Pretend I'm Yours: A Fake Marriage Romance

by Ella Miles

  He raises his eyebrows but doesn’t ask about it, and I don’t say anything else about my grandfather.

  Instead, I walk to Killian until my lips are just a breath from his, until my body is trembling again, just like it was the last time our bodies were this close to each other. I close my eyes and try to calm my body, but it doesn’t work. I open them again and am faced with his intense dark eyes transfixed on mine.

  “Ask me,” I breathe onto his lips.

  I watch him suck in a breath, but he doesn’t say anything.

  “Ask me,” I say again.

  “Princess, will you marry me?” he asks while still standing.

  He doesn’t get down on one knee. He doesn’t pull the ring box that is still tucked in his pocket back out. That means, he’s already decided that he knows the answer.

  I smile because he’s mostly right. “No,” I say.

  His eyes close, immediately blocking me off. His breathing returns. His head drops.

  “Now, answer a question for me.”

  He takes a deep breath before opening his eyes. “Yes, princess?”

  “You have to promise to be completely honest.”

  “I will,” he says.

  My heart is racing much too fast. My shaking has increased instead of slowed. My eyes try to close, but I force them to stay open, to stay on him to read his reaction.

  I let one more beat of my heartbeat before I ask, “Do you love me?”

  A smug grin forms on his face as he takes a couple of seconds longer to answer me than I anticipated. I was wrong. Him deciding to marry me, no matter what, didn’t mean what I thought it did. It’s part of some other master plan that I don’t know about.

  “Maybe,” he says the word as innocently as I have countless times to him before. His smug smile grows larger.

  I can’t help the smile that forms on my own lips. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  I launch my lips onto his. It’s been too long since I tasted him, too long since he wrapped his arms around me, like he is doing now, too long since I felt truly loved by someone since my father died.

  The kiss is more than a kiss. It’s a declaration of love, a promise of what could be. It’s a chance, a chance to be together because of our choices and no one else’s.

  He tries to break away from the kiss when my hands start tugging at the hem of his shirt. “Princess, I love your enthusiasm, but we can’t do that here. There are people watching.”

  I smile larger though as I grab ahold of his hand and pull him down the hallway. An old episode of Friends pops into my head as we make our way through the hospital. It’s the one where Chandler and Monica sneak off to an empty hospital room to do it while Rachel is in labor.

  I pass a room that looks dark. There are no nurses hovering around this room. I peek through the cracked door. It’s empty.

  I tug on Killian’s arm, and he follows me into the room. I shut the door behind us, and my lips attack his again as my hand pulls at the hem of his shirt. It’s then I realize that I don’t need his shirt off. It’s his pants I should be working on.

  I grab at the button. It unbuttons quickly, and then I’m unzipping his pants.

  He smiles against my lips. “God, if I had known what kind of crazy woman you would turn into when I told you that maybe I loved you, I would have told you sooner.”

  “Shut up, and help me get these pants off of you.”

  He laughs but complies, and his pants fall to the floor. He grabs my ass and pushes me against the wall.

  I moan as his lips touch my neck, and his hand finds my breast.

  “This is going to be quick,” he says into my neck.

  I nod. “Yes, quick,” I say. I’m barely able to speak.

  I feel him smiling again as he reaches his hand into the front of my pants, cupping my pussy.

  “Fuck, Killian!” I scream.

  He clamps his hand over my mouth, silencing me. “You can’t scream. You can’t moan. You have to be silent.”

  I nod my head, agreeing.

  He tugs my pants down, and I feel them fall to the floor.

  He rubs his hard cock at my entrance. “God, you’re so wet already, baby.”

  “Please, I need you now,” I whisper.

  He rubs his cock one more time over my clit before he lifts my legs and thrusts inside me in one motion. I bite my lip to keep from screaming out his name. When I look at him, I can tell he is doing the same. He doesn’t hesitate though. He thrusts quickly in and out of me.

  God, I want to moan. I want to scream. I want to have him fuck me like this over and over again.

  But something does escape his lips when his cock is buried deep inside me with his beautiful eyes locked on mine. “I love you, princess.”

  He thrusts again, keeping me from responding the way I want to. He thrusts again, building us closer.

  “I love you, too,” I moan a little louder than I should.

  It’s then that I realize I forgot one little part of that Friends episode. They get caught.

  The door opens, and the lights flash on. I glance up, and we both laugh as a young nurse stares at Killian’s bare ass. We both laugh as she closes the door and runs away in embarrassment.

  Killian starts thrusting again.

  “What are you doing?”

  He shrugs. “Might as well finish.”

  I try to catch my breath as I pull my pants back up. I watch as Killian buttons his pants back up. The nurse has yet to come back, but that’s probably because she has called security by now.

  Killian doesn’t seem to care about security though. He walks to me, putting his hands at my waist. “I love you, Kinsley,” he says before softly kissing me on the lips. “I know you’re not ready to marry me yet. And that’s okay. But can we at least date?”

  I laugh. “Maybe.”

  “Yes,” he says sternly, making me laugh again.

  “Yes,” I say.

  He lifts me and spins me around as he kisses me again.

  But the spin is ended abruptly. I look to the door, thinking that maybe the nurse has come back, but no one’s there.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “Why aren’t you marrying me? I thought that was the only way you could be a part of the company.”

  I smile. “I told Granddad that I didn’t care about being a part of the company. I told him that I didn’t care about the money. I told him I refused to marry such an arrogant ass.”

  He frowns, making me smile larger.

  “I told him I was tired of living my life for other people. I told him that I’d be making all the decisions in my life now.”

  He hugs me again. “That’s great. I’m so proud of you, princess.” He lets me go. “What are you going to do now?”

  “Other than be your girlfriend?”

  He nods.

  “I’m going to be your new VP of Operations.”

  He grabs me and lifts me, spinning me around again.

  We kiss. We laugh. We fall further in love.

  When he puts me down, I know I have made the right decision.

  The door swings open again, startling us. Two men in black suits walk through the door. They are not security guards.

  “Are you Kinsley Felton?” the man says.

  “Yes,” I whisper.

  Killian wraps his arms around me tighter.

  The man walks toward us. He grabs ahold of my arm. “Kinsley Felton, you are under arrest.”

  I expect him to say, for having sex in a spare hospital bed. But that doesn’t make sense.

  He finishes his sentence, “For money laundering and fraud.”

  I stare at him, wide-eyed. I have no idea what he is talking about.

  Killian is still holding on to my waist, refusing to let me go.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to let her go.”

  Killian does, and the man puts the cuffs on me. He begins walking me out of the room. I hear Killian running next to us.

  “Excellent job
, Agent Byrne,” the man who has me in cuffs says.

  I turn to my right to face the direction where the man is talking, but I have no idea who he is talking to. All I see is Killian. Killian Browne.

  His eyes grow heavy, sad, as he looks from me and then to the man who has me in cuffs. “Thank you, Agent Phillips,” he says weakly.

  My mouth drops. Killian isn’t Killian. He’s not a CEO. He’s a cop or with the FBI or CIA or whatever the hell agents work with.

  I force myself to keep my eyes off of Killian or whatever the hell his name is as the man leads me out of the hospital and into the back of a blacked-out Suburban.

  I was wrong. I’m always wrong. Killian doesn’t love me. He doesn’t care about being a CEO. He was just doing his job.

  I try to push him out of my head. I try to focus on whatever I’m facing as the car speeds off, leaving the hospital behind. I can’t help it though. I glance back at him. He’s standing on the street, staring at me with an intense stare on his face.

  I hate him, I think.

  But I don’t. The lingering love is still there. I still feel his warm cum pooling between my thighs. I still feel his love even if it didn’t exist.

  I turn away from him.

  Any normal woman would be afraid. Being arrested is most people’s worst nightmare. It should be mine, except this isn’t the first time I’ve made a mistake. It feels just like the last time. The pain from being betrayed by a man I thought loved me is the same.

  The only difference is, last time I knew what the mistake was. But, this time, I have no clue.

  Want to find out what happens next? Continue reading Kinsley’s story in…

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  Continue reading to get your bonus books, Dirty Beginning, Dirty Obsession, and a sneak peek at what I’m writing next…

  Dirty Beginning

  Arlo Carini saved my life, only to destroy it.

  When I first met him, he was the wealthy, powerful, sexy stranger giving me and a dozen other art history students a tour of his mansion. But he soon became my everything.

  My savior. My lover. My obsession.

  He tried to warn me. Every chance he could, he tried to get me to run far, far away. But it only made my obsession grow stronger. Until I made the worst mistake I could. And ended up trapped forever.

  WARNING: Dirty Obsession is the first full-length novel in a DARK and DIRTY romance series. It includes the prequel novella Dirty Beginning and, for a limited time, includes a bonus book.

  Series Order:

  Dirty Obsession--Includes Dirty Beginning

  Dirty Addiction--Now Available!

  Dirty Revenge--Coming June

  1

  Nina

  I can’t go after him.

  Not because I’m in Italy for only one month, so there is no way anything but a fling could happen between us.

  I can’t kiss him.

  Not because his lips aren’t kissable. I writhe and ache, imagining what his lips would feel like pressed up against my lips as our tongues tangled together in a passionate kiss.

  I can’t think about him.

  Not because I should be studying for my exams. I could pass those whether or not I was thinking about ripping his shirt off and running my fingers across every hard inch of him.

  I sure as hell can’t sleep with him.

  Not because I don’t want to.

  Not because he wouldn’t be the most life-altering sex I’d ever had.

  Not because he’s out of my league.

  Not because he doesn’t want me.

  I can’t have Arlo Carini because he’s dangerous. And I’m obsessed.

  I can’t keep my eyes off him as Arlo gives me and thirty other grad students a tour of his historic mansion. I can’t keep my heart from racing. Or my mind from thinking dirty thoughts of all the ways and places we could have sex in this mansion.

  On the couch in the sitting room, on the grand staircase, against the stone wall in the foyer.

  I can’t stop the obsession once it starts. And, right now, I’m full-on obsessed as he guides us through more and more rooms, the whole time ignoring everyone else and staring directly at me. It’s clear that he might be a little obsessed or at least curious about me, which only makes me crazier.

  I can’t do this. I’m not really obsessed. Just infatuated. He’s just a hot guy that I want to fuck. The same thought that every other woman here is thinking.

  Arlo leads us outside and I try to do my best to focus on other things. That’s what my years of therapy has taught me; distraction is key. I focus on the blooming flowers that are so large that they would hold my interest if this were any other time. Just not when there is one of the hottest warm-blooded males I’ve ever seen standing only a few feet away from me.

  I try listening to the birds. I try focusing on the beautiful statues and fountains. I try ogling the men in my class but they all look like boys compared to Arlo.

  Nothing works.

  I just have to get through this and then I’ll find a nice Italian man to distract me tonight. I just haven’t had sex in a while. That’s it.

  The class starts walking again. So I do too. But when I take a step I feel nothing beneath my foot.

  Shit.

  I don’t have time to react. I feel my body falling and then I feel the water soaking me as I fall into the pool. I let my body sink to the bottom because drowning sounds better than reappearing on the surface and facing my embarrassment.

  I open my eyes under the water as a body jumps into the pool. My eyes widen and my heart sinks as Arlo swims toward me. He grabs hold of my waist and pushes me toward the surface.

  We both break through the surface sucking in air like we’d been underwater for minutes instead of just seconds. He jumped in to save me. He thought I was drowning, not just dying from embarrassment. And he saved me.

  I begin to swim toward the stairs, but Arlo doesn’t let me go. He scoops me into his arms, as he swims, and then carries me out of the pool.

  The class applauds instead of laughing, like Arlo is a hero or something.

  He ignores them and carries me as he walks into what looks like a pool house a few yards away from where the class is gathered.

  He sits me down gently in a chair and grabs a towel, draping it over my shoulders.

  “You okay?” he asks. His voice is sweet and caring, such a stark difference from the hard and cold exterior he has been all afternoon.

  “You saved me.”

  He smiles for the first time today. “I wouldn’t say that. Just saved you from embarrassment.”

  I shake my head. “No, you saved me. I’m forever in your debt. How can I repay you?”

  With a date, please.

  His hard expression returns. He removes his gray jacket, tie, vest, and shirt leaving it on the floor while I ogle every hard muscle on his body. He realizes his mistake and takes a towel from the rack. He begins drying his hair as he walks back out without a word.

  I close my eyes as I sit alone in the pool house, trying to push the familiar feelings down. I was strong enough before to resist. Before he was just a hot stranger, that with enough distraction, I could have left alone. Now he’s the sexy stranger that saved my life. That’s too much temptation for me to resist.

  I can’t obsess about him though. The last time I was obsessed with a guy, I ended up with months of therapy and a restraining order. I got more therapy after I chased and almost ran a guy off the road. I self-medicated with alcohol after I flunked a semester while dating another guy. I started doing drugs after I ruined a married man’s life.

  I know what men do to me. They make me obsessed. They make me insane. Addicted. I don’t have a life when I’m with a man.

  I’ve been through it time and time again. More than a dozen times with a dozen different men. I know the only cure is to stay away from men. I’m like an alcoholic who can’t go into a bar. I can’t go anywhere near hot, attractive, powerful men.

  But Arlo
Carini is different. He’s hot, sure. He’s tall with unruly, dark hair and muscles that I can’t wait to have on top of me, overpowering me and controlling me. I didn’t have to wait for him to undress to see his muscles. I can see every single one. The gray three-piece suit did nothing to contain them.

  He’s sexy as hell. But I’ve gone after sexy men before.

  And there is more to him than a hot body.

  He’s powerful. I know from the way he’s demanded everyone’s attention from the second we entered the mansion. But so do hundreds of other men who run companies, and I’ve vied for their attention, too.

  He’s filthy rich. I know that from the enormous mansion I’m currently standing in, which is owned by the Carini family. But I have plenty of money myself, and I’ve gone after men with money before.

  What makes me want Arlo more than any man I’ve wanted in the last three months of sobriety is the intensity with which he stares at me and no one else in the room, both before and after he saved me. It’s the way he never grins or lets any emotion through. It’s the mystery that surrounds him and the whole Carini family. The town hasn’t stopped talking about his family since I arrived.

  I want to know everything about him.

  What does he do?

  Who has he slept with?

  What would it feel like to kiss him?

  How much dick is he hiding beneath those tight slacks?

  Does he know how to handle a woman in bed?

  Is he a playboy, or is he looking for a wife?

  Does he have freckles, moles, birthmarks?

  Does he prefer coffee or tea?

  Night owl or early riser?

  I want to know everything.

  My mind goes crazy, already trying to fill in the answers. I’m sure I have guessed right on most. I’ve studied enough people in the past to know. But I don’t like guessing.

  I like obsessing. I like the chase. The hunt. I like knowing everything and making a man mine. I like control. I like being wrapped up in a man who I would rather die for than give up. Something I’ve almost done three times now while chasing a man.