Marrying My Fake Boyfriend

“It seems Cherrelle has actually come up with a genuine boyfriend, Emily,” he said brazenly.

“Oh, how lovely.” The woman graciously nodded her head at Brad. “I’m Emily Mason.”

“Brad Jarrett.” Brad gave her a small bow. Cherrelle’s hand ran down his arm and linked his fingers with hers. It felt good holding her hands, almost natural. Brad hoped they would do a lot of hand-holding.

Would make up for the no-s*x rule.

“He went to Princeton with Cherrelle,” Logan added with an evident sneer. “They haven’t seen each other since.”

“Really?” Emily’s face said she was interested but her tone of voice said otherwise. She was completely bored. “What did you study, Brian?”

“Brad. And I studied architecture.”

“So, you’re an architect?”

“I’m actually a car dealer. It was my father’s business,” he added when he saw the confusion in their faces. “But when he got sick with cancer, he couldn’t do as much as he wanted. So, I volunteered to take over.”

“Really?” Logan pounced on that. “Is business going well?”

Brad met his gaze. He wasn’t going to admit out loud that things were in the toilet. While Logan might be able to find that out on a background check, he wasn’t prepared to give them ammunition to throw him out immediately.

“As well as can be expected in current economic climate,” he said evenly.

Cherrelle squeezed his hand and jumped in, giving her father a smile that looked strained. “Things are great, Pa.”

Then a door banged loudly somewhere in the house. A few moments later, a young girl in her late teens came sauntering into the room carrying an armful of bags. She was petite and lighter skinned than the rest of her family, her hair in long braids down to her waist, and she was wearing big sunglasses with a strapless red dress that ended several inches above her knee. She was pretty but young. Very young.

“Sorry, I’m late. The shops were packed this morning. And it’s meant to be Sunday!” She dumped the bags into an armchair and turned to face them. Brad knew when he had been spotted because she paused and slowly took off her sunglasses, giving him an approving once over. “Well, hello. Where did you come from?”

“This is our younger daughter, Serena.” Logan sounded almost bored. “Brad Jarrett, Cherrelle’s boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” Serena snorted, tossing her sunglasses onto the coffee table. “Come off it. He’s only around for the money. Every other man hasn’t blinked twice when they got what they wanted.”

“Nice to see you, too, Serena,” Cherrelle said acidly.

Serena sent an insincere smile at her half-sister before she sauntered up to Brad. Brad resisted the urge to move away as she came up close to him, her bre*sts brushing up against his chest. She smiled saucily up at him.

“Why don’t you walk away as well, Brad?” she asked softly. “Cherrelle’s an uptight bi*ch and you won’t get a good time in bed. Now, me, on the other hand…” She dropped her voice to a whisper as she leaned in. “I can make you scream.”

That made Brad nauseous. He finally took a step back. “Aren’t you a little young to be talking like that?” he asked.

“I’m eighteen.” Serena sounded like she didn’t consider it a big deal. “I’m above the age of consent.”

“Barely. And I’ve never heard of virgins talking like that.”

Brad glanced at Logan and was surprised to see the malicious glint in his eyes. Then he figured what was going on; Logan and Serena were conspiring to see if Brad would succumb to another woman’s advances so Cherrelle would be free again for Logan and Emily’s plans.

It was incredibly brazen to do that in front of Cherrelle, and Brad wasn’t prepared to let them have the satisfaction. Plus an eighteen-year-old coming on to him made him feel like a dirty old man.

He put his arm around Cherrelle and pressed a kiss to her temple. Then Cherrelle turned her head and brushed a kiss across his jaw. The gentle brushed of her lips zinged like sparks through Brad, and he swallowed as his body responded.

“I prefer the more womanly type, not little kids.” Brad leveled a challenging gaze at the now pouting girl. “Satisfied?”

Serena looked annoyed. Logan looked like he was about to say something, but Emily stood hurriedly, smoothing down her skirt.

“Well, this is nice. Let’s see if dinner’s ready yet.”

Brad didn’t start breathing until Serena moved away from him, holding Cherrelle close to him as they went into the dining room.

What had he got himself into?