by Lindsey Hart
Faking It
with
Mr Nightshadow
Alphalicious Billionaires
Lindsey Hart
CONTENTS
BOOK DESCRIPTION
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
EPILOGUE
PREVIEW MARRIED BY MISTAKE
BOOK DESCRIPTION
He was a stranger, but he agreed to be my one-day boyfriend.
His Username? Mr NightShadow
His occupation? I don’t know.
The reason he agreed to my request? I have no idea.
I don’t know anything about him except that he was pure walking sin.
He made my heart beat crazy fast.
His touch sizzled against my skin.
What will I do when it’s all over?
Hey Loves, this is the next book in the Alphalicious Billionaires series. Come meet those sexy men loaded with more than that cash package and so ready to claim their not-so-reluctant heroine. Each book is a standalone and can be read in any order. And don't forget, we are team HEA all the way!
COPYRIGHT
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, or transmitted by email without permission in writing from the publisher. While all attempts and efforts have been made to verify the information held within this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or opposing interpretations of the content herein. The book is for entertainment purposes only. The views expressed are those of the author alone and should not be taken as expert instruction or commands.
Copyright © Passion House Publishing Ltd 2019
All rights reserved.
You can contact the team at [email protected].
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lindsey Hart is a married mom and lives in Ohio with her husband and two furry ball Persian cats who consider themselves as owners of the house.
She specializes in sweet to extra hot and dirty romance and strongly believes in happily ever after. If you are looking for a page turner, then you are in for a wild and naughty ride with feisty heroines and alpha male heroes.
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CHAPTER 1
Ash
Finding a fake boyfriend for a weekend that was fast approaching should have been easy. Unfortunately, night seven produced no more results than the previous six nights.
Searching through online dating profiles at three in the morning wasn’t at all pathetic. Ashton May Johnson tried to convince herself as she leaned back against her pillows. Her laptop lay open, screen glowing, illuminating the room. She blinked tired grainy eyes. Okay, maybe it was a little pathetic to be up in the middle of the night, perusing guy’s portfolios given that she was on hour number five.
Ash cast a glance at the cat curled up at the foot of the bed. Slappy snoozed happily, completely unaware of her plight. Not like he’d give a shit. He was a cat. An ancient cat.
“I’m running out of time, Slappy,” she said softly. “This online thing hasn’t exactly panned out.” Though she’d joined the dating site, paid her monthly fee of thirty-four ninety-nine, and spent days looking, no one was right. No one jumped out at her. Most of the people on the site just wanted to get laid.
Or had a criminal record. Which wasn’t exactly a deal breaker. They just weren’t right for other reasons.
They had to be… convincing. Someone who would willingly date her, like her, put up with her, and make it convincing enough that her old ‘friends’ from high school believed it. Maybe friends was a strong word. Especially given that she was actively perusing the internet in the early hours of the morning and hadn’t yet gone to bed couldn’t actually term those people she was trying so desperately to prove herself to as friends.
Ash turned to Slappy. “I might as well take you as my date. I think you’d melt a few hearts. Plus, you’d look pretty snazzy dressed in a tux.” The thought of the old tom in a fancy suit made her giggle. “And all those cliquey bitches… you’d do the right thing and scratch them.” She thought about Slappy sharpening one nail just for the job and giggled again.
Ash had been the typical nerd in high school. The girl who was bullied by other girls because she was pretty enough, but also awkward and completely misunderstood. The girl that guys ignored like the plague unless it was to pull merciless pranks on. She liked to think of herself as a crackfaller. One of those people who just… falls through the cracks. Disappears. Gets forgotten. By everyone. Even when she was right there in front of them, she was invisible, at least until someone needed an emotional punching bag.
She was surprised anyone remembered to add her to the online group for the ten-year reunion and send out an invitation.
Who plans a ten-year reunion anyway? Oh right. Sonja Wills. Because like the decade before, she obviously still craved attention. She was probably living out her glory days, riding high on her blond haired, big boobed popularity. Sonja Wills was now Sonja Campbell, married to a man whose annual salary was just over five hundred thousand dollars. He was a lawyer of all things. And a good one.
Ash knew because, embarrassingly enough, she’d checked.
So, while women like Sonja, who undoubtedly deserved to get struck by lightning, if Karma had a say in it, attracted a rich husband and prospered and probably gained even more popularity, if her three thousand social media followers were any indication, nice girls like Ash still remained invisible. Karma obviously either wasn’t a thing anymore, since Sonja was alive and well, or the woman must have done something to stave it off, mixed in with all those condescending smirks and poisonous jabs. She had the worst resting bitchface that Ash had ever seen for eff sakes.
She was still the nerdy girl who loved comic books and cosplays, and no, not in an overly sexual way, unfortunately. Though she didn’t have pimples or braces anymore and she was pretty enough, she was always going to be that geeky, awkward girl at heart.
Ash was still nearly first in line whenever a new comic book movie came out. She went to board game cafes to play on game night. She was good at strategy games and kicked ass when it came to trivia. She was the girl with one tattoo and of course it was of her favorite villain. She was definitely that girl who sat in the front row of the theatre and bawled into her popcorn when said favorite villain got a hard time from the heroes. She was the girl who laughed at all the comic book memes, because of course, she got them. And yes, she was also that girl who worked at a small shop that sold used comic books, games, and memorabilia and counted it as her dream job. Oh, and she wro
te. Yeah. Total nerd central.
So, being that she was nerd numero uno even on her own list, she had a hard time finding a guy who she thought could overlook her geekiness and her awkwardness and pull out all the stops to impress a bunch of bimbos who probably hadn’t changed at all in ten years.
Why am I even considering going?
Ash sighed and went back to flicking through profiles. They were all starting to blend together. Each one was progressively worse than the last. Or maybe that was just her hopes degrading into a steaming pile of cute emoji looking dung, because it sure as hell wasn’t her standards lowering. Okay, so maybe it was the classic, it’s not you, it’s me, thing.
There wasn’t really anything wrong with all those profiles she’d passed over. Most of the guys were good looking, at the very least. They just weren’t for her. She wasn’t worried about their acting capabilities. She was worried about her own. She wasn’t exactly the fake it until you make it kind of girl.
It would have helped her cause if her mother hadn’t picked one of those boy names for her. Unisex. The kind of thing that was twenty years ahead of a time when it was fashionable to give a baby the weirdest possible name and have people hum and haw over the originality of it. She had a weird name and it cursed her for life.
Since her eyes were blurry and had long ago hit the mark where it felt like they’d been on the receiving end of a bad science experiment, Ash hit the trackpad on the laptop. She meant to navigate to the top right hand corner where the menu was, to sign out of her account for the foreseeable future, which probably meant until panic about the reunion got the best of her and her fruitless search resumed the following night, but instead she hit the down arrow on the page and suddenly found herself staring into a set of piercing blue eyes.
CHAPTER 2
Ash
“Oh, helloooooooooo.” Slappy didn’t respond to her breathless words. Of course, he didn’t.
Suddenly she was wide awake, and her grainy eyes cleared up just fine. She sat up straighter and brought the already too bright laptop closer to her face. She’d spent enough time on it that she’d probably cut her life short by a few years, but hell, what were a few more minutes? She’d willingly give up not making it to ninety just to stare at that profile for a little while longer. His profile.
“Mr. Nightshadow36. What do you think of that, Slappy?” No response.
Yes. That really was his profile name.
His face was like a vortex. Not a ten. She’d never be able to land a ten and whoever she finally chose had to be believable. He was a solid eight though, probably more handsome in real life. It was his eyes that drew her in. Those light blue eyes with the grey speckles. Eyes that probably almost looked green depending on the light. They were captivating.
He was the whole package. Nice dark hair, brushed back. The bone structure of a god or a really good painting, because there was a chance that an artist had painted him into being. His parents were probably good looking. His dad, firm and a little fierce, his mother gorgeous with high cheekbones and full lips. Probably blonde hair and blue eyes. His dad was likely dark haired. It was probably where he got those thick locks from. Oh my god. I must be really tired here.
Still, Ash couldn’t tear her eyes away. Mr. Nightsahdow36 was probably tall. He listed his height in his profile as six one. That was probably accurate.
Her finger hovered over the trackpad. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and clicked down. Nothing happened. The world didn’t explode. Her panties didn’t combust or start smoking. She was still there, in the middle of her bed, not transported to a parallel universe. Okay, calm down. Wow.
Mr. Nightshadow36, thirty-six because of his age, which he listed in his profile, had a few pictures. One of his face, up close, of that beautiful strong brow, the glorious eyes, the lips that were deliciously kissable and probably tasted like strawberries…
Get a grip here. Right now. Ash debated about punishing herself by closing the laptop and forcing herself to get the sleep she needed, but she shrugged off her stupid thoughts and clicked on the next photo. It was obscured, like most, given that the guy probably wanted to maintain some semblance of privacy. She’d done the same. Her lone photo on her profile was a side shot that didn’t even make her look like her. She’d heard that pretty girls received a hundred messages or more a day. She received about ten and none of them were dick pics, so she must have done something right. Nine out of ten were guys fishing to know what she really looked like, so that was also a blatant confirmation.
Putting yourself out there on a dating site for others to judge was completely humiliating. She got the whole wanting to hide his face in the shadows and take even darker, grainer photos of his body. Even through the dark and low resolution, it looked fantastic. He had, like, an eight pack. The guy was solid muscle, though he was lean. His shoulders were broad and tapered to a narrow waist. His arms were well sculpted and though there wasn’t a picture of his legs, they were probably equally as fabulous. He wasn’t the typical jacked hunk that most women fell all over. No, he was tall and athletic and streamlined and absolutely gorgeous.
Ash clicked back to the first photo. Those eyes… they were mysterious, smoky, vulnerable. A little sad, but also hinted at a sense of humor, given the tiny lines bracketing them at the corners. His hair was gorgeous. She wondered what it would feel like to sweep her fingers through the silky strands. Was man hair as soft as a woman’s? Or softer? His looked softer. Oh my god. This is just sad.
Ash bit down hard on her bottom lip. There was no way a guy like him would respond to her. Although… the old cliché was true. She’d never know if she never tried.
She slid her finger on the trackpad, over the message button. She left it there for a moment, shaking, wavering, trembling. Her breath caught in her lungs as she turned into a sweating bundle of nerves. Messaging a guy online was no better than meeting one in person.
“God, I’m cursed to stay single for the rest of my life.” She glanced at Slappy. “Unless it counts that I have a hot old man sleeping at the foot of my bed right now?” He didn’t even crack an eye.
She didn’t know about being single, but she was cursed to go to her high school reunion and be the same dorky dweeb that people picked on. The one who the girls called Cinders or Charcoal and the ones the guys joked about having an Ash Bash with.
Not that that would ever happen. She couldn’t attract one man, let alone the attention of an orgy. Not even if she wanted to. Which she didn’t.
Thanks for the name, mom and dad. Mostly mom. It was her choice.
Ash shut her eyes. The thought of showing up, looking like a complete moron and getting picked on and teased again, was enough to give her strength. She couldn’t not go. She’d received the online invitation to the group and clicked accept in a moment of weakness. She’d already RSVP’d, in yet another moment where her senses fled altogether. She thought it might be fun. That it might be okay. That she’d like to reconnect with a few friends who weren’t on social media. That it would be good to see everyone again.
She had no idea what she was thinking and if she didn’t show, she didn’t want to think about the things people would say behind her back. Not showing would be admitting defeat. It would be like showing them they were right all along.
Ash was a lot of things, but she sure as hell never had backed down from a fight. Not then. Not now. Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t have got picked on so much. She wouldn’t have made an enemy of Sonja Wills. Now, it would be just plain embarrassing to not go. She knew she’d regret it for a long time if she was too afraid of what others said and did. She couldn’t let them dictate her future. Then they’d win.
Hot pinpricks burned the corners of her eyes. Before she could chicken out, she clicked on the message button and typed something quick and to the point. She hit SEND and before she even really had time to register what had happened, the message went through.
She was left staring at the confirmation screen, horror
welling inside of her.
“Oh shit! What did I just do?” Of course, Slappy didn’t offer any answers. He was a cat. And a quiet one at that. She hadn’t heard him meow in ages.
She snapped her laptop shut, as though that could undo the message and make the whole thing better. Furious with herself, she threw the laptop onto the other side of the bed and drew the comforters up around her chin like she had when she was a kid and heard a creak or a weird noise in the house at night.
She was exhausted and sleep closed in quickly. Right before the blackness claimed her, she let herself breathe out a sigh of relief.
There wasn’t any real harm in sending the message. That guy, a guy who oddly enough reminded her of one of her comic book villain crushes- and why not like the bad guys when being bad, at least in movies and comics, was so much more kick ass than being good- that kind of guy, would never respond to a silly, desperate message.
Never in a hundred years.
Never in any galaxy, particularly the one she was forced to inhabit.
Never in any life or any lifetime.
She was safe. And given that her reunion was exactly one week away, she was also totally screwed.
CHAPTER 3
Trace
Receiving odd messages on an online dating profile wasn’t anything new for Trace Russell- or for the rest of the population who gambled on finding love online. He’d made the terrible decision to make a profile and join the ranks of the helpless and graceless men out there who had tried, and failed, to find someone in real life.
The online version of himself, of course, was much, much better.
He was funny online. Unreserved. Polite. Kind. He was just another person there. He wasn’t THE Trace Russell, self-made billionaire, owner of a massive chain of supplement and vitamin stores.
