The Boyfriend Project

by Farrah Rochon

  “I know how selfish that sounds. It was selfish. Fuck, my bringing you here is selfish. Enlisting your friends to help? Making you think something had happened to Taylor?” Daniel dropped his head back and blew out a deep breath. “Look, you don’t owe me anything. Not your understanding or forgiveness. Nothing. But I had to make sure you understood that what I felt for you wasn’t a lie. It was real. It remains real.”

  Time stood still as he waited for her response, the air redolent with significance, the weight of the moment like a living thing.

  Samiah stood and clasped her hands in front of her. After several more excruciating minutes, she said, “This past week has given me time to work things out in my head. And I’ve come to understand why you did what you did.”

  His brow crinkled. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean exactly what I just said. I understand why you were compelled to steal my access card. You had several choices you could have made. For one, you could have trusted me enough to tell me what you were really up to.”

  He started to speak, but she stopped him, holding up her hand.

  “But I also understand that you had another, much harder choice to make: You could use my card to access that database or allow a group of shitty criminals to get away with committing their shitty crimes. Honestly, when I think about it, it’s actually not a hard call to make. You did what had to be done.”

  “But not at your expense,” he said. “You could have lost your job.” Daniel’s heart dropped. “Wait, did you lose your job? Did they fire you over this?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Barrington understood as well. He revoked my access to the secured databases, but in the most ironic twist in all of this, that turned out to be a godsend. I’ve gotten more work done on my app this week than I ever would have if I was still being pulled in eight hundred directions at work. I even took the day off to finish up the data integration testing.” She shoved her hands in her back pockets and hunched her shoulders in a shrug that seemed much too casual for such a momentous conversation. “It’s taken me a few days to arrive here, but after looking at the situation from your perspective, I’ve come to the conclusion that you truly had no other choice. You did what you had to do. I’m not going to hold that against you.”

  “Samiah…” There was no way it would be this easy. She could not be this amazing? There had to be a catch.

  “You know,” she continued, the corner of her mouth tilting up in a brief smile. “Even if it had cost me my job, I think I would have eventually gotten over it. I don’t mind being collateral damage if it means some really bad people get caught.”

  “But it wasn’t my place to put you in the position of sacrificing a job that means so much to you.”

  She shook her head again. “My job at Trendsetters doesn’t make me. I can always find a new one.” She shrugged again. “Or, I can work full-time on Just Friends. I’ve put myself in a position where I’m not dependent on any single job.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side.

  “You have cleared up the one question that bothered me the most this week, so thanks for that.”

  “What question?”

  “I was unsure if you’d started out with the plan to steal my access card from the very beginning,” she said.

  “No.” Daniel shook his head so emphatically he nearly hurt his neck. “Please believe me when I say I didn’t set out to use you or to hurt you.”

  Her lips eased into a relaxed smile. “Then that’s all that matters.”

  He was too afraid to hope, but he had to ask. “Samiah, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that if you had given me just a little more time, I would have eventually called to tell you everything I just said. And you could have saved whatever ridiculous amount of money you spent on airfare.”

  Relief crashed into him. God, he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve her at all.

  “It was worth every penny just to see you,” Daniel said.

  She walked up to him and tugged on his shirt’s hem, pulling him closer. “You keep that up and you’re going to find yourself in an ill-advised relationship again, Daniel Collins.” She pulled back, her brow furrowing. “That is your real name, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, that’s my real name,” he said. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on hers. “And there is nothing stopping us from being in a relationship anymore. We’re free and clear.”

  “Are we?” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Yes.” He nodded. “Is it too soon to admit that I am completely in love with you, Samiah Brooks?”

  “Hmm, I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ll have to wait until London and Taylor get back and ask them what the boyfriend project handbook says about that.”

  He arched a brow. “The boyfriend project?”

  “I’ll explain later. For now, just kiss me.”

  Epilogue

  Are you sure this recipe calls for a fourth cup of chili flakes? That seems like a lot.”

  “I’m sure. Buldak literally means ‘fire chicken,’” Daniel said. He gestured to the small jar of deep red paste. “And when it comes to heat level, the chili flakes have nothing on the gochujang over there.”

  “This dish is going to kill me,” Samiah said, experiencing true fear as the delicious-smelling sauce gurgled in the saucepan.

  “I thought you said you liked it spicy. Don’t wimp out on me now.” He leaned over and placed the sweetest kiss on her lips. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

  She would probably end up in the ER, but she’d deal with that disaster if it came to pass. Whatever the outcome of their meal, it would be worth it just for the opportunity to watch Daniel Collins’s sexy ass go to work in the kitchen. Having a man who cooked was one thing, having a man who looked like that when he cooked? That was #lifegoals. She’d reached an entirely new level of living her best life.

  “What time is your flight tomorrow?” Samiah asked, unable to suppress the poutiness in her tone.

  “Six.”

  “In the morning? You’re not expecting a ride to the airport, are you?”

  His head flew back with his crack of laughter. “If I was planning to ask you, I guess I have my answer.”

  She moved to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her cheek on his leanly muscled back. “I’m one hundred percent down with being the supportive girlfriend, but I don’t do early mornings.”

  “I’ll catch a cab,” he said over his shoulder. “My meeting starts promptly at ten, so it was either leave tonight or take the first flight out in the morning.” He turned in her arms, settling his clasped hands at the base of her spine. “I don’t mind waking up before the crack of dawn if it means I get to spend the night with you.”

  The naughtiest tingles swept through her, causing her body to rival the heat level of the killer chicken they were about to eat.

  She hated that he would be gone for an entire two weeks, but when he came back to Austin at the end of the month, it would be permanent. Well, as permanent as things were in his line of work.

  Over these past two weeks, she’d learned that his job took him to all parts of the country, and even sometimes out of the country. He’d been back to the DC area twice already, and would be flying to some country in the Baltics next month. He couldn’t even disclose which country. It would take her a minute to get used to the lack of transparency, but she would do what she had to do. If Daniel was willing to pack up his life and move to the San Antonio/Austin field office in order to be with her, she could learn how to deal with his demanding job schedule.

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Will you miss me?”

  “No,” she said. He pinched her ass. “Fine.” She laughed. “Yes, yes, I will miss you terribly. Especially your cooking.”

  “Maybe by the time I return I’ll be able to invite you to my place to cook,” he said. He’d spent the past couple of weeks in a hotel just sout
h of downtown, which meant any cooking was done at her place.

  Samiah had been upfront when it came to her feelings about their living arrangements. They didn’t know each other well enough to move in together just yet. It was as simple as that. She still wasn’t sure if everything she thought she knew about him was fact or just part of the persona that had been created for his undercover job at Trendsetters. They were still feeling their way around the fallout of everything that happened last month.

  Even so, when he texted her yesterday to let her know he’d found an apartment not too far from the hotel where he was now staying, she’d told him to sign a six-month lease instead of a full year. She suspected he wouldn’t make it through half of that. She wanted him here with her.

  His arms still wrapped around her waist, Daniel nudged his chin toward where she’d placed her tablet on the kitchen counter. “Is it done?” he asked.

  Samiah could barely contain the smile that broke out over her face.

  “It’s done,” she said. She’d taken three additional vacation days and used them to put the finishing touches on her app and the application for the Future in Innovation Tech Conference.

  His eyes narrowed. “Is it ready to send, or did you find even more things you want to tweak?”

  “No more tweaking! I promise. Everything is complete and ready to upload. I just have to press the submit butt—” Her phone trilled. She looked to where she’d set it on the kitchen island. The selfie Taylor had saved under her name stared back at her.

  “It’s Taylor,” Samiah said. “I’ll call her back later.” The phone stopped ringing, but then immediately started again.

  “Just answer it,” Daniel said.

  “Well, I guess this is technically later.” She reluctantly extricated herself from his hold and answered the phone. “Hello—Taylor, slow down!”

  Samiah listened as Taylor—in the most Taylor way—started ranting about ruining her career before it could even get started.

  “Oh, my God, would you please slow down,” Samiah said. She paused, then yelled, “Wait, you what?”

  “I cursed out a bunch of kids!” Taylor screeched. “In front of their parents! I was fired! My life is over! How am I supposed to go home for Thanksgiving at the end of the month and explain to my family yet again that I am the biggest fuckup on the planet?”

  Samiah put a hand to her forehead. “Okay, just calm down. It can’t be that bad.”

  “It kinda is,” Taylor said. Something about the switch in her tone of voice caused a prickling sensation to race along Samiah’s spine.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Um, do you think you can come down to the jail on Eighth Street and bail me out?”

  “What!”

  “So, totally not my fault, but after I cursed out the kids, I may have grabbed the chair one of the mothers was sitting in and ran over it with my car. Not may have, I did. I did run the chair over with my car.”

  “With her in it?”

  “No!” Taylor said.

  Samiah heard a muffled voice in the background, followed by Taylor’s “okay, okay, I’m almost done.” She came back on the line. “I have to get off the phone and London is at the hospital, so I kinda need you to do this. Can you?”

  “I’m on my way,” Samiah said. “Don’t damage anyone else’s property before I get there!”

  “Can’t make any promises,” Taylor said before ending the call.

  She hung up the phone and looked over at Daniel. “Can I get that killer chicken to go?”

  “What’s going on?”

  She shook her head. “It would take too long for me to explain it. I’ll give you the full story after I get back from the county jail.”

  His eyebrows shot up.

  “Don’t ask,” Samiah said. “Seriously, I’m learning that when it comes to Taylor Powell, it’s better not to ask.” She held up a finger. “However, there is one thing I promised I would do, and I refuse to put it off a minute longer.” She picked up her iPad and brought it over to him. Then she slid two wineglasses from the hanging rack, poured elderberry and grape kombucha in both, and handed one to Daniel. “I am not leaving before I do this.”

  She pressed the submit button on the iPad, sending off her submission.

  Clinking her glass against his, she proclaimed, “Here’s to the future winner of the standout app of the Future in Innovation Tech Conference Awards.”

  “Here’s to you,” Daniel said. Then he took the glass from her hand. “Now let’s go bail your friend out of jail.”

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  Acknowledgments

  The list of people I want to thank is so vast it could fill a second novel.

  As always, thanks to my family for constantly having my back. Because of your unfailing support, I am able to live out my dreams.

  To my agent, Evan Marshall, for championing my work and being there whenever I need advice.

  To my editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, and the dedicated team at Forever. Thank you for believing in this book.

  To my critique group. I am a better writer because of you four fabulous women. Thanks for eighteen years of encouragement, hard work, and most of all, friendship.

  To my Monday night Wordies group. Thank you for inviting me into the fold.

  To my Rochonettes! Thank you for being the best fans a writer could ask for!

  Thank you to Jasmine Gabrielle and Kia Mona for giving me advice on how the young kids speak these days.

  Thank you to my fellow black romance writers who continue to produce amazing books. Your words matter. And to the readers, bloggers, and allies who offer support. Thank you for being there for us.

  Lastly, thanks and praise to the “still small voice” that reminds me that there is a higher power waiting to guide me through every struggle and obstacle I face.

  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

  —Jeremiah 29:12

  About the Author

  USA Today bestselling author Farrah Rochon hails from a small town just west of New Orleans. She has garnered much acclaim for her Holmes Brothers, New York Sabers, Bayou Dreams, and Moments in Maplesville series. When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah spends most of her time reading, cooking, traveling the world, visiting Walt Disney World, and catching her favorite Broadway shows. An admitted sports fanatic, Farrah feeds her addiction to football by watching New Orleans Saints games on Sunday afternoons.

  You can learn more at:

  FarrahRochon.com

  Twitter @FarrahRochon

  Facebook.com/FarrahRochonAuthor

  EARLY READERS ARE LOVING

  THE BOYFRIEND PROJECT

  “A masterpiece of modern-day Jane Austen with effortless, razor-sharp social commentary, romance, and humor. Farrah Rochon is one of the absolute best romance writers today. Period.”

  —Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author

  “Funny, fresh, sexy, and heartfelt. This is my new favorite romance series!”

  —Suzanne Brockmann, New York Times bestselling author

  “A smart, funny digital-age romance about real women living in the real world. Couldn’t put it down!”

  –Abby Jimenez, USA Today bestselling author

  “A smart, sexy, and completely modern romance. The Boyfriend Project is the free-spirited, tell-it-like-it-is page-turner you’ve been looking for!”

  —Kwana Jackson, USA Today bestselling author

  “Farrah Rochon writes delectable love stories with characters so warm that I want to hang out with them in real life. I smiled the whole time I was reading The Boyfriend Project.”

  —Andie J. Christopher, author of Not the Girl You Marry

  “The Boyfriend Project has it all—swoon-worthy romance, the power of true friendship, and a grand gesture
that makes your heart sigh with pure satisfaction. Absolutely a must-read summer romance!”

  —Priscilla Oliveras, USA Today bestselling author