A Fake Marriage Romance Collection

by Victorine E. Lieske

  A noise sounded like Leon had dropped the phone. After a moment, he came back on. “Megan, you can’t do that. You’ve signed contracts. You know how much trouble you would be in if you did that?”

  “I read my contracts. I signed one saying I wouldn’t reveal the outcome of the show. Another keeping me from talking about the show before it aired. Another agreeing to marry Adam, and another agreeing to a certain number of appearances. Not one of them said I can’t reveal how I truly feel about him.”

  “How’s that going to help you? If you go on national television and tell everyone you hate Adam, your fans will turn against you. You’ll ruin the show and your reputation.”

  She rubbed her temple, pushing herself to go on. “I don’t hate Adam. That’s not what I’m going to say.” She steeled her nerves and plunged ahead. “I actually fell in love with him.”

  Another loud clunk came through the line and she was sure he’d dropped the phone again. “What? You did?”

  “I know it sounds stupid, and I can’t explain it, but as Adam and I pretended to have a relationship, I found myself falling for him. I’m in love with him.” When Leon didn’t say anything, she added, “For real.”

  Leon softly swore under his breath. “Are you serious?”

  She ignored his question. “The thing is, Adam told me basically the same thing. He fell in love with me as well.”

  “Wait, what? Why did he leave you then?”

  Heat flooded her face as she remembered her wedding night. “His admission shocked me. I wasn’t ready yet to admit how I felt. So I sort of told him I didn’t feel the same.”

  “Oh, that’s cold, woman.”

  “I know. I wasn’t thinking straight. But now I have to tell him, you see?” She stared at the suitcase beside her bed, still unpacked. “I have to tell him the truth.”

  She could feel Leon’s excitement building on the other end of the phone. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you serious?”

  “We’re scheduled to appear on the Penelope Jones show next week. I want to come clean. With all of it.”

  Silence. She knew that would make him squirm. “What do you mean, all of it?”

  “I know about Doctor Lemon. I know the first show was a setup, the machine was fake, the whole bit. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to tell all of it.”

  Leon sucked in his breath and didn’t say anything for a minute, probably letting it sink in. “When did you find out?”

  That wasn’t the question she had expected. “I overheard you and Adam talking after our first date.”

  Leon laughed, which surprised her. “Ah, the karaoke makes so much more sense now.”

  “Yeah, ha ha, funny. I was really hurt, Leon. You’d planned to humiliate me on television.” As she spoke, the old pain bubbled up again.

  “Hey, it wasn’t personal.”

  “What if I drag you into this, on the Penelope Jones show? Make America hate you for what you did. Would it be personal then?”

  He sucked in a breath like he were going to argue with her, but then stopped. It was as if she could see the wheels turning in his head. She imagined his face, maybe draining of color, as it sunk in. “You’re right. I wouldn’t like that.” Another moment of silence came. “I’m sorry, Megan.”

  “You’re a good guy, Leon. Just a little too ambitious. Try to take it down a notch, okay? Or someday, someone is going to turn the tables on you.”

  “You’re all right, Megan.” He sounded submissive. Maybe he knew what she could do to his name if she dragged him into this.

  A smile crept across her face. “I knew you’d understand. Now, here’s what I want you to do for the Penelope Jones show.”

  Chapter 24

  Megan wasn’t surprised when Leon called to tell her Adam had turned in his resignation to the station. She knew she’d hurt him. And now she knew he wasn’t coming back. Her plan had to work, or she’d lose everything.

  The Penelope Jones show was in two days, and Leon was working on getting everything ready. If she could go through with this, she might be able to get Adam back.

  Adam paced the green room of the Penelope Jones show, his stomach tied in knots. The past few days had been torture. He couldn’t sleep at night. He couldn’t eat. All he could do was kick himself for messing things up with Megan. And now he was here, ready to go out on the set where she sat. He had to pretend everything was fine.

  How could he do that? He wasn’t that good of an actor.

  His signal came that it was time to go on the show, and he obediently stepped out on stage. His first glimpse of Megan stopped his heart. Her blonde hair was pulled up off her shoulders, and she wore a dress that showed off all her curves. He swallowed and smiled at the audience. They screamed in response.

  Penelope gave him a hug and sat down. His chair was beside Megan, but not so close that he had to put his arm around her or hold her hand, and he blew out a breath of relief. He made himself comfortable in the chair and stared out at the audience. Maybe if he ignored Megan, he could get through this without too much heartache.

  “Megan and I were just talking about your morning show.” Penelope grinned at him, a sort of hungry look on her face that he couldn’t quite understand.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Yes?”

  “She was just explaining how she hated you.” The smile widened.

  Megan shook her head. “No, I think hate is a strong word. But we did butt heads. Do we have a clip or two?”

  The crowd cheered as the screen started up. Their morning show appeared, he and Megan bantering. He said something about her hair, and her lips tightened. Then she came back with one of her classic zingers. The audience laughed. The next clip went about the same way, with him implying she was less of a woman because she was single, and her quick witted response, putting him in his place.

  He saw the way she stiffened when he said those things. The way her smile froze, her eyes narrowed, and it struck him. Penelope was right. She hated him.

  How could he have said those things to her? How could he have not seen how it affected her? He had been so mean. No wonder she couldn’t return his feelings. He’d been horrible to her.

  The audience grew silent after the clips ended. Megan turned to Penelope. “As you can see, Adam and I weren’t exactly best friends.”

  Penelope leaned forward. “But wasn’t that just sexual tension?”

  Megan shook her head. “Definitely not. I honestly didn’t like the guy.”

  Adam forgot his resolve to not look at her and stared. What was she doing?

  “I think it’s time to bring out our third guest.”

  Third guest? It wasn’t until then that he noticed the other empty chair beside him. Adam jerked his gaze over to the stage entrance.

  Doctor Lemon stepped out, crossed the stage, and sat down. Confusion clouded his brain. What was going on? This was supposed to be a routine appearance. The doctor wasn’t on the schedule.

  Megan cleared her throat. “If I’m going to come clean, I can’t ignore our good friend, Doctor Shelby Lemon.”

  Come clean? A sinking feeling started in his chest and moved to his stomach. What was Megan doing?

  She continued to speak. “You see, the day we had Doctor Lemon on our show, I was shocked to find out Adam had some kind of buried feelings for me. If I’m going to be totally honest, I must admit that even though I didn’t like the guy, I found him physically attractive.”

  Where was she going with this? He tried not to squirm.

  “And when the machine said he had hidden, deeper feelings for me, I was kind of blindsided. I mean, ladies, who doesn’t like to find out an attractive man likes them?” The women in the audience all cheered.

  “When did you find out the truth?” Penelope’s face grew serious.

  The truth? Oh, no. She wasn’t going to…Megan didn’t know. Right? He swallowed.

  “After Adam and I had our first date, I found out the website was telling people to stay tuned for
our second date. I was furious. That’s when I went down to the station and overheard Adam talking to our producer.”

  Everyone in the room froze, and Adam couldn’t breathe. She’d known this whole time.

  “What did you overhear?”

  Megan turned and pointed to Doctor Lemon. “That she is a fake.”

  The audience gasped, and the doctor’s face blanched.

  Megan continued. “She’s not a real doctor. The machine was a setup. She was controlling it the whole time.”

  Doctor Lemon jumped up, her composure lost. “This is an outrage!” Unfortunately, the force of her movement dislodged her wig, making it sit on her head askew.

  The audience laughed until Doctor Lemon stormed off the stage. All Adam could do was stare in disbelief. It was then that he noticed the caption showing on the screen. “Megan Holloway Tells All.” His mouth went dry.

  Penelope looked like she’d won the lottery. “What did you do, when you found out Doctor Lemon wasn’t real?”

  Megan avoided his gaze. “I did the only thing I could think of. I got revenge.”

  A clip of Adam’s face reading the karaoke sign flashed up on screen, and everyone went wild. He slid down a little in his seat. Why was she doing this? What had he done that was so terrible now? He’d told her he loved her. Did that offend her so much that she had to retaliate with this ‘tell all’ show?

  Penelope turned to him for the first time. “Adam, did you know Megan had found out about Doctor Lemon?”

  He blinked. She really expected him to participate in his own public hanging? Everyone waited for his response. He shook his head, because no words would come.

  Penelope turned back to Megan. “How did you feel, knowing that you were being deceived?”

  “I was upset, of course. But, despite everything, I was also aware that our dates were making our show more popular.” She stopped, looked down at her feet, and swallowed. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but I continued to date Adam because I thought it would further my career.”

  The audience murmured, and Penelope held up her hand. “Before you pass judgment, let’s hear the whole story. Megan, what happened next?”

  “We went out a few more times. Then he hit that deer in the road.”

  Penelope looked up at the screen, and a clip from that night played. Adam watched himself on the screen having an emotional breakdown, holding that dying fawn by the side of the road. What was the purpose of bringing that up?

  Megan blinked, and he thought for a second she was trying not to tear up, but when she spoke her voice was steady. “My opinion of him changed that night.”

  “How so?”

  “I saw a side of him I hadn’t seen. A tender side.”

  Adam squinted at her. What was she doing? Why did he feel like he was on a roller coaster, with no way of knowing where he would end up?

  Penelope smiled at the camera. “I think we all got to see that.” She turned back to Megan. “Then the next thing I remember seeing was you losing it.”

  Another clip rolled, this one of Megan shouting about not ever marrying Adam, even if she were dying and he was the only cure. The audience laughed, and Megan blushed. “Not my best moment.”

  “Why were you so angry?”

  “Leon was trying to manipulate the show. He was online encouraging our fans to push for marriage.” Megan took a breath, still avoiding his gaze. “I didn’t like being coerced. I felt played. I got angry.”

  “But then why would you agree to be on the ABC show, Winning Megan Over?”

  Another blush touched her cheeks. “I was told it would be a dating show, and to be totally honest, I did it to further my career again.”

  The audience frowned and whispered amongst themselves. But Megan didn’t stop there. “They were also offering us a hundred thousand dollars to do the show.”

  Adam silently groaned. This was definitely a ‘tell all’ show. Megan wasn’t going to stop until she’d given every gory detail. Why she was doing this was clear. She was releasing him from any more contact with her. She was doing this so they could go their separate ways.

  Without coming out like this, they would have to make up excuses as to why they weren’t living together. They’d have to lie, and say they’d had a fight, were separated, or some other such thing. They’d have to lie until they got a divorce. She was doing this to give him an out.

  But he didn’t want her to take all the blame. He was part of this too. “I talked her into it,” he blurted.

  They both stared at him. When Penelope had gotten over her shock, she quietly urged, “Go on.”

  “I wanted the money. ABC was only willing to do the show if we agreed to get married at the end.” Everyone gasped at this revelation, but he ignored them. “I convinced Megan to go ahead with it, to get married, but only on paper. She reluctantly agreed. The marriage was never supposed to be real.”

  The audience burst into loud chatter, and Penelope had to calm them down. “I’m being told we need to go to commercial break. We’ll be right back with Megan Holloway and Adam Warner, as we learn the whole truth about their show.”

  As soon as the cameras were off, Megan turned to him, her eyes accusing. “What are you doing?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  Her gaze softened. “Sorry. You just startled me. I thought you’d just sit and listen.”

  “Oh, believe me, I’m quite entertained by all of this. But I couldn’t let you take all the blame for what happened.”

  She placed her hand on his knee, the gesture about driving him out of his skin. “Thank you. But this is my tell all. I need you to sit and quietly listen to the rest.”

  He no longer wanted to listen. All he wanted to do was to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, and take her home so he could kiss her until she fell in love with him. Instead of admitting his caveman-like urge, he simply nodded.

  “Thank you,” she repeated. Then she settled back in her chair, and they waited until the break was over.

  Penelope snapped back into action as soon as the cameras were rolling. “We are back with Megan Holloway and Adam Warner. Megan and Adam have just revealed that their marriage was never supposed to be real. Please tell us more about this, Megan.”

  Megan clutched the sides of her chair, her knuckles white. “The actual marriage is real. We used a real minister, signed real papers, and it’s legally binding. Adam and I are married.” She stared at the cameras. “But we agreed to it under false pretenses. We never intended to act like a real married couple.”

  “So, nothing went on in the bedroom, then?” Penelope gave the camera a wicked grin.

  Megan shook her head. “We agreed to get married because of the show, and for the money. That’s the only reason.”

  The audience obviously didn’t like this statement, but hushed to hear what else Megan was going to say. “I knew ahead of time that I was not to fall for any of the other men on the show. They were there to create tension, but never as serious contenders. I knew Adam would propose, and I knew I was to accept.”

  Penelope nodded. “I think there’s more to tell. Am I right?”

  Megan nodded, her lips pinched tight. “What I didn’t know was that Adam Warner was going to fall in love with me.”

  Chapter 25

  Megan peeked over at Adam and got to see the color drain from his face. She had to keep going or she would never be able to finish. “It was our wedding night. I was to sleep in the bedroom, and Adam had agreed to be on the couch. I was tense from the stress of the fake wedding, so Adam offered to massage my shoulders.”

  A few ladies in the audience made noises of approval. Who wouldn’t? Adam was all hunk. She was sure they were imagining him giving them a massage. She pushed away a smile. “We talked for a few minutes, but as our conversation turned more intimate, I grew uncomfortable.”

  Adam looked like he wanted to crawl under his chair. She hated embarrassing him like this, but she had to get everyone to underst
and.

  Penelope rubbed her hands together. “Then what happened?”

  Adam leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. She was hurting him. She had to get the rest out. “Adam admitted to me that he had really fallen in love with me.”

  The audience froze, and the silence was deafening. Megan clenched her hands and tried to muster up her courage. “I freaked out. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I couldn’t handle his admission at that time. I clammed up. And when he asked me if I felt anything for him, I couldn’t admit my true feelings.”

  Adam’s head snapped up, his blue eyes meeting hers in a piercing stare.

  “Are you saying that you have feelings for Adam as well?”

  It felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath, waiting for Megan to speak. “I do.”

  The room exploded in noise, and Penelope once again had to quiet everyone. “Are you in love with him?”

  Megan stared at Adam, his body tense waiting for her answer, like a panther watching his prey. “Yes.”

  He jumped from his chair and snatched her up in a crushing hug. Before she knew it, his lips were on hers, with an intensity she’d never felt from him before. When she pulled back, he said, “You’d better not be playing me, Megan Holloway.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “I’m not. I tried to tell you, but you’d left and wouldn’t answer my calls.”

  Adam picked her up and swung her around, planting another passionate kiss on her. “You sure know how to make a guy sweat.”

  Penelope laughed along with the rest of the room. “If you two love birds could sit again, I do have a few more questions.”

  Megan pried herself away from Adam and sat. Adam took her hand in the warmth of his own. A montage of videos of them kissing displayed on the screen. Penelope motioned to the television. “America watched your passionate kisses. How did it feel, kissing Adam like this but not realizing that he was actually falling in love with you?”

  “I was confused. My heart was falling for him, but in my head I knew we were supposed to be acting for the camera. Except his kisses were intoxicating.”