The Boyfriend Arrangement

Sebastian surprised her by laughing. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

She peeked through her hands at him. “Um... Quentin is my ex. It was a messy breakup, but we still hang in the same social circles from time to time. When he asked about my date for the wedding we have coming up, I panicked. I told him you were my boyfriend. It’s a long story. I shouldn’t have dragged you into that, but he put me on the spot and you were standing right there.” She gestured toward the display and shook her head. “I’m an ass.”

“I doubt that,” Sebastian said, a twinkle of laughter still in his dark brown eyes.

“No, I am. I’ve made the whole thing ten times worse because now I’m going to show up at the wedding without you and he’s going to know I lied. And I just know he’s going to show up with his beautiful, new fiancée and I’m going to feel even more like crap than I already do.”

Harper knew she should’ve just owned that she was single. How bad would that have been? To just state proudly that she’d been dating and not interested in settling down or settling on the wrong guy. She was almost thirty, but that was hardly the end of the world. In fact, her thirtieth birthday couldn’t come soon enough. It brought a twenty-eight-million-dollar payout with it that she was desperate to get her hands on.

“Don’t worry about what he thinks,” Sebastian said. “He seems like a schmuck.”

“I’m no good at the boyfriend thing. I have questionable taste in men,” Harper admitted. “It’s probably better that I just make up boyfriends instead of finding another real one.”

Sebastian nodded awkwardly. “I’m glad to help. Well, I hope the wedding goes well for you.”

“Thanks.” She watched him leave. But with every step he took, the more panicked she became. She had no easy way of contacting this guy once he walked out the door. She didn’t want to let him get away quite yet for reasons she wasn’t ready to think about. “Sebastian?” she nearly shouted before he got out of earshot.

He stopped and turned back to her. “Yes?”

“How would you like to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Ireland?”

Two

Sebastian didn’t know what to say. He’d never had a woman offer him a vacation, much less a woman he hardly knew. Actually he didn’t have women offer him much of anything. It was impossible when he never left the lab. The only woman he was ever around on a daily basis was his assistant, Virginia, who was in her late fifties and married.

“Um, run that by me again?”

Harper closed the gap between them with an apologetic smile on her face and a sultry sway of her hips. So many of her features were almost masculine in a way, with piercing eyes, sharp cheekbones and an aquiline nose, but there was nothing masculine about her. Her dark brows were arched delicately over eyes that were like the stormy seas off Maine where he was born.

He imagined a similar maelstrom was stirring inside her to make an offer like that to a complete stranger. Surely she could find a romantic interest if she wanted one. But he was willing to say yes to almost anything she offered when she looked at him that way.

“My friends are getting married in Ireland next weekend. They’re flying everyone there, plus putting all the guests up in a castle that’s been converted into a hotel. It wouldn’t cost you anything to go but some leave from work. I’m not sure what your boss is like, since this is short notice, but I was hoping you would be interested.”

“In going to Ireland?”

She nodded. “With me. As my boyfriend. I just introduced you to Quentin as my boyfriend and said you were going, so he’s going to expect you to be there.”

His brow furrowed. Her boyfriend. For a week. In Ireland. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything. Pretending to be her lover could be complicated. But what could go right? His gaze raked over her tall, lean figure with appreciation. Everything could go very right, too.

Wait—crap—he wasn’t supposed to be “active.” Just his damn luck. “Just to be clear—are you wanting or expecting you and me to...um...”

“No!” Harper was quick to answer with wide eyes. “I mean, not for real. We’d have to pretend to be a couple around everyone else—kiss, be affectionate, you know. But when we’re alone, I promise it’s strictly hands off. I’m not that hard up. I just can’t go to this thing alone. Not after seeing Quentin and finding out he’s engaged. I just can’t.”

Sebastian blinked his eyes a few times and tried to mask some of his disappointment. He wasn’t sure if he could stand being around her, touching her in public and then just flipping the switch when they were alone. The doctor wanted him to, but he wasn’t the best at following doctor’s orders.

This day had done well to throw him off his game. First, getting locked out at work with mandatory vacation and now this. A beautiful woman wanted him to travel with her to Ireland for free and pretend to be her lover. That just wasn’t business as usual for him. He wasn’t entirely sure what to say to her. It seemed foolish to say yes and downright stupid to say no.

“I’ll pay you two thousand dollars to go. It’s all the money I have in my savings account,” Harper added, sweetening the pot as she seemed to sense his hesitation.

She was serious. Her insecurity struck him as odd considering how confident and put together she seemed. He wasn’t sure why this was so important to her. There must be more to the situation with her ex than she was telling. “Aren’t your friends going to wonder where I came from? You’ve never spoken about me before and suddenly I’m your wedding date?”

Harper waved away his concern. “I’ll take care of that. My friends have been so wrapped up in their own lives lately they’d probably not notice if I did have a boyfriend. They certainly haven’t mentioned that I don’t have one.”

“And why is that?” Sebastian couldn’t stop himself from asking. But if he was going to pretend to be her boyfriend, he needed to know if there was something about her that repelled men. From where he was standing, he didn’t see a thing wrong with her. She was beautiful, well-spoken, poised and polished. Aside from the slight hint of desperation in her voice, she seemed like quite the catch. There had to be something wrong with her.

She shrugged and sort of fidgeted before responding, showing the first sign of vulnerability, which he was glad to see. “Like I said, I don’t have the best taste in men. Things haven’t worked out with anyone I’ve been attracted to since Quentin and I broke up.”

“You can’t find a decent man to go to dinner with you, but you trust me enough to travel across the ocean with you, share a bedroom and make out in front of your friends?” There was a flaw in her logic here. “I could be crazy. Or a criminal. Or married. I could attack you in your sleep or steal your jewelry. The possibilities are endless.”

Harper scoffed at his trepidations. “Honestly, I take that risk on every date I go on in this town. Have you seen the guys on Tinder lately? No...you probably haven’t.” She chuckled. “I know you have a job, you smell nice, you’re handsome and you went along with my lie just now, so you’re easygoing. You’re already a head and shoulders over every date I’ve had in the last six months. If you don’t want to go, or can’t, just say so. But don’t turn it down because you’re concerned about my blatant disregard for my own welfare or poor sense of judgment. My friends are already well aware of that flaw in my character.”

“No, I can go. As of this morning my schedule is amazingly wide open for the next two weeks.” That was an understatement. But was this what he should spend his time doing? He didn’t exactly have a more tempting offer.

“Do you find me physically repulsive?”

Sebastian swallowed hard. “Not at all. To the contrary, you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on in a very long time.”

Harper’s eyes widened a touch at his answer, but she quickly recovered with a sly smile curling her lips. It must have boosted her confidence because she moved a step closer to him, closing the gap until they were nearly touching. “Do you think you’d have trouble pretending to be my lover? Or have a problem kissing me?”

Every muscle in Sebastian’s body tightened as she spoke. The warmth of her body and the scent of her so close caused an instant physical reaction that would answer any of her questions if she bothered to notice. He balled his hands into fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. He’d craved the sensation of touching her again since the moment he’d let her go after the collision.

He shook his head stiffly. “No. I think I can manage that.”

Harper’s gaze never left his. “Okay, great. Are you opposed to a free trip to Europe? You have a passport, right?”

“I have a passport, yes.” It had no stamps in it, but he had one. Finn did most of the travel around the world, schmoozing on behalf of their company. Sebastian kept his nose in his paperwork and schematics, but Finn had made him get a passport anyway.

“Okay. Then I see no reason why you shouldn’t say yes.”

Neither did he. Why was he making this so hard?

It really was a simple thing. He had no reason not to go. All he had to do was walk around Ireland with this stunning woman on his arm. He had no intention of taking her money, but a trip would be a nice distraction without any work on his plate for the next few weeks. What else was he going to do? Finn was right that he could help more people healthy than dead, but taking a break was hard for him. Being a couple thousand miles from his work would make it easier.

“When do you leave for the wedding?”

“Monday afternoon.”

“It’s Friday morning. Three days? Are you serious? Won’t your friend think it odd that you’re suddenly adding a guest to her wedding on such short notice?”

“Not really. I RSVP’d for two. I just needed to find my plus one.”

“You’re cutting it awfully close. Desperate?”

“I prefer to think of it as optimistic.”

“Three days...” he repeated. Something about this whole situation struck him as insane, but there was a fine line between insanity and genius.

“So does your silent resignation mean you’re at least considering coming with me?” Harper grinned wide, her whole expression lighting up with excitement.

It was hard for him to turn her down when she looked at him like that. He wanted her to keep looking at him that way for as long as possible. “Well, yes, I am. I’m just not sure I’ll make a very good boyfriend, fake or otherwise. I’m kinda out of practice.”

“I’m not worried about that.” Harper leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck in an unexpectedly intimate way. His whole body stiffened as she pressed against him. “You know what they say.”

Sebastian took a deep breath and tried to wish away the sudden rush of desire that coursed through his veins as she stood close. It seemed wrong to react like this to a woman he’d just met, despite how easily she was able to coax it out of him. “What’s th-that?” He stuttered in his response, something he hadn’t done since elementary school. She had managed to get under his skin so quickly.

“Practice makes perfect.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard that.”

Harper frowned, lowered her arms and looked down to where his hands were tensely curled at his sides. She took them in her own and moved each one to rest at the curve of her hips. “Relax, Sebastian. I’m not going to bite. We’ve got to be a lot more comfortable touching each other if we’re going to convince anyone we’re really together.”

He splayed his fingers across her denim-clad hips and pressed the tips into the ample flesh there. With her so close, he wanted to lean down and kiss her. Her full, pouting lips and wide, innocent eyes seemed to plead for it. Indulging seemed like the natural thing to do. She felt good against him. Perhaps too good for the middle of Neiman Marcus. There was definitely not going to be a problem faking attraction with Harper. The problem would be pretending that the attraction wasn’t real when no one was watching.

“I’ll go,” he blurted out, almost surprising himself.

Harper stiffened in his arms, looking up at him with a smile that was hesitant to believe him. “Are you serious?”

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, I’m serious. I’ll go to Ireland with you as your fake boyfriend.”

With a squeal of excitement, Harper hugged him tight. Before he could prepare himself, she pressed her mouth to his. He was certain it was supposed to be a quick, thank-you peck, but once their lips touched, there was no pulling away.

Sebastian wasn’t imagining the palpable sexual energy between them. The way Harper curved against his body and opened her mouth to him was proof of that. He wanted to take it further, to see how powerful their connection really was, but this was neither the time nor the place, so he pulled away while he still could.

Harper lingered close, a rosy flush highlighting her cheeks. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Would you care to walk me to my apartment? I don’t live far.”

“I can’t.” He wanted to—quite badly—but he got the feeling it was an invitation better declined at the moment if they were going to spend the next week together. Things could get weird before they even left.

Harper pulled away just enough to let a chill of air rush in where the heat of her body had been. “Why not?”

He picked up the wallet he’d set down on a display when he’d spoken with Quentin. “I still have to buy this.”

A light of amusement lit her eyes. “You’re so literal. I can wait while you check out.”

It would be so easy to say yes. He took a deep breath and thought up another valid reason. “I also have some things to take care of if I’m going with you on Monday.”

Harper pouted for a moment before she nodded and covered her disappointment with a smile. “Okay. Well, I’m going out with my girlfriends tomorrow, but how about we get together on Sunday night? We can get to know each other a little better before we get on the plane.”

“At your apartment?”

“A bar is probably a better idea. Being you’re a stranger and all, right?”

He breathed a sigh of relief. He could avoid temptation in a bar. Once they got to Ireland, he wasn’t so sure. “That sounds good.”

“Give me your phone.”

Sebastian handed over his cell phone and Harper put her information into his contacts.

“Text me so I have your information, too. We’ll get together Sunday.”

With a smile and a wave, Harper handed over his phone and disappeared from the store. Sebastian watched her walk away and, with every step she took, was more and more convinced that he was making a big mistake.

* * *

“I know that we’re leaving Monday and I should probably be packing or getting ready, but I really needed one last girls’ night before we go.” Violet eased back into the sofa cushions with a large glass of wine in her hand. “Why didn’t any of you tell me how stressful weddings could be?”

“Well, Oliver and I eloped, so it wasn’t stressful at all,” Lucy said. “Besides, in the end it’s just a party. Now, nine-month-old twins...that’s stressful.”

Harper chuckled at her new sister-in-law’s observation. The twins—Alice and Christian—were little darlings, but the minute they started walking, she got the feeling they would be tiny tornadoes of destruction. Especially Alice. She was a little spitfire, like her namesake, their great-great-aunt Alice.

“No one said you had to fly all your friends and family halfway around the world to get married,” Harper pointed out, taking a sip of her wine. “You could’ve had a ridiculously expensive and over-the-top affair here in Manhattan like Emma did.”

Emma came into the room with a frown pulling down the corners of her flawlessly painted rose lips. “My wedding was not over the top. It was small and tasteful.”

Harper arched an eyebrow and laughed. “You may have only had thirty people there, but I’d hardly classify it as small and tasteful.”

“I had a beautiful reception.”

“You had an ice vodka luge,” Harper challenged.

Emma twisted her lips and sighed. “That was Jonah’s thing. He insisted.” She settled beside Violet on the couch. “And it would’ve been ten times bigger if my mother’d had her way. You saw what she did with my baby shower. But seriously, don’t stress too badly about the wedding, Vi. It’s in Ireland. In a castle! It will be beautiful, I promise.”

“It will,” Lucy chimed in. “You’ve got an amazing wedding planner who has it under control. The best in the city. All you need to do is show up and marry the love of your life. That’s easy.”

Violet smiled. “You’re right. Aidan has told me the same thing a dozen times. I just can’t stop stressing out about every little detail. In a week from today I’ll be Mrs. Aidan Murphy! Have I forgotten something?”

“If you have, it doesn’t really matter. As long as both of you show up, say I do and sign your license with a qualified officiant, you’ll be married at the end of the day. Everything else is just details,” Emma said.

Violet nodded. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I just need to say it until I believe it. What about you guys? Are you packed and ready to leave yet?”

The women around the coffee table nodded. “Everything is ready. Just a few more things to throw in the luggage before we go. We’re leaving the twins with Oliver’s dad,” Lucy said. “That’s the biggest stressor for me. I haven’t been away from them since they were born, but there’s no way I’m flying overseas with twins at that age.

“Knox is older than the twins, so I’m hoping he does okay on the flight. It will be his first,” Violet explained. “I couldn’t leave him behind, though. It seems wrong to marry his father without having him there.”

“Of course. I’m sure he’ll do great. Georgette is staying with my parents, but they’ll have her nanny with them, so I’m not worried.” Emma turned to Harper. “What about you? Are you ready to go? At least you don’t have men and kids to wrangle before the trip. I almost forget what it’s like to just have to worry about myself.”

“Yep,” Harper said. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to tell the story she’d come up with after talking to Sebastian. Her intention was to tell them as little as possible, but she knew she had to fill the girls in on her new beau before the trip. They were the only ones who would really care. If she sold the story to them, everyone else would take it at face value.

Including Quentin. Hopefully. If he didn’t buy it, there was no point in continuing the ruse. This whole ridiculous scheme was designed with the sole purpose of making him believe she had someone in her life. That she wasn’t pathetically single and still pining for him. Because she was anything but pining. She was glad to have Quentin out of her life. He was just too egomaniacal to see her single status as anything other than a reflection of her wishing they were still together.

Selling it to her friends wouldn’t be so easy, though.

“I’ve got the dress, the passport and...uh...the boyfriend all ready to go.” She said the words quickly and then waited for the inevitable response.

Emma, Violet and Lucy all paused as anticipated and turned to look at her. The questions came too fast and furiously for her to respond to any of them.

“What?”

“Your boyfriend?”

“Am I missing something, here?”

Harper winced and nodded when they finally quieted down. “Yeah, um, his name is Sebastian.” She got up to refill her wine and stall the conversation a moment. She was going to need some alcohol to get through this conversation. When she came back into the room from the kitchen, the girls were sitting frozen in place with expectant looks on their faces. “He’s the guy I’ve been seeing for a few months.”

“Months?” Violet wailed. “You’ve been seeing a guy for months and didn’t think to mention it to us?”

“You guys have all been busy with your own lives. Babies, weddings...” Harper explained. “And, to be honest, I didn’t want to jinx it. It wasn’t that serious at first and I got tired of mentioning guys to you all and then we didn’t get past the third date. Things were going well, so I wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. Just in case.”

“And now you’re ready to talk? ’Cause you’re sure as hell going to give us every detail,” Lucy sassed.

Harper shrugged. Not really, but the time had come to spill some information if she was going to pull this off. “I guess I have to if I want to bring him on the trip.”

“I noticed you RSVP’d for two, but you left off the guest’s name,” Violet said. “I was wondering what that meant.”

“Yeah, I was hopeful that things would work out for him to come,” Harper continued to lie, noting that after pretending she had money for a decade, pretending to have a boyfriend wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be. “But if it fell apart between us, I thought I might bring a friend. Or no one. But things are great and so Sebastian is coming. I’ll give you his information to add to the travel manifest.”

“I’m eager to meet him,” Emma said. “And intrigued. You haven’t really had much luck dating since you and Quentin broke up. Where did you two meet? He’s not one of your Tinder finds, is he?”

“Oh, no. Those were a mess. I actually met Sebastian at one of the hospital fund-raisers this winter. The one raising money for the orthopedics center, I think.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie. They had met there. They just hadn’t started dating. “He works with medical equipment. He can tell you more about all that. Anyway, we hit it off and he asked me to dinner. Things have just sort of progressed from there.”

“Wait,” Violet said, sitting at attention on the sofa. “We were all at that fund-raiser. Do we know him? Sebastian who?”

“Sebastian West.” Harper was suddenly nervous that maybe they did know him. She and Sebastian hadn’t gotten together to talk yet, so she ran the risk of getting caught not knowing something obvious about him if any of the girls knew who he was. Quentin had recognized his name and company, so it was a possibility.

Thankfully none of them perked up at hearing his full name. “I doubt any of you know him. He spends more time working than socializing. He’s super smart. I’m excited for you all to meet him.” She grinned wide and hoped she was selling her story.

“We’re all excited,” Violet echoed as her eyes narrowed at Harper in suspicion. “I can’t wait for Monday.”

Harper took a large sip of her wine and nodded with feigned enthusiasm. “Me neither.”

Three

Sunday evening Sebastian arrived at the bar a full fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet Harper. He wasn’t particularly anxious about their meeting, but he couldn’t stand just sitting around his apartment any longer. He’d sat there for the last two days trying to fill the hours. Without work, he found he had far too many minutes on his hands.

He’d spent as long as he could packing and preparing for the trip. He’d taken his clothes and his tuxedo to the cleaner. He’d carefully collected his toiletries and underthings, but that had taken only a few hours out of his newfound free time.

Sebastian had tried reading a book. He’d watched some television. Both had bored him after a short while. By Sunday afternoon he’d had nothing to do but pace around his apartment and wish away the hours. He wasn’t sure how he’d get through the next two weeks if he hadn’t met Harper and had this trip to Ireland fall into his lap. He might just go insane. How was that supposed to improve his health? Mentally weak but physically strong? What good was that?

When his watch showed it was almost time to meet Harper, he’d rushed out the door. He’d taken a table in a quiet corner, ordered himself a gin and tonic with lime—ignoring doctor’s orders—and awaited her arrival with his notebook open to read over some notes. He carried it almost everywhere he went, writing down ideas and schematics when they popped into his head. He’d learned the hard way that he could lose the spark of inspiration if he didn’t immediately capture it.