Only a Night with a Billionaire

She wants to forget about her ex and live a fairytale life if only for a night. He wants to be free of his royal duties and to find true love forever.

Penny lives by one rule: baking before boys. Her apprenticeship brings her to the palace, but she bakes herself into a corner when a case of mistaken identity casts her as the potential bride to the prince.

Oliver lives by a no-royals-rule. He’s ready to leave the life of nobility, kicking and screaming if he has to—arranged marriages, expectations, and all the formality aren’t his thing.

When the queen insists upon their union, Penny is torn between coming clean about who she is or sticking with the fantasy. However, someone in the palace is onto Penny and threatens to expose her but they’re not quite who they seem either, complicating matters.

After Penny and Oliver are stranded during an accident, she starts to wonder if she’s really playing a role or if she’s falling in love. He wonders if he can make an exception to his no-royal-rule for the right woman.

Maybe what they need is a lot closer than they thought, but they’re from different worlds. Can they break the rules and make it work?

This is book 3 in the Only Us Billionaire Romance series. Each book stands alone but reading them in order provides a deeper, richer experience. It is a sweet, “clean and wholesome” romance without swearing or mature content and contains a happily ever after.

Chapter 1: Penny

With a bag slung over her shoulder, Penny Jones stood just inside the door to her New York City apartment. She turned around one last time, glanced at the kitchen and sighed—she and her sister had affectionately dubbed the apartment the kitchen closet because the whole space was tiny, except the kitchen. Baking was at the center of Penny’s life, and having the space for it was her only requirement.

She’d miss her place in Manhattan, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to apprentice with David Park, master baker extraordinaire.

She smiled, turned the doorknob, and with suitcase in tow, stepped into the hallway.

As she closed the door behind her, her stomach did a little flip.

She was leaving behind her secure job, her friends, family, and life as she knew it. “What could go wrong?” she whispered under her breath.

In her silent, cat-like way, Mrs. Wong, Penny’s elderly neighbor, shuffled past. “Everything, dear. Everything,” she said as if in answer to Penny’s question.

“Huh?” Penny asked.

The old woman passed her an envelope. “The mailman put another piece of your mail in my box.”

Penny glanced down at her full name written across the front.

Penelope Victoria Jones. She stuffed it in her suitcase. “You shouldn’t get anything more for me. David Park’s team selected me for an apprenticeship.”

Usually, when she said this, she got a polite smile in response—not too many people outside the culinary world knew of him.

However, for avid bakers, he was a household name, being the master baker for the royals in Burklingham Palace, but commoners rarely made the connection.

She got just such a smile from Mrs. Wong, but it quickly dipped into a frown as she opened her door. “There goes Pumpkin. She escaped again. If the super would take care of the rodent problem, she wouldn’t be so tempted.”

A furry, orange cat streaked by at the end of the hall. Penny set her belongings down and quietly tiptoed down the hall after the cat so she didn’t startle it. She called his name and the images of pumpkin pie, pumpkin scones, pumpkin bread—all the delicious things she could bake inspired by that single ingredient —floated into her mind. What marvelous things would she make at the palace?

She knew she was a bit on the older side when she’d applied for the position—most people applied for apprenticeships or to work as an assistant right out of culinary school, but she had bills to pay and had earned her way forward starting in the kitchens of some of the best bakeries and restaurants in the city because she couldn’t afford to work without compensation. But she’d scrimped and saved, and eight years later had her opportunity.

Better late than never.

Penny was the kind of person who led with her heart but knew this was her only shot at moving forward in her career. She wasn’t poor but would live off savings for the next few months and didn’t have enough for whatever would come after the apprenticeship was over.

She was giving up her apartment, her security, and banking on her future—not to mention her baking abilities.

People came far and wide for her lemon bars, her lavender cheesecake, and macarons.

But she was best known for her cookies: good, old-fashioned chocolate chip in particular.

Penny scooped up the cat and then hurried to return him. “I hope you have a nice day, Mrs. Wong.”

She nuzzled the giant orange and white feline, then said, “Good luck.”

“Thanks, I’ll need it.”

As Penny wheeled her suitcase along the slushy and slippery New York City sidewalk, she looked forward to the gilded halls of the palace, imagining the wood floors and plush carpet. Though, she reasoned, she’d mostly be in the kitchen and pictured it classic but outfitted with modern equipment as well.

She passed her favorite bookstore, the ramen place where she often grabbed lunch, and then the café where she’d met her ex as they’d each vied for the last butterscotch cookie. She won but ended up giving him half. After six months, he broke it off, which was what usually happened—the relationship, not the cookie.

In the end, she was convinced he was using her for her whoopie pies. Before him, she’d dated an investment banker and was left feeling like he just wanted her for her morning glory muffins. And the guy she’d met when she first moved to the city was all about her peaches and cream cake.

She hadn’t dated much and had always told herself baking before boys. With the new beginning overseas, she’d stick with it because she’d given up on love and focused on her career.

Bound for the airport, she squeezed into the subway car. Someone sneezed on her, a toddler had a meltdown and threw himself on the floor, screaming (and kicking Penny once), and a man decided that would be a great time to play the macarena on his saxophone. She’d miss Manhattan in all its zaniness but imagined the peaceful tranquility of the palace.

In the international terminal, when the ticket agent called, “Now boarding flight 3529 bound for London,” Penny had a little skip in her step as she got into the line.

Unfortunately, she sat near the very back of the plane and had to press past everyone else to get to her seat: between a teenager with headphones whose video game blasting was audible and an older man who decided then would be a good time to tell her the story of his near-death experience while on a commercial flight back in 1973.

It was her first time on a plane and she made a mental note not to buy the cheapest ticket next time—her mother always said you get what you pay for.

Her mother, off in the Caribbean with her latest suitor, never paid for anything. She liked to refer to the arrangements she made with the men she lassoed. Her strategy was to find someone rich, keep him happy, and be set for life. She insisted her daughters marry for wealth.

Emma and Penny made a pact to marry for love. Lucky for Emma she got both, but relationships didn’t interest Penny anymore. Her career came first. Baking before boys.

Nothing would come between her and her dream of becoming a successful baker.
As the blasting from her seat neighbor came from one side and the older gentleman rattled on about the many calamities in his life, Penny rubbed her temples and reminded herself she was going to London. To the palace. To apprentice under the expert tutelage of the most renowned baker in the world.

When the plane touched down, she gathered her belongings and only got lost once on the way to baggage claim. As the suit cases slowly rode past on the luggage carousel, and hers didn’t turn up, panic twinged in her belly. She thought back to when she stood in her apartment. There was a moment when she’d hesitated…had she made the right choice?