Marrying My Fake Boyfriend

It was a pity to make the conditions where they were not allowed to sleep with each other but Cherrelle could go with that. For now, the gorgeous strip of man candy was hers to do as she chose.

It wasn’t until she got to her car that she remembered that she had given Sarah a lift to the hall and was supposed to have driven her home. Cherrelle felt the flush of embarrassment when she saw Sarah leaning against the car texting away on her cell phone.

“Sorry,” she mumbled as she fumbled in her bag for her keys. “I got a little side-tracked.”

“I noticed from the way you ran out of here.” Sarah looked up and grinned. “He’s hot.”

“I know.” Cherrelle smiled back and unlocked the car, walking around to the driver’s side. “That should make it easier on the eye for me. I’ve picked him to be the fake boyfriend. And he’s accepted.”

“For how much?”

“Nothing he doesn’t need.” Cherrelle opened her door. “And nothing I can’t afford.”

She got behind the wheel. Sarah climbed in her side and they shut the doors, buckling up before Sarah spoke.

“Do you want a background check?” she asked.

“He’s friends with Jim.” But Cherrelle paused. She knew Jim well enough to have gone into this without a check if it had been him. But she hadn’t seen Brad for several years and even then they didn’t really know each other. “While he may be a solid character reference for Brad, I just want to be sure.”

“No problem.”

Cherrelle started the car and drove them out the parking lot, turning towards Sarah’s home. They were halfway there when Sarah spoke again, staring out the window. “I had a message from an employee while we were playing. I called him just now. He said someone wanted a background check on Jason Colney before they went through on a merger with him. Because of my recent interest in him, he passed the information on. While Colney is clear for now, he has been talking a lot about getting his hands on your company. However, he’s not sure whether to shut it down altogether or sell it to the highest bidder.”

Cherrelle’s hands tightened on the wheel. The bas*ard dared to…

She wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Well, I’m not going to give him a chance,” she said firmly. “Life and Love is my baby. He’s not getting his grubby hands on it.”

“Good luck with that.” Sarah glanced at Cherrelle with a cheeky grin. “When you’ve finished with Brad, could you direct him my way?”

Cherrelle laughed, but it was hollow. Somehow passing Brad to Sarah, no matter how strong their friendship was, felt stomach-turning. Suddenly, she didn’t want to pass him on to anyone.

She just wanted him for herself.

*****

Brad rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He could hear the rain pattering outside, but it didn’t lull him into sleep. Instead, it chose to keep him awake and enable him to churn over the evening’s events.

He had become a puppet for a rich woman. While it was Cherrelle and she was the most down-to-earth woman he knew with more than eight figures in her bank account, she was still a rich woman. One of the elite. It didn’t sit well with him that he had virtually prostituted himself for her whims.

He did feel like a prostitute. There was no s*x involved, but it was an intimate thing and he had been paid with more to come. It didn’t sit well with him. He preferred to get his money with his own hard work, not asking people for it. That went against his pride. And it was severely dented for having accepted this deal.

But, on the other hand, it did make them better off. Cherrelle got the man she hated off her back and her parents to leave her alone and he got $100,000 to help pull him out of debt. It was a win-win situation.

That didn’t stop him feel dirty, however.

Finding that sleep wouldn’t come when he had turmoil in his mind, Brad rolled onto his stomach and reached for his cell, taking it off the charger. He needed someone to talk to right now, someone to ground him.

Jim picked up on the fourth ring, his voice thick with sleep. “Yeah?”

“It’s me.”

“Brad?” He heard a rustling and voices. He figured Paige had woken up and Jim was urging her back to sleep. “It’s two in the morning.”

“Sorry, I needed to talk to someone.”

“Then talk. Where did you go? I thought we were going to get some food after the game.”

“Something came up.” Brad propped an arm under his head and stared at the ceiling. “Cherrelle approached me and gave me a proposition.”

“Cherrelle did?” Jim sounded surprised. “That’s a new one. She doesn’t proposition anyone.”

“Does anyone proposition her?”

“All the time. She knocks them back.”

The thought of Cherrelle being propositioned didn’t sit well in Brad’s stomach. He didn’t like thinking about Cherrelle with other men. He shook his head. This facade was all it was – a facade. He shouldn’t have any feelings towards her beyond friendship.

There could be nothing more as Cherrelle had pointed out.

“What could she have propositioned you for?”

“She asked me to pretend to be her fiancé.” Saying it out loud did sound stupid. But at the same time it felt good.

There was stunned silence at the other end for a moment before Jim found his voice. “Pretend? I didn’t realize she needed one.”

“Her parents have arranged for her to be married to a man she doesn’t like and will likely steal what she owns, so she’s been looking for someone to pretend to be engaged to her to get him off her back.”

“She should’ve asked me.” Jim coughed and Brad heard a snarl that didn’t come from his friend. Jim laughed. “Then again, that might be a problem since Paige would object to that.”

“Quite.” Brad laughed.

Paige was deeply in love with Jim. She had been since university, but Jim hadn’t noticed until the last two years. While she and Cherrelle were friends, she wouldn’t be happy lending her boyfriend out.

“Don’t tell me you agreed to her terms.”

“Of course I did.”

Jim sighed. “You’re playing with fire, Brad. Logan Mason is a force to be reckoned with.”

“I can handle him.” Brad hadn’t met a man he couldn’t handle. He was confident he could win the father over.

“While he’s not a best judge of character, you shouldn’t take him for a fool. He would be able to see right through your lies.”

“I’m good at getting people to believe me.”

“When selling cars, yes. But not a billionaire who is distrustful of everyone around him.” Jim sounded uncertain. It was beginning to rub a bit on Brad, but the more he thought about the plan, the more he grew confident. He still felt dirty and used, but that would go away in time

He hoped.

“Cherrelle has faith it will work,” he said confidently. “And I’m sure it will as well.”

Jim was quiet for a while. Finally he sighed in defeat. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Brad.”

“Cherrelle gets her parents off her back. And I get money in exchange for helping her.” Brad checked the nails on his free hand. “Win-win.”

Jim chuckled dryly. “You always knew how to charm the ladies.”

“Just wish me luck.”

“You won’t need it. Not when it comes to women.”

“Maybe I do this time.” Brad swallowed as his body twitched with arousal, remembering Cherrelle as she walked away from him, swaying her hips in her usual sassy attitude. “Cherrelle doesn’t want s*x. Just the knowledge that she’s attached and not available for a forced marriage.”

He could almost see Jim smiling. “Then you’ve got your work cut out. You do need luck.”