1: 1

After I entered a fake marriage with my childhood-friend nemesis Nicholas Rowe, we laid down three rules:

No sleeping together, no interfering in each other's lives, and whenever either family needed it, we'd play the perfect couple without question.

He got caught traveling the world with his first love, so I covered for him.

"Mom, Dad, that's my distant cousin!"

I got photographed at a nightclub picking out a male model, so he stepped in and cleaned it up.

"I'm that male model. I was just trying out a different line of work!"

Then, recently, I fell for a perfect man online. "Baby, I want to see your size."

He caught on instantly.

The second I saw it, my eyes went wide.

And while I was admiring the view, I suddenly spotted the logo on the men's briefs I'd designed for Nicholas Rowe.

One of a kind in the entire world, and he'd nearly worn them to shreds.

My online boyfriend...

Was my shameless fake husband?!

...

The phone hit the floor with a clatter, right as Nicholas came out of the bathroom and saw.

The corner of his mouth curved, the faintest hint of a smile.

"Oh? What are you looking at? So careless of you."

He was already bending down to pick it up.

"Wait!"

I stopped him at once.

If he saw that his online sweetheart was me, and that I'd been staring at that part of him...

How mortifying would that be?

I snatched the phone off the floor in a flash.

Then I plastered on a fake smile and bit out each word. "None. Of. Your. Business!"

He rolled his eyes. "Tch."

His parents had come over today.

So we were stuck sharing a room.

I got the bed, he got the floor.

But the moment I closed my eyes, all I could see was that tempting thing in the photo...

Then a thought hit me. If Nicholas was falling for me online, what about his first love, Penny Carver?

Now I was intrigued.

"You haven't been seeing Penny Carver lately?"

"No. She quit and moved back home. Why are you bringing her up?"

Penny and I had gone to school with Nicholas, from high school all the way through college.

After graduation, she'd become Nicholas's secretary, following him all over the world.

Later the rumors that she was sleeping with him kept getting worse, and I rushed to cover for the two of them.

I even explained it to Nicholas's parents myself. "Mom, Dad, that's my distant cousin. You can rest easy!"

Only I knew they'd secretly been together for a long time, that I was the one who'd wedged myself into their relationship in the first place.

Nicholas and I were a perfect match. Our families arranged our engagement when we were kids. Marrying him was my destiny.

So I was the one who came up with the "fake marriage" idea, laid down the three rules along with it, and protected everyone's interests.

Nicholas was stunned.

But he went along with it anyway.

The sudden resignation and breakup did surprise me.

It was quite the coincidence, really.

My best friend Mavis Swanson and I had gone to a nightclub to dance and pick out male models, and we'd gotten a little carried away.

I held my phone out to one model who was exactly my type and jerked my chin at him. "Hey, handsome, add me?"

He looked eighty percent like Nicholas, that same chiseled, model-perfect face.

Best of all, he was obedient!

Compared to that rebellious Nicholas, they were worlds apart.

He was the sky, Nicholas the mud.

The model wore a flattered little smile. "Sure thing, gorgeous!"

He was just pulling out his phone when a shadow fell over me and a hand yanked my phone back.

I turned. Nicholas was staring at me, eyes blazing.

Behind him, Penny stood clutching a folder, watching me with a complicated look of her own.

That made me angry.

"Nicholas! We agreed a long time ago not to interfere with each other. You want to go back on it?"

Before he could answer, Penny cut in first. "Miss Winslow, an hour ago the paparazzi got a shot of you with your arms around this model. Mr. Rowe came back to put out the fire."

Nicholas shot the model a sidelong glance. "Still here? Get lost."

The model fled.

Mavis stepped up and rounded on Nicholas. "Nicholas! So the rules are only for the little people, not for you?"

His answer was crisp and final. "Correct."

"Anything that touches both our families' interests, no one is allowed. Doesn't matter who."

"Especially not some rotten cucumber!"

I laughed, furious, and pointed at a man not far off, cold as ice but strikingly handsome.

"Fine, no model. Then get me that man's number! And we'll call it even!"

Nicholas lifted his eyes, gave a soft snort, and actually took my phone and added that man...

Meaning my online boyfriend, Job Dickerson.

Oh, no, wait. There'd been a switch.

Switched out for Nicholas himself!

2: 2

Disappointed, sure.

Nicholas Rowe had a foul temper, after all, and his eyes only ever held Penny Carver and the company's bottom line.

But he really was big.

That morning, I sat down to breakfast with him and his parents.

His mother smiled and said, "Sweetheart, you and Nicholas have been married almost a year now. Haven't you thought about a baby?"

I choked.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

I nudged Nicholas's foot under the table.

He piled a fake smile onto his face. "Mom, what's the rush?"

He picked up his plate and carried it off to the kitchen.

Suddenly I wanted to tease him, so I grabbed my phone and sent him a message:

*Baby, I want to see…*

In the kitchen, Nicholas pulled out his phone, and his face flushed red all at once.

*Wait for me.*

Then he looked up and our eyes collided.

He covered it awkwardly. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"Mm."

His mother suddenly caught my hand and said, in a voice only I could hear, "Sweetheart, I've already let that Penny Carver go. You and Nicholas need to hurry up and have a baby!"

I didn't know what to do with myself.

She dropped her voice even lower. "And if it's Nicholas who can't, then we'll get him treated right away…"

The paparazzi photos must have reached her.

She'd panicked.

She'd even started wondering whether the problem was Nicholas.

I shook my head hard. "No, no, no, he's perfectly capable."

"Good, good, that's a relief."

That photo of Nicholas had set my blood racing.

I'd nearly gotten a nosebleed.

All those nights we'd slept chastely side by side, and I hadn't felt a thing for him?!

What a waste. A real crime.

I had to find a way to seduce him.

We were shooting model photos today, so I deliberately let the strap of my chiffon nightgown slip down.

And sent it to him:

*Baby, don't I look pretty?*

Not far off, Nicholas glanced down at his phone, and his eyes went stock-still.

He shot up at once and came straight over, peeling off his jacket and draping it over me.

He growled low, "The crew's coming in any minute. Who exactly are you letting it slip down for?"

Me: "?"

Talk about wanting it both ways.

Who I was doing it for—he knew perfectly well.

He went back to his seat and replied:

*Baby, I want you so badly. When can we finally meet in person?*

Oh, Nicholas. Nicholas.

No resistance to temptation at all. One little bit of teasing and he came wagging his tail over like a dog.

But I could hardly imagine whether, if the truth ever came out, Nicholas would still be the same as he was now.

We'd become mortal enemies because I ate the love letter he'd written to the school beauty.

"With a mug like yours, you think you're good enough for the school beauty?!"

To get back at me, he'd kissed me by force right when I was confessing to the school heartthrob.

"Tch! You ugly freak! From now on, every time you confess to someone, I'll ruin it for you!"

We'd spent years tearing into each other with real passion.

Thinking about all that, I brushed him off. "We'll see."

3: 3

Nicholas's parents had originally planned a trip abroad.

Then he suddenly announced the whole family was going to Miami instead.

He even messaged my account:

*Baby, let's finally meet in person in Miami, okay?*

I kept putting him off:

*We'll see.*

In the airport lounge, a pair of crocodile-leather shoes stepped into my line of sight.

A gentle voice reached my ear. “Sherry?”

I looked up, and there was Earl Morton, the old high-school heartthrob, giving me that signature smile of his.

“It really is you.”

Running into him here was a happy little surprise. A handsome man is always easy on the eyes, after all.

And the more, the better!

“Earl?!”

He and I fell right into all the old stories, and I couldn't stop laughing.

My phone kept buzzing.

It was Nicholas, off checking us in:

*Baby, missing you. What are you up to?*

*Calling baby, calling baby!*

*Where'd you go? Off cheating with some other guy?*

I was too busy talking with Earl to bother answering.

Earl said, very much the gentleman, “Your boyfriend? Better answer him. Don't keep him waiting.”

I tugged at the corner of my mouth, embarrassed. “Not my boyfriend. He's……”

A hand clamped down on my wrist.

“Her husband.”

Nicholas had come back at some point, out of breath, forcing on a calm face.

Earl took the hint and nodded. “Oh, I see. Then I won't keep the two of you.”

He turned and walked off.

Right by my ear, Nicholas said in that mocking tone, “I was gone three minutes and you're already cheating again?”

I reminded him, “Don't forget, we're a fake couple. Ease up on the possessiveness!”

The second it was out, I regretted it a little……

His face went white in an instant.

His eyes darkened again. “Whatever else, in front of my parents we put on the act, and we make it look real!”

When we reached the resort hotel, they'd put us in one room, with his parents right next door.

Nicholas opened his suitcase and started unpacking.

I lay sprawled on the bed, licking a popsicle and cackling at a variety show.

Then a little box slipped off of Nicholas and hit the floor with a smack.

He and I looked at it at the same time, and we both froze.

He quickly tried to kick the thing under the bed, but it was a solid-base bed.

The condom came flying back at a bizarre angle and landed right back in our line of sight.

Nicholas looked absolutely defeated.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and gave me an awkward smile. “You know how it is. Guys have needs.”

Me: “Understandable, understandable……”

But my heart was pounding.

Nicholas went into the bathroom and messaged me:

*Baby, I even brought condoms. You really don't want to try it with me?*

And at the very moment I got the message, I actually spotted Penny Carver, strolling along the beach!