by Lindsey Hart
“I know we only spent a few days together,” Brock jumped in, sensing June’s resistance weakening. “But I know it’s different with you. I feel this connection that I’ve never felt with anyone. It feels so right whenever I’m with you. I had an amazing time. I haven’t had fun like that in a very long time. It was you. It was your friends. It was everything. I don’t want to give it up. I don’t want to lose you and lose that. I know we can only try, but if I don’t do that, if I don’t tell you how I feel now, I’ll spend a long time regretting it.”
June rolled her eyes. “You’re just in it for the sex.”
Brock grinned. “I’m not. I promise. I mean, that’s good too, but it’s more. It’s so much more. I want that chance to actually lose myself in you. All of me. I want to fall in love. Even if that sounds corny and cheesy and lame. You’re under my skin. You’re here,” he placed his hand over his heart. “I want to keep you there.”
Jaz and Mandy hung on his words. Jaz had gone doe-eyed and Mandy’s lips were pressed in a hard line, but her eyes were welling up with tears. Obviously, he’d won them over. Ultimately though, June was going to make her own decision no matter what her friends thought. He turned his gaze back to her. She sighed and threw her hands up.
“Alright, alright. You win. I’ll give you another chance. Although that was really lame and corny and cheesy and all of it. You can’t win my heart with flowers and chocolates. I don’t need things. I’m never going to use you for your money. Well… not much at any rate. I can’t say the same for Jaz and Mandy.” She shot him a coy smile and he had to laugh.
He stepped forward, wrapped one arm around June’s waist and tipped her face up with the other. “I’m sorry. Truly. I promise not to keep things from you in the future.”
June’s eyes flashed. “You better not.”
“I promise I will do everything in my power to make this work.”
“You said that already.”
“Just kiss her!” Jaz yelled at him.
“Yeah, kiss her. I think she’s got the gist of it,” Mandy agreed.
Because there really was only one thing left to do, Brock bent his head. He didn’t hold back. He claimed June’s lips with all the scalding heat he usually saved for when they were alone. Jaz and Mandy actually cheered and clapped. When he pulled away, June wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his face back down. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him again until they were both breathless.
“You’re right on time,” she grinned when she’d regained her ability to speak. “You can help me carry my bags up. I live on the third floor and there are a lot of stairs.”
He bowed low and offered her a silly, huge, face splitting grin. He couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do. “You don’t want to make a bet of it, do you?”
“I think I’m done with bets for now,” June laughed. “At least until we get up to the apartment. After that… who knows. I might be able to find a deck of cards. You owe me a game of strip poker after all.”
Brock nearly tripped over his feet in his eagerness to grab June’s bags. Mandy and Jaz grinned and muttered something about taking it easy and not falling on his face.
“That’s one game,” he assured June as they walked up to the door together, “that I’d be happy to lose.”
EPILOGUE
Brock
“Does this dress make me look fat?”
Brock turned, studying his wife as she walked into the bedroom. She had on a long flowing maxi dress, one hand on her very pregnant belly. “Is that a trick question?”
She scowled at him. “Of course not.”
“Honey, I don’t think pregnant women can be fat. I mean, you have a baby growing inside of you. If you look like you’re going to topple over because that belly defies gravity, no one is going to say that counts as fat.”
“You dork,” June rolled her eyes, but she cracked a smile. “You’re supposed to tell me that I’m beautiful and dreamy no matter what.”
“You are beautiful. You are sexy. You are kind funny, witty, smart, and a whole host of other amazing things. I could go on all day naming them, but then you’d be late.”
June swatted at him. “Don’t think that flattery is going to get you back into my good graces. I look like a whale and I know it.”
“A very pretty, sexy whale.” Brock set his hand on her stomach. “That’s my daughter in there and you’re growing her. I know that you were sick, that you’re uncomfortable now, that you think you’re never going to fit back into your jeans. Who cares? You’ve created a life. From nothing. It’s incredible. Your body is doing this miraculous thing and that is the most beautiful thing in the entire world.”
“Stop it.” June sniffed. “Seriously. Don’t act all empathetic and reasonable. You should have just said I was fat and let me yell at you.”
“You can yell at me if you want,” Brock chuckled. “But you should put on a smile. Your friends spent a lot of time planning this baby shower for you.”
“I know. I told them that I don’t need anything, and they know it, but they still insisted.”
“They’re doing it to make you feel special. The gifts they give you are going to be worth far more than anything we could ever buy.”
“I know, I just feel bad. I don’t need things.”
He didn’t point out that was the very reason he hadn’t told her that he had money in the first place. She’d learned, over the three years they’d been together, that life wasn’t always easy, just because there was a big bank account in your name. They’d had to fight for their relationship like any other couple. They’d had their arguments and their rough patches, but they’d also learned the sheer joy of finding that person who both frustrates you and completes you. Even if he pissed her off, there were far more times when he made her smile.
After two years, they decided they weren’t going to break up, that they actually enjoyed being together and that they had a future they both definitely still wanted to work towards. He’d brought up kids since their relationship was so solid. June thought it was a great idea. They’d both enjoyed trying. That was probably the best part of the pregnancy. After two months, June found out she was pregnant.
Brock learned the true meaning of joy and fear when she came out of the bathroom, waving that stick in the air, all smiles, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.
“You’re going to have a great time. Jaz promised you the best cake.”
“Oh god,” June groaned. “I seriously don’t need to eat that. Look at me.”
Brock dusted a kiss on top of June’s hair. She’d curled it and it hung down in long waves over her shoulders and down her back. He swatted her playfully on the ass. “You better get going or I’m going to take that dress off of you and have my way with you and you’ll never make it there. I’d have a year’s worth of sucking up to Jaz and Mandy to do to get them to forgive me for that one.”
“Don’t tempt me. Most people wouldn’t desire their wives when they are the size of a house.”
“Then those people are fools. I’ll always desire you. You’ll always be beautiful to me. Here. Now. Tomorrow. Next year. When you’re ninety and wrinkled beyond recognition.” June swung at him, but he sidestepped the blow. “My god. Pregnancy makes you violent.”
She snorted. “When you have a living being crushing your internal organs, you might be violent too.” She laughed after, and her shoulder pressed in, admitting defeat. When she glanced back up at him, her eyes shone. “I’m so happy, Brock. Even If I think I’m fat. Even if I do worry about none of my jeans fitting again. Even if my body is changing and it’s scary and amazing all at once. Even if I’m terrified of birth. Even if I feel bad my friends went to all this trouble for me. Even if I pretend not to be. I’m so insanely happy about all of this.” She blinked hard, but a few errant tears spilled down her cheeks. He stepped in and brushed them away with the pad of his thumb.
“I know, my love, so am I.”
“When we got
fake married, I remember waking up next to you and just panicking. I can’t believe we’re here now. It’s only been a couple of years, but it feels like forever. In a good way.”
“Glad you clarified.”
June wrapped her arms around Brock’s neck and he gave her a slow, lingering kiss that left little doubt that he was indeed serious about making her very, very late for her baby shower. When she pulled away, she smiled softly at him, all the love on earth etched into her features. She was so beautiful, so very beautiful, it hurt. In a good way. Always in a good way.
“I love you. I’m really glad that I lost that bet that night and we wound up married to each other in the wildest, most crazy, unexpected turn of events.”
“Me too. God, me too.”
She winked at him then, before she turned, grabbed her purse off the bed, and waved. He stood still, watching her go, wondering what the heck that meant. Had she remembered something about that night? She’d lost to him… didn’t she?
Brock let out a slow, deep laugh. Either way, win or lose, he’d hit the ultimate jackpot that night, every single night after, and every single night to come.
The End
FAKING IT
BOOK DESCRIPTION
A stranger agreed to be my fake boyfriend - for one single day.
His name? Shadow (Ya, that’s a fake name).
His occupation? I don’t know.
The reason he agreed to my request? I have no idea.
I know absolutely nothing about him except that,
He is pure walking temptation.
And he is going to make me sin big time.
How the hell do I stop myself from falling for him?
Especially when our agreement was only for one day.
And then we’ll never see each other again.
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 wrote. 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.
