Between Desire and Denial: A Fake Dating Romance (Hardy Billionaires)

“Oh my God.” I wiggled out from under Dimitri, regretting indulging in sex immediately. The desire to have him again had grown every time he’d walked into a room over the last few weeks. Seeing him want me, seeing how he moved with enough confidence to take me, well, it was hard to resist.

Now, though, reality set back in. “Get up. Hurry up. I think I hear someone coming.”

“You just came.” He chuckled. “I did too. That’s probably what you’re hearing.”

“Please don’t start with that.” I was wiggling my sweater around now and trying to rearrange my leggings. Could anyone see that the hole on my thigh was bigger now? “We need to look presentable when we walk out of here.”

“I’m not concerned,” he said literally sounding like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Dimitri.” My tone was exasperated. “Kee cannot find out about this. I can’t believe I lost control and did this again when I have a freaking date tonight and—”

“Don’t even think about going on that date,” he growled.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” I waved him off, but he stepped up to me and grabbed my chin.

“Are you seriously contemplating being with another man when I just fucked you into oblivion?”

“Of course I am. I’m trying to get out there and date. I don’t want to be lonely or feel like I’m not good enough anymore.” Why had I told him that?

“You won’t be because you’re coming to Paradise Grove with me where I need you,” he said as he straightened and rearranged his pants. He zipped them up and buckled his belt, appearing one hundred percent professional again.

“Um …” I tried to smooth down my curls without a mirror and rearranged the flower that was falling out of my hair. “No thank you.”

His jaw flexed, and I immediately wanted to smooth my hand over his cheek and soothe his frustration. Getting feelings involved along with our physical attraction would be disastrous, so I took a step back.

“Look, it’s a weird place. Just sell your investment and contract. Chalk it up to a loss.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because Paradise Grove doesn’t accept outsiders. And I get it. The community looks amazing, right? It offers what most people dream of. The iron gates open to beautiful homes with lush landscaping and the nice hall and the pretty golf course and the exclusive services and amenities offered to everyone there.” I was talking fast now, rattling off all the things I knew people wanted. “It seems great that you’ll be rubbing elbows with all those amazing elites at private social gatherings but it’s not.” I remembered how they’d shunned me before I left, how I was made to feel so small.

“It actually sounds like the perfect place to expand our hospitality empire into real estate and master-planned communities.”

“So that’s what you did?” I shook his head at him. “And how did it turn out?”

“Well, I’ve been blocked for a whole year on getting offices into the building we constructed just north of the community boundary. I’m finding that Paradise Grove is to blame because they have more pull than I anticipated. So, you’re coming with me to change that.”

Crossing my arms, I lifted a brow at him. “Why would I do that?”

“I’ll pay you what Kee is. I just need you to fly in for a week and give me the rundown.” He looked me up and down, and I swear he contemplated how he could make this work. “I’ll call your university.”

“What?” The word slipped out in disbelief.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Oh, just like that?” He didn’t have that much power.

“If I have it taken care of by the end of today, will you agree to go later this week with me? That Paradise Grove meeting is on Friday.”

“Well, Kee probably needs me to—”

“To what, Olive? She’s got a whole team here and you know it. I’ll cover your salary in exchange for your commitment to getting information regarding moving my plans along. I’ll be happy to hire you rather than have you sitting here fluffing Kee’s more-than-adequate PR team.”

“Wow. Don’t pull any punches.” That hit a nerve. It was a reminder of what I already felt—that suddenly I wasn’t needed here either.

Still, he didn’t stop. “Be a part of something you might be interested in. Give it a chance. It’s your hometown after all. If you have some sort of problem there, don’t just let it go. Go back, take a chance, and enjoy the dance.”

“That the saying you love so much?” I remembered him telling me he lived by some motto. But now he was throwing it in while he stressed me out. I rubbed at my temples. “You’re going to give me a freaking migraine.”

He frowned and nudged my hands away to rub my temples for me. “You get them a lot?”

It was such a small gesture but one that had me biting my lip far longer than I should have as I stared into his eyes. “I guess so. My doctor thinks it’s potentially hormonal, but it’s probably just stress, considering …” I shook my head and stepped away from him. “It doesn’t matter.”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “You’d be less stressed if you took me up on this offer.”

I thought about it. I’d just screwed him while bent over a desk. Going to my hometown together was a recipe for disaster, and yet I didn’t feel like I had anything else. I didn’t feel like I wanted anything else. If he could smooth over my university issue, I blurted out, “I’ll go for one week.”

“Fine.” He clapped his hands together. “That’s perfect. Act like you like me during that week and give some key pointers at this HOA meeting coming up. I’ll give you the details. They need to believe I’m trustworthy. And—’

I held up a finger. “Let’s see what you’re capable of doing with the university first. I’d like to know before I text Rufford back.”

“Your ex is texting you? What the hell for?”

“To apologize. He wants to talk and maybe help figure out what we can do for my thesis. He’s sorry, I’m sure—”

“Fuck that guy. He’s about to be out of a job soon, and—”

“The university believes him, Dimitri,” I reminded him.

“We’ll see.” He chuckled before he pulled out his phone and dialed a number. I was shocked that within a second or two, he had the chancellor on the phone.

“You know the chancellor?” I whispered. He had a direct line to the freaking head of my university?

“I own most of that university. Rufford is getting fired already. I made sure of it.” He glanced at me and smirked. “What do you want? To graduate now?”

“I haven’t even done my thesis! What do you mean?” I started to panic. “I didn’t think … Well, I don’t want to be there another year. Maybe … could I do it over the summer?”

“You can do whatever you want, Olive.” He winked at me and reiterated what I wanted into the phone. “And you’ll make sure this issue is taken care of? I don’t want Ms. Monroe doing more work than her fellow graduate candidates or getting treated unfairly. I want Mr. Butson out of there by the end of the day, got it? It would be bad for the Hardy name and Alcove University if he wasn’t.”

Then he hung up and said, “The university agreed that you can pick a new topic and do the research through the summer to graduate in August. No meeting to discuss the email. You good with that?”

I stuttered over my words. “But normally we must have a year of research going into—”

“But that’s not what you wanted. And I’m getting you what you want. I told you I’d pull some strings. You’re all set.” He slid his phone back in his pocket and leaned forward. “Want to say thank you?”

He was shameless. “No. My thank you is going back to Paradise Grove with you.”

“Great. You can fly in at the end of the week then? There’s a meeting that day that I’d like you to come to. No decisions will be made, but it’ll be a great segue into you showing them I’m a valuable part of the community.”

Maybe I should have been excited to go home, but home was supposed to be a place you felt comfortable, where you belonged, where you had memories that you cherished.

Yet, Paradise Grove definitely didn’t encompass any of that for me.