Fake Zoned: A Fake Date Anthology

by Malone, M.

  Afterward, Olivia stretched out on the couch. He sat next to her and pulled her slender feet onto his lap. It seemed like such a natural thing to have her here while the day wound down, her musical laugh accompanying his favorite late night sitcom. She fit so fluidly into his life, as if she’d always been there.

  The more he had of her, the more he wanted. He was coming to realize it would probably always be that way. She was a complicated, loving, exasperating woman and no matter how long he knew her, he’d never have time to undercover the many facets of who she was. Olivia Reyes was a puzzle he’d never solve. One he never wanted to solve. He enjoyed being surprised by her everyday.

  “Stay.”

  She glanced over at him and raised her eyebrows in confusion.

  He cleared his throat. “Will you stay with me tonight?”

  She didn’t ask why now or show any outward sign that she recognized this was a huge step for him. He braced himself for her to make a big deal out of it or for her to suddenly want to talk about things. But Olivia just leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Okay.”

  And that was when he knew he was in serious trouble.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Olivia woke feeling like there was something she was forgetting. Then she opened her eyes and realized why.

  She wasn’t at home.

  She was at King’s place.

  It shouldn’t feel so validating that he’d wanted her to sleep over.

  Seeing someone at night was a bigger deal than most people gave it credit for. When you were tired, you were at your most vulnerable. The makeup came off, the comfy clothes went on and your guard went down. You could tell a lot about a person by the way they shared their bed.

  King was a cuddler.

  Olivia smiled into her pillow. She didn’t think he was awake yet because his arm was still securely wrapped around her waist and she could feel the even rhythm of his chest rising and falling at her back. This was perfect, to wake warm and safe all wrapped up like she was his most precious treasure.

  Even if it wasn’t true, she was going to wallow in the moment for just a little longer. Until reality woke them both up.

  Unfortunately, her plans to wallow were trumped by her intense need for the bathroom. Carefully extricating herself from his arms, she tiptoed to the door on the other side of the room. After taking care of business, she washed her hands, brushed her teeth and splashed her face with water. She was all for reality but no one needed to see her with her zombie face on.

  When she opened the door, King was sitting up in bed.

  “Hey, I hope I didn’t wake you.”

  The morning light illuminated the room and somehow, King looked even better first thing in the morning. The sheet had slipped low on his waist putting his spectacular chest on display. With his lean muscles, arrogant smirk and just-fucked dark hair going in every direction, he looked like a billboard advertising bad decisions.

  Olivia regretted nothing.

  She climbed back in bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. “I was planning on getting back in bed and being very lazy this morning.”

  It occurred to her then that even though he’d invited her to sleep over, he might have other plans for today. She didn’t want to ever be that girl, the one who couldn’t take a hint and overstayed her welcome.

  She sat up and ran a hand through her hair. “But now that I’m awake, I should probably get going. There’s a million things I need to do today.”

  She could feel his eyes on her as she climbed out of bed and leaned down to grab the dress she’d worn the night before. It was all smashed and wrinkled but it would have to do. She didn’t even care who saw her.

  It was doubtful she was the first girl to do the walk of shame out of this building.

  King leaned over and snatched the dress out of her hands.

  “What are you doing?”

  He threw it over his shoulder and then grabbed her around the waist, twisting them so they fell together on top of the covers.

  “I’m making sure you don’t have anything to wear. Then you have to stay with me.”

  “You’re keeping me prisoner, now?”

  He kissed her all over her face until her stomach hurt from laughing. She would have never guessed he was so playful in the morning.

  “I would love to keep you prisoner but I’m hungry. Maybe we can play pirate after we go out for breakfast.”

  Olivia frowned. She hadn’t expected to go out for breakfast. They’d just ordered out last night. It was a small thing but if they were going to give it a shot, she was going to have to accept that he was insanely wealthy.

  It made her uncomfortable but it wasn’t going to change. He was used to pressing a button and having exactly what he wanted delivered. He was used to paying people to do things for him.

  He’d toned down his arrogance a lot since they’d been together but it would likely always be a part of him. She didn’t believe in changing a man, you either loved him as he already was or not at all.

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a good influence on him.

  “Why don’t I cook us breakfast? It’s faster which means we can come back to bed faster.” She squealed when he leaned down to blow kisses on her belly.

  “That sounds amazing. I can’t cook otherwise I’d help. But it’s probably best for everyone’s safety if I stay out of the kitchen.”

  She walked over to the other side of the bed and retrieved her dress. After yanking it over her head, she winked at him.

  “Uh huh. That sounds like a really convenient excuse to get out of doing any work. But I’ll let you slide this time.”

  “Just–” King stopped when his phone rang.

  They both looked around trying to identify where it was coming from. Olivia eventually found it in the closet in the pocket of his suit jacket but the call had already gone to voicemail.

  “Thank you, angel. It’s probably just my parents or something.”

  She kissed him on the forehead. “You handle that and then come out to the kitchen when you’re ready. I plan on eating fast.”

  His laugh followed her as she left the room.

  * * *

  When King saw he had fifteen missed calls, his brain immediately went into crisis mode. Not that many people had his personal cell phone number and none of them were stupid enough to blow up his phone without good cause.

  His worry lessened only slightly when he saw all of the calls were from James. He sighed. The deal they’d been working on must have hit a snag. Over the past few weeks he’d delegated more and more work to James and his friend had covered for him. However, he couldn’t continue to live in his Olivia-bubble forever.

  Especially if something had gone wrong with the AliCorp deal.

  “James. What’s up?”

  “I need you to promise you won’t lose it.”

  King wasn’t in the mood for games. James had a tendency to make every situation into a fire. He usually just let him talk and get it out of his system but he usually didn’t have a beautiful woman in his kitchen cooking him breakfast. If it was a competition between his friend’s weekly bitch session and eating breakfast with Olivia, there was no contest.

  “Just tell me what the hell is going on?”

  James groaned. “It’s about Georgie.”

  “What do you mean? Is she okay? Where is she?”

  King could hear the growl in his own voice. Damn it, he’d been so self-involved lately that he hadn’t pushed his sister to tell him what was wrong. If something had happened to her because he was so wrapped up in Olivia he would never forgive himself.

  “She’s fine and she’s at home, now.”

  There was a curious emphasis on the last word that caught King’s attention. “What do you mean now? Where was she before?”

  James sighed. “I found her wandering around Club VIP. I almost didn’t recognize her at first. She was dressed… differently.”

  King couldn’t h
ear anything after that, the blood rushing to his head so fast he had an instant headache.

  His sister had been at Club VIP?

  Not only did that introduce mental images that made him want to bleach his brain but it also made him wonder how the hell she’d known about the club? Was it possible that Georgie had followed him there? It was too big of a coincidence to be believed.

  He bent over and put his head between his knees. Had his sister paid for a membership to Club VIP also? She’d come into her trust fund once she hit twenty-one so she could definitely afford it. Or was this done at her fiance’s request?

  King ground his teeth.

  Was the bastard forcing his sister to accompany him while he looked at strippers? He knew it was contradictory since he and James frequented the club but he’d never claimed to be a good guy. He sure as hell didn’t want his sister with a guy like him. She deserved way better than that.

  “I’m going to kill Alex,” he snapped into the phone. “Find that fucker and let me know where he is.”

  “Um, King? Alex wasn’t with her. Not that I saw anyway. It was just Georgie. Wandering around the Fantasy Room wearing this low-cut–”

  “James!”

  “Sorry. I didn’t… Whatever, the point is she was there alone. I don’t think Alex knows anything about this because she asked me not to tell anyone. She definitely didn’t want me to tell you.”

  “Of course she didn’t want you to tell me because she knows she shouldn’t have been there! Look, I’ll take care of everything. I’ll talk to Georgie and find out what the hell is going on. She probably saw us going there or heard something about it and didn’t know what kind of place it was.”

  “Right. But I just have one question,” James interjected, catching King right before he would have hung up.

  In his mind, now that he understood the problem, he was ready to tackle the solution. Number one on his list, procure a chastity belt to keep his little sister safe from the perverts of the world.

  “What’s that?”

  “When I first found her, she kept saying it was okay because Olivia knew she was there. She was three sheets to the wind so I could only understand half of what she was saying. But I’m still not sure what that means. Who the hell is Olivia?”

  King’s mouth fell open. “She said Olivia told her about the club?”

  “Yeah, I guess. That’s what it sounded like. Who is that anyway?”

  “Fuck!”

  King almost threw the phone. All this time he’d assumed Olivia was so different, that she wasn’t the type to scheme or plot. Now he found out the entire time she’d been cozying up to his sister and worse, pulling her into things Georgie was in no way equipped to handle.

  If she thought being BFFs with his sister was the way to get him to settle down then she’d miscalculated.

  “Do you remember that night at Club VIP? When I said I’d found my bride?”

  “Wait, you actually went through with that?”

  James didn’t say anything but King could just imagine what he was thinking. That King had been led around by the nose by a woman who was probably manipulating him and his sister.

  The thought sent his blood pressure through the roof.

  “So she’s the reason you’ve been so distracted lately?” James didn’t bother to conceal his annoyance.

  “Yes, James. This is what we need to worry about right now, that I’ve been fucking a stripper hoping to piss off my parents.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice. “Look, I’ll take care of this. This is my problem. But there’s no way I’m going to have Georgie’s reputation ruined because someone sees her at some trashy club.”

  “Got it. But King don’t expect Georgie to be happy to see you. She was pretty pissed when I pulled her out of there last night.”

  “I bet she was.”

  King looked up and his fingers clenched around the phone. Olivia stood in the doorway, a spatula in her hand and devastation written across her face.

  “James, I have to go.”

  He hung up but didn’t move otherwise. There was no reason to ask how much she’d heard because her face told the whole story. Regret wrapped him up like a hand around his throat but just as quickly he pushed the sensation away. She was the one who’d lied and schemed behind his back.

  He looked away. Olivia’s soft sniffle carried across the room to where he sat as if he was right next to her.

  “Your eggs are ready.” She dropped the spatula that she held and left the room.

  King didn’t move when she walked away. He held still as the front door slammed. He didn’t even move when his phone rang again about ten minutes later.

  He stayed in that position for a long time, trying in vain to feel anything at all.

  Chapter Fourteen

  For the next few days, Olivia went about her regular routine as if nothing had changed. She went to work, she went to the gym and she came home and went to bed.

  Even when a member complained because she’d taken down the wrong theme for their event, Olivia couldn’t muster the energy to care. Her emotions had just shut down completely.

  She was scared to care about anything because then her heart would have to accept that she was in love with an asshole.

  As she walked into the elevator at Club VIP, she took a deep breath. What the hell was she supposed to do now? It hurt so much to find out that King was using her as… what? A chance to see if Latina girls were as spicy as he’d heard? Slumming it with a girl he saw as no better than “the help”?

  How could she have been so utterly wrong about him?

  Then there was the matter of Bennett. He’d left her a message confirming that he’d see her that weekend for the Mentor Science award ceremony. In the midst of everything that had happened, she’d totally forgotten about it.

  That was probably a blessing in disguise. She’d been so stupidly in love with King that she would have canceled her date with Bennett if she’d remembered. Even though she would never be the kind of woman who ditched her friends just because she had a boyfriend, she wouldn’t have felt right going to the dinner with Bennett if she was seriously involved with someone.

  Now it didn’t matter.

  She should be happy. Now that King had shown his true colors, she could focus on her date with Bennett, the perfect guy.

  But how could she when she couldn’t stop thinking about Mr. Totally Wrong for Her?

  Olivia stopped in front of the doors leading to the street. What was the point of even going home right now? She might as well hang out a little longer, maybe have a drink. She doubled back and used her access key to take the elevator to the third floor of the club. Regina nodded from behind the bar as she walked up. Even though she was one of their long-time managers, she regularly filled in to give her bartenders a break.

  Olivia secretly thought she liked the attention being behind the bar brought her. The redhead had to know she was a knockout.

  “Hey, Red. Can I have a gin and tonic?”

  Regina raised her eyebrows. “Hitting it hard tonight, huh?”

  She laughed. The bartender was used to making her girly drinks or giving her the virgin type of cocktail. But tonight, Olivia needed something a little stronger. She didn’t mind grabbing a cab to get home.

  “It’s been that kind of week.”

  She watched as Regina mixed the drink and pushed it across the bar toward her.

  “Let me get whatever she’s having,” a voice declared over her shoulder.

  Olivia turned and then smiled genuinely at her partner, Serena. The pretty brunette was always so bubbly. Even though she was an accountant, she’d had the idea to bring a Strippers for Beginners series of classes to the club that was really fun.

  “It’s good to see you out! You’ve been scarce lately.” Serena gave her a quick, one-armed hug.

  “Yeah, I’ve been busy.”

  “What?”

  She had to repeat herself twice before Serena heard her over the music pulsing
through the speakers.

  “Your friend Georgie came to observe one of the cardio striptease classes. She’s a sweetie.”

  Just like that Olivia was slammed back into Mr. Totally Wrong for Her territory. She’d just wanted to get a drink and forget about him but it seemed like no matter where she went, he found a way to follow her. Her apartment, her work, her bed, her dreams. Nowhere was safe. Worse, in the past few weeks she’d come to rely on his steady presence. For the first time in years, she’d felt like she had someone to lean on. It hurt almost more than her pride to lose that.

  “Oh, Serena everything is so messed up. I fell for a member and I really thought we had something. I haven’t had a boyfriend in so long but there was something so different about King. Even though I know he doesn’t respect me at all, I still can’t stop thinking about him. What do I do?”

  Serena leaned closer and yelled over the music. “What did you say?”

  She sighed. Was this really what she’d been reduced to? Serena was really nice and would have no problem giving her a shoulder to cry on if she needed one but she didn’t know her that well. Had she really been reduced to dumping her problems on whoever happened to be sitting close by? This wasn’t the place to have a deep conversation anyway. People didn’t come to The Martini Room for deep thoughts. They came to forget their troubles.

  Olivia plastered on a fake smile and raised her drink in Serena’s direction. “Nothing worth repeating.”

  Serena laughed at something Regina said and Olivia wished this was a day that Elle was scheduled to visit the club. Her friend was a silent partner for a reason and due to her father’s political career no one else at the club even knew her by her real name. They all knew her as Tess.

  Whatever name she chose to go under, Olivia could have used a friend just then. Sure, she could always call her but this wasn’t the kind of thing she wanted to explain over the phone.