1:
Vengeful in Love
Book 2:
Reunited in Love
Book 3:
Redemption in Love
Book 3.5:
Sweet in Love
Book 4:
Forever in Love
Book 5:
Merry in Love
——
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The Billionaire’s Forgotten Fiancée
The Pryce Family Book 4
Nadia Lee
To my awesome fans, without whom this book would never have been written.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.” Ginger Maxwell’s hand tightened around her phone as another of her clients canceled. They were going to lose their thirty percent deposit, but unless she could book replacements, she was screwed. It was the fifteenth—or was it sixteenth?—cancellation in the last few days, and that left her calendar blank for months.
Sighing heavily, she sat on her living room couch and buried her face in her hands.
Think
,
think
,
think
. Should she run some kind of promotion or sale? The deposits gave her a little leeway. Some couples might be looking for a last-minute wedding photographer. Anything to fill up her schedule.
The doorbell rang and she thought,
Finally
,
my pizza
. She pulled the door open and shoved a limp twenty-dollar bill out with one hand, her eyes and mind on the food. Just as she realized that there was no cardboard box, a cool voice said, “I don’t need your money.”
She looked up into the face of Dane Pryce, older brother of her former fiancé Shane. Her brain sputtered for a moment. Was this some kind of nightmare? Finally she managed to say, “What are you doing here? How do you even know my address?” She’d moved a month ago.
“It’s not like you’re in witness protection.” Annoyance put an edge to his tone. “If you hadn’t refused to talk to my assistant, I wouldn’t have had to come.”
She crossed her arms. “We have nothing to say to each other.” Shane’s parents had never cared much for her. His siblings had been nice enough, but ever since his sister had seen Ginger on a date with another man and called her names, she didn’t think the rest of Shane’s family had much in the way of warm and fuzzy feelings left for her.
Dane’s eyes grew hard. “Trust me. You’re the last person I want to hang out with.” He stepped around her and walked inside. Dressed in a ridiculously overpriced suit, he looked completely out of place in her modest one bedroom apartment.
Notes and memory cards were scattered everywhere on her dining table, and her laptop whirred, processing images. She cringed at the three old pizza boxes under the coffee table and shirts and shorts tossed carelessly over the back of her couch. She really should keep her place cleaner…except she hated cleaning.
“Pack your things and grab your passport,” Dane said, his gaze sweeping over the mess that was her apartment. “There’s a car coming in two hours.”
“For what?”
“For you to go to Thailand. There’s a jet waiting. Once you land, a driver will take you to our family vacation home.”
Her jaw dropped at his high-handedness. “I can’t just fly off to Thailand!”
“Of course you can. I’ll arrange for pizza to be delivered.” Dane gave her a frosty smile. “And you’ll be paid quite well for your time.”
She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “Is somebody getting married in Thailand?”
He ignored her hostility. People were right. Ice water flowed in his veins. “I don’t particularly want you there, but Shane’s doctor recommended we send somebody. The requirement was that it be someone he’d had a positive relationship with for a long time.”
Doctor?
She’d told herself she no longer cared about Shane. He’d betrayed her, treating her like he didn’t even know her when she’d gone to him. But her heart stuttered anyway, panic flooding through her body. “Is he all right?”
“He had a head injury. I sent some men, but he doesn’t want to come home, and none of us are in a position to drop everything and go. That leaves you.”
“I have a job,” she said, although that wasn’t technically true. Every one of the clients she’d booked for the next six months had cancelled…
“Is that a fact?”
She scowled as a thought crossed her mind. “Did you get my clients to cancel?” When he merely looked at her, outrage closed around her neck. “How
dare
you!”
“You’ll make more money from this than those wedding jobs. People have said a lot of things about me, but stingy isn’t one of them.”
“Just
asshole
and
bastard
.”
A corner of Dane’s mouth lifted. “And proud of it.”
She glared at him. “I can just wait you out. I have the money and resources.”
“And I have more of both. You aren’t going to win this one.”
As infuriating as that was, he was right. She wouldn’t win this one at all.
“It’s hot and muggy in Thailand,” he said. “Pack accordingly.”
* * *
The camera shutter clicked as he took another shot of the name on a heavy ivory card in front of him. The late afternoon light was hitting it just right, and the paper took on a warm undertone.
Shane Lawrence Arthur Pryce.
His full name supposedly, although he didn’t remember. He snapped some more photos. Somebody—he couldn’t recall who—had told him pictures didn’t lie. They captured everything, and if he sifted through them later, he might see something about Shane Lawrence Arthur Pryce, something that might trigger his memory.
Had his parents considered the initials, or had they simply not cared?
His stomach twisted at the thought of his parents, and Shane grimaced. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall a thing about them. But his gut always had the same reaction. Maybe they’d been abusive. Had they beaten him? Were they high-functioning alcoholics or cocaine snorters?
Just because his family was rich didn’t mean they were nice or well-adjusted members of society. He glared at the men standing around the huge living room in the beach house in Thailand. They’d claimed Dane had sent them to take Shane home. They didn’t say it outright, but they’d hinted that Dane was worried.
Yeah
,
right
.
On Shane’s phone were several contact groups. One of them was labeled
Assholes
, and Dane was the only one in it.
The men wouldn’t go back without Shane, so he’d started to ignore them. Dane would give up soon enough. Or not. Shane frowned. Did assholes call it quits that easily?
A car rumbled outside, and Shane felt his eyebrows pull together. Who now?
The engine stopped. Doors slammed, and voices came, words indistinguishable from the house. A man’s voice and a woman’s.
Was it his mother?
Shane’s jaw muscles tightened automatically. Dane—apparently his brother—had threatened to sic her on him if he didn’t come home. Damn it. Shane turned his attention back to the camera he’d been holding in his hands and snapped a few more shots of the card. If he kept taking photos, she might let him be. He didn’t want to go back with his mother either. He didn’t want to go with anybody.
The door opened from behind him. He pretended not to hear it, clicking even faster. There was a massive memory on his camera, and the RAW files were uploaded to some online storage site automatically. Of course he had no idea what his login ID was supposed to be, but he felt no need to find out.
He heard the housekeeper Peeraya welcome the guest. “
Sawadee-ka
,” she said, her voice lilting, and he knew that the greeting had been delivered with a slight bow while her hands were held together in a prayer-like pose. That, he knew. “Let me take your bags, madam.”
Shane heard a woman’s footsteps come through the foyer, even as his stomach clenched harder.
“Shane?” came a soft voice.
He finally swiveled around. It wasn’t his mom, rather the blonde who’d barged into his hotel suite in Johannesburg. She was as gorgeous as he remembered, if a bit thinner. That bothered him, although he wasn’t sure why. The white t-shirt on her hung somewhat loosely, and her cropped denim shorts revealed slim legs. She’d probably been on a diet. All the women around him seemed to be on one, trying to shed every ounce of fat from their bodies. This one seemed to have been successful. He ought to congratulate her.
Her leanness accentuated delicately shaped facial bones. The sky-blue eyes that had looked at him with fury were guarded now, her full, rosy mouth set in an uncertain line. It was as though she was approaching a rabid dog. And he hated her for it. She was the one who’d brought out his temper in South Africa. No need for her to act like she was the victim.
“Ginger, right?” he said, keeping his voice light and mocking.
“Yes.”
Her voice washed over him like a silken dream from long ago, allusive and achingly sweet. He didn’t know why she had this effect on him. Ever since he’d lost his memory, he’d relied on his gut feelings, and right now, they were urging him to simultaneously wrap her in his arms and throttle her. Damn contradictions. She’d had the same effect on him in Johannesburg, which had been why he’d kicked her out of the suite. She’d told him they’d been engaged, but he wouldn’t have committed to a woman who gave him that nasty feeling, would he? Women fell to their knees at the sight of him, ready to do anything he wanted. Why wouldn’t he have chosen one of them?
Nothing clears the head like sex
.
He blinked. Who’d said that? He couldn’t place the voice, but he’d heard it often enough. “Why are you here?”
“Dane sent me.”
That explained why Dane had the Asshole group all to himself. “You can’t stay.”
“Apparently, I can.”
He got up and deliberately moved closer to her, invading her space. She smelled like orchids and butter cream. He inhaled sharply, his body tightening. He wanted her with an intensity that stole his breath.
If she didn’t want to go, why not keep her and fuck her? See if she was the one who could help him shake off the sense of wrongness every time he’d tried to sleep with somebody in the past year.
He studied her mouth, the way her lower lip was slightly fuller than the upper one, and how rosy and delicious they both looked. They’d be sweet under his own lips…or wrapped around his cock. He didn’t even know if she was any good, given how angelic she looked, but he wanted something so dirty and hot it could incinerate all the annoying things on his mind.