by Paige Tyler
“Okay, if you want honest, I’ll be honest,” I begin haltingly. “I’m not even sure how to put into words how much G&G means to me, or how much I care about Kali and Liv. My whole life, I wanted to belong. I wanted to be loved—no, I wanted to be adored. That might sound self-centered, but I had to fight really hard for attention and affection growing up, and I didn’t ever really get it. I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but I thrive off being the center of attention,” I add with feeble light-heartedness.
He chuckles and tugs me a little closer. “Oh, I can believe it, darlin.’”
“G&G is the close-knit family I never had,” I explain. “I might have four biological sisters, but Kali and Liv are more than that to me. Lately, I’ve been feeling like the Glammers are drifting away from me, like I have to do something to prove to them that I deserve their attention. That’s what this relationship is going to help me do. It’s going to make me feel close to my fans again.”
A wave of emotion crosses Boone’s face. His mouth twists one way and then the other as he contemplates my words. I wait for him to respond, heart beating hard against my ribs. This was the first time I honestly put those feelings into words. It felt good. But scary, too.
Boone brushes my hair from my face again, but this time his fingertips linger on the side of my cheek. A wave of goosebumps races along my back.
“If you want to do something, then how about we do it big?” he whispers, eyes pouring into mine.
He’s so close to me that the tip of his nose almost brushes mine. When he speaks, his breath is warm against my lips. My knees start quivering and my nostrils flare. I suck in a shallow breath, but I can’t speak. My heart throbs so wildly now that it must sound like a jackhammer.
Finally, I manage to nod.
I know exactly what he’s thinking—and I know that I want it more than anything.
He swoops down toward me, wrapping his arms tightly around my body. One hand glides through my long hair, knotting gently at the nape of my neck, while the other hand supports my back. His fingers are firm on my hip as he leans me backward.
Then, his mouth descends on mine.
The rest of the beach melts into nothingness.
Right now, at this very moment, we are the only people in the world who exist.
Fireworks explode inside of me when his lips meet mine. The backs of my eyelids burn crimson and every hair on my body feels electrified. I’m lucky he’s holding me so tightly, because otherwise, I would’ve swooned.
Who knew swooning was even a real thing?
Slowly, only when my lungs are screaming from lack of air, does he pull back. He grins at me as he helps me straighten up. It’s the kind of smile meant only for me, and the joy consuming me slowly melts into dread.
I am in way over my head.
Our new relationship just might break the internet, but how exactly is my heart going to fare?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Stars twinkle high above us as Boone and I quietly gaze into each other’s eyes. Somehow, despite the velvety darkness of the night, some golden ray of light faintly illuminates his dark blond hair and his flawless face.
I don’t even remember it getting this late, but the evening is still and hushed. There are no owls hooting or crickets chirping. It’s just Boone and me.
When I hear the faint sound of treetops rustling, I realize we aren’t on the beach anymore. I take a curious look around, noting that we’re in a woodland clearing. A bubbling brook babbles nearby as the water gushes over smooth gray stones. The air is cool and fragrant with cherry blossoms.
“Where is this place?” I whisper out loud.
I’ve definitely never been here before.
Wait, when—how—had we even gotten here?
I can’t recall. My whole head feels pleasantly hazy.
“All that matters is that we’re here together,” he says huskily.
Boone’s calloused palm glides against my cheek, turning my face back toward his. He leans closer and I notice that his shirt has suddenly vanished. Instead, his sun-kissed skin sparkles underneath the silver moon. I swallow hard, almost too distracted by his accent and deep blue eyes to care about how his shirt disappeared as fast as it had.
“Are you a magician?” I sputter.
He leans closer, pulling me toward him. I place my hands against his chest, feeling the strength of his chiseled body. If I’d known that rugby guys were so gorgeous, maybe I would’ve watched the sport before meeting Boone.
Boone flashes me a flirtatious grin. “Some girls might say so.”
“O.M.G.,” I whimper. “I’m in real trouble now.”
He chuckles and pulls me onto his lap, his muscular arms secure around my waist. A delightful shiver creeps up my back inch by inch. Even my ears are pounding.
“Boone, what are you doing?” I ask “There’s no one here but us. We don’t have to act…”
“What if I told you I don’t want to act anymore, Sutton,” he breathes into my ear.
My jaw drops as I stare at him. I blink hard, desperately trying to make sense of what Boone just told me. Could he really be feeling like this?
The hand caressing my face slides around the back of my neck. Beneath his rough fingertips, my skin grows warm and tingly. It feels like my whole body is shaking.
“Sutton…” he whispers, embracing me.
He bends his head to kiss me and I want to taste him so badly I’m trembling.
I’m lost in his eyes…but there’s something strange about his voice.
“Sutton,” he repeats, but his southern, deep twang is slowly growing oddly high-pitched. He gives me a small shake in his arms. “Sutton!”
I crack my eyes open to find my two BFFs’ faces inches from mine.
“Ahh!” I scream, jerking backward.
Both Liv and Kali scream as well, Liv falling backward, arms pinwheeling as she tumbles headfirst off my bed. She pops up again a second later and pouts at me.
“That wasn’t nice!”
“Neither is sneaking up on a girl while she’s getting her beauty sleep,” I say, rubbing my palms over my eyes, trying to clear my head.
That whole moment with Boone had apparently only been a dream. A delicious, glorious…torturous… dream. I gather my comfy blankets around me, hoping my face isn’t too flushed. That dream had felt way too real. My heart is still pounding, and my blood is still pulsing like crazy in my veins.
I haven’t even seen Boone in a few days. After our rendezvous on the beach, we decided to keep things discreet until one of the beachgoers spilled about seeing us. We didn’t want to come off too bold. No, we had to build a little mystery.
Honestly, this fake relationship has been one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time. Not only is hanging out with Boone a blast, but I’ve missed the stage since G&G went big time. This is like a performance that lasts for weeks instead of only hours. I didn’t realize how much I missed those days at USC when I was in theatre class.
“I think Sutton’s drunk,” murmurs Liv uncertainly. She waves her hand in front of my face and then snaps her fingers. “She’s in a totally different world right now.”
Forcing myself to focus on the besties who have invaded my bedroom, I sleepily frown at Liv. “It’s not even 7 a.m.”
Grabbing my pillow from behind my head, I chuck it at her. Liv yelps, trying unsuccessfully to dodge the pillow headed right toward her face. She ends up falling right back off the bed again and onto the plush turquoise blue rug. Curled up on the edge of my bed, Coco glares at us condescendingly for making so much noise so early in the morning.
This time, Liv stays where she is, laying on the carpet with her arms and legs outstretched.
I give a sniff, smelling the air. Our beach bungalow smells amazing this morning. “Is that…? Kali, did you make blueberry muffins? And am I smelling banana bread, too?
“Coffee cake,” Liv chimes in from the floor.
Oh, no. This is bad.
Letting out a h
eavy sigh, I reach out and grab Kali’s hands. “Babe, do you want to talk about why you’re stress baking? Is it Grayson?”
My throat feels so tight I can hardly breathe.
If Kali and her hunky boyfriend got in a fight and broke up, what would that mean for Boone and me? The last thing I want to do is rub a fake relationship in Kali’s real grief. I love her too much to do that to her. But on the other hand, I don’t want to cut Boone off just yet, either.
Well, this is a dang pickle, as Boone would so sweetly lament.
“No,” Kali admits hesitantly. With a groan, she flops against me on the bed and holds her phone out to me. “I’ve been trying to wait for you to get up for hours, but I couldn’t wait one second more. You have to see this for yourself.”
My stomach clenches nervously as I take Kali’s phone. Liv crawls back onto the bed and lays next to Kali and me.
“Check Twitter,” Kali instructs.
I scroll absently through the feed, at first not seeing anything of note, but then I gasp in surprise.
“We’re trending again!” I cry happily. “Wait. But why? I don’t remember posting anything too special lately. Did you post something, Kali?”
She shakes her head, reaches across me, and taps on the screen a few times until a picture pops up.
I tilt my head one way and then the other as I try to decipher the grainy shot. A woman is in the arms of some super sexy man, her body draped over his arm, his mouth to hers, her long, dark hair billowing in the wind.
“Looks like a romance novel cover,” I whisper before my breath catches in my throat. “Squee! That’s me. That’s Boone! That’s us!”
That moment had definitely felt magical when it was happening, but to see it captured like this. It’s my very own fairytale moment.
Liv nods sympathetically. She caresses my hair as Kali wraps an arm around me.
“I know you and Boone were trying to keep your relationship on the down-low.” Kali sighs. “But it looks like you got busted. Franco’s isn’t the subtle spot it used to be. I’m sorry, girl.”
I force back the overjoyed grin threatening to brighten my entire face, knowing that Kali and Liv expect me to be bummed. I still hadn’t exactly found a good moment to tell my BFFs that my relationship with Boone is entirely fake, and now it looks like I’ll be keeping the secret a little longer.
Our plan really worked! I can’t wait to tell Boone.
“You know what you have to do, right?” Liv suggests after the silence draws on a little longer. “You and Boone should make a video together to talk about the situation. If we don’t, all of the comments we get are going to be endless questions. If the Glammers get frustrated, it might not pan out well for us.”
I nod, letting out another sigh. “You’re right. That’s the only way to handle this,” I agree with feigned reluctance, gazing at my friends and putting on my best glum face even as my very soul is doing cartwheels and somersaults.
Act one is complete.
Now it’s time for Boone and me to really grab the audience.
CHAPTER NINE
I twirl in a circle in my huge walk-in closet, inspecting every inch of my carefully chosen outfit in the huge full-length mirror on one wall. I pretty much spent all day contemplating everything from my simple diamond stud earrings to my turquoise socks.
“What do you think, Kali?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder at my beautiful blond friend seated on the carpeted floor beside my shoes. Liv was currently down in the living room putting finishing touches on some fashion designs, otherwise she’d be up here, too.
Kali tilts her head one way and then the other before winking and giving me a brilliant smile.
“That cozy hoodie is definitely a cute look for an impromptu live—and gurl, you are rocking those braided pigtails—but if you’d just let me give you a bit more lipstick it’d really seal the deal!” she gushes, leaning forward while dragging a bright red lippie from her pocket.
I laugh and playfully bat her hand away.
“Nope!” I say. “I'm going for the totally unfiltered look today, babe. I want the viewers to feel like my relationship is genuine, so I have to come off that way, too.”
Kali’s brows furrow slightly. “You want our fans to feel like your relationship is genuine? That’s kind of a weird thing to say.”
Choking in surprise, I clear my throat hard and pretend to fuss with the end of one of my pigtails. “You know what I mean!” I stammer hastily. “I don’t want the Glammers to think I’m being secretive with them. I’ve always been an open book.”
She appraises me, watching as I tug the hem of my oversized hoodie and adjust the waistband of my black leggings. I’d tried on like eight different outfits before settling on this one.
“If you say so...” she says slowly. “Listen, I know our fans are special and we’re definitely kind of a family, but this relationship is just between you and Boone at the end of the day. You don’t have to feel pressured to share every single thing. You know that, right?”
I shrug in answer, keen to change the subject. It’s a whole lot more complicated than what Kali thinks. “I better text Boone and see where he is. I posted like an hour ago that I was going to go live with him to clear up the rumors.”
Kali clears her throat and squirms slightly. “Um…actually, Boone is already here.”
“He’s here?” I shriek, my eyes going wide. “What? When?”
She glances at the clock on her phone and then shrugs. “Like fifteen minutes ago? I came up to tell you about it and then you asked me to help you with your outfit and it just…slipped my mind, I guess? Grayson wanted a chance to get to know Boone a little bit anyway.”
I let out an aggravated squeal and dart out of the walk-in closet before she can finish what she was saying, making a beeline for the stairs. From down in the living room, I can hear two male voices drifting my way. At least he had Grayson to keep him company. Hopefully, Boone hadn’t let anything slip.
When I burst into the living room, the two men are chuckling.
“Hey, boys,” I say uneasily. “How’s it going?”
On one end of the sectional, Boone climbs to his feet and grins at Grayson. The dark-haired lawyer seated on the other end of the couch is grinning, too.
“Hey, darlin’,” Boone says warmly. “We were just chatting.”
“I was giving Boone some pointers about what it means to be an honorary G&G member,” Grayson explains. “I had to go through this whole thing with Kali, so I know the deal.”
“You make it sound like a chore,” I tease.
The mood between the two handsome men is light and airy. Neither one seems tense or annoyed, so the conversation must have been pleasant. I sag with relief.
Grayson shrugs. “If it’s a chore, it’s the best one in the whole world because it brought Kali into my life.”
“You’re such a sap!” Kali gushes as she follows me into the living room.
Liv lets out a dreamy-sounding sigh from the kitchen. Her fashion designs are spread out in front of her, covering the whole kitchen counter, and Chanel is nestled under the crook of one of her arms. She doesn’t say anything, but instead, simply gazes at us wistfully. Our sweet little starry-eyed romantic thinks she’s the only one without a man, but Liv has no idea that I’m only going to be taken for a few months at best. Boone and I put a nine-month cap on our fake relationship. A year was too long to carry on the lie and six months felt too short for it to feel genuine. Nine months, we’d decided together, would be perfect.
Shaking off the gloomy thought of our looming deadline, I sidle closer to Boone. He slips an arm around my waist like it’s the most natural thing in the world and pulls me close. I take a deep breath and get a whiff of his familiar, delectable cologne. It never fails to make me giddy and today is no different.
“Are we ready to do this?” he asks, gazing down at me.
I nod and hold up my phone. “Insta is waiting. The live won’t be too long or too compl
icated. The Glammers mostly just want to see your face and hear your voice.”
“Sounds good,” he says with a nod.
I know he’s a little uneasy about chatting face to face with the G&G fans, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I know exactly what kinds of questions they’ll ask, and I’ve already prepped his answers. To keep things simple, we’re keeping stuff as close to the truth as possible. The only lie is that we’re not actually dating at all.
Giving my besties and Grayson a smile and a wave, I take Boone’s hand and lead him upstairs to my bedroom. Sunlight spills into the space from the big window, a puffy floral comforter covers my queen-size bed, and dozens of tiny fairy lights placed all around the room bath it in a soft purple glow.
“We’re going to shoot the video here,” I announce, gesturing to my perfectly fluffed pillows and the comforter that I’d folded neatly back.
His gaze skims the room before settling warily on the bed. “In your bed…?”
“Yep!” I say. “It’s the perfect intimate spot to make the viewers feel like they’re part of the conversation. Believe me, it works like a charm.”
He slowly nods, still looking thoughtful. “You really know how to put on a show, don’t you?” he chuckles, but there’s a wariness in his expression. It must be his nerves.
“I absolutely do,” I insist.
Before he can say anything else, I gently nudge him toward my bed, and he eases down against my pillows. The minute he does, Coco hops up and curiously approaches him. Mouth curving and gaze softening, he holds out a big hand to her. She gives him one deliberating sniff before stepping gracefully into his lap, then she spins in an elegant circle before laying down.
I gasp in shock, staring at him with wide eyes. My heart just about melts at the sight of the two of them. Could this guy get any better?
“Just so you know, you aren’t allowed to move until she gets up,” I tease. “She doesn’t normally take to people like this.”
Coco purrs happily, a content kitty smile on her furry face.
Boone chuckles and takes my hand, tugging me down next to him on the bed. “Let’s do this,” he murmurs.
