Full Release: A Fake Marriage Romance (Playing Pretend Book 1) Read online

  “Yes, you are. You always have to dress to impress. You never know who you are going to run into on any particular day.” Tegan pressed on. “You’d know these things if you bothered to leave your apartment more often.”

  “I don’t want to, that’s my point. I am happy being the way I am and if I have to be who I am by myself, then so be it. I’m single by choice, and I refuse to settle for some meathead who only likes me because of the dress I’m wearing.” I huffed. That wasn’t entirely true.

  “No one is single by choice, dear. If you ever find yourself single, then there must be something wrong especially if a person chooses to be single.”

  “No, there isn’t. There is nothing wrong with being single.” I argued.

  “Stop trying to distract me from finding you something to wear. Keep searching the racks and no more grandma or whore dresses.”

  “Fine, I’ll try harder.” I huffed and walked away to mill through as many racks as I could find as fast as possible. I figured if I saw something decent quickly, we could end this silliness sooner rather than later.

  Ten minutes later, Tegan and I met up in front of the women’s dressing room area with a few select pieces in hand. We walked into the first empty room we could find and locked the door.

  “Let’s take a look at what you found first,” Tegan suggested.

  “Why do I have to go first?”

  “You have to go first because it gives me the ability to say no to all of your suggestions faster.”

  “Who’s to say that I found only ugly dresses? I do have some fashion sense.” I tooted my own horn.

  “Yeah, if we were still living in the eighties but since we are not, you don’t get to pat yourself on the back.” Tegan rolled her eyes. “Well, let’s take a look at what you have. I hope you prove me wrong.”

  I hung up the dresses that were draped over my arm on the built-in hooks in the dressing room that we were in, “So, what do you think? I picked up some good ones huh?”

  I wanted to give myself a nice pat on the back despite Tegan’s comments because I was so proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone and I picked some very feminine and chic outfits.

  Tegan, on the other hand, had a concerned look on her face that turned into a contemplative scowl at one point. The way she was reacting didn’t look too good, and I got the feeling that she was about to deflate my emotions and rip my ideas to shreds.

  “No, no and no. This one is a definite no and…”

  Yep, I was right. She didn’t like any of the dresses I picked out. I didn’t understand Tegan sometimes. My picks weren’t that bad at least not in the least bit, and I would be surprised if anyone had half a mind to complain about them.

  “Wait a minute. Wait one, fucking minute. This one at the end might actually look good on you, and it almost fits exactly what I thought for you to wear. Well, almost.”

  She couldn’t give me credit, could she? “So, what I actually hear from you is that I did a good job.” I beamed.

  “Barely,” Tegan smirked. “I mean, it wouldn’t have been my top choice as you can see but I know you, and I know you don’t want to wear anything that makes you seem even remotely ladylike or feminine but its sexy enough to do the trick.”

  “I’m taking your long-winded acknowledgment as a compliment, so thank you.”

  “You’ll be thanking me, even more, tomorrow morning after you had a night with some hot stud you’re going to take home to fuck your brains out. You really do need a good lay.”

  “Whoa, I’m not going to do anything of the sort. I don’t want to take a strange man home especially after only knowing him for a couple of hours. You know that has never been my style.” I emphasized.

  “Maybe it should be your new style because frankly, your way of doing things obviously hasn’t worked in like, forever. If it had, you wouldn’t be in the situation you are currently in.”

  “What situation is that exactly?” I asked.

  “It is the kind of situation where you stay home all day, every single day typing on your little computer. The kind of situation where you aren’t having a lot of nasty sex with some hunk and when we go out, I have to practically spend an hour or two dragging you out or at least convincing you to because you’d rather stay home to watch sappy romantic comedies with a pint of ice cream.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with staying home or eating Rocky Road ice cream.”

  “There isn’t if you want to be a spinster for the rest of your entire life,” Tegan remarked. “Look, I’m not asking you to be like Janet, the whore next door, but with that dress, you’ll have a lot more fun than you are having right now. That dress is perfect because it’ll show enough skin to draw any man’s attention. Tonight is about unshackling yourself from your daily life.”

  “I like my life the way it is.”

  “Can you honestly stand there in this dressing room and look me in the eye and tell me that you are completely satisfied with the way your life as gone? Are you 100% satisfied with the way things are now and can honestly say that you don’t wish you had someone to spend the rest of your life with?” Tegan asked.

  “I thought you said you wanted me to have a lot of nasty sex.”

  “I did. How else are you going to find the love of your life? The way to win a man over is always with one of two things: good sex or good food. If you can give him both, he’s yours for life. I know you’re already a good cook August, all you need to do is improve the good sex part, but no one is going to want to go home with you if you look like a librarian all the time and not even the sexy fantasy kind of librarian.”

  “Okay, I get it. I’ll try harder and listen to everything you say, maybe.” I relented.

  I gave in again. Big surprise.

  “Great! Now, let’s plan the rest of your look.”

  Chapter Three

  COLTON

  There were many times in my life where I could have taken off at the drop of a hat and traveled around the world for the next year or so and when I returned, everything would still be where I had left it. When I was younger, I was more apt to make those types of decisions and take those types of risks with minimal repercussions because I had nothing to lose because I had everything to gain.

  Becoming a billionaire at twenty years old was a dream come true for me, I had more money than I could ever want or imagine. You’d think I was still jet-setting around the world and living it up at some dance club overseas, but that was far from the reality I was currently living in.

  While it was true that I was still jet-setting around the world, but it was only to attend business functions. You would never find me in a dance club getting it on with the first woman that I set my sights on.

  It wasn’t like that because, by the time I graduated from high school, I married the love of my life, Karen. I know it was silly to think I was mature enough to get married so young and that we’d be together forever, but in some ways, it was the primary reason as to why I became so wealthy at such a young age.

  I made my initial fortune making risky choices in the stock market with whatever money I had left over from the two jobs I had at the time. It was supposed to be for our honeymoon, but I was determined to make a life for Karen, our future children and me. I learned quickly that I was really good at playing the stock market and I spent every dollar I saved despite Karen’s worries. I insisted I knew what I was doing and that it was for us. It was always for us.

  When I hit my first million, I played it smart and invested most of what I earned into carefully chosen and diversified investments, studied to become a financial advisor who encouraged me to start my own business years later. Now I’m a billionaire.

  I never imagined that I would be where I was today considering that I lost my parents when I was only ten years old and quickly became a part of the system. I didn’t have any siblings I could rely on because I was an only child and my friends were always too busy with whoever their current significant other was.

&n
bsp; These days I was a single father of a six-year-old son named Chris who was a complete handful. He reminded me so much of her because of his wild streak and when Karen was alive, raising Chris seemed so much easier. She always seemed to know what to do and how to calm him down. She had the magic touch, and I didn’t. How could I?

  I never knew what to do most days because I spent most of his childhood in the office working late hours. I wished there was a manual somewhere that I could refer to and just automatically understand what he wanted. I wanted to be the child whisperer like Karen was, until she was killed in a tragic car accident.

  Taking care of my son and balancing my work schedule on my own had proven to be very difficult. I wasn’t cut out for this, and I had been thinking more and more lately that I needed a live-in nanny because I was getting behind in my workload and I couldn’t keep working at home forever, even if I was the CEO.

  Chris needed more attention than what I could give him, and I felt guilty that I was actually considering live-in help, but I couldn’t take care of what was needed at work and worry about his safety at the same time. Not to mention that he looks like the male version of Karen. From her hair color to her cute button nose and the way she smiled. He had the same smirk she used to give me when she was pleased and at peace.

  I miss her every day, but I couldn’t afford to relive the pain over and over again. Some would say I was weak using work and having a drink every day to run away from the pain of losing her, but until you lose the love of your life and suddenly find yourself a single father, then no one could say a god damn thing about it. Besides, I called it being smart because I was tired of hurting and you can’t blame me for not wanting to escape for a little while, at least until I found a solution for myself.

  “Hey Chris, are you hungry? It’s lunchtime, buddy.” I called out as I finished reviewing some profit and loss statements my team emailed me. I was working from home today because I had forgotten that Chris has a student free day at his school and I couldn’t find a babysitter at the last minute no matter how much I was willing to pay.

  “Chris, buddy?”

  He didn’t answer the second time around, and as I got up and walked over to his bedroom where I last saw him playing on his bedroom floor, I realized he was no longer there. His toys were, however. I felt myself go from zero to panic in two seconds flat when the idea of Chris playing a one-sided game of hiding and seek with me didn’t seem like a plausible explanation.

  Was his bedroom window always open? The hairs on the back of my arms stood on end with the realization that Chris was there one second and now he’s gone, and I didn’t know where he disappeared to.

  “Chris? Chris!” I called out. I heard a faint whimpering, but I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from, and I ran outside to his bedroom balcony. “Chris, where are you, buddy?”

  I heard the faint whimpering again, but this time I looked down and found Chris on the ground, eight feet below me on the backyard trampoline.

  “I’m coming, buddy!” I quickly ran downstairs towards the backyard trampoline to find Chris in agonizing pain. “Don’t worry buddy, I’m going to take you to the hospital, and the doctors will make you feel all better.”

  It practically killed me to see him in pain and to hear his cries. I felt completely helpless, and it was my fault that he fell off the balcony and in the fact that I didn’t do a better job at making sure he wasn’t able to get out onto the balcony. I just had to move him to the bedroom that had a balcony and a door to it that he was old enough to open by himself. I was selfish that’s why.

  I made work so much of a priority that I moved him into the bedroom closest to my home office. I risked his safety so that I could work and watch him at the same time believing nothing would happen to him but the worst possible thing happened to him because I stopped paying attention to what he was doing.

  I drove as fast as I could to the closest hospital, and I rushed him into the Emergency Room, and the doctor and nurses on staff admitted him in quickly. I wanted to go with him to ease his fears and cries, but the doctor said that I needed to stay in the waiting room for a little bit while they took care of him. They insisted that I could see him afterword and that I’d just only add to the chaos.

  I didn’t protest much because I didn’t want to do anything that would prohibit him from getting the best care he could possibly get. Out of obligation, I took the opportunity to let Karen’s parents know as much as I didn’t want to. They didn’t like me and would only blame me again for another thing I fucked up for them.

  They never liked me because I took their daughter away from them at such a young age and they really didn’t like the fact that as much as Karen wanted children right away, I made her wait years before I warmed up to the idea of having any. I told her from the beginning that I wanted to focus on my career first and get to the particular stage in my career before we decided to bring another life into the world.

  It didn’t matter what Karen and I chose to do with our lives, her parents blamed me for everything. I’m pretty sure they blamed me for her death too. She had gotten into a car accident on the way back from the mall because she spent the past couple of hours finding me the perfect birthday gift. They believed that if I didn't mention to Karen that the only thing that I wanted were these custom graphite golf clubs, she would have bought something else for me and wouldn’t have been on the road that particular day.

  “Where is Chris?” my father-in-law Jerry Williams shouted as he walked briskly down the hospital hallway half an hour later, followed by my mother in law Ruth, startling me from my thoughts.

  “He’s getting looked at by the ER doctor on duty, I’ve already notified his primary,” I explained.

  “What in the hell happened to him?” Ruth glared at me.

  “I don’t know. I think he fell off the balcony in his bedroom and landed on the trampoline in our backyard.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know and you think?” Jerry questioned.

  “I didn’t see it happen, I was in my office working.”

  “Instead of watching our grandson?” Jerry grilled me.

  “I was taking care of some important work. Chris was fine, he was playing with his toys. No one could have predicted he’d find a way to open the sliding window and fall off the balcony!” I argued.

  Why was I even bothering defending myself? It wasn’t any of their business what I was doing with my life and how I raised my son.

  “It’s common sense, Colton! I knew this would happen.” Ruth paced around.

  “We knew from the first time we met you that you were going to ruin this family. Not only did you ruin Karen’s life, we knew that it was a bad idea for her to want to have children with you. You have no idea how to take care of a child, you care more about yourself than anyone else! With Karen gone, you’re even worse than before!” Fred spat.

  I don’t even know what came over me, but it must have been all of the comments and insults they have spat at me for years adding up including what they said right now that sent me over the edge. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed Fred by the throat and shoved him back against the nearest wall.

  “Don’t you dare accuse me of being a bad father or insinuate that I ruined Karen’s life! Despite what you two think, we were in love, and she never regretted choosing me to spend the rest of her life with. If I ever hear you say that the life we built or the life Karen and I created together which includes Chris was a mistake, I will…” I threatened before I realized all of the hospital staff in the ER department, as well as the families of other patients, stared at me with shock and confusion.

  Shit. I quickly let go of my father in law and instead of feeling afraid or threatened he had a fucking smile on his face.

  “You just sealed your fate buddy. You just proved to the whole world that you are a good-for-nothing son of a bitch who was never good enough for our daughter despite what you think. By the way, if you think that we are just going to walk on ou
t of here and allow our grandson to be put at risk, you have another thing coming. You’ll hear from us again.” Fred threatened as he adjusted his jacket.

  “Humph.” Ruth agreed as they walked out of the ER with smug looks on their faces. “We will see our grandson again.”

  “Shit.” I exhaled as I pounded the nearest wall. I reminded myself that I needed to learn to cool off before I get into any more situations because of them. I needed to go for a walk and headed towards the opposite direction that Fred and Ruth left in.

  Chapter Four

  AUGUST

  It retook some convincing, but I finally gave into Tegan’s whimsical idea of a girl’s night out. She was right in some respects, I had been cooped up for way too long and was accustomed to being a hermit that spent all of her days writing love stories but wasn’t out there living my own.

  How could I expect readers to believe a romance novel I’ve written between two characters if I haven’t found my next great love in my own life. I felt like a big, fat fraud.

  The advantage of going along with Tegan was that it could give me inspiration for my next novel but who was I kidding? Who would meet the perfect man in a club like Vixen?

  Vixen was one of the hottest clubs in town and was also known for having the sexiest men on the dance floor, every single night. Women came from miles away just to get a taste of the exclusive club and somehow Tegan was able to get us into it without any hang-ups.

  It wasn’t until after eleven o’clock when we arrived at Vixen and I usually protest such a late night but I was already here, and it was too late to leave. Besides, Tegan was the designated driver, and there was no way she was going to allow me to skip out at the last minute. She was determined to get me out of the house and push me onto the first hot guy that she saw. That is if she didn’t try and steal him for herself but we had completely different tastes in men.

  “Come on, let’s hit the dance floor first. We’ll definitely find some hot guys there that know how to move.” Tegan suggested.