Bedding the Fake Boyfriend: Bedding the Bachelors Book 10

by Virna DePaul

  “It’s telling me that you want me inside you. That you remember how it feels, so clearly, you can almost taste it,” he whispered as he traced his finger over the swell of her breasts.

  She nodded, unable to deny it—or him. “Yes.”

  He gripped the lapels of the suit jacket she’d stolen from him on the walk back over and slipped it off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor with a rustle.

  “I’ve had this fantasy, Rose. Of you in that dress…in those heels, straddling me,” he continued, “Riding my cock, slow at first, and then faster and faster, until you throw your head back and cry out my name. Of that pussy squeezing me so tight, that I can’t hold back another second.”

  Her nipples beaded into tight peaks and her pulse pounded as she nodded again.

  “Yes.”

  He bent low and, in one smooth motion, scooped her into his arms.

  She let out a squeal as he carried her toward the bed like she weighed no more than a feather. He set her onto the mattress and straightened, going to work on his shirt buttons as she attacked his zipper.

  When she finally peeled his pants down for him to step out of, his cock bobbed forward, fully erect and straining toward her.

  On autopilot, she leaned in to take him into her mouth, sucking gently. Before she could get a good rhythm going, though, he was pulling away.

  “Not tonight, Rose. I need to be inside you and I need to do it right fucking now.”

  Her stomach did a flip as she nodded. There was a time for slow and easy, and this wasn’t it. She was desperate for him, primed and ready, her body one giant nerve, ready to set off.

  Quickly, Gio reached beneath her dress and tugged her panties off. But when he reached for the bedside table to get a condom, she circled her fingers around his wrist to halt him. “I’m on the Pill, if you want to…”

  His throat worked and he let out a harsh laugh. “If I want to? Jesus, Rose, I’ve never wanted anything more.”

  Anticipation rolled through her as she contemplated being with Gio, nothing between them.

  Almost nothing, that pesky little voice in her head reminded her.

  She ignored it, focusing instead on Gio and his mouthwatering body. She laid a hand on his muscular chest and pressed him back against the mattress.

  He didn’t resist, his gaze locked on her as she climbed on top of him, straddling his lean hips.

  “Is this what you wanted, Gio?” she asked softly, grinding her wet pussy against his hard length and shuddering at the contact.

  “Inside, Rose. Now,” he growled, the pulse in his strong neck pounding as she moved to obey his command.

  She took his cock in hand and gave it an appreciative squeeze before pressing down to take the tip. She rotated her hips in a slow circle, relishing the tightness of his jaw and the flare of his nostrils as he arched toward her.

  “Don’t fuck around, Rose,” he warned throatily. “I’ve only got so much patience.”

  His words only emboldened her further and she rose up high on her knees, until he was just pressed against her slit, barely nestled at her entrance.

  “So you don’t want me to do this?” she asked innocently as she worked herself in short motions up and down over his thick, swollen head. “Or this?” she pressed, swirling around in a circle until he let out a pained grunt.

  “You’re a witch,” he hissed with a wince. “But two can play that game.”

  He flipped up her dress and, with unerring accuracy, found her slick clit with his fingertips.

  “How about now, Rosie?” he asked, rubbing in a dizzying rhythm that had her eyes rolling back as she tried to control her motions. “Still feel like teasing?”

  She didn’t. In fact, her whole body blossomed under his knowing touch as he sent her roaring toward a monster orgasm.

  “That’s it, love,” he groaned as her hips began to move of their own accord, taking his long, heavy cock deeper with each bounce. “Take every inch of it.”

  He rolled up and used his free hand to yank down the top of her dress until her breasts spilled forward.

  “Just like in my fantasy,” he groaned, moving his fingers faster, meeting her thrusts with his own now.

  She cupped her bouncing breasts with both hands as she rode him hard and fast, heat pooling in her belly and radiating outward. “Ah, Gio,” she moaned, hips moving in a blur now, taking him to the hilt with every thrust. “Oh God—”

  She broke off with a cry as she came, pleasure wracking her body in a fit of spasms.

  “Fuck, yeah,” Gio muttered through gritted teeth, following her over the edge. His cock pulsed inside her, throbbing as he came in hot spurts, prolonging her own climax. His muscular body clenched and she held on tight.

  God, did she love him.

  She was still seeing stars when he pulled her down beside him a few moments later.

  “So good, Rose. So fucking good,” he muttered, tugging her close. “It always was, wasn’t it?”

  From the very start, their chemistry had been off the charts. Their forays into adolescent touching and sex had been way hotter than they should’ve been. As the past came knocking, though, her reply stuck in her throat.

  “Y-yes. Always.”

  She should tell him right now. He had the right to know.

  But as he stole a kiss before nipping his way down her neck, she shivered and closed her arms more tightly around him.

  Tomorrow…

  Tomorrow, she would tell Gio the truth about why she’d broken up with him. Of how she’d wronged him. Of how she’d believed him to be so much less than the man he truly was. And she’d just have to hope that he was a lot more forgiving than she’d been.

  Tonight, though, she was making as many memories with him as she could, just in case they’d have to last her a lifetime.

  Chapter 18

  This.

  This was how he wanted to wake up every morning for the rest of his fucking life. Warm with satisfaction from a night of good loving, with Rose nestled against his side, breathing softly in her sleep.

  He stared down at her for long moments, memorizing her lightly sun-kissed face with those adorable freckles across her nose and cheeks. It almost hurt how much he loved her.

  Torn between not wanting to leave her and waking her up with coffee and fresh bagels in bed, his growling stomach finally made the call.

  He untangled his limbs from hers and rolled to his feet. After he got dressed and quickly brushed his teeth, he jogged down the stairs, full of a sense of hope he hadn’t felt in years.

  “Someone had a good night,” his grandmother murmured from her seat at the table as he entered the kitchen whistling.

  “Yeah, the wedding was great,” he said with a wide grin, bending low to drop a kiss on top of her peach-colored head. “Considering how the day before went, it was a huge relief.”

  Nana Ginger snorted as she took a sip of her early morning tea. “Right. You’re this peppy because the wedding was so great. Who do you think you’re fooling, kiddo? I can spot a man in love, you know. It wasn’t so long ago that your grandfather used to look at me like that,” she said, her voice breaking a little as she spoke.

  Gio halted his hunt for a coffee mug and padded over to the table to sit across from his grandmother. As he looked into her cloudy blue eyes, he realized they were glassy with tears.

  “It’s a rare thing, Gio,” she said as he took one of her hands in his. “I don’t mean to be a melancholy old fool, but it’s something I really need you to hear. So many people in my generation got married at seventeen or eighteen and settled down to make babies together. They worked and saved and worked and saved and love wasn’t really all that important in the scheme of things. People got married and stayed married because that was what you did. But not me and your Poppy,” she said, her lips trembling before tipping into a bittersweet smile. “We had it, you know what I mean? We were the real deal. When we would go out with other couples, I’d look up to see him watching
me from across the room with that look on his face. The kind that said ‘I’m one lucky bastard.’ And it never went away or faded. If I was a fairy godmother and could’ve gifted you and your sister any blessing in the world when you were born, it would’ve been that. And look at you both!” she said with a chuckle as she squeezed his fingers tighter. “You didn’t even need my help. I’m so thrilled for you and Rose and I can’t wait until you two get hitched and give me some beautiful little ginger babies. If you have a girl, Grace is a lovely name. Like Grace Kelly, you know?”

  The guilt hit him hard and fast, like a shot to the gut.

  Here she was, pouring her heart out to him and he was a big, fat liar. But no more. There wasn’t a single reason in the world to continue down that path. He would ask her not to tell his parents and sister—why rock the boat? But he couldn’t keep up this façade with Nana Ginger any longer.

  Plus, he could really use her advice right now…

  “Nana, I have a confession and you’re probably not going to like it much.”

  She cocked her head and studied him closely before nodding. “All right, go on.”

  “Rose and I…we aren’t actually a couple,” yet, he added mentally. If he played his cards right, hopefully by tonight, that little issue will have been rectified, but he needed to cleanse his guilty conscience first.

  Nana stiffened. “What are you talking about?”

  He tried to think of how to spin it so that it seemed less shitty than it was, but as he looked at it from a new perspective, that wasn’t possible. It had been a shitty thing to do, period.

  “I messed up. I was sick of the pressure to get married and have kids at every family function and I hired Rose to come to the wedding with me so I could have a stress-free time here.”

  “But right from the minute you got here, you were perfect together. Anyone could see that.”

  “I don’t know about anyone, Nana…” And frankly, he didn’t care what anyone else thought. All he needed was for Rose to believe it. But the last thing he wanted to do was lay the blame on her if it turned out she didn’t feel the same way he did. He’d hired her to do a job and she’d done it. Now that it was about to be over, he could tell her what he’d pretty much known from the start.

  He’d never stopped loving her. And, if he had his way, they’d pick up right where they’d left off.

  But that was a conversation between he and Rose. Right now, he had some explaining to do and the hurt and confusion on Nana’s face had him pressing on, wanting to just finish and be done with it.

  “The first time I’d seen Rose face to face in the past fifteen years was two weeks ago when she came to my office looking for a donation to her brother’s charity. Once the idea came to me, we met up to exchange personal information and come up with our backstory so it would seem natural. But we were never a couple, Nana.”

  “I-I can’t believe it. You didn’t have to resort to this, Gio. I’m not a monster or…” she trailed off and then bit her lip. “Oh, my. I’m just remembering some of the things I’ve said to you in the past few years. Now that I think about it, I may have been a bit overbearing. Like that time I gave the grocery store clerk your phone number and she called you out of the blue. That wasn’t very nice.” She gasped and covered her eyes with one hand. “Oh, dear…or that time I invited you over for dinner and just so happened to have Dr. Tara come by for a house call to check on my sciatica?” She shook her head in dismay. “What an old busybody. Alice tried to tell me, but I ignored her. I’m so sorry, Gio. I really did overstep. I was just so desperate to see my grandchildren as happy as I was before I die, I didn’t think of it that way.”

  “Is something wrong? Are you sick?” he demanded.

  “No, no, nothing like that. I’m just old! I’m not going to live forever. Who knows which day will be my last? I’d just hoped to see you settled, is all,” she said, patting his hand reassuringly.

  The vice grip on his heart relaxed a little. “I’m not mad about any of it, Nana. I just wanted to explain the reason I did what I did. But that doesn’t make it right. I’m truly sorry for lying to you, and I won’t do it again, all right?”

  She took a sip of her tea and blew out a sigh. “Of course I accept your apology. But what I still can’t quite accept is that there’s nothing between you and Rose. Now, if you swear to me this was all for show right now, I’ll believe you because you’re my grandson and I love you. But I need the truth, Gio. Are you in love with Rose?” she asked, her perceptive gaze drilling into his very soul.

  He didn’t want to get her hopes up again only to have them crushed, but damn it, he’d told enough lies to last him a lifetime. If Rose decided this was just a vacation fling, so be it. He’d deal with the fallout afterward.

  “You weren’t wrong about that, Nana,” he admitted. “I am madly in love with Rose. Always have been. I’m just not sure if she feels the same.”

  Nana smiled and nodded, a knowing light in her eyes. “Well, my boy, there’s only one way to find out. And my money is on you.”

  He heard a car crunching through the gravel of the driveway followed by the sound of the front door closing. It wasn’t even eight AM yet and the rest of the house had been sleeping…

  “Wonder who that is?”

  He made his way toward the window, a strange and inexplicable sense of dread washing over him. As he saw Rose jog down the pathway toward a car with a Lyft sign on the windshield, suitcase in hand, he realized why.

  She was leaving.

  His stomach churned as bile rose to burn his throat.

  Rose was walking the fuck out on him, without a word of explanation.

  Again.

  “Rose and I aren’t actually a couple.”

  Rose stared out the window of the airplane, her whole body one, giant ache.

  “You were perfect together. Anyone could see that.”

  “I don’t know about anyone, Nana…”

  A sob caught in Rose’s throat and she swallowed it back.

  She had no right to self-pity. She should never have gone through with this ridiculous plan. Who conned a sweet old woman for money, anyway?

  As if it was about the money, you fool.

  She hunkered down deeper into her seat as the plane began to taxi down the runway, thankful there was no one seated next to her to witness her emotional breakdown. Because as much as the money would be great for Michael’s Way, if she was being totally honest with herself, it had very little to do with why she’d agreed to this at all.

  She’d come for Gio.

  She’d come for closure.

  And, damn, had she gotten it.

  She tugged her phone out of her purse to put it in airplane mode and winced as she saw three missed calls.

  All from Gio.

  She was a grown woman now. She owed him both an apology for fifteen years ago, and an honest explanation for her speedy departure this morning, and he’d get both…

  Just as soon as she felt like she could talk to him without bursting into sobs and making him feel like a piece of shit when he really did nothing wrong. He’d made no promises, no declarations. She’d been the one who had let her heart get involved.

  The scene all those years ago played in her mind and she clenched her fists. She’d done him so wrong. She’d treated him so unfairly. Why would he ever trust her with his heart again?

  In hindsight, the very idea that it was possible was almost laughable.

  She opened up her text messages and looked at the one she’d sent him from her Lyft on the way to the airport.

  Sorry to run off that way but there was a mini-crisis at the charity and I needed to get back. Will be in touch as soon as I can.

  She hadn’t wanted to just ghost him. That would only compound her sins, but clearly, he’d seen it for the bullshit excuse it was, hence the calls. The second she got home, she would sit down and pour it all out in a letter. The story about that night at the party. About how much she’d loved him then. Abou
t how much she loved him now, and that she knew she was completely to blame for misreading what was happening between them for the past week.

  Then she’d get to the hard stuff, like trying to figure out how the hell she was going to get through the rest of her life without Gio.

  Chapter 19

  Son of a bitch.

  Gio stared down at the screen of his phone as his call rolled into voicemail again. This time, though, he left a message.

  “It’s Gio. I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be sending a courier over with your check later in the week when I get back to L.A. Thanks for your help.”

  Cool as a fucking cucumber, he hung up the phone. He wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of knowing how he really felt.

  Like she’d torn him into a million pieces and hung him out to dry.

  Part of him still couldn’t accept it. He re-read the text message she'd sent and let out a harsh laugh. Crisis his ass. She'd mind-fucked him again, and he'd been stupid enough to let her do it. She might be heartless but that was better than being a fool.

  And now, he was going to have to break the news to his grandmother. He'd managed to hide it from her for the first hour, hoping that maybe Rose would change her mind and come back, but now it was crystal clear.

  Rose didn't love him, she was gone, and that was that.

  "Hey, bro, how's it going?"

  He looked up with a start to find Michelle standing in the great room staring at him.

  "Great party last night," he said with enough forced cheer to practically choke him on its way out. "What time does your flight leave for the honeymoon?"

  Michelle padded slowly to the chair across from him and lowered herself onto it. "Something bad happened. You're white as a ghost,” she said starkly.

  He sighed, then took a quick glance around to make sure their grandmother wasn't in hearing distance. "Look, it's really not that important. Rose and I...had an issue, that's all. We're not together and she headed home. But, seriously, you and Alec need to focus on yourselves and your big trip—"