How to Fake a Wedding Date

  Alex strolled into the room, dripping with confidence...

  Ryder’s heart shot up into his throat. She was wearing a sleeveless black dress that hugged every delicious curve of her body. She was as forbidden to him as any woman would ever be. The beloved sister of his best friend and business partner. There was no touching Alex.

  And yet he had. Oh, hell yes, he had.

  No one could ever know.

  “Alex,” he managed to say. “Hi.”

  She dropped down into one of the chairs opposite his desk and crossed her legs, sticking him with another tempting visual—her sun-kissed calves and lovely ankles. “Ryder.” She forced a smile, which made her deep brown eyes light up, but there was something else there—fire. As in she would willingly set him ablaze if given the chance.

  * * *

  How to Fake a Wedding Date by Karen Booth

  is part of the Little Black Book of Secrets series.

  Dear Reader,

  It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the conclusion of the Little Black Book of Secrets trilogy! This sexy series has centered on childhood best friends Chloe, Taylor and Alexandra, and an anonymous social media account that exposes the secrets of old money families like their own.

  The heroine of this final book is Alexandra, and she needs a fake wedding date. Alex canceled her own million-dollar wedding a year ago, and the tabloids had a field day, which has made it impossible for her to start over—every guy in Manhattan is terrified they’ll end up as the next headline. With Chloe getting hitched, Alex can’t bear the thought of attending solo.

  Cue Ryder, the best friend of Alex’s brother. Ryder is the quintessential good guy, and he wants to help Alex, but he’s worried about crossing the line with her. Spoiler alert: it’s already happened once. These two will melt your heart! What about Little Black Book? We finally get some answers. No spoilers there...

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this series! Drop me a line at karen@karenbooth.net and let me know what you think!

  Karen

  Karen Booth

  How to Fake a Wedding Date

  Karen Booth is a Midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ’80s music and repeated readings of Forever... by Judy Blume. When she takes a break from the art of romance, she’s listening to music with her college-age kids or sweet-talking her husband into making her a cocktail. Learn more about Karen at karenbooth.net.

  Books by Karen Booth

  Harlequin Desire

  Blue Collar Billionaire

  Little Black Book of Secrets

  The Problem with Playboys

  Black Tie Bachelor Bid

  How to Fake a Wedding Date

  The Sterling Wives

  Once Forbidden, Twice Tempted

  High Society Secrets

  All He Wants for Christmas

  Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or karenbooth.net, for more titles.

  You can also find Karen Booth on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!

  For Kim Matlock.

  You’ve been supporting my books

  from the early days, and I appreciate you

  more than you know!

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from On Opposite Sides by Cat Schield

  One

  Alexandra Gold had a whole lot of reasons to need a break from weddings. After all, it had been only fourteen months since she’d called off her own. Logic said that she was still healing from the events of that day. Honestly, she still couldn’t remember everything, but fragments played out like a bad movie in her head—the sobbing phone call to her mother, the long ride out to The Hamptons to return that ten-carat stunner of a ring to her fiancé, and of course, the tabloid nicknames she’d been given since then. Ritzy Runaway Bride. Trust Fund Tornado. And Alex’s favorite, Million-dollar Meltdown.

  She had every reason to despise weddings. But she didn’t. They were a sign that hope and love were still thriving. Maybe not in Alex’s life. But they were for others. Like her best friend Chloe Burnett.

  “My mom suggested floating lanterns in the pool during the reception. What do you think?” Chloe, the bride-to-be, asked Alex over the phone.

  Alex was sitting in the back of her black SUV on the way to lunch with her brother, Daniel. Outside the window, Manhattan went by in a hazy blur. August in the city could be insufferably hot, and they were in the midst of an epic heat wave. “I love that idea. They’ll add so much ambiance. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. I’ll look into it.” Alex put Chloe on speaker and typed herself a reminder in her phone.

  “I don’t know. I’m wondering if my mom is going too over-the-top.”

  “No. Moms are like that.” Alex had firsthand experience with this. Her mother had gone overboard planning her wedding. And as Alex later found out, she’d been a little too involved in the proposal as well.

  “Oh, God. I’m sorry,” Chloe said. “I shouldn’t have said that. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings.”

  Alex let out a heavy sigh. Yes, she had a difficult relationship with her mom, but that wasn’t the reason Alex had called off the wedding. “Chloe, it’s okay. I’m fine.”

  “But are you? Really? The last year has been hard for you. I’m sure it can’t be easy helping me with my wedding.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I love you and you’re getting married. That’s all that matters.”

  “I wouldn’t ask if you weren’t amazing at all of it.”

  “Aww. Thanks.” Alex came by her talents for all of this honestly. Her mom spent the last thirty years as one of the most in-demand wedding planners in the northeast United States. Alex’s exposure to countless matrimonial events led her to luxury floral design, and she’d built a big business creating extravagant arrangements for hotels, corporate events and yes, hundreds of walks down the aisle.

  “Any luck finding a date for the wedding?” Chloe asked.

  “No.”

  “I thought you met a guy last week?”

  “And he figured out who I am, or I suppose more specifically what I am, which very quickly ended the conversation. As it does with all men these days. They won’t even look at me. They just run in the other direction.”

  “That’s so unfair. They don’t know the real you. You aren’t any of those things the tabloids said you are.”

  “You can’t really blame these guys. None of them wants to end up in the papers, too. It can ruin people’s lives.”

  “I’m amazed that you can even talk about it. You’re so resilient.”

  Am I? Most of the time, Alex felt like she was putting on a show. “I’m trying.”

  “On the bright side, at least you canceled your wedding before Little Black Book appeared.”

  Little Black Book was an anonymous social media account that had cropped up a few months ago, peddling vicious gossip and family secrets of several people Alex knew, including Chloe and her mother. “I don’t want to think about what they would dig up on me.”

  “Parker is really worried that whoever is behind it will sneak in to our wedding.” Parker Sullivan was Chloe’s fiancé, a sports agent whose star client had been the first
target of Little Black Book. Chloe’s crisis PR agency stepped in, Chloe and Parker fell in love, and all was eventually repaired, but Parker had been on a personal crusade to unmask Little Black Book ever since.

  “I don’t want you to worry about that. Taylor has all sorts of security installed at the house now.” Taylor Klein was Chloe and Alex’s other best friend. She was hosting the wedding at her family’s summer estate in Connecticut. “Plus, you’re keeping the guest list small, and you’re inviting only very select press, right?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t keep the media away entirely. Otherwise, they’ll have helicopters hovering above Taylor’s backyard. But I invited a few publications. Ones I know I can trust.”

  Alex didn’t want to say anything, but a few of Chloe’s “trusted” members of the media had not been kind to Alex after the wedding debacle. They might not have called her the Wicked Witch of Weddings, but they had written about her, depicting her as the poor little rich girl. Alex didn’t want to be pitied. She wanted to be left alone. Which was why she was so eager to find a date for Chloe’s wedding—a gorgeous man she could dance with, so that the world, if they were paying attention, would think she’d quietly turned her life around.

  The car pulled up outside the restaurant. “Hey, Chloe. I need to run. I’m meeting my brother for lunch.”

  “Do you want me to ask my mom to deal with the lanterns?”

  “No. It’s okay. I’ll do it.” Alex bid her goodbye to Chloe, hooked her handbag on her arm and hopped out of the car with a hand from her driver. Her brother was waiting just inside the restaurant’s front door. “Hey, handsome,” she said, standing on her tiptoes and pecking her brother on the cheek. His dark facial scruff scratched her chin.

  “I see you’re still wearing the sunglasses indoors.” Daniel flagged down the hostess, then turned back to Alex.

  “This is better. In case someone sees me. Everyone has a camera phone. This just cuts down on the odds that anyone will take a picture.”

  “Mr. Gold, we have your table ready,” the hostess said to Daniel.

  “Great.” He stood to the side, waved his hand to allow Alex to go first, then followed her into the dining room.

  Alex looked straight ahead, ignoring the other diners. Luckily, it was pretty late for lunch and the restaurant wasn’t overly packed. The hostess stopped at a corner booth, and Alex positioned herself so she could sit with her back to most of the restaurant, then removed her sunglasses.

  “Can we bring you anything from the bar before your server arrives?” the hostess asked as she carefully set down two menus.

  “Alex?” Daniel slid in across from her.

  “Anything cold, preferably with a tiny kick,” she answered.

  “We have a lovely rosé by the glass,” the hostess replied.

  “Perfect.”

  “I’ll have the same.” Daniel folded his hands on the table, looking directly at her with his piercing blue eyes, highly focused. This had been his approach for the last year—take her out to lunch, probe for information about how she was doing, then report back to their parents. Dad was worried about Alex. Mom was disappointed. “So. Tell me the latest.”

  “Work is superbusy. I know it’s a million degrees outside, but we’re already staring down the holidays. I have a bunch of corporate events to do flowers for. And of course, weddings.”

  He reached for her hand and patted it softly. “Good. Staying busy is good. I wish you had to do fewer weddings, though.”

  “Occupational hazard.”

  One of the waitstaff brought over their drink order. Alex took a long sip of the cool and crisp wine. It was exactly what she’d needed.

  “How much are you helping Chloe?” he asked.

  “A lot. I’m basically the de facto wedding planner.”

  “Who are you going with?”

  Alex opened her menu and began perusing, although she already knew what she was going to get—Cobb salad, dressing on the side, no hardboiled eggs. “No one as of now. But I’m still looking.”

  “Looking how?”

  “I have two options. Dating apps or getting a friend to set me up with someone.”

  “You aren’t really doing online dating, are you? I hate the thought of that. What if you meet a guy who’s a total creep? You can’t get hurt again. I won’t let that happen.”

  Daniel had always been protective of her, which was one of his more endearing qualities. He also felt some responsibility for what happened with her fiancé. He’d introduced Alex to him. “That’s the modern dating landscape. If I don’t do that, I have to wait for a friend to set me up and as of now, no one has found anyone who’s willing to be seen with me.”

  “I’d offer to go with you, but I have a big meeting in London the week before and I’d planned to stay through the weekend. It would be murder to come all the way back early, but I’d do it for you.”

  Alex was about to blurt, “No way,” but the waiter came by to take their lunch orders. So she sat on her words until he left. “I love you, but no. Taking my brother? I’d be better off going by myself. No offense.”

  He blew out a long breath and sat back in his seat. His lips were bunched up, his eyebrows drawn together like he was trying to sort out a complicated puzzle. She hated feeling like she was a predicament that needed to be fixed. “You need someone who already knows you. Someone who you can trust. Who I can trust.” Just like that, his mouth fell open and his eyebrows returned to their original location. “Hold on. What about Ryder? He’d be perfect.”

  “What? No. Ryder? Really? No. He wouldn’t want to go to a wedding with me.” A pathetic, nervous titter leaked out of her. She downed the last of her wine. Was she sweating? Why was her heart beating so fast?

  “Why not?”

  Because Ryder Carson is my weakness. Because he’s the guy I’ve wanted for more than a decade. Because he’s your best friend and business partner. Because I secretly slept with him five months ago and I’m not sure my pride will ever recover. “I don’t know. Just seems like he wouldn’t want to.”

  “I don’t think you should assume that. We should ask him.” Her brother abruptly reached out and grabbed her forearm. “Oh, my God. I just thought of something. Ryder really is perfect.”

  “Perfect? No. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to cut this out.” Alex looped her finger in the air. “Whatever this is.”

  “Ryder and I have been trying to court Geoffrey Burnett. Chloe’s uncle. I’m sure he’ll be at the wedding. If Ryder is there and it’s in a more relaxed setting, it could be the perfect opportunity for him to finally get him to come in and meet with us. So we can make our pitch and seal the deal.”

  Alex wanted to make a joke about how she wouldn’t mind sealing the deal with Ryder one more time. But no. This whole thing was a very bad idea. She could only take so much humiliation in her life, secret or not. Ryder had really hurt her feelings when he’d sneaked off in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Was there anything worse than having a door slammed in your face by the man you’d always wanted? “You want to use your own sister to cut a business deal?”

  “If our architecture firm got Geoffrey Burnett’s commercial development projects, we’d be set for years. We could buy a bigger office. Hire more people. And more important, we’d keep our competitors from getting that business.” The look in his eyes softened. “But it’s not just that. This is about protecting you and your heart. I can trust Ryder to not hurt you since he would never, ever try anything romantic. It’s the best-case scenario for everyone.”

  Ummm... Alex cleared her throat. Her brother did not know Ryder as well as he thought he did.

  “Did you say something?” he asked.

  “Nothing. I think this is an absurd idea.” A painful idea. An absolutely ridiculous idea.

  “I thought you liked Ryder. You li
ke him, don’t you?”

  Alex closed her eyes and hoped she wasn’t going to go to hell for lying to her brother’s face. “He’s fine.”

  * * *

  Ryder Carson was sitting at his desk in his office, trying to focus on the architectural plans that so greatly displeased him. They were for an office complex in Long Island, the sort of project Ryder typically conceived with ease, and always nailed on the first pass. But things hadn’t gone his way this time. The client had a long list of wholesale changes they wanted, which could not be left to one of his staff architects. This was top-level problem-solving, and although Ryder loved the challenge, he wasn’t happy about having fallen short. He did everything he could to do things perfectly the first time. Life was easier when there weren’t messes to clean up.

  Just as a headache was starting to brew, he heard a voice that made him look up from the plans. “Daniel, this is a goofy idea. Forget it. I need to get back to work.”

  Sheer panic struck him as he realized whose voice that was—Alex Gold, sister of Ryder’s business partner, Daniel. His heart pounded fiercely. His palms began to feel clammy. He hadn’t seen Alex since March, when they’d slept together. Nobody knew about it. Nobody. And with good reason. Alex’s brother was more than Ryder’s business partner. He was his best friend. And the success of Gold and Carson, the architecture firm they owned together, relied on the solid foundation between Daniel and him. Which brought him to the reason to be so damn nervous about seeing Alex. Because that night they slept together had ended when he sneaked out of her apartment while she slept.

  “I promise it won’t take long,” Daniel said out in the hall. “Knock, knock.” Daniel poked his head into Ryder’s office. “Do you have a minute?”

  Ryder’s stomach sank to depths he didn’t know were possible. “Is it just you?” He was fairly certain he knew the answer, but he wanted a second or two to prepare if he was about to face the woman who had every reason to be furious with him.

  “No. Alex is with me.” He waved her in.