Книга - The Boyfriend Arrangement

The Boyfriend Arrangement
Andrea Laurence


Fake it until you make it…Instead of attending a friend’s wedding alone, Harper Drake asks Sebastian West—sexy, available and not a total stranger—to pose as her boyfriend. With sparks flying, a little faux affection could be fun… Except things get very hot, very fast, for real…







Fake it until you make it...

to the altar?

Instead of attending yet another friend’s wedding alone, Harper Drake asks Sebastian West—sexy, available and not a total stranger—to pose as her adoring boyfriend. With sparks flying, a little faux affection could be fun, and no one, especially Harper’s ex, will guess the truth. Except things get very hot very fast, for real... And then a blackmailer’s threats force them to reveal all their secrets!


ANDREA LAURENCE is an award-winning author of contemporary romances illed with seduction and sass. She has been a lover of reading and writing stories since she was young. A dedicated West Coast girl transplanted into the deep south, she is thrilled to share her special blend of sensuality and dry, sarcastic humor with readers.


Also by Andrea Laurence (#u1b9ae30d-4375-5478-bd24-ba3f62cf3d6e)

Snowed In with Her ExThirty Days to Win His WifeOne Week with the Best ManA White Wedding ChristmasWhat Lies BeneathMore Than He ExpectedHis Lover’s Little SecretThe CEO’s Unexpected ChildLittle Secrets: Secretly Pregnant Ragsto Riches Baby

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).


The Boyfriend Arrangement

Andrea Laurence






www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


ISBN: 978-1-474-07685-2

THE BOYFRIEND ARRANGEMENT

© 2018 Andrea Laurence

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


Contents

Cover (#uc1cf6642-bf06-531c-9f0d-28ea0519702f)

Back Cover Text (#u77ae91c6-cbbd-51de-a55e-6c77810c0fb8)

About the Author (#u4c0a1a15-8c67-52dd-a889-4c660bc429f9)

Booklist (#u3ee42d78-3fee-522c-a922-c7ee522b45a2)

Title Page (#u54b678f8-57cf-5d4c-9847-99fc83f0324a)

Copyright (#ude9a80bd-10ac-5ff6-b32f-7d5cc96054ee)

One (#u286a02a9-7f8e-51e0-9ba3-a5fa6c7935e8)

Two (#uc792743d-f160-5f53-88cb-655c2eae9981)

Three (#u06e6e975-9a1c-5046-a31e-77231da9db98)

Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)


One (#u1b9ae30d-4375-5478-bd24-ba3f62cf3d6e)

“You have got to be kidding me!”

Sebastian West scanned his proximity card for the third time and yet the front door of BioTech—the biomedical technology company he co-founded—refused to open. Seeing his employees moving around inside, he pounded his fist on the glass, but all of them ignored him.

“I own this company!” he shouted as his secretary walked by without making eye contact. “Don’t make me fire you, Virginia.”

At that, she came to a stop and circled back to the door.

“Finally,” he sighed.

But she didn’t open the door as he’d expected. Instead she just shook her head. “I’m under strict orders from Dr. Solomon not to open the door for you, sir.”

“Oh, come on,” he groaned.

She couldn’t be moved. “You’ll have to take it up with him, sir.” Then she turned on her heel and disappeared.

“Finn!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, pounding on the glass with angry fists. “Let me in, you son of a bitch.”

A moment later Sebastian’s former college roommate and business partner, Finn Solomon, appeared at the door with a frown on his face. “You’re supposed to be on vacation,” he said through the glass.

“That’s what the doctor said, yeah, but since when do I take vacations? Or listen to doctors?” The answer was never. He certainly never listened to Finn. And as for vacation, he hadn’t taken one in the decade since they’d started this company. You couldn’t be off lying on a beach and also breaking barriers in medical technology. The two were incompatible.

“That’s the whole point, Sebastian. Do you not recall that you had a heart attack two days ago? You’re not supposed to be in the office for a minimum of two weeks.”

“A mild heart attack. They didn’t keep me in the hospital for more than a few hours. And they’re not even sure I really had one. I’m taking the stupid pills they gave me, what more do you want?”

“I want you to go home. I’m not letting you in. I’ve had your badge deactivated. I’ve also sent out a memo that anyone who lets you in the building will be terminated.”

So much for piggybacking through the door behind someone else. He did have a laptop, though, if he could get Virginia to bring it out to him. That wouldn’t technically be breaking the rules if he worked from home, right?

“I’ve also had your email and remote access accounts temporarily suspended, so you can’t even work from home.” Finn was always remarkably good at reading his mind. He’d been able to do it since they were in college. It was great for working together. Not so great for this scenario. “You are on mandatory medical leave, Sebastian, and as a doctor, I’m sorry, but I’m going to enforce it. I can handle things for two weeks, but I can’t run this company with you dead. So get some R and R. Take a trip. Get a massage. Get a hand job. I really don’t care. But I don’t want to see you here.”

Sebastian was at a loss. He and Finn had started this company after school, pouring their hearts and souls into technology that could make people’s lives better. He was the MIT engineer and Finn was the doctor, a winning team that had developed advanced technologies like prosthetic hands and electric wheelchairs controlled by a patient’s brain waves. That seemed a noble enough cause to dedicate his life to. But apparently a decade of trading sleep and vegetables for caffeine and sugar had caught up with him.

Of course he didn’t want to die; he was only thirty-eight. But he was close to a breakthrough on a robotic exoskeleton that could make paraplegics like his brother walk again.

“What about the new prototype for the exo-legs?”

Finn just crossed his huge forearms over his chest. “Those people have gone a long time without walking. They can wait two more weeks while you recover. If you keel over at your desk one afternoon, they’ll never get it. As it is, I’m having a defibrillator installed on the wall outside your office.”

Sebastian sighed, knowing he’d lost this fight. Finn was just as stubborn as he was. Normally that was a good match—they never knew when to take no for an answer. But that wouldn’t benefit him in this situation. He knew the doctor’s orders, yet he’d never once imagined that Finn would enforce them this strictly. He’d just thought he’d work ten-hour days instead of the usual eighteen.

“Can I at least come in and—?”

“No,” Finn interrupted. “Go home. Go shopping. Just go away.” With a smug expression Finn waved at him through the glass and then turned his back on his business partner.

Sebastian stood there for a moment, thinking maybe Finn would come back and tell him he was just kidding. When it was clear that Finn was deadly serious, he wandered back to the elevator and returned to the lobby of the building. He stepped out onto the busy Manhattan sidewalk with no real clue as to where he was going to go. He’d planned to take it easy for a few days and head back to work today. Now he had two full weeks of nothingness ahead of him.

He had the resources to do almost anything on earth that he wanted. Fly to Paris on a private jet. Take a luxury cruise through the Caribbean. Sing karaoke in Tokyo. He just didn’t want to do any of those things.

Money was an alien thing to Sebastian. Unlike Finn, he’d never had it growing up. His parents had worked hard but as blue collar laborers they’d just never seemed to get ahead. And after his brother Kenny’s ATV accident, they’d gone from poor to near destitute under the weight of the medical bills.

Scholarships and loans had gotten Sebastian through college, after which he’d focused on building his company with Finn. The company eventually brought money—lots of it—but he’d been really too busy to notice. Or to spend any. He’d never dreamed of traveling or owning expensive sports cars. Honestly, he was bad at being rich. He probably didn’t even have twenty bucks in his wallet.

Stopping at a street corner, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and noticed the leather had nearly disintegrated over the years. He’d probably had this one since grad school. Maybe he should consider getting a new one. He had nothing better to do at the moment.

Up ahead, he spied Neiman Marcus. Surely they sold wallets. He made his way across the street and over to the department store. Sebastian stopped long enough to hold the door for a group of attractive women exiting with enough bags to put a kid through a semester or two of college. They looked vaguely familiar, especially the last one with the dark hair and steely blue eyes.

Her gaze flicked over him for a moment and he felt it like a punch to his gut. His pulse pounded in his throat as he tried to unsuccessfully swallow the lump that had formed there. He didn’t know why he would have such a visceral reaction to the woman. He wanted to say something but he couldn’t place the woman and decided to keep his mouth shut. Half a second later she looked away, breaking the connection, and continued on down the street with her friends.

Sebastian watched them for a moment with a touch of regret, then forced himself into the store. He made a beeline for the men’s department and quickly selected a wallet. He wasn’t particularly choosy with that sort of thing. He just wanted black leather and a slim profile with enough room for a couple cards and some cash. Easy.

As he found a register open for checkout, he noticed a strikingly attractive brunette ahead of him. Sebastian realized she was one of the women he’d just seen leave the store a few minutes before. The one with the blue-gray eyes. He wished he remembered who she was so he could say something to her. They’d probably met at one event or another around town—Finn forced him to go to the occasional party or charity gala—he couldn’t be sure, though. Most of his brain was allocated to robotics and engineering.

Not all of it, though. He was red-blooded male enough to notice her tall, lean figure, long, chestnut hair, big blue eyes and bloodred lips. It was impossible not to notice how flawlessly she was put together. She smelled like the meadow behind his childhood home after a warm summer rain. Deep down inside him something clenched tightly at the thought.

What was it about her? He told himself it was probably nothing to do with her, exactly. The doctor had told him to refrain from strenuous physical activity—Yes, that includes sexual relations, Mr. West—for at least a week. It had been a while since he’d indulged with a lady, but maybe since it was forbidden, his mind was focusing on what it couldn’t have.

Why was he so terrible at remembering names?

As Sebastian got closer to the counter, he realized the woman was returning everything in her bag. That was odd. If the register was correct, she’d just purchased and immediately returned about fifteen hundred dollars’ worth of clothes. He watched as she slipped out of her leather coat and shoved it into the empty department store bag, covering it with the packing tissue so you couldn’t see inside.

His chronic boredom was temporarily interrupted as she piqued his curiosity with her actions. “Excuse m—” he started to say.

She turned suddenly and slammed right into his chest, forcing him to reach out and catch her in his arms before she stumbled backward on her sky-high heels and fell to the ground. He pulled her tight against him, molding her breasts to his chest until she righted herself. He found he really didn’t want to let go when the time came. He was suddenly drunk on her scent and the feel of her soft curves pressing into his hard angles. How long had it been since he’d been this close to a woman? One he wasn’t fitting a prosthetic to? He had no clue.

But eventually he did let go.

The woman took an unsteady step back, pulling herself together with a crimson flush blooming across her cheeks. “I am so sorry about that,” she said. “I’m always in such a hurry that I don’t pay attention to where I’m going.”

There was a faint light of recognition in her blue-gray eyes as she looked up at him, so he knew he was right about meeting her somewhere before. “No, don’t apologize,” he said with a wry smile. “That’s the most exciting thing to happen to me all week.”

Her brow furrowed in disbelief.

Perhaps, he mused, he didn’t look as boring as he was.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He laughed off her concern. She was tall for a woman, especially in those stilettos, but he didn’t really think she could inflict damage to him. “I’m fine. I’m just glad I was able to catch you.”

She smirked and looked down self-consciously. “I suppose it could’ve been worse.”

“You actually look really familiar to me, but I’m horrible with names. I’m Sebastian West,” he said, offering her his hand in greeting.

She accepted it tentatively. The touch of her smooth skin gliding along his sent an unexpected spark through his nervous system. He was usually focused on work, and other pursuits, like sexual gratification and dating in general, typically took the back burner. But with one simple touch, physical desire was moved to the forefront.

Unlike their brief collision, this touch lingered skin-to-skin, letting him enjoy the flickers of electricity across his palm. The connection between them was palpable. So much so that when she pulled her hand away, she rubbed it gently on her burgundy sweater as if to dull the sensation.

“You do look familiar,” she agreed. “I’m Harper Drake. We must’ve met around town. Perhaps you know my brother Oliver? Orion Computers?”

That sounded familiar enough. “He’s probably pals with my friend Finn Solomon. Finn knows everyone.”

Harper narrowed her eyes for a moment, looking thoughtful. “That name sounds familiar, too. Wait...are you involved in some kind of medical supply business?”

Sebastian’s brows rose in surprise. That wasn’t exactly how he’d categorize what he did, but the fact that she remembered that much stunned him. And, to be honest, it pleased him just a little bit.

“You could say that.” He grinned.

* * *

Harper beamed. She was pleased to finally place this guy in her mind. When she’d caught a glimpse of him earlier, he’d grabbed her attention. He’d looked so familiar when he’d held the door for her that she was certain she’d known him from somewhere. Unfortunately, Violet being so hell-bent on running up the street to pick up Aidan’s wedding present had meant she couldn’t stop.

Once she’d split from her best friends, Lucy Drake, Violet Niarchos and Emma Flynn, she’d stealthily circled back to Neiman Marcus to return everything she’d just bought. She couldn’t have that weighing down her credit card for long. She hadn’t expected to run into the familiar man again. Certainly not literally.

Real smooth, Harper.

“Okay, well then, I think it must’ve been one of the hospital benefits this past winter.”

He nodded. “I do think I went to one of those. Finn tries to get me out every now and then.”

Sebastian West didn’t have a face she could forget, even if she lost context. He had a strong jaw, a nearly jet-black goatee, eyes just as dark, and a crooked smile that stirred something inside her. No, she’d remember him for sure. If she had a type, he’d be it.

It was a shame he wasn’t one of the rich CEO guys her brother associated with all the time. She didn’t mean to be shallow, but meeting a guy with his act together financially would certainly benefit her current situation. It would also make her feel a little better about how things would be handled once it all changed on her birthday.

The last seven years had been one long, hard lesson learned for Harper. One in the value of money the spoiled little rich girl she’d once been had never really experienced before. She would be the first to admit that her father had basically given her everything she’d wanted. After her mother died, he’d spoiled her. And continued to spoil her until he’d no longer had the resources.

Harper had never imagined that the well would run dry. When it had, she’d made a lot of necessary adjustments in her life. At least secretly. It was embarrassing enough that she’d blown all the money she’d inherited when she’d turned eighteen—especially since she was an accountant—she didn’t need anyone else knowing about what she’d done.

After falling from the top of the world to her current spot near the bottom, she’d earned a whole new appreciation for money and for the people who were good at managing it. And soon, when she had money again, she intended to be very careful about how she handled it. That included triple-checking every guy she dated. Not that she intended to date Sebastian...

“Well, I’m glad we bumped into each other today,” Sebastian said with a sly grin.

Harper chuckled. As her gaze broke away from Sebastian’s for a moment, she saw Quentin—her ex, of all people—walking toward them. Grabbing Sebastian’s arm, she turned them both toward a display of men’s shoes, hoping maybe Quentin hadn’t seen her. “I’m sorry,” she muttered under her breath. “I’m trying to—”

“Harper?”

Damn it.

Harper turned to face the ex-boyfriend she’d done her best to avoid for the last two years. She stepped away from Sebastian, leaning in to give her ex a polite but stiff hug. “Hello, Quentin,” she said in a flat, disinterested tone she knew he wouldn’t pick up on. He never did.

“How have you been?”

Lonely. Anxiety-riddled. “I’m great. Never better. How about you?”

“Amazing. I actually just got engaged.”

Engaged? Quentin was engaged. The one who didn’t want to commit. If Harper hadn’t already been feeling crappy about being the last single friend in her social circle, this moment would’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back. She pasted a fake smile on her face and nodded. “That’s great. I’m happy for you.”

Quentin didn’t notice her lack of sincerity. “Thank you. Her name is Josie. She’s amazing. I can’t wait for you to meet her. I think you two would really get along.”

Harper had to bite her tongue to keep from asking why his ex would have any interest in hanging out with his fiancée. “I’m sure we would.”

“So, Harper...” Quentin said as he leaned in to her. His arrogant smile made her shoulders tense and the scent of his stinky, expensive cologne brought to mind nights with him she wished she could forget. “Will I be seeing you at Violet’s wedding? It’s the event of the year, I hear. I can’t believe she’s flying all the guests to Dublin for it. And renting out a castle! It’s wild. Maybe I should’ve dated her instead of you.” He chuckled and she curled her hands into fists at her sides.

“I am going,” she said with a bright smile she hoped didn’t betray her anxiety over the upcoming trip. “I’m one of her bridesmaids.”

“Are you going alone?” Quentin cocked his head in a sympathetically curious way that made her hackles rise.

Why would he assume she was going alone? They’d been apart for two years. He’d moved on. Surely she could’ve found someone to replace him by now. She hadn’t, but she could’ve. “No. I’m not going alone. I’m bringing my boyfriend.”

The minute the words passed her lips she regretted them. Why had she said that? Why? He mentions a fiancée and she loses her damn mind. She didn’t have a boyfriend. She hadn’t even committed to a houseplant. How was she supposed to produce a boyfriend in a couple days before the trip?

Quentin’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Oh, really? I hadn’t heard you were dating anyone lately.”

Harper was surprised that he’d been paying attention. “I’ve learned to keep my private life private,” she snapped. After their messy, public breakup, it had been another lesson hard learned. She hadn’t even considered dating for six months after they’d ended due to the trauma of the whole thing.

“Well, who’s the lucky guy? Do I know him? I look forward to meeting him at the wedding.”

A name. She needed a name. Harper’s mind went completely blank. Looking around the department store, her gaze fell on Sebastian as he perused a nearby display of dress loafers.

“You can meet him now. Sebastian, honey, could you come over here for a minute? I’d like you to meet someone.”

Sebastian arched his brow inquisitively at Harper as she mouthed the word “please” silently to him. He wandered over to where she was standing. “Yes, dear?”

“Sebastian, this is my ex, Quentin Stuart. I’ve mentioned him, haven’t I? Anyway, I was just telling him about the two of us going to Ireland for Violet and Aidan’s wedding.”

Quentin stuck out his hand to Sebastian. “Nice to meet you, Sebastian...?”

“West. Sebastian West.” He shook Quentin’s hand and quickly pulled his away.

“Sebastian West as in BioTech?”

“Actually, yes.”

Harper didn’t recognize the name of the company, but then again she didn’t know much about Sebastian because they weren’t really dating. She remembered a brief discussion at a party about him working in medical supplies and how he didn’t get out very much. She’d figured he’d sold wheelchairs and hospital beds or something. Maybe she’d been wrong. Quentin wasn’t the type to waste brain power on remembering things that didn’t impress him.

“Wow, Harper. Quite the catch you’ve got in this one.” An uncomfortable expression flickered across his face and quickly disappeared. “Well, I’ve got to run. I was on my way to meet Josie and I’m already late. I’ll see you two lovebirds on the plane to Dublin. I look forward to speaking with you some more, Sebastian.”

Harper watched Quentin walk out of the store. Once he was gone, her face dropped into her hands. She just knew she was bright red with embarrassment. “I am so sorry,” she muttered through her fingers.

Sebastian surprised her by laughing. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

She peeked through her hands at him. “Um... Quentin is my ex. It was a messy breakup, but we still hang in the same social circles from time to time. When he asked about my date for the wedding we have coming up, I panicked. I told him you were my boyfriend. It’s a long story. I shouldn’t have dragged you into that, but he put me on the spot and you were standing right there.” She gestured toward the display and shook her head. “I’m an ass.”

“I doubt that,” Sebastian said, a twinkle of laughter still in his dark brown eyes.

“No, I am. I’ve made the whole thing ten times worse because now I’m going to show up at the wedding without you and he’s going to know I lied. And I just know he’s going to show up with his beautiful, new fiancée and I’m going to feel even more like crap than I already do.”

Harper knew she should’ve just owned that she was single. How bad would that have been? To just state proudly that she’d been dating and not interested in settling down or settling on the wrong guy. She was almost thirty, but that was hardly the end of the world. In fact, her thirtieth birthday couldn’t come soon enough. It brought a twenty-eight-million-dollar payout with it that she was desperate to get her hands on.

“Don’t worry about what he thinks,” Sebastian said. “He seems like a schmuck.”

“I’m no good at the boyfriend thing. I have questionable taste in men,” Harper admitted. “It’s probably better that I just make up boyfriends instead of finding another real one.”

Sebastian nodded awkwardly. “I’m glad to help. Well, I hope the wedding goes well for you.”

“Thanks.” She watched him leave. But with every step he took, the more panicked she became. She had no easy way of contacting this guy once he walked out the door. She didn’t want to let him get away quite yet for reasons she wasn’t ready to think about. “Sebastian?” she nearly shouted before he got out of earshot.

He stopped and turned back to her. “Yes?”

“How would you like to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland?”


Two (#u1b9ae30d-4375-5478-bd24-ba3f62cf3d6e)

Sebastian didn’t know what to say. He’d never had a woman offer him a vacation, much less a woman he hardly knew. Actually he didn’t have women offer him much of anything. It was impossible when he never left the lab. The only woman he was ever around on a daily basis was his assistant, Virginia, who was in her late fifties and married.

“Um, run that by me again?”

Harper closed the gap between them with an apologetic smile on her face and a sultry sway of her hips. So many of her features were almost masculine in a way, with piercing eyes, sharp cheekbones and an aquiline nose, but there was nothing masculine about her. Her dark brows were arched delicately over eyes that were like the stormy seas off Maine where he was born.

He imagined a similar maelstrom was stirring inside her to make an offer like that to a complete stranger. Surely she could find a romantic interest if she wanted one. But he was willing to say yes to almost anything she offered when she looked at him that way.

“My friends are getting married in Ireland next weekend. They’re flying everyone there, plus putting all the guests up in a castle that’s been converted into a hotel. It wouldn’t cost you anything to go but some leave from work. I’m not sure what your boss is like, since this is short notice, but I was hoping you would be interested.”

“In going to Ireland?”

She nodded. “With me. As my boyfriend. I just introduced you to Quentin as my boyfriend and said you were going, so he’s going to expect you to be there.”

His brow furrowed. Her boyfriend. For a week. In Ireland. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything. Pretending to be her lover could be complicated. But what could go right? His gaze raked over her tall, lean figure with appreciation. Everything could go very right, too.

Wait—crap—he wasn’t supposed to be “active.” Just his damn luck. “Just to be clear—are you wanting or expecting you and me to...um...”

“No!” Harper was quick to answer with wide eyes. “I mean, not for real. We’d have to pretend to be a couple around everyone else—kiss, be affectionate, you know. But when we’re alone, I promise it’s strictly hands off. I’m not that hard up. I just can’t go to this thing alone. Not after seeing Quentin and finding out he’s engaged. I just can’t.”

Sebastian blinked his eyes a few times and tried to mask some of his disappointment. He wasn’t sure if he could stand being around her, touching her in public and then just flipping the switch when they were alone. The doctor wanted him to, but he wasn’t the best at following doctor’s orders.

This day had done well to throw him off his game. First, getting locked out at work with mandatory vacation and now this. A beautiful woman wanted him to travel with her to Ireland for free and pretend to be her lover. That just wasn’t business as usual for him. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say to her. It seemed foolish to say yes and downright stupid to say no.

“I’ll pay you two thousand dollars to go. It’s all the money I have in my savings account,” Harper added, sweetening the pot as she seemed to sense his hesitation.

She was serious. Her insecurity struck him as odd considering how confident and put together she seemed. He wasn’t sure why this was so important to her. There must be more to the situation with her ex than she was telling. “Aren’t your friends going to wonder where I came from? You’ve never spoken about me before and suddenly I’m your wedding date?”

Harper waved away his concern. “I’ll take care of that. My friends have been so wrapped up in their own lives lately they’d probably not notice if I did have a boyfriend. They certainly haven’t mentioned that I don’t have one.”

“And why is that?” Sebastian couldn’t stop himself from asking. But if he was going to pretend to be her boyfriend, he needed to know if there was something about her that repelled men. From where he was standing, he didn’t see a thing wrong with her. She was beautiful, well-spoken, poised and polished. Aside from the slight hint of desperation in her voice, she seemed like quite the catch. There had to be something wrong with her.

She shrugged and sort of fidgeted before responding, showing the first sign of vulnerability, which he was glad to see. “Like I said, I don’t have the best taste in men. Things haven’t worked out with anyone I’ve been attracted to since Quentin and I broke up.”

“You can’t find a decent man to go to dinner with you, but you trust me enough to travel across the ocean with you, share a bedroom and make out in front of your friends?” There was a flaw in her logic here. “I could be crazy. Or a criminal. Or married. I could attack you in your sleep or steal your jewelry. The possibilities are endless.”

Harper scoffed at his trepidations. “Honestly, I take that risk on every date I go on in this town. Have you seen the guys on Tinder lately? No...you probably haven’t.” She chuckled. “I know you have a job, you smell nice, you’re handsome and you went along with my lie just now, so you’re easygoing. You’re already a head and shoulders over every date I’ve had in the last six months. If you don’t want to go, or can’t, just say so. But don’t turn it down because you’re concerned about my blatant disregard for my own welfare or poor sense of judgment. My friends are already well aware of that flaw in my character.”

“No, I can go. As of this morning my schedule is amazingly wide open for the next two weeks.” That was an understatement. But was this what he should spend his time doing? He didn’t exactly have a more tempting offer.

“Do you find me physically repulsive?”

Sebastian swallowed hard. “Not at all. To the contrary, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on in a very long time.”

Harper’s eyes widened a touch at his answer, but she quickly recovered with a sly smile curling her lips. It must have boosted her confidence because she moved a step closer to him, closing the gap until they were nearly touching. “Do you think you’d have trouble pretending to be my lover? Or have a problem kissing me?”

Every muscle in Sebastian’s body tightened as she spoke. The warmth of her body and the scent of her so close caused an instant physical reaction that would answer any of her questions if she bothered to notice. He balled his hands into fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. He’d craved the sensation of touching her again since the moment he’d let her go after the collision.

He shook his head stiffly. “No. I think I can manage that.”

Harper’s gaze never left his. “Okay, great. Are you opposed to a free trip to Europe? You have a passport, right?”

“I have a passport, yes.” It had no stamps in it, but he had one. Finn did most of the travel around the world, schmoozing on behalf of their company. Sebastian kept his nose in his paperwork and schematics, but Finn had made him get a passport anyway.

“Okay. Then I see no reason why you shouldn’t say yes.”

Neither did he. Why was he making this so hard?

It really was a simple thing. He had no reason not to go. All he had to do was walk around Ireland with this stunning woman on his arm. He had no intention of taking her money, but a trip would be a nice distraction without any work on his plate for the next few weeks. What else was he going to do? Finn was right that he could help more people healthy than dead, but taking a break was hard for him. Being a couple thousand miles from his work would make it easier.

“When do you leave for the wedding?”

“Monday afternoon.”

“It’s Friday morning. Three days? Are you serious? Won’t your friend think it odd that you’re suddenly adding a guest to her wedding on such short notice?”

“Not really. I RSVP’d for two. I just needed to find my plus one.”

“You’re cutting it awfully close. Desperate?”

“I prefer to think of it as optimistic.”

“Three days...” he repeated. Something about this whole situation struck him as insane, but there was a fine line between insanity and genius.

“So does your silent resignation mean you’re at least considering coming with me?” Harper grinned wide, her whole expression lighting up with excitement.

It was hard for him to turn her down when she looked at him like that. He wanted her to keep looking at him that way for as long as possible. “Well, yes, I am. I’m just not sure I’ll make a very good boyfriend, fake or otherwise. I’m kinda out of practice.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Harper leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck in an unexpectedly intimate way. His whole body stiffened as she pressed against him. “You know what they say.”

Sebastian took a deep breath and tried to wish away the sudden rush of desire that coursed through his veins as she stood close. It seemed wrong to react like this to a woman he’d just met, despite how easily she was able to coax it out of him. “What’s th-that?” He stuttered in his response, something he hadn’t done since elementary school. She had managed to get under his skin so quickly.

“Practice makes perfect.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard that.”

Harper frowned, lowered her arms and looked down to where his hands were tensely curled at his sides. She took them in her own and moved each one to rest at the curve of her hips. “Relax, Sebastian. I’m not going to bite. We’ve got to be a lot more comfortable touching each other if we’re going to convince anyone we’re really together.”

He splayed his fingers across her denim-clad hips and pressed the tips into the ample flesh there. With her so close, he wanted to lean down and kiss her. Her full, pouting lips and wide, innocent eyes seemed to plead for it. Indulging seemed like the natural thing to do. She felt good against him. Perhaps too good for the middle of Neiman Marcus. There was definitely not going to be a problem faking attraction with Harper. The problem would be pretending that the attraction wasn’t real when no one was watching.

“I’ll go,” he blurted out, almost surprising himself.

Harper stiffened in his arms, looking up at him with a smile that was hesitant to believe him. “Are you serious?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, I’m serious. I’ll go to Ireland with you as your fake boyfriend.”

With a squeal of excitement, Harper hugged him tight. Before he could prepare himself, she pressed her mouth to his. He was certain it was supposed to be a quick, thank-you peck, but once their lips touched, there was no pulling away.

Sebastian wasn’t imagining the palpable sexual energy between them. The way Harper curved against his body and opened her mouth to him was proof of that. He wanted to take it further, to see how powerful their connection really was, but this was neither the time nor the place, so he pulled away while he still could.

Harper lingered close, a rosy flush highlighting her cheeks. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Would you care to walk me to my apartment? I don’t live far.”

“I can’t.” He wanted to—quite badly—but he got the feeling it was an invitation better declined at the moment if they were going to spend the next week together. Things could get weird before they even left.

Harper pulled away just enough to let a chill of air rush in where the heat of her body had been. “Why not?”

He picked up the wallet he’d set down on a display when he’d spoken with Quentin. “I still have to buy this.”

A light of amusement lit her eyes. “You’re so literal. I can wait while you check out.”

It would be so easy to say yes. He took a deep breath and thought up another valid reason. “I also have some things to take care of if I’m going with you on Monday.”

Harper pouted for a moment before she nodded and covered her disappointment with a smile. “Okay. Well, I’m going out with my girlfriends tomorrow, but how about we get together on Sunday night? We can get to know each other a little better before we get on the plane.”

“At your apartment?”

“A bar is probably a better idea. Being you’re a stranger and all, right?”

He breathed a sigh of relief. He could avoid temptation in a bar. Once they got to Ireland, he wasn’t so sure. “That sounds good.”

“Give me your phone.”

Sebastian handed over his cell phone and Harper put her information into his contacts.

“Text me so I have your information, too. We’ll get together Sunday.”

With a smile and a wave, Harper handed over his phone and disappeared from the store. Sebastian watched her walk away and, with every step she took, was more and more convinced that he was making a big mistake.

* * *

“I know that we’re leaving Monday and I should probably be packing or getting ready, but I really needed one last girls’ night before we go.” Violet eased back into the sofa cushions with a large glass of wine in her hand. “Why didn’t any of you tell me how stressful weddings could be?”

“Well, Oliver and I eloped, so it wasn’t stressful at all,” Lucy said. “Besides, in the end it’s just a party. Now, nine-month-old twins...that’s stressful.”

Harper chuckled at her new sister-in-law’s observation. The twins—Alice and Christian—were little darlings, but the minute they started walking, she got the feeling they would be tiny tornadoes of destruction. Especially Alice. She was a little spitfire, like her namesake, their great-great-aunt Alice.

“No one said you had to fly all your friends and family halfway around the world to get married,” Harper pointed out, taking a sip of her wine. “You could’ve had a ridiculously expensive and over-the-top affair here in Manhattan like Emma did.”

Emma came into the room with a frown pulling down the corners of her flawlessly painted rose lips. “My wedding was not over the top. It was small and tasteful.”

Harper arched an eyebrow and laughed. “You may have only had thirty people there, but I’d hardly classify it as small and tasteful.”

“I had a beautiful reception.”

“You had an ice vodka luge,” Harper challenged.

Emma twisted her lips and sighed. “That was Jonah’s thing. He insisted.” She settled beside Violet on the couch. “And it would’ve been ten times bigger if my mother’d had her way. You saw what she did with my baby shower. But seriously, don’t stress too badly about the wedding, Vi. It’s in Ireland. In a castle! It will be beautiful, I promise.”

“It will,” Lucy chimed in. “You’ve got an amazing wedding planner who has it under control. The best in the city. All you need to do is show up and marry the love of your life. That’s easy.”

Violet smiled. “You’re right. Aidan has told me the same thing a dozen times. I just can’t stop stressing out about every little detail. In a week from today I’ll be Mrs. Aidan Murphy! Have I forgotten something?”

“If you have, it doesn’t really matter. As long as both of you show up, say I do and sign your license with a qualified officiant, you’ll be married at the end of the day. Everything else is just details,” Emma said.

Violet nodded. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I just need to say it until I believe it. What about you guys? Are you packed and ready to leave yet?”

The women around the coffee table nodded. “Everything is ready. Just a few more things to throw in the luggage before we go. We’re leaving the twins with Oliver’s dad,” Lucy said. “That’s the biggest stressor for me. I haven’t been away from them since they were born, but there’s no way I’m flying overseas with twins at that age.

“Knox is older than the twins, so I’m hoping he does okay on the flight. It will be his first,” Violet explained. “I couldn’t leave him behind, though. It seems wrong to marry his father without having him there.”

“Of course. I’m sure he’ll do great. Georgette is staying with my parents, but they’ll have her nanny with them, so I’m not worried.” Emma turned to Harper. “What about you? Are you ready to go? At least you don’t have men and kids to wrangle before the trip. I almost forget what it’s like to just have to worry about myself.”

“Yep,” Harper said. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to tell the story she’d come up with after talking to Sebastian. Her intention was to tell them as little as possible, but she knew she had to fill the girls in on her new beau before the trip. They were the only ones who would really care. If she sold the story to them, everyone else would take it at face value.

Including Quentin. Hopefully. If he didn’t buy it, there was no point in continuing the ruse. This whole ridiculous scheme was designed with the sole purpose of making him believe she had someone in her life. That she wasn’t pathetically single and still pining for him. Because she was anything but pining. She was glad to have Quentin out of her life. He was just too egomaniacal to see her single status as anything other than a reflection of her wishing they were still together.

Selling it to her friends wouldn’t be so easy, though.

“I’ve got the dress, the passport and...uh...the boyfriend all ready to go.” She said the words quickly and then waited for the inevitable response.

Emma, Violet and Lucy all paused as anticipated and turned to look at her. The questions came too fast and furiously for her to respond to any of them.

“What?”

“Your boyfriend?”

“Am I missing something, here?”

Harper winced and nodded when they finally quieted down. “Yeah, um, his name is Sebastian.” She got up to refill her wine and stall the conversation a moment. She was going to need some alcohol to get through this conversation. When she came back into the room from the kitchen, the girls were sitting frozen in place with expectant looks on their faces. “He’s the guy I’ve been seeing for a few months.”

“Months?” Violet wailed. “You’ve been seeing a guy for months and didn’t think to mention it to us?”

“You guys have all been busy with your own lives. Babies, weddings...” Harper explained. “And, to be honest, I didn’t want to jinx it. It wasn’t that serious at first and I got tired of mentioning guys to you all and then we didn’t get past the third date. Things were going well, so I wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. Just in case.”

“And now you’re ready to talk? ’Cause you’re sure as hell going to give us every detail,” Lucy sassed.

Harper shrugged. Not really, but the time had come to spill some information if she was going to pull this off. “I guess I have to if I want to bring him on the trip.”

“I noticed you RSVP’d for two, but you left off the guest’s name,” Violet said. “I was wondering what that meant.”

“Yeah, I was hopeful that things would work out for him to come,” Harper continued to lie, noting that after pretending she had money for a decade, pretending to have a boyfriend wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be. “But if it fell apart between us, I thought I might bring a friend. Or no one. But things are great and so Sebastian is coming. I’ll give you his information to add to the travel manifest.”

“I’m eager to meet him,” Emma said. “And intrigued. You haven’t really had much luck dating since you and Quentin broke up. Where did you two meet? He’s not one of your Tinder finds, is he?”

“Oh, no. Those were a mess. I actually met Sebastian at one of the hospital fund-raisers this winter. The one raising money for the orthopedics center, I think.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie. They had met there. They just hadn’t started dating. “He works with medical equipment. He can tell you more about all that. Anyway, we hit it off and he asked me to dinner. Things have just sort of progressed from there.”

“Wait,” Violet said, sitting at attention on the sofa. “We were all at that fund-raiser. Do we know him? Sebastian who?”

“Sebastian West.” Harper was suddenly nervous that maybe they did know him. She and Sebastian hadn’t gotten together to talk yet, so she ran the risk of getting caught not knowing something obvious about him if any of the girls knew who he was. Quentin had recognized his name and company, so it was a possibility.

Thankfully none of them perked up at hearing his full name. “I doubt any of you know him. He spends more time working than socializing. He’s super smart. I’m excited for you all to meet him.” She grinned wide and hoped she was selling her story.

“We’re all excited,” Violet echoed as her eyes narrowed at Harper in suspicion. “I can’t wait for Monday.”

Harper took a large sip of her wine and nodded with feigned enthusiasm. “Me neither.”


Three (#u1b9ae30d-4375-5478-bd24-ba3f62cf3d6e)

Sunday evening Sebastian arrived at the bar a full fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet Harper. He wasn’t particularly anxious about their meeting, but he couldn’t stand just sitting around his apartment any longer. He’d sat there for the last two days trying to fill the hours. Without work, he found he had far too many minutes on his hands.

He’d spent as long as he could packing and preparing for the trip. He’d taken his clothes and his tuxedo to the cleaner. He’d carefully collected his toiletries and underthings, but that had taken only a few hours out of his newfound free time.

Sebastian had tried reading a book. He’d watched some television. Both had bored him after a short while. By Sunday afternoon he’d had nothing to do but pace around his apartment and wish away the hours. He wasn’t sure how he’d get through the next two weeks if he hadn’t met Harper and had this trip to Ireland fall into his lap. He might just go insane. How was that supposed to improve his health? Mentally weak but physically strong? What good was that?

When his watch showed it was almost time to meet Harper, he’d rushed out the door. He’d taken a table in a quiet corner, ordered himself a gin and tonic with lime—ignoring doctor’s orders—and awaited her arrival with his notebook open to read over some notes. He carried it almost everywhere he went, writing down ideas and schematics when they popped into his head. He’d learned the hard way that he could lose the spark of inspiration if he didn’t immediately capture it.

This way he was still waiting, but at least he was out of the house and potentially doing something productive in the meantime. Thankfully, Harper showed up a few minutes later. She was looking attractive and fashionable once again with layered lace tops and a long sweater over skinny jeans. Today her dark hair was pulled up into a bun, highlighting the line of her neck and her dangly earrings.

Sebastian was once again struck by the fact that this woman should be able to find a boyfriend easily. He didn’t understand why he was even there pretending to be one. Then again, the same thing could probably be said of him. Life was complicated sometimes.

“Thanks for coming. And thanks for doing all of this,” she said as she settled into her chair across from him.

“No problem. Would you like a drink?”

“Just water for me,” she said with a polite smile. It surprised him. A glass of wine or a martini seemed far more her speed. He didn’t question it, however, and waved down the bartender for her water.

“Are you packed and ready to go?” she asked.

“Mostly. What about you?”

“The same. I feel like I’m not ready, although I can’t imagine what I haven’t packed yet.”

“Don’t forget the slinky lingerie,” Sebastian said. The sudden image of Harper wearing some kind of silk-and-lace chemise came to his mind and made him immediately regret his words. He didn’t need that vision haunting him over their next week together.

“What?” Harper’s eyes were suddenly wide with concern.

“It was a joke,” Sebastian soothed. And that’s what he’d intended it to be, even if a part of him wouldn’t mind if she threw a nice piece or two in there.

“Oh,” she said, visibly relaxing. Apparently the idea of being his girlfriend for real was not nearly as appealing to her as it was in his own mind. “Yeah, no, I’m packing the ugliest pajamas I’ve got.”

“Flannel footie pajamas with a zip front?” he asked.

“Yep. I’ll be dressed as a giant pug dog.”

Interesting. “Trapdoor for convenience?”

“No, just a front zipper, but they do have a tail and a hood with puppy ears and a nose I can pull up.”

“Excellent. Since pugs aren’t my thing, I’m sure the sight of you in that dog outfit will squelch any misplaced attraction that might arise between us.”

“Perhaps I should buy you one, too. I saw one that was basically a poop emoji costume.”

“Not Spider-Man or Deadpool? You went straight for the poop emoji?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

They both laughed for a few moments and the tension dissipated between them. Sebastian was relieved. He didn’t want either of them to be uncomfortable. It would make the week ten times longer than it would be already.

“So tell me everything I should know about you,” Harper began. “I’m your girlfriend, after all, so I need to know all the important things.”

Sebastian tried not to wince at the thought of talking about himself. He hated doing that. He tried to think of what he would share with someone if he were really dating them, but he found he didn’t know the answer to that, either. “I’m from Maine. A small coastal town called Rockport, specifically. I went to MIT. Technically, I’m a mechanical engineer, but I’ve branched out quite a bit after college.”

“I thought you worked for a medical supply company.”

Sebastian frowned. That was probably his fault. He liked to keep the details of his work vague. “Not exactly. BioTech is a medical research and development company. My partner Finn and I develop new medical technology.”

“Your partner? You mean you don’t just work there?”

“Eh, no. We started the company together out of college. I own it.”

Harper frowned, wrinkles creasing her forehead. “Are you serious? I offered you every penny I had in savings to go on this trip and you’re the CEO of a company? You probably make more in an afternoon than I do in a paycheck.”

Sebastian held up his finger in protest. “You offered me the money. I never said I would actually take it. And I’m not going to, of course.”

“So you’re rich. Why didn’t you say something? Like when Quentin asked about your company?”

At that, Sebastian shrugged. “I’m not the kind to flaunt it. Finn is the face of the company. I’m the mad scientist behind the scenes. I’m happy with the anonymity. I’ve seen how being well-known and wealthy has complicated his love life and I’m not interested in that.”

“In a love life?” Harper asked with an arched brow.

“In a complicated love life. Or, hell, maybe a regular one. I work too much for any type of relationship to succeed.”

“But you’re going to drop everything and go with me on a trip to Ireland on short notice?”

Sebastian sat back in his chair and sighed. It would be easy to tell her that he’d had a heart attack and was on mandatory vacation, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t like people knowing his business, especially when it changed how they perceived him. Whether it was knowing he was rich, or sick, or used to be poor...it didn’t matter. He liked private things to stay private. “When you’re the boss, you can do what you want,” he responded instead.

She shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything until just now. What if I hadn’t asked? Would you have waited until someone recognized you on the plane and I looked like a fool for not knowing my boyfriend is a millionaire?”

“Of course not! I would’ve told you. And you’re one to point fingers, Harper. You’re keeping plenty of secrets yourself.”

She straightened in her chair and narrowed her gaze at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I saw you walk out of Neiman Marcus with your friends. Then you ditched them and came back ten minutes later to return everything you’d bought. What is that about? It’s not buyer’s remorse, I’m pretty certain.”

Harper’s lips twisted in thought as she considered her answer. “I’m trying to save money.”

Sebastian looked at her with a pointed expression on his face. There was more to it than just frugality, of that he was sure. He’d done his research since they’d met. Her family owned Orion Computers. She lived in a really nice apartment on the Upper East Side. But she only had two grand in her savings account? That didn’t add up in his mind.

His silence prompted her to keep talking. “I’m having a bit of a cash flow shortage. I’m embarrassed about it, so I haven’t told anyone, even my friends and family. Until I get things straightened out, I’m trying to be smart about my money, but I have to keep up appearances.”

“Like blowing a fortune on designer clothes and then immediately returning them?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t they notice you never wear them after you buy them?”

She shook her head. “You need a map to get through my closet. Things disappear in there, never to resurface.”

Sebastian nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds like a complicated charade to keep up. Pretending to have a boyfriend should be a piece of cake.”

“Well, thankfully it’s a short-term thing. I should be back on my feet soon and then no one needs to know I lied about it. And as for you and me...well, I’m sure we will have a sad, but not unexpected, breakup not long after we get back from the trip. Not so soon as to be suspicious, but we can’t wait too long or people might start inviting us to things as a couple here in town.”

“Sounds tragic. I’m already sad.”

Harper looked at him with a smile. “I’m enjoying your sarcastic sense of humor. We might actually be able to pull this off.”

“I think so, too. Of course, over time I think you’re going to become too clingy for me and we’re going to want different things from our relationship.”

She groaned. “Ugh. You sound like Quentin. Don’t do that or we’ll have to just break up now.”

Sebastian laughed. “So since we’re going to be around that guy, should I know what happened between you two?”

Harper winced at the thought. “That is a story that would require something stronger than water to talk about.”

“A cocktail then? My treat,” Sebastian added. He waved over the bartender. It wasn’t until then that it occurred to him she might be drinking water out of necessity, not desire.

“That’s sweet of you. A Cosmo, please.”

Once the man returned with the dark pink beverage, Harper took a sip and sighed. “We were together for three years and we’ve been broken up for two. We met at a party and we really seemed to hit it off. Things went well between us, but I noticed that it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. We’d stalled out at the point where most people take the next step.”

“He didn’t want anything serious?”

“I thought we were already serious, but I suppose that was my mistake. I was thinking we were on track to get engaged, moving in together...do all the things that other couples around me were doing. But he was always working. Or said he was. He’s an attorney and kept insisting he had to put in the long hours if he was going to make partner. I thought it was because he wanted to build a solid future for us, but the truth was that he was perfectly content where we were.”

“He was seeing other women.”

“Bingo. While I was officially his girlfriend in the public eye, I found out there were three of us he was keeping on the hook. He used long hours at work as his excuse to run around town with different women, and I didn’t even question it. I don’t know if he couldn’t decide and thought that he’d eventually know which one he wanted, or if he just liked keeping that many balls up in the air at once. But eventually I found out about the others and broke it off. When I confronted him, all he said was that he just wasn’t ready for a commitment.”

Sebastian frowned. “He told you the other day that he’s engaged now, didn’t he?”

Harper’s posture deflated slightly in her chair and he found he hated that. He wanted to punch Quentin in the face for taking such a beautiful, confident woman and leaving her broken.

“Yes,” she said softly. “He’s bringing her on the trip. You see why I can’t go alone? I just can’t face him and his fiancée in the state I am in. I’m almost thirty. I’m happy with my life on most days, but I have to admit that I’m not at all where I expected to be at this point. I’m sure everyone else looks at me and thinks I’m the sad, single one in the group.”

Sebastian understood. He knew what it was like to be judged by people. While Harper had worked hard to keep up appearances, he’d simply buried his head in his research and tried to block out the rest of the world. It had served him pretty well. Eventually, though, he’d known his avoidance mechanisms would fall apart. His had fallen apart when he’d hit the floor in cardiac arrest. Hers might all come crashing down when her delicately structured pyramid of falsehoods took a hit. He hoped he wouldn’t be the reason it fell.

“I will strive to be the imaginary boyfriend you’ve always dreamed of having someday.”

* * *

“You go up first,” Sebastian said as they stood on the tarmac together. “I prefer to sit in the aisle seat if you don’t mind.”

Harper nodded and climbed the steps ahead of him to board the private plane. The minute she stepped on and turned the corner, she realized the Boeing Business Jet that Violet’s father, Loukas Niarchos, had chartered for the flight wasn’t going to be like any plane she’d been on before. Instead of a first-class cabin, she found herself walking through a lounge with a bar, seating areas with couches and swivel chairs, flat-panel televisions and a variety of tables. To the left there was a doorway leading to an executive office where she could see Loukas already chatting on the phone, his laptop open.

A flight attendant greeted them with a smile and directed them through the lounge into the next room to the right. There they found what could be either a conference room or a dining table that sat twenty for a meal. Each chair was plush camel-colored leather with a seat belt if it was necessary. Harper got the feeling the kind of people who chartered flights on this plane wouldn’t tolerate turbulence.

“This is like being on Air Force One,” Sebastian muttered into her ear as they walked through a narrow hallway past a fully appointed bedroom suite, two full-size bathrooms with showers, and a galley kitchen currently manned by two more smiling flight attendants. “Is this how you’re used to traveling?”

Harper shook her head. “No. I’m used to boring old first class unless I’m traveling with family on the Orion corporate jet. That’s nice, but it only seats eight. And there’s no bedroom. Or office. Or cocktail lounge. My family is normal rich, not filthy rich.”

Sebastian chuckled and nudged her forward. “Good. I don’t think I could handle a filthy-rich girlfriend. I’m glad this is a first for us both.”

At that point, the plane finally opened up into a traditional seating area. Appointed like a large, first-class cabin, there were six seats in each row. They were in sets of two, divided by two wide aisles. Each seat had its own television screen, blanket, pillow, and controls that allowed its occupant to lay fully flat for sleeping on the overnight flight. A flute of champagne and a chocolate-covered strawberry stenciled with the letters V&A in edible gold awaited each guest at their seat as well as a handwritten card in calligraphy with each person’s name.

Violet was certainly out to throw a memorable wedding, if nothing else.

They’d been assigned row thirteen of sixteen, seats A and B, so she made her way down the right aisle through the crowd of familiar faces. They were nearly the last to board, so the area was bustling with activity as guests settled in. Quentin hadn’t been kidding when he’d said this wedding was the event of the year. People salivated over the idea of receiving a coveted invitation, but the guest list had been kept down to less than a hundred by virtue of the plane and the wedding venue.

Even then, Harper still knew almost everyone on the plane. A few friends and family of Violet’s fiancé, Aidan, were unfamiliar to her, but there were far more of Violet’s circle than anyone. She smiled and waved politely as she pressed on, even when she saw Quentin in the back row on the far left. He was sitting beside an attractive brunette who seemed a little young for him, but Harper was trying not to let her bitterness color her opinion.

“Here we go,” she said as she stopped at their row. Emma and Jonah were seated across the aisle from them in the center section, and Harper could see Emma was already heavily appraising Sebastian from her seat. She tried not to focus on that, instead stowing her bag and her coat in the overhead bin to clear the aisle for others to board.

“Introductions!” Emma said before Harper could even slide into the row to sit.

She pasted on a bright smile and turned their way. “Sebastian, these are my good friends Jonah and Emma Flynn. I work for Jonah’s gaming software company, FlynnSoft. You guys, this is my boyfriend, Sebastian West.”

Jonah stuck out his hand and the two men exchanged a firm handshake. “Good to meet you both,” Sebastian said. “Harper has told me how much she enjoys her job at FlynnSoft. I’m sure that reflects well on you, Jonah.”

She tried not to look impressed and instead turned toward her seat. It wasn’t until that moment that she noticed a small, white envelope on the window seat. She picked the envelope up and settled in so Sebastian could take his place at her side. She looked around, wondering who might’ve put it on her seat, but no one seemed to be looking or paying any attention to her. There weren’t envelopes like this one on the other seats. Just one for her, with her name written on the front in nondescript block letters.

While Sebastian put his bag in the overhead bin, Harper opened the envelope and pulled out the single page inside. It was handwritten, and relatively short, but it delivered a huge impact.

I know your little secret. If you don’t want everyone to find out the truth and risk your big inheritance, you’ll do exactly what I say. Once we arrive in Ireland, you’ll go to the bank and withdraw a hundred thousand dollars. Then you’ll leave it in an envelope at the front desk of the hotel for “B. Mayler” by dinnertime tomorrow. Miss the deadline and I’m going to make a big problem for you, Harper.

She read the words a dozen times, trying to make sense of it all, but there was no way to make sense of what she was seeing. Her heart was pounding in her ears, deafening her to anything but the sound of her internal panic. The fantastic plane and everyone on it faded into the background.

This was blackmail. She was being blackmailed.

How was that even possible?

Harper had been so careful about her secret. Aside from sharing some of it with Sebastian yesterday, no one, not her closest friends or family, knew the truth. Not even her brother or father knew about her financial difficulties. She’d kept it quiet for over eight years, working hard to make ends meet until the next payment came and she didn’t have to fake it any longer. Sebastian had been the first to question her curious behavior, and it hadn’t seemed to hurt to share a little information with him considering her birthday was right around the corner.

But someone had found out her secret, and that was a big problem.

Her grandfather on her mother’s side of the family had set up a thirty-million-dollar trust fund for both her and her brother when they were born. It included a two-million-dollar payment on their eighteenth birthdays followed by a twenty-eight-million-dollar payment on their thirtieth birthdays. Harper’s thirtieth was only a few weeks away now. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She should be coasting to the finish line, but her foolish youthful behavior had put everything at risk.

After her father ran into financial troubles with his gold-digging second wife, her grandfather had added a new provision to the grandchildren’s trusts—if it was discovered that they had been financially irresponsible with their first payments, there would be no second payment. Ever-responsible Oliver had had no problem managing his money and had made his own fortune many times over. He hardly needed the second payment by the time his thirtieth birthday came around. But not Harper. By the time the provision was added, her frivolous lifestyle had already helped her blow through most of the first two million.

When she found out about the addendum, she’d realized she had to keep her situation a secret. Her grandfather couldn’t find out or she’d risk the money she desperately needed. That second payment would put an end to her charade. She wouldn’t have to eat ramen noodles for weeks to pay her massive building fee at the beginning of the year. She wouldn’t have to return everything she bought and scour the thrift stores for designer finds to keep up her facade of a spoiled heiress. Harper wouldn’t blow this new money—she wasn’t a naive child any longer—but it would be nice not to have to pretend she had more than two grand in her savings account.

Thankfully that two thousand dollars she’d earmarked for Sebastian could stay put. It was all she had aside from her FlynnSoft 401K with its stiff withdrawal penalties. Where was she going to come up with a hundred thousand dollars by tomorrow? In a month, easy. But now...it was an impossible task.

“Are you okay?”

Harper quickly folded the letter closed and shoved it back into the envelope. She looked over at Sebastian, who had settled into his seat and buckled up. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just reading over something.”

“You look like the plane is about to crash,” he noted. “You’re white as a sheet. Since they haven’t even closed the cabin door yet, I was concerned.”

“Flying isn’t my favorite thing,” she lied, and slipped the note into her purse. “Even on a fancy jet like this. My doctor gave me some pills and I hope to wake up in Ireland before I know it.”

“Sleep? And miss a minute of this luxurious travel?” Sebastian picked up his crystal champagne flute. “Shall we toast before you slip into a drug-induced coma?”

Harper picked up her drink and fought to keep her hand from trembling with nerves. “What should we drink to?”





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