Misadventures of a Backup Bride

by Shayla Black

  I couldn’t possibly have heard that right. But the deep male voice on the other end of the phone didn’t stutter. In fact, the buttery baritone gave me a shiver—until his meaning sank in. “Um… Could you repeat that?”

  He laughs, breaking the tension. “Sorry. That was abrupt, wasn’t it? How about if I start from the beginning?”

  “That would be fantastic.” I smile into the device.

  “Hi, Ms. Hope. I’m Carson Frost. We met once—”

  “At Shane’s birthday bash in March.”

  “Right.” He sounds surprised that I remember.

  There’s no way I could forget a man like him. If I had conjured up the perfect guy, the one who would forever make me long for sweaty nights and star in my masturbatory fantasies, it would be this one. He looks like a Viking someone shoved into a perfectly tailored suit. Blond, with sculpted cheekbones and a chiseled jaw worthy of Hollywood superstar status, penetrating blue eyes, and a mouth that made me wish like hell I wasn’t there with his friend. His smile seemed somehow boyish and fatal at once. The night we met, just shaking his hand made me tingle.

  “Mr. Frost—”

  “Carson,” he cuts in.

  “Okay, Carson.” How can I phrase this without giving away the fact that even thoughts of him screw with my respiratory system? “I doubt you have trouble finding women who want to date you. Why hire an actress?”

  “Got an hour?”

  I can’t tell whether he’s serious. He seems like the no-nonsense sort who’s got a dry sense of humor, so I laugh. “Sure.”

  It’s not as if talking to him is a hardship.

  More like twenty minutes later, he finishes his tale. By then, my mouth is gaping open. To Carson’s credit, he’s really tried to make things work with his fiancée. I Googled her during his explanation. She’s gorgeous, wealthy, educated… It says a lot about him that he’s not hot to marry her simply because she’s got money and looks. In fact, I commend him for refusing to make them both miserable. And he’s tried being honest with her father about his feelings. The man simply isn’t listening. Even if Carson is hiring me to assist him in a giant lie, I think he has some scruples.

  In my dating experience, that’s damn hard to find.

  Not that my opinion matters. I need this job. I’ve got to pay my rent. Waiting tables isn’t covering the bills, and acting gigs are too few and far between to contribute significantly to my bank account.

  “So, you want me to come to North Carolina immediately to meet Mr. Shaw and…what exactly?”

  “Convince him we’re in love. I just admitted that to you today, by the way. You were stunned but thrilled. You think you might feel the same. We’re going to try to cement our relationship over the next two and a half weeks, before my wedding. But at the end of that period, you’ll sadly realize that your life is in LA, and I’m so busy with work that I just can’t spare you the time you deserve, so you’ll have to end things between us. Such a pity.”

  I’ll give him credit for thinking his plan through. “Do you really think that will make your rival give up the idea of you marrying his daughter?”

  “On its own? No.” He sighs. “But Kendra will help me along. She goes back to school in a week, and there will be some frat boy who catches her attention. If I’m obviously uncommitted, she’ll feel far freer to let nature take its course and couple up with someone who can give her a kegger and a good time. I suspect she hasn’t told her father how she feels about us—in part, anyway—because she doesn’t want to ruin my business. She’s a nice kid, just one with oats to sow and growing up to do. Shaw is a businessman, but he’s also a dad. He wants Kendra to be happy. I think he’s hoping I’ll settle her down, but she’s not ready. He simply needs to see that.”

  “What if he does but refuses to give you the loan you need? Won’t you lose your company?”

  “At the end of the day, he wants a stake in Sweet Darlin’. I’ll remind him he can’t have that if the company goes under. Buying pieces from the financial salvage yard, so to speak, isn’t the same. But with the right shove, I think I can save my company without marrying Kendra.”

  Carson Frost isn’t just gorgeous. We didn’t merely have the kind of chemistry that made my whole body zing enough to remember meeting him five months after a three-minute introduction. He’s clever, too. And that puts him even higher on my dying-to-do list. Not that I’ll ever actually do him, but a girl can dream…

  “All right. I’ll take the job.” I definitely won’t have to pretend I’m attracted to this man. In fact, this gig should be downright exciting. “For five thousand a week, plus expenses.”

  It’s what my agent would ask for, if not more.

  “Three thousand.”

  “I can be there in a day or two. I can be completely convincing as the infatuated new girlfriend. But if you need me that quickly, I’ll have to ask for more.”

  “Ms. Hope—”

  “Ella,” I cut in. After all, I’m calling him Carson. And…yes, I want to hear the voice that makes me melt say my name.

  “Ella, if you’re able to drop your life to come here so quickly, how much work can you possibly be giving up as an actress?”

  I wince. He’s obviously used to negotiating. I usually let my agent do the bit where she shows her teeth…though there hasn’t been much occasion for that in the last year, I admit.

  I’m not a modern beauty. I’ve been told by casting directors I’d be better suited for historical films because I have a “timeless sensuality.” In other words, I’m hopelessly fair. I have unremarkable brown hair and eyes, along with boobs and hips. No matter how much I hit the gym, there’s nothing remotely waifish about me. But I’m a good actress, damn it.

  Granted, pretending to dump Carson isn’t exactly an Oscar-worthy role. Hell, I can’t even add this gig to my résumé, but it will keep a roof over my head for another month or two.

  “You have no idea what I have scheduled. I’m asking for this amount because it will mitigate my losses for abandoning other parts.”

  “You know, for an actress you’re not a very good liar.”

  “Because I’m not in the habit of lying.” I embrace roles. I get into characters’ skins. I become someone else. I don’t project an alternate reality of my own life.

  I played a convincing Katherina in a regional production of The Taming of the Shrew last winter. I got rave reviews for my portrayal of Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof before that. My favorite role was Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But more often, casting directors call me back for “other woman” roles. The last couple of months, I’ve been reduced to playing a princess at little girls’ birthday parties. I turned down an “invitation” to become a stripper.

  Something’s got to give.

  I can’t give up negotiating. “Four thousand plus expenses.”

  “Thirty-five hundred with all the trimmings.” I’m actually considering that offer when he drops his voice another octave to something that makes me shiver. “Plus a bonus of three grand if we succeed. I’ll even throw in free candy for life. C’mon…help a guy out.”

  What are my more appealing options? My last dinner service at the café netted less than a hundred bucks in tips. I went to a couple of auditions that excited me last week…but no callbacks so far. I hate to leave my sisters for that long, but Eryn and Echo are grown. Well, mostly. Accepting is about survival. Still, I’d be lying if I said Carson Frost didn’t motivate me at least a little. Out of everyone I met at that terrible party, he alone grabbed my attention and made me crave more. There was something about him…

  “Thirty-seven fifty, plus expenses. And plan on paying me that extra three grand. We’re going to convince Mr. Shaw that it’s in his best interest not to force you to become his son-in-law.”

  “Done.” Carson sounds pleased with himself. “I’ll send you a non-disclosure agreement and a contract for your signature. I’ll need them back quickly.”

  I probably should have insist
ed on more, but this is a good start. And if it takes longer than a couple of weeks to persuade his rival to back off, it’s more money for me…not to mention more time with a blue-eyed Adonis who lights my fire.

  “Of course. I need a plane ticket.”

  “I’ve just sent a message to my assistant to start working on that now. She’ll call you shortly.” He hesitates. “We should talk specifics, Ella. I have to kiss you.”

  Oh, when he talks to me in that voice…I can imagine his big body hovering over me, his head dipping, his full mouth enveloping mine. In fact, I can’t wait.

  “I mean, in order to make this work. We have to be convincing. I’ll have to hold your hand, put my arms around you.” He exhales heavily. “And kiss you.”

  “I don’t think kissing will be a problem.” I somehow manage to sound businesslike. For the most part. Though my girl parts are doing a dance, I have to be clear about boundaries. “But no more than that. I don’t do nudity or adult work, if you understand me.”

  “No sex. I would never want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” he assures me. “But you have to stay at my place. I’ve got a spare room. I promise, you’ll have privacy.”

  I pause. “I was thinking more like a hotel.”

  “No one is going to believe we’re passionately, breathlessly in love if we’re not spending our nights together.”

  He’s got a point, but… “Won’t it look as if you’re cheating on your fiancée?”

  “I talked to her earlier this morning and told her how deeply I care for you. She sounded relieved. It would be funny, if anything in this situation could be, but she encouraged me to ‘explore my feelings for you, however I need to.’”

  I bite my lip. In other words, she’s praying he falls for me so hard that he calls the whole thing off. I don’t have another argument.

  “All right, then. I guess I’ll see you soon.”

  “Good. We’ll spend a few days getting to know each other, then I’ll introduce you to Gregory Shaw. After that…we’ll do our best to be convincing.”

  Hours of being near Carson Frost? Days of kissing him? Weeks of being “in love” with him, even if it’s only for show? Yes, please. “Sounds like a plan. I hope we can make this work.”

  “Me, too. Otherwise, I’m out of options.”

  Chapter Two

  CARSON

  My memory of Ella Hope didn’t do her justice. As she hesitates at the threshold of my office, I stand, taking in her simple cream-colored blouse and houndstooth skirt. None of it does a damn thing to disguise the swells of those pillowy breasts or the grippable curves of her hips.

  As I swallow back lust, I seem unable to find my brain. All the blood in my body has rushed south. The sex drive I’d feared had died since becoming engaged to Kendra roars back to life with raging insistence after one glance at Ella and her sloe-eyed sultriness.

  Cora, my assistant, hovers nearby, watching me carefully. She’s intensely loyal to this company. She might be old enough to be my grandmother, but she controls the flow of information in and out of my office with the skill of a PR master. With one act, I can set the right tone for Ella’s stay. All I have to do is get closer to this woman, like I’m dying to.

  “Hello, Ella.” I speak the words like a caress as I walk around my desk. I can’t strip her down and get deep inside her since that wasn’t part of our agreement, but my tone says I’m waiting for that moment all the same.

  “Hi, Carson.” She sounds breathless.

  Wondering how much of her seeming attraction to me is real, I smile and fuse my stare to hers. Pink rises on her glowing cheeks.

  “It’s good to see you.” I take her arm, pull her close. She’s soft. Shit, she smells like an olfactory aphrodisiac—lavender, vanilla, and something muskier I can’t place.

  I have to work hard not to bury my head in her neck and inhale her.

  Ella blinks up at me as if our gazes are too tangled to look away. “You, too.”

  She’s got the breathless girlfriend act down. Even I believe she can’t wait another second for me to touch her.

  “I’ve missed you,” I murmur, dropping my head while delving into those dark eyes and long black lashes. And her mouth. Dear god, her lips are a perfect rosy cushion to take my kisses, cry my name, envelop my cock. I’d forgotten how fucking innocent yet sexual she looks.

  I want to seduce her. Now. I ache to remove every stitch she’s wearing and wrap my mouth around what I’ll bet are glorious nipples before I kiss my way down her body. I’m sure her thighs would be soft and tender and beautiful as they’re parting to reveal her succulent wetness between, which I would happily sink my mouth onto right now, regardless of the reason she’s here and whatever else is going on in my life.

  But I can’t—at least not at the moment.

  “I-I’ve missed you, too.”

  The whispered worship in her tone is perfect, and I doubt it goes unnoticed by Cora, who will spread the word when I ask her to. Right now, I’m too distracted by Ella to think.

  I bend to the gorgeous brunette. Her eyes shut. Her lips part. I can’t accept her unspoken invitation at the office, but if we have an audience at another time and in a more public place, I’ll absolutely indulge in a long, slow possession of her mouth and enjoy every moment of it before I have to turn her loose.

  For now, I settle for brushing a kiss over Ella’s downy cheek, then look up at Cora. “Thanks for picking Ms. Hope up at the airport.”

  “Of course, Mr. Frost.” My assistant gives me a crafty smile. Though she’s never said a word, I know she hates the idea of me marrying the competition. She’s never seemed impressed with Kendra, either. “You couldn’t miss the meeting with your production team.”

  She’s right. I’m still trying to win over all the workers—management and assembly line employees alike. The face time with them is invaluable.

  “Lovely to meet you, dear,” Cora says.

  Ella smiles in return, still looking intriguingly dazed. “You, too. Thanks for the lift.”

  Then my assistant shuts the double doors of my office. Her heels clack across the hardwood floors until she settles at her desk ten feet around the corner. Finally, I’m completely alone with the first woman to trip my libido in what feels like forever. I have to back away or I’m going to do something totally inappropriate that will fall well outside the realm of our agreement.

  I slide behind my massive desk again to put distance between us. “Good flight?”

  “Uneventful, so that’s the best kind.”

  Ella seems more collected now. Has she dropped the act or simply regained her composure now that we’re not mere inches apart? An intriguing question to explore later…

  “Good. I just need ten more minutes, then I’ll be ready to leave. Hungry?”

  She looks away, her stare landing anywhere but on me. “No, but I’d like to hit the gym tonight. Is there somewhere nearby I can work out? I’ll do that while you’re eating, and then we’ll—”

  “I didn’t bring you here to starve you, Ella. I doubt they fed you on the plane.”

  “I had a protein bar. I’m fine.”

  Frowning, I stare. What’s running through her pretty head? “Then you’re probably ready for real food.”

  “You didn’t negotiate meals with me. Unless we have a command performance, I should be free to fuel my body as I see fit.”

  There’s a wealth of meaning in what she said. I’m trying to figure it out as I stare, study, dissect. Then I realize… She’s an actress and she’s not a size double zero. Thank god. If anything, I want her more lush, not less so. Since I’m a big man, petite waifs I could break with one good thrust do nothing for me.

  “We need every moment to get to know one another. We’ll be attending a charity benefit on Friday night. Gregory and Kendra Shaw will both be there. We have to be well acquainted and very comfortable with each other by then.”

  Ella crosses her legs, and her pose shows off the swell
of her calf, the soft curve of her knee.

  Am I really waxing poetic about her damn knee?