One Hot Fake: An Accidental Fake Marriage Romance, Sarah Brooks [mobi ebook reader TXT] 📗

In a matter of seconds, Declan has turned me into a mess of arousal. I want his hands everywhere on me. My hand creeps down under my skirt to my aching pussy, and I rub myself over my panties.

A knock comes on the door, making me jump. I quickly drop my hand and extricate myself from Declan’s hold, but I make sure to stand in front of him.

“Sorry,” one of Declan’s supervisors says. “Before you go, can you take a look at the new arrangement at the counters?”

‘Sure,” Declan says, unfazed. He places his hands on my shoulders.

When we’re alone again, he whirls me around and kisses me deeply.

Chapter 27

Declan

The beachside restaurant is a hit with Marian. After lunch, we kick off our shoes and hide them under a rock near the small gate at the back of my apartment block.

I take her hand as we stroll down the beach. There are few people today because it’s a weekday. I now know how Ace felt when he learned that he was a father. I feel twenty feet tall, and I want to blurt out to the whole world and have everyone celebrate with me. I sneak a glance at Marian. Her chocolate brown hair is flying in the wind, and her skin has the tinge of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. I want Marian to love Santa Monica as much as I do, and I think it’s working, judging by the permanent smile on her face.

She senses my stare and smiles at me. My heart somersaults in my chest. My wife. Words I never thought I would ever use.

“I can’t wait to tell everyone,” I tell her and imagine the look on Ace, Lexi, and my parents’ faces when I tell them I’m going to be a dad.

Marian grinds to a halt, and so do I. “You can’t tell anyone just yet. One, I haven’t confirmed with the doctor, and two, it’s early days. Let’s wait a while.”

“Sure, no problem,” I say, disappointment coming over me. Which is stupid. There’s no urgency for anyone to know. The baby will come when the nine months are up, whether we tell anyone or not.

We resume walking. My gaze goes out to sea at the gentle waves as they rise and fall over each other. White boats glide over the water, with happy people on the decks. No matter where life takes me, Santa Monica will always be my home. Me and my family.

“After we got married in Vegas, did you ever imagine that one day, we would be walking on the beach like this?” Marian asks me, her voice tinged with laughter.

“Not at all. You were so angry and initially refused to entertain the idea of staying married,” I said, chuckling as I remember the look Marian had given me when I made the suggestion.

She laughs. “How many people do you know, though, who have done what we did?”

“None,” I admit. “But that only goes to prove that we’re special.”

“Ha,” Marian says.

“The beach suits you,” I tell her. “You look carefree and happy.”

“I am, but it’s not just the beach; there are lots of reasons why I’m happy,” Marian says. She’s silent for a beat before she continues talking. “Have you ever come close to getting married?”

“No, never,” I tell her honestly. “I’ve never met someone who made me want to get married. If anything, it was the other way round. I took off as soon as a woman hinted at wanting to get married.”

“What made you agree to my mad scheme then?” she asks me. “Was it the trust fund?”

It would be easy to say yes, and that would be the end of that, but it wouldn’t be the truth. “I thought about the trust fund the following morning. It’s crazy, but I just wanted to be married to you.” Even though I’d been drunk out of my mind, getting married to Marian was not a decision that I had wrestled with. A part of me had known she was special right from the moment when I first saw her on the airplane. “What about you?”

“Before going to Vegas, I’d invited Jason and Brooke for dinner at the house. It was their first time after I moved in. Anyway, by the end of the dinner, I realized how little I had.”

“Buying a house is quite an achievement, Marian,” I point out.

“Yes, but it’s mortar and brick. I had none of the things that mattered. Kids, a family. So, when we met and drank ourselves silly, those were the things on my mind, and the idea of marrying you just kept growing and growing through the night.”

I laugh. “I’m glad you were crazy enough to go through with it.”

“I’m glad you didn’t just marry me for the trust fund,” Marian says.

We’ve walked a long way along the beach, and I point out my parents’ house in the distance. “That’s my parents’ home from the back.”

“Nice, I wouldn’t have recognized it,” she says. “Imagine growing up next to the beach like that. You and Ace were two lucky boys.”

I’ve never thought of it like that, but I suppose she was right. There was always something to do. “We were.”

We turn around to walk back. Marian’s phone rings, shattering through the sounds of the waves crashing on the sand. She picks it up.

She stops walking. “How did you know where it was?” She’s silent for a few seconds before she continues talking. “You can’t just come to my office without telling me.” She shakes her head. “Fine.”

She clicks her tongue and disconnects the call. “That was Leonard. He’s in my office.”

“How does he know where you work?” The thought of that slime ball in Marian’s office gets me all riled up.

“I don’t know,” Marian says with a sigh. “He refused to say. We should go back. I need to talk some sense into him.”

Why does the jerk have to show up now when our lives together are just