Single Dad’s Fake Fiancée: A Cowboy Romance

by King, Imani

  It doesn’t work.

  What the hell?

  I use the intercom and ask the front desk. “Hey, Karen?”

  “Is that you, Tachell sweetie?”

  I frown. Her voice is still sweet as usual, but it sounds a bit strained.

  “Yeah. I’m trying to get in and I can’t.”

  I hear a sigh. “I’ll come down. One second.”

  Why won’t she just buzz me in? Before I can ask, the line’s dead. I hop from foot to foot as I wait for her. Finally, I see her coming down the stairs. She opens the door but doesn’t meet my eyes. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  “I tried to call you at work, but couldn’t get through. Clarence said that you were at work. Unfortunately, your phone isn’t working—”

  Yeah. It was disconnected a few weeks ago. We were even having trouble making rent, but thanks to this new data entry job we’d be fine for a few more months.

  “What’s up?” I ask.

  She takes a seat in one of the chairs in the lobby. “You might want to sit down for this, hun.”

  I do take a seat, but I can’t help but ask, “Why?”

  “The building sold.”

  “What? When?”

  “Last night. Apparently, the new owner ran an inspection this morning and found contraband in your room.”

  Oh shit! “What?”

  “A hamster.”

  Alright, everyone knew I had a hamster. I let him run around in his little ball in the hallways. “What the hell? This is about Ivy?”

  She nods.

  “But Ivy is fine!”

  “Ivy’s not fine, not according to the lease you signed.”

  “But everyone knew about Ivy. There’s never been a problem.”

  “That was the old owner. Not the new one, Easterbrook Management.”

  Easterbrook! My eyes fly open.

  “Tachell?” she asks, obviously concerned by my sudden rage.

  “Don’t worry. I’m gonna fix this,” I tell her, standing.

  I leave the building and bust out my phone. Oh, he was gonna get it!

  I pace as it rings once. Twice. Oh, the bastard’s going to make me wait, now? He knew I would call him. Is he dodging me?

  “Hello Tachell.” I hear his voice, sinful as chocolate. The kind of voice that always seems to elude to something dark and carnal, even when he’s saying banal shit like hello to someone he just evicted.

  Not that I’m noticing, because I’m not. He isn’t sexy, and he isn’t making me think about sex. Especially not sex with him. I’m merely explaining how other girls react. It’s purely an observation.

  I scowl. “So you know it’s me,” I say in an accusatory tone. “You were expecting my call.”

  “I have caller ID.”

  Well, duh. Most people did. Do not get distracted. “What the fuck are you trying to do?”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about—kicking me out of my apartment!”

  “Is this about the rodent infestation in my newest acquisition, 35C?”

  “It’s a hamster!”

  “It’s a rodent. It could get out, breed, and take over the building.”

  Take over the building? Did he really think that the plotline to a shitty B horror film could play out in one of his apartments? “Its a hamster. It would have to find another hamster. And it’s adorable. You’d only be so lucky to have a hamster infestation!”

  “I’m sure that the city’s public safety and health committee would love to hear your theory.”

  I actually stomp my foot and raise my fist to the sky. “You can’t do this to me!”

  “Look, I understand that you are upset.”

  “No shit I’m upset!”

  “Look,” he continues professionally, “there is an apartment I have that allows hamsters. You could move in today.”

  I frown, lowering my fist. “What’s the catch?”

  “There is no catch. It’s a bit out of your price range, but since I evicted you and you need a place to stay, I am willing to pay the difference.”

  “I’m not taking a handout from you!”

  “Don’t think of it as charity. I’m simply making it right.”

  “I still don’t believe you. There’s something else going on here. Why not just let me stay in my own apartment?”

  “Well, there is one thing. It’s not so much of a catch as a technicality.”

  I grit my jaw. “What is it?”

  “You can’t have anyone else on the lease.”

  “What the hell?”

  “So your boyfriend will have to find other accommodations.”

  Why the hell does he sound so smug about this? Why does he sound so proud? “What is your deal with Clarence?” I hiss.

  “He’s not good enough for you.”

  “And how is that any of your business?”

  “I’m your brother’s best friend. I have your best interests at heart.”

  “Which is why you’re kicking me out of my apartment. Because this is what’s best for me.”

  “I’m only kicking you out if your boyfriend is with you.”

  “Oh, I see how it is. You want to control my sex life because you’re a fucking control freak!”

  “I don’t want to control your sex life.”

  “Liar.” It totally sounds like he’d love to do just that.

  “I’m not going to give you away to someone unless he’s worthy of you. Clarence is not. He’s a drain on your heart and your art and you know it. You’d be much better off without him.”

  “That is not for you to decide. I’m in love with Clarence.”

  Preston sighs. “Maybe, but he doesn’t deserve your love.”

  “Oh, and you know who does?”

  “I know it isn’t him! If you don’t like this arrangement, you and Clarence can always move in with your brother.”

  WHAT??? I hang up. “Fuck!” I yell, just barely suppressing the urge to throw my phone through the front window of my apartment building—well, ex apartment building.

  No. I can’t do that. It will just make me look like an impulsive asshat. Instead, I had to expose the true impulsive asshat.

  Preston Easterbrook.

  ***

  He was having lunch at Red Cloud, the hottest sushi restaurant in town, just as he did every Tuesday. How do I know this? Because Reggie sometimes accompanied him, and I’d been invited a few times. I did not go, of course. Even the promise of free sushi couldn’t make me willingly spend a few hours with that dreadful man.

  I walk right past the hostess to the back of the restaurant. She follows behind, telling me to stop. But I don’t until I’m in his private room in the back.

  I rip open the screen door. Preston is sitting on a tatami mat behind a beautiful ink painting of three mountains.

  “I am sorry, Mr. Easterbrook. I could not stop her,” the woman says.

  “It’s fine, Sakura. I’ll take it from here.”

  She looks at me. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

  Sakura bows and backs off.

  I take off my shoes, glaring as I step into the room. Slowly, I shut the sliding door behind me.

  He folds his hands on top of the table. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “You really gonna pull that shit with me?”

  He folds his hands on his desk.

  “We got off the phone thirty minutes ago.”

  “A lot can happen in thirty minutes.”

  “Not that much.”

  “That’s unfortunate. I was hoping you’d have come to see things from my side.”

  His side? His side? Really? Who the hell did he think I was? A raving lunatic?

  “You can’t do this to me.”

  “I can’t do what?”

  “You can’t kick me out of my apartment.”

  “I ju
st did. Well, you have 48 hours to vacate. I think I was generous considering you were breeding vermin.”

  What the hell! One hamster is not breeding vermin!

  I step towards him. He’s leaning back in his fancy suit. The first few buttons of his shirt are undone. It’s a thin shirt, too. Thin enough for me to see his muscle definition and…

  Oh fuck.

  I am not going there with him? Am I? I glare at him huffing, when I notice it. And once I do, I wonder how I could not have noticed it immediately. The unfocused look in his eyes, the way his hands are tightened into fists, his bobbing Adam’s apple, and, oh yeah, his raging boner that looks like it is going to burst out of his pants at any second like a jack-in-the-box.

  Holy shit.

  This is starting to make sense.

  I glare at him. “Do you want to fuck me?”

  He runs his tongue over his front teeth. “What are you trying to accomplish here, Tachell?”

  “I’m trying to get you to be honest for once.” I look back down at his massive cock. “You want to fuck me. Admit it.”

  He looks up at me, one part reverence, one part irritation. “I don’t think you’d like my honesty.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. Because it’s dirty.”

  His eyes blaze.

  “You want to fuck me bad, don’t you? That’s what this is about. You don’t like Clarence because he’s currently fucking me and you’re not.”

  His jaw clenches.

  I laugh, shaking my head. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. All this noble talk about how other guys aren’t good for me. So what kind of sick asshole are you? You into doing and controlling girls you hate?”

  “I—I don’t hate you,” he whispers, choked.

  Sure. I lean over, giving him a nice view of my cleavage which he takes in generously. “I bet that if I offered myself right here, right now, for you to do whatever you wanted with for thirty minutes, you’d take me up on it.”

  His eyes dip to my lips, back up to my eyes. Losing focus. “Are you offering?”

  Suddenly, I can’t think. Why the hell did I bend over? Now we’re too close. I’m losing the upper hand. God, how I hate this man! He means nothing to me. Has never meant anything to me. I shouldn’t be swayed like this, as if he were the one playing me!

  Stay on target. “You’re jealous,” I whisper.

  He tilts his head instead of answering, his eyes moving down my body like he owns it once more.

  “And what if I was?” he asks. “What would that mean to you?”

  “It would mean that you are even more of an asshole than I thought. You can’t have me, so you kick me out of my house? What am I, a doll to you?”

  “No. I’d never think of you that way.”

  “Yeah. That’s not why you’re trying to get me to prostitute myself for my room and board.”

  Anger flashes in his eyes. “I never said that.”

  “Oh really? So if I said I’d fuck you right now if it meant I could stay in my apartment, would you do it?”

  His fists tighten as he takes in my body once again.

  Unbelievable. “You know what, I don’t care. I really don’t. I’m going to go home and figure things out with Clarence. We’re moving to a new place. Where I will be fucking him every single night.”

  With that I turn, ready to leave the room.

  Unfortunately, Preston has other plans. I hear a growl from behind seconds before I’m grabbed, spun around, and crashed into Preston’s muscular chest.

  “Don’t taunt me,” he whispers in my ear.

  I shiver. “Go fuck yourself. I’m in love with Clarence.”

  “I don’t care,” he says. “I’ll buy it.”

  “What?”

  He lets go and steps back, a dark, devilish grin playing across his lips. “If you move with him into a new place, I’ll buy it.”

  “What the hell? You can’t do that!”

  “Oh, Easterbrook Management is interested in expanding its operations.”

  No! “Then I’ll keep moving. You can’t buy the entire city!”

  His eyes blaze. “I’ll buy the entire fucking city if I have to!”

  Things are spiraling downhill, fast! And he’s…he’s…

  Desire radiates off him, making me tremble. I should hate him for this. I do hate him for this. But I’m also turned on. Way more turned on than I have any right to be or should be. There’s something about being the center of this powerful man’s attention that is the biggest aphrodisiac I’ve ever experienced. Most women do not say no to this man, and not because he blackmails them. Women go after him because they want him to look at them the way he’s currently looking at me—like they’re the only thing on his brilliant mind, the only thing he wants to gaze at with those beautiful eyes.

  Oh, he wants me.

  Very, very, very bad.

  And a part of me, a traitorous, dirty, dangerous part, wants to give in.

  Just then, the sliding door opens again.

  “What the fuck is going on in here?”

  Preston and I turn quickly to find Reggie in the doorway.

  I point at Preston, suddenly eager to put as much distance between us as possible. “He started it!”

  Preston looks like he just got caught popping one of my doll’s heads off.

  Reggie knows what side to pick. “What the hell are you doing to my sister?” he asks, voice dark and low.

  Preston sighs, running a hand through his hair. “She and I were discussing a recent acquisition.”

  “Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” I cross my arms over my chest. “He evicted me and Clarence from our apartment!”

  Reggie’s eyes bug out. “What?”

  “She had a hamster in the apartment,” Preston says, and even he knows how stupid that sounds now that he’s in front of my brother. “It was against the rules.”

  Reggie, awesome bro that he is, doesn’t give a shit. “You kicked my little sister?”

  “I offered her a new place, one that allows hamsters,” Preston continues.

  “Yeah, and all I have to do is live there alone without Clarence,” I tell my brother. I leave out the other thing we talked about. I’m going to actually pretend like that other part never even happened.

  Reggie glares at Preston. “Tachell, you and Clarence can live with me until we get this settled.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Preston announces.

  What the hell? HELL NO! “Reggie, This has nothing to do with hamsters. Preston is just trying to split me and Clarence up for some creepy reason.”

  My brother’s mouth thins. “He’s just worried about you, Tachell.”

  Now it’s my turn to glare at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean.”

  “Just that you haven’t been interested in a guy before.” He glances at Preston hesitantly. “You two are moving awfully fast.”

  “Fast? I’m an adult. We’re in love. There’s nothing fast about this.”

  “I know Clarence loves you, sweetie. He’d have to be a fool not to,” Reggie continues. “It’s just…sometimes love isn’t enough.”

  I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “You don’t think he’s good for me.”

  “I think he’s got some growing up to do,” Reggie says.

  Preston coughs. “Yeah. Some.”

  I glare at Preston. Damn him! Why does he have to be here to hear this! Wait a minute…I whip my head back to Reggie. “You haven’t been talking to Preston about me and Clarence, have you?”

  Reggie suddenly looks very guilty.

  “I can’t believe this,” I shout. “I can’t believe either of you!”

  My sex life was none of their businesses! This was such a breach of privacy…I just couldn’t believe it. I don’t know what I should feel in a situation like this, so betrayed by two men I loved and cared about. No one man I loved and cared about, another I just happened to grow up with, who I just happened to…

  No. I
wouldn’t go there!

  I grab my shoes and race out of the restaurant while Reggie lamely calls for me to come back. II wasn’t going to let anyone think they could get me down. Preston might own the city, but he didn’t own me. And he never would.

  Chapter 47

  Kate rubs my arm. “Tachell? You okay?”

  I’m hugging myself on the couch, shaking. Sexy tattooed pizza guy is there with the pizzas, reassuring me. He, thankfully, threw Clarence’s ass out. I never wanted to see that fucker again.

  However, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to see Reggie or Preston again, either.

  I shut my eyes. “Sorry Kate…I…I just remembered something.”

  “Oh my god! Was it something big?” she asks.

  “Yeah.”

  “And…it doesn’t sound like it was good.”

  I shake my head. “It wasn’t.”

  “Oh no. Was it about Preston?”

  I look up at her. “How did you know?”

  “Something big and not good? Come on, what else could it be about? My brother is an asshole.”

  I take a deep breath. “Your brother is more than that.”

  “Okay, you gotta spill.”

  “Alright, but I’ll do it on the way back. There’s something we need to do.”

  ***

  We burst through the doors with the pizza. The men are exhausted on the couch. Sondra and my mother are having a nice iced lemonades with a little umbrellas poking out the top and a long straws. Preston always adds those things to drinks he makes. I wonder if he made it for them—

  I shake my head. No. I would not let him sway me. I’d made up my mind. He and I were gonna talk.

  “Tachell,” he whispers, all sexy and hot, pulling me into his arms and pressing his lips against my forehead.

  I push him away. “Bedroom. Now.”

  His eyes go wide. He glances at the guests. “Are you sure, they’re—”

  “Oh, we are not having sex in there.”

  “You better not,” my brother growls from the couch. “Not until after the wedding.”

  Alright…what the fuck?

  The room goes silent. Everyone’s eyes turn to Reggie, mouths agape.

  Finally, I’m the one who breaks the silence. “What the hell, Reggie? I’m moving in. What do you think that means?”

  “It means that you’re seeing if you’ll suit. Not that you’re…” he shudders. He turns to point an accusatory finger at Preston. “You’re not allowed to touch her until after the wedding, Preston. You hear me?”