Pretend Love Romance by Penny Wylder
Leo
In the time it takes for me to drive back to my house and then walk back to the office, I manage to get my body under control. Given that thoughts of Diana are pressing into my mind on all sides, I’ll still need that cold shower after our meeting. But at the very least, I won’t have a hard-on in front of my best friends. Something to be grateful for.
Hudson and Asher are already in the tiny office that we share in the main building, though it’s rare for all of us to be in here at the same time. It’s a chaotic space, papers covering the desk and nearly pushing out of the filing cabinet in the corner.
Not only are they both here, they look grim. The way they both turn and look at me when I walk in sends a chill down my spine. What the fuck?
“Why do I feel like I just walked into a firing squad?”
“Is she okay? The guest?” Asher asks, and it’s not lost on me that he didn’t answer the question.
I nod. “Yeah. Pretty much an all clear from the doctor. Rest and monitoring. We’ll be fine.”
“That’s good,” Hudson says.
“I agree. Now can you please tell me what the fuck is going on, so I don’t feel like you’re both about to murder me and dump my body in the river?”
Asher chuckles and rubs a hand over his face. “We’re not going to kill you, Leo.”
“But we do need to talk to you,” Hudson says. “About the money.”
The second payment on the land for Blue Mountain Wilderness Lodge is due in a week. Nerve wracking as always, given the size of the payments, but nothing out of the ordinary. “What about it?”
“Your portion isn’t in the account yet,” Asher says. “And that’s never happened before.”
Hudson holds out a hand like he’s holding me back from something. “We just want to check that everything is okay before it’s too late to fix it.”
Shock rolls through me. I blink. And another time. “What?”
My friends look at each other. “You didn’t know?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I had no idea.”
I generally don’t like to talk about money, and they know that. Because I come from a wealthy family, and I’ve never been particularly comfortable with that. My whole life I’ve made a point of trying to make my own way. Working through school and forging my own path.
My family has never understood it, and constantly tries to give me money that they view as mine, but I never take it. That is, until we started Blue Mountain.
Opening a property like this is both a huge investment and a huge risk, and I didn’t have the money to contribute. So I made the decision to take a loan from my family for the portions of money that I needed for the land. They insisted that the money was a gift and that I didn’t have to pay it back.
I’m still planning to, though.
An uncomfortable thread of anxiety swims in my gut. The money has never been late before. My family’s accountant is the best, and he’s on top of his shit. What happened? Is something wrong that I didn’t know about? I have to fix it. And fast. A week isn’t a lot of time to fix things with money of this magnitude, but I’ll do it. I won’t be the reason that Blue Mountain fails. Or loses its property.
“Fuck,” I say. “I’m really sorry. I have no idea why, but some wires must have gotten crossed. I’ll get it sorted first thing in the morning.”
They both look relieved. “We hoped it was something like that,” Asher says.
“Yeah, I’m really sorry.”
Hudson shakes his head. “Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault. Just keep us posted.”
I snort. “No kidding. That’s the last thing we fucking need.” They both laugh. “Oh, and rafting is off the table until further notice. I’ve never seen the river like that. It’s my fault that I didn’t double check after my last route, but it’s never been that high.”
Hudson looks at Asher. “Will that cause cancellations?”
“It might. But hopefully not too many. Especially since it’s not like we can control the amount of snow that melts into a river.”
I’m the one that laughs this time. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe how bad that would have been if you hadn’t gotten to her.”
The familiar hollow feeling that I had when I was driving Diana to the hospital comes back. “I don’t even want to think about that.”
“Best not,” Asher agrees.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll let you know what happens with the money.”
I’m sure that it’s a misunderstanding. It has to be. I can’t think of a reason why my parents would drop what they agreed to. It’s probably just a delay of some kind. But if it isn’t, I would still make it work. The one good thing about coming from money is that banks love you. There would be no issue securing a loan, but I’d rather not do that. Plus, even without a problem getting approved, I doubt that I could get the money in six days.
But it’s a problem for the morning. Right now, I’m heading back to my house to strip and take care of my cock, which is more than eager to spring up at the slightest thought of Diana and her fantastic ass.
I don’t even bother putting away my clothes as I strip on the way to the shower. Fuck a cold shower, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right.
The water is barely hot before my hand is running up and down my shaft, the shower echoing with the sound of my groans. She’s not even here, and this is what she does to me. That kiss explodes into my memory, and I let it go further in my mind. The way I wish it had gone if we’d been somewhere more private and we hadn’t been coming back from a hospital.
In my imagination, I push her back onto the seat of the truck, listening to her panting breaths and running my hand down the center of her chest. What color would her nipples be? Would they match her lips? Or would they be a deeper, richer pink? Either way, I want to see them—make them hard. See if she’s the kind of woman that loves a mouth there or if I can make her come from touching them alone.
I imagine pulling down those soft yoga pants she’d worn back from the hospital and finding her wet. Soaking, just for me. And that’s as far as I get before pleasure blazes down my spine like fire, and I come the hardest I’ve ever come while alone.
Shit.
And that wasn’t even the best part of that fantasy. That best part is yet to come. Maybe I do need a cold shower, otherwise I’m just going to keep imagining and keep going until I come again. And again. Until I can’t anymore.
That’s how much I want her.
As if my cock hears me, it grows hard again like I’m a fucking teenager ready to fuck like a rabbit. The body wash is in my hand before I really even think about it, the new slippery sensation sending my mind into overdrive as I imagine that it’s her and her heat surrounding me.
It’s going to be a long night.
* * *
The entire night is restless, even though I come more times in a night than I have in recent memory. Because it’s official. Diana is under my skin. And now I’m exhausted and somehow still wanting more. But if there is more, it has to be with her. There’s only so much my hand can do.
Right now I have to put that aside because I have phone calls to make. I turn on the coffee maker and send a prayer out into the universe that it’s just a misunderstanding or a mistake. That’s all I can really afford it to be.
Once I have a cup of caffeine that makes me feel more like a human, I dial my family’s accountant. His name is Jerry, because of course it is. He’s a nice man, but if you thought about the word accountant, he’d certainly fit the bill.
It’s early, but he answers. “Hello?”
“Hi Jerry, this is Leo Harris.”
He makes a sound of recognition. “Hello Leo. What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to check on the land payment that’s expected next week,” I say clearing my throat. Even talking about money like this makes me feel like a pretentious ass. “My business partners have told me it hasn’t arrived.”
“Oh,” he says. “I apologize. I thought you knew. Your parents put a hold on the money, but they didn’t specify a reason. I assumed they would have talked to you about it.”
Fuck. “Okay, thanks, Jerry. I’ll give them a call and see what’s up.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No worries,” I say while my hand grips the counter hard enough to feel it creak. “It’s not your fault.”
It isn’t. Whatever my parents are doing has nothing to do with Jerry, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t make it any less annoying.
This time I call my father. Of my two parents, he is the more likely to level with me. And he answers quickly, too. “Hello, son.”
Son. Never a good sign. If he’s in a good mood, he calls me Leo. “Hey, Dad.”
“I’ve been wondering when I would get this call. Hold on, let me get your mother.”
I sit down on one of the stools next to my bar and put the phone on speaker. It lets me cover my face with my hands and take a breath. My mind is already forming contingency plans for how to get the money.
“All right, you’re on with your mother and me.”
“If you were planning this, why didn’t you just call me?” I ask.
My mom’s voice comes through the speaker. “We wanted you to reach out. We so rarely hear from you anymore.”
“Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine,” my dad says. “Doing well.”
I sigh. “Guess I’ll bite the bullet. I just got off the phone with Jerry. He said you put a hold on the money.”
I can almost feel them looking at each other, but my dad speaks. “We did, yes.”
“Why? Did something happen?”
Mom clears her throat. “You’re not following through on your part of the agreement.”
My mind goes blank. “Agreement? What agreement? You said the money was a gift. If that’s changed, that’s fine, I just need to know.”
There’s an aggressive sigh on the other end of the line. “The part of the agreement, Leo, where we said we would gladly fund your endeavor if you started taking life seriously and considered starting a family.”
My jaw drops, and I’m glad that they’re not in the same room with me. Yes, they’d said that when we talked about the money. And I’d agreed. But I’d also said at the time that I would consider it once we were established. It’s barely been two years, and Blue Mountain is nowhere near being in a place where I can spend the time to start a family. Not to mention that I’d have to…you know…find someone to marry.
They must take my silence as guilt, because Mom keeps speaking. “It’s been more than enough time to have even a hint of something on the horizon, Leo. That’s all we’re asking.”
“Why do you care so much about this?” I ask them. It’s an endless frustration. They’ve been hounding me to settle down since college.
“We just want you to be happy.” My dad now, and I wish that I could say that it’s just my mom talking him into this, but it’s him too. They’re lucky. My parents have that kind of deep love that’s life changing. But on the inside of that, they can’t see that not only is it rare, but it’s also not something you can look for.
“What makes you think that I’m not happy?” I ask. “I am happy.”
My mom makes a sound. “You think you’re happy. But you won’t know until you actually make an effort, Leo. And your father and I aren’t going to keep funding your childish dreams if we don’t see some progress.”
Panic reaches up and grabs my chest. This can’t be happening. Can it? I don’t know what makes the next words come out of my mouth. Desperation and fear—the need to save the one thing that I actually love.
“I have been dating someone,” I say.
There’s a soft intake of breath. “Really? Why didn’t you tell us?”
I sigh. “Because I’m an adult. I don’t mean that to be offensive, but I don’t have to report on my dating life to you. Except for now, apparently.”
“Leo—”
“But since we’re doing this, I’m actually getting married. I proposed recently.”
There’s shocked silence on the other end of the line, and I realize what the fuck I’ve just done. But it’s already out there, and now I can’t take it back. “You guys know me. I’m not really one to make a big deal out of things, but I thought you would be happy.”
My mother’s voice sounds a little strangled. “We are! We are happy, Leo. Of course we are.”
“Yeah,” my dad says, sounding just as shocked and not a little skeptical. “This is amazing. Of course we’re happy. And as soon as we meet your new fiancée, I’ll tell Jerry to wire over the money.”
“Oh, I’m going to make plans!” My mom says and I hear her steps walking away quickly.
“Bye, Leo,” my dad says. He’s way happier than when he picked up the phone. “We’ll see you soon.”
“Wait—” I try to catch him, but the line is already dead.
I stare at the phone for a minute, trying to process everything that just happened. I can’t believe I told them that I’m getting married. And I can’t believe that they’re blackmailing me into it in order to get the money. But worse than that, they need to meet her. That means I need someone to pretend to marry me until the payment comes through.
After that, I’ll figure out the rest of the money on my own. The problem now is finding someone willing to do this.
Fuck.
