Falling For The Billionaire Playboy: Rivalry & Passion

MATTHEW'S POV

"Hey Pretty Face."

I turn around to come face-to-face with Jake. He is wearing that his lopsided grin that spells nothing but mischief. I can't remember the last time I saw him wearing nothing but a suit, but today he is wearing a black hoodie, sweatpants and white trainers. He looks a little sweaty so I'm assuming he is out for a run too.

"I've not seen you around these parts, Mattie. Did you find out where I run and decide to pay me a little visit?" He winks at me and broaden his smile. Despite myself, I blush really hard.

"What's wrong Mattie? You look like you did at your engagement party." He takes a step forward and I take two steps back. His face contorts into a frown and he nods solemnly.

"Yeah, I forgot you don't think I'm good enough to be around you or touch you." Before I can counter the statement, Jake takes one giant leap forward, crashing into me which makes me stumble in surprise. I feel his strong arm wrap around my waist, pulling me up thereby stopping my descent.

"It doesn't matter if you don't want me near you though," he whispers. I can feel his breath fan against my lips and I gulp. His eyes dart to my lips. "The thing is, I can't stay away from you, Mattie, so you just have to deal with it." Without warning, he presses his lips against mine. It feels like a million volts of electricity coursing through my veins and I open my mouth to receive him properly. That's when I hear a loud sound, sort of like a bell.

"Aren't you going to answer that Matthew?" Jake says as he pulls away from our kiss. I frown at him, confused because Jake never calls me 'Matthew' and I didn't bring my phone out with me. I never jog with it.

"Matthew…Matthew…"

I wake up with a start. My heart is pounding erratically against my rib cage and my head is banging like crazy.

It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

"Matthew!" My head jerks towards the direction of my room door. The bell goes off again and I hear banging on the door. I reach for my phone on my bedside table and check the time. It is only a little past seven on Sunday morning.

"Matthew, it's Anna. Open up."

More banging follows suit and I scramble to my feet. That's when I look down and see my erection.

Shit.

 I had a romantic dream about Jake.

I sink back into my bed, ignoring Anna calling out to me.

This can't be possible. Why will I have a dream about kissing Jake? I don't even like Jake. And why did it feel so real and so good? Why the hell did I like kissing Jake in my dream?

"Maa-ttheewww!" Anna's yell brings me out of my reverie. I drape the duvet over myself to hide my raging erection and then scamper off to the door.

"What?" I ask the moment I swing the door open.

"I have amazing news. Two amazing news." Her enthusiasm is infectious. I find myself smiling too, all thoughts of Jake and kissing tucked at the back of my mind.

"Prince Ivan is planning on coming to the United States. He is set to visit three different states, staying in each of them for a week. His agent just called and they have decided to lodge at Aiko Hotels in all three states." She squeals and claps excitedly. The wheels in my head are spinning.

Prince Ivan. Second in line to the throne and only the most influential figure of this generation. If he stays at Aiko Hotels while he's here, we can easily be the number one hotel again. Who's being left in the dust now, Sheila from Business Hut?

"This is amazing! When is he coming?"

"Next week." Anna opens my wine cabinet and brings out a bottle of Chardonnay.

"Isn't it a little too early to be drinking?" I ask, raising my brows at her.

"This is a celebration drink. Besides, the follow up good news will be extra cause for it." She swallows what she has poured in her glass and continues. "Sheila just called. She wants to have an exclusive with you for the Business Hut."

My joy evaporates instantly, but for some reason, I become harder. I wrap the duvet tighter around me.

"In what universe is that news better than the prince?"

"In the universe where you have to brag about it, but subtly so you wouldn't seem like such a novice."

That did make sense. Just last week, the Business Hut released an article about how Aiko Hotels was being left behind and how Jacob's little housing unit was taking over. If I 'accidentally' let slip that the second in line to the throne was staying over at my hotel, Sheila would have no choice but to retract her statement! And it'll help so much if she knew that they contacted us and not the other way round. Oh, I can't wait to see the look on Jake's face when he reads it in the magazine.

"Okay. Fine, I'll do the interview. By the way, Anna, I understand how very important these two pieces of information are, but did you really have to come up to my hotel room this early in the morning?" I venture back to my bed with every intention of going back to sleep and making that nightmare right, and by that, I mean kick Jacob D'Artagnan in the balls if he tries to come close to me like that again.

"Yes, because the interview is by nine and you haven't called your father back yet."

After thirty minutes of speaking to my father on the phone, hearing him lecture me about how to run my own business and keep the tabloids from writing rubbish, and also highlighting the things I should and shouldn't do when I get married to Gina such as not leaving in the middle of my engagement party and addressing all the guests that took time out of their busy schedule to come and celebrate with me, I head to the bathroom to get myself ready for my interview with Sheila.

The excitement I feel is refreshing and quite calming. Anna has a whole team of stylists out in the living room by the time I come out. She even has them pick out my suit; a three-piece, dark blue Ralph Lauren pinstripe suit.

"Okay, let's go."

We head downstairs to the private lobby where the meeting is to take place. Sheila is sitting there waiting for me, a big smile on her face while her camera man sets up. She stands to shake my hand and greets Anna too.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview last minute. I don't usually ask my interviewees on such short notice but it was a prerequisite for the interview I needed to have with Jacob D'Artagnan."

The smile on my face immediately melts away. What does she mean by that? She has a meeting with Jacob?

I turn to face Anna, and she looks just as confused as I am.

"I don't understand. You didn't mention anything about a meeting with Mr. D'Artagnan too. When were you planning on telling me that?" I'm impressed by how professionally angry my assistant sounds.

"I'm sorry, but it was a request from Jacob himself." Seeing that she is referring to him by his first name, I am even more convinced that they slept together. "I told him I wanted an interview with you and he requested to join in. He said if I let you know he was involved you might say no and I wanted to interview you both simultaneously."

"You're damn straight I'm going to say no. I can't believe you'll do that…"

"Hey Pretty Face."

My blood runs cold and I stiffen at the sound of his voice. As I turn around, I pray silently that he isn't the one, or that I am having another dream and that this time around I will act according to the contempt I feel for him.

"You're here. Great, I'm glad you could make it." He has on a white dress shirt that isn't buttoned completely, allowing for a portion of his chest to be visible. The black blazer he's wearing makes his broad shoulders look even broader and his long legs keep him standing firm and erect. He waves in front of me and that's when I realize I've been staring at him for a while. My face feels hot.

"Careful there, Mattie. One might think you're checking me out."

"Great. Can we get on with the interview now?" I stare at Sheila, deciding whether I should split my irritation for Jake into two and gave her a part of it or I should have a completely different form of irritation. When she offers him a seat ridiculously close to her, I opt for the latter.

"So, you two are being tagged as business rivals, but there is this picture of you together looking friendly and also another of you at his engagement party. What was that about?"

Jacob grins and touches her shoulder. It is a light touch, but I bet if she was standing her legs would turn to jelly and she would have fallen over.

"Well, Sheila, we may be business rivals as the public so puts it, but other than that, Mattie and I are…close." The way he looks at me when he says 'close' makes my heart skip a beat. I attribute that to the fact that I am highly enraged at his answer and so my heart rhythm is affected.

"We actually went to college together. We've known each other for twelve years now."

"We aren't close," I say with as much venom as I can put into words. Jacob looks hurt at my words, but it only takes me a second to realize that he is feigning it.

"Oh, don't say that, Mattie. Of course we're close. Remember all the fun we had in college? All the pranks and games we played. Do you remember the goat cheese incident?" He laughs, throwing his head back and slapping his thigh. My face is in flames and I am so mad, I shake like a leaf in autumn. I can't believe he'll mention the goat cheese incident so casually!

In our final year in college, we had a cheese eating contest in our dorm. Of course, I didn't participate in it, and neither did Jake, but the guys who did messed up the whole place and left cheese everywhere. When the cleaners came, they were able to get most of the cheese out, but one piece remained close to the entrance of the lobby. No one wanted to pick it up so we just left it there for weeks. Then one day, I came back from class and saw that it was gone. I went to my room, laid back on my bed and drank the milkshake I had ordered earlier with fries and a burger. It had a different taste from what I was used to, but I just assumed it was because they had a new person come in.

When I opened the door to go out, I saw Jacob and his posse standing outside, all grinning like the idiots they were.

"Did you have your dinner yet, Mattie?" Jake asked. He had his hand placed over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Yeah, what about it?" As soon as I my response came out, they all burst into derisive laughter. I'm talking loud, boisterous, taunting laughter. I felt so foolish standing there, not knowing what was so funny. Then, Jason stops long enough to say, "I didn't know you enjoyed rotten goat cheese so much. I wouldn't have thrown out all my cafeteria food then."

It took me a while to decipher what he meant. Turns out, the goat cheese that was on the floor was scooped up by them, some parts shredded while the rest was blended. They had mixed it in my milkshake and hamburger and left it at my doorstep. I had diarrhea for three freaking weeks because of them. Ever since, they made it a habit of sending me cartons of rotten goat cheese up until we graduated. Thinking about that time just makes me hate him even more.

"What's the goat cheese incident?" Sheila asks.

"Nothing!" I scream, startling them all. That just makes Jake happier and his devil grin appears.

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

I swear to God Sheila…

"Prince Ivan is coming to America," I blurt out before anyone of them says anything more about the goat cheese fiasco. Jake's eyes shrinks and he stares at me suspiciously. I feel a sense of pride at the idea that he doesn't know something I know for once.

"He is?" Sheila asks. It is the first time she's showing this much interest in me since the interview started.

"Yes," I say matter-of-factly. Jake adjusts in his seat and recovers from the shock in record time.

"Well, obviously, he'll be staying at Gemini Hotels."

I almost laugh at how cocky he sounds. I open my mouth to tell him that he is being delusional for thinking that, but I close it. It'll be so much better and much more fun for him to brag about it to the whole world and end up being humiliated when the prince stays at Aiko.

"You really think so?" I ask.

"Of course, Pretty Face. It's the freaking prince. Where else will he stay if not at the number one hotel in America?"

I say nothing after that. The interview continues with Sheila asking Jake most of the questions and Jake answering the questions directed at me. At some point I start counting sheep in my head, knowing they aren't going to miss me at all.

After an hour or so, the interview comes to an end. I make a mental note to tell Anna never to accept an interview from Sheila or any other straight female from Business Hut.

"How did you know the prince was coming? It hasn't been announced yet if not, I would have known." Sheila and her cameraman are gone now and Anna decides to go back to my room to check something out. I know she only said that to give me and Jake privacy though.

"I can't expose my sources now, can I?" I reply coyly. He is doing a great job at hiding his annoyance at the fact that I know what he doesn't. The thing with Jake is that he never shows when he's angry. He prefers to cover everything up with a smile. That's one of the reasons I don't like him; you can never tell if he genuinely cares about you or not.

"You don't think because you know he's coming that he'll stay over here, now, do you?" His tone is doubtful and challenging, and it pisses me off. He thinks he's so great and that everything revolves around him. For goodness' sake, we had seven nobles stay at Aiko Hotels just last month. I tell him so, and he laughs at me like I'm stupid.

"Nobles? What are we, in the eighteenth century? Look, Mattie, don't beat yourself up about it, okay? I won't lie to you, Aiko is a very beautiful place and I would recommend it to my enemy, but let's face it, Gemini is the best."

"Why, because of their two-faced services and two-faced owner? You pride yourself in your ability to deceive people and make them think you really care about their needs and feelings, but I'm gonna tell you this, Jacob, it makes you nothing but a bad and despicable human being."

Jacob's countenance is unreadable. I hate it when he gives a blank expression, making it impossible to read him. I hate that I am very much readable and have a lousy poker face.

"I mean, it wouldn't be named Gemini Hotels if the double standard isn't a given." Like now, I can't tell if he's joking or serious. So frustrating.

"I'll tell you what, Pretty Face."

"Can you stop calling me that?" He ignores me and carries on like I didn't just say something.

"Let's make a deal. If the prince stays over at your hotel, I'll give you my collection of classic cars that you have been coveting since we were in college."

My mind freezes and my inhalation and exhalation rate increases. If there was one person who had the greatest vintage car collection in the whole world, it would be Jacob. I know that because I overheard him bragging about it to the entire football team and the girls he came across. He even had pictures to show for it. Plus, I saw it one time when I went over to his place for a party that he mistakenly invited me for. From the 1953 Chevrolet to the Ferrari 250 GT, his classic car collection is incredible. Thirty-five cars in all. There was a time I went to a car auction in Milan. Unfortunately for me, Jacob was there too. He bid two hundred and fifty million dollars on the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that I wanted and he made me watch as he 'accidentally' spilled coffee on it letting me know he didn't actually value it but got it because I wanted it.

If this offer is real, this is my chance to claim back my car and all the others he has.

"Okay. And if you win, what do you want?"

"When I win, I want your resort in Maldives." His smug smile is back on his face as he watches mine turn to ash.

That resort belonged to my mother and she handed it over to me before she died. Jacob knows just how important it is to me and that's why he wants it. Typical of him to want the things that mean a lot to me.

"No way. I'm not staking my resort. Pick something else."

He shrugs his shoulders and clicks his tongue.

"Well, I'm sorry but that's what I want. But, seeing that you're refusing to take this offer, I'm guessing you're not that confident that Aiko is good enough for the second in line to the throne. I get it though. The president felt that way and that's why he stayed in my hotel when he came to LA."

I know he's baiting me. I know this is all part of his plan to get me to break and give in. I know that he's trying to taunt me and diminish the worth of my hotel. I know all this, but I still fall for it. That's the thing with Jacob. He gets so under your skin that you end up making bad, reckless and stupid decisions. Well, the good thing is that I know for a fact that Prince Ivan would be staying at Aiko Hotels.

"He's visiting three different states here," I say.

"So, it's two out of three then?"

"No, all three."

He smiles, and it isn't teasing or flirtatious. It is a genuine, pretty smile that has my heart racing. Trying to quell its rapid beating, I stretch my hand out for him to shake. He looks at it, and then at me, his head cocked to the side, and I almost swoon from how my mind interprets it as sexy.

"You have a deal, Pretty Face. And just to make it official, I'll send over my lawyer with the terms of our agreement."