by Nikki Bloom
Engaged to the Boss
A Billionaire Fake Marriage Romance
Nikki Bloom
© Copyright 2020 by Nikki Bloom. All rights reserved.
No portion of this document may be reproduced, duplicated, or transmitted in either electronic means or in printed format. This includes, but is not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher, except as permitted by copyright law. For permissions please contact [email protected]
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are fictitious products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Contents
1. Poppy
2. Connor
3. Poppy
4. Connor
5. Poppy
6. Connor
7. Poppy
8. Connor
9. Poppy
10. Connor
11. Poppy
12. Connor
13. Poppy
14. Connor
15. Poppy
16. Connor
17. Poppy
18. Connor
19. Poppy
20. Connor
21. Poppy
22. Connor
23. Poppy
24. Connor
Epilogue
XOXO, Winter
1. Winter
2. Winter
About the Author
Also By Nikki Bloom (FREE w/ KU)
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1
Poppy
“Another, please. These things are pretty good.” I made my way to the rolling bar hoping to find another mimosa with my name on it, but my fellow bridesmaids only looked at me with frowns on their faces.
“Sorry, babe, it’s all gone.” Stephine was the one to dish out the bad news.
“Seriously?” I pushed past her and stared at the empty platter. “But how? There were a ton of them just a second ago. We couldn’t have drunk through them already, or else there’s someone here who’s about to join Alcoholics Anonymous.”
“That would be the bride,” answered Beth, another member of the wedding party – the maid of honor. Jenna and I were good friends but Beth was practically Jenna’s sister. Besides, Beth was better at all the girly wedding stuff anyway. Just looking at the corset on the back of Jenna’s dress had given me a headache. You’d think it’d be pretty straightforward, like lacing up a shoe or something but trust me, it was a thousand times harder than that.
“Guys, am I making the right decision here?” Jenna came bustling into the room wearing nothing but her dressing robe. Her hair, however, was still looking pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself. I had given her a romantic bun that hugged the nap of her neck. A few curls framed the shape of her face, softening her expression to an almost angelic state. I had never seen her look so beautiful. She was glowing.
I guess that’s what happens when a girl gets married. I could only hope that the same would apply to me on the day of my wedding…
If that day ever happened to roll around, that is.
“Oh, honey.” Beth came up behind her and rubbed both her shoulders. “You love Hudson, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do!” she exclaimed. “I do!”
“Then, what are you worried about?”
“I just can’t help but think… What if something happens? What if we go our separate ways? Divorces are never pretty…”
I took a seat by the fireplace, right across from the bride. She was an outdoorsy sort of person and as a result, her skin was always blessed with that golden hue other girls would die for. But at this moment, she was looking a little pale, maybe even a tad green around the edges. “Chill,” I said, leaning forward to place my hand on her knee. “You’ve been planning this wedding for the last two years, counting down the days. To be honest, when you first started dating that lumberjack, I didn’t think things would work out in the long term, but it has and there’s no arguing that the big ol’ lug makes you happy. That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
A member of the hotel waitstaff entered the room with a tray of fresh mimosas.
Jenna jumped out of her seat and lunged towards the alcohol. It was no easy feat but somehow, I managed to grab her by the waist and hold her back.
“Let. Go. Of. Me.” Jenna sounded like some sort of rabid animal, ready to bite my face clean off my skull.
“You don’t want to show up at your wedding drunk, do you?”
“All I want right now is to take the edge off.”
“How about you start with breathing?” I forced her onto the couch. The other bridesmaids backed me up, standing around the bride so she couldn’t do anything stupid. “Look, I know you must be nervous, but this isn’t anything but cold feet. Once you start down the aisle and see your husband-to-be standing at the altar, you’ll come to realize that you were right to marry the guy.”
“And what if that doesn’t happen?”
By some miracle, we got Jenna into her dress. But that was only half the battle.
“Suck it in!” I shouted as I tugged on the built-in corset. No one told me about this step, or the fact there were about a million eye-and-hooks that needed to be done up in order to give Jenna the hourglass figure she was hoping for. “I said...suck...it...in...”
“If I suck in any harder, I won’t be able to breathe!”
“I don’t care about that. You were the one who bought a dress with this infernal contraption so now you are going to face the consequences of your decisions.” I had one foot on the wall for leverage. I was going to get Jenna into the corset even if it killed us both.
“Uh...Poppy? Maybe you should ease up a bit...”
“Quiet!” I snapped. At this point, I was sweating bullets. Jenna, too. I clenched my teeth and tugged, managing to get a few more hooks into place. I was so close to the finish line now. All I needed now were a few more tugs...
Snap!
And there went the seam...
I threw up my hands in defeat.
In the end, Jenna decided to go on without it. Thank the fucking stars.
And Beth, the genius, figured out how to do the laces up the back. Finally, we were cooking with fire. Note to self – keep the wedding dress simple. These ballgowns are more work than their worth.
“But they are incredibly beautiful. You have to admit that Jenna looks like some sort of princess,” came a voice at the back of my voice and it was true. Jenna was radiant. I could not deny it. Seeing her sparked a jealousy deep inside of me. She was about to marry the love of her life while I was still a resident of Singleville and it sucked. I could do without the relationship drama, sure, but it got kind of lonely at night, you know? Having a bed all to yourself becomes kind of a bummer after a while.
It was time for me to change that.
And Jenna’s wedding was the perfect place to start. She had assured me that there would be plenty of available bachelors and I was keen to believe her.
Beth had tried to talk me out of it – that it would be tasteless of me. I had no intention of listening to her. She was much too proper – always a Goodie Two-Shoes. Sometimes, a girl just needs to let loose and have a bit of fun. I wasn’t planning on hurting anyone, so why did it matter what I did behind closed doors?
“Poppy?” I looked up and saw Jenna standing there looking like a bridezilla. For a second, I saw my life flash before my eyes.
“Sorry,” I said as I got up and quickly finished off the rest of my mimosa. The warmth of the room had rendered it lukewarm and disgusting. The bitter taste lingered in my mouth. I had half a mind to gargle some mouthwash, but if I lingered another moment, I was more than certain that Jenna would serve my head on a silver platter to all of her guests. It wouldn’t make a very good obituary. So, thinking I would avoid the casualty, I sucked it up and followed the bridal party down to the elevator.
“What were you daydreaming about, anyway?” asked Jenna as she nervously twirled her bouquet. Some of the petals were too fragile to handle the velocity. With a gentle grace, they fluttered to the floor.
“How I am going to get laid tonight.”
She rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
“At my wedding?”
“Where else? You were the one who told me about all the cute bachelors on your guest list.”
“I didn’t think you were going to hunt them down for a one-night stand.”
I answered her with a shrug. “It’s not every day that I get to come out and enjoy Hawaii’s sandy beaches. I might as well make the most of this little slice of paradise.” I ended with a playful wink which was meant to ease things up a bit, but Jenna didn’t look very happy with me. I’m just going to blame it on the pre-marriage jitters. Normal Jenna would be cheering me on. She was always trying to hook me up with someone or the other.
Ding!
The elevator doors slid open and we filed out, one by one. From there, we ducked into the limo and made our way to the wedding site – a beautiful beach with miles of sand and a backdrop of crystal-clear ocean.
It’s when we got there that things really started to get interesting.
2
Connor
“Wait, what do you mean he got sick with the flu? Tell him to take a shit-ton of Nyquil and get his ass over here!”
I stood in the doorway.
The bride-to-be looked like she was about to explode but then again, Jenna had a habit of doing that. She might have been my half-sister, but we hadn’t grown up together. Even so, I knew her well enough to recognize the scathing anger growing on her face. If she didn’t calm down, there would be hell to pay and I certainly didn’t want to get in the middle of it.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said.
The suddenness of my appearance was enough to get everyone to quiet down. I was just about to explain myself when I felt the weight of someone’s gaze, heavier than all the rest.
She was sitting across the room, one leg crossed over the other, a crystal glass between her fingers. Now, I am no stranger to beautiful women. I tend to be a kind of magnet, attracting them far and wide. I’d like to say that they’re quick to fall for my devilish charm but that’s not it at all. It’s the money – always the money. They want the diamond rings and the fancy vacations to exotic parts of the world. They dream of the glitz and the glamor thinking it will make them happy, but they don’t know the truth.
But this girl was staring at me with a curious sheen in her eyes and her stare lingered, too, unlike all the other bridesmaids.
“Connor?” Jenna reeled around to face me with her eyes wide like she had never seen me before. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you said that you wouldn’t be able to make it because of some important business meeting.” She paused, looking me once over. “And is that Gabriele’s suit?”
“It is,” I confirmed. “Your fiancé gave me a call last night to tell me that his best man had fallen sick with the flu and that he’s bedridden at the moment.”
“Aaron called you?”
“Last I checked, I was speaking English here.”
Jenna growled loud enough for me to take a step back. “I’m not here to play games with you.”
“Alright, alright,” I said, holding up both my hands in a display of innocence. “Long story short, I’m taking the place of your fiancé's best man because, evidently, we’re the same suit size.”
Her eyes widened further. I was starting to worry that they would pop right out of her head and that wouldn’t be very becoming of a soon-to-be bride.
“I could kiss you!” She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me so tightly that it became quite difficult to breathe.
“What’s stopping you?”
She glared. If looks could kill, yeah, I’d be in a casket already.
With the crisis averted, Jenna went on to freak out about something else. I wasn’t surprised. She was always getting herself riled up. How her fiancé managed to deal with her on a daily basis was beyond my measure of understanding. And yet, in the times that I had seen them together, they seemed nothing but happy. The way they looked at each other said everything that needed to be said – they loved each other.
I was still waiting for someone to give me that special look of adoration, but I was starting to think that maybe the girl of my dreams was just that – a dream. She didn’t really exist, and I was just a fool wasting my time trying to find her.
“Hey, Connor, was it? Looks like you’re stuck with me.” It was the girl with the green eyes – the same one who had looked at me with such intensity.
“My bouquet! Has anyone seen my bouquet?” Bridezilla was at it again. She was tearing apart the place looking for the flowers. I swear, marriage does something to women on a mental level. Of all the weddings I had ever been to, I don’t think I’ve seen a bride not in some level of freak out mode.
“How long until she notices?” the green-eyed girl whispered in my direction.
“Hmm?” I looked up and saw that she was holding two bouquets. One was much smaller than the other and the stems were wrapped in a ribbon of deep burgundy. The other looked like it had been dipped in liquid glitter. “May I?”
She handed it over. “These don’t even smell like real flowers.”
“That’s because they blast them with hairspray so that they last longer.”
“Hairspray?” I questioned. “You’re pulling my leg.”
“If you say so.” For some reason, the grin on her face had stretched from ear to ear. Her gaze was no longer on my face but aimed directly behind me. Wondering what it was that she was seeing, I turned around, but it was too late.
Wham!
“Think this is funny, do you?” wailed the bride as I stumbled backward, holding the back of my head. She snatched the bouquet from my hands and stormed off. I could just about see the steam billowing from her ears. Oh, how I pitied the groom.
Lingering by the refreshment table, the green-eyed woman still wore that grin on her face. I was starting to get the sense that she was the mischievous type. I kind of liked it.
“You set me up for that,” I said, helping myself to a glass of champagne.
"Did I?” came her innocent response. “Although, if I remember correctly, you were the one who wanted to see the bouquet. As far as I’m concerned, you brought Jenna’s wrath upon yourself.” She popped a mint into her mouth before sitting down and crossing one leg over the other. The slit of her dress caused the fabric to fall to either side, exposing the silky skin of her upper thigh.
“That’s the cue! That’s the cue!” cried the bride. She started pushing people out of the room. It was chaos. Everyone got jumbled together. One bridesmaid tripped over the hem of her dress causing a domino effect. The groomsmen were dragged forward by their partners because they clearly had no idea what they were supposed to be doing. My green-eyed vixen, however, was nowhere to be seen. I scanned the crowd trying to find her but just then, I felt my phone start to vibrate with an incoming call.
It wasn’t the best time for me to answer, but when I saw my lawyer’s number flashing across the screen, I knew that I had to take it. I broke off from the group and stood underneath the shade of a nearby umbrella. The seaside wind was blowing into the phone’s receiver, making it impos
sible to hear what my lawyer was saying. “Dan, I’m going to need you to say that again!” Shouting was my only option.
“Keep shouting like that and Jenna is going to have your balls on a chopping block.” The green-eyed beauty reappeared just as quickly as she had disappeared. Her warning was a whisper but I heard it loud and clear. “And that would be a crying shame.” She grabbed my arm and pulled on it to get me to move. “Stand to my right. You really don’t want to give Jenna any reason to single you out from the herd. Getting married has deranged her a bit. Take my advice and stay on her good side.”
I dropped my phone into my pocket, choosing to ignore it even as it vibrated. It wasn’t every day that I allowed a call to go to voicemail, but I wanted to hear what this girl had to say – to hear the silkiness of her voice and have it wrap around my head. “I’m surprised.”
“Are you?”
“You had little regard for my wellbeing when you handed over Jenna’s bouquet.”
“Maybe I feel guilty and I’m trying to make amends for the pain and suffering I may have caused you. Or…” she leaned forward, the words hanging on her lips. “…maybe I want to keep you alive long enough to know your name.”
“Connor,” I said. “Yours?”
“Pomona but everyone calls me Poppy.”
“Well, you have my dearest apologies, Poppy. It was terribly rude of me not to introduce myself. Will you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?”
She tried to keep a straight face but I could see the beginnings of a grin on her lips. “It depends.”
