The Boyfriend Arrangement. Andrea Laurence
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messy, public breakup, it had been another lesson hard learned. She hadn’t even considered dating for six months after they’d ended due to the trauma of the whole thing.
“Well, who’s the lucky guy? Do I know him? I look forward to meeting him at the wedding.”
A name. She needed a name. Harper’s mind went completely blank. Looking around the department store, her gaze fell on Sebastian as he perused a nearby display of dress loafers.
“You can meet him now. Sebastian, honey, could you come over here for a minute? I’d like you to meet someone.”
Sebastian arched his brow inquisitively at Harper as she mouthed the word “please” silently to him. He wandered over to where she was standing. “Yes, dear?”
“Sebastian, this is my ex, Quentin Stuart. I’ve mentioned him, haven’t I? Anyway, I was just telling him about the two of us going to Ireland for Violet and Aidan’s wedding.”
Quentin stuck out his hand to Sebastian. “Nice to meet you, Sebastian...?”
“West. Sebastian West.” He shook Quentin’s hand and quickly pulled his away.
“Sebastian West as in BioTech?”
“Actually, yes.”
Harper didn’t recognize the name of the company, but then again she didn’t know much about Sebastian because they weren’t really dating. She remembered a brief discussion at a party about him working in medical supplies and how he didn’t get out very much. She’d figured he’d sold wheelchairs and hospital beds or something. Maybe she’d been wrong. Quentin wasn’t the type to waste brain power on remembering things that didn’t impress him.
“Wow, Harper. Quite the catch you’ve got in this one.” An uncomfortable expression flickered across his face and quickly disappeared. “Well, I’ve got to run. I was on my way to meet Josie and I’m already late. I’ll see you two lovebirds on the plane to Dublin. I look forward to speaking with you some more, Sebastian.”
Harper watched Quentin walk out of the store. Once he was gone, her face dropped into her hands. She just knew she was bright red with embarrassment. “I am so sorry,” she muttered through her fingers.
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?”
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