The Billionaire’s Fake Wedding: Crystal Beach Resort Standalone Series- Book 3

by Hart, Hanna

  It was these thoughts that kept her up at night.

  She would feel a swelling in her chest that would force her awake with a burst of anxiety that would inevitably lead to tears.

  The worst part was, she couldn’t even tell Beckett about Ruby. She couldn’t share the biggest part of her life with anyone.

  It was also these thoughts that prevented her from fully appreciating the new, lavish lifestyle she was living. Because it was the money that funded this beachfront mansion that was keeping her from Ruby. And how could money possibly be more important than motherhood?

  When working herself up into a panic, Fiona would have to talk herself down. She would text Kathleen and do video chats with Ruby whenever she had a moment away from Beckett. This would give her a fix, but it was hardly the same as being able to hold her daughter.

  Finally, she would diligently remind herself that without this money, she would have no chance at getting the surgery she so desperately needed.

  Fiona wandered the perimeter of her luxurious bedroom and stopped at a full body mirror to inspect her bathing suit. She wore a green one-piece that had a crisscross backing that dipped low.

  “You ready?” Beckett asked from the doorway to her bedroom.

  He stood leaning against the white frame with his arms crossed. A small, suggestive smirk crossed his perfect lips as he checked her out from top to bottom.

  Fiona blushed. “I am ready to float,” she enunciated with excitement.

  She and Beckett were going out on the water. He didn’t have to work until the lunch rush, so the two of them were heading out early to catch the sunrise and have a day date as husband and wife. Then tonight Beckett would be inviting some friends over to get to know Fiona better.

  It was just before seven in the morning and they had taken Beckett's small yacht out onto the water. The morning view was absolutely breathtaking. The ocean was serene and still. There was a low fog that hovered above the glassy surface.

  “Ever wake up to see the sunrise?” Beckett asked as he leaned back in his captain’s chair.

  “Nope,” Fiona laughed. “You?”

  “Nah,” he said dismissively. “So, I guess that makes this a special me-and-you thing, doesn't it, Sunshine?”

  She smiled and watched the way the fiery orange seemed to erupt from the far reach of the ocean. Then she looked back at Beckett and felt her stomach swarm with butterflies and antsy emotions. She wanted to kiss him so badly.

  “I guess it does,” she smiled.

  “Well then it's got to be special!” Beckett cheered, jumping up from his seat. “How do you feel about cold water?”

  “Um, not good?” Fiona giggled nervously.

  “Come on,” he jeered gamely. “Come out with me and let's watch this for real.”

  Before Fiona had a chance to protest, Beckett had gone into the deck below and pulled out two pool floaties. One was shaped like a donut and the other lounger looked more like an inflatable sleeping bag than a floater.

  Even though it was early in the morning, Fiona could feel the humidity overtaking the air. She was comfortable on the deck in a swimsuit cover-up and a light shawl, but she imagined the water was freezing below.

  Beckett threw the floaters into the water, and Fiona shook her head and made her way toward the ladder on the side of the ship.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Beckett said, raising a hand in protest. “Where do you think you're going?”

  “Um?” she laughed. “Is this a trick question?”

  “No,” he said.

  “Into the water?” she responded.

  “Oh, Fiona. Poor, silly, innocent little Fiona. We do not climb down into the water,” he said playfully. “We jump.”

  With that, Beckett scooped her up by her waist and hoisted her into his warm, strong arms. He carried her to the edge of the ship and locked eyes with her.

  “You seriously want me to jump in there?” she asked.

  “Yep,” Beckett said as he began to set her back down on her feet. “You're jumping in there with me.”

  “Is that right?” she said slowly and felt her stomach flip as Beckett pulled her hand into his.

  “Ready?” he called. “One, two, three!”

  The two jumped off the side of the small ship on three and splashed into the water, hand in hand. To her surprise, the water was warm and inviting. Hardly the swell of icebergs she had been anticipating.

  Beckett hoisted her onto the doughnut-shaped float so she was sitting propped up and as comfortable as she could ever imagine—her legs dangling off the sides of the massive floats. Beckett then tied the two floaters together by connecting a rope through the two looped sides and pulling them tightly to one another. He then connected that rope to the ship so that they wouldn't float out into the watery abyss.

  Once Fiona was resting comfortably, Beckett raced back up the ladder of the ship.

  “Wait there!” he called out and disappeared below deck.

  “Where are you going?” she shouted. When she didn't get an answer, she called out, “You said it was going to be cold!”

  And that was exactly what she liked most about Beckett. He was playful and adventurous. Boyish, in his way.

  His appearance was another one of her favorite things, as shallow as it seemed. She had never felt her body ache for someone the way she hurt for Beckett. She wanted his touch, his attention, his lips.

  Her feelings for him were turning into something real, and it was starting to scare her. She knew she couldn’t act on them but keeping them buried was starting to make her feel lightheaded.

  After several minutes, Beckett crawled back down the ladder with two coffees in to-go containers. He passed her both before gathering himself on the longer float. His required him to lay down but was propped at the head like a massive plastic pillow. He took his coffee from her and let out a sigh of contentment.

  “The water here is about eighty degrees this time of year,” he chuckled. “I just wanted to know how adventurous you were willing to be.”

  “Bad,” she scolded playfully and shook her head. She took a sip of the strong coffee and looked out over the still water. “Would you ever do one of those polar dips?” she asked.

  “Me?” he scoffed. “No, absolutely not. Had a girlfriend who used to do those, though.”

  “Wow! We're talking about exes before cocktails!” she laughed and shook her head. “Sounds like a crazy girl.”

  “We were young,” he said. “But yeah. She was sort of insane.”

  “Jump in cold water insane? Or does the insanity go further?”

  Beckett laughed. “She was throw-a-shoe-at-my-face insane. Bad temper.”

  “No kidding!” she said in disbelief.

  Fiona couldn’t imagine treating someone like that. The worst thing she had ever done when she was angry was throw the television remote, and even then, she had only thrown it onto the couch.

  “What about you?” Beckett asked. “Ever date any crazies?”

  “I’ve only really been with two people,” she said shyly, her voice lowering at the end of her sentence. “Kind of lame, I know.”

  Beckett shook his head and took a sip of his coffee. “Nothing wrong with that.”

  “I can safely say I have never been with anyone crazy,” she said with a smile. “Thankfully.”

  “Just ended up with jerks?” he asked.

  “Not really,” she said, narrowing her brows thoughtfully. “I mean, I guess my ex-husband was… not the greatest experience.”

  “How’d you meet?” Beckett asked, and Fiona proceeded to launch into her tale of working together as actors on the trolley. How they had shared an instant connection and knew by week two that they were going to marry each other one day.

  She talked about the private parts of their relationship—how safe she felt in his arms and how he brought out her well-hidden social side. She couldn’t bring Ruby into the story, of course, which made Matt’s leaving her seem abrupt and out of nowhere
.

  “You think he had another girlfriend?” Beckett asked, drawing his brows together curiously.

  “No,” she said carefully. “I think he just didn’t want to be married anymore.”

  A silence hung over the pair for a moment as they listened to the bubbles coming up from the water. They heard the birds flap their wing and fly dangerously close to the surface of the ocean before billowing skyward back into the morning sky.

  “I bet he had a girlfriend,” he said sharply. “Nobody just ups and leaves their family.”

  “My mom did,” she said quickly, and Beckett stared at her with dark eyes.

  “Then both of them were cowards,” he said with some intensity. “Nobody should leave a marriage. That’s a… family.”

  Fiona gulped back her nerves. Had she accidentally mentioned Ruby?

  “Even if you don’t have kids,” Beckett continued, and Fiona felt her stomach settle, “to me, once you’re married, you’re a family. You don’t just leave because you’re tired of it. What’s the difference, anyway? He’s still off paying bills, still coming home after work every day. Why not come home to someone who loves you?”

  Fiona shrugged, but she knew why.

  It wasn’t about being committed or working every day. It was about her.

  Matt just didn’t want to be with her anymore. He didn’t want the changes that came with having a baby. He didn’t want to be held back from living the way he wanted.

  He quite literally did not want Fiona. By the end, it didn’t even seem like he liked her.

  Her pregnancy, which had been one of the most exciting times of her life, only seemed to embitter Matt. He was angry all the time. Every time he did something nice like wash the dishes or bring home her favorite ice cream, he would be sure to throw it in her face during their next argument.

  “You’re never home, anymore,” she would say gently, trying to nudge his feelings forward.

  “How can you say that?” he would argue back. “All I ever do is spend time with you. I go to work every day for you. I pick up all the things that you like because I’m trying to make you happy.”

  He could always find a way to turn things back around on her, as though he had been the one with the problem.

  Fiona swallowed and shifted in her seat. “But the first guy, Jonah. He was cool, actually.”

  “Jonah?” Beckett scoffed. “As in, swallowed by the fish?”

  “Yeah,” she rolled her eyes. “You caught me.”

  “What kind of name is Jonah?” he teased, nudging his foot against her floating and causing her to jostle in her seat.

  “It’s a name!” she laughed in defense. “Anyways! Like I was saying, he was pretty cool. We were in high-school, and we were pretty serious.”

  “Right,” Beckett laughed. “Serious for high-school means, what? You were together for a couple of months?”

  “Actually, we were together for three years,” she said matter-of-factly. His name was Jonah Baker, and he was the best kisser she had ever met. He was one of those idyllic high-school boyfriends that girls ended up comparing all their subsequent relationships to.

  Even when she was with Matt, whom she had been crazy, head-over-heels in love with, she couldn’t help but compare him to how sweet and sensitive Jonah had been.

  “Wow, that’s a good chunk of time,” Beckett said slowly. He pointed to the far reach of the water and Fiona followed the direction, watching as the sun came up over the water and left an intense ray of yellow, gold, and amber hues throughout the air.

  “Beautiful,” she said breathlessly.

  “So, why’d you break up?” Beckett asked.

  “He went to college in another state so, that was pretty much it,” she said.

  “And you don’t believe in long-distance relationships?” he asked.

  Fiona stifled a laugh and turned her float toward Beckett’s. “Are you serious?” she asked incredulously. “Do you?”

  “Sure,” he said with a shrug.

  “Oh, that’s convincing,” she snorted.

  “What? Why not? If you love each other, what’s to stop you from being together even if you are far away? Technology has made it—”

  “I’m so sick of people using that as an excuse,” she interrupted. “Sure, we have video chat and texts and whatever, but can you honestly say it’s the same as being together in person?”

  “Well, no,” he murmured. “But it’s a good stand-in when you can’t get to one another.”

  Her heart sank. Here she was saying that long-distance didn’t work with someone you loved, yet it was the exact same thing she was doing with her daughter right now.

  “So much of a relationship is unspoken,” she said slowly. “It’s holding hands. It’s kissing and laying on the couch together. It’s going for a walk and saying absolutely nothing. That’s called emotional intimacy.”

  Beckett watched her in a way that made her face flush as he said, “It’s sitting in the ocean on fifty-dollar pool floats, watching the sunrise together.”

  Fiona couldn’t help the smile the crossed her lips then.

  Was he flirting with her?

  “Something like that,” she said softly and then he reached his hand over to hers and pulled her closer to his float. When the inflatable loungers touched, Beckett didn’t let go of her hand.

  “I don’t think I like hearing about your exes,” he said. “And I’ve barely heard a thing.”

  “Then why did you ask?” Fiona wondered aloud.

  “Because I want to know more about you. You’re a mystery Fiona, and I don’t say that lightly. You’re an absolute mystery to me.”

  She giggled at this and shook her head, pulling herself away from his gaze. “Good,” she said.

  “What do you mean good?”

  “I mean, relationships are more exciting when you don't know everything about one another. There’s still that chase...”

  “And that's what we're in?” he perked up. “A relationship?”

  She laughed. “Well, I mean, of sorts.”

  “Ah,” he paused. “Well, I disagree. I think relationships are better when you know that person inside out.”

  “Nu-uh!” she said, spinning in her seat. “The best part of a relationship is the beginning when everything is still sparkly and new, and you're still figuring each other out!”

  “Oh, you're one of those 'first' girls!”

  “First girls?” she smirked. “What's that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you love firsts. First date, first kiss, the first time you fight.”

  “Nobody loves a first fight.”

  Beckett pulled her hand and leaned into her. Then he whispered, “I bet you do.”

  “And If I'm a ‘first girl’ then what does that make you?”

  He shrugged. “I like the rest.”

  “So, you're a ‘rest guy?’”

  “No, because that sounds lame. I am a man who likes... the rest. I like feeling comfortable with someone. Sunday morning breakfast, laying on the couch together, walking around without a shower and not being petrified what your partner is going to think.”

  “Ah. You like the boring stuff.”

  “Not so boring,” Beckett said lowly. He bit his lip and seemed lost in thought then. She watched the way his eyes flickered in thought.

  “Uh. Super boring,” Fiona teased.

  “I'm going to assume you've never been in a long enough relationship to appreciate it, besides ole Noah.”

  “Jonah!” she corrected with a hard laugh. “Says the man who's front page news for all of his conquests!”

  Beckett laughed and let go of her hand in a silly, dramatic fashion as he shouted, “Ouch!

  The two of them laughed. Once the moment began to pass, Beckett took on a more serious tone and said, “I don't know what I was doing then, really.”

  “Enjoying your single life, from the looks of it,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Spiraling out of control. Se
lf-medicating with late nights and drinks.”

  “Wow, way to bring down the room,” she said with some levity. “How come?”

  “Why else?” he said. “Life.”

  She nodded. “Ah, life.”

  The rest of the morning was absolutely perfect. They sat out on the water for hours, talking and sharing about the different aspects of their lives. She told him about working at the motel and Kathleen. She told him about her father and her desire to have children one day.

  To have more children, she wanted to say, but couldn’t get the words to come out without risking everything.

  To this, Beckett responded, “I never want them. Ever.”

  Yes, Fiona thought. He’d been crystal clear about that.

  In turn, he told her about growing up with a famous father and the media scrutiny his parents were under when they were having a hard time in their marriage.

  Once they were back on the boat, Beckett got to work cooking the most amazing brunch she had ever tasted. He made fluffy scrambled eggs and savory lobster crepes which they ate out on the deck of his yacht and drank sparkling water flavored with fresh grapefruits and lemons.

  After brunch, Beckett had to go work the lunch shift at the restaurant. Fiona made her way back to the house and got dressed for her afternoon plans.

  She was going out with Maggs to help her do some last-minute wedding set up. This would give them the opportunity to get to know one another better. Maybe Fiona would even make some friends while they were out together.

  Fiona slipped on a white, cap-sleeved top that went lacy and see-through above the bustline and black Bermuda shorts and sandals. Classy casual. Or at least, that's how she hoped she looked.

  She was meeting Maggs on the mainland at a bakery called La Petite Boulangerie. The shop was a simple ferry ride away from the private island. She would finally be with the common people, she joked to herself.

  She wondered how the mainlanders felt about Nani Makai. Did they relish being the pit stop for wealthy tourists heading toward Crystal Beach Resorts, or did they resent for the little island and all it represented?

  Fiona bought her ferry ticket and boarded the vessel with the rest of the islanders looking to leave luxury for the afternoon.

  The ferry was massive. It was white with yellow and blue striped designs on the side. It only took forty minutes to get back to civilization, or so her ticket said.