Accidental Forever: Fake Romance Box Set

by Hazel Parker

  “Fine,” Nora sighed. “Partially, yes. I’ve yet to hear back from directors, but Miss Owens has agreed to meet me for dinner tonight.” She watched expressionlessly as he changed out of his always-clean costume scrubs and into a button-down shirt. Shirtless, all his tattoos were exposed, not just the sleeves of blue and black ink that ran down his arms. He caught her staring at them and began to rub his thumb over the ones on the back of his left hand, something he’d been doing more often lately.

  “You know, these were my biggest mistake,” he admitted sadly. “If I’d known how hard it was for an actor with tattoos to get any role but a biker brother or a nightmare prom date, I’d never have gotten them. They were basically career suicide.” Nora shook her head.

  “Maybe for some guys,” she argued, “but those guys don’t have me as their agent. Jace, I keep telling you this: it’s just a matter of changing your image. You were the young, rough rebel that everyone loved to hate. But you’re nearly thirty now, and people are starting to notice. With Code Blue ending this month, this is the perfect time to show people who you want to be. Jessica is going to help with that, I hope.”

  Jace nodded, sliding his arms into a sports coat and switching into pressed black pants, a change from the jeans and an old band shirt that he normally wore out of the studio.

  “Plans tonight?” Nora asked, half curious, half fearful.

  “Yeah,” Jace said, “I thought about it, and I think it’d be better if I’m the one to meet with—what’s her name again?”

  Nora tried to hide her grimace. “Jessica,” she supplied, “but are you sure that’s a good idea? You’re not exactly the… most convincing guy on Earth, and you barely even know her name.”

  Jace flashed her a winning smile, one which never failed to turn her cheeks pink despite her commitment to professionalism. “I can be charming when I want to be,” he argued lightly. She had to admit; he looked dashing, absolutely ready to sweep an unsuspecting young woman off her feet. “I think it’ll be more realistic if I’m the one to ask, especially if anyone sees us.”

  Knowing that it was futile to try to convince him otherwise, Nora simply stood aside and opened the trailer door for him, fixing a few stray hairs as he passed. “If you say so,” she caved, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. “If she says no, I’m not cleaning up the mess.”

  Jace smirked deviously. “That won’t be necessary, anyway,” he reassured. “Now, if you’ll excuse me; I have a girl to propose to.”

  Nora had specifically chosen a restaurant that would be too expensive to be completely packed on a weeknight so that she could have a quiet meeting with Jessica, but to Jace, it looked less like privacy and more like an empty theater. While he still wasn’t sure whether this girl—Jessica, he reminded himself—would agree to his (well, technically Nora’s) plan, he couldn’t imagine a scenario in which she would say no. What he was about to offer her was a once in a lifetime opportunity, the kind of arrangement that most girls around Jessica’s age grew up fantasizing about. She’d have to be stupid to do anything but accept.

  As he walked through the doors of the cafe, his phone buzzed in his pocket with a text from Nora.

  The reservation is under my name.

  Jace approached the server at the front of the house and watched as she practically melted in front of him.

  “I have a reservation for two under Nora Thatch,” he said smoothly, and she nodded wordlessly, fumbling with the menus and practically tripping over her own feet with nerves as she led him through the dining room and out another door onto the terrace.

  Jessica won’t be expecting you. Go easy on her. Remember, the contract is in your pocket, and don’t forget to have her sign it. Good luck.

  Jace put his phone away without so much as a reply and looked up from the screen for the first time. The patio area was gorgeous, lit ambiently with fairy lights and a candle on each table. The table was simple, metal with a white tablecloth and covered with an umbrella. It was clear that Nora had rented out the entire wing of the place, because all the other tables had been put away, leaving only one in the dead center of the terrace, surrounded by plants and overlooking the fountain. While it wasn’t quite the kind of money-flashing expensive place he’d have selected, it was clear that the restaurant was a romantic place, even if this was nearly the opposite of a romantic occasion.

  So caught up in looking around, Jace didn’t realize that Jessica hadn’t arrived yet. If he were the kind of man who ever wasted time doubting himself, he’d be nervous right now, but he wasn’t. Instead of allowing himself to worry, he pulled out one chair and sat in it, taking the menu from the waitress who was avoiding eye contact with him in the failed hopes that he wouldn’t notice how star struck she was.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked in a weak, flustered voice. He didn’t look up at her as he closed the menu she offered him.

  “Your most popular craft beer for me,” he said, “and a glass of your most expensive wine for my date.” The young woman nodded, writing furiously as if she might forget even such a simple order in the time it would take to relay it to the bar. As the waitress shuffled off, Jace turned his attention to his phone until he heard the patio door open once more. He glanced up in time to see the look of shock on Jessica’s face, the small step backward that nearly had her high-heel shoe catch on the stair she’d just come down. She was dressed nicely, but not in a way that suggested that she was about to have the biggest offer of her entire career handed to her on a silver platter—she wore a pale blue dress that cut off just above her knee, her hair curled into ringlets and tied up.

  “Oh, my God,” she breathed. She looked for a moment as if she might be spooked enough to run off like a wild deer, but as he watched her chest fall with a steadying breath, so too did he watch her choose to stand her ground and adopt a more confident posture. “You’re… not Nora,” she noted lamely, and Jace forced a laugh.

  “An astute observation,” he drawled, forcing a literal award-winning smile. “No, I’m—”

  “Jace Oliver,” she cut him off, taking a few tentative steps forward. “I know who you are. What I’m confused about is how you know who I am.”

  Jace faked a pout. “Aw, Jessica,” he teased, “it’s been years since we last spoke, sure, but I’m offended you don’t remember. We worked together.”

  Shaking her head as if it would allow the pieces of this puzzle that weren’t fitting together to fall in place, she backpedaled. “Of course I remember that,” she said. “The Dr. Damion and Vanessa plot of Code Blue.” Nora had sent him her headshot, otherwise he never would have recognized her again, but she didn’t need to know that, so he gave an exaggerated relieved sigh.

  “That’s better,” he chuckled. “Well, are you just going to stand here, or would you like to have a seat?”

  Jessica flushed pink. “I’d love to,” she declined, “but I’m supposed to meet someone here tonight.” His smile was dangerously blinding.

  “I know,” he argued. “Nora wasn’t available tonight, so I decided to take her place. I hope it’s all the same to you.” The way her ears turned red let him know it was not, in fact, the same to her, but that she wasn’t too upset about it. She sheepishly crossed the terrace to sit in front of him, immediately opening the wine menu just as the waitress returned and set Jace’s beer in front of him and a glass of deep red wine in front of Jessica, who quirked an eyebrow.

  “You ordered for me?” she asked, smirking when he nodded.

  “Bold choice,” she admitted. “What if I don’t like red?”

  He sat forward to rest his folded arms on the table. “You’re welcome to order whatever you’d like,” he replied, unflinching. Without breaking the tense eye contact, she picked up the glass and took a breath in and a sip, looking pleased, and Jace smiled triumphantly.

  “So,” Jessica shook herself out of the flirtatious moment and seemed to realize just where she was and who she was with, “I’m guessing that since yo
ur agent isn’t here, I’m not being offered a role.”

  “Not quite,” he admitted, “but you’re not too far off.” Her disappointed look shifted to one of tentative optimism, then slight impatience. “I do have a proposal for you.”

  Jessica nodded, waiting for him to continue. “Well?” she pressed. “What kind of proposal is it? A cameo on a new show? Vanessa’s twin sister on Code Blue?”

  “Actually,” he said, “it’s a marriage proposal,” he replied. Jessica blinked three times rapidly, hearing but not processing the words.

  “Yeah,” she smiled humorlessly, “you’re a damn lunatic. I’m going to go.” Jace reached out to grab her wrist as she stood, which she jerked away indignantly.

  “At least give me a chance to explain,” he reasoned, watching her weigh her options heavily before reluctantly sitting back down, giving him pointed, sharp eye contact.

  “You have two minutes to convince me you’re not messing with me,” she caved. He smiled. A guy like Jace could do a lot in two minutes.

  Chapter Three: Jessica

  Jessica was sure that she was making a mistake by not picking up her purse and running as fast as she could out of the restaurant and back home to the one-bedroom apartment she could barely afford. Perhaps it was because she remembered Jace as being her first real celebrity crush; perhaps it was because she was too curious for her own good; perhaps it was because she was weak for those dark brown eyes and his playful smile. In any case, she knew that she wasn’t making the safe choice, but she’d made the safe choices all her life, and that lack of confidence was why she’d never gone out on auditions that scared her too much or chosen a risky job over a low-paying safe one. Usually, she wouldn’t entertain this kind of nonsense. However, she could practically hear Marissa’s voice screaming at her to hear Jace out. Even if everything in her wanted to leave, she knew that if she didn’t stay, Marissa would never let her hear the end of it.

  “You probably haven’t heard,” Jace began, “that Code Blue is ending. We weren’t renewed for season nine.”

  “Oh,” Jessica frowned, “I’m sorry.” The show had been running for so long, she hadn’t even considered the possibility that it might end, but now, she vaguely remembered hearing rumors about the ratings being too low and the network canceling it. She’d assumed they were only rumors. Jace shook his head cavalierly.

  “It’s not that I don’t have other offers,” he disclaimed, “because I do. Every sitcom and soap opera on the air wants to sign me on.”

  “So,” she said, not quite following, “I don’t understand the problem. Why not just pick one?”

  “Jessica, have you ever been typecast?” She laughed out loud.

  “You have to be cast in the first place to have that problem,” she pointed out, “and I haven’t exactly had any major roles.”

  He brushed her off like she hadn’t even said anything. “Every show that wants me is trying to get me to play the same boring, bad-boy stereotype. I’m almost thirty. It’s time for me to start looking at roles that are going to get me into red-carpet events and award shows. You know, things that real actors do.”

  Jessica’s jaw nearly dropped. “Isn’t that a little… insulting?” she asked.

  “To who?”

  “The writers of your show?” she tried. “Or your fans? Your costars?” Actors like me who can’t even get cast on sitcoms and soap operas?

  “No,” he replied certainly. “I just mean that it’s time for me to move forward in my career, and my agent says that I’m not going to be able to do that if everyone sees me and just thinks ‘Dr. Damion.’ If I want them to see a serious actor, I need them to see a serious man. That’s why I need to get engaged, show everyone that I’m more than just the tattoos and leather jackets.”

  Jessica considered that. On the one hand, it did make sense: she definitely knew what it was like to be passed up for a role because she didn’t have the right “look,” and she imagined that it’d be even worse to be associated so strongly with one character for so long.

  “I guess I can understand that,” she admitted. “No one wants to play the same part for their whole life.”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “And don’t think I’m asking you to do me a solid without there being anything in it for you. Ask me what you’re getting out of this deal.”

  Jessica bit down on a smile. “What am I getting out of it?” she humored him. Jace leaned forward on his elbows so that his face was closer to hers, illuminated softly by the fairy lights on the ceiling and the small candle flame that flickered on the table.

  “The spotlight,” he replied. She watched his pink lips curl temptingly around the word, savoring it. “When I announce our surprise engagement, people will want to know everything about you. You’ll have interviews with gossip magazines, talk shows; everything you could want. Producers will be fighting tooth and nail to put your face on the covers of their movies and shows.”

  Jessica sat back, considering the offer. “So, how does this whole thing end?” she asked. “I’m not marrying you, you know. And I won’t agree to anything that’s going to make me look bad in the end.”

  Jace shook his head. “Of course not,” he said. “An amicable split. We’ll realize we’re just both too busy to settle down, once we’re both signed on for big projects, and we’ll reassure everyone that while we still love one another, we just want different things, and we’ll go our separate ways. No one gets dragged through the mud. So, what do you say?”

  She hesitated. Her heart was racing. Even with as admittedly little time as she devoted to thinking about marriage these days, this was definitely not how she’d pictured being proposed to. However, she also wasn’t stupid, and she knew what a big opportunity this could be for her. Jace was a big star, but he had a reputation as a bad-boy for a reason. People who worked closely with him often described him as a player, someone who bounced around from woman to woman, sometimes rude or haughty, and demanding. He’d been named more than once on lists of Hollywood brats and intolerable jerks.

  “I can’t make a decision yet,” she told him. “I think that we should at least get to know each other a little bit, first. We should have a date, then we’ll decide.” Jace’s expression showed her that he wasn’t expecting that reply, but, just as she’d expect from an actor of his caliber, he hid the shock almost immediately.

  “Alright,” he caved, “sure. We’ll have dinner.” As if on cue, the waitress appeared, her mood dampened considerably from when she thought that Jace might have been dining alone.

  “Have we had a chance to look at the menu?” she asked, but before Jessica could even open hers, he took it from the table and handed it back to the waitress.

  “We’ll have two orders of pasta aglio et olio,” he ordered, turning his attention back to Jessica.

  “That’s the second time you’ve ordered for me since we’ve been here,” she pointed out.

  “Trust me, this is what you want,” he reassured. “I come here all the time. Next time, I’ll let you make all the choices.”

  She smirked. “Assuming there’s going to be a next time,” she reminded him, and he shrugged. “So, if we’re going to have a date, we should have date conversation,” Jessica said firmly. “Enough of the contracts and deals. Tell me about yourself.”

  Now, Jace wasn’t able to hide the look of surprise that overtook his features. “I’m sure you know everything there is to know,” he said, “if you watch television or read magazines. I’m always being interviewed for something.”

  “Yes,” she continued, “but I don’t care about that. I want to know who you really are. Where did you grow up? What do you want out of life? That kind of stuff.”

  Jace did not look like he even entertained the idea of giving her more than a superficial answer, which both intrigued and infuriated her. “I was born in New Orleans,” he said coolly, “and lived there until I went to college in Los Angeles. Nothing terribly exciting.”

  She frowned. “
Do you have siblings?” she asked, and he shook his head.