Between Desire and Denial: A Fake Dating Romance (Hardy Billionaires)

I was naked in the woods next to my fake—but maybe now real—boyfriend, staring at him like he’d changed my viewpoint on everything.

My memories weren’t as painful, my heart wasn’t as broken, my life wasn’t as a mess as I truly contemplated if I could handle being pregnant with a baby of his. Could I be a mother and a partner? Could I want that sort of life? And then the question of whether I deserved it flew through my mind. It made me realize I may have wanted it but I’d always thought maybe I hadn’t earned it.

Dimitri’s words that I deserved what I wanted rattled my earlier doubts and I found myself smiling.

And that’s when I heard her.

“Dimitri. Dimitri!” Melly was literally singsonging his name through the enchanted woods. I jumped up and started scrambling. There was absolutely no way I was going to right my bathing suit in time. “Go out there and talk to her.”

“What? No way,” he said as he trailed a finger over my breast and took his time enjoying how I shivered under him. He was chuckling and truly had no concerns about having a family with me. He looked relaxed, even; like him shooting his come in my not-protected-from-pregnancy body was the best idea ever.

“Seriously, go.” I shoved him fast, needing a second to shake off my thoughts that maybe we would be okay with an offspring. What was wrong with me? “Hurry up, she’s going to come back here.”

“So what? I’m not going over there. She’s a parasite of a woman that infects your head with thoughts that I might be interested in her over you anytime I look her way. I want nothing to do with that. Not when we’re talking about having babies together.”

“This is not a joke!” I said but I caught myself giggling. “Just go. I’m not concerned about Melly anymore. I believe you want nothing to do with her now. I just screwed you in the woods on her property.”

He smiled as his eyes glazed over.

“Get it together!” I shoved him again. “If you don’t get your ass out there right now, her and her friends will see me naked in her freaking woods.” I scrambled to right my top and then glanced around for my bikini bottoms.

“It’s a damn good sight to see though.” He smiled and tucked himself back into his suit pants. He wasn’t bad to look at either. I saw how my arousal still glistened on his cock, how his abs flexed as he looked down to buckle his belt.

I tried a different angle. “You know, I bet she’s with a couple of guys too. You be happy to let them have a look at me?”

There was that look of jealousy I shouldn’t have loved so much.

“Fuck me,” he growled and hurried to button up his shirt before he walked around the bushes. I heard him greet the group of what sounded like all women.

Of course that was my luck, but I was able to get my halter top back on and my bikini bottoms back in place. And that’s when I heard it. The softest whisper of angry voices through the trees toward Lucille’s house.

Immediately, I thought of Earl. I heard a deep low growl of frustration. I jumped over a pile of leaves and tried my best to tiptoe in my heels.

When I got near enough to Lucille’s side of the property and leaned in though, I heard Jameson’s voice. It was rougher, meaner, and not at all like the Jameson I knew. He was always so mellow, bouncing Franny on his leg, joking with me about our high school memories, but now his voice sounded menacing.

Maybe I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but this was what a small community was all about. Plus, Lucille was nowhere to be found and his voice was coming from her yard.

“That’s not going to hold up.”

“Well, I don’t really care at this point. I’m tired of hiding him anyway.”

I knew something was off about Earl. She must have been keeping him indoors for some reason.

“Lucille, knock it off. It’s going to be fine. This was my idea in the first place. Let me follow through with it before you get jumpy.”

“It was your idea. But I’m quite proud of my implementation, so I’ll go down for it if we can’t get a person here by next week.”

I froze mid step and tried to lean into the shadows now. What was next week?

“My guys will be here next week,” Jameson confirmed, and I saw how he pinched the bridge of his straight nose. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Melly is watching my every move. If I keep him in the basement much longer …”

My mind raced with what they could be discussing. Was she holding Earl hostage? Was he going against the secret society? I should have immediately gone to call the cops. Yet, I wasn’t exactly sure that’s what was happening. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and the sheriff knew Lucille. Everyone did.

Instead, I needed to make sure, do some research, read more about this society. Could I ask Dimitri for help?

That’s when I knew I’d drank too much. He couldn’t know about this society. He’d destroy it. And I didn’t want that for our town. The realization shocked me, and I hiccuped at the thought. Freaking hiccuped like a child.

And then I heard a tiny voice by my legs. “Excuse you. Also, who are we spying on?” Franny, the little sweetheart that was just as curious as I was and shouldn’t have been following me, said.

Both Lucille and Jameson’s heads snapped toward us.

“Franny,” Jameson said, and then his voice got lower. “Olive Bee. What are you doing?”

“Well, Grandpa and Grandma said we go to the party too.” She threw one tiny hand over her shoulder to point as she talked fast like she knew she’d done something wrong. “They talking to Melly sooo long. I saw Olive and wanted to spy with her! I like playing spy!”

“And what good spies you were.” Lucille smiled at both of us, but her eyes were on me, and they held something darker than I wanted to be a part of. “Why don’t you all come into my house? We’ll get you some yummy treats and discuss everything you learned.”

“Oh, that’s okay.” I tried to back up a step, but Jameson was faster. He hurried forward and grabbed my elbow.

“We insist, Olive,” he said loudly for his daughter to hear. “We’d love to have you try Lucille’s secret cookie recipe.”

And with that, he dragged me forward into Lucille’s home. I wiggled my arm the whole way. “Hey, what are you doing?” I finally managed to free myself once he practically pushed me through the doorway and shoved me into a seat at her dining room table.

“What were you listening to us talk about?” Jameson sat down across from Lucille’s wooden table to glare at me.

“Nothing,” I blurted out fast.

Franny immediately sat down in front of the TV and turned it on to watch cartoons. Lucille hummed about in her giant kitchen, moving around a few jars to pull out a cookie for Franny. Then, she turned toward me, her hand a little shaky as she asked, “Want a cookie, Olive?”

“No thank you.” I cleared my throat and glanced around, trying to not make eye contact with either of them.

Lucille’s house was immaculate with pretty little statues everywhere, not a speck of dust on any of them. She had antique furnishings that seemed to fit her personality perfectly. It was clear she’d been collecting beautiful pieces for years. Gold-framed art adorned every wall and matched some of her painted wood furniture.

I’d never really taken a moment to see everything she had here, though, because she kept her and Earl’s life pretty private, which I now questioned more as I saw how her embroidered drapes were drawn shut.

“You had to have heard something if you were listening, Olive.”

“Jameson, you know how I am.” I chuckled nervously. “I just heard something and wanted to see what it was. I’d got to the corner of Melly’s hedges and, well, you know.”

He was searching my face for the lie, and I remembered Esme’s words. I suddenly knew I couldn’t just sit there and let him interrogate me. I’d crack.

Lucille came over to pat my shoulder. “She’s fine, Jameson.” It was her mother hen tone, the one she used on most of us in the community and we all sort of fell in line when she did. “If she heard anything, she would have told us. Honestly, it was just me and Jameson discussing a bad stock trade that he and Earl made. A bit embarrassing, but nothing to get worked up about, right?”

Jameson squinted at her.

“She grew up with you, Jameson. She’s not going to think any less of you, right, Olive?” Now Lucille looked at me with a wobbly smile. “With that curiosity you have, though, I should have you helping me write the Paradise Grove News every single quarter. Not just the next. Would you like to? We could get together maybe on Monday and talk out your next article along with other things?”

“Well, I have my thesis to work on, and I’m starting to do hair at the salon—” I stumbled over my words just as the doorbell rang.

“What do you think, Jameson?” Lucille asked as she walked to the door.

“I think that’s a very good idea.” He crossed his arms and stared at me like I was suddenly a criminal rather than his friend.

“Oh, Dimitri, hi,” Lucille announced, and Dimitri peered in. His muscles tensed when he saw Jameson and me at the table.

“There you are,” he said slowly as his eyes ping-ponged between us.

“Yes, Jameson and Olive were just catching up. Franny wanted to come over for a cookie.”

Franny held it up at the TV and didn’t even look our way.

“Olive, I have an early flight in the morning.”

“Right, and I’m starting to get a migraine. We should get going,” I said as I rubbed at my temples. Truly, I was starting to see spots as my alcohol wore off and my mind raced. I shoved the chair back fast. “I have to stop back over at Melly’s to grab my cover-up and—”

He held up my things. “Got them, Honeybee. Said bye to your family too. Time to go home to our bed.”

Jameson scoffed but he got up and gave me a hug as he whispered, “I’ll be texting you about meeting for lunch very soon.”