by Frankie Love
“Right. So just shower me with praise, mention my virility and skill. Tell everyone I am investing in real estate, and never hint at the fact I spent five years mucking about.”
“You call it mucking, I call it fucking.”
“Ha,” I snort. “Claire, that wit is exactly the sort of humor Englishmen love. Keep it up.” As our glasses are filled for the third time, I toast Claire again.
“What is that one for?” she asks.
“For doing this. For putting up with me.” My lips curl into a smile as I realize I am actually genuinely happy to be bringing Claire home. She looks gorgeous in this posh outfit, holding her flute of champagne. Everything about her drips perfection, and I wouldn’t believe she had a blemish if someone swore she did.
“I want the money,” she says bluntly. “I’ll put up with anything.”
“Right.” I finish the martini in one fell swoop. Fuck me. My head needs to stay on bloody straight. This isn’t personal for Claire. She’s never once hinted that it is. It’s all business for her. And I need to keep it that way for me too.
But as we recline our seats, settling in for the long flight, I can’t help but look at Claire and think that what I really want is her.
Chapter Twelve
Claire
I fall asleep for most of the flight, and wake only as Landon gently nudges my arm.
“We’re here, love,” he says, tucking a piece of my hair off my face.
That gets me sitting up straight.
“Love?”
He laughs. “I was trying it on for size. You know, to make this believable. We need pet names.”
“And mine is Love?”
“Right. It rolls off the tongue. You can call me anything you like. However, we should think on it as we walk. The rest of the plane has already disembarked.”
I unbuckle and look around. “You let me sleep while everyone walked past me?” I swat his arm. “Was I drooling?”
“You looked perfect.”
I eye Landon cautiously. He’s being ridiculously nice. Which, actually, he’s been pretty generous with me the entire time we’ve been hanging out. And by hanging out I mean planning on conning his loved ones, and having sex.
I stand and get my purse. “Okay, Babycakes.”
“So you’re going with Babycakes .then?” he asks, deadpan.
I walk off the plane with him trailing me. “It’s better than Toots.”
“It’s better than a lot of things. That doesn’t mean you should consider calling me Fuck-machine.”
I laugh, swatting his arm as he reaches for my hand again. We walk into the crowded airport. The Las Vegas airport suddenly seems minuscule, compared to this place. People from everywhere on the globe cross our path. Dialects and languages circle around us, and my face brightens as I realize that I really did it. I travelled to another country.
Looking down, I see Landon’s hand holding mine.
“You know you don’t have to hold my hand until we get to your parents house,” I tell him, as our fingers lace together effortlessly.
“Do you mind? I want to be in the habit of it, so it seems natural.”
“I don’t mind. We’re in England—this is your turf, your rules. Your wish is my command.”
“Okay, then.” He stops in the middle of the airport terminal.
Hundreds of people swarm around us. Huge windows are on either side of us, and planes are landing and taking off. It’s the place people go to leave. The airport is where stories end, the place stories begin.
The place where Landon is kneeling down on one knee.
Ohmigosh. I silently will him to stand. He could just slip a ring on my finger without a show ... yet here he is, pulling out a black box, holding my hand, looking into my eyes.
“Claire, the moment we waltzed, arm in arm, I knew you and I were destined for greatness. You literally glided into my life, and you are the only person I want to have this crazy adventure with.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I whisper out of the corner of my mouth. People have stopped walking; they’re watching, cameras poised at their faces as literal strangers begin documenting this proposal. My face is hot, my chest pounds. This is so not happening.
“Claire, I have to do this. Right now. Before another moment passes us by. Will you make me the happiest bloke in the world and be my bride?”
My eyes are basically falling off my face—and not because that diamond ring is beyond enormous, but because Landon looks so ridiculously handsome, so absolutely out of my league. He’s in a tie and collared shirt, a suit coat and nice slacks; he has on cufflinks for God’s sake. No one would believe we were together.
But then I look down at myself, with my high heels and manicured hands. My gorgeous clothing, and my three-thousand-dollar purse.
We fit. We match.
“Say yes,” he says, holding the solitaire flanked with two emeralds.
“Yes,” I say breathlessly.
“She said yes!” someone in the crowd calls, and everyone is clapping, calling out congratulations, and hollering.
I blink back tears, tears that make zero sense. This isn’t a real proposal. Landon and I aren’t actually in love.
Still, Landon slides the ring on my finger and stands, pulling me into a hug, and then a kiss as natural as our hands lacing together.
He picks me up off the ground and twirls me in a circle, grinning like a lovesick fool.
Then he sets me back down, and the crowd keeps moving—because everyone in this airport has a place to be. He cups my face in his hands and says, “For the record, you are a beautiful fake fiancée.”
“You aren’t so bad yourself.” I kiss him again, because I want to. Because this fake proposal took my breath away. I knew he’d give me a ring at some point, but I didn’t expect it to make me weak in the knees.
I can’t let my guard down, though. Landon sees this as a job, and so do I. I’m not in the business of making myself look like a fool.
Right now, I’m in the business of making two hundred and fifty thousand bucks in one week’s time.
He wants this to look as real as possible? I can give him that. I can give him exactly what he wants.
There are worse things than pretending to be in love.
Landon
I haven’t been to the family estate in nine months. I came last Christmas for two days, before flying to Bali for a week. Mum kept wiping her eyes the whole time, giving me a royal guilt trip for not being there longer, doing more. I shouldn’t have come at all, because being there only proved to them what I’m not.
No one wants to think about what I actually am.
Least of all me.
“So your mother is Helen and your father is Arthur. Tell me something else I should know,” Claire says, tucking her hair behind her ear. She holds her phone in her lap, and is texting as we travel the one-hour drive to Hertfordshire. I have no bloody clue who she’s speaking with ... and I have this strange curiosity to know.
She’s quizzing me, but I want to know everything about her.
“Right,” I say, stretching my legs in the back of the sleek town car. “Fiona, of course, is a bitch. And her sister hates me, so avoid asking about the family.”
“Why does she hate you?” she asks.
“Because I slept with her. But it was a long time ago. And the thing is, Fiona doesn’t even know the half of it.”
“What’s the other half?”
I snort, feeling my cheeks heat up. “I slept with her mother too.”
“Landon!” Claire punches me in the arm. “That’s terrible.”
Wincing playfully, I add, “It was holiday, I’d gotten drunk on eggnog. I was barely legal. She pounced. She was the original cougar.”
Claire rolls her eyes. “What else should I know? Because I know you’re a player in Vegas ... but, Landon, were you really that wild here, too?”
“Honestly? I was probably worse.”
“Did you intentionall
y omit these details when you offered me the job?”
“What, you don’t think you can do it?”
“I can do it.” She silences her phone and shoves it back in her bag. “I can do anything for a week.”
I take her hand in mind, resting them on leather seat of the town car. The diamond gleams between us like a million bucks. Scratch that—like two million bucks. Because that was what it bloody cost. However, using a perk of being the owner’s son, I borrowed it from the Vegas branch of The King’s Diamond ... since I don’t actually have that sort of cash yet.
Soon enough I will. Soon it will be my store. My company.
“It’s so beautiful,” Claire says, sighing as she looks out the window. It’s late—after dinner—and the sky is heavy with the colors of a setting sun. “Did you go to school here?”
“Primary school, yes. Then I went to boarding school in Edinburgh and uni at Cambridge. Where did you go to school?”
Claire licks her lips. “We should probably make up my whole back story, don’t you think? Falling for a cocktail waitress is not going to win the family over.”
“I suppose. It’s kind of bollocks though, isn’t it?” I run my hand over my jaw, confused as to why I feel protective of Claire and her feelings.
I don’t want to offend her with the truth of the people I come from. They would judge the hell out of her if they know she serves rum and Cokes for a living, while wearing a corset and fishnets. How the fuck do I know this? Because they have been judging me for the past decade for doing nothing with my life as well.
Not that Claire isn’t doing something with her life—she seems happy-ish—but she isn’t exactly riddled with life-passion or motivation, is she?
Okay. I’ve got to stop this. I don’t want to become an entirely different sort of ass the moment I land in the Heathrow airport. An ass like Geoffrey. I can live with being a womanizing prick, but a judgmental one? Not at all.
“I know that my job is usually a stepping stone for most people—but, Landon, I’m not most people. I don’t even know what sort of job I’d want if I weren’t a waitress. The money is decent. And the hours are great.”
“Are they really?” I can’t help but ask. “Because it’s actually something I’ve always wondered. Why do you work the crappiest shifts at the Spades? Surely Ace would give you a leg up? Let you work weekend nights and make more in tips?”
Claire shifts uncomfortably in her seat, her soft wool coat covering so many inches of her, the inches I want to run my hands over.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Landon,” she says briskly. “I like my job, and the shifts I have are the ones I want.”
“Duly noted.”
“But, honestly, we need a backstory. How we met. What I’m doing in Vegas. Hell, what you’re doing in Vegas. We need to know why they should give the company to you.”
“We really should have discussed this before we were fifteen minutes from my parents house.”
“Fifteen? Fuck, Landon.” She covers her mouth. “Shit. I can’t say fuck around them. They’re proper, right? Like rich, and have tea and a maid? Tell me, is it going to be like an episode of Downton Abbey?”
“First of all, Downton takes place, like, one hundred years ago. You do realize that? But yes ... they have a staff. And afternoon tea.”
“I’m so over my head.” She takes deep breaths in and out, closes her eyes. Grips my hand tight in hers.
“Are you going to have another panic attack?” I ask. “Because, really, this is not at all what I envisioned. I need put-together Claire. Claire who’s always, you know, responsible.”
“But, Landon, you’re the one who needs to be cool, calm, put together. You’re the one who needs to win them over, not me. I’m an accessory.”
“Fuck.” I match her breathing pattern, realizing she’s absolutely right. I brought her along to prove how reliable I am. To show my parents that I’m able to commit.
The truth is, their eyes will still be on me. I have Claire here, hoping she’ll solve my problems. But she can’t. She can only hold my hand and smile. I’m the one who needs the fake identity.
“It’s okay, Landon. We can do this. Together. One thing at a time.”
Claire leans over and kisses my cheek. I know it’s an effort to be as natural a couple as possible, but her kiss genuinely does cause my shoulders to drop, my eyes to open. I feel grounded with her next to me.
“What kind of woman would they like you to marry?” she asks. “A girl like Fiona?”
“Absolutely. They love Fiona. She goes to bridge with my mum. And they play tennis at the country club together. Also, they like to shop. On vacations, they seem to talk about books. I don’t know. It’s all boring stuff.”
“I got this. I can do boring.” She smiles, nodding her head, assuring me. “And you, Landon? What would your father want from you? To be like Geoffrey?”
“They would want me to be like Geoffrey, only more friendly. Outgoing. Not so stick-up-my-ass. My father is always riding my brother about being rigid, no fun, a bore. My father likes to have a good time—not too good, but he certainly doesn’t want to sit stoically and discuss finance.”
“So, you’re your father’s son, only you have a tendency to be more wild than you should.” Claire cocks her head, looking me up and down. Her eyes land on the bulge in my pants. I can’t wait to get her in the house, in a bedroom, and tear off her clothes. Which will be soon. We’ve just pulled up to the estate.
“Let’s not talk about my father right now. Let’s talk about all the things I plan on doing to you.”
“Um. I’d love to hear all about it ... but, Landon, this cannot be your house. This is a freaking castle.” Claire’s gorgeous eyes are wide in surprise.
“Technically, yes.”
The driveway leading to the estate is filled with autumn foliage and the house itself looks as regal as ever. Towering spires and stonewalls, barred windows and sweeping views of the property.
“Everything will be fine,” I tell her. “Remember, you told me we’ve got this.” I kiss her again, because I can’t fucking help myself. Everything about her makes me insane. Her vulnerability, her innocence. Her absolute naiveté of the world around us. The way she holds herself together, not thinking she’s less than, or inadequate. She is enough.
“I like it when you kiss me,” she says, her lips lingering on mine, her words soft breaths that I want to inhale. When the driver stops the car at the front of the estate, and opens her door, I squeeze her hand.
“They’re going to be so shocked that I’ve actually come.”
She half-laughs in disbelief. “You didn’t tell them you were coming? That I was coming?”
“Everyone likes a surprise, don’t they?”
As we exit the car, I hear Claire mutter under her breath, not thinking I can hear, “Surprises aren’t always a good thing.”
I watch as she straightens her coat, flicks back her platinum hair, reaches for my hand. She seems completely in control ... the panic attacks are gone. She’s the Claire I met at the Spades Royalle. The Claire I needed to bring home to my family.
I wonder if she’s everything she’s telling me.
If she is ... this engagement could become more real than I imagined it could be.
Chapter Thirteen
Claire
So the house is actually a castle. And the family has no clue I’m coming. And Landon is making my heart flutter in completely inappropriate ways. And all I can do is look down at his crotch when I really need to be keeping my eyes on the prize: winning over the family and getting my paycheck.
But all I want right now is more of him pressed against me.
A butler in a white starched blazer opens the door. Yes, that is correct. A butler. Because that joke about Downton Abbey is no joke. This is real. Really real. I am really in England, at a Jane Austen-esque property, wearing gorgeous clothing and a gorgeous ring, holding the hand of a beyond-gorgeous man.
Landon is all sorts of things. He’s insecure. He’s hot as hell. He’s gentle with me.
And he is nervous. Like really, really nervous. As we enter the grand foyer, where a chandelier larger than a poker table hangs above us, and a staircase sweeps across the room, I am struck by how tightly Landon is holding my hand.
“It’s okay, Babycakes,” I whisper. “We got this.” My words elicit a smile, exactly what I hoped they would do. Landon needs to be relaxed and confident when his parents greet us. They need to believe he is undoubtedly grown-up.
“I will call your parents, Landon,” the butler says, bowing at his waist. “They are having after-dinner drinks in the sitting room, and I don’t think they were expecting you.” A footman trails behind us, depositing our heap of luggage.
“That is quite all right, Brandon. We can greet them ourselves,” Landon says, shaking off the butler’s words.
“As you wish,” Brandon says, shutting the door behind us. “Geoffrey and Fiona are here as well.”
“Of course they are,” Landon says, smiling tightly.
I watch the exchange, trying to be present, and as observant as possible. I need to be one hundred percent on my A-game. Landon is counting on me. And so are my daughter and mother, even if they don’t know it.
Walking down the hall, Landon blows air out of his cheeks, seemingly upset.
“Stop.” I tug on his arm, spin him to look at me. “Before we go in there, you need to remember something. You are Landon, the hottest man I know. You are the King of Vegas, in ways a guy like Ace never will be. You aren’t the mafia boss’s son. You are the heir to a freaking castle. You are a badass. And you need to remember that. Don’t let your brother make you feel less-than. We are in this together.”
In this moment, what I really want is for this to be real. As ridiculous as that is, for a split second all I want is us to actually be engaged and meeting his family for the first time. I want the feeling of being in it with someone else. Forever.
For five years it’s been Sophia and me against the world. Earlier, when I texted my mom in the car, letting her know I got here safely, I wondered what Landon would say if I told him the truth—the truth about having a daughter, and the truth about everything else. Would he still go through this arrangement with me? Still want me as his fake fiancée?
