Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? Not Nina Alves. With her full-time job at the DeVere Foundation and a comically dysfunctional family that keeps her busy and broke, she can't even find time for a coffee date.
Enter Daniel DeVere. Desperate to impress his philanthropist father with the purchase of an eco-hotel, there is only one problem - his playboy lifestyle has turned the owner off and he needs to present a more mature image if he is to have any chance of salvaging the deal.
With sensible Nina as his fake fiance surely the deal will be secured. Putting on a convincing show in public is one thing, but the passion they are pretending to have for one another begins to spill over into their private moments and they are each forced to admit that they are wishing for something more.
Excerpt:
When they got back to the resort, Daniel winked at Nina, “Tonight, you are going to learn El Tamborito.”
“Is that contagious?”
“I hope so.” He led her into the bedroom. There was a gorgeous traditional Panamanian dress laid out on the bed: it had a full, heavily pleated skirt, a ruffled top, and amazing embroidery threaded through it. It was white with red designs. “There’s a festival in town, and we’re going.”
“If I wear that, people will think that I can really dance.”
“And you will,” there was a knock on the door, “that’s Luisa, and she’s going to teach you.”
“What about you?”
Daniel looked at her slyly, “Oh, I can dance.” He gave her a peck on the cheek. “Have fun, I’ll be back in two hours to get you.”
Luisa, the dance instructor, joined Nina. “Hola! I’m Luisa, Nina. I’m going to put on a CD.” She popped a CD into the cabaña’s little stereo. “First, listen for a couple of minutes.” The rhythms were wonderful, Nina thought, there were drums, and clapping, and a female singer. “What’s she singing about?”
“Ah,” Luisa said knowingly, “She sings about the attraction between men and women, about…the tension between men and women when they want to do more than dance!”
Maybe, Nina thought, El Tamborito wasn’t such a good idea...
