I’m still holding on to my V-card.
And I want to hand it over to him every time I see him dressed in a suit.
Lucky for me, I see that a lot because I work for him.
Yes, he’s my boss and I should stop staring at him.
But my heart doesn’t seem to care.
So, when he needed access to his inheritance to help out my dad…
I proposed a plan.
A fake marriage.
Zero expectations.
No complications.
Yeah, right.
Who am I kidding?
1
Prologue—Brooke: Four Years Ago
I enjoyed being away at school in Chicago, gaining some independence and experiences away from my small hometown of Salvation, Nebraska. With that said, coming home for the holiday break had been nice. The country air, vast farming landscape, and of course, seeing my father was rejuvenating after my first semester of college. It didn’t hurt that Maurice Valentine was spending more time with us, as well. He was still sweet, generous, and so handsome. Even better, his wife had left him recently, which meant he was single again.
From the moment I hit puberty and noticed boys, I’d had a thing for my dad’s best friend, Maurice Valentine, or Mo. It didn’t matter to me that he was seventeen years older than me. All my teenage fantasies revolved around him. In my dreams, he’d show up on h
is horse, Bolt, wearing soft, faded jeans and a green plaid rancher shirt that brought out the green in his hazel eyes. He’d tell me he dumped his mean old wife and whisk me away to teach me what it was like to be a woman. Alone in the bathtub, that vision gave me my first and many following orgasms.
I was smart enough when I was growing up to know that I had no chance with him. But now that I was eighteen and he was single, my prospects seemed better. Maybe I wouldn’t be the next Mrs. Maurice Valentine, but perhaps he could still show me what it was like to be a woman. I’d had some opportunities to lose my V-card in college, but except for a brief fling with Tucker Marshall that ended in us deciding we were better off as friends, I wasn’t that interested in the boys at school. Over all the years I’d had a crush on Mo, it never waned. That had to mean he should be my first, right?
He showed up at my father’s holiday party a little earlier than the other guests. My father said that he thought Mo was handling his wife leaving fairly well, but not so much being alone in the house. I wanted to offer to keep him company there, but I kept that thought to myself.
Mo looked even better than I remembered. He wore dark slacks and a green sweater over a t-shirt that made his hazel eyes pop with green. He smiled when he saw me, and my heart did flip-flops in my chest. Oh, how I longed for him to see me as more than his friend’s daughter or just a kid. I wanted to keep his bed warm now that his wife was gone.
My father wasn’t a stranger to losing a wife, although in his case, my mom died when I was young. He dated a little bit after that but never got serious about anyone. Sometimes I wished he would, as I worried about him being here alone while I was gone. But now that the evil bitch Shelley had left Mo, he was spending more time with my dad, and I noticed a difference in my dad’s attitude with having his friend more present in his life again.
The party was festive, and I enjoyed seeing all our friends from Salvation again. Dad enjoyed it a little too much, imbibing the eggnog with whiskey, although by the end, I think he was drinking straight whiskey. Even Mo looked a little bit lit, but not drunk. He looked so handsome when he was relaxed.
As the party winded down, I helped people find their coats and purses and escorted them out, until it was just dad and Mo, sitting on the couch in the sunroom, looking out over the snow-covered prairie.
“They’re all gone,” I said to them. I looked back toward the kitchen at the mess. I blew out a breath that puffed my bangs up. “I’ll get started on the cleanup.”
“Let me help,” Mo said, standing.
“I’ll help, too.” My dad tried to stand, but he wobbled.
“Whoa there, Frank,” Mo said, reaching out to steady my father. “Maybe we should get you to bed.”
“Nah, I can help.”
I looked at my dad and shook my head. “Let’s get you to bed, Dad.”
“I’ll take him. Why don’t you get some water and pain reliever?” Mo asked, putting his arm around my father.