The Billionaire's Fake Fiancee - Lauren Wood Page 0,16

going on at the restaurant. I know she’d love it if the four of us could …”

“Not the four of us,” I added. “Just me and Olivia.” He darkened his eyes, letting me know he wasn’t going to hand her over without an explanation. “Remember that girl I mentioned meeting in the park? The one I wasn’t going to see again? Well. It’s a long story. But basically she lied too. To her boss. About having a baby and a fiancé. It sounds crazy, but it’s all for a promotion. So I went to this dinner with her last night to help her out and pretended to be her fiancé, and her co-workers invited us to this picnic. She knows I’m not really a single dad, but they don’t. So … Can I take Olivia with us?”

He was quiet for a long time before exclaiming, “What the hell are you thinking!? Have you lost your damn mind!?”

“I promise it sounds much crazier than it actually is,” I defended, not feeling entirely certain that was true.

“Lying for a one night stand is one thing. But introducing my child to this woman’s co-workers and passing her off as your own? That’s the craziest thing I ever heard.”

“Okay. Wait … let me explain. There’s more.” I waved my hands in the air, trying to gather my thoughts. “I kind of think … that maybe … I might really feel something for this girl. Which you know never happens to me. We have this whole arrangement. At least through Saturday. She was obviously pissed about me lying, saying I was a single dad. To make it up to her, I agreed to pretend to be her single dad fiancé.”

“You are playing with fire, man,” he warned. “You remember what happened with Angel and I and our little surrogate arrangement? Things can get complicated. And fast. You don’t want someone getting hurt.”

I nodded, seriously considering his advice. But I couldn’t deny how bad I wanted to see how this played out. “I hear you. I really do. The thing is … for the first time, I think I’m actually worried about being the one to get hurt. It just seems like it’s worth the risk. I can’t remember the last time I felt this intrigued with a woman. I owe it to myself to see where it goes, don’t you think?”

He wrinkled his face. “Are you sure you’re not just getting desperate because the rest of us are settled down? Maybe you’re doing that thing where you pick the craziest woman you can find because you know it won’t work out and then you can prove yourself right about being single.”

“Or maybe I need a crazy woman to be happy,” I shrugged. “It’s been anything but boring this far. I can say that much.”

“Does she know how you feel? That you’re seriously interested in her?” he asked with concern.

“Pfft. I’m just now getting used to the idea of having feelings,” I joked. “Expressing them? Not there yet. But … I mean … we did sleep together.”

He dropped his head and let out a big sigh. “Sure, cause that’s the same thing as telling a girl you have feelings for them. Especially coming from you,” he scoffed.

“It sort of is. I told her with my body,” I winked.

“Alright man. I’ll let you take Olivia one more time. But after that, you and this girl are on your own if you’re going to keep up this crazy lie. Whatever happens … don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

I rushed over and hugged him, patting his shoulder. “Thanks, man. You’re the best. And you know I’m not totally selfish. I love spending time with Olivia, and she’ll have fun at this thing. Now if you could just start showing her my picture and training her to call me ‘Daddy’ that’d be …”

He flashed a threatening look.

“Okay. Okay,” I put my hands up in surrender. “Too much? Fair enough. I’ll get out of your hair. And see you Saturday when I come by to pick her up.”

7

Kate

I spent a whole week plagued with the memories of Ben and I accidentally tumbling into bed together. The problem was … it wasn’t an accident on his part. He knew exactly what he was doing, and I was left with the aftermath.

I would never admit that his suspicions were spot on. It had been a long time since I had been with a guy. I didn’t exactly know that might have been to blame for some of my erratic behavior lately, but if that’s how I behaved when I was sex-deprived … I