Fake Marriage to Her Office Crush Read online

  ABOUT THIS BOOK

  She hired him to be her fake fiancé, strictly to boost her confidence.

  It was never supposed to be real.

  Men seldom pay attention to Katie, so if she hopes to meet one, she needs a new plan. Ivan Anderson, the gorgeous serial dater who sits next to her at work, isn't it. But he volunteers to be her fake fiancé, and soon, he's romancing her in all the right ways. He's the perfect temporary hire, too—until Ivan starts angling for a promotion to legit full-time boyfriend... and he's putting it all on the line. How did a simple fix get so complicated?

  Katie liked to joke that she could figure out a way to make anything sound good in writing—except herself. Ha, ha. Wasn't it hilarious? She could write copy that sold dog food to people who didn't have dogs, but somehow she couldn't translate that skill into a match profile that landed her a semi-decent prospect in the man department.

  Job, hair, teeth. As in he must have all three. These were not picky requirements in a man. Except they were, apparently.

  "Your problem isn't bad ad copy," Carolina said without looking up from her monitor as she tapped away over in her rent-a-space next to Katie's. "It's that you're trying to find a guy on a dating site. That's a terrible way to meet men."

  Gospel from the mouth of Dallas's premier relationship expert. Katie still took it with a grain of salt. She crossed her arms and leaned back in the ergonomic chair.

  "What would you have me do instead, oh wise advisor to the lovelorn?"

  "If you'd said that with even an iota less sarcasm, I might actually tell you the answer." Carolina shot her the side-eye. "You know the drill. If you can't handle the truth, don't ask Carolina."

  "Yeah, yeah. Everyone in the free world knows your slogan." Or at least the ten or eleven million devotees who followed Carolina's relationship advice show on YouTube. "But I'm seriously asking. We've sat next to each other for six months and I've never once tried to lean on your expertise. This last round of losers is enough to make me curl up in a blanket fort for weeks on end."

  A guy who'd done his video wearing a full shark costume. One who readily admitted he lived with his mother…in a one bedroom apartment. The most articulate of the bunch wouldn't get out of prison for another two months, and would Katie wait for him?

  Carolina lost interest in the messages from viewers on her screen. "Why do you want a boyfriend so badly anyway?"

  "Because I like fighting over the Netflix queue. Duh." Katie rolled her eyes to cover the sharp pang inside that she'd like to call anything but what it was—loneliness. "Why do you think, genius? I want to fall in love and have babies one day. It's not a crime."

  Actually, fighting over what movie to watch sounded amazing. At the end, even if she lost, she won because she'd be cuddled up on her couch with her head resting on the chest of a man whose heart beat only for her.

  But since that hadn't happened yet, there was a tiny part of her way deep down inside that had started to believe she might be the problem. Too nice. Too blah. Too apple-pie in a world of rainbow-swirl cupcakes with sparkly frosting.

  Maybe what Katie really needed was a makeover.

  Carolina nodded as if that made total sense even though her opinion about love usually included lots of four-letter words that earned her shows warning labels for language content. "Then you need a ringer."

  "A what?"

  "A ringer," a deep male voice repeated, and Katie's spine turned to jelly as Ivan Anderson poured into their workspace. He paused on his way to his desk long enough to cap off his interruption. "She's saying you need a man to get one."

  There had to be about a million responses Katie could have given other than gaharumph, but unfortunately, that's what came out. Par for the course when your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth like you'd never seen a man with such gorgeous cheekbones before.

  "Exactly." Caroline nodded, glanced at her phone, squawked, and rocketed to her feet. "Holy cow, is that the time? I have to go. I got volunteered to take Eliza to the dentist. Why a twenty-something woman has to get knocked out for a filling is beyond me, but whatever."

  And then poof. The buffer between Katie and Ivan vanished as he slid into his workspace next to Carolina's now vacant one. It should be illegal to be that graceful unless you were a gazelle. But Ivan was all man. And then some. Which he liked to spread around as thinly as possible, judging by the sheer number of stylish women he paraded through the lobby. The dangers of living and working in such close quarters—everyone who rented a space at Vivo's Community Desk lived in the condos on the upper level and knew personal details about each other's lives that should be labeled NSFW.

  "I guess it would be too much to ask you to unstick your nose from my business," she said wryly.

  No response.

  Ivan always strolled in between eleven and noon, probably because it took him that long to recover from his nocturnal activities. No Ivan in the morning worked for her. Gave Katie time to do a solid chunk of writing without the distraction of a GQ cover model come to life in her drab little world.

  He set his bullet-proof laptop bag on his desk, touched a fingertip to the biometric scanner to spring the lock, uncased it, and booted it up before gravitating to the Keurig in the corner. The weird decryption routine Ivan had installed to protect his intellectual property scrolled across the screen. It took exactly four minutes to execute, not that Katie paid an excruciating amount of attention to every detail related to Ivan.

  Fortification in hand, Ivan paused at Katie's desk on his way back from the coffee kiosk, leaning one hip on the edge of the wood, right near her fingers. They shouldn't tingle like that. Nothing should tingle over Ivan the Womanizer. If only those types of stern admonishments actually worked…

  "Carolina's not wrong." He tilted his paper coffee cup toward the departed relationship guru's empty desk. "When you have a man, it makes you look more interesting to other potentials."

  Katie tapped out a few more words on the search-engine optimization piece she'd been working on, just so Ivan didn't clue in that she'd lost all focus thanks to the citrusy masculine scent that had wafted through her senses the moment he'd parked on her desk. "That's the most ridiculous idea ever conceived."

  "It's not either. You've heard the saying that it's easier to find a job when you have one than when you don't?" He didn't wait for Katie's nod. "Why do you think it works like that? Because you're more confident. You have nothing to lose. You're in the driver's seat."

  Her lonely little heart latched onto the concept with remarkable speed. To be instantly more desirable to the entire male species in one fell swoop—that was the most unconventional makeover imaginable. How could something like that possibly work?

  "You forget the goal is to find someone I can fall in love with." A foreign concept to someone who blew through women as fast as Ivan did. "The fact that I have to explain this to you makes my point. Love doesn't work like that. I can't have one eye on my current guy and one peeled for Mr. Right."

  Ivan grinned like a cat who'd caught sight of a particularly tasty sparrow. "You can if the one on your arm is a ringer."

  Katie's fingers stilled on her laptop. A rarity. And a shame. She always painted her short fingernails alternating colors like blue and green or pink and orange, and sometimes she typed so fast the hues blurred together. It was kind of cool. Ivan enjoyed watching her out of the corner of his eye, though he'd rather not have to fake lack of interest.

  Carolina sat between them though, and that woman ate men for breakfast, then picked the remains from her teeth with leftover bone shards. If he tipped her
off that he had developed a tiny thing for Katie, Carolina would come up with a million reasons why her friend should take a raincheck where Ivan was concerned and then forget to cash it.

  Normally Carolina sat between them. She'd left. Another rarity, and one Ivan intended to take full advantage of.

  Katie turned her big brown eyes in his direction, a decidedly intrigued glint to them. That worked and then some. Having the full attention of Katie Rightmyer fit into his morning agenda really well.

  "What are you saying, I should hire a fake boyfriend to fool all the men in this city into thinking I'm taken?" she asked.

  "It's practically guaranteed to work." Like he had any business giving a woman dating advice, let alone one he'd yet to figure out how to ask on a date without getting shot down. Ivan only dealt in sure things. "Only not a boyfriend. You need big guns. A fake fiancé."

  The intrigue meter in her gaze shot into the top end of the scale. "Who in the world would agree to that?"

  "I would absolutely volunteer."

  Some of his reasons were even altruistic. A lot of other guys could and would take advantage of the situation. Things could go south in a hurry. What kind of man would he be if he left her unprotected like that?

  But mostly this was an unprecedented opportunity to finally move the dial with Katie. When a guy worked ninety hours a week, most of it in the wee hours, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of opportunity to meet women in the first place, let alone one he secretly liked as much as his shared-office-space mate.

  Suspicion marred her pretty mouth. "You'd have to give up all the other women you're seeing. Something tells me that wouldn't sit well with you."

  Other women? She'd obviously seen him with the beta testers for the phone app he'd been developing and assumed the worst. Disappointing.

  He let a smile bloom on his face that communicated none of his disenchantment. "If there's money involved, I'm good."

  "I see." Katie nodded sagely as if she'd just filled in the last few boxes on the crossword puzzle called "What Makes Ivan Tick." "I did wonder what would be in it for you."

  Oh, I don't know. A few hours in your company outside of work? That he'd consider a chance to date her compensation enough didn't seem to cross her mind. Baffling. And yet, she'd brought up the whole subject of finding a mate to Carolina for a reason, possibly because she had trouble meeting people. Equally baffling.

  "Hey, I'm always looking for capital," he agreed easily. "Show me one guy helming a start-up company who isn't. What's the goal here?"

  "You're serious?" One of Katie's blue fingernails starting tapping absently against the side of her laptop as if she'd only just then realized this was a viable plan she should consider. "We're really talking about this? Like for really real? You'd let me pay you to be my fake fiancé."

  Since he'd have done it for free strictly to get closer to Katie without setting off Carolina's alarms, he shrugged. "Name a figure."

  The one she threw out nearly knocked him off his precarious perch on the side of her desk. That was a couple more zeros than he'd have deemed this whole scheme worthy of and definitely he could use that money. The app he'd designed to help women find the right salon needed an influx of marketing dollars like yesterday. Now it was serious.

  He glanced over at the second row of desks, where some of the others who shared the space worked. No one was paying attention to their conversation, as per usual. You learned to tune out the noise in any sort of office environment. Everyone in earshot would probably see him with Katie multiple times as they faked being engaged, but they did not need to know the circumstances.

  "You didn't answer my question," he said, a tad more quietly, and with a lift of his chin. "What do you want out of this?"

  Her brows lifted. "Are you asking me if I expect bedroom privileges?"

  "What? No!" The second money changed hands, that kind of relationship was off the table—a wrinkle he hadn't considered until this second. Of course, she hadn't written a check yet. "This is strictly platonic. To help you."

  "Then I would have thought what I wanted was obvious," she finally responded a little wistfully. "I want to get married and build a life with someone. Pick out furniture together, open a joint bank account. If going on a few dates with you and pretending we're engaged gets me there, I'm game."

  "Great," he growled as his gut clenched over the picture in his head of Katie holding hands with some other guy as they strolled through rows of couches they both ignored because they were too busy shooting goo-goo eyes at each other. "Where should we start?"

  "This was your idea, I kind of expected you to be the one with all the expertise."

  "You've never been engaged I take it?"

  She shook her head, disturbing the lively curls around her shoulders. "It's been so long since I've been on a date, I barely know how to do that either. You'll have to tell me if I'm doing it wrong."

  Oh, man. The entire conversation shifted on its axis as she looked away. Embarrassed? "Show up in a dress. That's the only requirement for doing it right in my book."

  "What, like tonight?" The idea seemed to startle her. "You want to start today?"

  "Not tonight. Now." Ivan always struck while the iron was hot. "Let's make it official."

  Before she could squeak out a protest, because she was definitely thinking about it, he knelt on one knee and drew her hand into his. "Katie Rightmyer, will you do me the honor of becoming my fake fiancé?"

  All at once, awareness walloped him between the eyes as she stared at him, her palm sparking against his. He'd pull away if all his muscles hadn't just seized up. Except for his heart. That one kept going and going, galloping away at a ground eating pace until he thought the poor organ might burst from exertion.

  Chump.

  He'd fallen prey to the position, obviously. A dude didn't get down on one knee for any other reason than to propose, and that had set him off, fake or not. One too many romcom date night movies or something.

  Although admittedly, it had been a long time since he'd been on a date of any sort, let alone one that included a movie.

  "Yes," she said throatily. She'd been affected by the moment too?

  It was hard to miss the slightly stunned expression on her face, but he dug a little deeper anyway just for fun, running a thumb over her knuckle, and got a huge reward in the form of eyelashes swept closed over her suddenly heated gaze.

  Chemistry was an unexpected addition to this unbalanced equation. What was he supposed to do with that gem, on the heels of realizing he couldn't actually date her if she was paying him?

  Ivan dropped her hand, vaulted to his feet, and cleared his throat in case his own voice gave away the internal vortex that she'd just unwittingly kicked up. "I'll get you a ring. Eventually. For now, let's go to lunch."

  Still a little dazed, she nodded. "No time like the present, right?"

  "Took the words right out of my mouth."

  There was a slim possibility that spending time with Katie would squelch the spark between them. But since they were supposed to be acting like they were engaged, odds did not favor that outcome.

  What had he gotten himself into?

  Engaged to Ivan. Ivan and Katie were engaged. Katie was engaged. To Ivan.

  It didn't seem to matter how she rearranged the words in her head, they still made as much sense as Greek spelled backward.

  Sure, it was all fake and she should get over herself already, but in order to send the right message out to the universe, shouldn't she internalize this new development somehow? Otherwise, how would these mythical men who were supposed to fall all over themselves to ask her out know she was taken if she didn't believe it?

  The problem was she didn't. Men like Ivan never glanced in her direction. Hence the need for the makeover.

  "Where would you like to eat?" Ivan asked her. "Lady's choice."

&nbsp
; Oh, goodness. There was supposed to be eating at lunch?

  The Thai place across the courtyard had long been a favorite but she couldn't fathom how to manage chopsticks when her fingers still trembled from Ivan's proposal. Fake proposal. Down on one knee, his fingers clasping hers as if he meant to never let go, eyes all soft and dreamy and focused on her…

  Fake, fake, fakity fake with a side of fake.

  Maybe the problem was that she didn't know how to be in a fake relationship. Not with a man who made her insides flutter as much as Ivan did.

  "Butterfly Palace is fine," she squawked and flapped an arm toward the double glass doors flanked by deep red wooden columns.

  "My favorite," he said and let his hand drift to her waist as he guided her toward the stone path that cut through the courtyard.

  His warm palm branded her through her dress. She nearly jerked out of her skin. "What are you doing?" she muttered out of the side of her mouth.

  "Going to lunch?" he responded with a slight lift on the end as if he'd clued in that there might be a right and wrong answer to the question. "What are you doing?"

  "Wondering why you're touching me—Hey, Mrs. Horowitz," she called brightly to the lady who ran the dog boarding place next to Butterfly Palace. The woman smiled broadly when she saw Ivan's arm around Katie's waist.

  "Hi, you two," she said, her voice laden with innuendo that meant she'd figured out all on her own that something was going on between Katie and Ivan.

  Great. Katie nearly groaned. Mrs. Horowitz had a whole second career as a professional gossip monger, and they'd just given her a year's worth of fodder.

  As soon as Mrs. Horowitz was out of earshot, Ivan grinned. "That was fantastic timing. By this time tomorrow, everyone will know we're together. You're welcome."

  Yeah, Katie definitely didn't know how to be in a fake relationship because that sounded like a disaster to her. Everything had moved so fast. What was she supposed to tell her friends? Her mother? Was it okay to assure them this engagement with Ivan was all fake, and if so, wasn't that negative energy going to circumvent the good karma or whatever? This plan seemed more and more ill-conceived the deeper they dove into it.