Fake Bride: A Fake Marriage Billionaire Romance (Forbidden First Times Book 2)

by Summers, Sofia T

  Oh my God. I looked like a wreck. My hair was a mess, and my makeup was all smeared, and I had hickeys… everywhere. The first two were solved with a shower but the hickeys? I’d have to use a crap ton of makeup.

  I hopped in the shower, letting the warm water take care of my hangover and my aches. Ugh, it felt so good. I figured I could get in and out before Laird woke up and then let him have a turn and start getting ready, but I had only just finished washing off the makeup when he stepped in to join me.

  “Morning,” he murmured, smiling at me. I almost wished that he was less of a good person. That he was annoying, that he was one of those people who flaunted his wealth and hoarded it instead of using it to help other people. If he was arrogant, if he was an asshole, I could’ve gone through with this whole thing happily. I could handle assholes. I’d handled Pete, after all. I could take his money and walk away and I wouldn’t be leaving my battered heart on the ground.

  But if he’d been a horrible person like that, I never would’ve said yes to this in the first place.

  “Good morning,” I replied, smiling back at him helplessly. I felt so safe with him, and when he pulled me into his arms for a good morning kiss, I just wanted it to never end.

  He couldn’t be doing stuff like this if he was just going to dump me at the end, would he?

  But I had told him we should just focus on the moment and have fun. That was what he was doing, nothing more, nothing less. Laird was a sweet and thoughtful person who would never want to hurt me on purpose. I just had to… find a way to survive this. Even though right now I kind of wanted to drown myself in the shower.

  We traded a few lazy kisses as we washed up, and then I tugged him out and threw a towel at him. “Food. Feed me. I’m hungry.”

  “Always with you and the food,” Laird noted, grinning as he quickly dried himself off.

  “You said there was going to be a breakfast buffet so you can’t blame a girl.”

  Laird chuckled. “I’ve been thrown over for bacon and eggs. I should’ve known.” He adopted a pout. “Did you only agree to this because I kept buying you pizza?”

  “Maybe,” I teased him, drying myself off and grabbing some clothes.

  “Cruelly taken advantage of for food,” Laird mourned, shaking his head. “Oh, what a cruel and callous way to be treated.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re melodramatic?” I asked, tossing him a shirt to put on.

  “Maybe once or twice,” Laird admitted, winking at me as he put his clothes on.

  When we got downstairs, Liam, Alana, and Laird’s mother were already down there and halfway through their food. I loaded up my plate and tried not to feel nervous as I sat down. Liam and Alana certainly seemed to like me and I was pretty sure I’d made a good impression on Laird’s mother last night, but I wasn’t sure, and I was scared of being wrong or undoing any points in my favor that I’d earned.

  “We were wondering when you two would get up,” Liam said. “The blushing bride and groom already left.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Laird responded. “They’ve got to catch their flight.”

  “Where are they going?” I asked.

  “Italy.” Laird grabbed the salt and pepper. “They weren’t going to go on a honeymoon and were going to have a smaller wedding so that they could use the money instead to buy a house. So Liam and I said we’d take care of the wedding and the honeymoon, and they could have as big of a party as they wanted and go wherever they liked.”

  I nearly dropped my fork. “You never mentioned you were paying for this,” I said. I didn’t care if he was using his money this way. It was Laird’s money, he could do whatever he wanted with it. But it was just… “That’s so generous, Laird. I had no idea. I’m sure they appreciated it.”

  Damn it, he kept finding ways—even without trying—to make me fall further in love with him. Who just did that? Who said, hey I have the money so let me pay for your gorgeous wedding in a castle and your honeymoon to Italy? Not enough people, that was what. Most rich people that I heard about didn’t use their money for that. They spent it all on lavish lives for themselves and then hoarded it otherwise.

  But Laird… Laird just gave and didn’t even think about it. I wasn’t even sure that he realized what a big deal it was.

  Laird smiled at me, blushing a little. “Well. Y’know. They’re family, it was the least I could do. I’m lucky to have that money so why not give it to people who need it? I’m not using it for anything.”

  I reached across and squeezed his hand, then leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. I really didn’t have words. I just… I was feeling so much, for him, and it was overwhelming.

  “Aww,” his mother said, and when I looked, she was smiling at us. “You two really fit each other. I’m glad for it. Even if we weren’t invited to the wedding.” She arched an eyebrow at her son.

  “I wasn’t invited to my own wedding when you announced it to the family,” Laird replied mildly.

  “Can you two please bury the hatchet?” I asked, surprising myself. “I know that you feel hurt, ma’am…”

  “Oh, please, none of that. Call me Sharon.”

  “Sharon,” I corrected, feeling myself blush. “I know that you feel hurt. Perhaps a bit betrayed. That’s exactly how Laird felt. Like he wasn’t in control of his own life, like he couldn’t trust you, like he had been betrayed. We’ve had a lot of talks about it.” Of course we did, seeing as this was the reason for our charade. “So now you understand how he feels, and you can apologize for being inconsiderate and putting him in such an awkward position.

  “And you.” I turned to Laird. “You can apologize to your mother for not telling her you were married and for not inviting her to your wedding, because you know that’s something that’s important to her and while you are justified in showing her what it’s like to be treated that way there’s no reason for you to continue to sour your relationship. You’ve made your point, now let’s move on and be a proper family again.”

  Laird was gaping at me. Liam looked absolutely delighted by this entire thing. Alana was delicately sipping her tea and deliberately staring out into the distance over the castle garden, like there was nothing more fascinating in the world than the rose bushes.

  Sharon chuckled. “The more I get to know you, Trudie, the more I realize why my boy fell in love with you. You’re a good one.” She looked over at her son. “Laird. I am sorry. You’re right, it was wrong of me, and… I know that part of it was just my… wanting to get the family off my back and all, but part of it was wanting to put pressure on you to get married, and that was wrong of me. You picked the person you wanted to pick regardless of the rest of us and that’s how it is with love. So I am sorry.”

  Laird looked back at his mother, as if in staring at me he’d forgotten she was there. “I’m sorry too. Well… not entirely sorry, in the sense that I’m glad I was able to show you what it felt like. But I am sorry that I’ve made you feel left out of my life. That wasn’t my intention. You’re my mother and I love you and I want you to be included in my life.” He paused. “Also hold on one moment, I’ll get back to apologizing in a second.”

  Laird turned, and leaned in, and before I realized what he intended, he kissed me. It was slow and deep, and as I closed my eyes, I pretended that I could feel the love in it, the real, genuine passion. I pretended for just a moment that he loved me back.

  He pulled away, leaving me stunned and staring at him, my lips still parted. “I just had to,” he confessed, blushing.

  I could feel my face heating up and I ducked my head down, wishing I could sink into the floor. He appreciated what I had said, that much was clear, and had probably found it attractive as well judging by the kiss. Well, if nothing else, I supposed that he was sexually attracted to me and that was all well and good. I wasn’t a complete idiot, sitting here thinking oh he doesn’t really want to kiss me. Obviously he did. But did he have the emotions to go with it? I doubted it.

 
; Laird was clearly the kind of person who was generous and liked to help people while they were down. He was thoughtful and created a safe place for me. That didn’t mean that he had any actual romantic feelings for me. I had to keep reminding myself of that, since trying to keep things ethical between us as technical boss and assistant was… clearly not working.

  “Awww,” Liam said, which prompted Laird to say, “Oh fuck off, like you and Alana weren’t as bad when you were first married.”

  This led to the two brothers bickering, while their mother, instead of trying to control or stop them, just laughed fondly. I looked up at her, and she winked at me, a gesture that was so like Laird that I almost did a double-take.

  Alana joined in the conversation, obviously determined to ignore the brothers being, well, brothers, and I both loved and hated the warmth that settled into my chest. Because I liked these people. I really liked them. They were a wonderful family, the kind that I had yearned for. And while that made it easier to play this part right now, easier to get along with everyone, I knew it was going to make it harder to say goodbye. And the guilt was crushing me from the inside out. I wanted to say, hey you learned your lesson so here’s the truth… I didn’t want them to have to keep laboring under a lie.

  It was almost over, I kept telling myself. We were heading back to Liam’s place to stay for a couple of days while Liam and Alana went off on a vacation somewhere. It was very generous of him to let us stay there so that I could see more of Laird’s home city. But the best part was that it meant after today, I didn’t have to pretend for Laird’s family anymore. We could go home, and Laird would wait a bit and then announce his divorce. No need to pretend in the meantime.

  I kept telling myself, as I sat there basking in the warmth and attention from Laird’s family, that it was a good thing.

  24

  Laird

  Trudie was a bit quiet at breakfast, but she soon warmed up after we went on a nice walk around the area, getting a proper tour of the castle and the grounds, seeing the local town. Once we got back to Dublin and I said goodbye to my family, she relaxed even more.

  I wasn’t all that surprised when I woke up in bed alone the next morning. We had both gone straight to bed, tired after the long day and the long day before that (and all the athletic sex from before that), but Trudie had looked contemplative.

  Sure enough, I found her sitting out on Liam’s back porch, sipping tea and staring out over the other flats and houses, observing the sunrise.

  “How’re you feeling?” I asked softly, trying to preserve the quiet, peaceful atmosphere.

  “Good,” Trudie answered. She didn’t protest when I sat down next to her. Maybe this was all just fun for her, a job mixed in with a friends with benefits situation, but I was going to take advantage of it while I could and be close with her.

  “I know they can be a lot,” I told her, trying to soothe her. “But you did a great job. They all loved you.”

  “No, they were great,” Trudie promised me. “Thank you. I had a really lovely time.”

  “Aside from the lying,” I guessed.

  She nodded. “Aside from that, yeah. But that was the whole plan.” She gave me an impish smile. “I think that we pulled it off rather well.”

  “They really believed us,” I agreed.

  Trudie blushed. “No, I mean that… they were all startled and shocked, even the ones who had been told the original lie by your mom. It was really funny, actually. And your parents learned their lesson. So everyone wins.”

  “Yup,” I agreed, swallowing down the trace of bitterness that I felt so it wouldn’t show in my throat. “Everyone wins.” I didn’t get the girl that I wanted, but that was okay. Or, I’d make it be okay. I’d find a way to move on.

  “What’s the plan for today?” Trudie asked, changing the subject.

  “Well.” I eyed her in her soft pink pajamas, letting myself give into the lust that never fully went away when I was around her. “Originally I was going to suggest we go around town and I show you the neighborhood where I grew up, some of the historical sites, the museums…”

  “Being my tour guide?” she teased.

  “Yup. Just like that. But now I’m thinking maybe we should just stay in bed all day. We do have the place all to ourselves.”

  Trudie laughed. “Well, Liam and Alana aren’t coming back, so we have all night to stay in bed and be as loud as we want. I want you to be my tour guide again.”

  Well, she was lucky she was adorable when she said stuff like that. “Sounds like a plan.”

  I wanted to kiss her, but I was already blurring the lines so much for myself, and I didn’t want her to get too uncomfortable. We were friends now, or so I liked to think, although I’d never asked her because it’s kind of immature to ask someone, “hey, we’re friends, right?” But I was fairly sure that we were friends, and on top of that we were sleeping together, but not together romantically. And softly kissing someone while you sat and watched the sun rise with them wasn’t something you did with someone you were only friends with, or just hooking up with.

  Liam would’ve laughed his head off if I told him about this. So would Jack. Of course I, the man who was so bad at talking to women and had never been in a serious relationship because of it—the man who never knew when a woman had a crush on him or was flirting with him—of course I alone would stumble into this total quagmire of a situation. What were we to each other? I wasn’t sure. And I was terrified to ask, in case I turned out to be the only one who was feeling anything deep.

  Instead of kissing her, I just sat there with her, and we watched the world wake up. I got some coffee—not as good as mine but it would make do—and we set out.

  I had grown up in Dublin, and I loved it here, knew all the fun historical places and the stories behind them. I liked to make each place I lived really my own, and I’d done that in Chicago, but I’d learned how to do it here first. Trudie was just like she had been back when I’d first taken her around the city on our first not-dates, wide-eyed and eager to learn and see everything.

  Most of what I showed her was more in the area of museums, and history, but I would definitely take her to a pub for lunch. I wanted her to get the authentic experience. Pubs in Ireland weren’t anything like bars in America. You went to a bar in the United States in order to get properly plastered. You went there to find someone to sleep with. We had bars in Ireland, but then we had pubs, and pubs were a lot more like your neighborhood living room. The same people came every time and you would get together to watch sports, do quiz nights, and just sit after work and have a laugh. If you wanted to pick someone up you had to go to the kind of bar that would have that sort of crowd, otherwise you’d find yourself sitting in a pub with a bunch of people who didn’t want to talk to you, and were busy in a fierce competition over who had more knowledge of Harry Potter.

  “And while you’re here,” I told her, “you’re going to try a Guinness.”

  “If you say so,” Trudie said, laughing.

  The look on her face when she tried it was priceless. “Not a fan?” I asked, as I watched her face scrunch up like she’d swallowed an entire lemon.

  “Not a fan,” she admitted, sticking her tongue out and shaking her head for a second like a dog trying to shake the water off its fur. She took a big gulp of water and I took her Guinness, downing it.

  “I’ll get you a proper whisky instead,” I told her.

  Trudie grinned. “Now that’s more my style.”

  I really did want to drag her back home to Liam’s and get her into bed, enjoy her while I still could, but I found myself putting that off as we walked around the city together. Trudie was just so in love with the place, and I wished that I could show it to her in Christmas time when it was covered in snow, or in autumn with all the beautiful colors, or high summer, when it was warm and everything was green, in bloom, and you realized why this place was called ‘the Emerald Isle’.

  Shame, really, that I wouldn’t g
et to do that. The more time I spent with her… well, you’d think it would be enough to get my fill of her, but instead it just made me want to spend even more time with her. It made me think of more things that I wanted to do with her, more activities that I wanted to experience with her.

  Was this what being in love was like? Nobody warned me it was going to be so bloody painful.

  When we finally got back to the flat, it was dark out. “It’s beautiful here at night,” Trudie noted.

  “You should see it during the winter holidays,” I told her. “When everything’s lit up even more with Christmas lights. Or during St. Paddy’s Day when everyone’s losing their minds.”

  The day after St. Patrick’s Day was a bank holiday, which was a good thing since mostly everyone was hungover from the night before. Except the strict Catholic people who wanted the day to be a serious religious holiday and got to feel smug since they were the only ones not clutching at their heads over a toilet bowl in the morning.

  “I’d love to see it,” Trudie said, and her voice was so soft and earnest, I almost blurted out that I’d take her here all the time if she’d let me.

  With some effort, I managed to swallow the damning words down.

  Instead, the moment we got inside the flat, I kissed her.

  Trudie made a surprised noise against my mouth, and I wondered if perhaps my kiss was too tender, too full of emotion, and I was giving myself away. But then Trudie pushed up into my mouth, kissing me back, and I figured that my emotions had, thankfully, gone unnoticed.

  I pulled her into me, determined to take my time with this, after the last few frantic times we had done this. Not that I minded our frantic times, those were hot as fuck, but I liked taking my time with her too. I liked worshipping her.

  We moved upstairs slowly, pressing each other up against the walls, our hands roaming like it was our first time all over again and we were discovering the curves of each other. I peeled Trudie’s clothes off slowly and she did the same with me, the two of us laughing into each other’s mouths when we fumbled with the buttons and zippers.